April 7, 2019 La Carlota

FAMILY!! whazzup!!! another week!

Wow this has been a crazy week. So much has happened. 

Monday- Pday! So after we emailed we came home and I taught sis nanlabi to play the ukulele. It was a good time. Then we went and bought supplies for our training on thursday. Im excited for it. I think it will be good. Then we worked that night. It was so funny. We went to this one appointment who livesin like themiddle of nowhere. It is like a 20 minute hike in. but by the time we left, it was dark outside so we had to do the hike in the darkhahah. We have to cross like streams and long bamboo bridges all with one flashlight. And then im like 3 feet behind sister nanlabi and I hear her scream, and she has just stepped in the hugest pile of caribau poop I have ever seen in my life. She was screaming and pouring water on herself and if anyone were to pass by us in this dark field in pitch blacknesses they probably thought we were dying. Oh man good times. But then we went to the plaza where people play basketball and chill. So we went oyming and met this one lady! She straight up asked us to tell herwhy there are so many churches if there is only 1 Christ. So that was easy. It was a fun lesson. Then we came home and ate dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday: Tuesday was a wild day. So we woke up and did personal study and then went to the church for district council! There are 8 of us in our district. 2 sets of sisters and 2 sets of elders. The elders are all something else. Our zone leader stood outside their house tuesday morning and said hi to allthe girls who walked by. We got some obedience problems in this mission. But he goes home soon all is well. And then we ate lunch. I got tocino and rice. I dont think they have tocino in america do they? Its good. Its like baby pig or something. And then we came home and packed our bags then headedfor bacolod!cause I had to pay my dentist stuff before it closed at 5 pm. So we left at around 3. then we stopped by the dentist, and the office and chatted with president for a while. And then we went to macdo and life was so good. And then we went to sisters housing which is my old house!!! oh itwas so fun. I had only been gone a week and a half but I had missed it so much. Sister schenk, sister christensen, sister bise and sister baczuk all live there so I got to see them all itwas so fun. Then sis amataga slept there too for mlc the next day. It was so fun it was the happiest reunion ever. Although I literally slept so horribly that night. I woke up legit every 15 minutes it was the worst. 

Wednesday:  but then it was wednesday! We woke up and got ready for the day and headed to galo for mlc! It was fun its like a big reunion. So theres 2 elders from my batch that are zone leaders, and then me and s christensen and s amataga are stl's now so its super fun.and then all my other pals too. It was a full day of trainings from the assistants and president and s sumagpao. I was exhausted by the end but it was way good. Then we traveled home! And stopped at jolibee on the way home. Then crashed as soon as we got home I was dead. It waslike 9 probably.

Thursday- woke up at 6 am this morning to get ready and leave for exchanges. Since we're stl's for 2 zones, some of the sisters areas are far away. So weleft at 7 am to get to their area at 8. then I stayed in Hinigaran and sister nanlabi went back to our area! I was cmpanions with sister castillo for a day! Itwas fun! I like their area. Its on the beach. I miss the beach. We taught some cool lessons that day. Although she had a bunch of concerns. She had presidents phone number dialed last week to call him and tell him that she wants to go  home. So we talked a TON. We started companionship study and ended up talking about all her problems forlike 2 hours. Basically she has only been here 6 weeks and some of the people they are teaching started rejecting the gospel and she said she just cant handle rejection. But I was like well you did decide to serve a mission soooo. Joke lang I said it a whole lot  nicer than that and we talked about how rejection is part of life and we read from the Ricciardi Letter (which isawesome everyone should read it) allabout rejection and how we signed up to be a missionary no matter what that brings etc. but it was good. I guess they're having some companion problems too. But I think she should be okay now. We had some chats. But she asked about my family andwhat my parents do for aliving and she asked about mom and what she does and I said she writes books! And she straight up dropped what was in her hands and screamed. She was so excited. Then she started jumping up and down and told me that is her life dream and she wants to meet mom SO bad and shwould do anything to get her autograph. I told her id send her an autographed copy of a book when she gets home hahaha. Like every hour she'd belike “i cant stop thinking about your mom writing books!!” she was like amazed. So that was funny. And then her 2nd dream is to be a lawyer. So she really just thinks our family is amazing. It was cute. She was like “Sister johnson you are just so lucky that your mom writes books tell me about the moment she got her first book published and does she give out autographed copies” and she just went on and on forever it was hilarious. Ive never met someone who talks more than this girl in my life hahaha. Shes from manilla. Shes cute. She said she'd do anything to switch places with me cause I have the dream family. So keep doing what you're doing fam keep up the good work. And then we got home at around 8:30 for dinner and I seriously was so tired. Like probably more tired than ive been in my life. And so I toldher we were going to bed at 9:30 hahah. 

Friday- woke up at 6 again today to travel back to my area! This week was exhausting. But then we got back to la carlota at like 8:30 am. Me and sis nanlabi had a happy reunion. Then I sat down on our couch and cried happy tears cause I missed my couch so much. And then we had our post exchanges meeting where we talk about what happened! And then started weekly planning. This coming week is gonn abe busy too.cause we have zone conference on Thursday and then exchanges on friday again and then general conference saturday and sunday. And then we have to spend a lot of time preparing our training before thursday. Im so tired. But then halfway through weekly planning sis nanlabi stood up and ran out of the room and threw up :(( so that was sad. She has had these horrible headaches thatmake her super weak and throw up because of the pain her whole mission. Shegets them like once a week. Wehre she like cant walk itsso bad. This happened even when we were together in old sagay. So immaking her get an xray of her head next week. I feel like maybe this is part of the reason we are companions again, cause I am the only ojne who would know this has been going on for months and is definitely not normal so she would get it checked out. I hopenothings wrong. But then we had a lunch appt scheduled and the other sisters were heading out to go, but sis nanlabi was too sick so we stayed home. But a few min after the other sisters left, the willis' showed up at ourdoor randomly! They were passing through to go workwith another set of missionaries near us and they were dropping off a package for sister bergman. And then they came in and were chatting with us for a little bit. And while they were here sis nanlabi ran to the bathroom to throw up again so elderwillis askedif she wanted a blessing. So she sat down and he started and immediately just started crying. The spirit was so so strong. And his blessing was really relaly cool. And after he finished he just said “sister nanlabi you are one special girl. Not very times have I been able to give a blessing like that.” and everyone was just crying. It was cool. I really love the willis'. I feel like they're my grandparents. They come and work with us and see us all the time. Elder willis' humor reminds me a lot of dad. We're pals. They brought us easter bracelets that their grandchildren had made it was cute. But then we chilled on our nice couch for a while. Poor sis nanlabi just cried. I told her im making her get her head checked. She said okay. So we may go back up to bacolod next week. We'll see. We have like 0 time. But we'll make it work. But now she is way good at the ukulele cause she had all of friday to practice! Ive gotten really good at caring for the sick. Maybe ill go into the medical profession. Presidetn keeps joking that ill just be the new mission nurse cause we still don't have one. Im thinking that mihgt be the game plan. Call me doctor johnson. But now ive had all this time to type this all up on my fancy keyboard! So there ya go. It has some perks. And ive been able to rest. I thought I was gonna die. Ive gotten to the point I think where my body is just tired. But its all good ive got my whole life to rest. Only 8 more months to be a missionary!! time flies. And imSO EXCITED TO SEE GENERAL CONFERENCE AHHH. It starst saturday night sunday morning at midnight our time. The willis'are gonna stay up and watch it. So I told themto text us with the big news. Im excited. But now im thriving eating my dr pepper jelly beans. I have been reading the BOM and have gotten through like 15 chapters so far today. And I was listening to sister bergmans flash drive while sis nanlabi slept and child of light came on!! remember that song? I sang that at a voice recital when I was probabaly like 11 years old. That was like 9 years ago. And now here I am in the philippines hearin the same song! Wild. 

Saturday: oh man what a day. It was quite an adventure of a day. It rained SO hard!! which I love its so fun!! but kinda hard when you have to hike 20 minutes in to see the people you ar eteaching. Basically it was insane. Im not even kidding when I say we were covered in mud from head to foot. Oh man it was an adventure. But fun. Good tiems. Good mems. Oh we also started fasting. Hereinthemish we all usually fast saturday dinner to sunday breakfast and then eat lunch on sunday. Its a MILLION times easier. So thats good. But we had a countdown for conference!! at the moment im typing this its 7:44 pm. Which means 4 hours and 16 minutes till it starts in utah!! oh man im so pumped. We still have a week. Sad. Butim sure we'll get all the spoilers.

Sunday: what a day!! we went to church and had 8 people therei think? It was good.