Families Can Be Together Forever

Hello Family and Friends! Kamusta kamo bug-os?! Grabe gusto ko mag waray-waray pero dire pwede. Sayang. Basta, this week has been a good one. Sister Dumale and I had a unique experience, got through my 2 days of fever and chills, and got to go on exchanges this week with our lovely STL's.

Our STL's are Sister Allen and Sister Papasin. All 4 of us worked in Carigara and I got to be with Sister Allen! Sister Allen is from Ogden, Utah and goes home in December! Having two Americans walk down the streets speaking waray waray was the best. The looks on people’s faces were priceless. It was a fun experience :)

On Thursday I kept getting a fever and really bad headaches. I was wrapped in big blankets (also over my head) with my fever of 104.3 when Sister Malu said, "Wow. This is like 17 miracles." We all agreed as I said previously that it felt like I was laying in a pile of snow. 17 miracles is our favorite movie right now and we all think we're pretty funny when we quote it. And it's even funnier when we translate it into waray waray. That was Sister Dumales idea and it made Sister Laniton and Sister Malu laugh so hard they had tears streaming down their cheeks.

Friday we had Zone Interviews with President Maurer! We have an interview with President Maurer every 3 months and I felt like just a month ago we had interviews but man time just flies! I had a great interview with him and a check-up with Sister Maurer. I'm healthy! I know it didn't sound like it earlier but I really am :)

Our investigator. Wait, our GOLDEN investigator Jemily passed her baptismal interview on Sunday and she was so happy and is so ready! We knew she would pass :) She shared her testimony to us Saturday night and expressed how she remembers the feeling she had the first time we taught her and how she just felt good. And that same feeling came again when she prayed to know if our message was true. She is truly amazing and is a future Sister Missionary :) 

Now to our unique experience Sister Dumale and I had this week...On Saturday our first appointment was at the Orsal family and when we got there it was only Sister Orsal. We started talking to her and she asked us if it was true that the Mendoza’s baby had died. Sister Mendoza had a sweet baby boy 5 months ago and he has been having some problems with his stomach so he is REALLY tiny and has been in and out of the hospital but doing better. Well we hadn't heard anything and so we decided we would go check on them. Sister Orsal told us to come back later so we could teach her and Brother Orsal together so we decided then to go to the Mendoza’s. When we got there I was the first to walk up to the door. Sister Mendoza saw me and immediately motioned for me to walk in and as I walked to her in the back room she was sitting on the floor with her baby boy laying still in front of her. If he wouldn't have been so white and she wouldn't have had tears in her eyes, I would have thought he was alive. I sat down next to her on the floor with my arms around her and just let her cry. I said a prayer in my heart to help me know what to say and do. As we sat with her on the floor for about 15 minutes of on and off silence, she said to us, "Will you Sisters share?" I told her of course but not knowing what we would share. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" and I just lost it. All of us did. Looking at this sweet baby boy and just feeling Heavenly Fathers love for this sweet family is indescribable. We prayed and after the prayer I remembered a missionary telling me that if you ever have doubt on what to teach, you can always go back to the Restoration. And that's what we did. We talked about how through the gospel our families can find happiness and peace even in times of trial. On Sunday morning Sister Mendoza and I walked together with our arms around each other to the place where their perfect and precious baby boy would be placed. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of this gospel and how it brings such great comfort knowing that Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for each and every one of us.

I love you all! Paghinay permi!

Feeling happy to be eating a DUNKIN' DONUT. Yes, they have that in Tacloban. Notice our matching shirts? (Don't make fun of them.) Sister Malu is absent from this photo because she is grabbing a donut to eat. Haha

Just so you all know this is not Sprite. It is filled with water. Also no making fun of my tan line!

I love this girl!

I love the Sisters I serve with!!!

I remembered Mom talking about Mars bars and I finally got to try one!! Thanks to Australia :)

Sister Allen and I!

Beach Baptisms!

Hello all! I hope everyone is doing great! This week was a busy week! It was a little different since it was fiesta! Yes, fiesta. They go ALL out here! Everywhere you go there are decorations which are seriously so cool but it is also really busy and LOUD. The other thing too is it's only Catholics who celebrate fiesta so it was a great opportunity for us to be out and talk to people. I really love the people here so much! They are really the sweetest people in this world.

We had a great lesson with the Negado family this week. Sister Negado has been a member of the church for over 5 years now and she and 3 of her children are less-active, and one is a recent convert from September. We have been working with them and helping them to come to church and helping Sister Negado with encouraging her kids to come to church. We talked about families and about Nephi and his family. Sister Dumale and I also shared experiences we have had with our families and how our parents have blessed our lives and helped us to go to church and grow in the gospel. She really appreciated the things we shared and she opened up to us and we were able to help them and she really wants to be better at helping her children come to church and grow in the gospel.

We ended the week with the baptism of the Aguilay children! THEY WERE ADORABLE. All who were baptized looked so happy and it was a beautiful day outside to have the baptism at the beach! After the baptism we had our ward party! We ate TONS of food. I thought I knew what eating a ton of food was like but I'm 100% sure nobody eats more than the Filipinos do! Which is shocking because they are still so tiny!! Basta, we then played games which we, the missionaries, were in charge of and it was so much fun! I remembered the minute to win it game (Thanks Guy Fieri) with the tissue box tied around your waste and you have a minute to get the ping pong balls outside of the tissue box without using your hands and it was a hit! Everyone LOVED it! It was hilarious. We also did a sack race, limbo, egg toss, tug of war, and more! Again, SO FUN. Yes, I totally got sunburned even though I purposely made an effort to stand in the shade because my ward members always worry about me. But I am recovering and everyone just laughs because I tell them I'm just becoming more Filipina because I'll have darker skin, then they just laugh even harder when I still stay so white.

Church was great yesterday and I spoke in Sacrament meeting which was good. Everyone was so funny yesterday asking me how long I have been here in Carigara and I would reply almost 6 months and they just laugh and say you should just stay here until December! Or Carigara mission na la! They are so funny and they really are my family.

I hope you all have a great week!

Sending my love!
Sister Wilde

I love these kids!!

CUTEST BABY IN THE WORLD. And she loves me!! I also tell her parents she can come to America with me but they want to keep her. They did give me permission to take their other daughter who is so crazy. I said no thanks and we just laughed!

Taking me back to my elementary school days!

I love Filipino food!

Taking pics in these little girl headbands.

I love these sisters!! Best kabalay ever.

We may or many not take lots of pictures. We just  have too much fun!

First a chicken, now a duck!

Hello everyone!

We traveled to Tacloban this morning and as we were standing in the bus squished like Sardines, Sister Malu and I said, "Wow, if our parents saw this they would be really worried."  We have become so used to how they do things here we forget that it is not normal to have 55 people in a 33 (34 if you include the driver) seated bus flying down (speed limits aren't real) twisty and rocky roads! Yeah, and that wasn't even bad! I love it here.

This last Monday and Tuesday were AWESOME. Having the whole Tacloban Mission come together was such a great, fun, and memorable experience!! On Monday we played games and just got to have fun together! There was one game that Sister Dumale, Sister Vallestero, Sister Clergio and I were really good at and Elder Anderson kept telling us we were the best so that was funny because the Elders started to get frustrated and try to beat us but yeah, didn't happen. We then got to watch Meet the Mormons together and it was SO GOOD. I have been dying to see the whole thing and of course I got emotional watching the missionary mom. I have seen it here 3 times now and I still cry. And when I told all of the Filipinos sitting next to me that I have been there they just couldn't believe it! They thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Tuesday was a great day as we all got to sit and learn from our leaders. We talked a lot about covenants and how we made covenants before we came to earth and how we make covenants here and how important it is to keep our covenants and how blessed we are to be able to renew our covenants every Sunday as we attend church! One of our ward members told me that he was told on his mission by a leader that we should partake of the Sacrament 48 times a year. The missing weeks are for General Conference and Stake Conference! I couldn't agree more. I hope we all remember the importance of the Sacrament and that it should always be a spiritual experience. We got to hear from our AP's and Elder Oaks gave a powerful talk and shared his experience during Typhoon Yoloanda. As he spoke he showed a picture of water coming into their apartment (it was HIGH) and he said as himself, and 3 other Elders sat in the back in the corner preparing to die a picture of Jesus Christ floated up to them. As he told us he held up the picture that floated up to him and it brought tears to my eyes. He knew then that he wasn't going to die and that Jesus Christ was aware of him and was with them.

After our Combined Zone conference we ate lunch (which was so good) and had transfer meeting! I was really excited for Transfer meeting because I had nothing to worry about :) Sister Malu got her new companion Sister Laniton who is actually from the same place as Sister Duamle so they knew each other before the mission! Small world! She is really sweet and we all 4 have a good time :) (She is also a really good cook so that's a plus)

We had an amazing lesson this week with the Aguilay family about Temples! We have taught them all together before (Brother is really listening now!:)) and it was a great lesson but seeing the spirit work on him while teaching about the Temple was amazing. We had a picture from the Mission office of the Cebu Temple and as he sat and looked at the picture there was just a pause and he then looked at us and said, "I want us to go there." Joemar (12) Angel (9) and Angielyn (9) all passed their baptismal interviews on Saturday and couldn't be more excited for their baptism on the 18th! The Elders have a baptism as well and Jushrei's little sister just turned 8 so all together there will be 9 baptized and it will be at the beach! We can't wait! There will be a ward party that follows which will be so fun. The missionaries are in charge of games so that means Sister Dumale and I because the Elders have no idea what they're doing ;) Brother Aguilay isn't ready to be baptized but we are helping him to be ready August 1st as well as Sister Rhodora who came to church again yesterday with her boys who also want to be baptized. Jemily also will be baptized on August 1st and we are so excited for her as she really has changed so much and when we taught her Word of Wisdom yesterday she immediately said she would stop drinking coffee without question. I love her!

Do any of you remember when I killed that chicken a while back? Well I also killed a duck. Yeah. But not really because I was actually pretty scared to do it so I just had to hold the wings and everything which was really sad and hard because they are strong. Kevin is a big duck! I don't want you all thinking I am some animal killer here on my mission so I wanted to share a scripture. Doctrine and Covenants 89:10-12 "And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man-- Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving. Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;" I think Kevin is the last animal I will buy but now Jeralyn and her family have rice and food to eat and we have the experience of eating duck. I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you all know next week if it's good. (I hope so)
 

Nahigugma ako ha inyo bug-os!

Love,
Sister Wilde

I saw Elder Cotcher again of course and a picture was a must!

HAPPY FAMILY :) :)

We helped Sister Hansen (Senior missionary) stamp books for the cute kids here! The others translated a little portion of the story in Cebuano/Waray Waray so she could read it to them in their language too :)

Meet Kevin (sorry but it only gets worse from here)

Sister Malu liked him.

Poor Kevin. Be prepared for what is next!

I love Sister Dumale! We are drinking my favorite drink! (Buko! Coconut) Yes, we drink out of bags here and I love it.

We all have matching fans now thanks to Elder Esika and Elder Means!

I have finished 2 journals now! (Are you proud of me Mom?!)

Bathroom selfie with Myla!

LOVE THESE GIRLS!

Short and Sweet

Hello all! Today’s email has to be short because we will be going to Tacloban today! The whole Tacloban Mission will be together for the next 2 days! It is going to be great! Sister Malu and I are excited to see all of our batch! We haven't seen some since we have been in the mission! Basta, this week has been interesting since Sister Malu joined our companionship on Friday! Talk about fun! ;) Sister Pui has been transferred so Sister Malu will get her new companion on Tuesday. Having 2 companions always feels weird but it is fun!

So every week we make a goal for our sacrament attendance and we have been getting around 165 which is a big number. We have been pushing ourselves with getting our LA's, RC's and investigators at church, and the Elders have as well. We had 195 attend church yesterday and I could not be happier!! One of our investigators Sister Rhodora came to church as well for the first time and I loved seeing how loving and welcoming our ward was to her. It really makes ALL the difference!!

I'm really so sorry this email is short but no time today! I love this gospel and you all! Have a great week! :)

Love, Sister Wilde

Meet Jeralyn's baby girl! Her name is Maria Unilyn Justine Kim!! (they LOVE long names here!) She is so tiny!!

We straightened half of Sister Dumale's hair with Sister Malu's straightener because we were curious! (It was hard to straighten! Her hair is SO BIG.

Yes, we are in our laba area making s'mores because Filipinos don't know what those are and what is life without a s'more??

Successful because Sister Dumale loved them!