Rescue and Retain . . .

August 26th
Last week Elder Jewkes went with the Elders to visit a family who was baptized in June and July and they had missed severance Sundays since. I had had a very stressful day in the office and stayed at home. When he returned he told me we had been invited to dinner the following Wednesday. When I spoke with Sister Lee at church I declined her invited because we had the mission tour and would be gone all that day. A few days later the Elders called again and said that Sister Lee had changed the dinner appointment to Friday so that we could make it. How could I say no when she was making a change for us. So on Friday the 26th, we met the Elders to go to our appointment with Sister Lee.

We were early getting to their area so we visited an investigator with them.

This is Jonathan and a couple of brothers and friend who were at the house.

Jonathan is 18 years old and has been taking the missionary lessons. We were asked to bear our testimonies before we left. It was a wonderful experience even if we couldn't understand the Tagalog.

Then we sent to Sister Lee's home for dinner. She wasn't there, but her daughter and her sister were home. Sister Lee had to work late so her sister had fixed dinner for us. we visted over dinner and found that Weng was not a member but was interested in the bible. She had been living in Libya for 6 years and had been attend the Born Again Christian church. We explained a little about the book of Mormon. Hopefully the missionaries will follow up with her. She lived in Manila at a boarding house and comes to stay with her sister when she has days off.

Just as we finished dinner, Sister Lee got home. The elders gave a short message and asked us again to bear our testimony. Sister Lee, her son and daughter and her sister Weng were at church that Sunday!

Here we are with Weng (left) and Sister Tess Lee (right).

August 31st
We were asked to visit a family in teh Angeles Ward. The sister is active and come up to us each Sunday to shake our hands. She has told us that she and her husband had served a senior couples mission, but we had not met him. We found out that he was attending church and so we were asked to "rescue" him and help get him back to church. He was actually at church the Sunday before our visit.

We were not sure how much English this family spoke so we took a sister with us from the ward who spoke English. She introduced us, but as soon as I saw the sister, I knew who she was. We chatted for a short time and asked if we could come back. The husband was eager for us to come back. We told him we wold see him at church on Sunday when we left.

This family lived in the US for 11 years and actually the speak English really well - well we can understand them so that is good. They were called to go on a couples mission. He requested California, but they were sent to the Philippines - their homeland, to the San Pablo Mission. For some reason, the husband has become less active. We hope to get him to come back and become a strong member in this ward. (BTW he was at church this morning.)

Brother & Sister Quiambao

So now we are getting to do some missionary work outside of the office. Since we are the only ones in the office, we may not be able to go out on a regular basis, but we are excited to help in the 'rescue' work of the mission!!