Post earthquake, success update, happiness equate...unedited version :)

TRANSFERS THIS WEEK. We find out sometime today what will happen to us. I want soooooooooo bad to stay with Sister Becerra!!! Honestly, this last transfer has been THE BEST. It's almost been like being companions with Sera, I kid you not. I 100 billion percent trust in whatever happens.... but please send some special prayers my way! :)

Last Monday we went and had dinner with a member in the ward, Marty, and lo and behold we find out that she is Lexi Jocelyns aunt. :O and she was even in Hurricane last feb. she went to coral cliffs cinema and even ate bumbleberry pie. I was dying, she has literally been 5 minutes from our house not to mention she is related to lexi, such a small world!!

PLEASE don't be scared by those pictures that president is putting online. AND DON'T SHARE THEM ANYWHERE. I promise I don't look that bad, those camera people just hide out like paparazzi and get you when you're least expecting it.

As for the earthquake, for us it was just way funny. We were doing our studies and I started to feel motion sick and it felt like our desks were moving so I look up from studying thinking that sister Becerra was just shaking the desk or something and she did the same and then we were like "Oh my gosh!! Earthquake!" And ran downstairs and outside and were just standing there while everything was swaying and moving and our neighbor was outside just chilling by his rolling trike and laughing at us. We basically just reacted like the old man from freaky friday. "Grampa can you pass the milk? Grampa passs theee milkkkk! *shakes table* "Earthquake? Earthquake!!!". No one here was hurt thank goodness and it was the highlight of everyones day, we were in lessons later and we would just finish sharing the first vision or something and they would follow up with "so did you feel that earthquake earlier?" *facepalm*

Sammy and Mary Glor were baptized last friday!!! You remember Mary Glor? I'm pretty sure I mentioned her in earlier emails, her and her husband were baptized!! I wanted so bad to attend but its too far from our area. Either way, I'm just so so so happy for them!!

One of the ward members has a violin, as you saw from the video they sent, and even though its 3/4 size and makes me miss my own violin, it was so much fun to play it!! For like 2 seconds I couldn't remember any songs, then it all started coming back and it was soo great to play again! They asked me to play with their ward choir performing in stake conference this sunday so I got to take the violin home and I just played it all during lunch. But, with transfers I don't know if I'll still be here on Sunday :( Either way, so glad I got to play again!!

The rescue is still really huge here, out of the 36 thousand members in bacolod city alone 26 thousand are less active in the church. We had such a cool experience with one of the less actives that Sister Becerra and I have really been focusing on visiting this last week, Leah. She's been inactive for about a year but is super great, reads the scriptures every day, gives us referrals, comes to work with us, but just doesn't come to church. So we made a plan to visit her daily and not teach a lesson, just leave a prayer, small verse, or a hymn with her and go. About 5 days in as we're leaving she looks up with tears in her eyes and thanks us for being her angels and then calls out "I love you!' as we walked away, then the next day she told us how she was praying to know what to do about church and she had a voice in her head say "GO", so she told us that is exactly what she was going to do and committed herself to church on sunday. Sunday rolls around and there she is with the biggest smile on her face :) As good as it feels to see investigators progressing and attending church, it feels so great to see someone who has strayed come back into the fold.

Speaking of church attendance, Mitchet, Mario, and Dina were all at church on Sunday!! Mitchit is super golden and is getting baptized on the 31st of this month. Mario is a longtime investigator that after a few DTR lessons has decided to really commit to baptism. And Dina is a woman that we found a while back when we heard from Mario's family that her baby had died. In this mission one of the best feelings ever is seeing investigators at church. People will let you in to teach, they'll accept baptism dates, accept commitments, they just don't do so well at following through. So when you see someone doing what they've said they'll do, that really is the best feeling ever.

Sister Becerra and I had sooooo much fun this week. She has the same kind of humor as me and Sera. Like, the "where the wild things are" movie night where me and sera were going to have a heart attack from laughter and everyone was like "shut up or leave!" kind of humor. I can't even explain how because it'll just sound dumb, but we are totes going to be bffz 4evs.

Sister Becerra has a problem smacking me when mosquitos are on me. We'll be walking, in a lesson, whatever, and if theres a mosquito she'll just hit me hahahaha. We were going back one day to contact some houses where we had left pamphlets and while we're waiting for one of them to come to the door a mosquito lands right on my chest and WHACK she just kills it and just then the person comes to the door and there is just squished bloody mosquito smeared on my chest.No, they didn't want to hear our message hahaha.  (maybe edit out the next part before posting on the blog haha) When we walked away we were laughing so hard I almost peed my skirt. Then later i did. Because I do that because I'm still 3 years old and Sister Becerra is too funny for my own good. We were talking and she goes "I don't want to Nephi" just like laman from the book of mormon videos always says in that nasaly voice and it was sooooooo funny and I already had a near exploding bladder and it started to come a little then just came a lot. Like, down my leg. So I took the walk of shame over to a boomba (pump), ran it over my legs, went into the lesson, then had to make a special trip to go home and change myself. If you read this story while looking at those horrid pictures president posted you may question whether or not I will be able to get married after this mission...

Every day in studies you read from the white handbook in companionship study and we always read it in british accents. Except, it usually goes back and forth between british and australian cause we're not that good.

When we're going to bed at night we'll lay there just talking like Sera and I would always do and then it would be past bedtime so we'd have to stop and I still lay there for another 6 minutes with all these things I want to say popping in my head and I just have to hold them all in and then we'll wake up in the morning and be like "oh my gosh, i have so much to tell you!" hahaha

Our house makes so much noise and the fans are always blowing doors shut and stuff and it scares us so bad so we blame it all on a ghost named Joanne. We'll be studying and the door will slam and we'll be like "dang it joanne!" 

Well, I think that's about it for this week! As always, I LOVE the work, the people, my companion, the area, the food, the jeepneys, even the pouring rain and sweat! I love you all and I love this gospel :) Have a great great great week!!!!! \

Love you more than being pretty and non-sweaty and skinny ;)

Sister Manwaring <3

General conference, and Locked out once again!

Hey everyone!! Man, crazy amazing week!!! Wasn't general conference the best EVER??? I died. But! I'll start at the first and get to that at the end.

Last Monday Sister Becerra and I have so much fun at Robinsons, eating delicious food and drooling in the Nike store. I held off getting more clothes because I was anticipating the package but I'll probably pick up a skirt or two today. It's really fun to see all the other missionaries out doing all our errends, and Sister Becerra's best friend from home is here in the mission with her, they were even MTC companions, so we eat with her whenever we can. When we got home, put away all our groceries, did our laundry, all that jazz, we went out to work! And walked right out into the mother of all typhoons. As in, heaviest rain everrrrrrr. Its like a flash flood but in the air. We were SOAKED within 12 seconds, even with umbrellas, and had to run for cover under a little shed. The road had turned into a rushing river, at least as deep as the river our back, and we were just stranded. Finally, we decided that we couldn't just sit there forever, we were already soaked, we might at well wade through to our appointments! So we head out, water rushing up to our knees, every inch of us wet. We started yelling out commentary in australian accents, like "Now will you get a look at this storm? A real true philippians storm this is!" "You have to see it to believe it folks!". Everyone was looking at us like we were nuts and when we got to our appointments they were like ":O Oh my gosh!!! What are you two doing! It's RAINING!" But it was awesome because I think our dedication softened their hearts a little bit haha. "We just walked a mile in a river of mud and trash for you! You can definitely come to church!" hahahah :) Love them.

We met a woman named Mabeth, one of our newest investigators. She lives in the squatters area across from us and has always been super sweet to us when we see her, so a few weeks ago we had some left over cake from a teaching appointment that we did not want to eat so we took it over to her kids, and a pamphlet with Mabeth, they were so happy! They call us "Tita" which is aunt haha :) A few days later we went back and followed up and had a great lesson with her. Last year she went to work in Hong Kong as a house help and had a terrible experience, the boss was horrid and didn't feed her. Like, at all. She worked there for 4 months and she said "I was so hungry. I was so weak. I prayed every day that I wouldn't die so that I could get home somehow to my kids". She eventually found a missionary organization that helped her to get home and since then she's been here with her 3 kids and husband. We had the chance to meet her husband in our next visit and they are such a good couple. It's not common to see husbands and wives who act like they love each other, and they are so kind and loving and respectful to each other, Sister Becerra and I were so shocked haha. Heavenly Father has totally been preparing them to become an eternal family. I hope Sister Becerra and I get to be the ones to see them through! Side note, as we were walking out to the jeeps this morning she walked with us on her way to get her kid from school, she insisted on carrying my laundry, and then told us that the day we gave her kids cake was actually the birthday of her youngest and she just kept saying thank you over and over.

I got new shoes! Yes, my last ones were done for haha. And I had to wear them like that for a few days until P day came around haha. So my new shoes are great, just simple rubber again, but since they're new I got a nasty little blister. First one in my whole mission so thats a plus! The only problem is band-aids don't stick here because everything is sweaty and wet. So the first day I put on an ankle wrap just to keep the band-aid on... but that just kind of made it rub worse. So I took all the wrappings and everything off, grabbed a leaf off a tree, and slid it in the back of my shoe. Worked like a charm! Thank you mother nature haha ;)

My package came!!!!! ohmygoodnessiloveyouallsomuchandiwassohappyandiloveitsomuchandyouareallthebestandimsoluckyandohmygosh

Literally, so awesome. I died. ALL my favorite shirts, MOM. You even sent the anthro shirt!! (Which I got a compliment on from the coolest elder in the mission, btdubbs ;) ) I had a fun little fashion show with Sister Becerra. And the bare minerals lip stuff!!! So awesome!!! Did you know that main ingredient, jackfruit, that is here in my mission? We have a jackfruit tree in my front yard! It's amazzzzzzing. And the lotions smell so good and the other lip stuff is fantastic and I at the smarties during conference and was in heaven and yay for more zip fizz!! (the water here does not taste that good so it's nice to mix it up!) and Clay!! Your notes and letters and drawings made me soooooo happy!! (I wrote all you kids letters that I'm sending today! So look out for those in the mail!) and even a costco card to top it all off!!! I was on cloud nine. You guys are THE BEST. <3 <3 <3

And I got katie's wedding invitation!!! Congrats kate!! I wish I could've been there but I dedicated a whole minute of silence for penny candies, salt and vinegar chips, monopoly, and that time we smashed the tail pipe shut on your dads truck and joey tattled on us :) You two are the cutest couple ever and I'm so so happy for you!!! Thanks for sending me the pictures dad, it was the next best thing to seeing it for myself :)

While we were leaving a prayer at a house last week we met this little boy, Malik. He's 9 years old and has like 4 jobs, he had the cutest smile ever, like heart melting, and we found out where his house was (he was just at that one working) and said we'd come back to him and his family. The next few days we went back and found him and his brother, Patrick, at home. They told us that their dad died a few years back so their mom works almost 15 hour days with no day off. The only time they are all home together is at lunch. We haven't had a chance yet to catch them all together and we can't start teaching them until the mom is present because they are just children. But honestly, they are the most adorable little almost-orphan boys ever and I was sooooo bad to be able to share the gospel with them!!! Praying that we'll be able to meet their mom soon!!

Not all of our investigators are lovable though hahaha. There is this one lady, Dinding, she's like 65 years old and is legit crazy. She always wants us to come and talk to her when we pass her house on our way to other appointments so we usually stop for a few minutes to share a prayer, a principle from a lesson. One time she just made fun of Sister Becerra the whole time and was laughing like a witch at nothing, another time we came and she was like "oh no no no no no no no, not now, I'm sooooo busy!!!!" And she was literally sweeping rocks into a broken piece of a dust pan. Then the last time we asked if we could leave a prayer and she says yes then 10 seconds into Sister Becerra praying she just starts up her own prayer and starts picking her nose and eating it. Then wanted to shake our hands when we left. This is why we carry hand sanitizer AT ALL TIMES.

CONFERENCE. OH MY GOODNESS. I can't even express the smallest bit of how awesome it was. When Elder Uchtdorf mentioned how members will watch 10 hours of conference I was just wishing that we could watch 100 hours!!  We are so so so so lucky to have these amazing men and women. I can't talk about everything I want to with conference because I would be here for hours but I'm so glad that I come from such an amazing family and that I get to come home when my time here is done and start my own family. All I've ever wanted is to be a wife and a mother and I'm not embarrassed of that at all, so it was so great to hear all the counsel from conference and feel even that much more secure in my views. Like honestly, I can't imagine anything that would bring more happiness!! And I know that because of you two mom and dad :) Thanks for giving me a perfect example of how to have a happy family :) 

   There is also so many warnings from our leaders that we need to be aware of. I loved the talk about "looking up", we're planning on sharing it in a family home evening lesson this week! Man, I can't even get my thoughts together about how awesome it was. I can't wait for the Liahona to come out so I can read and re-read all the talks! The entire conference I just had this overwhelming feeling of God's love and peace. We are so lucky that we get to have such a personal relationship with Him. I get so excited to read all your emails and be able to email you on mondays and we should be that excited to talk with our Heavenly Father every day and come to know him through scripture study and prayer :) Ah! Just so so so great. Basta.

I actually shaved my legs for conference too, just goes to show what a special occasion it is for me ;) Hahaha mom you would be so proud, I can probably count on one hand the times I've shaved my legs here. No joke. Oh the joys of being a Sister Missionary in the Philippians ;)

Surprise, surprise. I locked us out. AGAIN. This is the first time here but the third time in my mission. Kaluoy for my companions haha! We tried to break in (cause I'm totally an expert by now ((Cheetah girls, you know what I'm talking about)), but our house is actually safe so darn haha. There was a bamboo ladder on the side of the house so we set it up against the roof and climbed up to try and get in through the boarded up aircon hole, but no go, there was all this wire and junk on it. So we finally called the owner who luckily had a spare key and sat on the roof watching the sunset until he came. We just talked about our plans and dreams for when we come home, perfect scenarios and all that. It was so fun. Then we got back in, got our stuff, and went out to work :)

One more investigator story. So this girl, Cristy, we were complimenting her on her reading skills (cause she's actually way fast and understands everything) and she was like "Yeah, I loved school! I wanted to go to college but it was too far away!" she then told us how she grew up in the bukid (mountains) and how the rain would get so bad there that they would literally SWIM to school. SWIM. And she was so proud to tell us that she was never absent once. Now we can use this against her to get her to church, "Cristy, you SWAM to school and never missed, you can definitely get to church!" mwa ha ha ;)

Well I want to send some pictures so I'll end this here. Iloveyouandimissyouandyouarethebestfamilyeverandicantwaittogethomeandcuddlewithyouallforamillionyearsbutilovemymission
soi'lljuststayhereforforeverbutiloveyouallsososososomuch!!!

Have a great week!!!!

All my love, Sister Manwaring :)

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

Elder Neil L. Anderson visting the mission!!! (in november)

Thanks for your letters, even if you are super busy I'm so glad you always take the time to write me :) Sounds like you still had a great race mom! I'm so proud of you! And clayton, quilting is definitely a talent. Go for it buddy!

Really great week this week! Sister Becerra and I are just the bestest of friends. We are honestly twins and have so much fun. We even ended up matching on Sunday for church, both of us went and got ready and then came out and were wearing red and gray and had our hair in a side fishtail braid. Reminded me of when Sera and I would match alllll theeee timeeeee.

So the upper floor of our apartment had no power this week and thats where our beds and study desks are so we had to take our mattresses down to the kitchen and have sleepovers for like four nights because there is no way we could survive without fans at night haha.

We also had exchanges this week, I was so sad to leave Sister Becerra! But the exchange was good, I always learn so much! I went with the Sister Training Leader, Sister Libria, to her area to work and ended up running into my Bishop from Sum-ag's brother at one of our teaching appointments. It was fun to have that little connection from my last area! Sister Libria is on her 2nd to last transfer so I learned a lot from her, and one of the things she taught that we're implementing here in the mission is "Finding Through Prayer". Basically, it's the funnest thing ever. You just go up to someone at their house or wherever, introduce yourselves, and ask if you can offer them a prayer. At home this probably wouldn't work because people would just be weirded out and be like "Um, you want to pray for me? Yeah I'm good." haha but the people here get so flattered and love it, we ask them what they would like us to include in the prayer, any special needs or anything, and then we offer a prayer for total strangers. It brings the spirit super well and is one of my favorite acts of small and quick service. After we pray we leave them with a pamphlet and a small message concerning one or two principles, then we try and make a return appointment and ask them to offer a prayer before we leave. If people are shy about praying we just guilt them into it by being like "Oh but brother, what if we get hit by a car?" or "We're girls, we need extra protection." hahah and then they usually give a really nice sweet prayer for us. It only takes like 8 minutes so we do them all the time. It's also a really good way to get into the houses of some of the more well off people which is what they've been encouraging us to do to help build up the church here. Plus, they usually have air-con so score! haha ;)

Oh yeah! Big news! Elder Neil L. Anderson is coming to our mission!!!!!! He comes in the first of November and I'm sooooooooo excited!!!!!!!! Also, GENERAL CONFERENCE SOON. AHHHHHHHHHH. But sad thing, since the days are off here, we watch a re-broadcast the week later :/ So in next weeks email don't spoil anything for me! Cause I won't know about it for another week! But yeah, I'm so so so so so so excited!!!!!!

When we were teaching a lesson the other day we hear what sounds like a very weird baby cry and the person that we're teaching was like "Oh, that's the neighbor, their baby" and was saying things like "New to the world!" and stuff and it turns out that the lady next to us just had her baby while we were teaching. She wasn't even,. like, yelling or anything! And then the baby was crying and everyone was gathered outside her hut handing in ice and stuff. At first I was shocked but then I was like "well, that's basically what I plan on doing, minus the hut" haha. Also, the hospitals here are TERRIFYING. We had to go to one the other day for Sis. Becerra to get a perscription refill and it was like a hospital from a scary movie, the beds were from like the 50's and I know there was a chainsaw murderer behind every door. So obviously, no one would want to have a baby there. But it was still weird to know that a lady 10 ft. from you was birthing while you were teaching haha.

One of our LA's lost 3 of her teeth the other day. How? She was pumping water from the boomba (pump) and the handle came up and smacked her in the face. And knocked out 3 of her teeth. So now she just has no more teeth.

There is a witch who lives here. Did I already tell you guys this? People here believe in witches and witchcraft and everything. Like, for reals. And we were teaching this old man outside his house and I look over his shoulder and a little ways away is this lady, this huge fat lady, totally NAKED, except for some rags that she had tied toga-style to her torso and a nephite headband wrapped around her dreads, just pacing back and forth and chanting. And I was like "Who the heck is that??" and the guy was like "Oh, don't call attention, that's the witch." I wish I could've taken a picture soooo bad hahaha. Or a video! But anyways, I have now seen a real life witch.

As a mission we've been studying Elder Bednar's talk about the strengthening and enabling power of the atonement (I may have mentioned it last week?) and it's sooooo good. I studied it back in school so I was already familiar with it and I also studied the topic back at the first of my mission, but its been sooooo cool to study it in preparation for all the stuff coming up in the mission. Sister Becerra and I basically talk about it every single companionship study and highlight some other aspect of it or something every time and how it relates to us exactly in our circumstances that day. If you haven't read it, go find it and read it for family home evening or something, it's so so good!

Well, that's all I've got for this week!! I love this mission, even if its crazy haha, and I love these people, I love my companion, I love learning and growing every day, I love my Savior, I love you all, and I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :)

Have an awesome week!!!!

-Sister Manwaring 

Weird days in the Philippines!

Hello all my favorite people!!!! Love you love you love you!!!

This week has been great! So many funny things, lots of hard work, and just general mission awesomeness.

Earlier in the week we had our Zone Conference, which was awesome! I saw all of my companions, Sister Roos, Sister Bendoy, Sister Peacock, and naturally my current and favorite companion, Sister Becerra :) And yes, I was sitting with 3 of them in the picture!! Funny how that worked out haha. The conference itself was more a preparation for our Mission Tour coming up next month. Elder Neilson from the philippines area presidency is coming to speak to us, so we just had trainings and talks about how to prepare for it. We watched a talk from Elder Holland and Elder Eyering about Christ, called Remember Him or something, it's on LDS.org so you guys can watch it, but it was amazing. One of those talks that makes you feel terrible about yourself but also makes you want to be the best person in the whole world haha.

I can't believe that GENERAL CONFERENCE is NEXT WEEK. So excited so excited so excited so excited so excited. And I can't believe it's been A YEAR since the announcement and the St. George marathon. I would've never guessed a year ago when I was running the marathon that I would be running in my subdivision in the philippines right now. It seems like so long ago and also like it was yesterday!! I also can't believe that it's been 6 months since I was in the MTC watching April's conference. DANG. But yes, so so so so so so so stoked!!!

One of our proselyting days this week was just the funniest and weirdest day ever. During a lesson on the word of wisdom, Sister Becerra mixed up the word "tsa-a" (tea) with the word "Tae"... meaning that she told our investigator to avoid cigarettes, alcohol, coffee, illegal drugs, and poop. I thought I was going to explode I was trying so hard not to bust up hahahaha. Then later, we're teaching in another lesson and the lady's kid was being a little rowdy but he's like 4 years old so whatever, and she gets up and goes over and pinches his penis. And we just sat there like "... wait what?..." So confused and creeped out and he's just crying cause OW and it was so hard to just continue with the lesson like nothing had happened. And that's not even the first time I've seen that happen, it's just a normal punishment here. Also a way to make children sterile I guess haha. And then we're leaving that area and a few kids were walking past us and one is holding a chicken and he just pokes me with the chicken as we walk past. Then that night we finished the weirdness with a 90 year old investigator and she comes out and grabs her chest and says "Pasensya sisters kay NO BRA" and is just holding her saggy old lady boobs. There's life in the philippines for ya!!

Now moving into more spiritual things! Sister Becerra and I have the funnest companionship studies because we both have a problem staying on subject and she'll share something about prayer and I'll chime in with an experience and 30 minutes later we're talking about how the "seer stones" are just glasses and how that's also an analogy for the prophets and how we are all like people with bad vision and a prophet is someone with glasses who can see everything clearly for us hahaha. Basically we're geniuses. Joke. hahaha. But I really do LOVE my studies. Before my mission I was the biggest dummy about reading my scriptures. My "daily scripture study" was laying in bed at night, spending 30 minutes checking facebook, pinterest, blogs, instagram, and twitter, and then pulling up my scriptures app and reading a random verse and going to sleep. Wooooowwwwww I was so dumb haha. I hope that I never for the rest of my life fall out of a habit of daily scripture STUDY. I could've avoided so many stupid mistakes and been so much happier if I had just taken advantage of how awesome the scriptures are.

Sister Becerra and I are still working really hard to building up this area and our work is starting to pay off. We've been consistently adding new investigators and reaching out to members that don't commonly get missionary visits to strengthen them and find through them. The members here are SO NICE but they've gotten stuck a little bit in just helping the missionaries by feeding them, which is super generous, but there is so much more in the work for them than just making us fat haha :)

Sister Peacock and her companion came and stayed in our apartment before the Zone Conference because their area is far and it was so great to hear how everything was going back in Sum-ag! even though I'd only been gone a week haha :) One of my first investigators, Winnie, was baptized yesterday!!! And even though I wasn't able to be there and see it, I still count him as one of my baptisms :) He had such a struggle with the word of wisdom and had been an eternal investigator through about 11 sets of missionaries, and I'm so lucky that I got to see him at the time of his progression and change and acceptance of the gospel :)

I'm so glad to hear you're all doing so great!!! I pray for you every day and I love you all so much!!! Way excited to get my package, you guys are the best!!! And thanks for also getting my card set, I can't even believe how lucky I am to have you all as my family :) Mom, I'll definitely be talking to you on friday (which is my 6 month mark. O.o. Dang.) and I hope you all have the best week ever!!!!! Love you love you love you love you love you love you!!!!!!!!

-Sister Manwaring 

Ch-ch-ch-ch- changes!!!!

SO MANY THINGS TO WRITE!!!!

First off, I TRANSFERRED!! Last monday Sister Peacock and I had just gotten home from the store and had just bought literally 22 apples and 30 things of yogurt (what we were living on haha) and we get the call that I'm TRANSFERRING. We were like "WHAT?? NOOOO" And just sat there so sad and not knowing what to say. And like I said, I have a huge testimony that all transfers and companions are inspired, so I had a really great sense of peace about the change, but I was just sitting there thinking of all my investigators and the members and SISTER PEACOCK. How was I gonna leave it all?? So we hurried back out to try and retreive my laundry from the shop (we take our laundry to shops now, minus garments of course) and they had already sent it out so I was just like "sweet, no clothes" haha. And then we went and bought a crap-load of coco-bread and went back home to pack and stuff. We just didn't even know what to say and we were both so sad! So I started packing and she came in and was talking with me and it was SO WEIRD to PACK. I'd been there for FIVE MONTHS. While packing I got a little glimpse of what this will be like in 12 months when I'm packing to leave the Philippines... didn't like that hahaha. Then we went out to visit our appointments for the night and you're not supposed to tell people that you're leaving because it just causes problems so I just said these wayyy long prayers at the end just blessing their families out the wazoo hahaha. And then SisterPeacock and I went home and were like "Well, we're not letting all our food go to waste on another companion" so we ate like 4 yogurts each and a ton of apples and mangoes and coco-bread and we've been so obedient about going to bed on time our whole time together but we were getting in bed and I was like "...story time?" and she was like "...yeah." haha so we stayed up until 2AM just talking. She is honestly the best. Those 6 weeks with her FLEW by because we were having so much fun and working so hard every day.

   SO. The next day we get all my junk and go to meet our new companions and find out where I'm even going haha. We were both kindof nervous but I knew that good or bad it was what heavnly Father wanted for me.

 

Um.

 

I'm in heaven.

 

My new compaion is Sister Rachel Becerra and I LOVE HER. Sister Peacock is awesome but I love them both in different ways. She's from sandy, utah. Her dad is the mission president over the Arcadia, California mission. We are TWINS and we both love running, blogs (reading all the same ones, like The Daybook), hair and makeup and shopping (don't judge), we have the same sense of humor, we have the same vision for the work, I JUST LOVE HER SO MUCH. I've been on cloud nine. AND ALSO. I'm in the coolest area ever!! We have ROBINSONS! Rememebr I told you about it just last week? Yeah. It's like a real mall. Like, a nice, normal, mall. And they have healthy food and cute clothes and ahhhhhhhh its so great!! And Bacolod has all these adorable little hole-in-the-wall cafes and they have WRAPS and SALADS and such good food. Our apartment is meant for 4 sisters so it's just huge and we have it all to ourselves. I feel so bad because we get along so well and I've never had an issue being on time for bed or things like that, but the first 4 days we literally layed in bed and talked until like 1 in the morning. The past few days we've been like "okay, we can't keep doing this" so we have to be so strict with ourselves to not talk and just go to sleep even though I end up laying there for the next 10 minutes thinking of all these things I want to talk about hahaha. And she is GORGEOUS. Like, the Philippines has no negative effect on her. And we both want to get fit and eat healthy and her sister is a dietician (or however it's spelled) and has set up a workout plan from cross-fit to do in the mornings and tells us what foods to eat and what to avoid so we're just gonna be so healthy and awesome. And we even can go running here! ITS JUST ALL SO GREAT.

 

     The only thing is the area. This area is a little bit of a ghost town with the work. We've got a million eternal investigators and less actives and the ward is super great and invloved with the missionaries but its definitely a little bit of the doldrums here. And I just came from a really successful area in Sum-ag and when I saw what the average Key Indicators were for this area I was like "Oh. Um. Okay" haha so Sister Becerra and I are just working to change up and wake up this area. We've been going out and finding like crazy, adding new investigators to the pool, building up areas, visiting less actives and different ward members, just  getting things back on their feet here. And obviously, every area is going to be different, I can't hold one area as a standard for my whole mission, but I also believe that there is no such thing as an unproductive area. So even though it'll be a little tough at the get-go I'm so excited for the challenge!

    We have this one recent convert that I have to talk about. His name is Derek. He is BRITISH. Meaning that we get to teach them in ENGLISH. He met and married his wife here years and years ago, and she found the missionaries and was baptized 10 years ago and he only just a month ago followed her in becoming a member. And he is AWESOME. We visit them on Wednesdays and they feed us the best food and we share a lesson and answer his questions and it was probably one of my favorite teaching appointments of my whole mission. He has only been a member for such a short period of time but he is so strong and has one of the coolest testimonies I've ever seen. We all just had a gospel discussion basically for the lesson and Sister Becerra keep bringing up stuff he said or that we talked about in our companion studies all week hahaha. And he's BRITISH. Its so great!!! He got up to use the C.R. and says "Excuse me, I need to go find you-know-who" and the Harry Potter fanatic in my just about died of happiness haha.

     Honestly, I have no idea what I've even done to deserve all these tender mercies. Literally 99% of my prayers are just thanking Him for all of this. He knows me SO WELL. And knows all those big and little things that just make me so happy. And it just makes me want to do everything I can to show how grateful I am. I want to be the best missionary for Him and for His children. And I know that I would want that even should I have been placed in a less desirable area or with a less desirable companion, but I'm just so so so thankful that I'm where I am and doing what I'm doing right now.

 

MISSIONS ARE THE BEST.

 

I love you all and I had a ton to write about this week so I'm getting close on my time but I love all your emails!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!! I can't wait to read and write you all again next week and I hope you all have the best week ever!!!!

 

All my love, Sister Manwaring :) :) :)

The baudelaire orphans

Yet another fabulous week here in the mission field!! I'm kinda scattered right now but I'll try and remember all the things that happened.

First off, I locked us out again earlier in the week hahaha. Not the whole house this time, just the back room with our clothes and stuffs. Meaning that we couldn't shower or change clothes or anything, so, gross haha. But! At least it wasn't the room with our beds! or the bathroom! And we have a spare key to literally every room in the house.. but that one haha. SO! You can basically say that we are the Baudelaire orphans because we took my MTC card and used it to bend the brackets on the window of that room, slipped out the panes of glass, took our mop and broom handles and roped them together with a strainer on one end, took our curtain rod and lashed a bucket ladel on the other end, slipped them through the bars and open panes across the room to the dresser with the key on it and using both strainer and the ladel captured the key and pulled it back in through the window.

Please hold the applause.

It's also the start of CHRISTMAS SEASON in the Philippines!! So MERRY CHRISTMAS!! We sing christmas songs in our comp. study every day and people already have fully decorated trees up in their houses. It's basically my dream come true. (Morg, *if you're reading this haha* remember how we started christmas in october last year? Yeah this is a whole new level of christmas cheer haha)

We have these two new investigators who are golden. As in, golden gid. (also, don't remember if I talked about them last week so sorry if this is a repeat). Juliet and Julian. They have a friend at their work who is a member and gave them a Book of Mormon and encouraged them to attend church, so they've been at church the past two weeks, reading for two hours every day, and all of this before we could even get out to their house to teach them. They live wayyy on the outskirts of our area and only have one day off each a week so we teach them separately and only once a week but when we went out to visit Julian last week he not only already had a testimony of the restoration but he wants to serve a mission. Yeah. They basically just fell into our laps and are ready to be the strongest members ever. God is SO preparing these people. I wasn't even sure I understood him right on the mission part so I asked "A mission for what?" and he holds up the Book of Mormon and said "To tell everyone that this is true".

We also had exchanges this week and I left the area!! I went to Paglaum to work with Sister Portugal and it was sooo great!! It's the first time I've left Sum-ag to work and it was so much fun to experience a different area!!! Sister Portugal is really really great and I always learn so much from her!! But I definitely missed Sister Peacock haha :) Speaking of that, transfers are on wednesday and I'm soooooo hoping that nothing will change and we can just stay comps and stay in Sum-ag. We have so much work to do here! Investigators to help, people to baptize, people to find, people to activate. But. I do know that whatever happens is exactly what heavenly Father knows is best for me. So I'm mentally preparing for change but holding onto a little hope that I get to have one more transfer with Sister Peacock in Sum-ag :)

Andddd I have pictures this week!! So I'll wrap this up and get those sent. Basically, I LOVE this mission, I LOVE these people, I LOVE my companion, and I LOVE doing the Lord's work every day :) I also LOVE YOU ALL. Like, you have no idea. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder! And stronger! And I completely cherish every day of my mission but I can't imagine the insane happiness of when we see each other again :) Until then! Know that I love you and that I hope you all have the best week ever and are so happy and have all the good things!

LOVE LOVE LOVE, Sister Manwaring <3 <3