Nandito na ako sa San Jose Del Monte!!

Well, I'm here! I am now in my fourth area. Pangarap Ward, in San Jose Del Monte, and I am loving it!!

My companion is a fantastic missionary named Sister Sia (pronounced Sha), and I love her so much!! She is such a hard worker, and she is hilarious. We are always laughing while we're outside working or just inside the house. I love her! She is so obedient and just wants to go out and help all the people that are here. I'm excited to be her companion for the next little while.

Sister Wilwand and her new companion Sister Sia

So I've had a couple questions about what exactly STLs do. Well... That's a really good question. So far, we've had a leadership meeting, and we've set up one set of exchanges. That's about it. But mostly what we do is take care of the sisters that we are in charge of. So, we go on exchanges with them, strengthen them, inspire them and help them work out any problems they might have. Basically, we're kind of like zone leaders or district leaders, but just specifically over the sisters. We also have to give workshops at some of the training meetings that we have, and that is one thing we're a little bit nervous about... But hopefully it'll be fun =]

Anyway, this past week has been pretty great! Last week we actually had transfers where we had to travel and everything. There were actually four of us that traveled together, 2 sisters and 2 elders. I got to travel with Sister Clark! And we traveled together all the way to the mission office. We dropped off the elders at another meeting point where their companions were. We had a lot of mix-ups and miscommunication, but we eventually got everyone where they were supposed to be.

You might be wondering how our area is going since we don't really know where we are. Well actually, it's going great! Heavenly Father has definitely blessed us this past weekend. He definitely has some great things planned for this area over here. We've only gotten lost a few times, and sometimes, we'll just meet random members on the street who then end up working with us. It's great!! And yesterday, we got the biggest welcome from the ward! I love it here! Our ward mission leader, and all the other leaders here are fantastic, and I'm excited to work with them. It's going to be great!

I think that might be just about all that's going on here. I'm excited for this week and next week! We have a mission tour this week, and then we have temple p-day next week!!! I'm way excited for that.

Well, I guess the last thing I want to share is a cool scripture I found this morning. Alma 53:10. This talks about the people that Ammon helped to convert, but it emphasizes that it wasn't really Ammon that converted all of those Lamanites, but the power and word of God. I just love this verse because it really shows us that this isn't our work. It's the Lord's. 

I love you all! Hopefully you all have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Transfers Na!

(not sure what "na" means, but it seems to be almost a "you know" like comment.)

Well, it's transfer week!!!

And it has been a crazy week.

So we'll start off with yesterday. We had transfer announcements yesterday. And I found out I was transferring. But actually I've known for a while. About a week or so ago, I got a call from our APs, and they told me that I was going to be transferred. The reason they were calling me was because I just got called to be an STL (one of the traveling sisters), and we are going to open an area. So, the sisters that are there right now are Sister Benesch and Sister Miner. They are going home tomorrow. So me and my companion, also a newly called STL, will be going to an area that we've never really been too. It'll be fun =]

Sister Benesch, Sister Kalama and Sister Miner all finished their missions this week and headed for home.

So because of that call, last week I actually got to visit this area. I went on exchanges with the two sisters there, and we worked for a day. Seems good right? But it'll still be pretty new because it's hard to memorize that many people in one day. But hopefully we'll be fine. So I was with them last week on Wednesday, and then kind of hung out in the office and went on splits with another set of sisters on Thursday. It was pretty fun =]

And that's why it's been a crazy week. Yesterday we also found out that Sister Clark is going to be an STL!!! I am so excited. That means that we will see each other every month at our monthly meetings. I was pretty excited when she got called. It will be awesome! And, my trainee, Sister Bugtong doesn't yet know who her companion will be. She'll find out tomorrow when she goes to get her at the mission home. But right now, we think she might be from Fiji, so it should be fun =]

Sister Wilwand and Sister Bugtong, before Transfer day

Other than that, we've just been trying to say goodbye to everyone, and make sure that everything is going well in our area. It's so hard to say goodbye!! Especially to some of our recent converts. But I know that the Lord needs us in other places, and that's why we're going. 

Saying goodbye to all those she has come to love

This is probably the favorite picture Sister Wilwand has sent home - the joy on her face and the love of these sweet little ones. Just awesome to behold for this momma missing her girl!

We also have a baptism this weekend!!! I won't get to go to it, since I'll be pretty far away, but I'm excited anyway. It's a girl that we've been working with for a while, and she is definitely ready to be baptized. We're pretty excited for her =]

Otherwise, I just want you all to know that Heavenly Father really does love us. He knows who each and everyone of us are personally. He love us so much. He doesn't want us to be sad, he doesn't want us to have a hard time... He just wants us to be happy. But he knows that this life is filled with trials and challenges. And that's why he has given us prayer, scriptures, church, priesthood power, family, friends, and so many other things to help us. I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

ONE YEAR!!

Well, this week was a big week!! Sister Clark and I finally hit our year mark! Which means we only have 6 months left in our missions. Which means that time is going by soooo fast over here.

Sister Wilwand and Sister Clark celebrate ONE YEAR in the mission!

And we also had another little surprise yesterday as well! Congratulations to my trainee, Sister Bugtong! She just got called to be a trainer next transfer. I'm super excited for her! She is going to be great. And since she is my child in the mission, this means I'll have a grandchild here! (Weird missionary lingo - your trainee is your "child" and your trainee's trainee is your "grandchild."  They had similar vernacular in Matthew's Scotland/Ireland mission, so it must have widespread usage.)

Sister Bugtong is a little overwhelmed after the phone call telling her she will be training!

This week was also really great because we got to watch General Conference!! We pretty lived at the stake center this weekend when we watched conference, and it was so awesome! If you haven't gotten to watch it all, go watch all of the sessions. ALL of them. And take questions with you. When I watched conference, I had a few questions, and they were all answered. No joke. It was the coolest thing ever. There were even some questions I had that you wouldn't think would be in general conference, but they were there anyway. It was the coolest thing ever.

Everything else is going so great out here! I love this area, but unfortunately, it looks like I'll probably be leaving. Which stinks, because we have some really good potentially progressing investigators that we've recently found. But I know that Sister Bugtong will take good care of them. She is a fantastic missionary, and this are is going to progress so much with her leading it. I'm excited to hear all about it.

I think that's about it. Exciting things are happening over here!! I hope you all are doing ok!!

Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Wilwand

The Church is true, the Book is blue :)

Well, another week has passed by! And the time just keeps going faster and faster and faster! It's crazy!! And I love it =] Being a missionary really is the best thing ever.

I guess I'll start on Monday. So after we emailed, we were riding on the bus ride home and the zone leaders called saying we needed to come and clean the chapel. Well when we got there, it turned out to be a little surprise birthday party instead =] It was way fun! And one of the elders decided he would like to put chocolate icing on everyone's face... So by the end of the night, we all had chocolate everywhere. But it was way fun!

Surprise birthday party the Zone leaders threw for Sister Wilwand

Complete with chocolate icing!

On Wednesday, we have our zone interviews with our Mission President and his wife. It was so good! They really have been called of God to be the leaders in our mission. You can just tell by the way that they lead and give workshops and everything. They are fantastic. Things in our mission are definitely changing for the better, and I love it! We had some inspiring workshops about finding, teaching, manners, and all sorts of other things. It was great.

On Friday, we ended up having a CSP where we cleaned up a whole street full of garbage and grass. It was actually super fun. And we even found some really really cute tiny frogs. I mean like super super tiny. I'll make sure I send some pictures.

CSP, or Community Service Project (and those pants again!)

And the teeny, tiny frogs...

On Saturday, we got to attend the general women's session of general conference! (We watch all the sessions a week later here.) We actually ended up watching the sessions from last April, but it was so good! If you haven't watched it yet, I would go watch it. It talked a lot about missionary work, and opening our mouths. It talked about how there are 'help wanted' signs all over the world that we can answer to. It was really great.

On Sunday, we had church! I love church! Sunday is probably one of my favorite days of the week. It's always so great! And yesterday, we had such a good experience with one of our recent converts. She is an even better missionary than we are. She helps to start teaching all of her neighbors that live next to her. She's not shy to share the gospel with anyone at all. It's way awesome =]

Oh, and on Saturday, my companion and I went jogging, and it was the best. And on our way home, we stopped at a bakery and got some fresh bread for breakfast. And that's the way you go running in the Philippines =D

Well, I love you all, and I hope you are all doing well!! I hope you all had the chance to watch General Conference. If not, go watch it =] The Church is true, the Book is blue ;)

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

One thing Sister Wilwand misses is real milk (and real ice cream) but she did find some decent strawberry milk recently.

Although her Hump Day package (Half-way mark) arrived almost two months after her actual Hump Day in July, Sister Wilwand's birthday package arrived just in time - cute blouse!