Hey everyone!! Man, crazy amazing week!!! Wasn't general conference the best EVER??? I died. But! I'll start at the first and get to that at the end.
Last Monday Sister Becerra and I have so much fun at Robinsons, eating delicious food and drooling in the Nike store. I held off getting more clothes because I was anticipating the package but I'll probably pick up a skirt or two today. It's really fun to see all the other missionaries out doing all our errends, and Sister Becerra's best friend from home is here in the mission with her, they were even MTC companions, so we eat with her whenever we can. When we got home, put away all our groceries, did our laundry, all that jazz, we went out to work! And walked right out into the mother of all typhoons. As in, heaviest rain everrrrrrr. Its like a flash flood but in the air. We were SOAKED within 12 seconds, even with umbrellas, and had to run for cover under a little shed. The road had turned into a rushing river, at least as deep as the river our back, and we were just stranded. Finally, we decided that we couldn't just sit there forever, we were already soaked, we might at well wade through to our appointments! So we head out, water rushing up to our knees, every inch of us wet. We started yelling out commentary in australian accents, like "Now will you get a look at this storm? A real true philippians storm this is!" "You have to see it to believe it folks!". Everyone was looking at us like we were nuts and when we got to our appointments they were like ":O Oh my gosh!!! What are you two doing! It's RAINING!" But it was awesome because I think our dedication softened their hearts a little bit haha. "We just walked a mile in a river of mud and trash for you! You can definitely come to church!" hahahah :) Love them.
We met a woman named Mabeth, one of our newest investigators. She lives in the squatters area across from us and has always been super sweet to us when we see her, so a few weeks ago we had some left over cake from a teaching appointment that we did not want to eat so we took it over to her kids, and a pamphlet with Mabeth, they were so happy! They call us "Tita" which is aunt haha :) A few days later we went back and followed up and had a great lesson with her. Last year she went to work in Hong Kong as a house help and had a terrible experience, the boss was horrid and didn't feed her. Like, at all. She worked there for 4 months and she said "I was so hungry. I was so weak. I prayed every day that I wouldn't die so that I could get home somehow to my kids". She eventually found a missionary organization that helped her to get home and since then she's been here with her 3 kids and husband. We had the chance to meet her husband in our next visit and they are such a good couple. It's not common to see husbands and wives who act like they love each other, and they are so kind and loving and respectful to each other, Sister Becerra and I were so shocked haha. Heavenly Father has totally been preparing them to become an eternal family. I hope Sister Becerra and I get to be the ones to see them through! Side note, as we were walking out to the jeeps this morning she walked with us on her way to get her kid from school, she insisted on carrying my laundry, and then told us that the day we gave her kids cake was actually the birthday of her youngest and she just kept saying thank you over and over.
I got new shoes! Yes, my last ones were done for haha. And I had to wear them like that for a few days until P day came around haha. So my new shoes are great, just simple rubber again, but since they're new I got a nasty little blister. First one in my whole mission so thats a plus! The only problem is band-aids don't stick here because everything is sweaty and wet. So the first day I put on an ankle wrap just to keep the band-aid on... but that just kind of made it rub worse. So I took all the wrappings and everything off, grabbed a leaf off a tree, and slid it in the back of my shoe. Worked like a charm! Thank you mother nature haha ;)
My package came!!!!! ohmygoodnessiloveyouallsomucha
Literally, so awesome. I died. ALL my favorite shirts, MOM. You even sent the anthro shirt!! (Which I got a compliment on from the coolest elder in the mission, btdubbs ;) ) I had a fun little fashion show with Sister Becerra. And the bare minerals lip stuff!!! So awesome!!! Did you know that main ingredient, jackfruit, that is here in my mission? We have a jackfruit tree in my front yard! It's amazzzzzzing. And the lotions smell so good and the other lip stuff is fantastic and I at the smarties during conference and was in heaven and yay for more zip fizz!! (the water here does not taste that good so it's nice to mix it up!) and Clay!! Your notes and letters and drawings made me soooooo happy!! (I wrote all you kids letters that I'm sending today! So look out for those in the mail!) and even a costco card to top it all off!!! I was on cloud nine. You guys are THE BEST. <3 <3 <3
And I got katie's wedding invitation!!! Congrats kate!! I wish I could've been there but I dedicated a whole minute of silence for penny candies, salt and vinegar chips, monopoly, and that time we smashed the tail pipe shut on your dads truck and joey tattled on us :) You two are the cutest couple ever and I'm so so happy for you!!! Thanks for sending me the pictures dad, it was the next best thing to seeing it for myself :)
While we were leaving a prayer at a house last week we met this little boy, Malik. He's 9 years old and has like 4 jobs, he had the cutest smile ever, like heart melting, and we found out where his house was (he was just at that one working) and said we'd come back to him and his family. The next few days we went back and found him and his brother, Patrick, at home. They told us that their dad died a few years back so their mom works almost 15 hour days with no day off. The only time they are all home together is at lunch. We haven't had a chance yet to catch them all together and we can't start teaching them until the mom is present because they are just children. But honestly, they are the most adorable little almost-orphan boys ever and I was sooooo bad to be able to share the gospel with them!!! Praying that we'll be able to meet their mom soon!!
Not all of our investigators are lovable though hahaha. There is this one lady, Dinding, she's like 65 years old and is legit crazy. She always wants us to come and talk to her when we pass her house on our way to other appointments so we usually stop for a few minutes to share a prayer, a principle from a lesson. One time she just made fun of Sister Becerra the whole time and was laughing like a witch at nothing, another time we came and she was like "oh no no no no no no no, not now, I'm sooooo busy!!!!" And she was literally sweeping rocks into a broken piece of a dust pan. Then the last time we asked if we could leave a prayer and she says yes then 10 seconds into Sister Becerra praying she just starts up her own prayer and starts picking her nose and eating it. Then wanted to shake our hands when we left. This is why we carry hand sanitizer AT ALL TIMES.
CONFERENCE. OH MY GOODNESS. I can't even express the smallest bit of how awesome it was. When Elder Uchtdorf mentioned how members will watch 10 hours of conference I was just wishing that we could watch 100 hours!! We are so so so so lucky to have these amazing men and women. I can't talk about everything I want to with conference because I would be here for hours but I'm so glad that I come from such an amazing family and that I get to come home when my time here is done and start my own family. All I've ever wanted is to be a wife and a mother and I'm not embarrassed of that at all, so it was so great to hear all the counsel from conference and feel even that much more secure in my views. Like honestly, I can't imagine anything that would bring more happiness!! And I know that because of you two mom and dad :) Thanks for giving me a perfect example of how to have a happy family :)
There is also so many warnings from our leaders that we need to be aware of. I loved the talk about "looking up", we're planning on sharing it in a family home evening lesson this week! Man, I can't even get my thoughts together about how awesome it was. I can't wait for the Liahona to come out so I can read and re-read all the talks! The entire conference I just had this overwhelming feeling of God's love and peace. We are so lucky that we get to have such a personal relationship with Him. I get so excited to read all your emails and be able to email you on mondays and we should be that excited to talk with our Heavenly Father every day and come to know him through scripture study and prayer :) Ah! Just so so so great. Basta.
I actually shaved my legs for conference too, just goes to show what a special occasion it is for me ;) Hahaha mom you would be so proud, I can probably count on one hand the times I've shaved my legs here. No joke. Oh the joys of being a Sister Missionary in the Philippians ;)
Surprise, surprise. I locked us out. AGAIN. This is the first time here but the third time in my mission. Kaluoy for my companions haha! We tried to break in (cause I'm totally an expert by now ((Cheetah girls, you know what I'm talking about)), but our house is actually safe so darn haha. There was a bamboo ladder on the side of the house so we set it up against the roof and climbed up to try and get in through the boarded up aircon hole, but no go, there was all this wire and junk on it. So we finally called the owner who luckily had a spare key and sat on the roof watching the sunset until he came. We just talked about our plans and dreams for when we come home, perfect scenarios and all that. It was so fun. Then we got back in, got our stuff, and went out to work :)
One more investigator story. So this girl, Cristy, we were complimenting her on her reading skills (cause she's actually way fast and understands everything) and she was like "Yeah, I loved school! I wanted to go to college but it was too far away!" she then told us how she grew up in the bukid (mountains) and how the rain would get so bad there that they would literally SWIM to school. SWIM. And she was so proud to tell us that she was never absent once. Now we can use this against her to get her to church, "Cristy, you SWAM to school and never missed, you can definitely get to church!" mwa ha ha ;)
Well I want to send some pictures so I'll end this here. Iloveyouandimissyouandyouareth
soi'
soi'
Have a great week!!!!
All my love, Sister Manwaring :)
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