Miracles Happen as a Result of Faithfulness and Obedience!

Our faithful sister missionary is off changing the Philippines with spiritual pixie dust!  A story this week is of about Sister Glavez's family.  She is the Primary President in their ward but her family hasn't been to church in a few years.  A series of events lead her family searching for answers and back to church!

The highlight this week is a summary of Abbi's hard work that is evident from her letters the past few weeks:
 

"This week has been full of miracles and I have noticed that miracles happen as a result of faithfulness and obedience!"

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This baptism is of the elders in our branch.. no baptisms.. YET!



This is an FHE we had before the missionaries in the San Felipe ward left for their missions 



Me and my comp with Kathlyn (who is now Sister Resolme!)

Magandang umaga po sa inyo lahat! Salamat po sa inyong mga inisip at pagdasal para sa akin, mahal ko kayo!  OR if you speak English.. Good morning to everyone! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, I love you all.
 
This week has been full of miracles and I have noticed that miracles happen as a result of faithfulness and obedience!
 
This week, I would like to share a story of a less-active 19 year old man, his brother and his family.  We will call them the Galvez Family because this goes on the internet and I will keep their privacy :) So the Galvez family.. we found them through a referral.  Their mom is the Primary president in our branch and most of her children are inactive but despite that, she is faithful and magnifies her calling in the church. Her oldest son and his wife are both members, they have two children (10 and 6) they haven't been to church in a few years until one day, a miracle happened in their life and they realized they need God more than anything else in this life.
 
Brother Galvez, (we will call him Richard) after eating dinner had a sharp pain in his side but thought he would just sleep it off before he went to the hospital, but the whole night he could not sleep because of the pain and they went to the hospital at about 4 a.m.  After an evaluation, he was rushed into surgery. His spleen had a ruptured 5 days ago and was in critical condition. The doctors could not explain why or how he was still alive but the fact was that he was still alive and recovered quickly as well.

This last Sunday, I loved seeing the joy on Sister Galvez's (Primary pres.) face as she walked in with her son Fredrick and following were her two grandchildren, her son Richard, and his wife. They all said that they had a wonderful experience at church and are excited to continue to come and feel of the joy and peace of the gospel.

After we went to visit the Galvez Family on Tuesday this last week we found two people who were searching for answers: Brother Fredrick and Sister Leticia.  Leticia is Brother Galvez's mother-in-law. 
 
So first about Leticia. She has been being prepared by the Lord, Leticia is not yet a member but has been looking for something more since her husband passed away about 3 months ago. Nanay Leticia is about 72 year old and has only been religious because her husband was religious, so once he passed away, she thirsted for something more! So on Tuesday of last week we visited with Richard, his wife Mayla, their two children, and Leticia.  And Nanay Leticia accepted the invitation to be baptized and receive the missionary lessons! She has a hard time really getting the lessons all the way but her grand kids are so helpful in every lesson and accepted the assignment to read to their grandma so she can fully understand!  I cannot wait to help her every step of the way to baptism.
 
Now about Brother Fredrick, as we were leaving on Tuesday from the Galvez and we were looking for their mom, the Primary president, and he pointed us to where we could find her, we introduced ourselves and thought nothing of it and left on our way.  But that night, we got a text from Brother Fredrick asking us if we could come back and visit with him the following day, of course we accepted! The next day as we visited with Fredrick, he shared with us that he just feels like he needs to come back to church and something is definitely missing in his life and when he saw us the other day something just clicked and he knew he needed to talk with us
So I am sorry if this story is long and hard to understand but basically I know that the Lord puts people and happenings in our lives to bless others and I know that we can all be instruments in the Lord's hands as we righteously obey him and are in the right place at the right time! I love serving the people here and I am running out of time so I hope you have a great, great week! Continue to be the best that we all can be and look for opportunities to serve the Lord.  I love you all! Take care always!

Love, Sister Rossberg

S.M.I.L.E-- Spiritually. Minded. Is. Life. Eternal (Basically Abbi is Awesome) :-)

It is always so wonderful to hear how Abbi is doing from her Mission President!  Her letter this week is even more telling of how much she has grown since leaving home at the end of March.  Her first week in the MTC was eye opening to say the least, but she is thrust into an even more intimidating situation with this new transfer. 
I feel so grateful for the preparation in the MTC, with it being so short and to the point, it really is the best way to prepare for a mission, especially where Abbi is serving.  I was amazed that her first day in the MTC she was expected to teach a lesson in Tagalog. I stand even more in awe that she is now expected to teach a lesson: as a trainer, in a new (and very different) area, in a new language, Ilacano!  And she is checking all the boxes associated with success!
She truly is a wonderful example of a disciple of Christ and I can't tell you all of the blessings that I have received personally from her serving this mission.

Highlights from this week:

"Tuesday, well and everyday, we try to be exactly obedient because we know that only through obedience can we receive the fullness of blessings so why should, and would we rob ourselves by disobeying? We shouldn't!"

"I know that even though that day felt very useless, none of our efforts are wasted and that every effort expended for the Lord will be acknowledged. And I know that to be very true. "

"As we 'invest' our hours in the Lord's service, we will gain it back and so much more in the future!"

(Seriously, how did I get so lucky to have the best little sister EVER! I love being her cheerleader across the ocean!)
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Hello Family!

I am brought to tears today by the heartfelt letters, thoughts and prayers of all of your stalwart servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for your faith and testimonies that make me better everyday! You are all such great examples and inspire me to be the very best that I can be. I hope to live up to the example that you all are to me.

So yes, I am on a new adventure and I am still excited to be here even though it is tough at times. As I mentioned in my last letter, Sister Enguito and I are in an open area and there are very few people to teach. Tuesday was a day for miracles; we always seem to have problems going to people's houses when they are available but I guess that's something I need to work on, is scheduling!

Tuesday, well and everyday, we try to be exactly obedient because we know that only through obedience can we receive the fullness of blessings so why should, and would we rob ourselves by disobeying? We shouldn't! So we are obedient missionaries here in San Felipe! :) But Tuesday in particular, we were out finding and we ran into a girl who's grandfather hasn't been to church on over a year (former Branch President) we taught him and through his family, we have found a huge family of members who are less-active and or part-member families. So we found two families that day to teach and we are finally able to reach our goals (or be closer to reaching our goals this week) so that is exciting!

On Friday this week, we went to one of our farthest areas to teach some new investigators we had an appointment with and then went to the Baptism at the Church to support the Elders in their 3 baptismal candidates! But after that we were 'punted' or in other words, all of the people we had planned to teach were not available or not home. So we walked around for about 3 hours talking to people and trying to find people to teach until about 8, we went to a less-active members' home but didn't have time to teach them so we just got to know them a little bit and prayed with them. I know that even though that day felt very useless, none of our efforts are wasted and that every effort expended for the Lord will be acknowledged. And I know that to be very true.

Yes, the language is still a challenge for me everyday and hearing Ilacano is like a nose bleed!! (The Filipinos say that speaking English is a nose bleed... and it's true) But I hardly understand Tagalog and hearing another dialect that sound similar to Tagalog is making me crazy haha! but I love it. I love every second of every day and I love learning Tagalog, it is very, very great to speak Tagalog and teach those loving children in their own tongue and language!

So last night I couldn't sleep, because it was COLD... yes I know, weird but any way, I lay awake thinking of the ward and the people and I just started listing off things about this area and the Philippines until I could fall asleep. I love San Felipe and I love being able to teach the gospel, as well as be a good example to my new companion!
So we have two branch missionaries who are leaving on their missions this Friday who spoke in church in Sunday, they are so great! They have worked with us everyday this last week and what a help they are to find less-actives and people to teach and then to fellowship them!

So on Sunday, that missionary service is a sacrifice but it is the greatest investment you will ever make for your life. As we 'invest' our hours in the Lord's service, we will gain it back and so much more in the future! The people here are very friendly and the area here is more middle class than San Agustin where most of the people there were less well off, I guess you could say.  I'm not sure how to explain it, but we have Barungay here (which is pave roads and streets and houses that are similar to in Amerika). But the members are just as humble and willing to serve the Lord with all their efforts and love for their Savior.

Thank you all again so very much! I hope you too have a good week, know that I feel your prayers and your love.  Know that the Lord loves you and is watching over all of us!
Spiritually. Minded. Is. Life. Eternal :) Remember to always smile!
God Bless.

Love Sister Rossberg!

Naibag nabigat! (Good Morning!)

Crazy things are happening in the Philippines!  Abbi was transferred to San Felipe and is learning a new dialect! AND she is now a trainer.  Woah, let's talk about how much my mom is freaking out about all of this for a second.  A lot.
Abbi is now in a bigger city where they just split the branch into 2 branches and they are already seeing blessings because of it. 

This letter is one for the record books so you should read it twice but here are a few highlights:

"The Branch here is very supportive and they have helped us to have a Branch missionary with us every hour of our proselyting time as "tour guides" so that has been very, very helpful and they are so mabait(kind) here!"

"As we have been walking around the Barungy of San Felipe this week, I talk to everyone, they understand me, AND I UNDERSTAND them.. the gift of tongues talaga(indeed)!!




Abbi is now somewhere in that little red shaded area.

Sister Enguito, Sister Rossberg, Sister Alvero, Sister Panal 

Abbi and her new companion, Sister Enguito

Naibag nabigat! (Good morning, in Ilacano)
 
Ilacano? YES! guess what? I am learning Ilacano, another dialect in the Philippines, there are a lot a lot of dialects here in the Philippines and I am learning Ilacano because I am now assigned in San Felipe, which is more south than Iba, San Agustin and closer to Olongapo.
 
So this week has been INSANE!! I was definitely not expecting to be transferred this week so I was not prepared for that; but ever more surprising to me is that I would now train. I just graduated from my 12-weeks training program, and now I have been called as a trainer, wow! I definitely do not feel qualified or adequate for this responsibility but here I am anyway! :) I will take trust in the scripture that says "the Lord qualifies those who He calls".
 
Due to the influx of Sister missionaries here in the field and I had little to no problems in my training, I was made a trainer and was transferred to San Felipe Branch. Before last transfer, they only had 2 Elders but now has 2 elders and 2 sisters! We have been put in an open area which means they kicked the elders out and put us in! so we are very excited to be the first sister missionaries here since 2003! It has been a little bit of a rough getting going here, but we are finally all settled in!
 
So, transfer day was Wednesday, we got to the apartment and  cleaned... a lot.. I will spare you the details but I will just say it was gross :) And that night the Elders in the other side of the area gave us a tour of the biggest Burungay in our area and we met a lot of the members and some less actives. Then Thursday, we made history. We had a meeting Thursday night with all the auxiliaries to split the area of San Felipe into San Felipe 1 and 2, we have the privilege of being San Felipe 2! The Branch here is very supportive and they have helped us to have a Branch missionary with us every hour of our proselyting time as "tour guides" so that has been very, very helpful and they are so mabait(kind) here!
 
As I mentioned earlier, I am trying to learn another dialect, Ilocano... We met one of our investigators on Friday who is very shy and knows little Tagalog so we sat there as his aunt translated for him into Ilocano and I just realized I will be here for at least 3 months. I learned as much Tagalog as I know in about that time so what's another dialect? :) I m very excited and enthusiastic to be assigned here at this time.
 
So the Elders were teaching two families before and we met them on Saturday as well, and were able to get to know them and talk with them a little bit. There are more less actives here than there were in my last area so we have a lot, a lot, of work to do here ngyon!
 
SO my first daughter here in the mission.. she is great! Her name is Sister Enguito, from Mindanao and speaks little Tagalog because she is mainly from a Bisia region. but of course she speaks more, and better than me :) She is also 21. (bytheway, I'm 21 now, I am a real person now. woohoo!) Anyway we are pretty much in the same boat and as I try to show her to how be a missionary, I feel very humbled to be an example to this new excited and scared missionary!
 
Sunday at church, the Elders said that two families came to church that they have never seen before. So that is great, and the numbers shot up; last week it was like 85 and on Sunday the full count was 104! And it will be more next week!
 
So I am sad to be away from all the farms and more in the city but I love it here in San Felipe and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world!
 
Have a great week ya'll! and take care huh?
Oh my  miracle for the week, The Lord truly qualifies those who he calls. When I left San Agustin, I felt very inadequate about my Tagalog speaking skills and even more about my teaching but as we have been walking around the Barungy of San Felipe this week, I talk to everyone, they understand me, AND I UNDERSTAND them.. the gift of tongues talaga(indeed)!!

Nanainiwala ako na Panginoon Dios ay Watching over lahat tayo palagy!
Mahal ko kayo!(I love you!) 
Ingat(Be careful) have a great week! 

Love Sister Rossberg :)