"I Had My First Baptism!"

January 17, 2015

So this week, Saturday the 16th, I had my first baptism! It was literally one of the best experiences of my entire life. I felt a sense of happiness I have never felt before. When I saw him walk out of the dressing room in his white jumpsuit I about died! I wanted to run up and give him the biggest hug anyone has ever given! Luckily I controlled myself and just freaked him out by how big, and probably creepy, my smile was. ;D 

Susan (Justin's mom) and Justin! (:

Justin is a tall guy, especially for a Filipino, so he didn't get fully immersed until the third try. The poor guy was so confused what he was doing wrong. But luckily it all worked out! (; Then! I about had a freak out when sacrament meeting started and Justin wasn't at church. I honestly felt my heart break a little.. All I could think was "JUSTIN YOU NEED TO GET HERE NOW SO YOU CAN BE CONFIRMED AND RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST!" So sacrament meeting started and literally RIGHT before we were going to sing the sacrament hymn Justin walked in. AHHHHHHH! :D Once again I almost died from happiness! I helped someone come unto Christ. (: And I never want to stop doing that! And I won't. 

The Sister Training Leaders.
Sister Bomediano, Latorre, Naua

Anyway, about halfway through the first sacrament talk Sister Luzviminda walked into the chapel for the first time! My investigator finally came to church! It's taken her EIGHT years! Once again.. I felt that special sense of happiness and couldn't stop smiling. Luckily after sacrament meeting was over I could actually run up and hug her! I didn't give her a big bear hug like I wanted to because I'd literally break her, but I gave her a nice squeeze. (; I just don't think giving a fragile 70-year old Filipino lady a bear hug would be a good idea.  

Me, Sister Hunt, Sister Latorre, Sister Junio

Earlier this week I had my first day of exchanges and I LOVED it! My Sister Training Leaders are AWESOME! I was with Sister Naua who is from New Zealand so we had a party. Something about those Samoans! (; Being around a lot of them on my mission makes me pretty jealous of Elder Johansen (serving in Samoa) sometimes. 

This week I also had to say goodbye to the two Sisters that lived with Sister Latorre and I. Sister Junio was a short-term missionary and got sent home because Sister Ortega was able to return to the mission after being gone on medical release. Then.. Sister Hunt had to go home this morning because she tore her ACL and meniscus when we went hiking last P-Day. So.. That sucks. I already killed off two Sisters. But! Now I'm in a tripanionship with Sister Latorre and Sister Ortega! I think it'll be really helpful to have two Filipino companions help me with Tagalog. I have a problem with zoning out when everyone around me is a having a conversation in Tagalog; so I think it'll help me pay more attention when my companions are speaking Tagalog since I'll want to know what's going on. I'll keep you posted on that. Haha. (; 

Para sa inyo. ;D [For you ;D]

ALSO! I finally saw a rat.. No joke it was the size of my foot. And you know what's crazy!? I wasn't even that freaked out! I'm more freaked out by the freakishly large spiders that run faster than I do.. But maybe that's just because the rat was already dead. So I courageously took a picture of it for mom. ;D 

Balut.. I would send the video
but it won't let me. 

And.. Tyrel lied to my face.. Balut doesn't help you speak Tagalog! (; Pretty much balut is disgusting in every way. [Balut is a developing duck embryo (fertilized duck egg) that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It originated and is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines.] Apparently taste buds cannot only tell you if something is sweet, spicy, salty, or sour.. It can also tell you if something is balut. Siiiick. But! I'd have to say the worst part was being able to tell when I bit the head because I could feel the brain.. I can't believe I got talked into doing that. And I can't believe balut is even a thing.. Who even came up with the idea? There's some messed up stuff in the world. If there's one thing I've learned this week it's to trust no one.. If someone tells you balut is good, they're lying! (;   

Elder Budge and Elder Morris

This was from the hike last week

Thank you SO much for the package! I LOVE IT!
The slippers.. MMMMM. (; And! If you ever send another package
send me more of the anti-humidity hair stuff! It's magical. 

OOOOOOHHHH YYYYEEEEAAAHHHH BABBBBY!

Love you Dad! 

Sister Hunt, Ortega, Latorre

People I gave pamphlets to and scheduled a return appointment with.
 But this was on exchanges in a different area.