Pig of a man beware!

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for your letters! I love hearing how things are going at home with you all, and to hear that you're all doing so great! Goodness, I can't believe its FALL there. Actually leaves changing and everything! Its just one continuous summer here so its so strange to see the changing seasons, even if its just by pictures!

Okay, I'm going off my journal this week so we'll do a day-by-day update.

Monday: I was SO tired this morning (I'm always pretty dead come the end of the week haha) and my thoughts started escalating towards the next 11 months and I started to get REALLY tired. Then I drank a ton of zip fizz and felt much better :) I also read in the Liahona about when President Hinckley was called as prophet he went to the temple and cried because he felt so overwhelmed and then the verse came to mind "Be still and know that I am God" and he gained the strength to go forward, trusting the Lord to sustain him. And I'm only a missionary, not a prophet. He served for over 50 years. 11 months is nuthin' ;)
     At Robinsons we met up with Sister Ludwig (Sister Becerras friend from home) and her companion Sister Camino for lunch. It's fun to be able to meet up with them and it makes me SO excited for when Jessica (Sister Judd) gets here!! Be so excited Jess, you're coming to the best mission in the world, super typhoons and all ;)
     When we came home Sister Becerra and I climbed on our roof to watch the sunset. The sunsets here are one of the prettiest things I've ever seen. Strangely, Rexburg has pretty comparable sunsets? Haha so weird. But we just watched the sun go down, ate some papaya, then went out to work :)

Tuesday: Today was our mission presidents training (meaning there was probs a ton of "really attractive" pictures posted on his facebook. Please disregard them all. Also, he said that he puts boxes over pictures to cover things like hand gestures and immodesty? Have you seen that? hahahaha I was laughing so hard to imagine some poor elder with his hand boxed out for doing a hangloose or something). I spent the first half of the meeting stressing my brains out about weekly baptisms (as you've noticed, its been really tough the last three months to achieve that for me, more on that later) and feeling like a terrible missionary. Then I realized I needed to chill out, humble myself, and not take everything he was counseling us on as a personal attack haha (Sound like familiar advice mom? You always knew best ;) ). I honestly just went out for the break, so discouraged, then the scene from Devil Wears Prada popped into my head where Andy goes to complain and is like "I am doing everything I can! She just hates me! I can't do this D:" and Nigel goes "Oh poor you, poor Andy. A million girls would kill for this job and you're upset because she doesn't pat you on the head and give you a gold star on your homework. Wake up, six." and I laughed at myself and stopped my little pity-party and resolved to recognize I can ALWAYS do more and do better :) Gani ;)
     Then, that was really put to the test as we had a co-habitation interview scheduled after the training for our baptism that saturday... and she didn't show up. We waited. And waited. And waited. And we even told her that it was 30 minutes earlier than it was so she wouldn't be late. And she never showed up. So after this meeting all about our mission vision we had to go tell President that she wasn't there. He was very kind and offered to reschedule. We went straight to her house to find out what was going on and there she is, just sitting outside the chungey. She said she didn't feel well and thats why she didn't go (obviously not really true). We spoke with her to figure out what her real reason was and she didn't volunteer anything but agreed to attend her interview the next day....

Wednesday: ... And then she didn't show up. Again. We went to her house at 1 and said "Hey! Your interview is today! We'll come back at 3 to go with you so don't go anywhere, okay?" She agrees and we head out to our other investigators. We come back at 3, house is all chained up. My heart SANK. We texted her, no answer. Called, no answer. We finally have to text President AGAIN and tell him that she won't be coming. Later that day we stop by again and there she is, sitting outside the chungey. Her excuse was that she didn't feel well again and went to the doctor. (once again, obviously not the real reason). So we asked her if she really wanted to be baptized this saturday and she didn't answer... my stomach tightening. Finally she says "next time na lang, sisters". And we had to walk away, no baptism. I was SO discouraged. We had been working SO hard with her, she was ready! She reads the BOM, she prays, she knows its true! She even has been practicing what she'll say in her testimony after her baptism! We couldn't figure it out. As we walked away I had the verse come to mind "Be still and know that I am God." and I decided to not let this affect my diligence or trust in her or our mission's vision, but to continue doing the best I knew to do and let the Lord work the rest out.

Thursday: Woke up at 6:15 to our fans turning off. Sister Becerra and I jump awake and just groaaannnn and start to sweat haha. We had sisters staying with us for their turn at the training today, so we awkwardly did our workout while they got ready, prayed with them, and started our very hot study session. I was so hot I could hardly concentrate, I just fanned myself with a plan of salvation pamphlet and tried to imagine being in a very cold tank of water. When we came back after our appointments that night, what we thought was a power out turned out to be false, seeing as how all our neighbors had power and only our house was dark. We figured the electric company mustve turned off our power since we couldn't pay our bill when the typhoon hit. So we planned by candle light and went to bed in a very sauna-like bedroom.

Friday: Went out to the electric place to pay our bill and get them to turn the power back on. They send out a crew after lunch to see what the problem is... and flip our main power switch from off to on -__- Turns out the sisters staying with us accidentally flipped it off while trying to turn on the water pressure. So we suffered through self-inflicted heat for 2 days. The joys of a mission haha ;)
     We met with our investigator, Erlinda, and she told us that she spoke with her boss and will be able to have Sundays off starting in December!! And she wants to be baptized as soon as she can!! Oh man, Sister Becerra and I were so happy! We've been praying for her boss's heart to be softened so she could come to church for weeks. Everything happens in the Lord's time :) We also taught our investigator, Mario a 16 year old boy, the Law of Chastity.  And it actually went great! He was super in agreement and accepting. And I made Sister Becerra teach all the awkward parts haha.

Saturday: We went to Mitchits to try and figure out what has been going on and why she all of a sudden lost her desire to be baptized. Turns out that she got talking with the members and they have seen lots of investigators be baptized and then fall out of activity so they all told her that she needed to be really sure and baptism isn't a joke and she can't just decide one day that she doesn't want to do it anymore. So she got freaked out and discouraged and didn't want to be baptized. First I was just so annoyed with the members! But then I knew they just meant well and didn't want any more less actives. So we started to talk with her and reassure her when she all of a sudden gets huge eyes and says "wait, I'll be right back." and leaves. We wait and she comes back a minute later and says "the owner of my house is here and he's in a bad mood, we need to be quiet." So we hesitantly continue and start to hear shouting from the next room over. She gets up again and rushes out and we sit there not quite sure what to do. She comes back a few minutes later and asks if we could please just come back later. Worried that we were upsetting her boss we got up to leave and as we walk out we see her 9 year old son, Nicco, sitting against the house outside silently crying. I asked Mitchit what happened while Sister Beccera crouches down to give him a lolipop from her bag. Mitchit tells me that the owner got upset that Nicco and his friends were playing in the house and hit him. HIT HIM. We walk out and I see this pig of a man sitting in a chair with his shirt off drinking a beer. I wanted SO BAD to pick up a rock and throw it as hard as I could at his ugly face. And his nasty wife goes over and starts yelling at little Nicco to stop crying. OH. I was MAD. I cursed him straight to... a place I shouldn't say. I looked at Mitchit and tried to let her know that it was gonna be okay without saying anything, knowing that would only make it worse, and promised to come back to check on them the next morning. OH MY GOSH. Sister Becerra and I just had to walk away and I wanted sooooo bad to do so many terrible things to that guy. UGH. We decided that after our missions we would come back and bring our strong and capable husbands who would go up to him, go all james bond on him to within an inch of his life, then tell him that if he ever touches Nicco or any of them again he'll wish he had never been born.
     Probably not the way I should react as a missionary, but oh my gosh. So much disgust for that man.

Annddddd now I'm out of time to tell about Sunday. But it was a great day too. Even though this week was a little frustrating, I know that as I keep doing my best I can be confident that Heavenly Father is proud of me and my work. I love you all!! I hope you all have a great week, I wish I had more time to write each one of you, maybe sometime in my mission I'll figure out how to actually use this hour wisely haha :)

LOVE YOUUUUU

Sister Manwaring

She's ok!

Hey everyone!! 

     

     So I already sent my disclaimer to tell you all that I am 100% A-OK. I debated whether or not to fib and say how crazy it was and how I almost died, but really the worst part for Sister Becerra and I was that we didn't have power to use our fans for a day. And our chicken in the fridge went bad from no power too. I was all psyched and excited to experience a super typhoon (I haven't been scared of a single thing since being set apart. Honest, it's sooo uncharacteristic of me haha) and the thing that worried me most was knowing how much you would all be worrying at home, most of my prayers went out to comfort you guys :) In our area we had some wind and rain on Thursday, and a little bit stronger wind and rain on Friday, then completely cleared on Saturday. Turns out that as the storm was heading towards Bacolod it split in two and went right around the city. I know of other areas in our mission that had some damage and cell phone towers went down in a few areas so we weren't able to contact some missionaries for a while, but we're all totally fine here. I heard from other missionaries that areas like Tacloban were reallllyyyy badly affected. I have quite a few friends in those missions so I'm apprehensive to know how they are... everything there was basically flattened and they have no contact to know if everyone is ok. Apparently Bacolod was the only island that was missed? Geez. Thank you all so much for your prayers and concern! Keep praying for those others and their families! 

     I wish I had more excited stories to tell you from our "super typhoon" but honestly all Sister Becerra and I did was clean, sing, read, watch the district, and draw faces on our chins and make videos. On Saturday we had a mission-wide CSP to help with cleanup and such, so we got Mormon Helping Hands shirts from our ward, put on our work clothes, and went out to do some good! Yeah, everyone was finished before we even woke up. There was NOTHING to do. We just walked around and looked for something, anything, to do and everyone just laughed at us in our bright yellow vests and asked if we were out jogging  -__-    So we just taught everyone like normal and swept up some leaves in front of one old woman's house. 

     

    On Wednesday we had our Zone Meeting and Sister Becerra and I were asked to do a musical number, so we borrowed the violin from the members again and made a musical number of Silent Night. Sister Becerra sang the first verse while I played harmony (She has a CRAZY good voice. I make her sing to me alllll the time), the second I played violin, then the third we sang acapella harmony and melody. Yes everyone, I sang in public! First time. I could just imagine Sera saying "Meg, just sit down. Do the violin part then just sit, kay?" hahahaha. But thank goodness everyone was just looking to feel the spirit, and I don't think my voice chased that away too badly! ;) (We recorded a video and I'll try and send it). It was really fun though, it reminded me of when Cam and Trevor did that crazy sagad piano duet in their mission. We don't compare to that at all but it was still fun! 

     I finally got to open the last package you sent! I DIED when I saw all the Zip Fizz!!!!! I did a little happy dance. And the study journal is perfect! There is a place here that does really cool covers for books and things and its super cheap, like 6 bucks, and I was trying to find something I could cover and I'm gonna do that!! I'll send a picture once its done. And Clay, you are THE BEST. I love all your little notes!!! I have them all around and look at them every day and they make me so happy :) *point* You're the best, bud!!

     We were teaching our recent convert, Derek, and while we were talking about repentance with him I had this analogy come to mind (you know me and analogies haha) and repentance without the complete process of the restored gospel is like trying to cut a lawn with nail clippers. It doesn't matter how bad you want to cut the lawn, all you have is nail clippers, and by the time you are finished with one patch the last has already grown back. But with the perfect process of repentance from the restored gospel it's like cutting a lawn with a riding mower. It's still work of course, but it's effective gid. And instead of constantly being behind and being overgrown with grass and weeds, with a riding mower you just need to stay on top of your work and you can keep your lawn nice and clean :) Kind of silly, but I liked it! 

     I read Quincy's email from last week (thanks for sending that mom! If they have some sort of forwarding list put me on there cause I want to keep getting her emails!) And I loved what she said about noticing the little miracles! I definitely did what she did when I first got into the field, I kept waiting to walk past some house and recognize it from somewhere and get a burning impression to go to the door and when I did there would be a man that would answer and say that he had been praying for guidance and then I knocked on the door and he wants to be baptized and we all live happily ever after. And while those things are not impossible, or unheard of, it's the daily "mini-miracles" that I've learned to love. For instance, we were teaching our investigator, Josie, the Word of Wisdom and she tells us that she randomly decided to stop drinking coffee three weeks ago. Which means that she's been living the Word of Wisdom completely for three weeks and we won't have to push back her baptism date. It seems small, but when you start to notice the little miracles they pop up everywhere! I also scored and found an old liahona from when President Hinkley died and all the bretheren wrote special talks about him, and looking for the little miracles is exactly how he lived his life :) Shout out to Sistah Ellswaath for being on the same page as me ;)

     Well, thats all the time I have for this week! Thanks again for everyone's love and concern, please keep sending your prayers to the missionaries that were badly affected by the typhoon! I hope you all have the best week!! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!

-Sister Manwaring :) 

 My district!

 Our room, and yes those are fans so that we don't burn up at night hahah

 I found granola!

 Gorgeous sunset here! btw there are even prettier ones as well

yes thats a red banana hahah

Visiting authorities and graveyard holidays.

OH MY GOODNESS I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO WRITE. Okay, I'm gonna try and do this all in a good amount of time so if this email is kinda sloppy #sorrynotsorry

Glad to see you got the email from Elder Clayton! Basically we're just best buds ;D Hahaha no but we are related. His great-great grandfather is William Clayton, he's just from a different wife. Polygamy. Hahaha. So as you heard last Sunday was a stake meeting with him and our ward was asked to sing the prelude music for the meeting and they asked me to play the violin with one of the songs. A member in our ward has a violin and its small but it's a violin so yay! So we played and it was good and then we all sit down to wait for Elder Clayton, who ended up arriving early and asked if we would sing again for him... and I had to play again but this time less than two feet from Elder Clayton sitting on the front row. I had to be careful not to poke him with my bow haha. But it was great and he was super super nice about it! He also knows Sister Becerra's parents from their mission in Arcadia and he called her up in front of the whole stake to share her testimony hahaha it was great. Then he wanted to take a picture with her after to send to her parents and had me come in too so he could send it to you too, so thoughtful! He gave a really great meeting, he's awesome. 

We're just on a high from Salt Lake authority this week, Elder Neil L. Andersen came and spoke to our entire mission on Saturday!! It was great, he had us all come and shake his hand, ah, so cool!! He also gave a really, really great conference. I'm so excited to get to work and apply all the stuff he taught us! 

While I still had the violin from the conference I used it to get into a few houses haha "You sneaky mom!" haha we just went up to houses and were like "Hi! We're missionaries! Can we come in and play a song for you?" And they were like "Yes! American! Puti! Come in!" haha so I said "I'll play one fast song and one slow song" and played Orange Blossom special (they ate it right up cause it's fast and plucking hahaha) and then come thou fount. Then we taught the first discussion and made appointments to come back. So much fun!!! I wish I could just walk around and do that all day. 

Friday was a holiday called "All Souls Day". It's a day where everyone goes to the cemetery to remember their dead and noooo onnneee is home. So we did a thing called "graveyard proselyting" and basically just went around to the cemeteries and taught the plan of salvation. It was an... interesting day haha. The cemeteries here are different and they don't bury their dead, they put them in a cement box and then stack all the boxes. So it's like walking around a costco of dead people all stacked like shelves of coffins. And a lot of them are really old and have either rotted away or been broken into so there are random skeleton parts on the ground. We legit saw a skull. Just a whole skull. Sitting there on the ground (picture to follow). Also, you know how cemeteries are usually quiet and respectful? As in, you don't even step on the graves right? Well not so here, you just climb all around them, no one cares. And you can't avoid it if you want to get around. Sister Becerra and I were like "sorry.... sorry... ah sorry.." walking around on the graves haha. Also its not a sad day, but everyone is just partying and eating and there and selling stuff. It's like a carnival. So we would go and try to find people kind of off on their own and get a chance to talk with them, ask them about who they were visiting and then share a small portion of the plan of salvation and get their information. The strange things you do when serving in the Philippines haha. 

I was trying to think of where I would want to go when I get home and I'm thinking either Denmark or somewhere in Europe?? But its so hard for me to think hahahaha I was trying to think of somewhere with Sister Becerra and I was like "I need a map, I forgot all the places of the world!" haha. #missionbrain but I wanna know where you guys want to go too!! But that's what I'm thinking right now, let me know what your input is! Also I got your package!! Well, I don't have it yet, but its here! The couples haven't had a chance to bring it by. But thanks in advance for everything in it!! And as for Christmas of course I will LOVE whatever is in there but if you can fit it in I would love some more zip fizz (I'm addicted to it here!!) Or anything to put in water to make it taste better, I'm not picky. A silk nightgown would be a dreammmmmm. Vitamins, I'm losing hair like crazy. I'm taking some biotin I got here but its not kicking in yet... so I'll most likely come home bald and fat but full of gospel fire ;D I don't know if there are printed pictures in this package that's here but I would like even more, Sera will know what kind I would want haha. More of those half undershirt things. More garments. (I can send my sizes again if you don't have them anymore). That's all I got for now. I'll keep thinking. But yeah, thanks a bazillion for your awesome package sending!!!!! You guys are seriously THE BEST. LOVE YOU INFINITY. 

Ah, it's just so much fun to hear how everything is going back at home! Thanks Dad for the picture of the house!!! It was fun to show Sister Becerra. It's so weird to think that the seasons are changing back home and that people are like, wearing sweaters. And boots. It's just one continuous, blistering summer here. But I love it! :) I'm glad to hear that you're all doing great and it was great to hear from you all!!! Cam and Alyne included ;) Thanks guyz!!! I basically have the most amazing family in the world. Andddd thanks for promising to love me fat or not when I get home because the ward literally told us yesterday that it's their goal to make every missionary that serves in this area gain weight. They see it as a good thing...? But please resist from posting pictures on your facebooks (Dad, that mostly means you haha) just please, I can't ruin all chances of marriage after I get home hahahaha ;) Mom, you better be ready to be getting me back in shape! I'm talking running 400 miles a day. Running until we die. But for now I'm soooooo beyond happy to be here!! As always, I LOVE my companion, I LOVE my area, I LOVE this mission, and I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I can't wait to hear from you all again next week and I hope you have the bestest week of all weeks. 

All my love, Sister Manwaring <3           thee cutest little girls hahaha<3

                                                            this is how the grave yards are here! so weird