Kung Walang mga Pagsubok, Walang mga Pugunlad at Kagalakan

My Dearest Friends and Family,


     Unfortunately, I have been sent home from my mission to receive medical help.  This past weekend, the fact that I needed medical help became too obvious to ignore, so my Mission President suggested I be sent home for help.


     It hurts my heart to write this, because I loved my mission so much.  I treasure every moment-both the trials and the achievements.  I wish I could still be out there serving the Filipinos; trying anything to make them laugh; complimenting them in every possible way to build their self esteem; testifying of Christ with every fiber of my Being; teaching the children how to follow along in hymn books; singing "I am a Child of God" with the children; praying with the members for the success of the Work of Salvation; falling to my knees to plead for guidance in this work; sweating everyday under the hot sun to find the One who is prepared to receive the restored Gospel; sharing the people's sorrows by simply sitting and crying with them; witnessing true conversion in progressing investigators; reading the Book of Mormon with less active members; waiting eagerly at the door of the church on Sundays to see if our investigators arrived; shedding tears of joy while witnessing someone come unto Christ by entering the waters of baptism; feeling peace and joy when an investigator learns the true steps to prayer; hearing one of our new converts stand up in fast and testimony meeting and say with conviction, "Alam ko po na totoong propeta po si President Thomas S. Monson", when for so long we pleaded with God to help us know how to help him gain a testimony in living prophets; soaking in the beauty of each sunset at 6:25 pm; and going to bed exhausted, knowing I worked hard the whole day.  I will treasure these moments for eternity.


    And though my time was cut short, I know God is aware of my situation.  I know He loves me, and wants me to receive the help I need to become the instrument He needs me to be in this life.  My fervent prayer is that I will never forget what I learned on my mission.  Though it was short, I learned life lessons.  I learned of true conversion.  I learned how to truly come unto Christ.  I now just need to make sure I incorporate all of this beauty into my life here at home.  I pray that I can get the help I need.  I am hopeful.  This first while will be hard. I know it will.  My thoughts turn back to my mission constantly, and oh, how I long to be back there.


   However, again, I testify that God is aware of my situation.  He is aware of ALL of our situations.  He wants us to experience everything in this life that will prepare us to enter into His Kingdom.  I know that each individual has their unique trials to face in order to be molded into the character Heavenly Father knows we can develop.  He sees us as how we can become.  It is our job to faithfully and hopefully accept God's will and always move forward with conviction in our hearts that this is God's Plan of Salvation.  We accepted His plan when we chose to come to earth.  I know I chose to be here.  I know without a doubt that in the Pre-mortal world, I shouted for joy for this earthly experience.  So, amidst my trials I will forever magtiis hanggang wakas (endure to the end).  I know that though I have broken, I will one day be mended fully and completely sa pamamagitan ng pagpabayad-sala ni JesuCristo (through the Atonement of Jesus Christ).  His atoning sacrifice is both redeeming and enabling.  Let us all come to know Christ a little more personally as we endure this life with joy.


I love you all.  I am sorry I couldn't stay out and continue to serve in the Philippines.  But I promise you all, my mission is not over.  It never will be.  I will work and work until "The work is done"!

The Standard of Truth has been erected;

no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing;

persecutions may rage, mobs may combine,

armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but

the truth of God will go forth

boldly, nobly, and independent,

till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime,

swept every country, and sounded in every ear,

till the purposes of God shall be accomplished

and the great, Jehovah shall say,

"The work is done!"

Crazy Week!!

wow, what a magulo week!  every thing was weird, haha.  So, Sister Butler, my MTC companion, has been my house mate during this transfer.  It has been her adn her comp and then me and mine.  She went home this week... :(  SHe was struggling with depression and stuff.  So then I got put into a threesome with me, sis perez, and sister Dial (Sis Butler's comp).  We had to work in TWO different areas!!  wow, rough!  We were running around like crazy!  Really hard.  It will be like this until Thursday (transfer day).  I can't believe I am already done with another transfer!  wow.

Okay, sorry if this email is way confusing.  I don't have any time because I had other people to write and such!  But Brother Conrado was baptized last Saturday!!!!! Yay!  He is doing so great!  Magaling siya talaga!  REally though.  He goes around himself and is introducing himself to the ward.  It is great.  I hope he keeps staying strong.

We also met this AMAZING family last Monday.  We had a referral from the Ochoco family.  We had FHE with the Ochoco's and the family they referred.  Then on Tuesday we visited the family by themselves.  wow, so humble.  I love them!  We already extended a soft baptismal invitation to them twice and they accepted!  We pray they keep progressing and really come to know for themselves of the truth.  We can't set a specific baptism date with them yet because they aren't married....  They have four beautiful children.  the oldest is seven.  

We also wanted to extend IBDs to Melody and Arnel and STILL haven't been able to because they are never both home!  Satan is working on them.  Please pray for them.

OH! We met a golden family!  So there are these two sisters we went to teach.  they are awesome and have so many wonderful questions.  When we went to teach them this weekend, their older sister joined our lesson.  wow, she is so prepared TOO!  It wasn't our plan to talke about Joseph Smith's first vision, but the Spirit prompted- so I pulled out the pamphlet and turned to the picture of Joseph smith's first vision and explained it and the 1st vision.  She immediately started to describe how she was feeling.  She said that she always does bible study because she is catholic, but that she has NEVER felt the way she did when she saw the picture of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove.  she said she felt chills even thoough is was mainit.  She said she felt it in her back and through her whole body.  she said she knows something is different about our church.  Wow, the spirit bore witness to me that I really am testifying of the true church.  We testified that her feelings were from the Holy Ghost. She committed to read the intro to the BOM and pray to know for herself.  Also, we asked if the three of them would come to church.  The two younger said yes, but the oldest sister (the one who felt so strongly about the first vision) said she couldn't come becasue of work.  We asked her the days she works and asked her if she could try to work saturdays instead of sundays.  Then on sunday, SHE CAME!  Wow!  We are so happy for this family.  they have 6 kids and their mom.  We are hopeful that we will eventually be teaching ALL SEVEN of them! :)  and sister Aurea already has an IBD for May 14th!  Please pray for this golden family!

I love you all!  My time is up.  I know God lives.  I testify that our Savior Jesus Christ has His arms outstretched for us all to come unto Him.

Love!!!!!

sister Wright

Hello!

Wow, what a beautiful week.  My heart is full.  I just can't quite express my love for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I have learned so much thus far.  It's weird to think that in 5 days, I'll have been out for 4 months!  What?  Where has the time gone? So brother Conrado had his baptismal interview this past saturday and passed!  He is all set for this Saturday to be baptized!  I am so excited for him!  He is so ready for the step in his life.  I feel so blessed to have been able to witness his conversion right before my eyes.  His very countenance has changed over these past 5 weeks.  It's been amazing to see the Atonement take effect in his life.  wow, I love this Gospel.  He is so funny.  he always gives me advice because I am a foreigner.  His last advice was, "Sister Wright, let me give you some advice- Filipinos are peace-loving, religious, and hospitably people."  haha, after this I kinda waited for the 'advice' part, but it never came.  he just made that statement.  haha!  So funny!  But I will treasure his "advice" forever :)  Also, he wants me to be the one to play the piano for his baptism.  It's my pleasure to help him have the perfect day, because he really deserves it :) Wow, sister Perez and i witness so many miracles this week.  We extended three new baptismal dates!  And then with Bro Conrado, we have 4 baptismal dates!  We are very happy.  we plan on extending at least two more baptismal comittments to the Hermusura family this upcoming week.  We also get to meet a referral tonight at an FHE.  So exciting!  The work really is moving forward.  I know that God's Hand is in this work-it is HIS work. Okay, side note.  It is SO hot.  Really though.  It keeps getting hotter!  I'm worried if I'll survive, haha.  I have heat rashes every where.  I moved my mattress on to the floor so I could have the fan blow directly on my face all night!  If you don't wake up every so often to change positions, then you'll wake up in a pool of sweat.  Haha, you think I'm exagerating??- I'm not. A bummer from this week, was that a lot of our investigators and less active members committed to church this week, and then they didn't come yesterday.  this really hurt my heart.  I am coming to really love these people.  And I know that the Gospel will make them happy.  so when they don't keep their commitments, it's sad.  they sounded so certain that they would come to church too. It wasn't just a soft head nod with a muttered "oo sister". (which we get often, haha) they were more like, "Opo sister, pupunta kami sa church bukas."  It took me awhile to snap out of the discouragement.  Pg 10 of PMG says we can't get discouraged as missionaries.  I'm trying to balance my sadness and love for these people and not allow it to discourage me.  I am grateful though, because I prayed for help to snap out of it and renew my faith for another day of work.  so then sister Perez and I went out after church and worked hard once again :) I know this work it true.  I love being a missionary.  Even more, I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  you are right, mom, the Gospel IS love.  God's plan would be frustrated if Christ wouldn't have shown us such perfect love and given His life for the plan of salvation. Love you ALL!! sister Wright

Love from the Philippines

Mahal ko sa lahat!  Grabe, talaga.  sobrang mainit dito!  Grabe.  Bakit!?

Basically, this is what I say every day of my life.  haha.  good luck figuring it out ;)

Okay, I love it here in the Philippines.  I had a life changing experience last Friday.  It is so hard to explain what the Spirit taught me, but I will try.  My companion gave me a talk to read.  It is called "The Fourth Missionary"  It changed my whole perspective of the mission.  I thought I had been changed from the Zone conference.  Now I feel even more changed.  I realize how much growing I need to do here on this earth.  I have such a long way to go.  But I am grateful for the experiences I am having that are helping me become who God wants me to become.  Basically four different types of missionaries were described.  the fourth is someone who surrenders their whole heart to the work.  the thing is, when I read the talk, I classified myself as a third missionary.  The third sacrifices everything but still holds on to their own desires.  they are still successful but not as happy as they could be because they are inwardly fighting their own natural desires.  Even if they are good desires (ex. schooling when you return from mission, life goals, future family, temple etc.)  The author talked about a fourth missionary lock away EVERYTHING and desires with their whole heart to serve the Lord.  when I was reading this, I was overwhelmed as to how big the task seemed.  But then, the mission president said, "don't think this is unreachable"  It is a mindset that you can change immediately, right now!"  It is hard to explain, but after reading this, I locked away everything.  I changed my mind set.  And I have witnessed profound joy as I have done this. I have surrendered my heart to this work-the Lord's work.  I promise to be His servant for the next 15 months and until the day I die and then for eternity!  I will fight this great cause forever.

Okay investigators: Please please pray for Brother Arnel and Sister Melody.  They have two cute children.  they are golden.  We worry about them coming to church because one of the kids is so so crazy!  Hard to control.  sister Melody worries that she would be hard to manage in church.  but I know the Gospel would bless their life.  Last night, we were going to extend the invitation to be baptized to them, but Brother Arnel wasn't there!  Bummer!  Next time for sure.  Please pray that she will have the faith to take her family to church.  She knows the Book of mormon is true.  And please pray they will accept the baptismal date.  Please pray.  I know prayers work.  It was the most beautiful experience last night.  We sang Families can be together forever.  Her two children put their heads close to their mother's in order to see the words.  We all sang, and as I looked at this image with these two children and their mom singing this song about families, I got choked up.  wow, I envisioned this family one day being sealed in the temple.  wow.  Even now, tears fill my eyes.  Please pray for them.  I want so badly for them to accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Brother Conrado is still doing well.  He still asks about President Thomas S. Monson.  Please pray that he will receive an undeniable witness when he listens to conference that President Monson is a true prophet who receives revelation from God.  He is excited for his baptism, talaga.  I'm excited too! He asked me how I knew Pres Monson was a prophet.  I shared an experience of when I attended the conference center and how I felt when Pres Monson entered the room and everyone went silent and stood as he walked in.  Wow, the Spirit bore witness to me that what I was saying was true.

Brother Edward.  Oh please pray for him.  He is 20 years old.  He wants to be baptized.  But him and his girl friend have to be married first.  She is a returning less active.  they really are doing well.  But sister Ailene doesn't want to marry him until she is sure he has changed and will be a good father.  He is trying to stop smoking.  so hard.  He has completely stopped drinking and is down to one cigarette a day.  Please pray that he will have the strength to overcome these addictions.

Also, my heart aches for the Less active members and recent converts who have fallen away.  It hurts to know people enter into such sacred covenants and then fall away.  It really wrenches at my heart.  some times, I have a more tender spot in my heart for these people that we teach than our investigators just for the fact that they have already promised their Heavenly Father to endure to the end and now they aren't.  It is hard to explain how I feel.  but please pray for the members in your areas back home.  they need your love.  Please fellowship those who are lonely.  Visit those in your ward that you do not know.  Please invite families over for dinner.  Please help the busy young mothers and invite families over for FHE.  Please build zion in your individual areas.  Please, let us all help God fulfill this great and necessary work of Salvation.

I testify of the truthfulness of this great work.  If any of you are questioning, please email me.  If any of you are thinking life is just too hard right now, fall to your knees and seek Heaven's help.  I promise you, as a set apart representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that God will hear and answer your prayers. Show Him your faith.  Pray daily.  Treasure the Words of the scriptures and apply them into your life.  Attend church.  Serve others.  Love with your whole heart.  Let the Lord change you.  If any of you are feeling overwhelmed with blessings and life seems pretty good, pray even harder and longer and THANK Him for your blessings.  Stay humble and help those who are hurting.  I love you all!  Please stay strong! I can't wait until we meet again.  

Love you!

Sister Wright

Come Unto Christ

This week has been one of the most inspiring weeks of my mission.  I have every intention to become a better missionary.  Wednesday was a Quad-zone Conference.  Elder Ardern of the seventy came to speak to us. He is area of the seventy for Philippines. Wow, it was amazing.  I learned so much.  There was a part where he talked about "meeting Christ".  He talked about how hard we should be working as missionaries.  He said that it should be to the point where when our mothers see us at the airport when we return home, that she says, "honey, what happened to you!!??  You look...exhausted.  what happened????"  And then he said how he hopes we will be able to answer, "Mom, I met Christ." Truly coming unto Christ takes every effort on our part.  It is a journey that will exhaust us, and yet, it will be the most beautiful journey we ever experience.  I have had time to ponder this.  what does it mean to "meet Christ"?  elder Ardern talked about how if we want to keep full and complete enthusiasm in this work, we must increase our Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  It doesn't happen over night.  It is a life-long journey.  I pray that when I see you, mom, that I will be able to confidently say, "Mom, I met Christ.  I am a witness of the miracle of the Atonement changing people's lives.  I have been placed in the furnace of trials, disappointments, and tests of my own faith; and I have come to learn of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I couldn't have done this mission without Him-my Savior, my Redeemer, and my Friend."

It's hard to explain all of the emotions I felt during that conference.  but it truly changed my perspective of the mission life.  I even wrote in my journal that night, and I wrote the date real big at the top of my journal page and said, pointing to the date, "Let THIS be the beginning of my mission"  I have every desire to be fully converted to this work!  Not that I wasn't working before my this day.  Just that the beauty of this life, is that through the Atonement, we can always become better.  Our life journey is to learn to become like Him.  And I have a long ways to go, haha.

Okay, on to the events of lately!  Brother Conrado!  he is our investigator who is getting baptized April 5th!  Yay!  Sobrang magaling po siya, talaga.  sobrong receptive din siya!  He is so prepared for baptism.  His desires are truly to become like Christ.  He is even trying to open up and share this glad message with his family.  they won't let us teach them.. they say they don't have time for it.  Pero I know that miracles happen when the first one in a family to come unto Christ is the father.  His family will follow one day-I know it :)  But please pray for him.  He is doing much better and believes in President Thomas S. Monson as a prophet now, pero he had a really hard time with the concept of living prophets in these latter days.  We've poured our hearts out time and time again testifying of Joseph Smith, the restoration of the Priesthood, and how the authority has continued on to President Thomas S. Monson.  It has been a journey with him.  Pero, in a way I am grateful, because I have found that my own testimony of prophets has increased immensely.  I find myself thanking our Heavenly Father in prayer for prophets and their guidance in these latter days.  I find myslef thanking Him with a more sincere heart.  This work is true.  I testify.  I testify.  If any of you question or wonder, study the book of mormon, pray, ask God, I promise you will receive a witness.  Again, I testify with my whole heart of the truthfulness of this work.  Pinatotohanan ko po na totoo po ito.

I also testify of the miracles that come when missionaries are STRICTLY obedient!  There was one night when we finished a lesson.  Then sister perez asked me what time it was.  I said, 7:48 pm.  WE are supposed to go home at 8.  We were wondering...should we just go home twelve minutes early?  There's not really enough time to do anything...  But, then we were like, NO we will be strictly obedient.  Thank goodness we chose the right!  We found a new investigator!!!  She let us teach her right then and there.  We've taught her only twice now and she has agreed to prepare to be baptized as she comes to know the truth for herself!  wow, I promise that when we follow perfectly to the commandments of God.  He will bless us.  He has a plan for us.  We must follow it.

I know that God lives.  He loves us.  I pray that each and every one of us, including myself, will make a greater effort to come unto Christ.  Learn of Him.  Read about Him.  Cry unto our Father in Heaven in Christ's name.  Love Him.  Love as He loves.  Serves as He serves.

I love you all!

Sister Wright

Tender Mercies

If I were to choose two words for this week, they would be "Tender Mercies".  Of course, some moments were really hard.  The mission is hard; however, if I were to summarize this week-it was a beautiful week.

The church is more established here in Sevilla.  There is a lot of progress.  In our one ward there are four sets of sister missionaries!  Wow!  We are working hard for this sweet little ward.  

Okay, I think I am just going to start by talking about the sweet moments of this week that really touched my heart:

First- "It is GOOD to be here!"  During mine and Sister Perez's companionship study, we read from the White Missionary Handbook.  We were reading from the very beginning about our purpose as a missionary and "How great is [our] calling!"  As we had a discussion together about our purpose here, our hearts were filled with the Spirit testifying to us that, yes, it really is good to be here!  I was so touched.  It is really hard to describe how I felt, but I was just reassured that I am here for the best cause possible.  I am privilaged to be apart of God's work 24/7.  what a blessing it truly is.

another blessing is my companion.  I am learning so much from her.  She loves to work.  She is teaching more about the importance of trying our very hardest to work towards the goals we set. We both are such goal-oriented people so it helps us stay driven in this great cause!  she is also a wonderful teacher during lessons.  Our companionship unity during lessons is actually quite impressive.  I know it is the blessing of the Spirit.  We pray so fervently everyday that the Spirit will guide our lessons.  We had a really cool experience where we hadn't prepared a lesson for some one we weren't planning on teaching one day.  When we were opening the lesson with a hymn, I was silently praying that the Spirit would help us know what we needed to teach.  The word "service" popped into my mind.  I haven't had a lot of practice teaching this lesson, but I trusted i the Lord.  I was leading the lesson, so I just introduced the topic of Service flat out.  the lesson went well.  Then after the lesson, sister Perez asked me, "so did you really feel that we should teach service"  I told her I did.  Then she told me how as she was giving the opening prayer she was also silently praying for what to teach, and service came to her mind as well.  I testify that the Holy Ghost really is our teacher and guide.  I testify that if we pray to our Father in Heaven, He will bless us with the Spirit.  It is so important to live worthy of the Spirit, because the Spirit is the true teacher who will help people begin their conversion process.

Another blessing from my companion is that this past week she said three words that struck me.  She really doesn't even know how much they affected me.  we were talking about how some missionaries don't understand the work here.  and then she said,  "we just need to LIVE THIS LIFE"  those words have stuck with me.  I just need to fully get lost in this work and live this life!

Okay, now my most treasured tender mercy this week- We were in a lesson with a less active member.  His name is Brother Temi.  He is 21 yrs old.  Our plan was to teach L1P1 (God is our Loving Heavenly Father).  When we were about to start I thought, 'is this really what he needs?  He already knows about God because he is member...'  But even though I had this thought, I kept going with talking about God, our Heavenly Father.  I'm so grateful we did.  I picked out that my thought was MY thought, and not the Spirit's thought.  so here we were, teaching the very first principle of the very first lesson.  We asked Brother Temi about his relationship with God.  We asked him about his prayers.  we asked him how he felt about God being our literal Father in Heaven.  etc.  wow, these thought provoking questions caused me to ponder for myself.  While my companion was speaking, I found myself trying to answer these questions for myself.  I was filled with the Spirit.  Then it was my turn to talk.  I started talking and then I was so overwhelmed with the Love of God that my voice shook.  I had to stop talking and my companion took over.  I sat there in amazement with the love that was filling my heart.  Tears silently streamed down my cheeks.  It is hard to explain, but I felt our Heavenly Father's love for Brother Temi, Sister Perez, our member worker, and me so strongly.  I will never forget the feeling.  wow.  I also was so humbled.  Here I was taking the first principle of the first lesson for granted.  Who am I to judge what someone needs to hear?  It is the Spirit who is the senior companionship.  I am in a tri-companionship-- me, sis perez, and the Holy Ghost.  It was such a toucing experience.

I testify that God lives!  He is our literal Father in Heaven.  He loves us more than we can comprehend.  I have felt His love for me and for the Children here in the philippines.  His work will continue to more forward. Because He is our Heavenly Father, He wants us to return to His presence. He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to provide the way for us.  Oh, how grateful I am for my Loving Heavenly Father.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Wright

Sivilla

Kumusta sa lahat! So I have been transferred to a new area.  I am now in San Fernando zone and my area is Sivilla ward.  My new companion is Sister Perez.  She is filipino too and is 21.  I am hopeful that we will be able to work really hard together and help this work move forward in this area.  It's really different from Agoo zone though!  I miss Agoo... however, I know this is where the Lord wants me to be.  I miss my last companion, but I know I will get to know sister Perez and it'll be good.  She WORKS!  So she is 5 ft and her legs are so short-but she walks so so fast! We book it down the street!  Haha, it's really good.  She really likes to work.  she tries her very hardest to teach as many people as she can. I think it will really help me completely get lost in this great work. Fortunately I was able to witness the Nieva family's baptism before I left Agoo!  It was beautiful!  It was in the ocean because the font isn't finished in the church yet.  also, I have pictures of the baptism on my camera but I don't dare to use put them on this computer because someone told me that this computer shop will erase all your pictures!  It really was a beautiful baptism though.  I hope they are doing well.  It was really hard for me to leave them and the others we were teaching.  Especially sister Martin.  she was the very first person I ever extended a baptismal date to.  We went through a lot with her.  I hope she is doing well.  she was a witness of the power of the Book of Mormon to me.  We were almost about to drop her, but we persisted that she read the book of mormon and act.  Once she read the sacred words in the book of mormon, her countenance changed.  Her prayers became beautiful and she wasn't nervous to pray in front of us anymore.  She came to church.  she wanted to learn more.  We extended a new baptismal date to her the day before I left.  It was so hard to tell her I was leaving.  We were both sad.  I pray that she loves sister Cardenio's new companion and really is baptized April 29th. Oh also, the Baloran family invited us over for FHE the night before I left agoo.  We had an awesome meal and they had me and sister nott make it!  so masarap! Like I said, the work here in Sivilla is different.  It is farther along than in Agoo.  I will be teaching way more lessons here.  Hopefully this will help me with my Tagalog.  The language is rough!  I am finding that we have many people to teach here; however there are many Special cases here.  For example, people who wanna be baptized but they aren't married and their partner refuses to marry.  Or they were married before and now they live with someone else and have a family with them.... you see, you aren't allowed to get a divorce here.  so...if people get married then separate and live with someone else, we have to figure out what to do to help them be worthy of baptism.  It's really tough to work around. My time is almost up.  but know that I love you all!  This work is true!  God lives and loves us more than we can imagine.  I testify that if we give our whole hearts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be happier than we have ever been.  Never forget to put God first (3 Nephi 13:19-21, 31-34). I love you all! Love, Sister Wright Making Dinner for FHE