.: Week 51 "Don't Stop Me Now...I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball...."

Week 51

This song came to mind after a good day of work this week...and I kinda just smiled to myself. So grateful to a dad that introduced me to Queen.

Dear Friends and Family,

Kamustang Lahat??? I hope this week was a good one for you. I just love Skype chats because you literally are on the high of seeing your family for the WHOLE week :) It was the best. It makes me just extra grateful for my cute family back at home. Shoutout to my brother Sam who turns 25 this week on the 24th! Love ya bro! But this week was for sure a doozy. Last week Sister Lubas and I were trying to figure out when we were gonna do exchanges and I just thought...well why don't we just do all of them in one week. So that's what we did! Okay not all of them, we have 2 left. But our week did consist of 3 exchanges, so Sister Lubas and I are a little tired this week haha :) All I can say is WE SURVIVED this week!

It was fun...this was my first time actually initiating all the exchanges with everybody. It's been a fun week. You really just get to take a look at all the work missionaries are doing...and its kind of cool. Honestly the sisters here have no idea how awesome they really are...Their testimonies and love for the investigators is so genuine and heartfelt. I loved seeing that this week. Its just a humbling experience for sure :) So we came out of this week unscathed and EXCHANGES were a success. BOOOYAHHHH!

Exchanges this week--meet Sister Craig from New Zealand. We live together.

Round 2 and 3 of Exchanges this week--Sister Abakite

.....and my old kabahay from Kiribati, Sister Fontanilla :)

We had a lot of awesome finding experiences this week...sometimes we just walk out of the house and just have absolutely NO idea where to go to find people but God just provides away. I have no other way to describe it.

One experience was with Rose and Edwin. We went into a compound this week and talked to this old Nanay and she said that she had 14 kids...WHAT THE??? So we asked where all her kids were and we started chatting with them all and Edwin (the 9th child) came to us and told us to teach his wife Rose. So we went to their house. Turns out the Elders taught them before and we had a really awesome lesson with this cute family. And I played Legos with their son for like 20 minutes...I thank my brothers for teaching me the ropes with that one.

This was actually a super cool experience too...we were walking and Sister Lubas said we should go try to teach Sister Letty. Sister Letty was an investigator of the sisters before us...she is NEVER home. I was a little hesitant but we decided to go. So we go to their house and Letty was there and she told us that her son who is 12 has come to live with her right now. And she said that she was just hoping we were going to stop by to visit her. So we taught Joshua...he actually came to church on Sunday. :) The young men fellowshipped him immediately...extra grateful for that. He should be getting baptized on June 17...everyone shoot some prayers his way.

I just love this area :) members were just super great this week. Showed up at our door with groceries, fed us unexpectedly...holy cow. Feeling extra blessed.

To finish off with a thought from Romans 5 this week. That "tribulation brings experience, experience brings hope." I loved that thought this week. That no matter what your "tribulation" is...it can be as small as having no idea what 2 missionaries are gonna go with their day to a death of a loved one...but our experiences bring us hope in our lives. Opposition is an all things but that it gives us that, "joy and wonder of being alive.." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

Anyway, just a good week this week. Hope you guys get some good sleep this week...I know that's what I need haha :)

Love,

Sister Starbucks