I'm Not Leaving Bacnotan sorry Mom :)‏

Highlights:

- I had my first exchanges!! Of course I picked my nanay (mom or trainer) to exchange with first. Their area is actually usually bawal (not allowed) for white, girl, foreigners like me but I needed to check their house and area so...to Balaoan I went! We just had to be home by 7 pm. Anyways I learned SO much from the sisters there and of course it was so fun to be companions with my trainer again for a day. Crazy how fast the mission flies, we felt like we were just in Baguio and she was teaching me how to be a missionary haha! 

So fun to be with my trainer again...

- We were able to attend General Women's Conference (sorry, behind the times here in the Pines) and wasn't that so awesome! I learned a lot about faith; what it can and cannot do. I am so grateful to be on a mission getting that "bedrock understanding of the Doctrine of Christ" that the lord needs in women today. Also of course Elder Uchtdorf didn't fail to tie in his time of being a pilot and the love of his life, Harriot :) 

- I was humbled again this week by being reminded to rely on the Lord and his spirit and not ourselves. It's HIS time anyway and not ours! So one night we just stopped on the side of the street and prayed to know where he needed us. I felt to walk to a house that before rejected the gospel and there we met a less active that said he didn't know what had happened to him now, and then sister Barbante felt to visit another less active where the daughter had an experience that morning- she shared she felt she needed to start the Book of Mormon again that day and there she got enough strength to ask her boss if she could be absent on Sunday in order to go to church. It felt SO good to know the Lord is really there and willing to guide us if we just stop and ask. 

The beautiful area in which we serve...

Missionaries Can Laugh Too:

Sunday night it started pouring and I was the only one who had an umbrella out of the three of us (my twin Sister Brooklyn was working with us). All of us wanted to be the one to take it for the team so none of us ended up using it! We wrapped our bags in plastic and set out in the rain, it was SO fun. Especially when sister Barbante ran the last part home to make curfew hahaha :) 

Yes, Mom, sometimes I am so tired I still fall asleep on the floor, same as always!

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

You go to the outside market to buy your fruits and vegetables and the fish are so fresh they are literally jumping on the table 

Yes, this is a real chicken foot!

Ilocano / Tagalog / English

Anyana ti balayo? / Saan ang bahay mo? / Where is your house? 

Spiritual Thought:

 Let’s all just review President Uchtdorf's thoughts on faith and re-evaluate how strong our faith is. Moroni 7:33 says faith makes everything possible that is expedient to the Lord. We can't use our faith to force our will on the Lord or take away the agency of others. But the Lord DOES promise that he can work any miracle inside of US according to our faith. This was a good reminder for me and I am so grateful for my mission right now how it tests, breaks down, and builds back up stronger my faith in my savior Jesus Christ and how exactly aware he is of me. How he uses me in my weaknesses (cause there’s a lot) to be an instrument for his children here but he can only use me as strong as my faith is in him and his Atonement.

On Sundays we wear stripes, me and the YSA branch...

I love you all and have the best week!!!

sis. Rhea  Walters