Called to Serve: From Kiribati to Legazpi

     This blog post is based on the conversation with Heidi Gutierrez.  On March 19th, I received a message from Elder Bateiti stating that he was at the mission home with 70 other foreign missionaries waiting to get on the bus to Manila.  The church had chartered 6 jumbo jets to return missionaries to their home countries.      On Saturday, there was a post from a parent stating that the missionaries had indeed made it to Manila and that the Legazpi missionaries were staying in a hotel next to the airport.  Most of the information was about missionaries heading to the United States and Canada.  I inquired about missionaries from the Pacific Islands.  One of the sister missionaries mother sent me a private message about Elder Bateiti and 2 sister missionaries from the Legazpi Mission.     On Sunday night, Elder Bateiti contacted me on Messenger and here is what he said.  Three of us were taken off from the bus....

Mauri Everyone,      The work is kind of hard now but that is what has been prophesied for all of us.  If any of you have heard of it and yes you all have heard of it.  Last Monday, we received strict guidance about the Covid-19.  The family that we have been teaching for four visits now don't want us to come again because of this sickness.  We understand their situation.  Even the people we have been talking to while walking are so panicked and that makes them afraid to talk with us.  They don't even want to look into our eyes.      There are some rumors about people who are infected.  Just as they say in the report that last month there were 40+ people but right now there are 98 people who got it and even die from it.  That is the whole Philippines total number.  We are worried and we have been preparing for it.  Last Friday, we run to the market to get some alcohol hand spray for killing germs.  W...

Kumusta,      Here we go . . . this week was so cool and I could tell that it tamaroa and awesome or in my 2 dialog so brang maganda or magayaon!!!  The cool thing is that we were given a referral from one of the members we were teaching a couple months ago.  The Fernandez family - last Friday we were able to talk with her and she is super nice.  She has been a Roman Catholic member and now if a born again religion.  Here's the coolest thing - after our lesson with her, she allowed us to introduce ourselves to her grand children and her older daughter that was just coming back from work.  As we close with our word of prayer, we ask her if she has anything we could say to our Heavenly Father for her in our prayer.  As she talked to us, she started crying but we take it slowly and we could feel the spirit so strong.  We are so looking forward to our next visit.      The last cool thing this week was we were able to find ...

Kumusta,      This week is another awesome week and it's kind of challenging.  Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday but that is not important.  It's a little hard but time flies!  Haha!!  Adjusting to the trials I am still facing each and every day really makes me strong.  I can tell you that as I am 25% completed in my mission.      The best moment was Friday, Zone Conference with half the Legazpi missionaries.  Everyone came except the islanders.  The workshop was led by President Abraham and the zone leaders.  Guess what . . .we had a workshop on Preach My Gospel Chapter 6:  Christlike Attributes.  He pointed out two pondered questions one day before the workshop.  1)  How has the Book of Mormon helped us in the mission field? 2)  How can we help others have the same experience?  He shared D&C 29:7, "And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect he...