Last transfer...so sad

We just received an email this week. Candace's release date is January 3, 2012.  We are excited to see her, but are sad that her mission will be over.  Definitely mixed emotions on that one :)

 Hello my dearest family!!!!

Oh my goodness, I'm still in shock about all that snow!!!!! Loving it! Truly makes it feel like it's actually close to Christmas. I mean, I hear Christmas music and see lights on houses, but when it's nearly 100 degrees, it just doesn't have the Christmas ring. But 2 feet of snow sure does!!! Ha, I'm gonna freeze in Utah. The ear is good, They cleaned out the fungus last week. I'm still supposed to use the drops for the next couple weeks or so. We'll see how it all works out. I think it'll be fine. But ma, if you're going to be making appointments, above all else I need you to make me and appointment with Stacy to get my haircut. Perferrably the second I touchdown in Utah. Ha, it's that bad. Just imagine 1 1/2 years of humidity and no cut. It's practically a lion’s mane. And Tate's companion sounds like a mess. Oh man, I do not envy him, not one little bit. The trunky ones are the absolute worst. 

Found out about the election about as soon as it happened. Our investigator texted us about it. Ah, so sad. But you know, there's a reason. The Philippinos love Obama....it's because he's black. Sounds about like half of America. Just hope the senate doesn't follow him. 

Oh my goodness, so this week was about a billion times better than the last week!! You wanna know why? I gave myself and attitude adjustment. Ha. It's actually quite interesting...I've learned this lesson about 3 or 4 times now in the mission. It's just better to accept the will of Heavenly Father and trust him to pick up the rest than to worry and try to push progress and what you want that's just not on his time frame. Apparently it's a lesson I needed to learn again. Ha. But on the bright side, the first time it took me a few months, the second time a couple months, and this time only about 3 weeks. So I'm thinking that's improvement :)

So updates for the week! I just have a lot of stories apparently (from what's written on my sticky note). First about Brother Exequial. Haha, he is just the cutest little old man. We went to him this week and left him a WofW pamphlet after the lesson. He looks at it and goes, this is about smoking isn't it? Ha, how did you know. Turns out when we first started teaching him, he was smoking 10 sticks a day. Has since he was 17. But he's been slowing cutting down, without us even knowing it. He know only smokes 1 stick a day. Haha, how cool is that?! It's just crazy how once the start to feel they spirit, they know what is right and what is wrong, even if we haven't taught it yet. So awesome. His baptism will have to be in December but he's so excited. His friend from the branch, Tatay Carlito is going to baptize him. Char :) Haha. Sister Marissa is our other awesome investigator. She's just so quite and so humble. If you teach her something, she's just do it, no questions asked. She gets answers like crazy fast because her heart is so soft. Her baptism is coming up in a few weeks.

Next...so we have this Less Active that we're working with. She is awesome and I absolutely love her to death but she is one of the offended members that are just so hard hard hard. Teaching her just opens up all her frustrations about the leaders, the members, everything that's happened to them, blah blah blah and I hate it because it just drives that spirit away (obviously). So what we've been doing with her is just reading the Book of Mormon. She's never read the BofM. She loves the Bible, has read it multiple times, but has never read the BofM. She's now in 1 Nephi 17 and I just wish I could describe to you the difference in this person. It is night and day. She is receptive to the spirit and her heart is soft. Her prayers are more sincere and she understands the gospel better. And she's just reading about Nephi, it's not even doctrine that she's been reading. Holy hannah, it's incredible. And you wanna know what else...sometimes she'll switch over to reading the Bible instead and I can tell. I can tell when she's only read the Bible and when she's been reading them both. When it's just the Bible, she's more hard headed/hearted. It's incredible. Just a testament of the power of the Book of Mormon. I think sometimes we don't see or notice it, but those around us sure can. 

We got a referral from a new missionary in our area that just got home. He says to us, He's "INC..." (meaning Iglesia ni cristo), then he goes, "....incomplete". Hahaha. Loved that one. Philippino cultural fact for the week.... so if a girl goes to a guys house, even if they're just friends, it is a huge no-no. If they want to hang out, the guy can come to the girl's house; but you don't go to a guy’s house unless you have another girl with you or you're practically engaged. Little strict with their dating rules. It's improvement though considering it used to be if you touched hands with a guy, you'd have to marry them. It's a strange thing dating here....

Just a quick question.....Elder Froude, he used to be assigned here in Mindoro, he texted me the other night and goes, I need you help.....haha, and now I need you're help. What is the password to the Gryffindor common room in the first book? The very first password they have? It's been on my mind trying to figure it out for about 3 weeks now. Both Froude and I would feel much better if we knew that little tid-bit of info. Haha, salams! :) 

I think that's all for the week! I'm a wee out of time and I want to send some pictures still. Transfers are next week. I can't even believe it. Time is absolutely flying here. patay. Haha.  Mahal ko po kayong lahat! Magusap tayo sa susunod na linggo!