Nourished by the Word of God...and Pamahaws

Kamusta!!

I spent more time this week studying about the Atonement. I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes: "When we comprehend His voluntary Atonement, any sense of sacrifice on our part becomes completely overshadowed by a profound sense of gratitude for the privilege of serving Him." - Elder Russel M. Nelson 

One of the things that the zone leaders challenged us to do at zone training this week was to teach about the Atonement in every lesson. Since then, Sister Ortiz and I have even dedicated whole lessons about the Atonement. I know that if the people we teach understand that Christ suffered for them, that the promise that Elder Nelson will come true. Any sense of sacrifice of coming to church or repenting of sin will be nothing if they understand the Atonement.

Yeah! Zone training was really good. The rest of the day, even though it was a shorter proselyting day, we were still able to accomplish as much as we normally do, maybe even more. And I felt the Spirit especially strong throughout the day. The words, "nourished by the word of God" came to my mind during the day. I think I really was spiritually fed at zone training.

We have an investigator who is half paralyzed. I really think that she has been prepared to be taught by us. Even though she no longer can attend church (catholic), she still dedicates Sunday as a day of prayer. 

What are we eating? Haha! We get fed more than I expected. The poor people here eat mostly fish/shells and rice, depending how close they are to the shore. We've been fed by members more than I expected though. They feed us things like chopsuey (my favorite! just a bunch of veggies in a wonderful sauce), soup, steamed green bananas, fish, rice, chicken, noodle stir fry stuff, pork sisig (Sister Ortiz's favorites), curry, etc. There is a lot of variety. So far the members are all really good cooks! We are fed...probably two meals a week, with a lot of people giving us pamahaws, which means snack. For pamahaw it is often a soft drink and a sweet bread or something. They know that it is against the rules in our mission to buy soft drinks -- isn't that great? But if it is offered to us, we drink it. So they get it for us --isn't that horrible? Members. Haha! I've had more pop here than the rest of my life. Although I will say that the pop here is better than in America. Less carbonation. Other pamahaws are the steamed bananas. I really like them! 

The food is good. Sister Ortiz and I take turns cooking. When I cook, I just cook a vegetable and rice and put it on the table...haha. But she likes it. She's a good cook too. We always ask each other, "How did you make this?" Haha! My first full day, she made me eggs for breakfast. They were the best scrambled eggs I've ever had. The secret is this wonderful quick melting cheese they have here.

The milk here has been processed and sterilized to the point that when we first had it in the MTC, Sister Lewis didn't think it was cow's milk. Haha! It is. But it does taste very different! 

A few funny things happened this week. One was when we were on our way to one barangay called Bliss, a huge group of kids yelled, "Sister!!" And crossed the street together. They all want to shake our hands and then they try to pronounce my name. "Sister Maaar..." Haha. After they left, a little boy came running back and tugged on my skirt so I turned and then he stood there just puckering his lips up at me. Haha! I just said, "Indi pwede." Which means can't or not allowed. It was so funny. 

I don't think I told you about this....maybe I did. Oh well. A couple weeks ago, we passed a group of adults, after we passed a lady muttered, "madre." Which here means nun. Sister Ortiz was like, "We are not nuns!" I don't mind, as long as they know that we aren't Catholics, which I'm pretty sure is obvious. :)

I really felt the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues this week! It's real. Sometimes Heavenly Father just gives me the words. 

Sister Marriott

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