Happy New Year! (1/5/2014)

Maayong Guntag*! Naimbag na bigat! Magandang Umaga po!
Good morning my lovely Brothers and sisters! How are you all doing? I hope the New Year treated you well! We had a great New Year here in San Felipe, we tried to sleep but that was just a little hard ;)

The Member who owns the house that Sister Hart, I and the two other sisters are staying at requested that we continue their New Year tradition.  Every year on Jan. 1 at midnight they open all the windows and turn on all the lights, so we did that, sat on the porch and listened to the gunshots fireworks at midnight until about 12:30 because we still had to get up at 6:30 :) It was a blast; and then on Wednesday, I got my Christmas package!  A Happy New Year after all! I am so grateful for all the effort that went into that I am excited to celebrate Christmas again! Hey why not? The Filipinos still celebrate Christmas until well, I'm not really sure but they definitely still play Christmas music until now ha I love it!

So this week was kind of a crazy one! On Thursday we went to the Hospital to get surgery on my feet.. I had an ingrown toenail but it's way better now ha too bad I didn't keep it, that would have been gross to send home.  And then on Friday we got to go to the Training meeting and got some really great insights for how we can do our best this year in sharing the gospel and in the most productive way as well so that got me way pumped for the week, it was like a speech before a big meet and now I'm ready to take on the world.. in San Felipe! I am so grateful for the gospel in my life!

Today on the bus, I was talking to a man who lives by himself about 2 hours north on SF and he asked me why I wanted to serve a mission and come to the Philippines.  It really made me think for a second and then I paused and said because I have this great gospel that i feel so blessed that I want to share it with others in the world and that is TRUE! I will tell you that I love my mission, I love the Philippines.  There have definitely been some struggles but when we feel the Saviors' love through his sacrifice for each of us, it gives me strength that I can do anything just like in one of my favorite scriptures that I probably quote all the time Alma 12:24 ('This life.. is a time to prepare to meet God") LOVE IT!

Welp, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you

LOVE SISTER ROSSBERG

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!"

--



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

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 :)