Allyson's Mission to the Philippines Baguio Mission: Phinding in the Philippines

Easter was good. Sister Jackson and I drew on some hard-boiled eggs with sharpie... haha. I don't really know about Easter here... it was very strange. No one even mentioned that it was Easter in church. Everyone just went out of town because it was Holy Week last week.

This week, we basically just did a whole lot of finding. We found 4 new investigators and 10 potential investigators last week. We straight up tracted this week. I’ve never done that my whole mission. It surprisingly seems effective! We have been a little frustrated with the ward lately. Yesterday, a missionary asked about home teaching and visiting teaching and was flat out told that it was too hard and it would never work, so they aren't going to try. So, we are really trying to find a way to get the members more involved. I have been seeing lately what a huge difference the ward can make.

We taught Sister S again this week. She seems to be progressing. One of the members went with us again. You would think that she would be the wrong fellowshipper for her, but they love each other! She is so nice and seems to be making progress. We’ll teach her again tomorrow.

We haven't been able to teach Brother D. We have been searching high and low for him. His wife says he has this big project so he's been working overtime. It’s kind of discouraging. It feels like everyone has a problem! The super prepared golden guy's problem is that he's never available! His wife said his next day off is Sunday. So hopefully we'll be able to teach him then!

I have really enjoyed reading Jesus the Christ recently. I am learning a lot about His life. I never realized before that He gradually came to the knowledge that He was the Savior of the world. He gradually learned and grew just like the rest of us and eventually realized to the full extent what His purpose was here on earth. He understood His divinity as the Son of God, but gradually realized through revelation that He would atone for the sins of the world.

Lately, I’ve been realizing a lot that Heavenly Father really cares about us and His hand can be seen our lives. My testimony has also been strengthened that he is preparing people to receive the gospel. Not really any big experiences, just little things here and there.

I asked my companion what I should tell you about what happened this week... she wants me to tell you this story: last week this 11 year old boy kissed me on the arm! What on earth? 11 is pretty old. Thankfully my arm was as high as he could reach. I think he was aiming for my lips. Also, I have become accustomed to people staring at me and I hardly notice it any more. But Sister Tune is freaking out because everyone is staring at us/making all sorts of comments/cat-calling, and the like. Sister Tune isn’t white and she’s never had a white companion before so this is new to her. The cat-calling is at me (the white American). One time, Sister Bircher and I counted in one day and there were 32 different occurrences…mostly creepy men. Last transfer though, Sister Smith and I got harassed by this giant group of women. It was super weird.

Oh, they have these really gross giant gutter things that are about 20% rainwater, 20% dish and laundry water, 10% human urine, 5% human feces, 20% other animal waste, 25% trash. Yep, we totally dropped our phone in one last week. Sister Tune plucked it out really fast. Then we dumped alcohol all over it. I’m surprised it still worked after that!

I’m still walking a lot every day. My calves are getting huge. Sister Jackson and I woke up early today and went to a kickboxing class in the park. It was super fun. I think we're going to try to start going every day.

Well, I don't think I will tell you any scary stories Hahaha. Maybe when I get home ;) don't worry, I won’t forget them and don't worry, I’m safe and am not in danger. I’m perfectly fine.