"For the people had a mind to work"

Hello2x. How goes the American life? Chada? I hope so.... Well, I have a really good personal study I want to share so I'll go through the week fast. 

Wednesday: After email i saw a young white man, i was astounded. It was extremely shocking. We bought a bunch of stuff for our 72 hour kits, we tried a new grocery and it was way cheaper I was like "where have you been all my life?" 

Thursday: We had surprise exchanges. The set of sisters that were supposed to go got sick, so we took one for the team and rearranged our schedules so we could go. We committed another woman to baptism on September 5th. We're building it from the ground up here. We taught our IBD and her daughter was showing us her samurai outfit. It was so cute. During the opening song we were singing called to serve and then 'Let it Go' from frozen starts blasting behind us. If you think it's easy to sing hymns while Idina menzel is hitting notes like that, you are wrong. After the prayer Dancing Queen starts going (which started a 3 day sequence of ABBA playing every where we went), but the worst was yet to come. During the closing prayer, my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONG 'Wake me up before you go go' by Wham! starts playing. Satan has no mercy. We went to dumaguete station to try to catch a bus to Siaton. You would think there was a zombie apocalypse it was so crowded/ the way people were running to the buses. They are merciless. They were throwing things through the windows. It was very exciting. We had to wait for like 5 buses for the crowd to wear down. Finally we were like "WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" ran past the 'no passengers allowed beyond this point' sign and sprinted to the next bus, securing seats. 

Friday: EXCHANGES!!! I exchanged with Sister Curameng, she is so much fun. She is a dilligent missionary, and wonderful in Visaya. We taught a woman who was mad that children run around at church, and their parents don't control them. She was on fire.
Sister Beyer was kind to me that night and shared her chocolate peanut butter with me. Thank you. It was fabulous. 

Saturday: we got up and caught a ceres bus back to Bacong. On the bus Sister K just turns to me and goes "we have a baptism today." We were in awe for just a few moments. We whitewashed this area, we started teaching her. It helps me realize I can do anything with the Lord by my side.
I had forgotten my toothbrush for exchanges and so when I got home I spent like 20 minutes brushing my teeth. It was magnificent, the minty zing was just what i needed. 

We taught our IBD the last lesson. She's ready to go. We met back up with her that night at the church for her baptism. The whole family came to support. Her testimony was beautiful, I almost cried. After she sat down her 3 year old daughter climbed on her lap and said "Why are you crying mama? Why?" and she just looked at her and said "Mommy is just really happy right now." It was all in visaya but i thought I'd translate it for you. It was one of the sweetest moments here so far.
Sunday: Jackie's confirmation, and our other IBD came to church. It was lovely. In class we had to discuss about priesthood and Sister K was assigned to talk about apostles and she says "Naa sila'y yawa - I MEAN YAWEH!!" We lost it laughing. yawa means devil, yaweh means keys... it was so funny. 

Monday: Ceres likes to be slow, so we were late to district meeting. We bought rambutan (lychee) it was sooo delicious. We ate so much of it.
I was proposed to twice that day. Very exciting. 

Tuesday: There was really loud thunder the night before. It was cool. We hiked the mountain. We will be so strong by the end of this transfer. That night we got caught in a storm, so we ran to the chungie and sat with one of our less actives who sells balut. She had extra seats for us, it was really nice. This country is so beautiful. 

Okay, my study that I loved so much takes us to the story of Nehemiah from the bible. He goes to rebuild Jerusalem and save the Jews .Other people don't like that so much, so they try to trick him.

"That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief."
His response for me is perfect.
"And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"
I am doing a great work. Why should I come down to you?

President Dieter F Uchtdorf says in one of his talks: "Nehemiah refused to allow distractions to prevent him from doing what the Lord wanted him to do. It is easy to become distracted—to become focused on one burned-out light bulb or the impolite acts of unkind people, whatever their motive may be. But think of the power we would have as individuals if, in response to every temptation to lose focus or lower our standards—the standards of God, we responded, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.” "

I mentioned a few weeks ago about all the temptations around us. About resisting them. This talk stood out to me so much, also the attitude of the people that helped him.

"So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work."
For the people had a mind to work.
Let us all have a mind to work, so that when the adversary comes a knockin', we can confidently say: "We are doing a great work, and we will not come down!"

I love you all so much, have a fabulous week!

Love,
Sister Katrina Dunn