San Mateo, Montalban

Hello from my new area!

I am now in San Mateo, Montalban!

Last Wednesday was our transfers, and whew! What a long day. I took a taxi with two other Elders that were also coming to Montalban. We fit all of our luggage into one taxi. Like a small, little car taxi. It was tough work, but we made it! It was a little bit of a long ride. Longer than it should have been actually. We ended up going farther than we were supposed to, and then we had to back track to our meeting point. After, we met up with our companions and headed off to our apartments, and off to work! Sister Kalama is my new companion, and she is awesome! She is the trainer of my MTC companion, and she was MTC companions with my trainer. So we're kind of just switching companions now... But yeah, she's way cool! We also have two other Sisters in our apartment, Sister Pristopher (she was in my first house) and Sister Munoz. They're both pretty quiet, so sometimes it seems like it's just the two of us, but it's pretty fun.

Sister Wilwand and her new companion, Sister Kalama

I miss Fairview quite a bit, but mostly just the families over there. We're hoping and praying that the new Sisters will be able to find all of our families. And hopefully they will continue to progress!

So let's see. I love my new area already! We've had kind of a slow week this week because so many people are busy, but things are going well. We've visited a lot of less-actives, because we don't really have very many investigators. Actually, we just have one. Our less-actives area really great, although they're not really progressing. Some are, but most aren't. So we have lots of works to do. We also really need to start finding some new investigators. We have a family that is hopeful, and we're going to teach them for the first time on Friday. Hopefully they turn out to be interested!

Pretty typical Filipino houses in the area where Sister Wilwand is serving

The kids here are the best! I met a couple of girls who pretty much became my best friends the minute I met them. It's fun =] We have a lot of little kids who sometimes follow us around, and are always so excited to see us. If you're having a bad day, just become a missionary and come to the Philippines. It's the best =]

Not much else has happened this week... Sister Kalama and I have decided to have a healthy transfer for the next 6 week. We're pretty excited about it =] We do workouts every morning, and dang, we are so sore! But it's a good kind of sore. We also eat lots of vegetables and everything, except on Mondays. We decided that Mondays are our cheat days. I am so excited, because there is a member in our ward who will let us come over and bake in her oven. I am sooo excited! I think today we're going to bake cheescake brownies... Or something delicious like that =]

Sister Wilwand's new apartment in San Mateo

What else is new... It's definitely summer in the Philippines! It is way hot over here! I even had people telling me that I was getting darker! And I have a watch tan. What?? I can get tan? Yes, that's right. People here said so, so it must be true.

I think that's about it! Sorry this is such a short email. Hopefully I'll have more to write about next week!

I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Transferred!

*Drum roll please....*

Ta da! My companion and I are both getting transferred!

You might be wondering, how does that work? Well, let me tell you. So yesterday was our transfer announcements, and while the Zone Leaders were announcing, they announced that there was a pull-out! Yikes. It turns out that is was our area, Fairview 2. What this means, is that my companion and I will be transferring to new areas, and a new companionship will come and 'open' our area. There are actually 3 Sister who are coming on Wednesday. Well, this was quite a shock for us. Our area has been progressing really well, and we're super sad to leave all of our less-actives and investigators. It's been a somewhat stressful couple days, as we've been trying to get everything ready to leave for the other sisters. Here in the Philippines, there aren't really addresses, so we've been drawing maps to people's houses to make it easier for the other sisters. Luckily we were able to say goodbye to pretty much everyone yesterday. It's hard for us both to leave this area, but we're putting our faith in the Lord and trusting that he has a plan for the people that are in this area!

The Zone at transfer announcements.

So, where am I going? I'm transferring to San Mateo 1st Ward, over in Montalban. And my companion is Sister Kalama! Funny story, she's actually the trainer of my MTC companion, so I'm excited to be companions with her! Sister Lavador is transferring over to Camarin, and she is actualy opening and area with another Sister. So they should have lots of fun =]

Like I mentioned before, our area is doing so well! We have gotten bunted quite a bit these last few weeks, but our families are progressing really well!! We have one new part-member family that is so amazing. They've had a lot of trials, and the soon-to-be husband is a less-active who has decided he wants to come back to church. We extended a baptismal invitation to the wife, which she accepted on our first visit. When we came back again, we found out that the had moved their wedding date closer to the baptismal date that we had extended. They are so awesome! We're excited to hear about whether they will be baptized.

We also have some very special less-active families that we love so much. They are progressing so well, and we're excited to hear about their progression in the next couple months as well. Though it's sad for us to leave this area, I trust that these next Sister will take care of this area for me!

This is what a ride in a jeepney is like

I guess that's about it that's going on lately. We're just busy packing and trying to get everything ready for transfers tomorrow. Crazy stuff!!

Sister Wilwand and her kabahays the morning of transfers

One last thing I wanted to share. We studied about the Atonement the other day to share with one of our less-active families, and I had some cool realizations. Jesus Christ died for our sins. Lots of people know this, but one thing that we sometimes forget to mention is that he also suffered for all of the pains, sorrow and guilt that we feel on a daily basis. So here's my thought. All of those bad things that you feel in your life have already been felt for you. You DO NOT have to feel them anymore. Jesus Christ has paid for all of it. Every bad feeling, every sin. Everything. He is handing us this gift on a golden platter, and all we have to do to accept it is to follow him. We have this gift waiting for us, and it's not something that we can just give back to him. It's there, whether we use it or not. So we might as well use it. Jesus Christ suffered for each and every one of us, individually. He loves us that much. Just think about it…

A mahogany tree in Echo Park

I love you all! I hope you're all doing well!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all that are in America!!! 

And of course, Happy Birthday to Mitchell this week!! (I hope you have fantastic birthday!!)

So let's see... This week was a very interesting week. It was a very good week in some points, and a tough week in others.

First, we had a few tough days this week. We had a few days where everyone we were trying to teach was either busy or not home. On Saturday, we only had one teaching appointment. For the rest of the day, we were tracting or walking to other appointments that weren't working out. All in all, it was a long day.

But we had some very good days this week! I got to go on exchanges twice this week. I went out with 2 MTC Sisters on Wednesday, Sister Wilson and Sister Funaki. They were awesome! They were so very new and green, but they were so awesome to be able to go out with! It's always great to feel their excitement for this work. It's a good refresher for how we should feel about this work. I loved it!

This is the view looking out the back of a trike. Jeepneys and trikes, along with lots of walking, are the main modes of transportation in Sister Wilwand's area.

I also got to go on exchanges on Friday with one of the STLs. Her name is Sister Jones, and she is amazing!! We're basically the same person. She's exactly a year older than me in the mission, her birthday is the day before mine, we're both American, we both went to BYU, we both played soccer and love running now... So she's pretty great. We had a fantastic day, and I definitely learned a ton from her! She taught me about working hard and about relying on the Lord. Because here, you have to do both. You can't work hard by yourself and expect real results. You can't rely on the Lord and then do nothing and expect results. You have to do both. It was so great to go out with her and see the kind of potential I might have. She was great!!

We also had a really great day yesterday too! The family that I was so excited about last week came to church again this week! It really was the most amazing thing to see all of them at church again. And when they stayed for Gospel Principles class, they were participating and asking questions, and it was awesome! We were so super excited!

And today was a great day too! We went to a place called Echo Park, and it was awesome! It smelled so clean there, and I loved it! It was really a beautiful place. While we were there, there were tons of teenagers, and all of them kept wanting to take pictures with the American Elders in our zone. Ha! Then, one of the girls wanted to take pictures with Sister Cork and I... That was a little bit weird, but of course we said yes and took pictures with her.

Sister Wilwand, Sister Lavador, Sister Plame & Sister Cork

Echo Park

Echo Park - p-day visit

What else has been going on... Sister Lavador's birthday was last week, and Sister Cork's is this week, so we're planning on celebrating today. I think we're going to make homemade ice cream, so we'll see if that ends up working! Who knows, it might! It also might be too humid and hot here, but we'll hope!

They tried making some ice cream in plastic bags, with ice and salt (Sister Wilwand had done this before in Chemistry and possibly girls' camp) but it didn't work very well. They ended up just putting the mixture in the freezer because it was too hot and too humid for the baggie idea to work. Not sure what she used for ingredients - the milk is not milk like we have in the US. She did say she could get cream...

Anyways, things are going well here! We had transfer announcements next week, and we're all thinking that I'll probably transfer, but we'll see. I really don't know what will happen. We'll see!!

I love you all, and I love this work! It is amazing to see people changing and growing through this gospel. It's fantastic!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Quite the hike!

Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat!

Sorry for the early email today! We went hiking this morning, and we decided to email right afterwards =]

So this week was such a good week!! First of all, our ward members are amazing! This week, we got four referrals contacted! It's so awesome! One of our investigators is absolutely amazing. Every time we come over, she always has questions ready for us, and she always seems satisfied when we answer them. At the last couple lessons, she seems so excited when we see here, and then she always asks when we are coming back. It's so cool! She's so grateful for the knowledge that we've shared with her already, which is awesome. I can see the gospel working in her already!!

As for our less-actives, we've definitely had some progress! The families in our area are amazing, seriously. I can't even describe it. We had the absolute best Sunday yesterday. One family that we have been working with for so long, finally came to church!! When I saw them, I think I almost fainted, I was so excited! We've had some amazing lessons with them, and I can just see the Spirit working to get that desire in them to manifest itself. They are so great, and I am so excited for them!!

One fun little activity that we had this week was with the Primary kids. On Saturday morning, we had a 'Mini-MTC' for the older primary kids. They are the cutest! We had a few talks and things, and the missionaries in our ward did a little workshop. We talked about our purpose and about opportunities to share the gospel as a kid. Later, we had the kids practice how to give a Book of Mormon away, and they are all so great! We are going to have to many missionaries coming from the Philippines in 10 years!

Today was such a good day too! We got up at 2:45 to go hiking. Woo. You could say we're a little tired now, and we're looking forward a nap time today. Also, I am definitely going to be sore tomorrow. This hike was crazy. It wasn't really a hike since we mostly just walked on a road, but that was the steepest road I have EVER walked on. It was crazy. We started hiking at 4:30 in the morning, and it was crazy because it was so quiet here! It was way awesome!!! So we hike all the way to the top of this mountain, and at the top, there was a kind of radio tower thing. Well, the guy that owns the tower said we could climb it. So what did we do? We climbed it. Well, most of us did. Only two of us made it up to the very top though. It was so high! Me and one of the Elders made it up, but it was so worth it! The view from there was amazing. I love the Philippines!!

 Sister Wilwand climbed all the way to the top of the tower, of course :) This is just the first platform, but she went all the way up.

 Sister Wilwand and Sister Plame on the first platform. 

 View from above!

 No fear of heights for this girl!

 More views from the top

 Sister Wilwand and the other sister missionaries at the top of the mountain they hiked.

 The tower they climbed!!

 Sister Wilwand and her companion, Sister Lavador

They caught a ride back down with a member and all the Elders sat in the back of the truck.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Micah!! His birthday was last week, so if you see him, say happy birthday to him!

Alright, a few last little spiritual thoughts. During my personal study the last few days, I found some neat quotes in Preach My Gospel. First: "Only the gospel will save the world from the calamity of it's own self-destruction."-- Pres. Ezra Taft Benson. Second: "In a world ever more dangerous,... the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world."-- Pres. Body K. Packer.

How great are those quotes?? And they are so true!! Only the gospel can really save this world from the calamity and self-destruction that it is falling into. And all of the souls that are spiritually starving can only be nourished by something so filling and healthy as the gospel. Go out and share the gospel! Everyone needs it, even if they don't know it!

I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Short letter for a short week

Hello to everyone!

How is everyone doing? Hopefully good!

This week has been a good week and a tough week all in one!

We've had a few really good days this week. First of all, some of our less-actives are really progressing, and we're really hoping that they're going to start coming back to church soon. We're had some really great lessons with a lot of them, and we're hoping for good things!!

Our ward is really starting to progress as well!! This week, we've gotten quite a few referrals, and we're working on contacting those. We're really hoping that they will work out, instead of us needing to OYM or tract all of our investigators. We've also had some really great members who are starting to work with us. Yay!! It is really the best thing ever when member come and work with the missionaries. That is where we really have the best lessons.

We've had a few disappointments this week, unfortunately. We have a 10 year old investigator who is doing so well, but his parents want him to wait until he's 18 to decided whether he wants to be baptized. So we're trying to figure out a way that we could teach his parents as well. We also have the son of a less-active that we are teaching who is so excited to be baptized! We've had to postpone his baptism for a few weeks now, but we're hoping that we can get things figured out soon.

One of the best things, this week we made brownies!! We did have to make them in our toaster oven, but I was so excited! We melted peanut butter mixed with this vanilla butter stuff and put it on top of them. Oh my goodness, they were delicious. We also had a dinner with a family just last night, and they made us chocolate fondue. Sadly, we only had bananas to dip in the chocolate, but it was still cool to see that they actually have fondue here!

Sorry this letter is so short! It's been a kind of short week. I love all of you! Always remember that Heavenly Father loves you, and He is always looking out for you. The Lord is hastening His work, go out and help Him!

Love,

Sister Wilwand