"We Will Miss" Series - Episode #8: Special Stories

We will miss all the wonderful people we have met here.... especially the members.  Some of their stories have already been published in previous posts.  Here are some more great stories.

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Sister Figuracion is a tower of strength.  She lives with her husband in a one-room apartment.  Because of a skin disorder, she is limited in her activities.  But she is able to make and sell the most beautiful woven flowers and drinking straw bags.  Whenever we have visited her, she is always smiling and laughing, cheerful, and giving.  We wanted to buy some straw bags from her, but she wanted to just give them to us: "From the heart"...she kept saying.  We insisted on paying her for all her hard work. And she insisted on giving us some extra bags as a gift from her.

Just a few of the adorable straw bags she made for us

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The Agustin family is such a wonderful family.  They have only been members of the Church for about eight years, yet Bishop Agustin has been the bishop of Laoag Ward 4 for three of those eight years.  Sister Agustin is a past Relief Society President.  She is a great fellowshipper with the missionaries.

 Even though they have a limited income, they give and give and give.  They are continually feeding the missionaries....even when they don't think they have enough to share, they share anyway.  If they have something and someone else needs it, it is given away.  Their philisophy is, "There are always others who need our things more than we do. We will be blessed for our sacrifice."  And they are.

Hazel Joy had the faith to give up a high-school teaching position to go on a mission.  She met Joma in Manila and they fell in love.  Joma was baptized July 2012.  Hazel Joy wouldn't accept any other wedding except a temple wedding. So after a year of waiting, they were married in the Manila Temple on October 5, 2013.  What a darling couple.  They want to go on a senior couple mission some day. (And she was hired in September 2013 to teach high school again.)

Their reception on a beautiful evening outside their home

Philippine tradition is to greet each guest with a "Blessing" (hand to forehead)

The Agustins spent all day preparing TONS of food

Hazel's cousin designed and made her beautiful wedding gown

 

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Sister Dolly, or Mama Dolly, as all the missionaries call her, is a special person.  She has been a member of the Church for just over a year. She had been searching for the Church since her high school days.  One of her friends was a member of the Church.  She wanted to join, but her friend moved away before she had a chance to get the information she needed to make contact with the Church.  All her friend told her as she left was:  "The meetinghouse is down the street."  That didn't give Sister Dolly much to go on. 



For years Sister Dolly searched for the "Mormon Church" while avoiding the missionaries, not knowing they represented the Church she was searching for.  About a year and a half ago some elders knocked on her door, looking for her daughter who wasn't home.  Sister Dolly invited them in and that's when she started having the missionary lessons.  It wasn't until a few lessons later that something was said that she realized the Church listed on the elder's black tags was the same "Mormon Church she had been looking for all these years. She readily accepted all the doctrine the missionaries taught her.  However, she failed her baptismal interview and her baptism was postponed.  She was confused and upset.  Elder Mau had to explain to her that her answer, "I'm down to one stick a day", to the question: "Have you given up your smoking?" wasn't an acceptable answer. 

Sister Dolly said she is going to replace the Catholic pictures hanging
on the wall behind her with the temple picture we gave her.  Good plan, Sister Dolly!

Sister Dolly has visited the Catholic Church since her baptism.  In conversation with three of the Catholic priests she knows, they asked her why on earth she changed religions.  She was very forthright in telling them that she now belongs to the only true Church on earth: Christ's Church.  She said they gave her the strangest looks.

Wanting to make up for lost time, Sister Dolly does so much in the Church.  She is a dependable and full-of-testimony fellowshipper.  She has the missionaries to dinner every Friday night.  Even though there are now eight missionaries in Ward 4, she keeps up the tradition.

Friday night dinner with Sister Dolly. (She never eats with her guests...just waits table.)

Previous to having taken out her own endowment, Sister Dolly accompanied Ward 4 on a temple excursion.  Since she hadn't been a member the required year, she was only able to do baptisms for the dead.  She accompanied other ward members who were buying replacement garments in the distribution center. Sister Dolly wanted to buy her own garments to wear.  "I want to wear those!" She had to be strongly talked out of her desire.

Sister Dolly finally was able to go to the temple for her endowment.  She told us how she did a little ballet move in the locker room she was so excited. She loves wearing the garment.