Chris Martin, Elder Ferney and Rafael
The Boys with their mother, Michelle Aalamariz
Our first Baptisms! June
30, 2018
Several weeks ago, the Elders in the office invited Elder
Ferney to visit a young single parent family.
The mother had been baptized but had become un-active. She had recently found out that after working
away from home (which thousands of Filipinos do) for the last several years,
her husband had actually started another family. . . .
Elder Ferney – It
was the last week of May when I first met the Alamariz family. The mother, Michelle, 12-year-old Rafael, and
10-year-old Chris Martin. (Yes, named
after the singer song writer). Rafael’s birthday was June 12th.
When the AP’s asked if I would go teaching, I was
excited. When we first sat down in their
house, it was clean and neat. I even had
to take my shoes off. We started by
playing ping pang pong, a terrific way to get everyone relaxed. I asked them if they spoke English. Michelle said, “a little bit”. Rafael said in a very clear English “yes”. But
Chris Martin just sat there and stared at us.
Then after a full minute, he said “YUP”.
Chris then answered all questions with a YUP! I told him from then on, I was going to call
him YUP.
We went back to their home four days a week for the next
three weeks in the late afternoons.
These boys had been taught well by their mother. Michelle had gone through a difficult part of
life and had been making wrong choices.
Then about three years ago started making better decisions. She had not come back to church, but she knew
the church was true. The day the Missionaries
found her she had seen them walking around by her house but did not talk to
them. She knew they would probably come
by sometime. Within an hour, there was a
knock at her door, she knew it was the Missionaries and she let them in.
The boys had been prepared for teaching. They would read every assignment we asked
them to and then some. Rafael had the
most amazing questions and wanted to know everything about the gospel as fast
as he could. I gave Rafael the Gospel
Principles book for his birthday, so he would be better able to understand the
principles we were talking about. At the
end of one of the lessons, we asked them if they had prayed to know if the Book
of Mormon was true. Rafael said he
already knew the Book of Mormon was true and didn’t need to pray, but he did
anyway. There is something very special
about him and his family.
At the next lesson the boys said they had a question for
me. I said sure, whatever it is, I will
try and answer anything you ask me. They
then ask if I would baptize them. I held
back my emotions, but I was overwhelmed with joy. We set the date for June 23rd. They also wanted to make sure I was invited
to Rafael’s birthday party. Chris Martin
made sure that I knew his birthday was on the 20th of August and there
would be a party then also. We continued
to teach. Sister Ferney went with us a
couple of times and could also feel what a great little family they were. At
the lessons we took turns praying and when Rafael would pray, it was like he
had been a member of the church his whole life.
Baptism day came, and it was one of the best days of our
Mission. The experience of baptizing
converts is hard to put into words.
Sister Ferney: On Saturday, the boys were scheduled to be
baptized at 10:00 am. We arrived at the
Cabuo Chapel to see dozens of ward members there to support them, including
young boys that were the same age. I
gave the talk on baptism and a young lady gave a wonderful talk on the Holy
Ghost. Then, a choir came up to
sing. Yep, a choir. Of course, pictures
were taken 45 min. before the baptism and for about one hour afterwards. (it’s tradition). Also, baptized that day was a mother and two
of her teenage daughters. Each new
member bore their testimony and we were so proud of them. It was truly a joyful day.
Sunday, we agreed to attend the confirmation at 8:30am, then
go up to the Teresa Branch to teach our classes. We made it just in time to teach our Temple
Prep class. Then to Relief Society where
I had been asked to teach that day also.
Low and behold, the newly called Sister which has a baby with some
complications showed up and taught the class.
Afterwards, we were
invited to drive out to a community of 15,000 government subsidy “homes” where
families that were squatting had to be removed due to Typhoons, or new
development. The Relief Society
President, her young son, her husband, and a Primary leader squeezed into the
back seat of our car and off we drove back into the countryside. We found the square cement houses lining the
narrow, muddy, gravel roads. Cats, dogs,
chickens, and ducks were everywhere. The
people basically live outside roaming around the community, visiting with each
other while the children invent activities for themselves with whatever they
can find. Everyone appears to be happy
and content. I am dying. Elder Ferney stays in the car to guard
it. We find the place we are looking for
and all three sisters happen to be at the same house. They invite us to come in and eat dinner with
them. Fortunately, we had taken our
lunch and eaten it before we left the church.
We are all crammed in a small room with several
children. I look up and notice the
cardboard lined ceiling and wonder how they stay dry during all the rain we
have had for the past 3 weeks. They are
very friendly and want to come to church but they can’t afford to pay for
transportation. So apparently, they have
been holding their own church meetings (without the proper priesthood
authority). They also express their
desire to go to the temple. This is a
very common dilemma here, and it has been determined that it is better if we
teach self-reliance rather than pay for their travel. Currently a senior missionary couple has come
up with a plan for families to raise chickens in portable chicken coups and
sell the eggs for extra income. The
coups need to be portable because people don’t own the property they are living
(squatting) on. The Church will finance
the project, but several conditions must be met. Everything needs to be legal with the
government and approved…… It’s a great
idea to teach them how to help themselves and you cannot believe how everyone
here basically just lives on chicken and rice three times a day. The next most popular food – eggs!
We head back to the church where we are asked to stay for a
missionary fireside. Afterwards we
travel to Elder Aguliar’s apartment to collect his luggage and take him to the
Mission Office. No one is there to pick
him up, so we take him to the AP’s apartment to spend the night. We get home around 8:00pm.
We needed to be at the office one and a half hours early
Monday morning because it is the beginning of a 3-day marathon. Transfers.
We meet all the departing missionaries with their luggage, feed them bananas
and pandesol, then start the workshops.
Elder Ferney and I are 1st to teach and we practically have
everything memorized now. Each night we
get home between 7:00 – 8:00 exhausted!
As soon as Transfers are over – we start the process
again. Two Senior couples also went home
this month. The Taylors and the Vermillions.
Only one couple was replaced, and we wish we could get several
more. Sister Lola will be leaving July
12th. I can hardly bring
myself to think about it because until now it has taken both of us working full
time to keep up in the office. This last
week we had 95 baptisms so Elder Ferney is pretty busy tracking down
BCR’s. Little does he know that he will
be filling in for Sister Lola when she leaves Haha!
We love you all. Hugs and Kisses.
Please seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost.
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