St. Patrick's Day in Carmen

Magandang Umaga po,

This week was a bit harder I'll admit, this week our investigators were really busy and we didnt get to teach a lot of them :( In the missionary language it means we were "punted" this week. Even Joy, the one who got permission to be baptized was out of town and we worry it was with her ex-boyfriend. We will find out soon and figure out how we can help her. Im actually in the middle of texting her now! 

But on a good note we had dinner at Bishops house and we actually all ate milk fish Filipino style with our hands and then we also have a Quad Zone Conference this week in Uirdaneta! Im excited! :) 

This week we are going to be lookingfor a lot of new investigators and fins part member families and drop the investigators who arent acting, its sad but it has to happen, The Good news is that our Recent Convert, Virginia is doing great and still going to church and loving it! We pray for Joy that she can enter the waters of baptism soon too! 

Love you all! "Come What May and Love It"

Mahal Kita, 

Sister Dover 

*ME on a bamboo bridge! We have to cross these sometimes to get to our appointments, behind me is a rice field! Love yall!

Week 2 of Transfer 9

Magandan Umaga po Pamilya at Mga Kaibigan! Kumusta na kayo?! 

This was such a great week! We had a MIRACLE!!! Here in our mission, investigators under the age of 21 without an active member adult in the church cannot be baptized.. And if they are one of these we call them a special case. Joy, the 18 year old with the baby had been a special case since January and she has now been to church over 9 times straight! Shes never missed, always her and her baby, Princess Yumi. This week we had our Zone Leaders ask permission officially from President and he said YES!!!!! She can be baptized!!!!! We are so happy that Joy can be baptized! She really is elect and the best part is that  she told us that she and her boyfriend separated a while ago an if they werent seperated she cannot be baptized. We extended a baptismal day for April 5, and she is praying about it and we will confirm it on Tuesday when we teach her again. I cant even tell you! IM SO HAPPY!!! Shes so ready! My companion and I totally did a happy dance when we got permission! 

Besides that, yesterday was Stake Conference and we went together with Joy since it was in a different chapel and she said she enjoyed it. I was really happy to see that more than half the people there were from Carmen Ward! I love Carmen Ward! 

The best part.. President Mortensen ( the 2nd Councellor in the Mission Presidency was there and spoke and actually had me come up and bear a brief testimony in Tagalog about how even though we have trials we can see the sunshine, or blessings from them. That was a bit nerve racking but a lot of members told me that what I said was something that they needed to hear, so it turned out to be a blessing, even though I did say when I started my testimony, Magandang Hapon po ( Good Afternoon) instead of umaga.. ( Good morning) it was 9 am!! The people even corrected me from the congregation and said Magandang Umaga po... Oh man! How embarassing! Even though Im 10 months now in the Philippines haha oh well! But It was nice, a couple recent converts and the Bishop and his wife told me thanks for what I said and it helped them so sweet and sour right? 

But more about the work, we have another IBD, Herbert, who I have been teaching since I first got here, hes the investigator whos wife is a recent convert and we taught yesterday with the high priest group leader and his wife and it was a beautiful lesson! We saw our investigator change and he was way open about his concerns with the Word of Wisdom and said we could come back Tuesday. He didnt go to church but we hope he will progress now and the couple offered to teach every Sunday with us and the Bishop here wants to teach with us too.

We also had our mission President, Monahan come and stay in our District meeting on Tuesday! IT was a nice surprise! But other than that we are still trying to find new investigators and are spending tie teaching members so we can get referrals and help the area here in Carmen grow! We will see! 

Thanks for all the love and Support! I love my mission and I wouldnt be here without you and your prayers and love, sometimes it really is hard. Sometimes there are days that me and my companion say we dont know if we can do it anymore but then again there are days that we say Lets Go Get'em! Overall my mission is the best thing that has ever happened and there truly is no greater joy than helping souls come back to Heavenly Father and His kingdom! Love yall! Magtitiis Hanggang Wakas! 

Mahal Kita,

Sister Jenessa Dover 

Le Miracle 8.2

Howdy y'all! Ha that is what i said to everyone on sunday as i bore my testimony. They all thought it was funny. Saint Raphaël! A good chunk of the branch here works for the military and comes from a pacific island called Tahiti. They basically look like tongans that speak french. It is so fun here! 

This week (since we have nobody to teach) we spent a lot of time talking to people. Porting and contacting! It is a lot of fun and really need to be motivated to do that all day.. Especially when the other équip here is doing the same thing. Ha. 

Well we got to move into our own apartment this week so i dont have to sleep on the floor anymore! ..apparently my apartment had problems so the office told them to move out..but we inspected it with the proprietère and settled the problems and now we are living in another sweet apartment with AIR CONDITIONING!!!!! (yes it is actually hot enough to need that..)

Saturday was by far my favorite this whole week. I called an excommunicated member friday night to see if he wanted to play basketball. He called me back around21h00 and said that he was free and liked the idea and suggested the next morning (saturday) at 10h30. We accepted. We showed up and there was a crew of 8 tahitiens ready to play. We played soccer to warm up and then they just said to us "elders we are from tahiti..we need to eat." so we ate lunch and then played basketball! Gosh that was so fun. it was so hot too. We played forever and the best part was that most of the crowd was less actives and nonmembers.. the worst part was that they are all from the military so they are in really good shape and destroyed us.. haha that was so much fun. We fixed that to work every week!  

Sorry no pictures. I havent had time to take any and our cyber cafe stinks so i cant send them from here anyways. Bonne semaine! 

Les Missionnaires

Elder Dover

13 Avenue XVeme Corps

83700 St. Raphaël

 

Elder Alec Stephen Dover

Dream Crusher

February 26, 2014

In the 21 years that I have been a mother, this week was the first time that a child said to me, “You’re crushing my dreams!”  What was so astonishing was that it came out of the mouth of my eleven year old baby girl who has always been so adorably sweet and kind.  She hasn’t exhibited anything but warm affection prior to her preteen developing body. I’ll explain the situation in a minute, but it was unfortunately a “Dan in real Life” moment where I just couldn’t help myself and I laughed. In the movie, a 13-year-old daughter accuses her conscientious father of being a “Murderer of Love” for not allowing her to date.  And then the next moment was like “You’ve got mail,” where Camy instantly had regret for saying what popped into her mouth.  Sigh!  I think we both have been feeling stress in our lives lately.  She put a tender note on my pillow that tells me she’s sorry and that she knows I’m the one person that cares about her dreams more than anyone else.  She concluded by maturely asking me that we both try to forget that it happened because she believes “it will be the best for both of us.” 

Why does this make me smile?  I have no idea, but her frustration with me was because I told her we needed to go to piano lessons 15 minutes earlier than normal at her teacher’s request because she picked up another student following us.  (Never mind the fact that we are her only free student and I do household chore items for her while I’m there.)  Camarie started a dance class with her best friend, right after piano and it makes for a long Tuesday.  Camy had asked to not go to piano and I told her that she committed to piano first and that if anything changed, it would be the dance class since she is only taking it to feel comfortable trying out for Junior high drill team next month.  Not my best mothering moment. Even though I agree that we should both try to forget the accusation, it was a reminder to me that although I have been so blessed with GOOD children, they are still tender saplings. To be a GOOD mother, I can’t get lazy with my last child and not let her voice her feelings so she can make good choices, which in my experience she always does.  In essence, I’ve been confronted with middle age- motherits (I just made that up). The treatment: hugs, kisses and chocolate chip cookies!

Le Miracle 8.1

March 4, 2014

Transfers!! I got mutéed! In fact we both got transferred! Elder Peters went to Martigny in Switzerland and I am currently in Saint Raphael! I'm back in the south by the beach! YESS!! Also i am in a 4 man ville! First time i've been in a ville with other missionaries! That is awesome! My new companion is Elder Sommer... he comes from Germany! Munich i think. kinda funny. Funny story...i went missing to everyone in the mission. nobody knew where i was for several hours..kinda crazy. But long story short (if youre really curious to know why/how all this went down...i'll tell you later...) i slept in Marseille last night and took a train to Saint Raph this afternoon and just arrived.

Last week in Agen was kinda hard. Many tombezvous and Sam said that he did not want to be baptized. We respected his agency though it was very upsetting. En plus we were both being transferred so we both had to say goodbye. It was hardest to say goodbye to the Murer couple and Sam and Luka. It was fun and i learned a lot serving in Agen. One of the biggest lessons I learned was PATIENCE. There are things that the Lord wants us to do and the tricky thing is that we have to figure out His time and His way of doing them. I had to learn that a lot in that little branch. All in all I am happy and sad to be gone. I grew much there and learned much. I loved it. 

The few, the proud, Nous sommes les Agenais. 

Bonne semaine. 

Elder Alec Stephen Dover

March 2, 2014

Magandang umaga po! This was such a great week! First off, I wasnt transferred! I stayed here in Carmen and I am so happy! My new companion is American and from Colorado, her name is Sister Chancellor and has been in the mission 4 1/2 months. Shes awesome! The other news is... I am now 11 months old in the mission.... AH!!! Time is flying so fast...! I only have 7 months and I am going to make is my very best months! 

AND... Best of all.... I am happy to say that we had a baptism and Sister Virginia is now baptized! She has been taught for years and her son even talked to us and he is an RM from Mendenow and he thanked us and was crying about how happy he is that she really is finally joining the church and he said that has been his biggest dream for his family to be together forever. It really showed me that we are helping a family on the way to being together forever. At the baptism, she bore her testimony and we could see her testimony and that she truly is grateful now to be a member. :)

We also just extended Herbert an IBD for April 5! And he accepted it and even prayed about it in the lesson with us and he felt that it was right. He told us that he will work hard and give up the Word of Wisdom and this time he will really become ready to be baptized. It was a very good lesson and I felt that this transfer Sister Chancellor and I can really help him progress and be baptized! But on the otherhand, Melvic- our IBD he had to work on Sunday all day for the past 2 sundays and was really sad yesterday when we visited him and told us he really wants to be baptized but doesnt know what to do... AH! We'll keep working with him, its just hard cause his boss is an active member and is being a stumbling block for him to be baptized! But I know through prayer and fasting he will be baptized in Heavenly Fathers time! :) 

I am so happy to still be here in Carmen and see this area become golden and progress and to be priveleged to help hasten the work here! I love the people and am even going to get over my pride and start learning Illocano another dialect here so that I can connect with more of the members and people here. I love yall and thank you all so much for the support you have given me! Youre all in my prayers! Till next week :)

Mosiah 2:41