Sister Wilwand: Baptisms and a hot shower make for a great 20th birthday week!

Hi!!

This week was such a fantastic week!!

So what was the craziest thing that happened this week? I turned 20!! Why is that so weird you might ask? Well, while I'm out here, it seems like time has stopped... But actually it hasn't. I've been telling people that I'm 19 for the past year that I've been out here in the Philippines, and now I have to remember to tell them that I'm 20... It's a little weird.

The fact that her friends in the Philippines made her a birthday sign is kind of funny because I, her momma, ran around all day Sunday, snapping pictures of various friends, our Bishop, a Stake Presidency member, etc. holding "Happy Birthday Sister Wilwand" signs and emailed them all to her.

What was the best thing that happened this week? WE HAD ANOTHER BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!! What??? Crazy right? But it was so awesome!!! We had 5 of our investigators get baptized, and it was the best day of my entire life. No joke. I was thinking about it, and there is no day in my life that gets even close. There is nothing better than seeing people change and come unto Christ. We have seen these people change so much in the past few months, and it's amazing. This is the best part of being a missionary, and this is why I love it =]

That is pretty much the biggest thing that happened in our week this week, but we had some other cool experiences too. For one thing, we went on exchanges with the STLs this week, and it was way fun! I went with Sister Walker, and we went running that morning! It was so fantastic. We were both so sore the next day, but it was so fun!! And while I was with her, I had a cool experience about how Heavenly Father answers prayers through other people. I have been praying to get the feeling that Heavenly Father is proud of what I've been doing so far in my mission. I've been worrying about it for a while, just wondering if I've given my best so far. Well, through Sister Walker, just something she said, I got an overwhelming feeling of love and peace, and that I have been working hard. Of course, I still have lots left to do, but I've done good so far. It was just a cool little experience =]

And yesterday, I had a pretty fun experience. So we got a call from our zone leaders on Friday during weekly planning saying that Sister Clark and I had to do some fingerprinting on Monday morning. So Sunday night, we're supposed to go to the mission home, stay the night, and then go Monday morning to Manila. Let me tell you, we were SO excited to stay at the mission home for a night. It meant good food, real milk, air conditioning, and the best thing ever, HOT SHOWERS!!!!! Oh yes, we were excited. So we woke up really early this morning and all took hot showers. It was the best thing ever. I felt so clean afterwards!! And then we headed over to Manila this morning. And we went to part of the US Embassy over there and did some fingerprinting stuff... It was so weird to see a whole bunch of white people over there... Yikes. And then afterwards, we took a little detour to the beach (it's our P-day). And we took some cool pictures over there. It was way fun!!