Ormoc for life!

Hello Family!

I guess you are all probably wondering if I was transferred or if I got a new companion, the answer is...I didn't transfer or get a new companion! Sister Lopez and I will finish our missions together here in Ormoc! Crazy!! Sister Lunar did however transfer back to her first area! Haha she has just moved to her 2nd area only to go back to her first! And Sister Stinchfield is the new companion of Sister Culangan. She was Sister Harper’s last companion and so she is so new and it is so much fun! During Stake conference the other day I had to translate for her and it brought back so many memories for me. I remember being in her position and it has just be so much fun to see how she still has a hard time eating so much rice and taking a bucket shower. It is good to have someone so new in the home, it keeps us on our toes ;)

Our work this week was successful as we were able to find 17 new investigators and had people in the ward work with us! They are so awesome! I got to be companions with Nanay Coquillia twice and then on Sunday I was with Sheila, Honey, and Charmaine. I love those sweet girls who really want to serve missions! They will be amazing!

On Saturday we planned to go finding in part of our area when Sister Maurer texted us asking us if she could work with us since they were coming down for Stake Conference and President Maurer would be in the Priesthood Session. So Sister Maurer came finding with us! We were able to teach 2 lessons and find 3 new investigators! Sister Maurer asked me to be her translator and it was the best. I love her and it was a great experience to have her work with us and her powerful testimony brought such a great spirit.

We have a new investigator family, Mae and Ryan. They have 2 little kids and they are MARRIED. That is seriously so rare here I promise so we could not be more excited!! They are also so prepared to hear and accept the gospel! They love that their family can be together forever and it was so powerful when my 3 cute companions shared their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I have so much faith and hope for this family!!

Sunny and Marita are still amazing and haven't missed a Sunday for the past 7 weeks :) We are just working on the marriage process which is crazy here and we know we won't be here for their baptism but as long as they are baptized that is what matters and we just love them!

We have MLC tomorrow and Wednesday so I am looking forward to that! It really will be my last one :( Time is going by fast and it needs to slow down! I find that I get emotional every time someone talks to me about going home! But words can't express how much I love all of you and how grateful I am for your love and support for me! I plan to make these last 5 weeks the best!

Love,
Sister Wilde

Quick selfie with Sister Maurer!! I love her!

My companions with Diosella the photo bomber! :)

Some of my favorite people!!

Working with Nanay :)

We went to Jollibee this morning and I have an admirer! ;) There is a quote on the back but anyway it just made my day. It also means I have been in Ormoc way too long because everyone knows me and talks to me like we are lifelong friends! I really feel like this is my home and that I don't stand out!

 Me and Sister Stinchfield. Elder Child photo bombed us!

We celebrated Ahmon's birthday! He is one of our bishop's sons. Who doesn't want a cute little lechon pig for their birthday?! The best!

Lizards, and snakes, and fish oh my!

Hello everyone! How is everything over there in America? Things here in the Philippines are great :) I finally admitted to myself this week that the mission has made me pretty emotional or maybe it's the fact that I am on the last cycle of my mission!! I totally cried during daily planning. Who does that?? I started crying while planning for the people and realizing my time left as a full time missionary is short. I love being a missionary.

I mentioned in my last email that we were going to go to a zoo and well a zoo here in the Philippines is birds, giant creepy lizards ROAMING FREE, a snake, and fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. Could it get any better? Maybe. BUT it was so fun!! We all had the fish eat the dead skin off of our feet and the elders screamed like little girls! I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time and it was so entertaining! We decided that whoever had the most fish on their feet were the hardest workers and Elder Means and I took the prize! Everyone else said it's not fair because we are white. Haha!

We had our Zone Training meeting as well and it was awesome! Crazy to think it was my 2nd to last! The topic was Plan of Salvation and it was awesome. Heavenly Fathers plan really is perfect and we are so blessed to know it and have the knowledge of how we can return back to live in His presence. We also had interviews with President Maurer and the first thing he said to me was, "Well, Sister Wilde, you are going home!" That totally caught me off guard! But we had a great interview and I am so thankful he is my mission president! Heavenly Father knew I needed him and Sister Maurer in my mission and they have forever blessed my life.

This week Diomella and Diosella were baptized! They were so excited and so cute in their big baptismal clothes :) The elders had a little girl at church yesterday that is 10 years old and isn't yet baptized because her parents are less active and Diomella and Diosella fellow shipped her and were proud to say they were members of the church! Could they be any cuter?!?

This week we had exchanges with our Sisters in Sogod. From the Provo MTC to Tacloban Sister Harper and I got to be COMPANIONS AGAIN. THE BEST!!! We remembered our time in the MTC trying to speak Cebuano and now we were going around speaking Cebuano to everyone and sharing the gospel :) She did however have a weird thing going on with her eyes so we had to go to the hospital to get her eyes cleaned out (which looked super painful) but besides all that she is great :)

So transfer announcements will be coming out later today and I would usually have a feeling of if I am transferring or not and right now I would say I'm not but also I'm freaking myself out because I don't want to transfer. But whatever happens there is a reason for it and you will all get to find out next week where I go or who my new companion is.

I love you all :) Have a great week!!

Love,
Sister Wilde

Beautiful.

I thought to myself, "Why is there a chicken in there??" Then I read the sign.

Yes. This totally happened.

Fish Spa

LOVE THEM.

We only have 1 cycle!

Yes. President and Sister Maurer took us out to dinner!!! The fanciest I've ever eating in my mission. They are the best!!

Just hanging out with my BFF's

I just started my last planner!

Baptism!! :)

Goat.

If you go further...they will come!

Hello my sweet family and friends! How are you all?! I am doing great :) This week Sister Lopez and I had a successful week because we decided to go to one of our areas that is farther out (it’s about a 20-30 minute tricycle ride) and find some investigators! We were able to find 8 new investigators there within 1 hour! AMAZING. It really feels so good to find those people who Heavenly Father is preparing to hear the gospel :)
Two of our new investigators are Chris and Marlyn. They are married! (that is a rare thing here!!) And they have 4 kids! They are in their 50's and Nanay Coquillia referred them to us :) Referrals are the best! They are SO receptive and ready for the gospel, it is awesome! They want us to come back when their children are home so they can listen as a family. We can't wait to teach them!

Another highlight of our week was having a great time at the birthday party of one of our investigators. Her son is actually the only member in the family and he is serving a mission in Cebu, so she is just so curious as to why he decided to leave her for 2 years because she really misses him! I love when I get asked the question, "Why did you serve a mission?" It really brings the spirit when we have a chance to answer that and her other kids want to listen. At her party tons of people started showing up and they were super loud and crazy because birthdays are HUGE here! They couldn't believe an "Americana" was at Nanay Quigaws birthday! Haha! When they heard me speak Cebuano they became super excited and weren't shy to talk to me. I LOVE their language :)

Sunny and Marita came to church again yesterday and one of the Elders made a comment to me. He said, "Your investigators know more than some members of the church it seems like. They are golden! Can we teach them now?" Haha they really are the best :)

Today we are going to a Zoo and so you could say I am pretty excited. Just thought I would let you all know, pictures will come next week :) Also, this is the last week before transfers!!! AHHHHH. I honestly don't want to transfer! Everyone in Ormoc says I'm the "Eternal Ormoc Missionary" like what?? Haha but it's true! I'm now 6 months here in Ormoc but I would love to finish my mission here and make it 7 1/2 :) We have so many FHE's planned this week since the ward members know it could be my last :( But if I transfer, I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me. I just can't believe I'll be on my last cycle next week! Time is going so fast. I don't want to leave this place!

I love you all! Make this next week a great one :)
Love,
Sister Wilde

Sunny and Maritas little girls :)

FHE with the Coquillia family :)

Sunny and Maritas sad pet turtle. I fed him rice!

I will miss nights sitting on the floor giving a prayer of thanks for the fish and random leaves from outside. (I know that sounds bad, but it's actually really good.) This was at Sunny and Maritas.

Because who doesn't love tricycle rides?

At church!

Makeovers on a Sunday afternoon! Diomella and Doisella (in the back) will be baptized this Saturday!! :)

Have I mentioned that I LOVE MY MISSION!!

Hello Family!

What a week! We have been busy, busy, busy! But that is nothing new ;) We went to MLC on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tacloban and it was great! It is always fun to go especially when you have batch there ;) I know I'm not the only missionary who is excited to see their batch!! We discussed that there will no longer be a "transfer day". Instead the Zone Leaders will call and say where you will go and who will be your companion then you have to travel there ALONE and meet your companion in your new area! Now that caused a lot of stress! But there are currently 8 Sister Training Leaders here in Tacloban and 6 of us will be going home in March so we only have one more transfer day...so we didn't really worry too much. Haha ;) It was funny because everyone was having a panic attack but we were okay ;)

We had exchanges this week with our Sisters in the Maasin zone! The Maasin zone is over two hours away so they came to Ormoc to work with us and it was great :) My first companion was Sister De Leon who is actually part of my batch coming in to the mission! She is so awesome! She is currently training a new missionary, Sister Domingo, and it is so fun and cute to see new missionaries and how they are doing. It brings back memories of when I was new :) (They are handling it a lot better than I did!) Sister De Leon and I visited tatay Coquillia, (the husband of nanay coquillia who I have sent pictures of) he hasn't been to church in the last year. We felt prompted to teach the Restoration. I love teaching the Restoration to Less Actives because it rekindles the feelings they had when they were baptized and the first vision always brings such a strong spirit. He opened up to us about why he hasn't been attending church and asked why we cared so much, he really directed it toward me, so I told him that when we invite him to church, or share the things we share with him, that's it's not from us, it's from Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are reaching out to you through us. I then cried as I expressed my love for them and the spirit was just amazing. I LOVE MY MISSION.

The next day my companion was Sister Portin! She is a new missionary and is hilarious! I was constantly laughing! Especially since she's Tagalog speaking and for some reason everything is funnier if it's in Tagalog. She also told me she loves to sing and so I asked her to sing for me and she did with no hesitation! (I love the Filipino people.) It was NOT what I was expecting...it was AMAZING. No wonder she didn't hesitate! (But even those who don't have the best voices don't hesitate. Just sayin' ;)) We taught the cute Montes kids along with their Mom about the temple. After I shared my testimony of the temple and how grateful I am to be sealed to my family, Sister Montes’ little girl said, "I hope my Mom comes to church so she can be my Mom forever." Such sweet, innocent, and tender words that pierced her heart. Those sweet little girls really brought a sweet and tender spirit into our lesson that Sister Portin and I will forever cherish :)

Church on Sunday was great as Sunny and Marita came again! They told us they are making it a permanent thing because they know it's true! They are awesome. They have been receiving many persecutions from neighbors and friends but know they need to keep going because it's just a trial they need to overcome. Tatay Takyo also blessed the sacrament for the first time yesterday! He was so nervous but did great! We also had a broadcast from the area presidency and Elder Ardern talked about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, missionary work, Temple Marriage, and Family History. He said the best MTC is in the home preparing to enter into the real MTC. He is so right! So just a quick shout out to my AMAZING parents for helping me get to where I am today! I love you both!!!!

Have a great week everyone! Sending my love!

-Sister Wilde

p.s. Sister Lopez got those DoTerra mints in her Christmas package from a family in Oregon and she gave them to me. So I have been giving them out to the Filipinos because they have no idea it will be so strong once the small ball thing pops and it has brought me so many laughs!! Sounds so mean but I only give them to those who I know can take it. Like the missionaries I'm serving with, my Ward Mission Leader and Bishop. Hahaha!  

 

Lovisa sent me these these pictures that we took on Sunday! She has become one of, if not my closest friend here in Ormoc! Love her!

Elder Cotcher shared some goodies from his package! We baked it in the toaster oven...success :)

Sister Dumale sent me a key chain :)

Cute Sister Portin!

I love Sister Peregrino!! :)

Hey there 2016!!

 Hello everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I still can't believe we are into 2016! TIME FLIES. The hardest day of the year for us missionaries to work is January 1st! Everyone is sleeping! They celebrate New Year’s like nobody else! I love it! I went to bed New Year’s Eve thinking that the other sisters did too, but apparently they were too excited to sleep! I woke up at midnight to TONS of fireworks and horns blown in my face by Sister Culangan and Sister Lunar. Normally I would be mad, but I wasn't because they just wanted to celebrate the new year 2016, the year we will return home ;)

I am so happy to say that Sunny and Marita are still doing AMAZING! They are now in Omni in the Book of Mormon, and have been to church 4 times! They really feel the love and support from the ward and cannot wait to be baptized. They probably won't be baptized until after I have come home due to the long marriage process, but it's okay. I am so blessed to be a part of their journey to help and teach them!

Sister Lopez and I ended up getting lost in the Bukid this week. (Bukid-mountains, jungle, ect.) We went to a part of our area we had not yet been to, since our area is HUGE. Well first of all, this new place is called Billy Boy so that doesn't sound promising. But we continue on and start to talk to the people there. We are the first missionaries they had seen! We couldn't believe it! But they knew about Mormons because they said some "mormons" lived up the dirt road at the top of the mountain. So we thought maybe we have some less actives or members there we could find! We followed their directions and they probably laughed really hard when we were far away because it led us into the middle of nowhere. There were like 4 houses and they were not "mormons". But on the bright side I got to see a pineapple field and experience the bukid. But honestly I felt like we could be on a new TV show "Missionaries in the Wild" because if anyone would have seen us (mostly me) in the bukid, it would have been pure entertainment. The struggle was real and I will not go back. But that TV show could possibly be successful on Animal Planet ;)

Life here in the Philippines as a missionary is still the best :) Every day I get to see new miracles take place in the lives of the people or in myself. It can't get any better than that! I hope you all made New Year’s resolutions to motivate you throughout this New Year! Love you all! :)

Love,
Sister Wilde

I love when the members work with us! They were my companions yesterday :)

HaPpY nEw YeAr!!

New Year's feast! My companion is an amazing cook!

Tricycle rides with my favorite sisters!

Pineapple field!!

"Rooster Farm"

My area

This picture was taken before we were really lost!

This is our punted and lost in a the bukid face. Hahaha

Because when we saw PMG the first thing we thought of was Preach My Gospel. Haha we are missionaried talaga.