Unto us a child is born, unto us an AKI is given!!!!

dinner appointment at a rich rich rich home

Yes its true!!! I'm a mother of my very own AKI!!! (ps aki means kid or child in bicol. i will be referring to her as my aki for the rest of my life, so we better all get on board here and learn this word.) Ok, so yes! her name is sister j and she is soooooo great!! oh my goodness i love her so much!! but alas, lets start at the beginning.

So last day of transfer we had a dinner appointment at a member with a huuuge mansion and it was delish. The departing missionaries were all in the mission home, pretty close to our lesson dinner appt and so we went by after work and got to see them aLL! i saw my nanay!! sis ril!! we hugged through the bars and talked all about life and the wondrous awe that she was going to have a grandchild in the mission. so funny the timing, right as my nanay goes home I become one myself. we talked to sis reeder and the other elders and sisters, shed some tears, and then went to bed with all the nerves that come before transfer day.

saying goodbye at transfer point to sis m!!

The next day was transfer day, sis m was all packed to go and we went to the chapel, SM, the usual. sis m got transferred to Daet (my first zone!) and became a sister training leader!! i bet her 500 pesos she would be an stl, so good thing she did. she cried cause she was so scared and nervous but i told her stl is nothing to worry about, it's lots of fun. (HA like i know :)) HEY so the final update on her- she got so healthy when i was her kasama, due to my expertise in oatmeal and exercise :) pat on the back!! we hugged and said goodbye, ah i miss her! she was a great kasama.

saying goodbye to sis c!

Then i got my temporary kasama for the rest of that day until we went to new trainers training at 10:30 the next day. sis n is also training and so we just stressed about our akis and talked about training the whole time we worked. then the day was finally here! time to meet the akis!! we went to the mish home, separated from them to get our "training." Turns out the training to become a trainer is just a power point about the rules and stuff and things to teach them. When it was over i was like "thats IT?" thats all the training i get? but then i quickly realized that oh ya, i've been being trained this whole mission. i got this. So then before i exploded of excitement and nerves, they filed in!!! all of their cute little faces!!! 

There are 6 sisters in their batch, and immediately i knew who was mine :) ever since the first time i saw their pictures in the office weeks and weeks ago i immediately knew she was going to be my aki. Even before i got called to be a trainer i looked at her pic and knew that i would be her trainer. I know, weird right? So i saw her and we all shook hands, then the games began and everyone got paired up. Sure enough i was right!! sister j is my aki!!!! she is so cool! She's from the ppines, in Quezon city.  She is 20 yrs old, oldest of 3 kids, short term missioned here in the ppines before, and is just awesome. Also she is so stylish- like all her bags  shirts and skirts and shoes and everything, its like the cutest thing i've ever seen. its like she walked out of an anthropologie advertisement cute.

me and my aki!!!

 she's soo dang pretty! But best part, on top of all her cute-ness, she's like, the sweetest nicest thing!! she is so smart and willing to learn and help me and is kind and everything. She's like, the perfect child! She is very good at social skills too, has no problem talking to whoever we see and very easily gets along with them. She's so great, I'm learning so much from her.

Oh ya, also sister L (the other sisters in our apt) is training a sister S! She's from Bisias and its sort of hard for her to tagalog or english, but thing is she's only short term and her real mission is in Australia Sydney something. She's nice too and we have a happy ole time in the apartment. The new ones are lucky they are both there together! its good, they have a friend who is going through all the same stuff.

So the differences about training- we have 2 hours comp study instead of one, so that's different. But so far we've filled the time just fine with all of the things to read and learn in the manuals and from talking and telling stories. We are great great friends--I love her so much!

Other things that are hard, ummmm leading everything. Oh goodness. when did i become the one totally in charge here? all of a sudden I'm leading all the lessons, where we go, planning, everything. It's lots of pressure and i definitely feel very inadequate. I told sister j, "sis I feel very very unqualified to train you, like i don't know what i'm doing" and she says "I know you are SO qualified! you can do this!" ahaaa sweet innocence. If only she knew how much i DONT know and how i feel. but she's totally trusting and follows everything i do, even down to the laundry soap i buy. now i see why its so important that your trainer is good, the trainee will be their shadow and will end up just like the trainer. In that case, i am sort of glad she's with me because I know that we will be exactly obedient, work as hard as we can and then do more, and everything we need to do to have the Spirit and trust the Lord in his work. its only been how many days of training but I feel a different spirit in our work. I feel so much more reliant on Heavenly Father because of my weaknesses in this calling, and in return I feel His guidance more. It's so neat, I can probably write more about that next week. but ya, its good. its a lot of pressure, but its a good pressure. i really, really, like being a nanany :)

so thats about it for the week so far, its been a week of firsts! lots of explaining and showing and teaching. she is so good though, she's so magaling and is going to be such a great sister!! I'm so grateful for her addition here in Naga mission :) 

i love you all thank you so much for the prayers! keep them coming my way! Love you!

Nanay McGrath

BUNTIS NA AKO!!!!!!!

i killed these guys all on my own. yay!

This morning was transfer announcements, GUESS WHAT. I'M TRAINING!!!!!!! AHHH!!!!!!! i'm going to have an aki!!! i'm going to be a mama!! i cant believe it man. tuesday is transfer point and then i guess we will meet them wed or something? sis m is transferring, and sister l is training too, so in our house we will have 2 training sisters in the same house. the new ones are super lucky they can be with each other! but yes, all the incoming batch are ppino, so my aki is definitley a ppina sister! yay!

i'm so excited and nervous and feeling like i cant do it at the same time. its so much pressure to be a trainer, like, i've got to teach her everything of how to be a missionary! eek!! i feel like i'm still in my training myself!! its definitely going to be an adventure, and going to be very very hard. i hope she's nice. i hope she's willing to learn. i hope everything is fine. whoow pray for this new mama extra hard this week, especially for my aki! the first week is so hard man. and its the middle of summer. and our area is so rough. and I'M her trainer. oof i feel bad for her already. extra prayers, please :) aww i'm so sad to have sis m leave! she is so awesome, i love her so much! she is such a great sister, golden!! i'm going to miss her and all her mannerisms and cracking up all the time. i've got to go to Samoa someday for reunion :)

why does life have to end like this.

I'm running low on time, so heres some highlights real quick. we realized our area extends to the across the street area of this one street, and so got to go explore it out this week. it's behind this huge massive trash mountain that is sooo tall, and there are people swarming it like ants all day and night. they pick out stuff and sort it and are just always there. the first "house" we went to we talked to these 2 ladies holding babies, and were literally standing in trash. there was a thick blanket of black flies on everything in their home including us, the floor was sorted trash piles and it reeked. kids ran up from all homes around and stuck to me like a magnet, poking at my white skin and calling out things to me. when we go there i feel like i'm finally back in the ppines, coming back from a weird dream of a "rich ppines" that is naga.

This week there were a ton of processions, like when everyone has candles and stuff and marches behind these saints they hoist up. we were walking down to go teach a new family investigator, but oops, there they go. we just stood on the side of the road and watched as they all marched by. oops there goes our whole teaching pool. nooooo. this week we walked by this road and found one of our old old less actives sitting on the front pew of a catholic church, worshiping and all. she used to be a sunday school teacher and was one of the first converts here in naga. nooooo. on Sunday we went to teach our baptismal date lady but she was leaving home to go to church at the basilica, and said she doesn't want to be baptized. her drunk husband says no and she doesn't really have a desire anyways. noooooo. lots of little things like that happened this week. its hard.

aww sis cruz is transfering and sis mauai too!! 

huu uuu going to miss them!!! love them!

we sat and taught a lesson to a poor family, their shack is behind this mansion its so messed up, but as we said the closing prayer my Book of Mormon was open on my lap and i read a line from it and it was like, eerie how strongly i felt how it was written for our day. Like i felt someone was watching me, like all the prophets truly knew what our day was going to be like and wrote it all accordingly. i've felt my testimony of the Book of Mormon grow this week a lot, it truly is without a doubt true. i love that book, i know that its true. i cherish my time i read it every morning and can't imagine how anyone can have any peace of mind without spending some time in that book everyday.

uh awkward elder sister pics.
this is so awkward huh?

Sister Reeder called us over and we helped her sort through those gifts you sent for xmas and decide what to do with them and all. Sister Reeder was so grateful for them and loved all the things! we are going to give them out all next Christmas, i'm super excited. afterwards she was going out and gave us a ride to our next "appointment" haha she's so cute! she is such an awesome driver and strong lady for being able to exist here. She totally held her own on those streets with the jeeps and tryces and everything! we told her to just take us to the trash mountain cause we were going to go tract there. She asked how much this ride would have cost us if she didn't give us a ride, I said we would have just walked. She got that motherly look on her face like "you poor thing!" and then we thanked her tons, hopped out, and disappeared into the maze of shacks. haha later we talked to her and she said "you sisters do such hard things! I mean, I know that, but i don't think i really KNOW that." she is so sweet i love sister reeder! she's kind of right, same goes for you family, like, you know i'm out here "serving in the ppines" but really there is no way for you to know what that really means. i wish i was better at writing or explaining or taking you on a mental journey with me here, but i think its just impossible.

Sorry this week was short! hopefully the awesome experience of last week will still be fresh in your minds and you can live off of that some more, i sure have been :) super anxious for whats going to happen from now until next monday ehheeeeeeee!!! wish me luck being a nanay!!! i love you so much and am so grateful for your prayers and love and support and all :)

Love sis mcgrath

Naga zone

READ THIS!

Alright- stay tuned. i've got a miracle to write here. its sooo cool. mom- its the story that i was going to tell you on skype but i started crying cause its just that awesome of a miracle and too long of a story. hopefully i can type it justice, ill try my best.

but first of all, SKYPE!!! AHH! it was SO incredibly good to see your faces and hear your voices! this skype was so much better than the last one- pure happy and joy and afterwards. i was feeling on missionary fire. Man i love you guys so much. i feel like my love has tripled since i've been out here across the world- i'm so sorry and regret not saying i love you more. i LOVE you!!! Haha its funny- sometimes i do things or say things or am just a certain way and i remind myself so much of you mom. its really like i'm a little 2.0 version. I'm so grateful i have such wonderful and perfect parents to look up to, you guys are my heroes. So good to see all the kids too- man i miss them! i'm not leaving your sides when i come home! 24/7!

This week the gardeners left :''( we stopped by after work and i dropped of a card i wrote for them- they were watching animal planet in their pjs when we came by at 8:10 or so...man i cant wait to be just like them when i grow up they are so cool. Such an amazing couple, also hey i was invited to stop by their home off the I-15 as i head up to idaho :) :) yippee!

We met a man this week who is a tour guide for bicol region. his english is super good, we talked to him and his wife. they are catholic and very strong- they are very cool. like every morning when they wake up they look at the trees and the leaves and pray and thank God for his creations. anyways the man said that his first impressions of mormons is the word "cleanliness". he said here, and also in the states (he worked as a sea man before) in every single chapel he's seen is so "spick and span" in his own words. then he said "and cleanliness is next to godliness, so i guess mormons are pretty godly". Haha. So to all you volunteers cleaning churches Saturday morning- keep up the good work! you are helping my missionary work way out here in bicol!

me and my nanay!!!!

As far as the eats this week- oh man i am in love with anything cooked in coconut milk. Sis cruz is such a good cook and loves to put coconut milk in everything. it's like, the best taste i've ever put on my taste buds. haha so when we walk i play this game with sis m called "who am i" and do impressions of people in our district. i asked them to do an impression of me and they all said first thing "AHH this is SO GOOD!!!! MMM!!!" i guess i do say that at...only...every meal...haha i find so much joy in food. like when gustav is talking on the tv at the beginning of ratatouille i get emotional almost about the way he talks about food and cooking- i just want to cry and say amen or something. ok woah im off topic.

This week we were called to the mish home to get some ointment and it was mlc time and i got to see my nanay!! sis ril! awhh last time i could see her!! she says she's so proud of me and so happy she could train me. aw she's the best i love my nanay :) she goes home next week! craziness!

This week we had interviews with president. it was so good- i talked to president about some things on my mind and some struggles and he has such great advice- he is so wise. i got teary eyed in my interview. He's so wonderful i wish we could personally interview every week. Hey elder merrill was there for interviews too- i don't know if you already told me this but i guess his mom was a sister missionary in grandma and grandpa's mission? at the time of president and sister mcgrath in st louis?? what the? so cool! small world man.

at interviews president had just released an elder coming home living in our mission boundaries. he brought him up to the front to interrupt our meeting and said this elder had something to say. the poor guy-- he was bawling like a baby! he introduced himself to us "i'm elder something....i mean.....brother" and then burst out into tears. he told us he just took off his name tag 5 mins ago and felt like something was missing from him :( he bore his testimony and told us all to cherish our name tags and this time we have. it freaked us all out a little but--i clutched on to my name tag a little tighter. shudder.

this kid named taba on his bday- we bought

him chocolate and he was so happy!

this week we were oym-ing a lady, then there was this other lady hacking at the grass with a machete. we asked her if she wanted help with her work there, and she popped up and grabbed us and said "YES sister! i DO need help! so bad! come, come. quick follow me!" we had no idea man- we just started following this random lady down the road and through a maze of sewer and shack homes and kids and dirty feet. we reached her "home", she told us to look up at the roof. its one of the leaf roofs, and is full with holes. she says when it rains the whole thing floods. she says she has 8 kids and no husband, can hardly afford rice, and she's super scared for rainy season because they are going to flood out. she asked us if we can do something...uhh...we didn't really know but we promised her to do what we can. Pres says we can talk to bishop and we can get her a new roof. We got her info and told her we would try to help. i went to shake hands but she grabbed me into a sweaty hug and gave me a big kiss on the cheek, then did the same to sis m. she said thank you thank you so much and thanks for asking if she needed help in the first place.

Taba's baby brother

OK lets talk miracles!! this is the biggest crazy miracle ever- like i'm petitioning it be written in Preach My Gospel 2...it sounds like one of those stories that happens to missionaries you don't know and its almost fictional, but MAN this is REAL and really happened this week. ok its so cool. SO we will start with the morning i woke up Tuesday morning. i rolled over all groggy and stuff from waking up early- but instead of shooting straight into a half brained prayer- i sat for a minute. i cleared my mind like a white board like sis reeder says- erased the whole thing. then i prayed, i prayed good and real and hard. i asked Heavenly Father "please, let us have a miracle today". I don't know why i asked for that, but just felt like i should. In my personal study i read a line from the chapter finding people "He will lead you to them or they will be lead to you". It hit me so hard for some reason, it seemed to be the only line on the page. i read it over and over again and pondered if this was really true. in my prayer, closing my studies, i asked to find someone, or have them find us today. AH i'm getting teary typing this, mom this is when you asked me in skype if i feel like God answers my prayers. HE. DOES.

Ok so we went out to work, planning to go to this area, but the tricey driver stopped at the corner, sort of far from where we were planning to go. but neither of us corrected him, we just got out and said we will walk the rest. We started going down this road, saw a woman coming towards us. We said "Hi" as we passed. about 5 seconds later after she passed us she yelled "Mormons??" we stopped in our tracks, turned around, and said yes. she came up to us and said "i'm a mormon too". she told us she was baptized in 1970, has been less active since 1983 because she's been working in saudi. i eagerly asked her where she lives and when we can come visit with her- she walked us to her home and set an appointment and was so eager for us to return. she said as we were parting "I think God is calling me back." At our appointment a couple days later she eagerly sat us down and told us her whole life story. its very long and i don't think i can type it all. she's been to lots of countries working as a nurse, married a Singapore man and had 2 kids, then they are separated now. she is living with a different man now. she was trained in Egypt in the art of egyptian massage and worked in a mansion for a famous prince or something. she is very smart- her English is perfect and so deep. she has such an interesting life and history, remembers everything. she told us down to the date she was baptized here in Naga, pulled out her certificate. she remembered the american elders who taught her first. she said all this time that she's been turned away from God, he has never stopped blessing her. She says that even though she has not been turned to him He has been so merciful, blessed her with food and money and everything. she got emotional as she realized that, that God has never stopped reaching out his hand. She said that in all her travels or even just here in Naga, whenever she sees members or sees a church building, theres a part of her inside saying "i'm a part of that, I'M a member there" but she's never voiced it out loud till we walked by. she said when we walked by and said hi and she saw our name tags, there was something forcing her to yell out "Mormons!".

I got teary as i told her that morning i had prayed to find her and told her what a miracle it was we crossed paths. She agreed it was a miracle. She said all this time she's been away from the church, deep down she's known its true. she never has forgotten her testimony. She told us in the most broken way "sisters, my life, so many things have happened to me, i've done so many things. I feel like everything has piled up higher and higher like a tall fence and i feel there is no way i can jump over." she started crying. I felt my heart bursting, like electricity i felt we needed to read 3 Nephi 9:13-15. I looked over at sis m and her book was open to exactly the same page, even though we hadn't talked or even exchanged glances, that's both where we were prompted to turn. we read it with sister and she started crying.

 13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?

 14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

 15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.

We bore powerful testimony that it is true, God's hands are outstretched still. there is no expiration date on the church, and that no sin is too big or burden to heavy to ban her from the doors. she looked up and in the most honest and sincere way said "really?" I was taken back, did she really not know that? did she really think that God will not forgive her or accept her back into His arms? this quesiton led us to testify even stronger about the atonement, about repentance, and Jesus Christ. i told her that on her own she cannot jump over the fence, or ever make it without Christ. she was so touched. i felt so much love for this lady, and such love for her. i felt overflowing inside with mercy and just wanted to hug her. she told us more about her feelings and thoughts and things, but we ended the lesson promising her that we will do all we can to help her back. WHAT A MIRACLE!!!! is there any way that i can deny that God hears my prayers?! that He is perfectly true to his words? He knows EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of his children. NONE are lost to him! this lady- through the years has been down many roads and through many things, but God is extending his mercy and love to her and begging His daughter to return. the very fact that somehow, i can play a part in being the Savior's hands makes me feel so overwhelmed with gratitude and love.

I promise and bear witness with my whole soul that God loves you. i KNOW it, i feel it, i promise you. Jesus Christ is the Savior. He "loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men to him...and he saith come unto me all ye ends of the earth, for all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden" (2 Nephi 26:24-25,28). to any of you reading who may be feeling like this lady, that life has piled up too high for you to jump over the fence on your own, i testify to you that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real. you don't have to suffer forever, you don't have to feel that way. Jesus has already paid everything just for you to come back to Him. No sin is too deep, no time too long, nothing impossible to extend out of the reach of Christ.

I know this church is true, that God is a loving, merciful being. He is our Father and he knows every one of us. I know sometimes it seems like a long road to return unto him, but it's the only journey that will be worth your time.

Isn't that just an amazing experience!? AH i am so overwhelmed by it. i love being the Savior's hands. i love doing this work. even though it's hot, even though its hard, sometimes it feels like i'm doing nothing but wearing the soles of my shoes thinner. but times like that? stories like that? it is ALL WORTH IT.

I love my Savior Jesus Christ, He is the Savior of the world. I love you so much family, keep praying for miracles because they are real and have not stopped. the Church is true and the light of the gospel is the best feeling in all the world.

i love you all, till next week, 

sister mcgrath 

kabahay pics

i'm meeeelttiiiingggggg!

after it is so hot it downpours. I really am soaking wet every day from 

sweat or from rain!

Hello! Its been another week in the land of Naga. I would say that its been hot, its been hard, its been full of being rejected, but that would make me sound like a broken record ;) just imagine me saying all those things week after week and there- you've got yourself a picture of my life! yippee!

This week a naughty naughty bad bad happened. I lost my planner. which is code for I lost my BRAIN! Ahhh!!! It was so terrible! so karumal dumal! I don't know where i lost it, we were walking from 2-5, didn't sit down anywhere in anyones homes or on any triceys or anything thanks to their hard hearts, so it's truly a mystery where it went, how it left my hand and ran away somewhere. I truly mourned. It was soo cool I had this chile pepper key chain on it :'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''( and not only that, but inside was sticky note upon sticky note of people to find and less actives and referrals and notes and just EVERYTHING man!!! We retraced all our steps but no luck. I hoped that some good samaritan would find it and read our OYM material in it and see our number and call, but due to some circumstances we had to change our number this week, so even if someone did call we didn't get it. Anyways, I got a new one and have started fresh, but its still a tender wound. Oh that chilie pepper was so cool.

Hm so this week we reached 81 oyms- 81 times we opened our mouths and asked people to learn more, shared quick gospel truths, stuff like that. One of my techniques this week has been to approach ANYONE and EVERYONE who says hi to us. Which is quite a lot due to my skintone. As soon as anyone, any group of men, drunk or smoking or not, yells out "HEY GIRL!" or anything else degrading BOOM I am there in 2 seconds. It feels about the same feeling I would imagine walking right up to the face of a growling lion. I can't begin to say how many times I have been called out at and called terrible things, but I am DONE with that. Somehow I get the courage to walk right up to them and introduce myself very boldly that I am a representative of Jesus Christ and we bring a message of truth and good news and invite them to hear more. Seriously, no fear. It doesn't matter who you are, i WILL talk to you. we not only OYMed only drunk men and perverts but lots of other souls too. I'm getting to be quite the conversation starter haha :) I am courageous and I am not afraid of you. We've got some good prospects to go back to and teach this next week because of all our open our mouths- yippee!

Aw so sad, the Gardeners are leaving this week! the sweetest senior couple :( They were there at Christmas time at the party and were so comforting and angels to me. I'm going to miss them! They truly are 2 of the most consecrated to the Lord and genuine souls. I hope I can be like them when I grow up.

This week one of the days for language study I hooked up the "Together forever" dvd produced by the church decades ago and we watched it in Tagalog. Oh its so cheesy. We ate cookie dough and the rest of the cookies we made with Sis Hoopes. good times.

After this week of very very few lessons, more than one 0's in our key indicators, we had a wonderful blessing from the Lord! Last night we met these people and got 2 new investigators!!! it was so cool! we went to teach one of our investigators, Gloria. Her daughter and son in law and their 3 kids were there because it was Sunday night. we started talking to them and we got to teach l1:-1-2. we had such a cool discussion, we asked them how they knew that there was a God, and they said that their oldest daughter, 6 years old, fell in this filthy canal and drowned. They ran after her and fished her out but she was dead. The mom said she was praying so so hard for her to come back, the dad held his daughter in his arms. Brother said that nothing happened until he looked up at heaven and cried out to God to save her. And then, she came back to life! Now they really believe in prayer and that God is watching. We talked about families and their importance. It was such a different feeling to say these things to an ACTUAL family, husband and wife and kids. we shared the truths about eternal families, and about temples. We gave them a pic of the Manila temple. I bore testimony to them that because of the blessings of temple sealings, even if their daughter had died that night they still would be able to be together in the next life. We bore powerful testimony and I really felt the truth of all we were saying fill the room. it was so wonderful! They told us to come back next Sunday, they don't live in our area but they are coming back to their lola Gloria's house so we can teach again. such a blessing!!! such a wonderful end to the week! I gladly would go through all the pain and hard and walking for hours on end in the streets with no luck just to meet them all over again. Missionary work is the work of God, he has a way to gather all of his sheep.

Thats about it for the week, I'm going to leave it here. I'm SO EXCITED for mothers day!!! i want to jump up and down!!! I get to see all your faces and hear your voices!!!! yay you're not just a dream but reaL!!!! so excited. Its going to make my year. I love you all so much and am so grateful for you, I truly have the best family and have been blessed to be born the luckiest girl in the world.

Love you all, 

TILL SATURDAY!!!!!

Sis McG

I love these ppinos, yes its raining, and yes they will go have fun in it