Attitude changes everything!

Hello everyone!! This has been an awesome week! Every week is an awesome week because I am a missionary but this week started off really awesome because my new companion is Sister Rodrigo!! Do you remember her? She was one of the first sisters I met on my mission and we got to be in a threesome twice before with Sister Skey while I was in my training. We have always stayed in touch throughout our missions and I have the opportunity of being her last companion!!! Yes, she will be going home on November 4th. We are so excited to be companions and have had great success this week :)

Something I have really learned this week is attitude changes EVERYTHING. I haven't been having the best attitude about this area (Sad to admit it) due to the fact that it is huge and not much progression. I was also feeling nervous getting a new companion because I thought I was just going to be lost all the time and that she wouldn't want to be here either. Well through prayers and study I realized I needed to change my attitude, and get to work. Not that I wasn't working before, but I needed to approach it differently. As I did this, I didn't get lost, we found 12 new investigators within 4 days (including a family!!) and saw great change in our investigators, less actives, and recent converts. Sister Rodrigo is also a great companion who also has the desire to see the changes made in this area. We always pray for a positive attitude and we always make each other laugh and enjoy working together.

This last week was also family week which is awesome! There was an activity held every day for families to do together and the big focus was on the importance of Family Home Evening. I was inspired by the messages shared and the experiences as well about the importance of family home evening and I hope we can all make the effort and have family home evening every Monday night. Great blessings will come and our families will grow closer together :)

One of our new investigators Henry met with missionaries before Yolanda but has not had contact with any since! (Just like the Gonzales family) He was so happy to have us meet with him and we discovered he had stopped drinking and smoking because it didn't feel good. It is so amazing to see how Heavenly Father has been preparing him. We cannot wait to continue to help and teach him.

Mary Ann is doing really amazing and she prayed about Joseph Smith and our message and said the feeling was "nidot kaayo" (really cool) and knows our Church is true. She is also reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it and she was concerned that she wasn't understanding it all but then told us about all of chapter one by memory! She is great! The Book of Mormon is so powerful and without it, we couldn't have the church today. It has made a big impact and change in my life and I have seen the difference it has made in others. Elder Boyd K. Packer said, "In a world ever more dangerous, the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world." It is my hope and prayer that we all read the Book of Mormon everyday!

I love and pray for you all! Amping Kanunay :)

Sister Wilde

Running into Elder Cotcher again during transfers

We wear pink ;)

Still can't believe we are companions!!! :)

We played What not to wear while Sister Pangilinan and Sister Papasin were packing for transfers. Who is your vote to see Stacy and Clinton in New York City?

Stylin'

This is the board in the mission office and Sister Dumale and I are on it! (We are in the black and white photo)

Elder Fakava and Elder Simona. They are hilarious and it always amazes us missionaries to see how much they eat!

This lady has an AMAZING voice! We asked her to sing for us since we found out she was in a band and sang in Saudi and she said, "Ah, no I am shy sisters" then she pulled out all of this equipment. Haha okay cool deal!

Found this spider in our window with her egg sack! Ewww! but normal.

Henry has HUGE roosters and they actually kinda scare me.

Rain, rain go away...

Hello Everyone!

As I was reading Grandma Wilde’s email she mentioned that there has been A LOT of rain happening over there in Utah and I could say the same thing about things here this week! I mean, that's nothing new, the raining but man it has been coming down hard! But walking through flooding and being soaked is nothing out of the ordinary :) Plus, it is typhoon season so even if the typhoon is not going to hit us, we get low pressure and I almost thought on two different occasions we were going to have a typhoon! The thunder is SO LOUD we plug our ears and the lightening lights up the whole room! But enough about the weather!

We had surprise exchanges this week with the STL's and I got to be with Sister Papasin this time and work in their area. Their area is really different because it is the city but I was able to meet some great people and we got soaked in the rain which made it all the more fun ;)

We have been teaching one of our investigators Jebie everyday at the church before she has seminary and she is the sweetest thing. She has a baptismal date for the end of October and she is progressing great so far and always has questions :)

We have also been teaching sweet Rae who is a recent convert and she is awesome! She is already a seminary teacher and has really made so many changes in her life. I am so proud of her.

We met Mindy Mcquivy this week at the church as well as her husband. She is a returned missionary from here! She served from 1996-1998. She came back to help when Yolanda happened and she has come back again because she and her husband will be adopting a little girl from Bacolod. It was her husband’s first time here and she was the sweetest thing! She told us that she was hoping to run into sister missionaries and it was so much fun to sit and talk to her about what it was like while she was here. She was actually the first American Sister here! Her husband served in Salt Lake City, Utah and they are currently living in Kentucky, but her family is in Utah. They have 5 kids so the cute 2 year old girl they have adopted from Bacolod will be number 6. They were such kind people and she kept saying how blessed and lucky we are to be serving here and she is so right!!!

On Sunday a cute Lola (grandma) told us about a lady who would like to meet with missionaries that live close to her house, so of course when we get a referral we need to make contact ASAP! We went and ended up asking a lot of people if they knew a MaryAnn and all kept saying no so we were confused and thinking maybe we were in the wrong place but then finally someone said to walk down further to see her house then all of the sudden a cute lady came running to us and said, "I am MaryAnn!!" she just had the biggest and brightest smile on her face. We got to her house and my head actually hits the ceiling. Haha her and her husband thought it was pretty funny. We started to teach them and had planned to teach the restoration but as we starting talking with them we came to find out that her husband is a member and they went to church once over 6 years ago and we are the first missionaries to meet with them. They didn't go back to church because they don't know anyone. As we continued to talk we asked her about the feelings she had at church and what she wants to gain from us teaching her and as she was sharing with us the spirit was so strong and the impression came to invite her to be baptized. I'm always a little nervous committing someone to baptism, especially if it's the first lesson, but the impression was so clear and the spirit was so strong, and she said yes! It was as if she had been waiting for us to ask her. Brother wants to go to church, sister wants to be a part of it, they just need some help. She is so prepared by Heavenly Father and I feel so blessed to be one of the missionaries to help them.

We got a phone call yesterday from the Zone Leaders that Sister Pangilinan will be transferring! I guess you could say I'm a bit nervous as I will be the leading companion in this huge area but I know Heavenly Father knows where I need to be and who I need to be with! I can't wait to introduce you all to my new companion next week! Love you all!!

Love,
Sister Wilde

The Bautista's got a puppy named Shaddy and I love him! So cute!!

We are soaked from the rain!

After the rain I found this crab and after this picture it surprisingly reached back and pinched my hand. Ouch! Pero nidot kaayo siya.

Mindy Mcquivy!

Sister Pangilinan was tired. Haha!

These kids were carrying that little boy around in that box and they love talking to us every time we walk by. They are so funny!

Baby Grace Bautista! She is a doll!

Someone is tired!

I think you could say I'm Filipino!

Hello Family!

So here are a couple of funny things that happened this week that I thought I would share.

1. We were at a dinner appointment with the Bautista family. (Who I love and they always feed us!) While I was eating dinner I felt something in my hair, it could only be three things. 1) a lizard 2) a cockroach 3) another species of weird insect that I can't describe. Well...I just grabbed whatever it was, only to see that it was a big cockroach and I just tossed it to the ground. I really have been in the Philippines for so long, to not freak out at that. The Bautistas were shocked and impressed.

2. I met a half filipino (his Dad is American) who was born and raised in Ohio and has been living here for 3 months. He can't speak Cebuano and it was hard for me to speak straight English to him. He couldn't believe it and Sister Pangilinan was laughing at me. I will just go ahead and apologize now for when I come home and throw in some waray-waray, cebuano, or tagalog words in our conversations.

Anyway, this week we had something great happen! We have been working hard and praying for an investigator family and while leaving an appointment with a less active their son asked us if we knew the Gonzales family. We said no and he took us to their house. We talked to the oldest daughter and it turned out they had met with missionaries before TyphoonYolanda, but after that the missionaries were gone. We made a return appointment for Saturday morning so all of her siblings and dad would be there. We went Saturday morning and there they were, all 7 of them, waiting for us. We were able to teach them and they were so kind!! Brother doesn't know how to read but he works hard so he can send his kids to school so that they will know how to read and that way they can read the Book of Mormon out loud to him. So awesome. We have such high hopes for this family and hope to be able to help them pick up where they left off before TyphoonYolanda. They really are the answer to our prayers and have been waiting for missionaries to find them.

Zone Conference this week was great as we got great training from President and Sister Maurer as well as the AP's. I always love learning how I can improve my teaching skills and just how to be a better missionary. There is always room for improvement!

I absolutely love this work and everything that comes with it. I hope you all have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Wilde

I am a true Filipina in my nanay dress heading to do laba.

I love these pictures!! Some of our batch at Zone Conference! President photo bombed and then Sister Maurer. Haha I love them!

We went on a mini adventure in the rocks!

It's not a true adventure with Sister Wilde unless I get hurt. Haha! I'm all good. No need to go to Manila ;)

Is she not just the cutest thing?!? We are BFF's. Sassy Alexa!

Yes, that guy is sleeping under his diesel truck. It's common here. "It's life" in the words of Sister Pangilinan.

The bridge!

The Bautistas!

Selfies while watching how to make ice candy!

Playing jacks while eating a banana. That's the way to spend a P-Day morning while also learning how to make ice candy from the Bautistas!

I sure live in a BEAUTIFUL place!

How is he sleeping you might ask? I have no idea.

There is a big letter coming your way Wilde family!! :)

I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY PACKAGES!! My family rocks!

I love the cards!

Got some birthday cards from my favorite Sisters! Sister Malu (blue one with earrings and pic) Sister Dumale (the big card)

And these are from Sister Clerigo and Sister Folau :)

I LOVE these books Mom!!

Got a way cute new bag for my birthday (Thanks Granny & Poppy) so I said goodbye to this one!

I'm sure you're all sick of hearing about my birthday but hey, the candles were too adorable.

And I was laughing because we didn't even have matches to light them! Fail. But I still made a wish ;) Don't judge how I look. We took these after a day of work!

These glasses though.

Here I am trying to be cute and creative for my Mom, but let's just face it...I'm not creative but I will go ahead and make some attempts ;)

PS Thank you so much to everyone who made me feel so special and loved on my birthday!! It really means a lot! And to my family, Poppy and Granny, Grandma and Grandpa Wilde, and Grandma Worthington!! I LOVED the gifts. I even wore the new skirt from G & G Wilde and the new shirt from G Worthington to church on Sunday. It was so cute!!

1 year on the mission and 20 years old!!

Hello all! This week was a different one and somewhat special one since it was my 20th Birthday and my year mark in the Mission field! I remember last year waking up and receiving many birthday calls (some included tears) and preparing myself to go into the Provo MTC.  I was so nervous, yet so excited to start a new chapter of my life, serving as a full time missionary. I remember the hugs, goodbyes, and of course the pictures (thanks mom) and I was off! I met my first companion and heard Cebuano for the first time and I wanted to cry. But now here I am, one year in the Philippines serving as a full time missionary, speaking Cebuano, and loving every single minute of it. The more I am here, the more I love the people and this crazy beautiful country!

We started out my birthday by visiting one of our investigators Larcie. We taught about temples and Eternal Marriage and the spirit was awesome. We could really see the desire in her eyes to make it to the Temple someday so that she could be with her family forever. We then taught another one of our investigators Mary Rose. She is a funny lady so she is always laughing and joking around but during this lesson as we taught about faith, we could really see the spirit working in that moment and it was a cool thing to see. After that we went to Mang Inasal for lunch where I got my halo halo and it was yummy :) We then had our weekly planning session and taught a recent convert, Romalyn, that night about the importance of prayer. We ended my birthday by eating a Reese’s sundae and french fries at Jollibee. (The best way to describe Jollibee is it's a Filipino McDonalds.)

We had Zone Training meeting on Friday and we had a great training from our Zone Leaders Elder Pole'o and Elder Griffin! I always love ZTM and getting training from our mission leaders.

Thank you all again for the birthday wishes, I appreciate it and I hope you all have a great week! Sending my love!!

Love,
Sister Wilde

I love Sister Brereton!! We are FINALLY in the same zone!!

BATCH. Yes, Elder Means and I transferred to the same zone. So funny.

We got some sweet Zone t-shirts. This is the front.

This is the back.

Ormoc Zone. Sorry this picture is a fail.

Elder Griffin and I are finally in the same zone!

My district!

During the STL's training at the ZTM. Hahaha

Yay for being 20, having messy hair, sweating A LOT, and eating my favorite halo halo :)

A surprise from my STL's!

My birthday card from Sister Pangilinan

A rice field. They actually harvested it, so darn it I should have taken a picture sooner! This is taken in about the middle of the field.

This little fruit here, longan, is delicious! Thought I would show you the process ;) I think it is magazine worthy.

Sleeping Beauty!

The Peregrino girls.

They are so adorable!

Sister Peregrino made this sagging for me and it was AMAZING! I loved them and I love her.

We had a foot spa. It was awesome.