YAY!! No transfer, same comp

Kumusta kayo!!! tapos na sa isa pang linggo! Paano ba iyen?!

Guess what, guess what! I am NOT transferring AND I get to keep my companion!! YAY!! I’m so stinking happy right now! I thought for sure that we'd get split, but they're going to just white wash one of our areas and we're staying together. Holy hannah, I'm so happy. It is just no fun at all having to adjust to a new companion, new habits, new teaching style. Blugh. I’m shocked though. Sister Lorente is going to be opening our other area. She's the other sister that lives in our house. And I'm way excited about that because she's absolutely hilarious and that means at least 3 of us will be together up until Christmas. Well, at least til Dec 22, so that's happy enough :)

I can't believe how cold it is over there. Honestly, I don't feel like time has moved at all. It's still July for me because the weather hasn't changed one little bit. Yeah, there's a storm every once in a while and that's about it. Every time I actually sit and think about the date I'm like, wow, it's cold at home. I wouldn't mind sharing a bit of that cold at all. We all thought we were going to die yesterday, not even kidding. One of the hottest days we've had here. Sister Lorente goes, "MAINIT! I just feel so sticky ALL OVER! I'm like a big giant sticky note. I bet I could stick to the wall right now!". Haha, we all just sat there and laughed because it was SO true. Holy cow, it just drains you. I just sat and day dreamed for a second about what it would be like to lay my head down on a cold pillow. You don't get that here. There's only 2 temperatures, hot and hotter. Haha.

I see a lot of people from my district actually. Elder Webster is in my zone so we see him every pday and every Sunday because our wards share a building. Also, Elder Brunker and Sister Losefa are in our zone too. And then, temple trip is every 3 weeks so we usually see just about everyone else there. I love my mtc district. haha, seriously, so many good memories. I'm doing ok with the language. It honestly depends on the day. Usually I can understand about 90%, but if they start pulling out some deep tagalog or if they have a funky accent, I’m lost. So grateful I have a Pinay companion to act as translator for moments such as that.

Tell twit I’ll send her progressing letter soon, if I can find a post office that is. haha. Oh my goodness, it is basketball season now!!! My Aggies, taking on BYU in the Spectrum. Come on, we know my Aggies will blow them away :) How's the team this year? Oh boy, do I still just love Utah State. Tell Ryan to cheer loud for me :) I can't believe fall semester is almost over. Time is seriously flying. And ps, how is Bre doing with the new house and everything? I've been meaning to write her, I just honestly haven't had time yet. Jake is in Africa? When in heavens name did that happen?!  Holy cow, I feel like everyone is all over the place with graduating, marriage, turning into dating machines (What! Is his goal to be married by the time I get home? haha) and jetting off around the world. So crazy. As for piano music, I do get to play every once in a while, but not much. My only request is the TSwift/coldplay music. I'm curious to see what it's like.

Oh, now for updates for the week. It's been a long week so I'm not even sure where to start, but we'll try to get the big highlights in. So Sister Jescel is doing really well. I'm kind of sad though because her husband doesn't want to listen right now. He's just not interested is all. But Sister Jescel is awesome. She's just so sweet and so humble. Last time we taught her, she just started crying and telling us how grateful she was for us. I don't think we realize most of the time what it is that we take to people. It's a whole new kind of knowledge; a whole new purpose for them. She still has a way to go, but her faith is strong. We have a new investigator that we taught for the second time last week and had such a cool experience. We taught her the restoration and we've learned that with the restoration, we honestly just have to take it really slow, ask a ton of questions and check for understanding, because if not, most people honestly just get lost. I know, you think it's so clear and it just makes plain logical sense (which it does), but it's like it shatters every idea or perspective they've ever had about God and religion. Everything. Sometimes it literally will take 5 times teaching the restoration before it will sink in. yep. So we took it show, we’re super clear and asked a lot of questions. And we got to the end and of course, had her pray. So we teach her the steps again, and she starts praying and then she pauses. Which happens, because sometimes they forget what comes next or they don't know what to say. So we both sat there for a bit and I thought, should I say something and help her out? And then it was honestly just like, Bam, the spirit hit like a wall. I can't even describe it really, but holy hannah, it was all the sudden so strong and she just starts crying. And I'm sitting there going, yep, she's definitely feeling this. SO awesome. We have high hopes for her :) Sometimes it's sad though because people can have witnesses like that (we have another investigator like this), they can understand and know it's true, but they still won't do it. They won't apply it. Sometimes, I seriously hate agency. If they just knew how much happier they could be. I'm beginning to understand how our Father in Heaven feels when we know something is good and we just choose not to do it. Frustrating.

So last week was November 1, which is all saints day. Which means everyone goes home to the provinces and goes to the cemetary to camp out, party, and feed food to the dead, which inevitably ends with us getting punted all day long. Haha, oh boy, we just sat and laughed because, well, there's not much you can do about it. But there are flowers and candles everywhere outside people's houses and it's Biko day in every house. Biko is a rice cake and I think we had biko that day like 4 times, no joke. Anyway, it's just so funny to see how ideas like that get started. They are all Catholic, so they believe in the resurrection, and yet they feed food to the dead. Go figure. It's like there's no logic. We met a Muslim friend this week as well. He went to the haj just this past month and he also happens to be a member of the MILF, one of the terrorist groups down in Mindinao. He gave us a nice insight into his doctrinal views, but I couldn't help but just laugh. it's illegal to kill a fly, but no problem to be in the MILF and kill a person. It's bawal to have tattoos in Islam, but it's ok, after I die, my body will be left here and only my spirit will meet God so he won't know the difference. Bahaha. That's only scratching the surface. It makes me sad at how confused people are and they try to figure it out, but with so much confusion, of course they don't get it right. I feel like that's been the theme for this week. People being confused by mans view of religion, of God, of everything. We walked by a church the other day and they had a stained glass of the baptism of Christ....John the Baptist is pouring water onto Jesus's head. Where does it ever say that in the Bible? Pretty sure he went to a river and then "came up out of the water". It's like what it says in the Book of Mormon, with following the traditions of their fathers. That's what it's like. That's just the way it is for them and no one really stops to think twice. But that's what we get to do. Honestly, I love being a missionary. It's so much fun to explain to them what God is really like and how much he loves us because so many times, they don't understand that at all.

Ok, I'm out of time for now and I'm trying to even remember what it is that happened this week. It's starting to all blur together. Ha. I love you all and hope everything is going well for you! Thank you for all the support and love. It honestly means the world to me. Mahal na mahal ko kayo!!!