Mosquitos are the worst!

Dearest Family and Friends,

First of all, I'm so very sorry that I didn't email you all on Monday. We had Zone Interviews with our mission president, so today is our P-day instead.

President Sperry, Sister Wilwand & Sister Sperry, just after she arrived in her mission.

So. Let's see what happened this week.

First of all, I really don't like mosquitoes. They eat me alive. But for some reason, they only bite me on my legs. Weird right? Ah well. As long as I don't get sick from them, they can bite all they want I guess... And yes Mom, I even put on mosquito repellant. 

This week I finally had some real Filipino food. It was sobrang masarap. (Very delicious.) One of the recent converts that we teach made it for us (our first dinner appointment!!) She made us sweet and sour fish with rice (of course) and lumpias (lumpia?) Anyways, it was very tasty. Good thing I like fish. And the rice wasn't that bad... Once I drenched it in sauce and ate it with the fish. So it was all good. I also had a cake-like thing called bibingka. It was very weird, but surprisingly good too. And then one of the families that we visited gave us a drink called melon. It's a sweet liquid with shaved melon in it. Kind of weird, but it tasted very good. At first, I thought it would be something I might have to choke down, because I thought the melon pieces were noodles... But I was wrong.

 Sister Wilwand's apartment!

Sister Wilwand's kitchen. No stove, no oven. They do have a hot plate & a scary toaster oven.

Our teaching. Well. Seeing as there are over 500,000 less actives in the Philippines (no joke. 500,000/650,000ish are less active), we teach a lot of less-actives. Most of our families that we teach aren't progressing. Sad, but true. We don't have many progressing investigators, so that's what we're focusing on doing this week. We've had a couple referrals, so hopefully those turn out good.

Just a side note. For all those members out there, you probably do not even realize how important you are to missionary work. I didn't until I got out here. Members are absolutely crucial to missionary work. We can't do this without you. For one thing, referrals are the best present you could ever give a missionary. It is so hard to talk to random people on the street and try to find someone who is interested in the gospel. Referrals are golden. Also, if missionaries ask you to go to a lesson with them, go! Missionary work is the best thing in the world. Even if you don't have that much time, and can only go to one lesson, they would love you for it! Seriously. Just do it.

We found this guy named Eduardo yesterday who has the strongest testimony of Jesus Christ ever. He's awesome. We were looking for another lady that we OYMed the other day, but we found him instead. He has some different views, but he did take a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon, and he agreed to talk with us again. I really really hope something happens with him. He's awesome.

Sister C & Sister Wilwand - Sister C is her trainer and she is from Samoa.

What else... So we had Zone Interviews on Monday, and it was awesome! It was kind of like Zone conference, but we also had interviews. The APs, the ZLs and President Sperry and wife all talked to us. Whew. Blew my mind. That was definitely the push I needed to love this work even more. Did I mention that I love the gospel? I have definitely found a new love for it being out here. But the best part of the day was LETTERS!!! Seriously. If you know a missionary, write them a letter. It's the best thing in the world to get four letters in one day. (So yes Mom, I did get the letter you forwarded. Thank you =] ) I love letters. Every time I get one, I do a little dance inside. It's awesome. And I can read them over and over again.

So speaking of letters, Mom, you guys might have to send me some stamps. I think I might have to put American stamps on letters to the states, but I'll check on that for sure.

We got to go to the temple today!!! Woo!!! I LOVE the temple. Seriously. Probably my favorite place to be on this entire earth. It's awesome. If you haven't gone in a while. Go.

Sister C. and Sister Wilwand at the temple in Manila

What else... Just a spiritual little story I think. On Monday, we were doing practice teaching with another set of missionaries. They had a 'concern' about their prayers not being answered, and we were supposed to teach them about it. So we talked to them for a little bit, and we weren't quite getting the answers we expected. So I started thinking about any scriptures I could to help them. D&C 8 popped into my mind. Now for those of you who memorized the scripture masteries, and still have them memorized, of course this is a great scripture right? But me, I had no idea what was in D&C 8. But I thought, hey why not, might as well check what's in there. Lo and behold, verse 2 was exactly the verse we needed to share. Well, time ran out before I could share it, but my testimony was strengthened so much by that little experience. Heavenly Father can do anything, and through His Spirit, we can do anything as well. The Spirit can be with us for as long as we allow it to be. I hope that that will happen to me again in the mission. It was the coolest thing ever.

Sister Wilwand's desk. Love all her post-its! :)

I think that's about it. Not too many stories. I'll make sure I write down some more this week. I love being a missionary. I love the gospel. The church is true. Go share it with someone.

Love,

Sister Wilwand


PS - I forgot to mention in my email, but we went on exchanges last week with the Sister Training Leaders. Let me tell you, that was the scariest thing of my life. I was here for a week and a day, and then I had to lead someone else around part of our area. Yikes.

Part of her area - getting lost would be easy!

 And knowing how easily I get lost, I was praying really hard. Luckily, I did not get lost. We found all of our houses, and I learned so much from Sister M! She is exactly the kind of missionary I want to be, so it was really cool to do some work with her.

A wet Sister Wilwand and Sister M

Yes, half of me is soaking wet. It was raining that day, and I guess I was too busy trying to make sure my bag wasn't wet.