7 months in Morong

HELLO!!!!

 First of all....transfer announcements! Just like we thought, I’m staying. Go figure. 7 months. Wowsa, more than 1/3 of my mission. At first when they announced it, they made it sound like we were switching areas. Thank heaven's that's not the case. I'm still good in my area, and glad I’m not leaving yet. One more, then I'll switch. Pretty sure that's what'll happen.

Ryan sounds like he's doing a little better this week. I so just know what he's talking about, and it reminds me of all the elders here that I know just craving for something American so they can feel just a little bit at home. Haha. Makes me laugh. Although I think he takes the cake on culture shock. It took me about 2-3 months to really feel ok and about 5 to just hit my groove. There are still some things that just drive me crazy but now it's just normal. He'll adjust though and all of those things will just start to feel normal for him, even the lady drowning the baby. Shoot. Makes me grateful for the Philippines. Love this country.

Just a quick story for you this week. So one thing that's really awesome about being a missionary is that you end up learning so much, even though you're the one supposed to be doing the teaching. There have been so many times when I'm sharing a scripture, and it's like all the sudden, I myself just understand it better and on a whole new level. It's hard to explain, but it's the kind of understanding you get from the Holy Ghost. If I could say one theme for my mission, it's better understanding the holy ghost and what it feels like and how he works. It's funny because the people we're teaching are probably going, "Wow, they know so much", and me as the missionary is going, "Wow, this is coming out of my mouth but I just barely understood this about 1 second ago". One from this week is from 2 Nephi 32:3....scripture mastery of course. I opened it to share it with a LA and all the sudden the thought popped into my head, why does it say "feast upon the words of Christ" in order to endure to the end. It doesn't say, pray always, or go to church, or serve your neighbor. Then it was like a rush of clarity (ps, that's the holy ghost). If you feast upon the words of Christ, all those other good things you'll do too; those will just come naturally. But it starts with feasting on the word of Christ. So my dear family, feast :) 

One last thing. Seriously, my language abilities are all sorts of jumbled. Haha, So they have this thing here were they'll put the name of their family or their wife or kids on the back of their tricycles. So the other day, we were in a tricyle and the tricycle in front of us has "patrick" written on the back and my philippino mind reads it "pa-trick". "pa" in Tagalog means to cause to do something. Ex: pa-alis, cause to leave, pa-lakasin, cause to strenghth. So i read it in my head, cause to trick, a horrible taglish mix. I was befuddled for about 10 seconds as I'm going, why in heaven's name did they stick that on their tricycle. Bahahaha. Struggle moments. Story of my life for this past week. Struggle moments. 

 We're back to normal schedule on Monday so I'll fill you in on all the news from transfer. Haha, seriously the most exciting thing that happens on the mission. Hopefully Sister Lorente is there. Haven't seen that girl in a while. Love you all and pray for you always! I'll talk to you soon!! Muwa!