Baptisms

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing great :) This week we had exchanges with our STL's and I got to be with Sister Henry! She is the sweetest and I learned so much from her! We worked in my area and I felt a little nervous since I still feel new after being out for a bit with Dengue Fever, but I didn't get lost. I officially know my area! Woop woop! It's because there are no addresses :) It's all about the landmarks!

Wednesday night Sister Pui and I were companions again and we went to one of our new investigators, Sheryll. Her husband Jerric is a less active, and she really wants him to return to the church. And she really wants to become a member :) Our lesson was great and she always keeps our commitments we give her, which is awesome :) We taught her the Plan of Salvation last night and she asked questions and everything. I love when our investigators ask questions, it means they really want to understand and I love being able to help answer them :)

One of the recent converts in our ward is Sister Adolfa. She is hilarious and we have instantly become best friends. She's in her 50's and her husband is a preacher for a different church, but he is nice to us. Sometimes he will try to debate but I just pull out my Book of Mormon and he then stops and leaves. Hahaha. Basta, I accidentally called her Gloria in the prayer in our lesson. oops! Gloria lives right next door and so I had her in my head. Adolfa and Sister Pui started laughing then I realized what I did. I corrected myself and she still gave us yummy chocolate after our lesson :)

Jeralyn’s husband has been asking questions about the chuch and Jeralyn loves answering his questions. Jearalyn really wants to make it to the temple someday so that her family can be together forever. She's so sweet. She has 3 kids (2 girls and a boy) and is currently pregnant. We call her baby Justine Kimberly. (Kimberly is Sister Pui's first name) and she actually likes it! She would love to have her baby named after us. She said what if it's a boy? And I said Justin works I got called that all the time growing up so no worries. Then Kimberly could be changed to Kim. Ha it all works out ;) Jeralyn also thanked me for being so happy and smiling all the time even though her house isn't nice and they don't have many nice things. I told her that didn't matter and that I really love them and am happy I get to be here with them at this time. I thought she was so sweet about it. I love the people here!!!

Now to Saturday... TATE'S BIRTHDAY!! I can't believe my little buddy is 11 years old! I LOVE YOU TATE!! :) Also, the baptism of Santa Claus Ponte! Yeah, you read her full name right. I was waiting until her baptism to tell all of you! Elder Wheeler baptized her and he is happy now because he can say that he baptized Santa Claus. He is such a nerd! The baptism was so amazing! The Elders had 2 families being baptized so all together there were 7 baptisms :) All those who were baptized shared sweet testimonies and Sister Santa was so nervous! She got up and looked and Sister Pui and I and started crying. She is so sweet. She thanked us for teaching her and helping her to become a member of the church, and that it is the best she has ever felt. Ah, I love her. She is amazing.

This week is the last week before transfers! Announcements are on Saturday! Crazy! This cycle flew by!! Sister Pui and I hope to have one more cycle together but we will see what happens! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Wilde

Sister Santa's Baptism!!

This is our church

On our way home from the baptism :) She was SO happy!

Adolfa!

Sheryll and her girls :)

Kuya won this time and as you can see he is so happy about it!

These kids sure love taking pictures! Whenever we go to Jeralyn's I play a game with the kids called "catch the chicken."

Don't be alarmed, it is alive

Sister Sheryll has a GIANT pig

Trial this week-no food, no money, oh no! We unplugged our fridge because well...there is nothing in it! Heavenly Father has blessed us as members have been feeding us unexpectedly!

Future Missionary!

Meet Justine Rose :)

Life is good!

Hello Family, 

This week has been a busy one, full of amazing experiences. I have really pushed myself this past week and even though it's been so challenging, it's been so rewarding. We did some finding and we were able to pick up 3 new investigators. One is a family. We have been praying really hard for new investigators and of course we have had some mean things said to us and people denying us but someone in the MTC once told us that sometimes it takes 4 or 5 encounters with missionaries before people actually accept them. I am thankful that Sister Pui and I still try and do our best because just maybe the next set of missionaries who talk them will be able to teach and bring those people unto Christ.

This Saturday we have the baptism of Sister Santa. She is so ready and excited. At church yesterday in Relief Society they welcomed the investigators and she leaned over to me and said next week I will be a member :) She is amazing! We moved Sister Aster’s baptism to April 4th so she can really prepare, and she's really progressing so hopefully we can continue to help her and address any concerns she may have. Jeralyn is doing good. We had a cool experience with her this last week. During our lesson with Rhodora (another investigator) I had the prompting to buy bread and take it to her. I thought it was a little odd so I just continued with the lesson. It kept coming to me. After the lesson I told Sister Pui and she said "I think we need to take our emergency light too. I've been thinking about them." We used some of our money we put together for food (Because I'm good at budgeting now Dad-proud of me?) and bought bread. When we got to her house they had no food and no light. How grateful we are that we followed the promptings of the spirit! She couldn't believe it when we showed up and she asked "How did you know?" And she realized Heavenly father answered her prayers through us.

On Thursday afternoon we ended up talking to a group of high school girls who were so fun and asked if I had a brother. I said I have 3! They asked what age and when I said one is 18 you should have heard the screams. Haha too funny. I showed them our family picture and they thought Kaden was good looking! Same with Carter and Tate but they are too young. We were then able to introduce our church and they had questions and were so cute. We gave them all a Restoration pamphlet and took pictures :)

Friday we had Zone Conference which I LOVED. President and Sister Maurer picked us Sisters (Sister Pui, myself, Sister Harper-MTC comp. and Sister Valestero. We are the only sisters in our zone) up to take us to Biliran and it was fun. Again, I love them! President always says the best things. I told him I was going to start writing them down and putting them in my group emails! He said, "No Sister Wilde!" Then we just laughed and Sister Maurer said, "Does anyone want another cookie?" (Which were delicious by the way) And President said, "Is the Pope Catholic?" Haha I had to share that one. (Sorry President)

This week with I have really improved with the language. We went on splits yesterday with the ward missionaries and I worked with Chenchen who is 19 and preparing for her mission. She is so cute and she helped me with some words I didn't know or words that are different than the waray waray in Catarman! I'm really getting it.

I love this work and this gospel with my whole heart. I also love all of you! Have an amazing week! :)
Love,
Sister Wilde

PS #HeLives comes out Friday march 27th for this Easter season! It will be an amazing video and will be the headline of youtube! PLEASE share it with everyone including on facebook! I can't wait to see it myself! :)

My best friends, Unice and Christine. I love them!! They told me yesterday I am their favorite missionary :)

Jeralyn and her little girl!

Too cute!

Zone Leaders to the rescue! Our apartment is haunted (I'm just used to it now and expect it everywhere at this rate) and so they have blessed it twice now so hopefully things will be okay now. But our Zone Leaders are literally the best!

I love my companion!

The group of High School girls we talked to

Sister Aster and her family! Her kids want to be baptized so we will start teaching them and her brothers heart is slowly being softened as he is supportive of them :) Sister Santa's children also want to be baptized :)

#selfie (are hashtags still big?)

Am I good at yoga yet Yara??

Sister Santa

This is Nanay Gloria! She is a recent convert and she is adorable! We always end up laughing for 5 minutes.

This fish is so good!

Elder Koufauna is probably the nicest person on this earth.

Sister Malicdem! We were a zone in Catarman!

Elder Cotcher! My first district leader! First thing we say to each other, "I thought I got rid of you when I left Catarman." Haha too funny!

Elder Maguale! He's currently AP and his last cycle in next cycle!! He is going to BYU Hawaii in November and he is the bomb!

Photo shoot with a petty cab

Feeling better!

Hello all! I just got over Dengue Fever! Yay! It wasn't fun and the doctor said my body will be really tired for a few weeks so I'll need to rest every once in a while but I'm really okay :) Last Monday was kind of crazy though! After I emailed we went back to the hospital to pick up my test results and they handed me my Dengue screen results (positive) but they had to take more blood because of a problem with my CBC results. Awesome. We got my results then went back to the Mission Home. President Maurer looked at my results and said, "Well Sister Wilde, you better start digging your grave! Can I have your packages??" Hahaha thanks President. You're too kind. He's a crack up. President and Sister Maurer then left to Ormoc for a zone conference and we went to buy some fresh fruits (my favorite thing ever!) when we got a call from Sister Maurer. I answered it and it was actually President, "Hello Sister Wilde this is Sister Maurer’s secretary. (Again, what a crack up.) You actually can't leave Tacloban because the Doctor in Manila is shocked at your blood results and thinks there may be a lab error. He actually wants to talk to you himself." Woah. Okay then. Sister Pui freaks out because we don't have a change of clothes. Haha. I then talked to the Manila doctor who is super nice. Good guy. I went and got more blood taken from me the next morning (looking the exact same) and they just pricked my finger a billion times (3) to take my blood since they couldn't find my veins. Ouch. BASTA, I got to go back to Carigara later that day because the Doctor said my results were okay and that I just needed to rest!

So work this week was hard but we had permission to visit our investigators who live close by! I LOVE THE PEOPLE IN MY AREA. They are so amazing! Our investigators have been so worried about me and have been offering to do my laba, make food, anything! They are so sweet! They even attended church the Sunday we couldn't attend and came yesterday :) It's always a good feeling when the room you have in the church building for gospel principles class is too small! So many investigators! (Elders investigators included!) One of our investigators, Jeralyn hadn’t been to church before but we told her we would stop by her house on Sunday morning and she came to church with us :) I love sitting on a bench squished because of our investigators :)

Sister Pui and I also had a really cool experience while buying veggies at the market. (Crazy things always happen at the market. A pregnant lady just came up and hugged me because she wanted good luck for her baby. Haha okay, I'll hug you I guess). We were buying our things when a lady came up to us and started thanking us for the message that we shared at the Prison. When we taught at the prison there was one girl there. She was the one girl! She had been released with her husband and she just kept thanking us! She said they are really starting a new life and reading the Book of Mormon they received from the prison. HOLY COW. Is that not amazing!?! We are hoping they live in our area so we can go visit them! We're going to buy some stuff from them this week since they sell stuff in the market :) We have been praying that our message touched the hearts of the prisoners and that they would remember the spirit they felt.

I am really looking forward to getting back to work this week! :) I will for sure have pictures of our investigators next week because you all need to see them! :) Take care! Sending my love!

Love,
Sister Wilde

I love my companion!

My companion doesn't like how she looks in this picture because she is trying to have "American" eyes. Hahaha

Saw these cool flowers so....

Sister Pui made me bracelets out of them :)

Biggest fear might be coming true....ugh!

Kamusta kamo?! 

This week has been a challenge! Just when I was starting to get better and feel really healthy again BOOM. Sick. Monday I came down with a fever and bad body pains. My Zone leaders came over that night to give me a blessing. Sister Maurer told me I needed to stay in on Tuesday and get plenty of rest. So that's what I did! Wednesday I still wasn't feeling better but we went out and worked! We were walking down the street when a man from inside his house yelled, "Hello Sisters!" This is a reoccurring thing so we didn't think anything of it but as we continued to walk we both just stopped at the same time, looked at each other, and went back. They ended up letting us in and they have a little boy who is special needs and is 7 years old. We asked them if we could share a message with them and they said yes! We told them we would like to start out with a song and so we sang Families can be together forever and their little boy LOVED it. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. His parents also had the biggest smiles on their faces. We taught them about the restoration and it went really well. We told them that it wasn't a coincidence that we turned around and came back to their home, but that it was Heavenly Father telling us to turn around because he wants you to have this gospel, this truth in your lives. We really hope they let us go back :) I'll keep you all updated of course!

Thursday morning I woke up still not feeling good. I also noticed a rash on my legs. It didn't itch or anything so I thought that was weird. As we went throughout the day it was on my arms too. Sister Maurer said I needed a Dengue screen and a CBC. What?! That's been my biggest fear in the mission, getting Dengue fever! Everywhere we went didn't have the Dengue screen but did have the CBC. We have had to wait until today (I'm currently in Tacloban) to get the tests that I need done. They of course had a hard time finding my veins so they did it out of my hand. It's been really hard being sick and not being able to work. I was feeling discouraged and praying for help. I was reading in True to the Faith the other day and I came across this, "If you are stricken with Illness, you may simply need to be patient and faithful." Heavenly Father answered my prayers through this one line. I need to be patient and faithful. I then read through some letters that I've received here in the field or in the MTC from family and friends and those letters really made me feel better! Some of my favorites include:

"Way to kick Satans butt by going on a mission!" -Kaden
"You know how I feel about Halloween...love you lots" -Dad
"I just want to kiss your face off!" -Granny
"I miss your face!!" -Mom (Like mother, like daughter I guess ;))
And many more! I am so thankful for all of the support and love I receive from all of you back at home! It really means a lot!

I am not sure what I have quite yet, but I know that as I am faithful and patient I will be okay and I will be able to get back to work!! I love all of you and hope you have a great week! :)

Love,
Sister Wilde

Remember that chicken from last week? Well here are the rest of the pictures.

 My new favorite food....SQUID. So good!!!

Our apartment

You will never believe what I did this week!

FAMILY and FRIENDS - I LOVE my companion and my area! Of course it’s a bit overwhelming trying to learn a new area but I'll get it eventually ;) I can't remember everyone’s names but hopefully that'll come eventually as well ;)

Sister Pui is seriously the best. She is so sweet and we get along perfectly! We work hard and have fun. We've had some great experiences and it's only been a week! We've already decided we are each other’s favorite companions ;) On Thursday we did weekly planning and during that we got a text from a woman named Tes who said she got our number from the Sister Missionaries that are in Tacloban and that she needed 6 copies of the Tagolog Book of Mormon since she was in Carigara for work. We ended up taking 7 just in case and when we were waiting at the building for Tes a Petty cab driver approached us and said he's been Less Active for years and we told him of course he can come back to church and we gave him the extra Book of Mormon since he no longer had one. When we walked into church on Sunday he was there with the Book of Mormon we gave him in his hands :) SO AWESOME. Tes then came and she told us her work is teaching prisoners how to cook. Say what? The prison in Carigara is right across from the building we were meeting her at and we ended up going there. Yeah. We started talking to the guards and staff there then they asked us if we would be willing to teach the prisoners. We needed permission of course, and the Zone Leaders said this one time and only if we were safe. So we did it! We taught 25-30 prisoners. We talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. They were really listening and Sister Pui and I could feel the spirit, we were really being guided as to what we needed to share. Sister Pui told them that they can start a new life when they leave the prison and I talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. One prisoner had tears streaming down his cheeks. I felt impressed to tell them that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of them and as I said those words I could really feel Heavenly Fathers love for everyone there. Including our guards, some staff, and us. It was the best experience.

Another experience this week...I killed a chicken. No lie! Our investigator Jerelyn asked us if we would be willing to buy a chicken of hers so that she could buy food for her family. Of course we can't give them money and we want to help so we said yes. I really didn't mind because Sister Pui can really cook and I knew she could make something yummy with chicken ;) We went to her house and I have no idea why but I asked if I could try and kill it. (Thinking it would be small?) She said oh you know how? And I said uh no but you can teach me! Her husband then grabs this GIANT rooster and handed me a giant knife and told me to cut the neck. Sister Pui was holding the head and he was holding the feet and I thought it was a chop but no...saw. So that's what I did! It didn't die for like...5 minutes so that was gross but okay lang! Sister Pui did the rest! Grabe she knows how to do everything! Watching her pull out the intestines and clean it out sicked me out a bit, but to her it was nothing new. She's the bomb.

I'm still learning everyone’s names for investigators and such, but we have Sister Santa and Sister Aster who are preparing for baptism on March 28th! Tater’s birthday! I hope we can continue to help them and that they will continue to progress.

The language is different but I can understand pretty well! Sister Pui has been helping me and so I'm getting the hang of it :)

I love this work and being a missionary! I know I say it all the time but it is so true! I love all of you too! Take care!!

Love,
Sister Wilde

I asked Justine in an email what was the best part of her week and her response in total Justine style was, "Best part of my week was teaching at the prison :)  You know I've always wanted to go to a prison, and I got to go to one in the Philippines AN D teach them the gospel. BOOM!

My new district!! They are awesome! Elder Ramierez (purple tie) is our district leader, then next to him is Elder Barrientos (Zone Leader) then Elder Dy (yellow and black striped tie) then Elder Means (my batch) Elder Kaufana (from Samoa) then Sister Pui (she is happy I promise-just not in this picture ;)) then Elder Wheeler (the other Zone Leader)

Sister Pui and I

This is part of our area! This is going to a less actives home.

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!!!

The rooster before....

THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED FOR REAL!!!

Then the pile of blood after I sawed it's neck.

Pictures this week aren't happening because it is really slow and we need to finish up some things. So sorry! Hopefully next week it will be better! I love you both loads!! I can't believe I only have a year left! Time is going by too fast. I still can't believe James is home and that Cameron will be home! SO insane! Tell them both hello for me :)