From Phoenix to the Philippines
Dear Sister Morgan Waldrom, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Philippines San Pablo Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, May 22, 2013. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Tagalog language.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
A Soul Stretching Opportunity
Well I sit here at this computer
crying. One of the few times that I have these past few days.
Things are hitting me, finally. Like right now in this moment. You
are all saying, see you in a few days, and man I couldn't be more excited to
see your faces! I think about it and I get butterflies and am so excited.
And then I get reallllly sad at other moments at the thought of leaving and not
being here any more. I also feel really strange, I won't lie, I have
changed. A lot. Things are not going to be the same, and I am
trying to deal with that too. Man, I just cannot even put into words all
the emotions I am feeling. And we just got out of the "how to get a
job" workshop for returning missionaries. That was not interesting
at all. I am not ready for all that yet! But I hope that you can all
just bear with me as this is a super emotional, exhilarating, and happy time
for me and all of us.
This past week was good and
odd. A week full of "lasts." My last Zone Training
Meeting, my last weekly planning, my last lesson, my last everything!
Hard to accept at times but mostly didnt even feel real. But it was super
sweet that the San Jose ward put on a fun surprise Family Home Evening for
me. Good times playing, "Do you love your neighbor?" And
Sunday I traveled to the mission home alone with all my bags and then I got to
stop by San Pablo and see the members and Masangkay Family one more time!
So sweet, they are doing really well. The work was good this week.
It is amazing to see how much everything has improved since day one. I
will miss speaking Tagalog on the daily. I will miss teaching in these
humble homes the restored gospel. I will miss stopping people on the
street or talking to people traveling on Jeeps to tell them our good news as
representatives of Jesus Christ. I will miss being engulfed in the spirit
every moment of every day. I will miss all the amazing friends I have
made here in the mission. I will miss the time to study the
scriptures. I will miss the ward weather and sweet rain of the
Philippines. I will miss eating rice every day and some delicious
ulam. I will miss our recent converts. I will miss the
members. I will miss the feelings of joy when you see the light of Christ
touch someone. I will even miss the moments of hardship with rejection
and struggles with finding. I will miss falling at my knees at night
practically falling asleep in my prayers of true effort and tiredness. I
will miss feeling the enabling power of the atonement carry me from appointment
to appointment. I will miss my companions always supporting me and being
there. But I will overall miss this sacred calling and the time to
dedicate myself to serving the Lord.
I can however say, the lessons I
have learned here and molded, shaped, and prepared me for everything there is
to come. As hard as it is to face the fact, my time is up, I know God
always has a divine plan and I am ready to align my will with His. I am
ready to apply all the lessons and chose to make my life the way God would have
it be lived. Words cannot describe the gratitude in my heart that I received
that personal revelation in October 2012 that I needed to serve a mission and
that I was called to the work in the Philippines San Pablo Mission. This
is the place I needed to come to. I have seen the fruits I was meant to
bear and I have felt the hand of Lord guiding me this whole time. I will
be a forever missionary. Even when the moment comes that I hand this
nametag to Mom and Dad, I will continue to be an active participant of
Hastening the Work of Salvation. I will be faithful to the end. Even
though after 18 months, I am tired as heck, I am not finished. I have
experienced the atonement in my life and not letting others feel that in their
lives would be turning my back on everything I have done up until this
point. Man, I probably sound like such a cheeseball. But what can I
say is that I mean all of this with my whole heart. At this point, I
can't make any changes to the book I have written, but I can promise that I
will continue to write it and make every chapter better and better.
I know that this is Christ's true
church upon the earth. This is the chosen way to us to return to His
presence and the presence of our Father. I know that a living prophet
receives revelation and guides us today. I know that Book of Mormon is
the Word of God and has blessed me in numerous ways from the lessons I have
learned and shared with others. Overall, I know that Jesus is the
Christ. I know He suffered for my sins and for the World. I know
that through Him we can overcome the natural man and become more like. I
can truly say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
With that said, I can
confidently say that the time has come, and I AM SO STINKIN EXCITED TO SEE YOU
ALL THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man 18 months sure flew, but it
feels like I haven't seen you all in forever! I have missed you all
dearly and I thank you all for the support and love over that past year and a
half. Now let us come together, move forward with faith, and be HAPPY!
I love you all.
See you real soon,
Sister Waldrom
2 Timothy 4:7
Monday, November 10, 2014
Snake bites, trunky trips and weird feelings
Why
can't anything ever go according to plan? Sheesh, just when I thought I
could have a solid working week! Here goes: an explanation....
Monday.
Zone P-day, went bowling! Fun times with a fun zone. Then that night we
went out to work and it appeared that no one wanted to be taught because no one
was home. Then we come home to a phone call that Sister Brown, our housemate,
was bit by a SNAKE... TWICE. Awwwww shoot! We were all worried
because Sister Brown only has one real leg. From her knee down on her
right leg, she has a prosthetic leg from an issue when she was born. So
we were joking to her, "Oh no they can’t take the other leg now too!
Why couldn’t it have been the other one?!" The snake just came
slithering out of the grass when they were outside of an investigators
house. Moral of the story, don’t ever stand in grass in PP.
Tuesday.
We inherited a third companion as Sister Brown was in Manila under observation
for 24 hours. Then that sure jumbled our plans.
Wednesday.
Had my final district meeting. Sad day. They wanted words from a
"dying parent" so they had me bare my testimony at the end.
Then Weds night we taught our awesome referral, Sister Yolie. Oh man. We
were reviewing the Restoration with her and she was loving it and kept saying
how she liked what she was hearing and wanted to fill in the missing puzzle
piece. So then the spirit told us, watch the restoration video.
Man, that is always the icing on the cake! The spirit was so
strong. She cried and loved it! I cried and loved it! Her answer is
coming along smoothly.
Thursday
and Friday. Surprise! You have to go to Manila again! I guess we
didnt really YOMO (You only Manila Once) But twice! Fun times again with
my batch, but it was pretty lame cause we barely did anything at the
immigration center. We however did get to eat at WENDYS. Mmmm. And
we got to chill with some missionaries from the Tacloban mission. We
talked to the sister and she shared with us her experience from the storm. Wow,
sounded like such a rough experience. She said she was in denial and couldn’t
accept it. Grateful that I was where I was.
Saturday.
Ohhhhh hello BATANGAS! I got to do my last Sunday visit to my second
area. I chose to go there over Cabuyao because I had more recent converts
in Batangas. Oh happy day! We just went out Saturday afternoon and
attempted to try and visit people and hope they were home. We went to the
Sasuya's first. When we walked into the gate to their home, no one was
home, but then when we walked out, Sister Lyn was walking up. Happy day!
She squealed and started jumping! It was so happy. Then we stopped
by Vina's and then we went to a baptism in their ward. The Ward Mission
Leader invited me to bare my testimony. Nice experience. Then Bishop's
wife was like, "Sister Waldrom, do you have any plans right now?" And
I was like, no... And then she was like, "Now you do. Get in the
car." They invited us and the four missionaries in their ward to dinner at
the "Treehouse" and it was delish!!!! Holla!!!! Such kind
people.
Sunday.
Church in Batangas! They all thankfully remembered me ;) But I got
to bare my testimony to the ward and attend the classes. It was weird,
even the moment we drove into the boundary of that area, I felt like I was at
home. I sure love everything about that area! I also got to see
Doodz who I taught but was baptized after I left. So happy to see how
happy she is! After church I got to see my ward mission leader from my
first area. His girlfriend who is in the other batangas just got home from her mission. After 8
hours of being released as a missionary, he proposed to her. Do you wanna know
how many people told me to get engaged 24 hours of being home? Yeah I didn’t
even keep count. But the weird thing is, that the sister entered the MTC
a week AFTER me, and she is already home and engaged. Weirdweirdweird.
After
church, bishop’s wife fed us again. Then we went and visited some less
actives. It is hard to see that they are still struggling. I was crushed
to hear that one sister's husband passed away last week. We went to her
first but she wasn’t home. Sad day. Then I visited another LA Sister who
had her baby, glad to hear she has been coming to church pretty often and the
baby was blessed in the church. Yay! And then we went to Michael
Paltad, our first baptism in Batangas. He was so surprised to see
me! He didn’t go to church because he was at the cemetery because
yesterday was the 1 year mark of his father's death. I remember I came
only a couple weeks after that. It appears he still has a lot of trials,
seeing that his doesn’t have a father, doesn’t know where his mother is, cares
for his special needs sisters, works at a billiards room, and is only 16. He
inspires me and is staying pretty active. We shared a short message and
committed him to partake of the sacrament every Sunday. Sad to hear not
too many people have been visiting him and we got a little teary eyes saying
bye. He is so awesome.
Then
Vina and Yan Yan. They are doing awesome. She is the Primary chorister
and are very happy! They fed us dinner and are doing really well.
We ended the night at the Sasuya's. Brother Jayson is first councilor of the
Elders Quorum and Sister is a family history consultant. Jazlyn is in young
women now and Lanz is 6 and still naughty! haha But we got to share 3
Nephi 31:18-20 about enduring to the end. They are so strong and have a plan to
go to the temple in February to be sealed!!!!!!!!!!! After the message, I
got to talk to their friend Sister Rodelas on the phone who is the one who
introduced them to the church. Right before I was about to leave, I felt
good that I had kept the whole weekend composed with no big tears. Then
sister lost it, brother was teary eyed, and I just couldn’t handle
myself!! Had a short cry fest and then we had to get out to get a jeepney
on time.
Everything
just hit me at that point. I have nine days left of doing the best thing
that has ever happened to me. I just feel weird and sad and happy that is all
happened. But I cannot believe how fast it has all gone bye. I will say
though that I am SO excited to see you all!! But I do know also that when the
depressing day comes of taking off this name tag, I am not finished. I
will always be engaged in this work and I will stand faithful next to the Lord
when he will say, "The Work is Done." I pray that we may all thrust
in our sickle with all our might and hasten the work of salvation! Hurrah
Hurrah Hurrah for Israel!
Sister
Waldrom
Doctrine
and Covenants 76:22
ALSO:
Monday, November 3, 2014
Joy in every footstep
Hey there! First off, Tuesday. Elder Lynn G. Robbins spoke to the mission. Did I love it? YES. He spoke on my favorite topic right now! Agency and responsibility. Just deepened my knowledge of the doctrine of agency. He was so inspired as he taught of how we have 100% control of our agency and 100% responsibility of how we use it. We need to be better at how we blame others and use excuses, because everything can be pointed at ourselves. Reminds me of how much actually depends on us.
Halloween night. Walking home, I say to my companion,
"let's scare the sisters if they arent home yet." Wait behind the
door with a sheet. Got 'em good. So good.
This week we were asked by an investigator to be her baby's
"Ninang" or godmother. That was an awkward conversation.
We got an AMAZING referral. Yolie, man she is
awesome! The Relief society president referred her to us and came with us
to the lesson and it was beautiful. I had a tear in my eye the whole time
because she was just so open about how ready she is. She just kept saying
she is so willing and that her entire life she has felt "something
missing." We asked her how she felt, she said she felt good and
enlightened. We are so excited. She said her husband and son are
really interested too!! This is an amazing potential completed family!
She accepted a baptismal goal date of December 20, and after she said yes, she
asked what time. Man she is ready! I will keep you updated. :)
There is a senior couple serving in our ward and they
actually just went home this morning. But the ward put on the most
awesome goodbye party for them! Every auxillary put on a presentation
(full time missionaries included) and it was just a joyous time! We sang
"Go forth with faith" and threw some tagalog in there. And then
we watched some swing dancing, cha cha, elders quorum choir action, and the
primary "popcorn popping on the apricot tree" hip hop version!
Good stuff!
Saturday was Day of the Dead! Our ward mission leader
came up with the brilliant idea of having a finding activity. So our
church is on the way to the cemetery and there were so many people driving and
walking by, like disneyland status of people. So we had signs and offered
free juice with pamphlets of the Plan of Salvation. It was good, we found
some pretty interested people and a lot of people got to see us and our
church. The word is being spread! It was a great way for us to work
with our ward mission leader and ward missionaries and we all had a grand ol
time! Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday here.
Basically every Filipino goes and parties over their loved ones graves.
They just hang out at the cemetery all day and night! We had an early
curfew of 6pm to keep us safe.
Our area is doing ok, struggling to help them come to
church, but things are still moving. Just doing my best to build up this
area and companion. So thankful to be serving here at this time.
I love you all and thanks for all the support always!
Sister Waldrom
Doctrine and Covenants 19:23
Monday, October 27, 2014
Learning is endless
Well things are just moving along here! This week was a bit short on time, coming from Manila, having interviews with President, and then just getting punted in general from investigators. Also a bummer that a lot of our investigators committed to come to church but didn't show up. It is always a depressing feeling when that happens.
But as for some cool experiences, I
had my interview with President. His first question was what I learned
from conference. I am really glad he asked me because it made me really
dig deep and think about it all. I told him how I loved how Elder
Christofferson taught us how we need to become like Christ through our own actions.
It was kinda a light bulb moment. Like yes, God wants us to become like
him. He will help us. But he won’t do everything for us! You
gotta work, act, and choose! Then it put things in perspective for me, as
a missionary and as a child of God: am I using my agency wisely? Great
question for each of us to ask ourselves. What path are you on to
becoming like the savior? Are you choosing the things that will help you
progress or are you waiting for God to send a trial to you to wake you
up. Just keep that in mind. Let us all choose wisely.
He also gave me his final advice of
"writing the last chapter" of my mission. Everyone wants to
read this chapter, and that I need to end it with a Bang! Sadly at the
moment there isnt any different amazing miracle, but it is all about the
work. And I can say that is going well. So working on this last
chapter is my focus! Making it real good I hope.
Our investigator M gave the
closing prayer to our lesson. Started out great, then just the tears
flowed. She started praying for her family. She has 7 kids but
moved from a further area of the Philippines to San Jose. She prayed that
she could find some way to contact them and that they would be safe and
healthy. She hasn’t talked to them in years now. I was just
distraught at the thought that she hasn’t been able to communicate with her own
mother and tell her about all her children and experiences and things in
life. I thought about how hard that would be. Thinking for myself,
if I didn’t have the chance to email my parents every Monday (as lame as my
emails are), I don’t think I would be able to handle a mission! But to
think of her and all her trials and her desire to just hear if her family is
ok, just broke my heart. I can still say, every single monday on my
mission when I come to email, I have a butterflies in my stomach out of my
concern to ever receive bad news from home. I am SO BLESSED that each of
your are healthy, happy, and active in the church. I count my blessings
for each of you!!
Sister Taala and I are doing
great. Really finding our flow and work ethic together. I sure am
grateful that she is my companion at this point. I am learning a lot, and
she is mad skilled at braiding hair! (cause she is Samoan) But we are happy
and enjoying the stinky and odorous land of San Jose.
Tomorrow we look forward to a
mission wide meeting where Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the presidency of the 70
will be speaking to us! So excited to learn from on high!
I love you all. Thanks for
everything and stay awesome!
Sister Waldrom
Doctrine and Covenants 5:21-22
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