2 transfers down in the heart of Bicol

Yup, we just finished week 6. Back to week one. time FLIES!!! What the heck!! I cant believe I've been training sis j for 6 weeks now. My long time kabahay and forever friend sis l is transferring- shes becoming an stl in daet with my old kasama sis m. So that's the changes- were getting a new roomie in the naga hotel. That's tomorrow- update ya next week on the new appt sitch.

I don't think I wrote last week about our pday adventures climbing Mt. Isarog. shame! Don't worry I will update you now. Our district hopped in the vans last monday morning super early and ventured out to this pinakamalaking mountain here in Naga. I was loaded with my camera and a can of peanut butter and a spoon and we went a hiking. it was SWEET!! pretty far and pretty intense hike- lots of scaling mountain through the jungle stuff. Sis j isn't really the "hiking type" if you know what i mean, so i got to stop and smell the roses (pick leeches off my neck and look at weird leaves) as we slowly made our way up. it was so beautiful, like i wish you all could go there. there were falls at the top and the temptation to cannon ball in the icy water was almost unbearable! Hey look at my pic we found this long juicy centipede thing! Hakuna matata! nature is so cool. anyways it took us a lot of hours, when we were at the top and elder brought all his letters and pics from his girlfriend who's engaged and we burned them. What else is there to do when you get dear Johned? This whole week my legs were sooooo sos o so so so sore. sooo hard to walk this week- that hike was hard core parcore.

We had a FHE with the G family that Monday- refer to picture. guess how many RMs are in that picture?? can you say pressure? they are super nice but it is very pressure-full whenever we go there or teach their niece in their home. I hope I'm doing everything right........ but its ok they like us and think were pretty cool. The fhe consisted of us questioning and brother Gamil, answering questions from one of the 3 categories he gave us- 1. education and pre-married life, 2. dating and courting, 3. married life. haha dead serious. we heard lots of wisdom :)

We oym-ed a man this week who told us he was the representative for Africa, that he had cameras installed in his eyes, and asked us if we see God. shuffle shuffle "okkk weve gotta go now...." I sure meet a wide range of characters out here.

Sis s (the trainee of sis l and my kabahay) went to manila last week to pee for her medical test for her visa. She's really serving in Australia and will leave as soon as her papers are ok. NO! I'm going to miss her!! Man i really am not a fan of making so many great friends and then having to say GOODBYE. ugh. i hate goodbye. sis g and m and d and so many others are leaving tomorrow :'''''''''''((((((( I hate how its not a sure thing that I will ever see them again :( But the bright side of Sis S going to manila is that we ordered krispe kreme donuts and she brought us home a box. we inhaled it way too fast and were left licking the frosting from the box. Ohh donuts are glorious.

Our apartment really did get turned into the Naga hotel this week- elder l and s came and set up 2 bunk beds in the spare room and so now we are fully equipped to hold 8 sisters here. bring it on. we actually made a sign complete with paper flowers welcoming sisters when they walk in to the Naga hotel. I wanted to write (food/toilet paper/bed sheets not included but realized that's a little unchristlike...)

Also this week we had a great day of teaching the Book of Mormon and it was just awesome- and so as we were heading home after work I thought why not drop by the Reeders why don't we? and so we texted them and got to go chat with pres and sis reeder in their kitchen and tell stories of our work. we ate bananas and got to chat- I felt like i was hanging out at a friends house talking with their parents. President and sister Reeder are the best! they are so down to earth and i love them so so much. wish we could just chat all the time :) Sis Reeder might work with us next week if she can make it! perks of being Naga sisters!

As far as the work- people are slowly progressing, slowly going through the process, slowly learning and opening the pages of the Book of Mormon. Some setbacks too- one of our awesome couples who came to church last week didn't come again, after our lesson with them Saturday we were interrupted by a visit from their iglesia missionary who may or may not have unraveled all of our hard work. argh. Also sis Jane is sort of frustrated and wanting to know every single thing about Mormon doctrine before she agrees to get baptized. Like she wants to read all the terms and conditions before she signs on the dotted line, which is totally ok I get her, but she wants to finish reading the whole Book of Mormon/D&C/Pearl of Great Price first. Also plan of salvation where we go after we die is sort of a weak spot for her. I could update a whole whole lot more but, you know. pday time limitations. anyways, the work is slowly but surely pressing on.

Hey, have I told you how wonderful it is to be a missionary and how much i love it? if you've missed the point in my past emails, here it is again- this mission is the best thing I've ever done. There's nothing else I'd rather sacrifice sleep or comforts for, I really love it! Pres Reeder told me that night we were over with them that America says A-ok to same sex marriage. I think I will just be fine staying here in this country, dealing 100% with other peoples problems than my own or my country's. Oh America. needless to say I'm enjoying and making the most of every sip of Buko, every trycee that says "in God we trust" or something of the sort, and every crooked toothless smile on brown dirty kids. its a goood life here :)

I love you all and thank you for the pictures and emails from the fam reunion! looks fun fun! miss you! Thank you for the prayers and for being the bestest family/support system a girl could ask for. i really am so lucky!

LOVE sis mcgrath