WE CAN DO HARD THINGS

I am so insanely proud of you all!!! I was tearing up big time when reading dad's email. Honestly, YOU ALL are the inspiration to me... "You are the wind beneath my wingssssss" hahahaha okay sorry but really, I have the coolest family in the entire world.

Thanks for not spoiling conference for me!!! Although I will probably hear all about it later when we see other missionaries out doing errends. Whatevs!! I'm on pins and needles and cannot wait!!!! I had a dream last night that they announced that since there were so many missionaries they would be cutting the time down by 6 months to accommodate the influx... meaning I would've been coming home in SIXTH MONTHS. In my dream I was such a mix of emotions and mostly woke up with the desire to make every day count, whether I went home in 12 days or 12 months. My dream-mind is probably wayy overshooting the news but I'm so excited anyways!!

So on to this weeks updating!! We're gonna try daily updates and see if that helps make things quicker and includes more information.

MONDAY: Feeling super grateful for Dad putting money on my card, bought a much needed skirt and shirt. (Keep an eye on the account this week cause I need to get some more durable shoes, as you will see in my pictures my last ones are thrashed). The other sisters have voted me captain of the crazy hair club -__-  There was once a time in my life when strangers would come up to me just to compliment me on my hair... and now it has come to this. Oh well! There are far more important things than having non-homeless-person-looking hair! The STL's stayed with us because they have a training in the morning in the city and they came out and worked with us, making it so we could split up and get more work done. I went out with Sister Mciver from New Zealand, she is hilarious and has a really fun teaching style. She also takes the time and silence to try and concern and address the needs of the investigator, something I need to do better haha. As you all know, I have a hard time not talking 100 words a minute for hours in a row, so it was good for me to have a reminder that I don't have to talk everyone's head off ;) One of the women we left a prayer with forgot my name while she was praying so she just called me "Sister Gwapa" hahaha. Sister Becerra and I bought baby food at the store. And it was delicious. Got us lots of weird looks though hahah.

TUESDAY: I didn't end up writing in my journal on tuesday because Sister Becerra was trimming up my hair to fix some of the uneven parts so I had no time to write. But on the bright side my hair looks a tiny bit nicer! Yay.

WEDNESDAY: Zone training! Learned so much, took down like 3 pages of notes and have a lot of stuff to apply to the work! Sister Becerra and I did a lot of prayer meetings today, still one of my favorite finding activities! We ended the night at Derek's having planned to review the restoration with him but ended up only covering prophets because it was such a great discussion. He honestly is so awesome, he is EXACTLY what every recent convert should be. He has such a desire to learn all he can about the gospel and feels such an urgency to share it with everyone! AND he's doing a TON of family history to take to the temple. That's one thing that would be so rewarding as a recent convert that we don't experience so much as life--long members of the church, being able to find so many ancestors and take their names to the temple! But there are still those people out there and I can't wait to get home and do better about being involved in family history work :) They invited one of their friends to take the discussions with us, erlinda, and she is adorable and it was the coolest thing to hear Derek bearing testimony to her of what we taught. The only way to do this work is through the members. They add SO MUCH. Just think back to the converts in our ward? Britt, Cody, and Tessa all had great fellowshippers and support from the ward.

THURSDAY: Sister Becerra had her follow-up training with her whole batch, so I got to see Sister Peacock and some of my other friends! The training was really great as well, President cares about us so much and really wants to push us to be our best! We came home after the training and went out with an RM in our ward, she is so sweet and was so great with the investigators! Offering for them to come hang out at her house, inviting them to relief society activities, things we aren't in a position to do as missionaries! And as always, many strange-only-in-the-philippines things happened. A boy ran by holding a dead cat by the tail. Very rowdy children in lessons, one who slapped my stomach during the prayer and another who whipped Sister Becerra while she was teaching the after-life. More cock-fights. More getting called "Gwapa, Cana, Tita (aunt), beeyewtiful," etc.

FRIDAY: I must've been super tired because all I wrote was "this church is true, i love being a missionary" in very sloppy handwriting hahaha.

SATURDAY: Went down the mission office to get fingerprinted, soooo many missionaries there! I got to see everyone from my whole batch!! Sister Roos and I got to talk a lot and we all took pictures together. So much fun to see them all!! We all look so much worse and so much better at the same time haha :) My favorite miracle of the week happened today. A few days ago when we were teaching an investigator her friend joined in and listened from the side, so we got her information and invited the two of them to a baptism the next day. They both showed up  (which was amazing in itself because the first investigator hasn't ever come to church before, so that was great progress) and they both had a really great experience. After the baptism, we went back to their houses to teach them and follow-up on their thoughts of the baptism. We hardly sit down to teach and the new investigator, Mitchet, asks us to be baptized. She goes on to tell us that when we taught her the first time she went home to talk to her husband about it and he told her that he is actually a member that was baptized back in Cebu and encouraged her to take the discussions and go to church, saying that he wanted their family in the church. So she was the one who brought our other investigator to the baptism and knew before she even went that she wanted to be baptized. We were on cloud nine, could barely believe what she was telling us! When we went home we were super stoked but also worried that she might be all talk, knowing that church the next day would be the true test. She not only came to church, she came an hour early, bringing her two children. I thought I was gonna die when I walked up and saw her sitting outside the church, all set and excited. She literally just dropped into our laps. Such a testimony that Heavenly Father is totally preparing people for our message. Can't wait to continue to see her progress!!

SUNDAY: Basically Mitchet coming to church was the highlight of the day. But that night we went to a member's house for dinner and to follow-up about a referral. They are a really fun family and wanted to hear all about our first impression of things here in the philippines and we could be open with them saying things like "Yeah, I look at my friends in other missions and they're going to baseball games and I'm just here stepping in poop." hahahaha. But this is THE BEST mission ever. I know that every missionary is biased to their missions but... this one is the best ;) The pianist didn't show up at church so they asked me to play... haha I haven't sat down to a piano in more than six months. So that was interesting hahaha, hope everyone liked top-hand only! It reminded me of cam in his mission playing that awesome duet with trevor, if only I had your skills cam! But! One of the members here has a VIOLIN. It's a 3/4 but I'd take anything at this point!!! I miss playing soooo muchhhh. So we're trying to make a plan to go to their house and teach... and so I can play her violin hahahah :) On the way home from the member's house Sister Becerra tried to tell the trike driver "to the left" which is "wala", but "wala" also means "nothing" depending on how you pronounce it, so she ended up yelling over the traffic "NOTHING BROTHER" hahahahahahah I could not stop laughing and he was sooo confused hahahahahaha. Oh Hiligaynon.

Well!! I love you all so so so so much!!! You're amazing, keep doing amazing things and being even more amazing. Nate, you're my hero. Hannah, you're my hero. Sera, you are way too beautiful. Stop it. Also, so proud that you wore my dress! *teary eyes*. Clayton, can't wait to get a picture of your halloween costume! Cam, I love ya! WRITE ME. That goes for you as well Alyne! Dad, I can never say enough about you. Future husband! Be taking notes! You've got a high standard to hit! Mom, If I could become half the woman that you are I would be happy forever :) Can't wait for next week to be on the same page for conference!!! Yeeee!! Also, when you send that study journal, could you please include some more zip fizz?? I'm down to my last bottle because i've been rationing it out haha and I would love love love some more! Also, if it isn't too much trouble I would LOVE some printed out pictures!! Of you guys, old ones of us, whatever!! I'll be happy with any :) Love you all so so so so so so sooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!  Talk to you next week!! :)

Love, Sister Manwaring <3