Tender Mercy‏

Well the moment you've all been waiting for and I've been dreading...haha I don't have very much to write this week and I'll see you all on Thursday but I just want to say that I am sooo grateful for all of you that have written me throughout my mission and given me the support and comfort that was often greatly needed. I have loved every moment here and even though there were times when I was not sure how I was going to continue or even survive for that matter haha I consider my entire mission one big Tender Mercy from the Lord. My life has been forever changed and hopefully I was able to help change the lives of others while I was here. I know that this is only the beginning and I hope this was just the training ground for whatever else the Lord has planned for me. Again I want to thank all of you for your testimonies and for sharing them with me. I feel so incredibly blessed. I told my Bishop yesterday I don't know what line I stood in while in heaven but for some reason I think I am definitely the Luckiest Girl on Earth! I will see you all on Thursday and I can't wait to see what lies ahead! Halong kamo pirme!

Always,
Sister Grant

Mountain of the Lord......

So this week was great! We had so many teachings and got so much work done! Not to mention we got to go to Sagay and watch the Cebu City Cultural Event which was sooo awesome! They had youth groups from all over the visayas and Mindinao stakes preform traditional filipino dances and songs! oh you know I was loving ALL OF THAT! they even did a little segment about the American Soldiers in WW2 coming over and teaching them how to "swing" there was about 50 filipino boys and girls doin the twist and the mash potatoe in the middle of the stadium all wearing poodle skirts and what not ahaha I thought I was gonna die laughing when they zoomed in on one boys face while he dipped his partner and swung her around haha he was so into it! Oh it was so great. Pres Monson was just grinnin from ear to ear. He was on the stage laughin so hard. We had 2 of our youth age investigators come with us and they enjoyed it so much I think they saw how fun all the programs for the youth are in the church and it got them excited to know they are a part of that now :)


Then of course, on Sunday we got to go back to Sagay to watch the Live Broadcast of the actual Dedication. Something I will definitely never forget, my whole life. There I was surrounded by these incredible people that have truly become my family and witnessing and joining in on their joy as they receive a Brand new Temple in their country. The talks were amazing and for the first time in way too long I felt like I was entering back into those beautiful and sacred walls of the Temple. ( even if it was via satellite :) ) Pres Monson was there as well as Pres Eyring and Elder Oaks, Bishop Burton and the complete Area Presidency of the Philippines. The spirit was indescribable and the feelings and thoughts that ran through my heart and mind as the brethren talked about the wonderful people here and promised them the most sweetest of blessings. I thought my heart was going to explode! I've never felt so much love.

He challenged everyone in attendance and listening to rededicate themselves to their family history and to their temple service and attendance. It was a nice opportunity for me to solidify and recommit myself to my own personal goals concerning the Temple in my own life. As usual when leaving the Temple, I walked out with sooo much newly gained understanding and knowledge about Our purpose here and the importance of the gospel and helping those around us and those in the spirit world accept it. I can not WAIT to go to the Manila Temple again before I fly home. I hope that all of you especially those of you in AZ understand how truly blessed you are to have a Temple so close to you. Are you using it? Are we forgetting the incredible blessings promised to us and others we have the chance to do work for if we go there? I hope not. There will soon be 4 Temples in AZ that is amazing! I hope we all can try our hardest to go as often as we can and help those around us feel the importance as we share the wonderful experiences that happen there.


Our work is still going great here in Old Sagay, we have Zone Conference on Wed, A big Service project on Friday and 2 Baptisms on Sat, then Sunday is my last Sacrament Meeting in the Philippines...bring on the water works! haha I'll be speaking and playing I know my Redeemer Lives on my violin as my last testimony...it makes me sick just thinking about it but I know the Lord will help me and I know this is not the end haha I'll be back here as soon as I can! I hope all is going great with all of you and I can't wait to see ya'll soon! I love you sooo much!

LALU Always,
Sister Grant

It just keeps gettin better....‏

Well this week was a crazy but good one but hey what else is new right? :) So we had our stake conference on sat and Sunday here in Sagay and it was soooo good. Elder Vasquez (sp?) from the Seventy come and talked and since next week is the dedication of the Cebu Temple it was all about Temples and Families... LOVE IT. All the talks were great and Pres Tobias and his wife were there and spoke as well. I learned so much and it made me even more excited to go to the temple in a couple short weeks! We also found out they are going to broadcast the cultural event in Cebu this Saturday before the dedication and we get to go watch it! I'm so excited!

So a cool thing that happened this week was we had a wonderful experience with one of our investigators named Sally. She is the wife of the oldest son of one of the families we reactivated last transfer I LOVE this family and they are so awesome and strong now in the church but his wife is not yet a member so we started teaching her a few weeks ago. At first she was SUPER shy and would barely even look up at us when we were teaching her. We continued to visit and teach her and really focus on gaining her trust and helping her not be so shy around us. Well as you all know I could entertain myself talkin to a 2x4 so I wasn't going to give up so easily to get a conversation out of her haha anyways after a few weeks shes now warmed up to us incredibly! and things were going great, except every time I would leave a reading assignment for her she never read the whole thing only a few verses or paragraphs in the pamphlet and she was always real shy about reviewing what she read, Finally last week I was talking to her about the importance of reading the BOM and gaining testimonies for ourselves and she opened up that she never graduated elementary and can't read! I felt so dumb for not noticing! She told me that her mother in law would always help her read and has been teaching her for about a year now so she would help her read her assignments. I told her we would just give her specific verses to read, just one each day and I also promised her that if she continued to read in the BOM daily that the Lord would bless her to learn how to read faster. She agreed and we began to give only 2 or 3 verses for her to read. I cant even tell you the difference it made!!

Her mother n law would help her read one each day and when we came back she was always sooo excited to share what she learned from her verse and show us how well she could read it by herself I'm pretty sure you could see both her smile and mine from the other side of the world where ya'll are at! haha then the last time we went to her house she bore the sweetest testimony about the power of the BOM and how she has been trying to read for a year now and how she is doing better now after just 2 weeks than she ever has been! She said I may have only read selected verses, but I know that this book is the Word of God and if it can help me in things like just reading how much more can it help my family! I was so touched by her sweet simple testimony I admit there were some tears in my eyes. She was just holding the book in her hands and holding it against her chest like it was her most prized possession. She's only 24 and has 2 kids and she said now she reads those same verses over and over again to them before they go to bed. I LOVE IT!

I gave her my last skirt that I randomly bought on a whim a few weeks ago so that she wouldn't be shy to go to church because she didn't have a skirt to wear :) I'm so excited for her little family to continue to grow in the church we have scheduled a date for her and her husband to be married the 2nd week of July and then she'll be baptized! :) There is seriously no greater joy than missionary work, words just can't explain.

So that was my awesome experience last week, on the funnier side ya'll will be happy to know I killed yet another rat this week. haha This time we set out poison for it that causes internal bleeding....yeah. Anyways, on Sat I went in to take a shower and we didn't have electricity so I just had 2 candles in the bathroom with me haha (very relaxing :) ) So I shut the door and reach down to grab the little bucket to pour over my head and guess whats shut up in the tiny little DARK bathroom with me just chillin in my bucket!!!!??? THE RAT! It took everything in me not to scream so loud haha I just said in a very slow low voice "OH....MY.....GOSH!....OH.....MY....GOSH!" lol Sister Ziebarth was in the kitchen right outside the door and was like "what?" and I quickly grabbed my towel and ran outta there like a barn on fire! I slammed the door and said OK! so the rat is in there..but he must have ate the poison because he's movin (thank goodness) very slow like he's dying. So we made a game plan that involved a chair a bucket and me popping off the vent on the Bathroom door again haha after an epic battle and a good 30 min the rat was trapped in a bucket where we left him lol and soon became his last resting place. That makes Sis Grants death count on her mission a total of 7 rats and 1 dog. Its not baptisms but I count them as an accomplishment none the less. LOL

Well this week we have a lot planned. We have the culture event on sat and the dedication on Sunday. Then Mon I'm headed to Bacolod again like yesterday for a meeting. President has called 6 missionaries to give special trainings at Conference on the 16th and I am one of them. I am a little nervous because its for ALL the missionaries on Negros Island and its the last bog conference before the mission splits so they are making it a big deal and there's a lot of meetings and planning involved but I'm excited for it, it should be awesome plus the 6 missionaries are 3 sisters and 3 elders. Guess who the 3 sisters are? yup MY BATCH from the MTC Sis Fairweather and Sis Johnson will join me in makin once again Bacolod Mission History as the first sisters to ever teach or give a training at a conference! haha we took a picture of the 3 of us and framed it for Pres and put on it the mission " The 3 Nephitas" which is what he calls us haha he said he wanted to clone us :) I'm pumped for this Conference! We are also singing in the choir an INCREDIBLE version of "If you could hide to Kolob" I'll tell ya'll how it goes after :)

I hope all is well as usual with all of you and that everyone is safe and healthy. I miss and Love you all soo much can't wait to see you soon! Keep writing me! Endure to the End haha

LALU
Always, Sister Grant