Sister Angela' Garrish: 2016.10.10 Pretty and McDo!

Dear Family and Friends,
Another amazing week!
This week we started it off with zone training, where again I was called to do the musical presentation with Sister Pope and Sister Fawcett. It ended up sounding pretty awesome. We all sung the melody for the first verse, then Sister Pope broke off to alto for the second verse then Sister Fawcett broke off to alto and Sister Pope singing tenor and me singing the melody. They are both amazing singers. Anyways after zone training, we went on with our normal proselyting time for the rest of the week.
This weekend, we had a General Conference, oh boy was it great or what?! Let me tell you General Conference is truly amazing if you come with a couple of questions in mind before you watch it then pray, then listen to your answers! It is so amazing! I'm not going to go into details about all my questions that were answered except for one. That was "What do I do during Sacrament? How can I feel the spirit during the sacrament?" During Elder Peter F. Meurs talk he spelled it out perfectly. He even planned it out, step by step on what to do:
1.) Prepare in advanced, so on Saturday I get everything I need done for the Sabbath day so my mind is completely focused.
2.) Pray in advanced to for guidance on what I need, with questions I have in advanced.
3.) Sing and study sacrament hymns, music influences us and plays a big part in our spirituality.
4.) Spiritually participate during the sacrament, what does that mean? To me that means not to be distracted but to focus on what they are singing about and focusing on, what Christ did for me so I will remember Him always, His Godly blood spilt.
5.) Remembrance, reverence in your mind as well as out loud. Focusing on the Lord and allowing the Spirit to really take over. Have you thought of it that way? Being irreverent within your mind? Anyways, through these steps I have faith that it will help me improve the quality of my Sacrament.
Well this week I had a very special baptism. Her name is Pretty and she is the very first person I asked personally in Hiligaynon to be baptized and that was my second day here in Bacolod, Philippines. This week she got baptized. Crazy how time moves. So Sister Pretty’s story is very interesting. The missionaries met her back in July this year but Sister Abad said that her former companions, Pretty and her family would always hide from the missionaries until I came. I met Sister Pretty on my second day here and it happened to be her 9th birthday. After celebrating a little, Sister Abad and I shared a lesson with her and I asked her to be baptized. Sister Abad explained to me how God prepares certain missionaries and I believe Pretty was being prepared for Sister Abad and I. Sister Abad and I are now extremely close with the family. We have been able to share many laughs and we have even sung and played guitar for them. Something amazing is Brother Roy (Sister Pretty’s father) at first said no to Pretty getting baptized and was totally against it but through lots of prayers and fasting then in one lesson about families that he happened to join with Sister Pretty, he allowed Pretty to get baptized and he even said he would too once he stopped his addictions. The Lord works in amazing ways and I know he has a plan for everyone! I really love being a missionary and being able to see all these wonderful miracles! I am finally over being sick and by it feels great!
Some fun stuff that was happened when we didn't have electricity or water for about a day and a half. So no bucket shower for Sister Abad and I. We were travelling to church “smelling divine”. Anyways, during the brown out while in one of our areas it was so dark. We weren’t able to see where we were talking our next step. Everywhere was so dark. It was so cool to experience!
Back to Pretty, after Pretty’s baptism, in downtown Bacolod there is a McDonalds. So we took her there. We bought her a hamburger, she ate one bite and said she was full but it was really because she wanted to share it with her family members. We ended up buying three more hamburgers for her family members. We bought the hamburgers that had lettuce on them and it was her first time trying lettuce. Lettuce here is rare and expensive. So not a lot of people experience salad or lettuce.
What a wonderful week!

I love you all!

- Sister Garrish

PS. Start sending packages so I’ll get them during Christmas time. JK. ^___^