Chloe in the Philippines: Naga, Naga, Naga

Marana hapon naga city!!! man life here is crazy! so busy busy and hot hot hot! lets talk about the happs this week.

first of all, my kasama. oh my gosh. i wish you all could meet her! she is HILARIOUS!!! but like, its all in the things she does and way she is. It's sooooo funnnyyyy I swear I haven't laughed like this in a loong time. I can't describe all of the funny things, but after our tricee ride it was just TOO funny, then she wanted ice cream so we went into the jolleebee but i was crying, tears streaming down my face and my body was all hunched over cause I was laughing so hard. We could barely order we were literally dying, the whole restaurant looked at us...the cashier asked us what religion we were....hopefully they will just get the impression that mormons are happy people, not insane. anyways, its a good life with sis m :) i love her man!

So in my new calling as diet and fitness specialist, we have started a morning program of zumba :) we watch it on the little dvd player and i make us sweat man! haha so weird right? I'm like such a hypocrite, since when do I do eat healthy and exercise? Uh never....just now haha.

I COOKED LAING ALL BY MY SELFFFF

Next- highlight of the week in food- I COOKED LAING!! All by myself !!! I'm such a ppina!!! it was so good daw and my ppinas said it was 5 star :) pwede na ako! it was so good and it didn't even make your throat itchy! (if you don't cook it right it does and its like you want to stick a fork down there and scratch it). anyway I've been very proud of myself and proudly declare that while my skin might be white my heart is ppina 100%.

Let's move on to our segment called "all creatures of our God and king". this week I did a bad thing. a bad, bad thing. we were walking in the hot hot sun around 2 pm, I had my umbrella out and was squinting and sweating like crazy. we walked past the huge iglasia ni cristo church, and I heard sis mauai yell "SISTER!". Due to the sun and sweat in my eyes, I didn't look down but kept trudging on. BUT. instead of my foot hitting the boiling pavement, it stepped down on something hot and fuzzy! I didn't even know! then I felt and heard this big crunch and felt blood, look down and WHAt do i SEE?! a rat! a huge freaking rat the size of an idaho potato!!! i stepped on it and it POPPED!! i screamed and jumped away, then silently freaked out as it twitched and blood came out of him and looked around to see if anyone noticed my crime. I killed him!! I'm so sorry!! i didn't know!! uh it was so gross and I feel so bad! I wanted to like, take it to the hospital or something but thats a stupid idea...so we just waited on the curb till his last breath then kept going. I had blood on my shoe the rest of the day. poor guy.

at gen conf with the kasama

so teaching in the city is sort of...insane. we oymed this lady at her vegetable stand and then sat right there on the side of the road and taught her, practically yelling because of the noise of motors and trycees. It's not all like that in our appointments, but its definitely louder here than my past areas. I miss the rice fields :''( tracting here is...rough. yup. its rough. people are busy, they are ruder I feel like, they live in big houses or tall apartments....we were tracting and it was so hot and we sang "heavenly father...are youuu really theere" and then it started raining! ya! when its extreme heat here sometimes it rains...anyways, it was like a billion degrees but we had some rain mist. Heavenly Father is watching out for us and knows its rough :) We keep the mood light though and don't get too depressed or down. how can I when sis m is so so funny? I'm so grateful for her and so glad we can laugh all the time so survive this insane place.

We had a csp cleaning up a "meeting house" aka a cement room with one string light bulb, for the Elders' area. It's just a group out there, there are very few members because the catholic preacher in their town area tells them all these terrible things about Mormons. We just went and cleaned up, weed whatever we saw and swept. Hopefully it will show people we aren't from the jaws of hell and are actually decent folks. poor elders out there :(

Cookies with the Hoopes

awk pic...what do i do wiff my hayndz

So, in these emails, I feel so bad. I can't hardly express the whole week, let alone the most important growing parts, all the people I meet, all the Spirit I feel. I wish I could be better at expressing it here. i wish i could describe the Spirit i feel every day, how incredibly good i feel when the Spirit testifies through me and i feel it in my eyes. I wish i could take you on a day in the life here. I wish i could tell you how much I am changing and re-writing my character and everything inside into something so much better. I wish I could express how things really are. These emails about rats and food and the heat, ya thats nice, like 20% of it....but there is so much more! Even my pictures can't capture it all. I wont even try to write all the spiritual things, but please know that they are happening even if i don't express them here. My journal is full of times every day when I see the hand of the Lord in his work. I just hope you remember that these letters are not a sum total of my mission but a mere glance.

On Sunday, it was my first time in the Naga 3rd and I was asked to be a speaker, topic--missionary work. Piece of cake, I can talk for years about that :) I prayed about my talk the night before and wrote a quick sketch. Anyways, I spoke for about 15 mins about how we can all be better missionaries to our neighbors and stuff and how they can help the work of God. Afterwards many people came and thanked me and complimented my language skills. I was so shocked, what? MY Tagalog? I decided a while ago to quit stressing about the language, it was taking up too much worry space in my head. I just stopped caring, worked my hardest, and let the rest come. Anyways what I'm trying to say is that a) the gift of tongues is real when it is used for the Lord's purposes and b) I am so grateful and in awe that I can be used as an instrument in the Lord's hands and somehow manage with this crazy language and get the Spirit's point across. of COURSE i have a lot to improve on, there are tons of words i don't know and cant speak, but as for now where I'm at, I am so grateful and really know that this is a miracle.

There is so much more..but I'm going to have to leave it at there for this week. Thank you so much family. Thank you for your prayers and your love and support, thank you for your testimonies, thank you for raising me in a home with the Spirit and letting me gain my own testimony. I know without a doubt this church is true. I know that God is real. R.E.A.L. He is not absent or far away from us, but loves us more than we can even comprehend. I know He loves me, I know I am his daughter. Missionary work is the hardest thing, and the greatest thing. You don't need a name tag to feel this way. I am so honored to give everything of myself to the Lord and to have him push me and make me into a better thing than I was yesterday. I know that He lives. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. I cannot deny that this is their work and their hand is in it, all I try to do is do my best to step out of the way and let them do their work though me. Thank you for your prayers and I pray for you every night and day. Be safe :)

Love sister mcgrath