Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Oh my goodness i'm in love with everything

MANILA. I went to Manila this week!! Oh my gosh, I have been going through like 573489254 different emotions. I am definitely the opposite of Ron Weasly. Okay, lets try some day by day to keep this somewhat understandable. 

Monday: We already knew that we would be going to Bacolod and not be able to work in our area for most of the week so we only did a half pday (all errends no activities) then went out to work. 

Tuesday: We had district meeting and our whole district is training, meaning that we have 2 brand new elders straight from the MTC. Its the best, I love new missionaries. Hahaha I think I"m still a new missionary... how many times a day to I caress my nametag? haha ;) Then work! Awesome awesome work. The couples came with us. So great. 

Wednesday: We left in the morning for Bacolod, planning to for the follow up training thursday and then come back that same day.. then once we're halfway to Bacolod we get a call telling me that I'll be going to MANILA on friday and going home saturday... okay good thing I didn't bring clothes. or garments. or tell our investigators that we'd be standing them up. Haha so we just texted whoever we could to let them know we wouldn't come and I bought a shirt in Bacolod (...and just reused garments). We got to Bacolod and met up with the sisters we would be staying and working with. Guess who? SISTER PEACOCK. MY TRAINEE AND SECOND COMPANION. I DIE. It was the best. We went and worked together ( gani) and Sister Rosario and her companion worked together. Oh it was sooooo funny working together again after a whole year. WE WERE SO BABY when we were companions hahaha we just talked and laughed the whole time. After work we slept at their apartment. 

Thursday: We left in the morning for the Follow Up Training at the mission home. I love the mission home. Its like the next best thing we have here to the celestial room. The training was awesome, one of the other trainers is working in Sum-ag, my first area, and she is awesome and gave me a bunch of updates on my people. I got a letter from one of my recent converts, you probably remember her because I talked about her all the time, Maryglor. AH. It was so great. She is just EATING up the book of mormon, she reads like 30 chapters a week. She also goes early to church every week and sweeps. And her husband doesn't always let her pay tithing so she just takes it from what money he gives them for food, so sometimes she only eats one meal so that she can pay tithing. I'm in love with her. After the training we arranged for me to go with one of my batchmates, Sister Smoot, and went and dropped off Sister Rosario with the sisters she would be working with while I was gone. Me and Sister Smoot had a few hours before we met up with the rest of our batch and nothing to do... so we just rode jeepneys all around the city and talked to people and sent a bunch of referrals into the office haha. There was one man who watched as we talked to a woman next to us, his eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger as we, two americans, spoke Hiligaynon to this woman. When she got off he turned to us and goes in english (people in the city can speak english because of their work) "OH MY GOSH YOU CAN SPEAK HILIGAYNON." And we're like "Yep, we've been here a while" and he is still just in shock and says again "BUT OH MY GOSH YOU CAN SPEAK IT." We kind of laugh and are like, "Yep, its also cause we're missionaries, we have God's help!" and he goes "BUT DANG YOU ARE GOOD." but he didn't say "dang" and I was trying sooo hard to not crack up. Maybe you just had to be there haha. 
     So after our oym-ing joy ride we went and met up with the rest of our batch- Sister Nielsen and Sister Sefeti, and the elders, Elder Marble, Elder Robertson, and Elder Moore. Sister Roos goes the first of September so she wasn't there, I was pretty sad, but it was soooooo great to see the other sisters, I love them soooooooooo much. We went out to work in threesomes with the sisters, me and sister nielsen with sister peacock (again! double tender mercy) and their area is sister nielsens previous area so she was able to show her a bunch of former investigators and stuff. So awesome, its always so fun to see people's reaction when a missionary returns to their former area, its like a resurrection haha. And it was so weird working as 3 americans. It was like we were the three nephites or something haha. And people could barely control their excitement when THREE white girls show up on their doorstep haha. So fun and I learned so much. They are exceptional missionaries. After work we all went back to sleep at their apartment... except my batch didn't sleep haha. We had to leave for the airport at 4AM and we already had been talking until like 2AM when we noticed the time and it would've been way harder to go to sleep for an hour then wake up so we just stayed up. It had a pretty interesting effect on the next day haha. But it was soooooooo fun and sooooooooo great to just talk with them all. It was like some girls camp testimony meeting haha we were sharing stories and problems and experiences and like advising each other using the scriptures. So classic missionaries, we'd be like "Oh my gosh yes, and then when you have faith... just like in preach my gospel page 54.... she just needs to pray!.." Etc etc. hahaha. Love. 

FridayThursday and friday just kind of go together with the whole all nighter thing haha but at 4AM the elders came and got us and we went to the airport to fly out to Manila. Oh my gosh, it was THE WEIRDEST thing ever to be in an airplane going up and away from Bacolod. I had a panic attack while I watched the island fade away as the plane gained altitude. Its so cruel that they give us a little taste of what it will be like... for real.. in a month. I just pushed it out of my mind and tried to remember what little Tagalog I know haha. That was realllllly weird. After spending 17 months speaking one language 24/7 and being able to understand everyone and have them understand you it was wayyy weird to be thrust into Tagalog haha which is just similar enough to be annoying when you don't understand each other haha. And the dialects are kind of looked down on in Manila, almost like someone with a really hick southern accent or something, so people just gave us this little pity laugh when we would speak Hiligaynon to them. But its been great being with sister rosario because I understood the gist of what everyone was saying to us and was able to speak basically, enough for conversation and oyming haha. 
     Once our plane landed we met our driver who was going to take us to the fingerprinting place. As we were walking about of the airport we saw our MTC batchmates who went to iloilo!! Sister Yang and Sister Merchant!!! It was sooooooooo fun they have been doing soooooo good! Then we all headed off in our separate vans for the fingerprinting place. Once that was done, they usually would take us to the temple. but its closed. *Big tears rolling down my face* so instead our driver was like "Hey! I'll just take you to subway!" and none of us have had a sandwhich in forever so we were down. He drove us way far only to find out that the subway had been replaced by a jolibee. Then he didn't have time to take us anywhere else so he just drove us back to the airport. We still had 5 hours until our flight left and were dying staving so we got permission to take a taxi and go eat. Someone from our mission had let his parents know that we would be coming so they showed up at the airport with 4 dozen krispy kreme donuts to send back with us and then were like "hey! We'll just take you out to eat!" So we went with them and they treated us to THE BEST chinese food ever, then took us back to the airport. As we landed back in Bacolod I just felt a huge relief at being "home", among my people and my language. Good old Hiligaynon! I love it. The elders dropped us all off in our respective areas or bus terminals and I got to spend one last night at sister peacocks apartment. 
     
   Saturday: We woke up early again ( don't ask me how on earth I functioned this week on so little sleep haha) and took a ceres bus back to our area. Once we got there we went right to weekly planning ( which we hadn't been able to do the day before, gani ) had a little personal study, then headed to the church for our BAPTISM. Our investigator FINALLY got married on wednesday so his baptism went through! He is part member, he wife and her family are all members, just because of their not being married he hasn't been baptized yet, but they finally just pulled it together and got married so his baptism was on saturday. It went smoothly considering that we had about 15 minutes to prepare speakers and the program and everything haha. The branch was great and had a good show. I will send the pictures in a second. After the baptism we were able to have a member split so we could get our to our whole are before church the next day. We worked like 3 days in our area this week. Afterwards we went home, planned, wrote in our journals, and CRASHED. 

    Sunday: Heavenly Father really helped us out, even though we couldn't visit anyone the whole week we still had a bunch of investigators at church!! My favorite though was sister violetta. This is a complete credit to my companion. I have been visiting violetta and her husband since I got here back in April and have seen no progression. When Sister Rosario got here I was all for putting them in "time out" and letting the missionaries go back after a few months, but sister rosario wanted to give them another chance, so we kept going. On the split saturday night sister rosario went to them and arranged for us to go by in the morning and accompany them to church. I wasn't really expecting them to come because a lot of times we go by and people are still sleeping, or suddenly sick, etc. But we go by, and I'm all doubtful, mostly just doing it for sis. rosario, and there they are, sister violetta and her son and niece and nephew, all in their best clothes ready to go. I was so shocked and it was so great to be sitting next to her in all the church meetings. I testify that you DO NOT always know what is best, this is why we have companions, alllllllways be humble. Special sacrament went well also, its my favorite ever. The work was great as always, I LOVE these people. I wish I could write about each of them!!! 

Man, its just been a really full and really good week. But i'm so glad to be back in the area back to work!!! One of my favorite things from personal study this morning was a quote I had written in my scriptures a while back that I re-read in studies, "The Lord is more concerned with what a man is than what he was, and with where he is than where he was." Every day we get to upgrade ourselves, become a better version. Also known as repentance. How awesome is it that we can become anyone that we want to be? And that whoever we were before and whatever we did can just be totally left in the past. That is one of my favorite things to share with people, that we can actually let go of our past, even our past selves! Through Jesus Christ we can look back one day to see that we are not who we were before. Repentance makes bad men good, good men better, and better men saints. I love love love repenting. I love my relationship with Heavenly Father and my Savior. I love my mission. I am so happy to be a member of this church, the church of the living Christ. I LOVE ALL THE THINGS AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

LOVE (gani) Sister Manwaring 

1 comment:

  1. And I have Ioved having you as my own personal missionary. Thank You for the spirit you leave in my heart. You have made me a better person.

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