Still afraid of monkeys!

Why hello everyone :)

This week was quite a week! I find myself saying that a lot, but it's true! We found 9 new investigators this last week and we really hope to see some progress :) One of them in Nanay Ningning and she is just the sweetest thing! She's accepted a baptismal date along with her daughter Arene (40 y/o) and she just cried in the lesson of the Restoration. She is so thankful we found her and is really progressing. She's reading the Book of Mormon and prayed to know if our message is true. Her daughter Arene is also amazing and is very intelligent. It's cool because she is well educated in all sorts of religions and has so many questions. I love it :)

On Tuesday I had exchanges with sweet Sister Lunar. Seriously, she may be small but she is sassy ;) I love that girl! I was also blessed to go back to my last area, Ormoc 2nd ward! My favorite was of course seeing the Peregrino family :) They were actually not in our plan but we got punted 7 times and went to them. Sister Peregrino saw me, ran to me, and hugged me so tight! We felt impressed to share the spirit of Christmas, and focus on the atonement. The spirit was so strong and while teaching them I couldn't hold back the tears! But I wasn't the only one! Sister Peregrino really cried, especially when she said the closing prayer. She said she was so thankful I got to come back and teach them because they have really missed me. So thanks to her I cried even more! Ah I LOVE THEM. Anyone to ever meet that family is so blessed! They will forever hold a special place in my heart. Also got to see MaryAnn and Reynaldo and I just felt at home being in their home again teaching them :) Love them too!! I can't wait for them to go through the Temple next year :)

So in case I haven't told you all about Tatay Takyo, he is a recent convert who was baptized in April. He lives in the cutest little home far in the bukid (mountains) that overlooks Ormoc city. Nanay Coquillia lives close by him and so she always comes with us when we teach him :) Tatay is the sweetest person I have ever met and treats us as if we are his children. He always says in his prayers that we are his kids to him and wants us to be safe always and continue to share the gospel. Is that not the cutest?? He also always feeds us and we actually had a Thanksgiving at his house :) The best. He did it because he knew that I  had Thanksgiving back home.

Thursday we were doing some finding and we found a lady named Jovilene. Her husband lives in Manila for work and she had a 3 year old who has hydrocephalus. We shared to her and her sister in law, as well as their neighbor. We focused on families and how God is our loving Heavenly Father. She was really interested in having us return! Friday passed by and we went to teach Joanna, a recent convert, Saturday night but she was busy. Feeling somewhat frustrated because it's so dark and muddy and we are so tired we went to cross the river in hopes to teach the Tonyada family. On the way to their home we see many people outside of her home and as we look, we see her child has passed away. We walk up to her door, see this small casket, and a sobbing mother. She saw us and we both just hugged her. She told us she was waiting for us to come back. She opened up to us and she told us she remembered what we said, that Heavenly Father doesn't give us trials that we can't handle.  We shared with her a scripture and talked to her about the plan of salvation and the atonement. The spirit really guided us as to what we should say and it was really an amazing spiritual experience. Even though we taught her once, she has so much trust in us and wants to listen. We really hope to continue to teach and help her this coming week. We were also able to meet her husband yesterday. I always say it, but we are SO BLESSED to have the knowledge of the gospel.

I had the opportunity also this week to go on exchanges with Sister Skey!! Ah I have missed her!! It's like we were never were apart! We laughed and worked and just enjoyed our time. I can't believe she goes home in 2 weeks! Time is so fast. She is assigned in a waray waray area right now so she was struggling to speak Cebuano and we just laughed because she was always translating for me in Catarman but I got to translate for her :) She is the most tender thing and just cried telling me how proud she is of me and how much I have grown in my mission. I couldn't hold back the tears either because she is going home! But she served with her whole heart and will do amazing things when she returns home :)

I have some funny moments happen to me this week that I would like to share:
1. I totally fell in the mud. It had been raining hard that day and I thought I knew what I was doing but no. It was so funny and I have some battle wounds ;) I laughed so hard and Sister Cailing was so worried. I told her I was fine and apologized ahead of time in case something like that happened to her because I will probably laugh before I become concerned. Don't worry, I'm working on it :)
2. A family in our ward has a monkey. His name is coco and I am terrified. I asked if he was nice and they said yes but he bites. So to me that means NO,  he is not nice! They were laughing with how nervous I was and they said I needed to overcome my fear and feed him a banana. After gaining some courage I walked up to him and fed him a banana! It was seriously so scary for me and my fear of monkeys has not been overcome. But it's okay. One step at a time.
3. We really have no food in our home and Sister Cailing and I were starving and had no dinner appointment :( We found 1 week old spaghetti and decided we should try it and make sure we pray before we even take a taste. Heavenly Father blessed us and it was good!! We had to heat it up in the toaster oven since we ran out of gas to cook. We then decided to experiment and what we can up with has now been named Pan-Oat. It goes as follows:
-Hot cake mix
-Water
-Condensed milk
-Oats
Mix all together and bake in toaster oven for 7-10 minutes. After spread chocolate syrup and slice apples to on top. Then enjoy! (Just be sure to stand near the garbage in case it's not good.) But it really wasn't that bad!

Anyway, I am just loving my mission every second of every day and finding myself learning new things all the time. It is an amazing experience full of laughter, joy, tears, love, and faith. I love you all!

Amping Kanunay :)
Sister Wilde

Best. Thanksgiving. Ever. Tatay Takyo!

Our Thanksgiving chicken :)

Mini bananas :)

t

Tatay Takyo brought us ice cream this morning :) He is the BEST!

I fell. Typical Sister Wilde

The well I used to clean the mud off my leg.

Yes. A family in our ward has a pet monkey! I fed it that banana!!

FHE again with Sonny and Marita :) They love it so much!!

EXCHANGES WITH SISTER SKEY!!

Pan-oat. Lami kaayo

25 days!! Feeling excited!!