29-5-19
Mail takes a long time to arrive but it’s always welcome.
We’ve been asked to ensure everyone has the right details-
Letter
Elder and Sister Arvidson
Phillipines Iloilo Mission
Osmena street
Arevalo, Iloilo City
5000 Iloilo
Phillipines
…………………………..Packages –
Elder and Sister Arvidson
Phillipines Iloilo Mission
Osmena Street
Arevalo, Iloilo City
PhillipinesWe’ve been involved in some great baptisms lately. One is Fred, a retired policeman, who has regularly attended church with his wife since her baptism last year. He has loved the gospel but hasn’t been ready to make the commitment. The sisters have been teaching him again, and Elder A and I have been visiting him. When he was taught the Restoration of the Gospel everything fell into place for him and he was excitedly baptised a month ago. His wife shed tears of happiness as we talked about going to the Temple to be sealed as a family in a year’s time. They are planning on serving a mission like ours in the near future.
The other baptism that we have been joyfully anticipating was a 16 year old 4 th generation Chinese youth named Kim. He lives on a farm with his parents and relatives, just out of town. The missionaries approached him and started to teach him the gospel. He was so excited from the beginning and happily anticipated their further visits. He had many questions and started reading the Book of Mormon immediately. His family are supportive- his mother, grandmother, cousin, sister,brother came to his baptism and are interested in learning more. His grandmother wants to be sealed to her deceased husband.
This week Kim received the Aaronic Priesthood and is now at the Cebu Temple with the youth for the week. It’s a 15 hour boat ride, it will be wonderful when a closer temple will be hopefully built one day.
The people of the Philippines are humble and ready to be taught about the Restoration of the Lord’s Church, in preparation for His eventual return to the earth.
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Another special new member is 18 year old Justine. She glows with the Spirit and is a committed missionary, bringing her friends and siblings to church. Some of them are being taught now by the missionaries and have baptismal dates. She is receiving a lot of criticism and negativity from her parents and siblings, but she continues on. I asked her why she is so strong in the Gospel. She said it is because she knows The Book of Mormon is true. If only everyone accepted the missionaries’ invitation to read and ponder this book, which is another Witness of Jesus Christ, sent forth by our loving Father to strengthen us in these Latter days. It helps in our understanding and love for the Bible.
I’ll try to include photos of these people I’ve mentioned, also pictures of the pretty dresses the girls wore at Manggahan.…
We need to collect water daily from the village pump and carry it home in the truck. It would cost 1300 pesos a week if we had to pay for it all. We buy water to drink and cook with.
It’s always a fascinating place to be, the centre of the community. All different ages gather to wash in their clothes, pouring water over their hair and body. We don’t see towels as folk go home to dress. Some of them go to work in Iloilo or locally. At first we were quite a novelty but now they are mostly used to these funny looking foreigners who try to talk Hiligaynon in a strange accent. We all share and help each other, we’ve only received kindness. Mothers wash clothes and their children, they are precious.
There’s a special little girl, named Clar, she’s about 8. Her face lights up with happiness when she sees us and she giggles and chatters away. She grabs the pump and fills all of our many containers, despite us trying to let us do it.
She’s a delight and I look out for her. I blow kisses to her when I drive pass and she now does the same back to me. She didn’t help us for money, she just enjoyed helping. But now we try to have some coins or lollies for her which causes a huge grin. We know where her family live- her mother’s name is Leisel,a widow with 8 daughters in poor circumstances. We’ve bought 10 kilos of rice to take tonight and some lollies for the children , to thank her for Clar’s help and spontaneity.
The Arvidsons in the Philippines 