Recent Converts Rock!

Dear Family that I love soooo much,

How are you all doing? I am doing great! I hope you are all having a festive Cinco de Mayo. No one celebrates that here. haha. I am do looking forward to Skyping next week! Yay! But before that, I am looking forward to MLC tomorrow and Mission Conference on Thursday with Elder Ian S. Ardern, the Area President for the Philippines.

A few nami announcements: Phils. Iloilo Mission was so close to reaching our April goal. The final total was 98 baptized and confirmed. Yeah! And the Jaro Elders told me that Rose and Mickey are set to get married on June 7! Hooray! (Dad, I think that counts as a pretty cool birthday present. :)  ) And I made Mango Float for the first time this week. It is delicious. Mangoes are delicious. I just thought you should all know. :)

Yesterday, we had a very sweet testimony meeting.  Many of the members were able to go on the stake's temple trip to Cebu last week. For them to get to the temple affordably they ride the "roll-roll." This means they ride a bus which then "rolls on" a boat, take a 12 hour boat ride, then "roll off" the boat and continue their drive to Cebu temple. Sounds exhausting to me. I am so grateful for how ridiculously easy it is for us to get to the temples so close to us in Utah. No excuse. (I may be slightly trunky when in comes to going to the temple again. :) 6 months na lang. So. Excited. ) Anyway, the Bishop's 12 year old daughter, Heart, was able to attend the temple and she bore the sweetest testimony yesterday. She almost couldn't speak, but I felt the spirit just how it feels doing the work of the Lord in His Holy Temple. Love it!

I love working with the recent converts in Leganes Ward. I don't mean teaching them. I mean they text us daily and tell us they want to come along and work. Yeah! Kimberly, the ZLs recent convert, gave us a referral a few weeks ago, and the ZLs told us she wanted to come along when we teach them. So Kimberly, 15 y/o, came along with us on Tuesday. Her friends, Jessa Lyn (15) and Mark (17), each have a baptismal goal date now! She did great, bore testimony to the people we taught and everything. Then the next day we met up with the ZLs to give them a copy of the Restoration DVD, and they told us that Kimberly had a great time. They said Tuesday night they were in the middle of a lesson with Kimberly's father, Johnny, and she came home with a huge smile on her face. The Elders asked her why she was so happy, and she said, "I just worked with the Sisters!" True joy comes from sharing the gospel. 

We have had Diana, 13 y/o, come along with us to work, too. She a less active. Her brother Tregie, 11 y/o, really wants to be baptized, but their parents are less active so we are working on getting him some support to endure first. They both came to church on Sunday! And a ton of other Less Actives came too. The church was overflowing again. It was a good day.

Tonight we have an FHE planned with Jerica (inv.) and Junjun (LA).  (Who also came to church yesterday! Yay!) We let the members know, and it spread like wildfire. I even got invited to our own FHE by some of the members. haha. It's gonna be a party.

I hope you all have a great week. I know our Savior lives. I have felt His love for His children fill my soul on several occasions. That happened this week when we were teaching Sister Valencia especially. The Spirit is amazing. I know that as we improve day by day to be obedient to our Savior, Happiness will fill our lives. I love you all.

Love, Sister Winward