Dear family and friends,

Hello! Maayong buntag! Good morning! I hope that each of you had a wonderful week and saw the Lord in the details of your lives! 

This has been a wonderful week! It began on Monday night with a Family Home Evening with Rosalie, Reylan and their sweet family. I am so impressed with their faith and trust in the Lord. In the Philippines, and I am sure other places as well, the services for civil marriage and other government needs are terribly slow to accomplish what is needed. As well, being poor, they are very disadvantaged. So it is a great opportunity to practice patience! We are doing our best to lift their burdens as they wait. We had fresh buko juice for the treat! My first time! 

We had our first missionary coordination meeting this week! Our branch mission leader is not much older than we are. He is often busy, but was able to find time to meet with us and we are grateful! As well, we had members working with us last night. The power that they bring to lessons is amazing! Sister Ligaya Baguio helped us review with the youth of the Toloy family about the Book of Mormon. They have stopped progressing, reading, praying, worshiping at church and keeping the commandments. We found that they did not have an understanding of the power of the Book of Mormon, and the reality of the promise that if we read, ponder on its message, and ask through prayer with faith, a sincere heart and real intent, that we will receive an answer of the truth! Their desire had been weakening, but the spirit was strong as we testified of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and the help of Sister Ligaya was crucial. We hope and pray that they will again turn towards Christ and come unto Him by keeping these simple commitments. We also visited less actives from our branch. I learned firsthand the reality of our imperfect nature as mortals, that as missionaries, our calling does not mean that we are perfect teachers. Not at all! We must surrender all pride, study diligently, prepare ourselves and rely fully on the Lord, to be directed by His Holy Spirit. Mosalig sa Ginoo! Trust in the Lord! This is His work and for that I am so grateful! It is a privilege to be a missionary!


Thank you each for your faith and trust! Have a wonderful week! 

With love,
Sister Stanley

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that you have had a happy and successful week! All is well here in Calape. I love Sister Lappay and the time that we have had to learn and grow together as missionaries has flown by. It is hard to believe that my training is almost over, we are on week 10. We are doing our best to enjoy every moment and practice all that we learn! 

This week, our diligence in using our time wisely showed in the quality of our lessons. I am finally feeling comfortable enough with my Cebuano to recognize the promptings of the spirit as I teach and testify. Before, I was so nervous to speak, that my sensitivity was hindered. I am no where near fluent, but I am encouraged in the process! Also in building relationships of trust, I have realized that I have trouble in voicing exactly what I think. I always think so highly of those whom we serve, and I truly love the Philippines and all whom I have had the opportunity to meet. I am making my new goal to compliment more often!

We are working with Rosalie and Reylan as they prepare for marriage, and progressing towards baptism. All that is left is a fee to the municipal office for 1000 pesos. We are helping Jesebell, a cute nine year old girl who is preparing for baptism. We also are working with a cute new family. We have taught them once and we are hopeful that they will accept us when we return! With the Abano family and the Toloy family, we recognized that they were in need of a time to recognize the blessing of the knowledge we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We taught a lesson from a quote by Elder Jeffery R. Holland, "Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. My declaration is that is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in times of need...There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon. Some come late, and some don't come until Heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God, and believe in good things to come." 

Let us do just that! Trust in God and believe in good things to come! Have a wonderful week! 

Thank you!
Sister Stanley

Dear family and friends,

Hello! Maayong buntag! Good morning! I hope and pray that all is well with you and your families. I am emailing earlier today because we have a Sister's activity planned later this afternoon. This has been a great week. With our wonderful missionary work, Zone Training Meeting, our trip to Tagbilarin to remove my cast, (according to Sister Lappay, it was "cast away"!) , and General Conference, we are enjoying our work and are full of hope in Christ. 


The main topic discussed in our Zone Training Meeting was using our time wisely. A key part in obedience. Sister Lappay and I made goals to use our time wisely, according to the will of the Lord, in order to fulfill His purposes for us. We are now more full of faith in Christ, that through us, we can accomplish all that He desires of us. Obedience is the first step to a consecrated life! I am so grateful for the new ways that we learned to do that at our meeting.

We are now working again with the Toloy family! They were preparing for baptism, but stopped attending church, just before I injured my arm. We have not given up on them! We taught them yesterday evening about the words of our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. The spirit was there and is seems as if their hearts are softening and the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ is growing. The Lord is preparing them. It is amazing to watch. I feel so privileged to be a missionary.

A lesson that I learned during General Conference, that I want to share is from Sister Carole M. Stephens, in her talk called, "If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments". Have you ever thought of spiritual promptings as commandments? We should strive always to obey the commandments of God and the small promptings and inspirations that we receive by the Holy Ghost. That is now my focus and I am so grateful for the kind correction and counsel that we can receive from the Holy Ghost as we listen for it. I think that in a simple way, promptings are from God, and they should be followed as seriously as commandments. Remember that the Holy Ghost will guide us back home. Go forward with faith! Trust in the Lord! I love you all!

Sister Stanley

My dear family and friends,

This week we had a spontaneous Trainer/Trainee Conference, we were given three hours to prepare our things and travel to Cebu. It was surely an inspired meeting. We were reunited as a batch: all who entered the Provo MTC at the same time, and who traveled from the Manila MTC to Cebu. It was so encouraging to discuss the crazy adjustments with my fellow American sister missionaries, and realize that they were each struggling in the same ways. There is so much strength that comes in unity! I believe we each gained the knowledge and confidence we needed to better accomplish our purpose and continue in faith as we finish our training. Sister Lappay and I have strengthened our resolve to be exactly obedient, and we have already seen many miracles. President and Sister Tanner are absolutely amazing and incredibly wise. I always enjoy learning from them.


Irish Illustracimo was baptized and confirmed this past weekend and all went very well! Sister Lappay is wonderful. She knew just what to do! Here is a fun fact, "Filipino/Mormon Standard Time" is much worse than "Mormon Standard Time"! The baptism started close to an hour and a half late, although we requested for them to be there thirty minutes early. All went well, anyways! The Lord is in every detail of our lives. It really was a miracle that everyone came late, because everyone arrived at similar times, Sister Lappay and I were able to be sure that everything was ready.

Another miracle from this week we reached out to our sweet Korean neighbor. We have talked with her before and have explained our purpose as missionaries. She speaks Korean, very little English, and even less Cebuano, but the language of kindness and the Holy Spirit are without barriers! Last night, we spoke with her again about religion. She shared with us about her beliefs and how she came to be Buddhist, we learned that her family is Christian, but she has so many questions. We gave her the small English copy of the Articles of Faith to explain what we believe. We realized that it is our privilege to introduce to her the precious truth that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, that His Son, Jesus Christ lived on earth and through Him, we can be saved. How great is our calling! There are opportunities each day to share the gospel, no matter when or where! I encourage you to seek those opportunities, and I promise that if you pray for them, they will come.  

As well, Rosalie and Reylan have made progress with their marriage papers! We are seeing many miracles and have many new investigators this week. Thank you all for your faith and prayers, I hope you enjoyed general conference! Have a wonderful week! Enjoy the journey!

Sister Stanley