Transfer and Highlights! –

Well, missions get good at getting your heart all soft and full of love and then ripping them out when you've got to say goodbye...okay so that was super cheesy pero ang balita ay (the news is) I am transferring from my first area!!!

  - I will be going "sa baba" to the lowlands, and the area is called Bacnotan! I will have the opportunity to be the follow up trainer someone who came with me trainee Sister Berry, and also serve as an STL. I don't know how or why but the Lord loves to send curveballs I guess and I will just do the best I can! (Although extra prayers wouldn't hurt for me to have some sort of a clue how to do that haha :) 

  - Saying goodbye to this ward was tougher than I thought, I really have made some best friends here! And the Pascuas are like family. Their life is so hard right now and I want to just give them to world but I hope and pray they hold one to the one thing we were able to give them, and that's the gospel. Mom we are coming back for their family sealing in the temple just so you know :) 

-New Investigators!! I LOVE teaching first lessons and just seeing who the Lord has prepared. We started teaching the future son in law of a member (his fiance is less active) He thought he was baptized a while ago it must have been a different church...that was a funny set of questions haha but after our first lesson he read the chapter we left in the Book of Mormon, said he feels it, wants to be baptized and is wants to come to church with his fiance to reactivate her too. Let me just say the spirit and the Book of Mormon are SO. MAGALING. (that means really skillfull) 

Tagalog Word of the Day:

- Pagmamahal or Pag-Ibig means Love 

Missionaries can Laugh Too:

- Sister Berry hates one of my cheesy EFY songs that I play ALL the time because I need music going, so naturally I sing it all the time just to test her patience. It's a good thing she is super nice and just laughs at my horrible efy singing ;) 

You Know you're in the Philippines When...

- It is heart breaking when there are beggars on the side of the street anywhere BUT at least here they don't just hold up a sign asking for money, they usually sit on a speaker and have a microphone and just sing their hearts out. It's pretty awesome. I'll let ya'll know when I hear one in tune too ;) 

Spiritual Thought:

This week I have continued my study of the savior in personal study and am learning so much about the true meaning of HUMILITY. In Mosiah 4 King Benjamin has given me an incredible and impactful reminder to never forget that all good things come from God. We can never forget "[our] own nothingness" and start to rely on ourselves more than God. Any sort of pride is what slips into disobedience, homesickness, laziness, contention, everything. It is the seed of all evil and Satan's favorite tool. The only antidote is complete submissiveness through humility towards our father in heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. Just as I was forgetting the true meaning of humility at the close of my training, thinking I had a good handle on things, the calling of a trainer brought me right back down where I needed to me. I saw the Lord work miracles out of my weaknesses but then we grow comfortable again, I saw that a little in myself coming to the close in training Sister Berry. I am once again thrown down to the depths of humility (sorry that's a little cheezy) in this calling as an STL and a follow up trainer. I know in myself I do not have the skills this people and missionaries need but I do have a desire to serve the Lord with all I have. I trust in the promise "If ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work.'" And I know this is an incredible opportunity to serve, love, and learn from so many more missionaries. 

LOVE YA ALL (MAHAL KO KAYONG LAHAT)