The one time it felt like a sacrifice

Hello Family!

Cameron Ryan Stromberg

     Wow, what a week you all had! I'm not going to lie; I've been sitting here in the computer shop with tears running down my cheek. I can't believe little Cameron is here! He is so cute. It's a bummer I don't get to meet the little guy for another year. Show him pictures of me, Bets!!:) A lot of people talk about a mission being a sacrifice, and I haven't felt like that at all. It's been so much more of a blessing for me. But I think this is the one time when I've felt the sacrifice it is being here. It's hard not getting to see Ry and Bets with their cute new little baby boy, and I know it will be hard again with Aiden too. But I'm not complaining because I know this is exactly where I need to be right now. All I'm saying is it's rough not getting to hold cute Cameron and be there for all the excitement. The picture with Kip is a total classic pic of Kip. haha It made me laugh.

Ry and Bets with their cute new little baby boy

. . . a total classic pic of Kip

     So for missionary work this week, it was a really good week. We worked really hard and found nine new less-active members in our area. Some of them I think there is potential that we can help them return to church. Some I'm not really sure. One sister basically told us that she is now Catholic and isn't Mormon and isn't interested. One old man told us the same thing, but as we talked to him and shared with him by the end he was telling us how he knows the Book of Mormon is true and started opening up to us more. So we'll just see what happens with these new contacts.
     Then we have Tina who should be getting baptized on the 17^th, but we had a setback. She's leaving to go back to her province on the 24th and wanted to get baptized before she left. Well we figured everything out and all the lessons we were going to teach so she could get baptized, but this last weekend for four days she and the Que family (the family that she is a nannying for) decided to go on a little vacation for the weekend. Now we don't know if there is enough time to get her ready before she leaves. She's leaving to visit her family, and she doesn't know right now if she'll come back or stay there... so yeah it's all up in the air right now. We'll probably meet with her tomorrow to figure everything out. It'll be a bummer if it doesn't happen because we've been working so hard with her, and she's so excited to get baptized. I've been able to be there with her for it all, and it would just be really neat to see her get baptized. So we'll see. She's the one investigator I've seen go to church four Sundays in a row and continue to.

Sister Ronquillo, Sister Stromberg & Patricia Pascu

     Then we had quite the interesting thing happen to our investigator Lace. She actually texted us one day and said that we can't meet with her at her house, but she wanted to come to our house. Well that's not allowed so we set up a place we could teach her, and for a while she never had the time. Finally we set up that we would meet with her this morning (p-day) at 6:30 a.m. haha which we were happy to do because if a 17 year old will meet with the missionaries that early, you know they have a desire to learn about the gospel. So we met with her and found out that her mom doesn't want her to meet with the missionaries anymore and doesn't want her to go to church and just doesn't want it all which is SUCH a bummer because Lace has so much potential! She is so interested in the church. Basically she snuck out of her house this morning, telling her mom she was going to school early, just to meet with us. So yeah we have some work to do there to figure out how to continue without Lace sneaking around her mom. Maybe right now just isn't the time for her, but like I said it's a bummer because she's golden. We'll see what happens. She also is just so sweet; she came up and hugged me and said that she missed us, and it was so cute.

     Then this last week we ended up dropping some of our investigators who had baptismal dates but weren't progressing and that was hard. We dropped Helen who I really have come to love, and I adore her little boy, Lester, so it was really hard to think we won't be going back to her. Nonetheless with investigators this week is going to be a week of finding! Yesterday a member Sister Sendon worked with us and gave us some referrals including a family that I'm excited to continue teaching. So we'll see what happens.

     But things are going well here in Carmona. I love Sister Ronquillo. She's a sweetheart, and I'm learning a lot from her. I love you all so much. Thanks for all the support that you give to me while here in the Philippines. I feel so lucky each week to get to hear from each of you. Even Gabey and Hannah this last time:) I had a dream the other night with Gabe and Hannah.

     Oh one more exciting thing that happened... I finished the Book of Mormon this morning:) And man I just love the hour I have for personal study each day. It is such a blessing in my life. I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true, and we can grow closer to our Savior by reading it. I did the challenge where you highlight all the names of Christ, his words, his attributes, and the doctrines contained in the scriptures, and I learned so much. The Book of Mormon has been such a blessing to me my whole life.

     Anywho take care. Tell Cameron that he has an aunt in the Philippines that loves him very much:)  Ingat kayo lahat!

Mahal na mahal ko kayo!

Sister Stromberg