Golden week!

I GOT MY PACKAGE. Literally, I have the best family ever. The perfume is exactly the same that Lana wore all through school and me and Sera would always steal a spray when we were at her house (sorry Lana!) so I LOVE it and it brings so many happy memories. Those pictures- PERFECT. Hahaha good old trek days, my beautiful family, my celebrity couple brother and sister-in-law. Those pictures of Christ and stickers are invaluable here.. I have to keep the stickers secret and use them only for very deserving children or else they would be gone in a second! The Hawaii calendars! Ah! I put them both up. First time I've kept up any kind of calendar on my mission. Hymn book!!! YES. I don't know why I didn't think to get one way back before I left?? So nice to have one. The letters from the ward... I DIED laughing. GRANDPA'S JOURNAL- more on that later. I'm addicted to it. YOU ARE ALL THE BEST AND I LOVE YOU SOOOOOSOSOSOSO MUCH. 

We had our mission president's training this week, as you saw from his facebook pictures. (ps. If you're going to comment on those pictures, know that I don't ever see them. We don't have access to president's facebook, he made a joke about some comments apparently where people write as if they are talking to me and I can see. He wants us to remind you that we can't haha.) The training was really great. Sister Judd was there so I was in heaven. Honestly, its SURREAL having her here. Hahahahaha she told me that a bunch of youth in her ward found her facebook and saw the picture of her with Jef Holm and now they're convinced that that is her boyfriend hahaha even when she tried to explain to them that he is a celebrity they were like "Oh my gosh you're dating a celebrity!" hahaha. Shes been having these dreams of the two of us in post-mission life doing things like making lunch for our kids and calling each other just so that we can speak Hiligaynon to each other. Its so weird to think that we are going to be those people, my kids are going to grow up with mom calling her mission friends and speaking some weird language. 

     Sister Becerra was also there, dang I love her. Heavenly Father sent THE BEST people to my mission. 

I'm on a cooking experimentation kick this week. I've been making veggie wraps with boiled cabbage, carrots, cucumber, egg and tuna. I also got tired of eating plain apples, so I took some sliced almonds that I found in the back corner of the market, diced the apples and fried them in a pan with the almonds and some honey, cinnamon, and vanilla. So good. The members have also been super awesome, giving me jackfruit, star apples, and these bright pink salted eggs. YUM. 

Culture shock moment of the week: We're teaching in a Less Active's house and they have this new litter of about 3437243 puppies and one of the puppies peed all over the floor... then all the little puppies went walking through it tracking it everywhere... then one of the little barefoot kids slipped in the pee... and just kept on playing... then one of the puppies pooped.. and all the little kids and puppies were almost stepping in it.. until the mom dog went and ate it. Ate the poop. Just a little distracting for me at this point haha. And its not even like clean dog poop and pee from water and fancy dog food, its from rubbish that they've found on the side of the road. Gross. 

I finished the book of mormon again. That book just gets more and more true every time I read it. The gospel is like a relationship, if you work at it and keep studying, keep putting yourself into it, it will get better and better with time. There won't come a day when you are bored with reading the book of mormon, bored with living the gospel. As long as you make the effort to not just "have gospel study" but to study the gospel, you will find it building upon itself and growing over time. I love the gospel more today than I did when I was 8 years old and I'll love it even more than today when I am 88 years old. 

Sera, a jeepney parked outside is playing Total Eclipse of The Heart. KILL ME. 

As I mentioned before, I am addicted to Grandpa's autobiography. I HAVE THE COOLEST GRANDPA EVER. In the chronological section he mentioned the popular tv shows, many of which are my favorites, Donny and Marie, The Red Skelton Show, All In The Family, The Bob Hart Show, etc. The section about his mission, both his personal mission and his and grammas couples missions, inspires me to do my absolute best every day of mine. Reading about his family and friends and realizing that I've been able to meet many of them, so cool. Like "Uncle Chuck", I was too young to know if its the same uncle chuck that is his brother, but if it is and hes the one who lives in Logan and was a patriarch, I remember a visit to his house wherein he gave me a buffalo coin. (I hope its the same person or thats embarrassing haha). I found out that at one point he was roommates in England during the war with Alven Gittens, the man who would end up drawing the picture of the prophet Joseph Smith that is in every copy of the Book of Mormon and I use every day when teaching about that book. His experiences in WW II are humbling and aweing. I can't believe that this man is my grampa and that I spent all that time with him having no idea of any of his life. 

Gernalyn Ledesma was baptized this week!! A little girl from a less active family who is super pure and precious. The ward made a good attendance which was really important because her mom had work, her dad isn't a member, and she was only accompanied by her 2 sisters for the most special day up to this point in her life. Sister Oquias and I stood at the side of the font to go back into the CR with her to change, I love witnessing baptisms, such a special spirit is present. We went back to change her, poor thing didn't even bring a towel. That one missing element shot me back to my own baptism as I remembered mom drying me off as I came out of the font- the look on her face was absolute joy and I still feel the spirit strongly when I think of it and remember as she explained to me how special my baptism was. We tried to make it a very special day as well for Gernalyn but mostly I was just utterly grateful for my own loving family and baptism experience. 

Jade. Jade is a 15 year old boy who we found through friends of an investigator. He has been coming to church for the past 3 weeks and we hadn't yet had a chance to teach him, because of his busy work schedule, until yesterday. Wow. We taught him in a members home, he had been taught the restoration a few months back so we reviewed with him. He was extremely receptive, taking in everything with a great memory of what he'd been taught before. We had planned to extend baptism to him finally and needed to know if he had any word of wisdom problems so that we knew what date we could extend. We transitioned to W.O.W. only to find out that he has absolutely no problems. Like none. He is a 15 year old filipino boy who is working in construction.. and he has no problems. Not only that, but he was adamant that he didn't, sharing about the harmful effects of those things, beating us to it. So we extend baptism and he is already saying yes before we can finish the question, as if he's just been waiting the whole lesson for us to ask (which we later found out he was). We asked if he thought he could get permission from his parents. HE HAD ALREADY ASKED. AS IN. So basically, we just have to get him everything taught and he can be baptized. It was incredible, I couldn't hide my shock. Sister Oquias and I were just awed the whole night. GOLDEN. 

Heavenly Father seriously is just pouring out the blessings in this area. It is such an enjoyable time to see the progression of so many people. I've been striving for our mission goal of weekly baptisms ever since I reported to the field and I will see it these next few weeks. So humbling. I'm so grateful. ALL THE HAPPINESS AND GOODNESS. 

I love you all more than I can ever express!!!!!! I love love love love getting your letters and emails and I feel your prayers!!!!!! I love my life. Have the best week ever :) 

All my love, Sister Manwaring 

blissful as ever!

Family!!!!!!!! Geez I love you guys.

Amazing week, as always. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY ITS RIDICULOUS. Okay, we are in a horribly loud computer shop right now, all the students are here playing their games of the devil (I have increased my hatred for computer games in a way I never thought possible) so sorry if my email is scattered! I tried to write down some notes from my journal, so we'll see how that goes! (ps sorry if I repeat anything from last week, I have dory brain every time I email, I swear!)

Edralin. She is one of my favorite investigators ever. Sister Oquias and Sister smoot found her mom the week before I got here and we've been teaching her, her mom, and her two little sisters. Edralin is 11 years old and SO SMART. We taught about the restoration and when we reviewed at the end of the lesson she remembered EVERYTHING. That is not common here. We taught about the Book of Mormon the next time and when we came back she had read like 6 chapters and had put all these little papers to mark the different books, like alma, etc. We taught plan of salvation and asked if she knew what Christ did while he was on earth and she told us about "Talita kumi" (Sorry about spelling, ilonggo brain) like, what 11 year old knows about that?? And she understood super quickly about Adam and Eve being good not evil, so many times we teach about the fall and read the scriptures and explain clearly and then ask "So was this a good thing or bad?" and they mostly answer "Bad! They sinned! They ate the apple!" -__- But she was like "It was good! They needed to have kids and we needed to know right from wrong so we could do good and get back to Jesus!" Man. She is GOLDEN. She is going to be baptized a week from this Saturday and we are still working on her mom. A lot of parents here are totally cool with their kids being baptized but aren't really interested for themselves. Its something we're working on! Plan of salvation usually gets them, cause gani, no one wants to go to the Celestial Kingdom alone! 

Yep. Sister Judd is in my district. WHAT THE WEIRDNESS. It is soooooo weird to go from college with her to being in the Philippines reporting the status of our investigators. Oh, while speaking hiligaynon. Its just so weird to have someone here who knows you from home!!! Like, to go from group dates at the sand dunes to riding jeepneys together to district meeting. CRAZY. And okay, God has just been putting this plan together for forever way back since fall 2012. AH. SO BLESSED. 

I went on exchanges this week with our Sister Training Leader, Sister Ulusasa. It was such a funny exchange because the two of us have already exchanged before, back when I was in my first transfer in Sum-ag! When there was less sisters in the mission the STLs weren't companions, so her trainer was an STL and went on an exchange with my trainer and we were both put together while our comps were together, me 3 weeks in and her 9 weeks in. So then, after doing an exchange this week when she is actually an STL and I'm not only 3 weeks was SO funny. We just reminisced on that first exchange, neither of us could speak or understand the language, we had no idea how to teach or do anything. It was just such a testimony of our progression!! 

Valentines. That was weird. Everyone actually was gone on dates? Hahahah I don't know what they were doing, walking around the sugar cane fields? Going on long drives in the jeeps? Hahaha ambot lang. Anyways, the ward had a couples dance so we spent most of the day visiting less actives and inviting them... there was actually a ton who went! And then they all came to church on sunday, like 5 less active families! I guess all you need is love ;) #badjoke

Our Bishop here is SO awesome. He was less active for like 20 years then came back and is now the Bishop. He is SUPER humble and diligent. Sometimes its hard to work with leaders who are set in their own ways and their own ideas for the work, but our Bishop is super open to suggestions and just wants to do a really good job. We went by his house and shared a message from Preach my Gospel (this is something we're doing to help the leaders be more familiar with PMG, we study it every day as missionaries of course and it helps them so much to know what we're trying to achieve and apply from it!) and they also have a VIOLIN. SO I GOT TO PLAY. YES. It was wonderful. 

Our investigators are so kind, they always give us food, and this week it was a ton of fruit! I ate a bunch of fresh coconut (thought of you every time mom) and tried something new, star fruit! SO GOOD. As in namit gid kaayo. Hahahaa except its also really sticky? Its has like tasty glue in it haha. So I mistakenly ate it while we were out working and then couldn't get it off, I had to rub hand sanitizer all over my face. Yuck. 

There is a woman the in the ward here who looks exactly like the lady on SNL who does the skit for "Surprise party" and the doll hands one. Complete with bowl cut. They are seriously twins. I'll try and sneak a picture this week. 

One of the little kids here did a "make-over" on me while we were teaching. Sidenote- kids here are always all over me. Playing with my hair, touching my arms and face, etc. So this kids mom was finally paying attention to our message and I didn't want to distract her at all by moving her kid so I just let her keep doing her thing, I got out of the lesson with like 45 bobby pins in my hair and drool and snot. It was lovely. 

Well, Thats all I have time for this week! I love you all sooooooooooooo much I can't even take it. Sobra gid. Pinaka daku. I LOVE getting all your emails, friends and family, and I hope your week is absolutely fantastic! 

All my love, Sister Manwaring xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

PS Gramma Jenkins, I got your letter! Yes, I could read it. You are the best! And the kids LOVE the stickers! I made sure to tell them where they came from :) Love you!!! :)

Sister Judd and I!

Ready for a night out on the town hahahah

They are the cutest!

My hairs getting longer :)

Gemalyn!

With the elders

Again haha

NEW AREA!!!!!

Kamusta kamo???

The Area: So my new area is.... drumroll... BATA! Its literally the next area over from 6th ward, I'm just in the back yard of my last area! And my new companion is Sister Oquias from Manila, she is a doll!! So you remember my short term companion, Sister Lisaca? Bata is the are she was in with Sister Smoot (from my batch) so I'd already heard a ton about this area! Its such a great area. The chapel is super new and super nice and super close to all our investigators! Its just super! ;) I'm also in SISTER JUDDS DISTRICT. AHHHH. So I see her every week at district meeting and also at Robinsons on monday, I'm still in the Robinsons area! YES. Also, Sister Becerra is in my zone!! So I see her p days too and at zone meetings!!! WIN. I already love this are and all the people!! We have a few baptisms lined up for the coming weeks and we're working hard to find and prepare more! Our apartment is this cute and way tiny little doll house apartment. But its great because its new so not very dirty and its not hard to keep it clean! 

My companion: Sister Oquias is batch with Sister Char, meaning they got in the field the same time. Shes about 4 months in the mission. She is really good in english and still working on her hiligaynon because she comes from a Tagalog speaking place so its a hard transition. When I first got in the field I thought all the native missionaries were so lucky because they could speak the language so quickly, hahah turns out they were mostly just speaking Tagalog and I was so new I couldn't tell the difference. I can tell now haha and I always have to remind her to speak hiligaynon :) Most people understand Tagalog really well so its easy for her to just speak that! Its also so funny when I don't understand a hiligaynon word and I ask them what it means and they don't know in english so Sister Oquias asks what it is in Tagalog and then she translates from Tagalog to English for me haha. So Hiligaynon to Tagalog to English so that I can learn it in Hiligaynon haha. We get along really well, she is really funny and really quick to learn! No problem teaching in unity, I show her how I teach something one time and she can apply it perfectly in the next lesson! Such a great quality! Shes really obedient too, I'm so grateful that I haven't had a disobedient companion! Although by now I'm really good at calling people to repentance ;)

The people: The people here are awwwwwesome. I love them. The members are super kind to the missionaries and so involved in the work. We have someone working with us basically every day! Our Bishop and WML are really involved too, such a blessing. I hope you all weren't lying when you said you would still love me fat or not, because the mission caterer lives in our ward. He actually lives 3 houses away from us. We have a recent convert and investigator in his house so we go there twice or so a week. Meaning dinner appointment. And I guess he will even bring by lunch sometimes and send us home with food after church. AND OH MY THE FOOD IS SO GOOD. And because hes a chef you have to try everything and lots of it and then praise him out the wazoo. Which is not hard to do because the food is ridiculously good. He interrogated me about all my favorite foods, I tried to mention things like salad and vegetables but I don't know how much good it'll do. As long as I can still waddle around to preach the gospel, right? ;)

We have this adorable little recent convert boy, Richmont. His dad is a less active and his mom isn't a member (we're working on that) and he is the most respectful and mature little kid ever. Whenever we ask him stuff he always replies "oo sis" (oo= yes) and whenever he sees us he comes and so formally shakes our hands and says "halong sis" (halong=take care). Oh man. Die. We did a practice for him to help his dad to keep the word of wisdom, we pretended that we were his dad smoking and he practiced how he would remind him that cigarettes are bad for you. That kid is going to be the best missionary ever, I tell you. 

We have an investigator, Remberto, his father-in-law is this 90 year old active member. Remberto has 1 1/2 arms so thats fun. We followed up on his word of wisdom and he said he is having a hard time switching from coffee and then described in detail his experience with switching to milk. Lets just say he is definitely lactose intolerant. He called it "the tiger in his tummy" complete with sound effects. We asked why he wasn't at church on Sunday and he said "Sisters, I could not come (sidenote he insists on speaking English only, even though I could understand him much better if he just spoke hiligaynon) to church. My friend is die! They come. They tell me. I don't go church. You know why he is die? He is walking walking walking, far distance. He go home. He eat and he lay to rest for he is tired. When they call him, he already having cardiac arrest. He die from this cardiac arrest. Because he is fatty. He is fat person so walking cause him cardiac arrest. So this, I not at church." Hahahahahaha. We gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and encouraged him to share it with his friends family. 

 

We went to an investigator couple yesterday, they're these two oldies just living in a hut in the middle of a sugarcane field. They were talking about their buko (coconut) and they found out that I hadn't yet tried fresh buko. So brother gets right up, gets a ladder, shimmies up the tree and knocks down about 5 coconuts, takes a machete and chops them open, rustles around in the hut and comes out with some spoons and cups and we feasted on buko juice and fresh buko. SO GOOD. *I'll send pictues*. We shared Mosiah 2:17 and thanked them for serving God. They loved it. 

There is a less active family we went to teach, super instructive lesson for me. They were offended by the last Bishop or something so they stopped coming to church and haven't been back in our 2 years. They have a bunch of youth in their family. We taught them tithing and emphasized how they have to come to the church in order to pay their tithing. They shared great testimony about tithing and how great of a commandment it is... then wouldn't commit to come to church. It was so hard to watch. They might just think that they're just not going to church on Sunday, buts is soooooo much more than that. If they don't go to church, their sons and daughters aren't going to go on missions. They aren't going to marry in the temple and be sealed to their families. Their chances of falling into pornography, drugs and other addictions skyrocket. Even if they try to cover it up, they know that they should be going and it makes them guilty. If they're guilty they won't want to read their scriptures because reading will just remind them of the things they aren't doing. They won't want to pray because they won't be able to talk to Heavenly Father knowing they are making wrong choices. The longer they stay away the harder and harder it is to come back. And they even said they want to come back, just that the time isn't right. So when is the time right? Once they've already cultivated addictions? Once they've missed the mission window? Once they're already living in with someone and have children? Once they've already made serious sins and mistakes that will cause even more guilt and distance them further and further from the church? There won't be some magic time. They can't wait until the Bishop changes or until next year, or just "later". And the thing is, Heavenly Father doesn't care. He doesn't care that they haven't been to church in two years! He doesn't care about anything they've done while they've been away! He just wants them back. Yes, they still have to repent. It doesn't mean that they didn't make mistakes. But thats the thing, through repentance, through the Atonement, these last two years can be erased. It isn't Heavenly Father that distances Himself from us when we sin, we distance ourselves from Him, and He is constantly calling us back. Its up to us to make that choice. And there is no better time than NOW. Don't procrastinate the day of your repentance. Don't wait a second longer to be distanced from Heavenly Father and everything He is offering you. There is so much joy waiting. Ah! It just kills me. Pray for them, and pray for everyone else who needs to take the difficult but vital step and come home. 

I love being the Lord's missionary! I love my new companion, I love my new area, I love everyone in the whole entire Philippines and in the whole entire world :) FULL OF LOVE. 

I hope you all have the bestest week of all your weeks ever and I love you so much and I hope you're all as happy as I am and if you aren't don't worry just keep on keeping on and that happiness will always come!!! You're all the best! Keeping you in my prayers :) 

Love, Sister Manwaring OoXoXXoooXO (Big hug little hug big kiss little hug big kiss)

 Can you spot sis. judd?

 Me and sis. o!

Ch ch ch changes... Again!

Well, I'm transferring. I got the call last night. President is changing up a bunch of companionships with the sisters, this happens now and then when someone falls in love with a sister or a sister gets a stalker or some other problem. Thats what we get for being white in the Philippines! While I do have my share of crazy stalkers (remember the sandwich guy?) don't worry, the problem isn't on my end. When an emergency transfer like this happens President will change up a few companionships so its not obvious where the problem is. I don't know yet where I'm going or who my new companion will be! I've been in Bacolod 6th ward for 5 months but I've only been with Sister Char for 2 1/2 weeks! :( We have already been dreading transfers in 3 weeks on the regular schedule, let alone being sprung with an early transfer! We were at dinner with a member when they made the call, Sister Char was pretty upset because she's only been in this area for 2 weeks and now shes leading it, but I know she'll be soooo great. 6th ward is in good hands! After we finished at the members house, we went home, climbed onto our roof, layed and looked at the stars in silence for a while, then I had to go in and pack. So sad. We were just getting started! You read my email last week, this time with her has been the best. I've learned soooo much and grown sooo much and had so much fun. We had a bomb plan for this area and were totally on our way. The thing about transfers is I can never be too sad. I know that its so inspired and obviously Heavenly Father knows MUCH better than I do. So its bittersweet, I'm so sad to be leaving Sister Char, and I reallllllly loved 6th ward, no more wednesdays at dereks :( but I'm excited for my next area and new companion! The work moves onward! 

I had to take all my luggage to the mission office this morning so we are emailing at a different shop than usual, and its the new record for "concentration camp computer shops". My keyboard is missing a lot of keys and the enter bar so the shop man, who is most definitely related to Borat, had to show me all these secret ways to use the numbers to get the letters to type. So sorry if this letter is jumbled haha. 

Okay, I'll try to think back on this week. SO much happened. 

Our new ward mission leader is AWESOME. I think I mentioned him last week. Yeah, he was killer in his mission, he taught us a system to ask for referrals which is GENIUS and it got him 13 baptisms in one day in his own mission. And he is preparing his own list of names so that he can be an example for the ward to get referrals started. He also comes and works with us and the people LOVE him. Especially the girls haha. And he knows how to cut through people's excuses. Its the best. So fun and so effective, I'm way excited to keep applying it in my other areas. 

We taught Brother Abrar. I think I've mentioned him before? He is from Pakistan and was kicked out of his country when he converted to Christianity and cannot go back or he will be put to death. SO. We have been teaching him for a few months, its been a slower conversion process because he can only meet with us once or twice a week, but last week he committed to baptism! And we could actually be excited about it because unlike other people here, when he says yes he means yes! We were moving into the commandments this week and taught Law of Chastity. It was one of those moments where I was like "Okay, I'm a 21 year old little girl whose relationship experience basically consists of prom (shout out to Elder Fisher) and I'm teaching a 40-year-old something man from Pakistan about chastity. Yep." But thats the thing, its never US teaching! It was my favorite LOC lesson yet. He is SO ready to have a good family, he has experienced so much sadness in his life and has been separated from his own family for many years now. He isn't married right now but wants to be... but because of a former marriage and a "no divorce" law in the Philippines, he can't be. He would either have to leave his current wife, go to another country to be married, or have his first wife die. I was like, okay, he's from Pakistan, the last option should be no problem? haha kidding, kidding. So after such a great lesson, he can't be baptized. Well, until something changes there. He wants to keep taking the lessons, coming to church, etc, and we'll keep praying that Heavenly Father will bring a miracle so he can be baptized. Geez, we even taught him Word of Wisdom this week too, so great. I told you how he was a monk for a while, right? Yeah so he was like "okay, I drink coffee right now, but it won't be a problem to stop. When I was a monk we went without meat, coffee, smoking, drinking, etc, for 4 months. We also did self-control trainings and would walk for 3 days straight (did I mention he has a fake leg??) until our feet were bleeding. So it will be no problem to quit coffee." OKAY. Ah, I want him baptized SO BAD. He is so ready. Grabi.

We went on splits with some of the sisters in the ward, they took us to meet less actives that we didn't know. My partner took me to this family with a "special" son. Terrifying. First he sees me and goes "Gwapa kay inday ba!" (calling me pretty) then changes in a snap and starts punching himself in the face and swearing at me the he will kill me. O.o My teaching partner was just laughing and laughing. I think I'll go with another partner next time. Oh wait, I'm not in this area anymore. Shoot. Nevermind.

I thought I was finished with language slip ups. Nope. While on this same split we went to a squatter area and I read outloud some writing on a door and asked what it meant. I was with my split partner and my 17 year old male recent convert. The recent convert looked at me like I had just barfed slugs and my partner just laughed again. She later told me that I had read outloud the Hiligaynon word for... okay I don't even want to write it. Dang it. It was just really embarrassing, I'll leave it at that. Maybe I'll email it to Sera haha

Derek blessed the sacrament in church on Sunday :D sooooooo awesome he is the best ever. Such a proud parent moment. 

Oh yeah! I went to La Carlota again this week! The office elders told us to come to the office to pick up a sister who is leaving for her mission the next morning and needed to sleep at our place, I show up and across the parking lot see this little baby person with a bright pink skirt... Sister Lisaca! My last companion! (short term which is why she is now leaving on her mission). So not only did I get to see her again and she spent the night with us, she had forgotten to bring her stuff with her so we got to drive with the office elders back to La Carlota! I got to see her family again and everything. It was sooo great. She is a doll, that morning I had lost my plete purse (the one that Alyne got me :( :( ) and before she left the next morning she gave me this birthday present that she had made, this picture collage thing of our transfer together, and a cute little new plete purse. No idea how she got it because we were together the whole time. But she is the best. It was so great to see her again. 

Okay, I have to head back to the office to meet my new companion and find out where I'm going! I love you all sooooooo much, don't freak out from my last email, I promise I'll come home... I just don't want to think about it haha. Dang, why did they have to do away with asking to extend! Okay. I love you I love you I love you!!!!!!!!!! Have an amazing week! 

Sister Manwaring 

heres more pics!

 banana Q!

Our rice creation

 Only in the Philippines

 La carlotta

 Me and sister char saying goodbye:(

 :)