The apartment is good... by far the apartment with
best living conditions on my mission (air conditioning in our room, non-smelly
water, and even a washer). Haha, the washer has to be filled up with buckets of
water though and the way it drains is that a hole just opens in the bottom and all
the water comes out. The door to our bathroom is pretty funny. It’s completely
broken. It is off the hinges. So when we use the bathroom we have to prop it up
against the door frame.
The new area is ok. I'm happy to be here. The
branch is very very supportive which is great. It seems more like a ward than a
branch. Church was good. For the first time in my mission, I’m not the pianist. There’s a very capable lady that plays. Everything ran very smoothly... there was even a gospel principles teacher that wasn't a missionary. A huge portion of the branch is endowed and sealed which is awesome. I think the only reason we are still a branch is because the other branches in the district are still struggling and we can't become a ward until all of them are ready to become wards and then we can become a stake.
I miss the people in Agoo though. People over there
are just so nice! Here, we have 3 investigators with baptismal dates. I’ve actually
only taught one so far because everyone is busy doing Christmas things so it’s
hard to teach everyone. All of the baptisms are all on January 24. They might
need to be extended though. One of them is pretty difficult. He is 17 and is
really good friends with an active member family. He lives alone though because
his parents pretty much abandoned him and his mom now has a new family. He’s
really hard to teach though because he stopped school for a long time and now
he's going back. But he's at grade 1 level. So it's like teaching a child. He
always comes to church and seminary though. Hopefully we can think of a way to
teach him so he can understand it better and everything.
Our apartment is so close to San Fernando. It only
took 20 minutes to get here and that's because of lots of traffic. On my first
day here, we went on a morning run and accidentally ran into the Sevilla ward
boundaries. Then we realized we were crossing zones and turned back haha. Anyway,
my new companion, Sister S is great. She is half Japanese half American, grew
up in Hawaii, and went to BYU. She only has 2 transfers left of her mission. She’s
a little stressed because the area could be doing better, but we are getting
along great. We live with 2 other sisters. We’re planning on buying some cream
cheese later and attempting to make a cheesecake for Christmas. haha,
I had a good week. On Tuesday I hopped on a bus with
some other sisters going to San Fernando. I got off in Bauang and my companion
was supposed to meet me but she wasn't there. So for a few seconds, I found
myself alone with two giant suitcases on the side of the road in Bauang, Philippines.
Haha. Luckily I’ve been to exchanges in their apartment so I knew where it was.
Then these two men run over to me and offer to carry my suitcases to my new
apartment for me. One of them was super old and one was a little special...
haha it was so funny. They kept saying "just trust us, just trust
us." I didn't have any other choice, so I just trusted them. My companion
was pretty surprised when I popped up at the apartment. There was a
miscommunication and she thought I was coming later.
We had a branch Christmas party on Saturday and a
seminary Christmas party on Friday. Both were pretty fun. We played games and
ate. That’s what happens at all parties pretty much. By the end of next week, I
will have had more dinner appointments in Bauang than I had in Agoo.
It’s been a little bit of struggle to teach people because everyone is so busy with Christmas stuff. Our apartment is by the market and in the center of everything. Yesterday, there was a parade there (we saw a little bit of it. It was pretty cute!) and there are all kinds of Christmas parties and whatnot.
It’s been a little bit of struggle to teach people because everyone is so busy with Christmas stuff. Our apartment is by the market and in the center of everything. Yesterday, there was a parade there (we saw a little bit of it. It was pretty cute!) and there are all kinds of Christmas parties and whatnot.
For Christmas, we'll spend our day proselyting... we have a lunch appointment. We’re not sure if we have a curfew yet. Maybe not because president hasn't said anything. I just hope we have people we can teach... I don't really want to spend Christmas walking around... oh well. Whatever it takes. This Christmas season keeps motivating me to share the gospel with everyone I can find, but it's also really hard because everyone is too busy watching parades and street dancing and whatnot haha. But the Christmas season is making it easier to start talking to people about the gospel. I just really want to have some success in this area before I go home. We have been working hard and are trying to do everything we can.
Our area is partly in the beach! It is beautiful! I
usually have sand in my shoes.
My time is up. Love you!
At a Korean restaurant in Baguio. It's delicious and they give you free costumes to wear!
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