How Great is My Joy!, 9 months and THE DREAM

Hello Family!!

I'm so glad to hear that you're all doing so well! I'm also doing great!! I remember how excited I was to tell you all how amazing our last Sunday was last week and I was overjoyed to experience an equally (if not more) exciting Sunday this week. We have so many investigators that are coming to church! There are some that we have only taught them one time and they are truly showing how prepared they are by coming to church and showing their desire to learn more! It's so humbling and exciting!! Something else that is exciting is that Sister Lilibeth received a calling! She is the 1st counselor in the Young Women! She also has started to work with us every once in a while and really really enjoys it! She is doing her family history work to prepare to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead and is continually sharing her testimony with her family members that we are teaching, bringing family members to church and even reading the scriptures with them nightly. HOW GREAT IS MY JOY!! :D THIS WORK IS AMAZING!! Oh and I almost forgot... I'm 9 months now!! Half way! Sister Arcinas and I celebrated by making fried chicken and mashed potatoes and this "oreo float" dessert :) I've made it over "the hump"! It doesn't feel like it's been 9 months!! Time really is flying. I am praying so hard that I will stay in this area for AT LEAST another transfer- ideally with Sister Arcinas :) I just adore her and we have grown so much and have seen how much potential this area really has! We have some AMAZING investigators! I would love to stay in this area long enough to see them baptized :) I received an email from Sister Vargas (my old companion that went home) and she sent me pictures of our investigators that were baptized and I was just SO SO SO SO happy to see them at their baptism!!

We had SUCH an amazing experience this week!! I want to share it with you all because it really blew my mind! We went to an appointment of our recent converts where we are also teaching the rest of her family. When we arrived at their home they were excited to tell us about the conversation that they had had with their uncle just hours before about the dream that he had just the night before. I have met this brother one time before and he regularly passes by as we are teaching and we kindly greet him and he slips away. I’ve never had a real conversation with him or taught him. This is something that makes his dream even more surprising!! From what they explained.. his dream:
He was walking down a path that he explained was never ending. To one side he saw people that were miserable and dark as coal- all he could see was their eyes (he later explained “I didn’t know before but I learned there is a prison after this life!”). People here do not know about the doctrine about the spirit world where there are 2 states (prison and paradise).  When he said this both Sister Arcinas and I were so taken back and surprised!! Then he continued explaining how he saw 3 churches on the other side of his path as he continued walking. The first was the Catholic church and it was covered in spider webs and dark. The second was a HUUUUGE church that he recognized quickly as Iglesia Ni Cristo (search how big this church is here in the Philippines.. they just built this HUGE structure in Manila!). But he saw a ton of people standing outside because the church was locked and they were all waiting to go inside. They were all fanning themselves because it was so hot (he explained). He continued on the path and saw his neice (our recent convert- Sister Lilibeth) and ME!! And my old companion Sister Manosig. We 3 were sitting on huge crystal chairs and it was so bright and full of light where we were. He explained that Sister Lilibeth was calling out to him telling him to come where we were because “there’s no darkness, sickness, hungriness or hardships here! Just happiness!” (the words that he explained Sister Lilibeth shouted out to him in his dream is WORD FOR WORD the way that I teach the happiness that is found in the Celestial Kingdom. I couldn’t believe it when he said these things!!!) How can it be that he’s never been taught by missionaries before? He asked about his other neice (our other recent convert) and he explained that I replied to him telling him that she was behind the gate playing with the other children and he spotted and recognized her feet under the gate where the children were playing.
The obvious connection to the symbolism behind his dream and the Plan of Salvation- especially the 3 kingdoms of Glory is UNREAL. Sister Arcinas and I took the opportunity to draw parallels between his dream and the plan of salvation as we taught he at times stopped us and agreed that what we were teaching is true (“I saw that in my dream!”).
Something else that truly touched me as I was listening to them explain this dream is Sister Lilibeth’s mother. She was present as we taught Lesson 2- Plan of Salvation but she is a more “difficult” investigator and I never thought she really “got much” from the lessons we taught. But she explained to her brother that his dream means that those kingdoms of God represent light and he can’t enter that kingdom of full light unless he “becomes mormon”. I knew what she meant as she explained this because she means accepting and living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ: fath, repentance, baptism by the correct authority, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. This is the way to obtain Celestial Glory and eternal life!!:  Where we will dwell in the mansions of our Father in Heaven.
Long story short, we invited him to continue to listen to the message that we have to share about the restoration of the gospel and he accepted but added that his wife is devote iglesia ni cristo. We are looking forward to visiting their family and continuing to teach this Brother because Heavenly Father truly has a plan for him and is preparing him by teaching him before we can through his dreams ;)
(I wasn't able to proof read this email- I hope his dream makes sense!) I love you all so so much and thank you so so much for all those that are sending me emails of love and support and simply updates. It really means SO much!! Keep writing! Keep the faith! And never forget how much our Father in Heaven loves each and every one of us :)
LOVE YOU ALL!!
Sister Judd