Dear Family and Friends,
Hello everyone :) It has been a while since I emailed last because I didn't get a P-day last week so it is so nice to hear how everyone's past 2 weeks have been. Thank you for the updates and know that I love you all! :)
So it was my last week at the MTC and it was such a bitter sweet feeling. The MTC really turned into my home away from home :) I have made so many amazing friends for life there. The last couple of days at the MTC were spent at Devotionals, lots of orientation to the field, and packing up everything to head out to our respective missions. It was so fun to spend time with my district--we had a cute little testimony meeting the Sunday before we left and we all sang a musical number during Sacrament Meeting. So sad to leave them all but so excited to hear about the amazing things they will do! Going through all the motions of orientations--making sure I had everything I needed to leave--not going to lie I was getting pretty nervous--thinking what in the world am I about to do? haha :) But nonetheless, the morning we left we had to get up at 5 to leave for our Mission Presidents house.
We got to our mission presidents house at 6--so grateful to have had Sister Singer by my side through this whole process. We got to the house and it is absolutely gorgeous, it is in a really nice part of town :) We went inside and Sister and President Osler are seriously SO great. They were just super welcoming, fed us breakfast, and got to know us for a little bit. And let me tell you this was a long day of getting to know the mission rules, learning about safety things, all about our mission and the areas in it. It was a lot of information but super good! :) After we spent some time at the American Memorial Cemetery which my MTC group actually went to earlier in the week. And Sister Osler took us to an area there and talked to us, she said take a moment to look at where you are right now in your life. Now I want you to think about where you want to be a year and a half from now, and we took a moment walking around and pondering for an hour or so. It was just a nice time to really think about who do I want post mission Abby to be?
After going to the memorial we got to meet our companions. :) This was so fun! They made it super fun and when they called my name I was SO SO happy to be assigned to my trainer Sister Holzworth. She is from Brisbane, Australia. And we just hit it off! :) We both talk a million miles a minute so we got to know each other real quick haha :) She is a year older then me and is a twin--her brother served in Philippines Baguio Mission. She has been out on the mission for 9 months. She is super cute! It has been fun to work with her for the past week or so--I think we are going to work well together :)
I am serving in Makati City. We are over 2 wards, Makati 3rd and 4th. Makati 4th is an English speaking ward. A lot of people that work for the embassy, the mission president and his wife are actually in this ward, the area presidency, and a lot of the senior couple missionaries. So it is super fun! :) Makati 3rd is a Tagalog speaking ward--on Sunday we have 6 hours of church, it is LOADS of fun!
So this area is a major city and super populated, and all of the crazy things I have heard about the Philippines is so true. There is SO much traffic all the time and people everywhere. We have 2 baptisms coming up in the next couple of weeks. One is Jerry and he is Chinese from the English speaking ward. He is super funny and it is so fun to teach him! Another is Lawrence from the English speaking ward--he is 9 :) We taught a lot of people this week and were actually fed by a member family! They introduced me to REAL Filipino food haha ;)
We seriously talk to so many people on the streets because we are both foreigners and white haha. People want to always know why we are here and what we are doing--it is so fun and so good for missionary work! The language just goes over my head so I try the best I can and Sister Holzworth helps me all the time :) The best is to just laugh about it and I do my best!
Missionary life is so great :) It is a lot of studying, praying, walking, and inviting. I am so excited to serve here in Makati! Some spiritual stuff for the week is, I had the opportunity to speak in the Makati 3rd ward this week about faith and the Ward Half Day Mission we did on Saturday with the Bishopric. And I talked about how we need to always try and the Lord will help us AFTER a trial of our faith. We must first take the step forward :) Just like Peter did when he walked on water towards Christ--Christ only helped him after a trial of his faith :) I think that is how the next couple of weeks will go! Constantly taking a leap of faith, knowing the Lord will hold out his hand to help me back up! :)
Love all you! :) Thank you again for the emails!
Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Zarbock
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