500 Days of Serving : HEAVEN

OH MY GOODNESS MY LIFE IS A DREAM.

Okay, so first, yes I'm in SIPALAY. You will see the pictures. I'm just serving in an exalted part of the earth, no big deal. I saw this area in pictures clear back in October when the STL's from this area were hosted in our apartment. If you look at a map of Bacolod its the farthest away you can possibly get from the city. It took 7 hours on a ceres bus to get here. We got in at night tuesday so I didn't get to really see where I was until wednesday morning. I live about 3 blocks from the beach. Sipalay doesn't have any big stores, I sent a picture of my new grocery store, its basically a gas station that exploded hahaha, but there is also a market place for fruits and veggies so I'll live! There is a little ukay ukay that we'll drop by later today and thats it also for clothing. But all the basic needs are here anyways, picture printing shop, computer shop, food. My apartment is GREEN. VERY GREEN. And constantly sandy but I love it. We have this shakey little bunkbed that we sleep in and one of the members made it i guess and they didn't sand it or anything so I risk splinters every night hahaha and they can't give us normal beds cause whoever made it assembled it inside the room so it would have to be destroyed to get it out.. and no one has time for that. But I sleep well every night so it doesn't make a difference in the end! Our area is big but good, we have an ISLAND as one of our areas. We have special permission from president to take a oar boat to it. Its called Nauhang and its my favorite part of the day because I literally just ride in a boat out in the ocean to an island to teach the gospel. The language out here is pretty different too strangely enough!! You would think that in the city they would speak more tagalog but they do way out here! And the accent is really different too. Kind of like learning american english and then trying to undertand someone from england. Plus they just randomly switch to tagalog. So I'm not used to having to ask "what did they say?" anymore, but I'm expanding my language skills so its great!

My companion is Sister Cinco from Manila, meaning more tagalog! haha thank goodness for the gift of tongues ;) We are batch going home! I lived with her back in the 6th ward apartment but there were 3 other americans in the apartment so i never really got to know her very well. Shes a great companion! Its been tough this last transfer in this area but shes excited to get to work!

So rewinding to last tuesday, my very first missionary leadership conference, or MLC. Its basically like The Finer Things Club haha #TheOffice its for zone leaders and sister training leaders and its held at the mission home. All the zls and stls from the whole mission come for it, they hold it the first of every month. We receive training from the AP's and President and his wife and then go back to our areas and give trainings on what we learned in our zone meetings the next day. My whole batch of sisters are STL right now so I got to see them all!! The training was awesome, totally spiritually fed, then we got my luggage and went to the ceres terminal where we took a 7 hour non-air con bus ride out to Sipalay. Thats where I also got to prepare my training for the next morning haha since we would have no time once we finally got home that night.

The next morning we went to zone meeting and I have the coolest zone!! One of the elders from my batch that no one has seen since we got here is here! He was so glad to see a batchmate haha! Sister Polatis is also here, I love her!! She went to College at Dixie so we know lots of the same people. Elder Doanne, the old AP, is also in that zone, so talk about nerve wracking having to give my training to him! I guess thats what it feels like to some degree having to give a talk in General Conference and having the Prophet sitting right behind you haha. It was a great meeting though, and I think I did okay in my training. I'm glad to have a chance at it again next month though cause now I know what to improve! Next MLC will also be the next time 'I'm back in Bacolod. I stocked up on granola before I came here though so I'm good till then ;)

The work in this area is... different than Bata haha. It was super progressive a few months ago and has recently died down a little. We had a baptism yesterday but no more lined up for this whole month :( We have good plans though and next month should be a turn around! Our companionship is supposed to have some of the highest key indicators for the whole zone and is meant to be a model area, so we have a lot of work ahead of us! But I'm excited!! I've just been so so happy since I got here, I LOVE these people, I know they can change and progress!! Poor sister cinco, she's had a tough transfer with not much success, so the first few days were a little negative as far as the work goes. Haha I feel bad cause I'm just so happy so theres been a few awkward moments of the mix of my happy with her discouragement haha. But we're seeing changes in the people, finding new people, just giving this area a fresh start and shes much more positive now :) Haha I feel like the guy from Monty Python, "I'm not dead yet!" ;)

We were able to watch the General Womens Broadcast... SO SO SO SO AWESOME AM I RIGHT??? I LOVE being a member of the Relief Society!!!! How awesome!!!! I totally echo Sera, I'm so glad we have such righteous people who are truly the Lord's mouth piece!!! Wow. Made me SO excited for conference. I CANT WAIT.

I mentioned that we did have one baptism yesterday, Sister Mercy. She lives on Nauhang, the island, and I met her 4 days before her baptism haha but I'm super glad that I got to be here to support her in her great decision and to be here to strengthen her choice!!

Hahaha, Sera, remember that song "Emily my friend"? Yeah, so random, we're having personal study and sister cinco starts singing it. I was thrown back right to you me and aspen in nancy's car like 10 years ago hahahaha.

Its coming up on Easter, right? Okay so there are these... "interesting" people here who like to commemorate easter by crucifying themselves. No, you read that right. They literally walk through the streets with crosses and then get nailed to them. I haven't seen it yet, it mostly happens in Manila, but the members said they've seen it here too. The people who do it live way in the mountains and will sometimes come down to proper where we are and do it.... I'M SO TERRIFIED OF THEM IF THEY COME. Ew ew ew ew ew ew.

We were singing a hymn to this 80 + women the other day and the whole time we are singing she is just leaning over the side of her chair drooling onto the ground. Like a faucette.

Basically, my life is a dream. Yeah, of course theres hard things! Theres always hard moments, disappointments, discouragement, negativity, etc. But there is just so much good that it totally doesn't matter!! Watch me jinx myself and see my email next week, "Get me outta here!! Its terrible!" Hahahaha jokes. I just love everything and everyone :) :)

Thank you so so so much for your emails!!! Such a highlight of my week!! I'm gonna try to write back to them and answer your questions so I'll just wrap this up. I LOVE YOU ALL AND WANT YOU TO HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVER AND YOURE ALL SO LUCKY THAT YOU GOT TO SEE CONFERENCE AHHHH AND I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU.

Sister Manwaring <3

Stl's from my batch