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 

Nakakapagpapabagabag is a word!

Magandang hapon po!

Tacos!!

So yes, we did actually have tacos this week. They were Filipino style tacos, but they were tacos. And I think we might try to make brownies today... Maybe no bake cookies. We'll see what we're in the mood for. Hopefully our toaster over will work…

(Tacos, Filipino style!)

This week is going well!! We had Zone Interviews this week, which were great. We had several workshops from President and Sister Sperry, the Assistants to the President, and the Zone Leaders. It was awesome! We talked about all kinds of things. Memorizing scriptures, being bold, working with members. It really was just the right things that I needed to hear. A lot of what we talked about were things that I had been thinking about for a while. These leaders are definitely inspired for the people that they teach!

Things are progressing in Fairview! We had a couple of super amazing lessons this week with some of our less-actives. They are so great! For one particular lesson, things just fell perfectly into line. It was the absolute best lesson that we've ever had with this particular Brother, and we're pretty sure that he is going to come to church on Sunday. We walked away from that lesson about ready to burst with joy. It was so awesome!!! This work truly is the best work on the entire earth, and it is amazing!!!

I got my Valentine's Day package this week! It was funny though, because the first thing I pulled out was a can of tuna. I love it! Of course, we are enjoying all of the chocolate and everything, but we definitely had a laugh that I got tuna. And then we made some delicious tuna sandwiches with it, so it was perfect!!

Oh! And I got a bunch of letters from some certain Young Women in my hometown. You girls are amazing!! If I had some stamps, I'd send you a letter back... But I'm working on that. One will come though!

Our ward is definitely progressing!! We've had some member visits, and some member present lessons, and we're just working on getting our members excited about this work! They're all way awesome. We're also having something called a mini-MTC for the Primary, so I'm excited for that!! It'll be great.

What else... I got to go to the temple today!! I LOVE the temple. It is really the most amazing place on this entire world. Really...

Funny thing: did you know that nakakapagpapabagabag is a word? Try to say that 5 times fast... It's hard. It means something like worrisome or nervous.

Spiritual thing: here's something that I've slowly been realizing lately. The Priesthood is probably the coolest thing ever. It is literally the power of God given to worthy men here on earth. They have the authority to act on his name. Through this power, Jesus Christ created the world. He created the entire universe, and everything that's in it. Through the priesthood, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. Through the priesthood, people are healed. Through the priesthood, people are actually given comfort and peace. Through the priesthood, worthy males can perform saving ordinances for living people and people who have died. The priesthood is AMAZING. For all those men/boys who have the priesthood, don't ever let go of it. Always stay worthy to use that power. For those who don't have it, prepare to receive it. It'll be worth it.

I love this church, and I love this work that I get to be a part of!!

And of course, I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

(Sister Wilwand says these are some of the nicer houses around where she lives!)

New Companion, Community Service and a Baptism!

Hello to everyone!

Well, this week has been pretty good!! It started on Wednesday, when I got my new companion! She is awesome!! Her name is Sister Lavador. She's from Cebu, and she's really great. She's kind of weird, so we get along really well =D Sister Plame also got a new companion, Sister Cork. She's from Georgia, and she's awesome! It's cool to have another American in our house. She's just a little bit whiter than me, so whenever the four of us go anywhere, we get lots of stares.

Sister Wilwand with Sister Cork and the adorable Filipino children at their CSP

I hope everyone's Valentine's Day went well! Ours started out with a zone date at a CSP (community service project). It was for a lady in our ward, and we were cleaning our her entire house. We were sweeping, organizing, loading and unloading. It was way fun!! We met the cutest little kids while we were there. Sister Cork and I were talking to them, and they were just the best little friends we've ever had! They're great.

Sister Wilwand and her zone on Valentine's Day doing community service.

We definitely have lots of fun in our house! We have a good mix of cultures here, and it's always a blast when we all get talking together. It was an interesting experience to try to explain to Sister Cork how people go to the bathroom here without using toilet paper. Ha! Don't worry, I'm not going to explain that.

Back to the real stuff... On Saturday, we had a baptism! We had two little kids who were getting baptized. One was from the other Sisters' area, and he was a convert. The other was a little girl from a less-active family that we have been teaching. She is so great! She's probably the shyest person I have ever met in my entire life, but she's so cute! While she was waiting for her baptism, she was jumping up and down, she was so excited!!! It was definitely a testimony builder to see how excited and ready these little kids were to get baptized. I love it!! This gospel is truly amazing.

Let me just say that fasting and prayer really does work!! We have a family that we have been working with for a while, and we're finally starting to see some progress from them! They've had some concerns that we could just not figure out, and they've finally started opening up to us lately. It's great!! We're also having some really progression with some of our investigators too, and we are hoping to start finding some new investigators soon!

One last picture of Sister Wilwand and her zone before transfers and getting a new companion (no pictures yet - she said the computers were very slow last night)

I love this work!! It is hard, but keep working at it! If you are working with someone, and it doesn't work out for them, don't get discouraged! Whether you are planting the seed or harvesting the fruit, this work must go on! Just go and do! Have faith that the Lord will help you! This work is hastening, are you?

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Transferred?

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all have a great Valentine's Day this week! It's a great day to go out and share the gospel, and share the love with everyone!

So first of all, TRANSFER ANNOUNCEMENTS! Yes, we had transfer announcements yesterday. Guess what? I'm staying in Fairview! Sister Collins and I were pretty sure that I was staying since she's been here for about 7 months, but now it has been confirmed! My new companion will be a Sister Lavador, and I've heard some great things about her! She's from Cebu. I am so excited to have a Filipino companion! We have lots of work to do here in Fairview, so I'm excited for the next transfer!

Sister Collins is transferring to Camarin, and guess who her companion is?? Sister Clark! (My companion in the MTC.) She's so lucky! Sister Clark is great, so I'm sure this next transfer will be fun for them. Sister Plame is going to train this transfer, and it looks like she is staying in Fairview! She has been here the whole time I have, so we were excited that we're both staying here. Sister Banaylo is transferring. Sadly. She has only been in Fairview for one transfer, and now she is going to Malolos. She was pretty bummed. She has transferred every transfer except when she was training, but we know she'll be great in her new area!

This week has been a pretty good week! It's been kind of a slow week this week. We had some problems with people in our house being sick this week, but everyone is ok now!

 I can definitely testify to the power of the priesthood! Our Zone Leaders came over to give one of my kabahays a blessing, and you could just feel the power that they both brought with them! It was cool to see that.

We had such a great lesson with one of our investigators this week! She is amazing! She is living with a less-active family who is starting to come back to church, and they all are doing great! At our last lesson with her, she shared with us how she knew this church is true, and she knows that the Book of Mormon is true. What?? We were so excited! I don't know that I'll be here for her baptism though. She wants to wait until the mom of the less-active family gets back, so we'll have to wait to see when that will be!

I mentioned last week about how we were having some firesides with out ward about missionary week. Well this week, we had one with all of our auxiliary leaders, and it went very well! We talked about cleaning the 'inner vessel' first, and then cleaning the outer vessel. (Alma 60). All of our leaders are the inner vessel of our ward, and so we decided that this work needed to start with them. Luckily, they all agreed! They are excited for this work to progress forward.

I think that's about all that happened this week, so here's just a little something that I cam across in my personal study this week. Go to 2 Nephi 8:15. Here's what it says, "But I am the Lord thy God, whose waves roared; the Lord of Hosts is my name." For those of you who are really good in the scriptures, you probably know what it means when it says 'whose waves roared'... As for me, I had no idea. So I went to the cross reference in Revelations 11:3. The waves that this verse is talking about are the waves of the Red Sea. Ok. I didn't know that, but how cool of a thought is that? Now go to Mosiah 4:9. This talks about how God has all power on heaven and on earth. I think this is just the coolest thing! He has ALL power. Not just some, but all. It was enough to make waves roar. It is enough to comfort us when we need it. It is enough to help us when we need it. It is enough to do anything he wants to, and we should never forget that. I testify that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. They know us more than we can ever comprehend, and we should never forget that. Satan will not win this battle. He never even had a chance.

I love you all! Stay strong and have faith!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Step out of your comfort zone!

Dear Family and Friends,

Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat! Kumust po kayo?

This week has gone by so fast! What?? Crazy how time flies here, and yet it feels like everything is frozen at home. Weird.

This week has been good! Not much has happened, but we had some really good days! First, we had MTC exchanges again on Wednesday! I'm learning to love them I think. My Tagalog may not be perfect, but it's ok! So I went out with a Sister Paasi. She's super sweet! She's from Australia, but she's Tongan. The best thing about the day was just how excited she was about everything! I told her we were going on two jeepneys and one trike during the day, and she was way excited! It was so good to see that 'new missionary glow' on someone. It just reminded me how fun and rewarding this work can really be. We just had a really great day that day. We talked to lots of random people, and met some really cool ones. Don't worry, no proposals this time ;) Afterwards, she was asking if I could be her trainer... Unfortunately, she's going to Naga mission. So I (unfortunately) probably won't see her again, but I'm so glad that I was able to go out with her for those few hours!

This is Sister Pacinio, the STL from last week who "encouraged" Sister Wilwand to try Balut

My language is definitely progressing! At least I think. We had a few lessons this week where I was just sitting there, and I could understand everything they were saying! And then sometimes, we had lessons where I was struggling a bit. So I'm still working on the language! It's hard, but my kabahays are always willing to answer questions and help with translations of things. I'm hoping I get a Filipina companion next transfer so I can really develop this language.

I think I'm learning to love OYMing. (Just talking to random people on the streets.) You seriously meet some of the coolest people out here. Now that I can actually sort of understand them, it's so fun! I still get nervous just to go up to someone and talk to them, but when you do, it's so rewarding! We've met some really neat people here. I challenge you all to try it. Just go up and talk to some random stranger. In the store, in a class, on the street, in church. Whatever. You'll make a new friend, I promise. It'll be a good experience.

We had a Zone Activity this morning! It was so fun. I played a lot of frisbee with some of the Elders in our zone. At one point, I threw the frisbee threw the tiniest slit between a chain fence and a wall. Unfortunately, on the other side of this fence was a building. So some of the Elders had to go around to the building and squeeze in between the back and this wall to get the frisbee. I guess I'm better than I thought ;) But seriously though, it was way fun! Maybe I'll join an ultimate frisbee team when I get back. Anyone want to join?

Our Sunday yesterday was great! We had 5 investigators come to church. Let me just repeat that again in case you're still in shock (I definitely was...). We had 5, FIVE, investigators come to church!! WOO! That was so cool to see them finally come to church!!! And our ward mission leader is great. We had a fantastic fireside yesterday with the ward. The only problem was that it was a little long, right after fast Sunday. So lots of people left about halfway through. But we're working on some ideas to get the ward to stay for the next few firesides this month. They are all geared towards missionary work, and I love it! We're developing a ward mission plan, and family mission plans. For those of you who don't have a family mission plan, I would encourage it. OYMs a week, Books of Mormon handed out, baptism goal for the year. Things like that. If you're not with your family, try an individual one. It'll be great!

 Sister Wilwand and her kabahays with the ward mission leader.

 Hey look, Sister Wilwand is not the shortest!

I think that's about all that happened this week. Here's just a last little thought. As missionaries, and especially as missionaries learning a new language, this work is hard. We are asked to go out of our comfort zones everyday to talk to and help the people that we are serving. A lot of people here speak English. So if I preached the gospel in English, most people here would probably understand. But I have been called to preach the gospel in Tagalog. Why? Here's my thought. It's better for me to be a little bit uncomfortable trying to speak a different language, than for these people to be uncomfortable speaking a different language. Again, why? Because I already know about this gospel. They need to understand, in their own language, about this precious gift that we have. It is better for us to be a little uncomfortable trying to help people, than for us to not try at all. People out in the world need what we have. They may not know it yet, but it's true.

"You don't know how often the Lord walks in the streets to prepare people to accept the gospel." Brother Ian Ardern

This is so true! How can we know who the Lord has prepared if we don't talk to them? Exactly, we can't. I challenge you all to go out of your comfort zone and talk to people about the gospel! It's important! Go find those people who have been prepared, and bring them to Christ!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Wilwand

Note from mom - scroll down if you want to see balut. And Sister Wilwand eating (drinking!) balut. She told me she sat and looked at the eggs for about 10 minutes before she could bring herself to try one. And yes, they drink the liquid before eating the rest of the egg and its contents.Sister Wilwand's grandma has a coworker from the Philippines - she told Grandma Marsha that she had never eaten balut (eww!) and that they are sold as an aphrodisiac! Better keep them away from the missionaries!!