Helping Hands on trikes

Hello!!

Holy moly, time is flying by so fast!! Transfers are already next week! How crazy is that??

Well, this week has been slow but good! We had some cool stuff happen this week.

First of all, we are going to have a baptism soon! We have the sweetest little girl who is going to get baptized on the 17th. We are super excited for it! It was supposed to be this week, but we've had some trouble finishing her lessons, so we pushed back her date a little bit. She is super awesome, and she is excited to get baptized. She even said that she wants to serve a mission in Washington or Hawaii (where Sister Kalama is from), so yeah!!

Yesterday was probably the best Sunday we've had here so far! We had so many less-actives come to church, it was awesome! We had some come to church who haven't been in months, or years. It's so great!! We were super excited to see a lot of our families finally realizing how important the gospel is in their lives.

Today has been fun so far! We went bowling for our zone activity. I thought I was bad at bowling, but wooh... We've got some good bowlers in our zone ;) It was actually really fun! There must not be any such thing as bumpers in the Philippines, because we didn't have any. So after lots of gutter balls and close misses, it was a good day =] I actually ended up winning both of the rounds in our lane, so that was fun.

Sister Wilwand and her zone at the bowling alley on P-Day.

Sister Kalama and Sister Wilwand demonstrating how their daily workouts make them strong :)

Sister Wilwand, Sister Kalama and their Zone Leaders

What else... We had another CSP this week. We cleaned up the church and the street around the church. I think it was actually a Philippines wide service day or something like that, so all of the missionaries in our zone were working in their areas. It was cool! 

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama decided they need a "trike thing" to go proselyting!

But it is super hard work to pedal it up hills.

Maybe Elder Te'e will peddle it for them :)

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama with the Elders serving in their ward and a ward member, all dressed in the bright yellow "helping hands" jerseys for the service project.

I guess that's about it. Like I said, it was kind of slow week this week. Everything's going good over here though! I love being in this area! I love all of the families that we are teaching. They're awesome!

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Happy Easter from the Philippines!

Happy Easter to all of you at home!

I hope that you all had/are having a fantastic Easter!

This week was a good week! Although not much has happened since I emailed you all last, but that's ok =]

So, since last Wednesday, we've had a few fun things happen!

On Saturday, we did yet another CSP! We like to do service projects over in this area ;) We went over to the other Sister's area and cleaned up somebody's yard. Whew! It was gross. There was lots of trash over there, so we cleaned up their entire yard and then we burned it all. Because that's just what they do here. It smells gross, but it cleans up everything nicely =D

These are houses in the area where Sister Wilwand went hiking.

Yesterday, we didn't do much for Easter. We kind of just celebrated by telling each other Happy Easter. So kind of lame, but that's ok! Today's our P-day, so maybe we'll celebrate today. We did get to see an interesting parade though. On Friday, a whole bunch of people had this HUGE parade around our area. They had statues of different saints and Jesus and things like that. It was a little bit scary for us because we had to walk through them to get to an appointment, but it was interesting to see how other people celebrate this holiday. (sadly, she has not yet received the Easter package I sent. Hopefully, it will arrive and she'll have a late Easter treat!)

Today was a fun day! At least so far... We went and did another hike today! I love hikes here. They're so fun! So we got up at 3 this morning to go hiking at 5 or so. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we had to ride in these little trike things to get all the way up to the top. Well, there were six of us in one trike, and 8 on another open trike. Every time we had to go up a hill, we would usually have to get out and walk about halfway or so. And every time we had to cross a little stream of water, we had to get out and walk across. But that was only on the way up. The way down was way better. Anyway, when we got up to the top, we hiked a little ways to where there were supposed to be waterfalls. Unfortunately, it's summer now and the water is all dried up... Bummer. But, it was still really cool!

One of the trikes they rode up the mountain. I guess the Sisters ride and the Elders push, although I'm betting Sister Wilwand was hopping off to push :)

The area where the waterfalls are normally found. 

The big rock they climbed (Sister Wilwand, Sister Kalama and one of the Elders)

Sister Wilwand and her companion. Sister Wilwand feels even whiter than she normally is in the Philippines :)

Sister Pacinio, Sister Wilwand, Sister Kalama and one of the Elders at the top of the rock.

Um, Sister Wilwand thought this was the non-goofy photo...

The pool at the bottom of the (non) waterfall.

A lot of the water had dried up in the hot summer season.

They saw several men hiking up the mountain as well. Some were carrying bananas, some were carrying loads of wood and others had big bulky bags, but she was not sure what they were transporting.

The road back down the mountain.

Everybody crammed back in the trikes for the trek back down the mountain.

Our area is doing well! We have some really good progressing less-actives, and one progressing investigator!! We're super excited! We've had some really good lessons lately, and things are just going well. We're hoping we'll have some baptisms soon, although probably not this transfer. Hopefully next transfer. It should be great!

I hope everything is going well with all of you! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

General Conference, Temples and more!

Dear everyone!

Hello from far away!

I hope you are all doing well! I love you all a ton!

Ok, so this week was a good week! We did lots of fun stuff this week.

First, we had a CSP last Wednesday (community service project). We got to dress up in these fancy bright yellow vests and then go and pick up trash around a neighborhood. It was actually really fun =] We just kind of all hung out with our zone and went around putting trash into big plastic bags. We got so dirty, and we were so tired, but it was way fun! At the end, we were washing off with a hose, and in this little house, there was a cat giving birth. So that was kind of gross to see, but hey, now I can say I've just about seen it all here…

Sister Kalama and Sister Wilwand (in some very crazy pants! I don't remember packing those!)

Sister Wilwand and her zone at the Community Service Project

Then, last weekend, we had General Conference!!! Oh my goodness, I loved it! It was really amazing. I didn't bring my notebook with me today, so next time I'll share some of my favorite quotes and things, but it truly was amazing! I can't believe that I used to sleep through this... Anyway, what an amazing opportunity we have to listen to our Prophet and his Apostles every six months! It is so needed, and it is awesome. If you didn't get to hear all the sessions, I would encourage you to go listen to them! They're really great, and I promise something in them will be just specifically for you.

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama, getting ready to watch General Conference

So then on Monday, we had Zone Conference. We got up super early and then jeeped with our zone and another zone about an hour away to our conference. It was so fun! I learned so much from all of the leaders that talked to us. It was amazing!! Again, I forgot my notebook, but I learned a ton. It was so awesome! We had a testimony meeting, and it was so great! The Spirit that these missionaries bring is so amazing. I really am lucky to be here with all of them. They strengthen me so much more than they even know!

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama on their way to Zone Conference

When you put the whole zone in one jeepney...

And today, we had temple day!! I love the temple! It's awesome! Today, we got up at 3 to get ready and then jeep to the temple. We are so tired, but it was so amazing! I love the temple, and it was fun just to talk to all the other missionaries in our zone and in the other zone. I loved it! The temple is such a special place to be, and to receive revelation and answers. Love it!

The Manila Temple at dawn

We love to see the temple, we're going there TODAY!

So, anyone who knows Sister Wilwand will realize that this is a very unusual photo. This is the girl who refuses to wear pink and has never, ever worn flowers!! Crazy what a mission does to someone ;)

Out for lunch after going to the temple

We pretty much had a really busy week this week, and it was great!

As for our area, it's doing alright! We have a progressing investigator, and I am so excited for her! She is a little girl who has been coming to church with a member family, and she is so excited to get baptized! And I am so excited for her! She's awesome!

And I thought only Elders took goofy mission pictures...

I think that's about it... I hope you are all doing well. Know that I love all of you, and I know that this church is true!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Bonus - Sister Kalama and Sister Wilwand doing their laundry. Yep, feeling pretty grateful for my washer & dryer right about now.

SIX MONTHS!

Hello!!

Yupp! I've almost been here for 6 months, how crazy is that? Time has gone by way fast! It's General Conference weekend for us here, which means I've already been here for 6 months... Crazy stuff!

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama

So we had some fun things happen this week. First, our area is doing well! I absolute love the less-active families that we have here. They are amazing! It's crazy that I've only been here for about a week and a half, because I already feel so close to some of these families. They are amazing!

A bit of contrast to the crowded housing in the last blog post - some of Sister Wilwand's area looks like these photos above.

Our investigators are doing ok. We've been finding some new ones lately! We had a ward FHE on Saturday, and some of the ward members brought some investigators for us to teach, so we're really excited to start teaching them this week! We actually have one little girl who is progressing, and I love it! She's only 9, but she's so smart! She loves coming to church and everything, so it's great!

On Saturday, at our ward FHE, everyone had so much fun! The missionaries in our ward were in charge of games, so it was a blast. It was me and my companion, and the two Elders that are in our ward. We did musical chairs, Mahal mo ba ako? (Do you love me?), a Kalamansi race (kind of like mini limes), and we did the doughnut game (the one where you tie them on strings and people eat with no hands). It was so fun! These were some games that nobody had ever really played before, so they were all excited to be a part of it. Even the adults participated! It was awesome! And at the end, we had prizes for all of the little kids. It was great!

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama with some of their favorite people :)  Sister Wilwand LOVES the children in the Philippines!!

Also on Saturday, we had a service project with our zone. We thought we were going to build a house, but we ended up just digging holes for the cement to go in, and then we went and cleaned up another yard. It was very hot, so I actually got sunburned... I think it's the first time that I've gotten sunburned here…

Sister Wilwand and her zone at a community service project - notice all the SISTER missionaries!

Sister Wilwand and Sister Kalama had to cross this "bridge" to get to the service project!

Yesterday we had a very interesting experience. We were going to a recent converts house, and while we were waiting for him, we met a guy from California who is staying below our recent convert. I started asking him questions, and it turns out that he is actually preaching over here in the Philippines too. He asked if we were LDS and of course, we told him yes. He told us that he has preached in front of a ward in California before... Yikes. After that, our recent convert came down, so we started talking to him. The guy went inside, and asked the people inside the house if they would like to come join him, then, he came outside and just started bashing on us. He told us, "I just need to warn you. Be careful when you preach the truth." And then he started talking about the Book of Mormon and how he's read it, and it's not true, and all these things about the Church. Well, we didn't end up talking to him for very long, but the whole time that he was talking, I couldn't help but think, "No. You're wrong." It was the first time that I've ever experienced anything like that, but I'm glad I did. It definitely showed me how strong my testimony is. The man was obviously very confused about the church, but I'm glad I was able to meet him. He strengthened my testimony more than he will ever know. And our recent convert asked when he could work with the missionaries right afterwards, so obviously he felt that the man was wrong as well.

I know that this church is true, and I'm grateful for that knowledge. I know that what I'm doing is the right thing, and I'm so grateful that I'm out here in the Philippines preaching the gospel. I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Wilwand