Fresh from the MTC.....an Anak

Well this week was just great! I'm so grateful for all the things I've had the opportunity to learn. We had transfers this week.... I am still here in Tarlac.... but I have a new companion and by new, I mean NEW! Fresh from the MTC! Her name is Sister Macabanting and she is real cute! :) It's been a fun adventure helping her adjust to missionary life! She's really great. Sometimes I'm jealous because her language skills are so good. ;) Man, I am thinking if I was Filipina, my training would have been a whole lot easier. But I'm learning a lot from her and she's really sweet.

So in the mission, we call it nanay and anak (mother and child) if you are training right? Well GUESS WHAT. My nanay is my housemate! And my anak is here too.... So that means Sister Macabanting's lola(grandma) is her first kabahay(housemate). It's really a blessing though. 

This area is good.... Hopefully for real we will have a baptism this month! There was a few investigators from Mabalacat that got baptized last week!! YAY!! And hopefully I will be going to the temple in the next few months with recent converts there that are getting sealed!!! Exciting! Missionary work is hard. it's so hard, but I know I'm gettng stronger and I know that I'm not doing it alone. Even though it's hard, it's the happiest work in the world. 

By the way.... I ate chicken intestine this week... and yes, I DID know it was chicken intestine. I just closed my eyes and ate it. i didn't really like it... but I didn't throw up or gag really so that's good. I'm always afraid of offending people.We have dinner with the bishop later so I'm kind of nervous... last time they served fermented rice (which I got out of eating). 

Anyway I love you all! :) 

xoxo Sister Holmes  

 

 New Anak-Sister Macabanting

Sister Holmes seems so Happy!  Love it.

Balut and Chicken feet

So this week I had an interesting thing happen. On Tuesday, I got this nasty boil on my ankle. It hurt WAY bad, so I consulted my handy-dandy medical guide from the mission and followed the instructions. Then the next day I HAD TWO. Seriously disgusting. AND I couldn't walk. So that was real awesome. So now I'm taking some awesome antibiotics.

Also. I ate chicken feet, Like real chicken feet... but don't worry they pull off the outside skin and then you eat everything else. it was okay... I just couldn't get past that i was literally eating a chicken foot. i also ate goat. Which isn't that weird... but kind of. I also had a close call with balut. I almost ate it, but "it was too old" Oh well....too bad.... next time I guess. 

When I skyped this week... my aunt asked me a question about the differences between my expectations and realities of missionary work and I have been thinking about that a lot this week. I thought oh yeah I will have baptisms, the reality is... people's decisions. you can't force anything and it is taking people time. I am definitely learning patience. I thought that missionary work would become easier, but the reality is I am becoming stronger. I thought that I would find people who would want to be baptized right away, but it takes time for people to change. i thought when i spoke tagalog that there would be times where I was just fluent, but haha.... it takes hard work! :) of course. basicallyy, I am learning a lot. :) I'm grateful for all the ways I'm growing. 

Love you all! 

Sister Holmes

Zone

I stole this from Sister Martino's post I NEED a picture =)

Swyper no swiping!

So I'm kind of in a Dora the Explorer phase right now... My companion likes to ask me questions like... "Sister Holmes, do you see the house of our investigators? There it is! Let's go." Plus other things like the Backpack song and the song about the Map... and now I'm embarrassed because I clearly know WAY too much about Dora the Explorer.

Speaking of my companion... she's awesome! She goes home in a week and I am going to miss her so much! She has taught me a lot and we have a lot of fun together. But honestly, her teaching skills are amazing and she's just awesome! :) Man, I really feel like all of my companions are my best friends.

So basically, being white is really weird. Everyone stills stares at me... and I kind of thought that I would be used to it by now, but it turns out that it is still weird. So that's awesome. We got in a trike the other day and one of the other drivers said to our driver "Wow, you got the American, be careful." I realized that they have probably they have been saying things like that my whole time here and I actually understand it now. 

It was actually pretty amazing yesterday when I was reading in the Book of Mormon. I was reading about the 2,000 Stripling Warriors, which was so fitting for yesterday because it was Mother's Day (Shout out to my awesome mom!). Of course, we know that it talks about the way that their mothers taught them not to doubt. I really have come to have an appreciation for my mom that I did not have before my mission. I mean, of course I appreciated her, but it's different being here. She is definitely my number one fan, and has always done everything in her power to do what's right for me. Most importantly, she has taught me by example. I'm here on the mission because of the way she raised me. She taught me how to serve others, to work hard, and to love unconditionally and I get to practice those things here in the mission!

Anyways... as always I love you alllll!! :) Ipromise I will send pictures sometime.... :) :) Probably next week! :) 

Take care xoxox sister Holmes

clothes on the line....someones home

So this week... was GOOD! I had exchanges, but i actually got to go to another area! Which was real fun. I actually went to the area on my first exchanges about.. 4 months ago, almost five when I didn't know how to speak Tagalog. :) So we went out to work and it was a really good day. We found some new investigators... everything. Super good. Our last appointment, we went to this recent converts house... but when I saw her the first time, she was still an investigator!! It was amazing how much my Tagalog has improved since the last time I saw her, but more importantly, how much happier she seems and the changes in her life are just amazing. Missionary work is the best!

 

The work continues! We found a family yesterday and I'm way stoked. I really, really hope they progress! They are absolutely cute and so kind. It was kind of cool how we found them though... So we have one area that's really far and it's kind of a farm area.. So we were walking along a road that goes to our far area and we noticed there was a entry to a subdivision we hadn't noticed before. So we decided to explore! We started walking along, there was like an old abandoned church and we thought maybe there was no one here yet, or it was abandoned (mostly because it was kind of creepy). We turned the corner where we expected the subdivision to be and there was only a few houses. We decided to turn around because it didn't look like anyone lived there. Basically an empty field with two houses. But then I noticed some clothes that were hanging to dry and we decided to try. So we did the equivalent of knocking on the door (yelling tao po) and the Brother came out. We introduced ourselves and he immediately invited us to sit down. So super cool. I cant wait to teach them again!

 

Anyway, I love a lot of things about the Philippines... the food, the people. There's also some things I don't love... the HEAT. OH MY HECK IT IS SO HOT. I also am not a huge fan of when my dinner stares at me... but other than the cockroaches, I'm happy! I've really learned a lot about myself and about who I really am and who I can become! :) I'm becoming more confident in myself and doing things I normally would not do...

 

Anyways love you all!!! :) Ingat!

xox Sister Holmes!!