July 29,2018 Old Sagay

Hi Everyone!!! So today is my 2 month mark on the mission!!! Crazy how fast time goes. 16 more to go :)

This week has been so much better and everything is becoming so much easier to handle!!! 

Some highlights of this week:
-we taught in this little shack on the beach in the middle of a typhoon. it was actually so fun. everyone else was terrified but i love the rain and it just felt like a huge adventure i loved it. definitely a blessing that i love rain so much haha cause theres a lot of it here.

-i met my zone this week!! theres 4 americans in my zone! so me and 3 elders. it was so nice to have someone who understood english hahah.

-dogs are EVERYWHERE here. like actually everywhere. like you'll be walking down the street and theres just as many dogs as there are people. and then on Saturday, Eugene got baptized!! and in the middle of the service a dog just walked on in. i was so confused on how this dog even got inside the church building but nobody else seemed fazed so i guess this is normal. weird.

-found out we can buy huge tubs of ice cream for 20 pesos!! which is about 40 cents american money. so im thriving over here.

-the kids here who live on the beach have crab fights!! so they all collect crabs and gather around and fight them. so thats interesting. survival of the fittest over here.

-we were at the store buying a tie for Eugene so that he would have a tie to wear for his baptism, and the worker basically ended up confessing his love for me (keep in mind i had met him about 5 minutes before this turn of events). but perks of being white, i can just pretend like i have no idea what hes saying since its all in illongo. he ended up giving us a huge discount though so honestly am i complaining? not really

-i made french toast the other morning. honestly best day since being here. things are looking up over here in the philippines!!

so basically its been a good week!! 

i can feel all the prayers boosting me up. so thanks to everyone :)

the language is coming along slowly hahah. its hard but i can sort of understand more. everyone here always says "amat-amat" which means little by little. so it'll come :)

there is so much success over here!! These cute filipinos are so receptive to the gospel. we got 32 new investigators this week and our schedule is jam packed every day!! so so fun. and its good to keep busy. it makes the days go by faster.

but i miss you all and hope you're doing well!!!

Sister Johnson

hello!! this week was SO much better than the first few days here. its still an adjustment but there were times where i was actulaly just looking at my life and i was happy so that was a blessing!!! things are getting easier. im getting used to the heat. more like im just getting used to alwasy sweating. this mornign while washing my clothes (we dont have washers yet) but i didnt even realize i was dripping in sweat till i looked in the mirrior!!! so that was exciting. 

last week like seconds after i finished emailing i felt so so much better. i could feel all the prayers. we got to go meet our zone right after last week and it was so nice cause theres 3 american elders in our zone so i talked to them in english and they all helped me feel better and gave me tips. it was just relaly nice to be able to communicate with someone. so that was a plus!!!

yeah things are lookign up. theres still hard moments and when i think of home or mandi getting home soon its hard but when i just focus on the work im fine. 

and i just lOVE charmane. shes the cute little 17 year old member. she seriouslty is the best. last night we ate dinnner at a members house (every luncgh and idnner on sundays we get fed. the rest of the days we just cook). but her and i just tlaked for like an hour and she told me when things get hard, just "laban laban laban" which means fight fight fight. she speaks the best enlgish out of most people here so its easy to talk to her too. and she always translates thigns for me. oh i love her. this really is a good area. the members are so great. all the msisionaries who come here never want to leave and say its their fav areas. so im lucky to come here first. charmane comes to all our lessons with us. and isster jen the primary president hahaha. its funny they all love missionary work. 

yeha i really love president. hes so awesome. 

and yes so i get to go to meetings with sis melgaso cause shes an stl which im actulaly super excited for. so nextg monday ill email from bacolod!! so we go monday mornign and come back here tuesday night. and i go on exchnages with the sisters in bacolod hwile she has meeitngs. but im excited cause sis amataga should be there too abd a byncgh of the elders from my batch so it will be SO fun to see them all again and jsut be ableto talk with them abotu how we're all doing. im so so excioted for htat

nope not sick. so thats a plus. sis davis called me again the other day and asked how i was doing. so shes nice.

and yeah so i start all the lessons that are Lesson 1 Principle 1-2. so the first lessons for new investigators i always start off teaching. for the other ones i just testify so far. but its slowly becoming easier. i just wnanna know this language already tho. they always say here though, "amat-amat" which means little by little. its theri fav word. 

yeah its good. no more balut over here. never again. 

im still wake up throughout the night alot. so thats annoying. but sis amataga gave me a lava lava from samoa which i use as a blanket cause its so light. the first few nights i just slept wihtout a blanket cause its so hot but then i got attacked by mosquitos. 

thats the other thing. no matter how much bug spray i put on, i still get a million mosquito bites. so that's annoyiong

ehh sorta. they just talk so fast. and i dont really understand anythign thats not gospel related. which is hard. but in our lessons i understand usually all of hwat sis melgaso says. but she talks slow. 

I found a tiny little shack that sells bottles of mug rootbeer!!!! so im gonna go back and buy a ton of that and have rootbeer floats too. oh i have such big plans. this is gonna be so graet im so excited. i just gotta be able to find it agian. 

oh yes i love being in charge. fun times. in my first interview, presuident sumagpao told me that he feels really strongly that i was called to thsi mission to lead and im gonna bea  great leader here and be put in leadership postions

just a bridge. they have lots of those here. we're going to the elders island tomorrow for district meeting which we take a boat to whcih im SO EXCITED for and i guess theres a suuuuper long bridge like that that we cross. definitely not very sturdy and it bends anytiem we step on it but ya know. nobodys fallen through yet