Week 24

Hello Everyone! How was your week??
My week was super crazy! And super funny! And just plain good!
Sister Swarna and I traveled to Iloilo this Friday for transfer
meeting... I had to say goodbye :'(

But, my new companion is Sister Schocker from Bountiful, Utah! She's
in one of the pictures I'm sending... at the church with the other
sister missionaries. Not the American standing by me but on the other
side. :) She's so great! We've already had some great bonding
moments, haha. She's also relatively new, so we both struggle a bit
with the language. It's so fun! :-) Our first evening here we
visited a couple less actives in our ward and it was a miracle! Until
now, when I listen to people, I know what they're talking about and
can respond somewhat appropriately, haha. But that night, I felt like
the cottonballs were taken out of my ears and I was able to really
understand almost every word. It was so great! I also felt all the
fear leave me. It was a miracle! Then of course, as we all know..
when there are miracles, there is an increase of faith and with an
increase of faith comes more miracles :)

The next day, we traveled to Panay and I wasn't exactly sure where I
should take my new companion who didn't know the area because we had
no set appointments. God, obviously knowing my situation, helped me
out! I had chosen to go to Lebanon, a small area with a couple of our
investigators to see if they were home. While we were walking, a man
was walking from the other direction with a little girl holding his
hand. He started talking to us! In all Tagalog!!! haha. But I
understood enough to realize that he was inviting us to his home to
teach them, haha. Nothing like this had ever happened to Sister
Swarna and I here before. No one had ever just talked to us like that
before. We followed him to his home which was super close and met his
wife and other two kids. They invited us and we were able to teach a
short lesson and we have a return appointment! In the lesson, he was
also saying how much he wanted to learn what we had to share so that
they could follow. They were new to the area and were so open to us!
It was great!

Then, afterwards, we were going home and the man was following us to
the main road to make sure we were safe. As we were crossing a small
bamboo bridge, which was starting to get a little broken, the bridge
broke under Sister Schocker's foot. I was ahead of her and heard it
behind me and I was like "Oh no!!!!" I turned around and she had
fallen through the bridge and underneath the bridge, only like a
couple feet below, was this muddy swampy thing... anyways, one of her
legs was stuck in the mud and her other leg was still on the bridge
and she was like doing the splits. Joel, the tiny man with us, jumped
into the mud and started trying to pull her back onto the bridge, but
her bag was stuck. I was laughing so hard (we both were) but I helped
her get her bag unstuck and back. She had thrown everything in her
hands.. no idea where they went, haha. She has such a good attitude
about all of this. A whole family nearby had also come to help. She
lost her shoe but Joel found it. A piece of bamboo had like sliced
through her shirt and made a big hole. Her garments saved her
though... :) She wasn't hurt too badly. The family took us to their
home to clean off all the mud. While there, we had the opportunity to
share a pamphlet with them and they gave us a return appointment as
well! Blessings like crazy!

The next day, we watched General Conference again, and while there, we
were just walking to our seat, and she ripped her dress on a small
sharp thing on the wall in the church. What luck! haha. I wonder if
she's going to ruin a piece of clothing every day we're together,
haha. Anyways, conference was SO good! I loved it so much. I
learned so much about True Conversion especially. I wish more people
had been able to listen. It makes me sad when so many people don't
attend or attend only one session. These are the words of the
apostles and prophets... talking to us all!!!

Another random fact... we have a dog. Not a pet... but a dog that
lives by our apartment complex. We named him Joanne... sometimes we
find him coming into our apartment, hoping we'll feed him. :) He's
super cute and friendly! And we found an enormous frog in the church
building yesterday... not sure how he got in there... I can't remember
if I've really talked about the animals I see here. Tons of frogs,
cockroaches, rats, spiders... those are the most common. Oh, and
dogs... everywhere!!!

Oh, I attached some pictures. One is of the place where we have
sacrament meeting in Panay with the red tent... it makes everyone
inside look red, haha. The picture taken inside the red room is of the
Bermejo family with our Recent Converts Aillene and JR, and our
investigator Valentino. Then there's another one with a tricycle!! and
some members. I don't know if you can really tell what the tricycle
looks like, but maybe you'll get the idea. Oh, then the one with the
kids... we were at a member's house for FHE. The little boy was
showing me how to do the little hand signal which apparently means
gwapa/gwapo (good-looking), haha. Not the best picture of me... but
the kids are super cute!

Love you all! Halong!
Heidi
ps.. I hope the pictures send, the file was too big the first time, so
I'll try again in a separate letter.

pps. sorry... next week for pictures. time up