Happy Happy Happy!

Hello Family!

First of all, let me tell you how thankful I am for you! It means so much that every Monday I know that I'm going to have emails from you and that you still care about me and think about me so much. This week was AWESOME. We had Zone Conference this week, and we have some really amazing new investigators! At zone conference I got your package and Marmee's package! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Seriously, it made me so happy! The Dove chocolate is much appreciated by me and the entire apartment (; I already drank one dr.pepper, and I'm saving the other for a rainy day...hehe, good thing everyday is a rainy day (; But they didn't explode! Holla! The socks are perfect and so is everything else you sent! You are the GREATEST! I also got 2 letters from you, (one of which is for my bday) and 4 letters from Grandpa! So so sweet (:

At Zone Conference, I had an interview with President Ostler! It went super well. I love him so much. He was so kind and encouraging to me. He expressed how good he feels about me as a missionary, and he said that even though I may not always feel like it, I am doing exceptionally well. After the conference, Sister Ostler also thanked me for my great attitude. It was really nice to get some positive feedback from them (: 

At Zone Conference I learned so much, but a couple things really stick out. One is the importance of Family History work! President talked about how often we separate missionary work and temple work, but we are all a part of one great work. There is a big push to help get our recent converts to the temple, and to help them start doing their own family history work. He said that as we bring our investigators to the church and then to the temple, we are able to help thousands of their ancestors. Our work really is so amazing! He shared an experience he had at the temple, and said that he can feel the ancestors of the people we are teaching helping move the work here in the Philippines so that they can receive saving ordinances as well. This is the work of exaltation, not just salvation! He also encouraged us to get our pedigree chart...which I did not bring with me... So I don't know how difficult it would be for you to try and get that for me. We also got these books that we fill out with information about our parents and grandparents to help us really catch the spirit of Elijah! He defined the spirit of Elijah as the manifestation of the Holy Ghost of the divine nature of the family. I love my family so much, and we need the rest of our family sealed in with us! Even those we don't know. 

He also gave a really great talk on communication, that you would have loved Mom. It was such an answer to prayer because I have been praying and praying to know how to better communicate with Sister Parina. He first talked about the importance of listening and understanding. He encouraged us to use phrases like "Help me understand" and "So if I am understanding you correctly". He asked us to really try to understand how our companion feels first before we speak. He said that we have 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason! Listen twice as much as your speak. I also loved that he said that its so important to share your feelings, too! We need to tell our companions how we feel, and how their actions make us feel. For me, this was so good because sometimes I tend to zone out and shut down when I receive correction, but I really need to be humble and listen.  But I also need to communicate my feelings! Sometimes I just let things go when I really should talk about them. So good for me to hear.

One last quote I loved was "Adversity is mandatory. Misery is optional."

Okay,now about our AWESOME NEW INVESTIGATORS! There are so many amazing people we work with, I never get to tell you about them all. But Benjie, is a recent convert who was baptized before I got here. He lives in a compound with a strong member family and also some other investigators of ours like Phillip.  Anyways, Benjie has a friend who he brought to church last Sunday who we were able to teach who was SO prepared for us! His name is Rafael Ethan, and he became friends with Benjie because they play basketball together and he noticed that unlike all the other players, Benjie never swore. So we taught him this week and he is so receptive! He is really smart and really good at English, too. But don't worry I still try to only speak Tagalog. He came to church again on Sunday!! I am so so thankful that Heavenly Father is trusting me with his children who are really prepared.

Also relating to Benjie, we go to his home to eat a lot. He lives on a farm with the Magvanua family (people here live together even when they aren't related...it gets really confusing because like 5 different families all live on this farm in just a couple houses) and they always feed us really yummy fish (: We actually just taught a family home evening at their home last night! There were like 30 people there, and it was such a blast. Philippinos are the greatest people and so so much fun to be around. 

Another new investigator we have is Himaya! Her mom is a baptist preacher but she had lots of questions and is also so prepared! Like Ethan, she is the friend of a member in our branch. I'll keep you updated on her!

AND this week we were able to do something really amazing for the Bascongada Family! Their daughter Yen Yen has CP really bad, and so Elvie Bascongada (nanay) has to carry her around everywhere. She is almost 3 years old, and is getting just too big. So, with the help of the Hiatt's, we were able to team up with a non profit organization and get her fitted for a wheel chair and help train Nanay of how to calm Yen Yen's muscles down. We are going with her again this week to the wheel chair place just down the street from us. What a miracle and blessing for their family! I am hoping that it will soften the dad's heart, Angelito Bascongada, who is not yet a member. Other people you can keep in your prayers are Cherry and Leo! (: 

The last really awesome part of this week was the Community Service project we did! It was at a fish farm and was SO BEAUTIFUL! It was like an hour away from Santa Monica, and we worked to weed all around this house seriously smack in the middle of the jungle. We saw crazy huge spiders and ate coconuts straight off the tree.  It was a blast and we were also really able to help this family who drive an hour to church and back each week. The faith of the members here is amazing.

Well I love you so much! I am so happy here!! I hope you all are happy, too!
xoxo

Sister Lockwood

i just let my companion use my camera and her computer had a virus and it deleted all my pictures. Luckily, last week I had put all the ones onto a flash drive.. definitely a tender mercy. But I lost all the pictures that I took this week at the CSP ): Sad day. I'm learning patience. I had so many I wanted to send too! ); Lame. I don't know what I'm gonna do when it comes to future pictures. We aren't really seeing Julieta anymore... she keeps telling us that she has to work even though we come back and she's still there. (people here never just say I'm not interested... they just come up with lies or say I'm busy) We are still seeing Myra though!! I LOVE HER!! I gave her my blue necklace and she was soooo happy.

Mom, sometimes I think about you serving in Paraguay! Like how you said the people didn't have doors so you wouldn't knock, but clap. Here we say "Tao po" Until they come outside, hahaha... it translates to "people."