Six Months in the Field and Aguilar

These are our 4th of July outfits. ;D
(with Sister Miller and dad's package)

I'm honestly REALLY bummed I'm missing the 4th of July in Menan. It's honestly the first holiday I'm actually kind of missing. I have now realized the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I always thought it was St. Patrick's Day because of the cornbeef. (; 

6-27-16 (Monday)
I love P-days with all my heart, but they really are not relaxing at all. There’s just so much we have to do and by the time we get home from shopping we have to go out and work. We have no time to relax or time to clean the house. As fun as P-Days are, I just wish I could have had an hour to sit around and do nothing. ;) 

Also.. If you want to know what uncomfortable feels like.. try teaching two 18-year olds, a 19-year old, and a 20-year old the Law of Chastity. At first I really didn’t want to teach them, but luckily we’re all best buds so that made it a lot easier to teach a bunch of teenage boys my age to stop being dirties.

6-28-16 (Tuesday)
Oh my word, I had the time of my life today! Sister Alpino and I had exchanges today and I had so much fun with Sister Ngatai! It was just a ton of fun! I love Sister Alpino and all, but it was so nice to be with someone that has my same sense of humor. It was such a great day! 

Sister Ngatai

AND! In one of our lessons the lady we were teaching was just amazed at “how good I am at Tagalog.” All she could talk about was how good I am. Honestly, that made me feel so good. It really made me happy. I’m still really uncomfortable with Tagalog and know that I can’t speak super well yet, but she really helped boost my confidence. Today was simple yet crazy and I loved every second of it! :)

6-29-16 (Wednesday)
Sometimes days go by so fast and I wonder if that means we’re doing something wrong.. Haha. But really, missionary work has been so dang fun with Sister Alpino! Our investigators are so fun and I love teaching them because I’m not afraid to speak up in lessons since I’m comfortable around Sister Alpino. Like today with M.. I talked way more than Sister Alpino in our lesson and I felt the Spirit so strongly because I actually kept opening my mouth and it was constantly filled. We were teaching M about Eternal Marriage and the poor little guy just seems so scared to get married. I feel like he just needs some direction in his life. He’s literally the sweetest person I’ve ever met, I just want to see him cheer up about life. He deserves to be nothing but happy!

7-1-16 (Friday)
I have officially been in the mission field AND Aguilar for 6 months now! I honestly can’t believe I’ve been here that long. I’m also super happy I’ve been in my first area this long... It’s been really nice having some consistency in my life. ;) But even though today was great and we got to ride the bus to Mangatarem so we could get our support, G told us that his parents don’t want him to be baptized.. WHYYY!? First J now G.. The two most elect investigators anyone could ever have, now can’t be baptized because their parents and family don’t want them to be baptized. I am just heart broken!   

But on the bright side.. M only smoked once today, M is still living the Word of Wisdom, A and A read the Book of Mormon, P worked with us today, and it rained really hard so it wasn’t hot today. :)

Nanay Alejandra, Sister Miller, ako

7-3-16 (Sunday)
Oh man, today was full of all kinds of stuff! I loved every second of it! First! Sister Alpino and I went to sacrament meeting in Aguilar 1 branch because we had to go to Lingayen so Sister Alpino could get her patriarchal blessing. I LOVED going to their sacrament meeting! It was a million times more reverent and spiritual for me. I think it was a lot more spiritual for me because it wasn’t my sacrament meeting. I didn’t have to worry about my investigators and wonder if they were going to show up. I was able to focus 100% on the Atonement of Christ and reflect on the things I need to change and be better at. I loved it so much. It just hit me how wonderful of a gift the sacrament truly is. I couldn’t help but think and wonder “Is this true! Every single week, am I really cleansed perfectly again? If I worthily take the sacrament, am I really forgiven of my mistake and short coming from that week? Am I really ‘baptized’ again every week?” As I pondered that I felt an overwhelming sense of cleanliness in my heart. Then I couldn’t help but think “I really hope I die on a Sunday after church.” ;)

Then Sister Alpino and I went to the Stake Center in Lingayen to get her patriarchal blessing and.. we found out we were supposed to go to a different church building so we were 30 minutes late for her appointment. I felt bad for taking us to the wrong church, I just assumed it was the stake center. 

I found out M can draw so
I told him to draw me something..
This is what he decided to draw for me. (; 

But! Luckily it only took like 15 minutes to get her blessing so we were only about 20 minutes late to our church here in Aguilar. But we walk in and D FINALLY came to church! It only took 5 months but he finally came! I was so happy I just wanted to hug him! C also came to church for the first time in a couple months which was awesome! We ended up having 8 ISM’s again! WOO baby! The work here really is progressing. :) 

Also! I actually got cold today! Like.. Freezing! I even had goosebumps! I don’t know how that can happen when it’s like 85 degrees F! ;D 

M also drew me a cute rose because I found out he can draw and told him to draw something for me.. so he drew me a red rose. :) I’m going to have such a hard time saying goodbye to these boys when I get transferred! I love this area so dang much! 

 I let Sister Arquiola do my make up tonight for fun and that was a horrible idea. Now she wants me to wear makeup all the time. NOOO! I honestly think I look insane, but they all think I look like a babe. Even if it’s true… I hate wearing makeup and I’ll stick to my natural beauty for now. ;)