Higanting Babae

 

Before Courtnee left the MTC she finally broke down and asked me to send her some Crocs. Well, after a year of wearing ONLY Crocs, this is what they look like. I'm not sure how you walk 6 to 8 miles a day in Crocs, but bless her heart, she does.

Her feet. Wow!!!

It is way weird having a P-Day on Tuesday, but that's alright. At least I have more to write to you all about from the week! Yesterday we had interviews. It went a little bit differently than it usually does, but it was good. President Barrientos gave us a little training before they began and it was way awesome and so spot on. He talked about how the elders need to lead the mission. That right now, it is the sisters that have all of the high numbers, and are hitting standard, but it should be the elders doing it. He said come on elders we have the Priesthood! Haha he is giving them until June 1st to repent and change their ways haha. My interview basically went like this... sat down, and he told me that there is an American Elder who has a crush on me, but he is shorter than me. I just laughed. Anyways, the bulk of it was about when I should go home and start getting ready for soccer. It was a little bit rough for me, but I know that it is going to take a big leap of faith. I shed some tears, and then right before we got up he says, oh yeah, and when you go home I will tell you who has a crush on you! I just looked at him and said thaaaaaanks president haha. I will be staying here in Aparri another transfer which will make it 6 months! Most likely with a new companion though... haha if not then..... yeah I don't know, but it is very unlikely! I could very well easily only have 3 areas my whole mission! It's not a bad thing. With interviews came lots of packages and letters!!! It was such a surprise because we weren't expecting it! It was so much fun to get and hear from so many people! Thank you so much for all of those who write me. :) Letters will be coming your way!

Remember those rich basketball players? How one of their families owns the big petron gas stations? Well.... this week we were walking passed one of the stations and i just thought, hey lets ask here to see if they know where they live! We stopped and were asking the workers and it just happens to be that the owner, the dad of the ball player was there! Haha we just went up and started talking to him and got his cell phone number and he was completely up for us going and visiting! Oh man we were so happy! We will go over there this week. Need to make sure we look good. Haha Sister Bacalla is suggesting that a pretty white girl gets sent here to replace her so that we can get into all the rich houses haha! 

 

We have a few investigators that are great, but they are living in with their boyfriend, so they can't be baptized until they are married or separated. I swear, no one actually know the process of being married here, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to figure out the real way. We went into the Municipio kind of like a city hall. Haha the ladies there thought it was for one of us... nooooo way. Anyways, we got the steps, and one of the steps is plant a tree in your Barangay (county). Haha we sat there laughing so hard like wait, are you serious? Yeah that is one thing they have to do to be married. Lots of other things too, like get proof that you have never been married before. It is a long process especially with people who don't have the money to pay for it. We are doing all we can to help them though!

This was one of the weeks that I truly realized that some of our investigators and people we teach are really helping me be a better person! School is about to start up here again on June 2nd and we saw a recent convert walking home one day. He is about 10 or 11 years old. We asked where he was coming from and he said the market. He told us that he goes there and works every day and cleans the fish. He earns 10 pesos a day. He is working right now so that he can buy his 8 notebooks he needs for school. His example just really touched me. Another example is we were teaching more recent converts this week about fasting and tithing. They had all sorts of questions about fasting. As we started talking about how it is not eating for 2 meals, he pipes up and says, but sisters I only eat 2 times a day... Sister Bacalla and I kind of just looked at each other like.. .what do we say? Anyways, we told him that since he eats lunch and dinner only that he could just skip lunch and that would be enough. They wanted to know what they should do if they don't have money to pay fast offerings and such. Man I just sat there looking at these young kids and just blown away by their faith and their lives! 

We have a couple of rescue baptisms coming up in the next couple of weeks. The 31st and then the 7th. It is good to help complete these less active families because not only is it helping their kids be baptized, but helping them return back to the church. One of them is 15 named Jeffrey, and one is named Cedrick. They are good boys. I will try and send photos next week. The computer is being really slow. It sounds like it is going to blow up!

I finished my 3rd journal this week! On to my 4th. I am a little obsessed, but that's okay. Well, it will be less than a week and I will be emailing again since the days are mixed up! It has been one of those major edifying weeks. And I am so grateful  for it. I am so blessed. I was going to use the word lucky, but blessed is much more appropriate.  

Good luck with Graduation in a couple days! Congrats to Stet for finally graduating! Guess I can't say that quite yet... there are still 2 days haha! I can't believe The next time I email will be June! I love you all... until we meet again next monday!

Love,

Sister Wood

Sister Wood loves packages and letters!

 

 

 

HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE

Sister Wood with her district

 

 

HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE, HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE,  HEY ALL YOU PEOPLE, WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME? I JUST HAD A WEEK, NOT AN ORDINARY WEEK, A WEEK FILLED WITH FUNNY NA FUNNY THINGS. I got that off of Spongebob. But changed the words. It really talks about jelly fish jelly on crabby patties.. Anyways... On to Missionary Work!!!!

I first have to tell you all about our Sleek's. Or our tailored fit skinny jeans we are having made. We walk into the run down store that is legendary. Walk up to the shirtless guy who makes all the pants and ask if he can make us skinny jeans! He looks at sister copeland and nods his head then looks and me and says he can't make them for me. I saw WHAT WHY? He said I don't have fabric long enough for your heighth! Oh my gosh I was so mad! He told me that he could make pants out of mens slacks material but not jeans. I wasn't happy, but then I got him to at least make me capri pants or something. I picked out my fabric and it just happened that the fabric I chose was LONG ENOUGH FOR ME! I knew it was meant to be. so the guy started getting our measurements.... keep in mind that usually only men or elders come into this store to get stuff... as the guy was measuring us, in walks the zone leaders Elder Castillo and Elder Williams... haha they couldn't believe we were there. It was the funniest thing. Elder Castillo is just jealous that we thought of the good idea before him... he said he is going to get some now too! By the way shout out to his parents. He says hi! So our sleeks will be done next week and they cost me 1000 pesos. Or... $23 for a pair of 2 tailor fit jeans. I will take it! If they are sweet, I am going to get some in every color. Sorry Dad. :) 

 

Leave it to Courtnee to find the one place in the Philippines that makes custom jeans

Next story... during personal study this week I had a weird itch on my head. I itched it, and right then I saw a bug on my scriptures. I didn't know if it came from my head or what, but i immediately had my companion check my head... Well.... lice has found its way back into my hair. At that point I was disgusted. So, the first time I got it, it was kind of like oh haha, I have lice... just the Philippines experience, right?  But this time... no. I stopped studying and went and washed my hair with lice shampoo and started washing all my things... I have been combing my hair nonstop so hopefully they are leaving. UGH! The people say that there are more now cause of how hot it is. They tell me to use an umbrella, but I don't want to. Too much of a pain. Our whole apartment has it haha... So not only lice, but we were in a lesson this week and i was sitting on the ground all of a sudden something wet like a drip drops on my leg and a weird substance. I just moved over and didn't think anything of it, and everyone in the family started laughing because I guess it was lizard poo and pee! AHHHH I covered my legs in alcohol. 

The little kids like to braid her hair. She think this might be the reason she got lice again. Bless her heart! I hope she gets rid of it before she gets home. We are all itchy just reading this.

 

Haha next funny thing.. we were in our furthest area from our apartment and it was getting dark. Randomly a big truck full of watermelons pulls up and I of course want to buy some. Haha we spent all the remaining money we had to buy these 2 big watermelons. Like we had nothing else in our bags. Haha so my companion and I walked with these giant watermelons all the way back to our apartment. Sister bacalla was DYING! It was the funniest thing ever. It was way hard, but we had no pamasahe or fare for tricey so we had to! Hahaha

 

Sister Wood loooooves watermelon!! Her poor little tiny companion had to haul these back to their apartment. (kind of makes me laugh)

 

Now about the work. It has been going so awesome in our area. Its improving so much! We have been working hard, but Heavenly father is blessing us so much! We hit standard again on lessons, so we are being able to teach a lot! We are teaching a family of all boys.. The A.  family... thats the picture of the family. THEY ARE SO HILARIOUS!!! And just reassure that I want all boys in the future. :) But they are coming to church, and their mom is a saint. She is the one that washes my clothes. We are having a Family home evening at their house this week and we will extend baptism to them!

 

Sadly, we offended family this week. The family of a recent convert. His wife's family had been less active and we didn't even know. But every since we found out, we have been going and teaching them. One day they were gambling, so of course we decided to teach them about the churches stand on it. Well, the next day we go back and the nanay is doing it again. So we left a note to her, cause she had dropped her card and ran when she saw us coming. We late found out that they were really offended by the whole thing and that they were sad that we had taught them about gambling. To make a long story short though, we cleared it up, told them our intentions, and they were at church. So it is all good now!

We will be having a couple of rescue baptism at the first of june! Lots of good happening in Aparri 1a!

We are having interviews next monday the 26th, so that means that our P-day will be on a tuesday. So don't fret when there is no email on monday! :) It is so crazy that we are already having interviews again! 

Oh, and one of our neighbors built this basketball hoop right outside our apartment.

I think that's a wrap! Good luck with all of the fun things coming up as the school year comes to a close! By the way, my brother is freaking handsome.... whoever the girl is... she is lucky. ;) Haha. LOVE YOU!

- Sister Wood

xoxox.

PS: I turned 11 months old today. :)

 

 

Sister Wood with her landlord - She loves him

Sister Wood's journal with all her vitamins - Thanks DoTerra

 

Kaligayaha​n!

Sister Wood - skyping with the family on Mothers Day!

First and foremost, Happy Mother's Day to every mother out in the world. We love you. I am so incredibly grateful especially for my mother. As a missionary you begin to truly understand the role of a mother and you start to think back on every little thing that they have done for you in your life. I love moms! I am sorry  for every little pain I put you through and I want you to know that you are my best friend, and I am so happy that I get to celebrate a day just for YOU!

Also, just a little shout out since it is May 12th here, to my brother on his 18th birthday. I know that you miss me, but it's okay. Soon enough you will realize that I am the best sister in the world..... just wait a little bit longer.. :)

Skyping made me so happy. Even though the connection was garbage, it still made me the happiest person ever. My family is the greatest. Haha I am glad that they haven't changed! My dog is still the cutest thing in the world. 

This week I have really been missing my miller. I don't know why it kind of really hit me. I think when I got some of his photos from mom last week and printed them out it was difficult. All I can say is I have the most kahanga-hanga (wonderful) best friend in the world! He was honestly glowing!!! His smile? Gosh ask the sisters here I have just been dying over them. It just shows that he was truly happy in Guam cause I could never get him to actually smile in any pictures. I was explaining it to sisters in our apartment this week, but it was as if our spirits were in love? Does that even make sense? I don't know if it does, but to me it does. I don't know who to write anymore! There is so much I want to tell to someone, but now I don't have anyone to write it all too. :/ Let me know if you want me to write to you haha. :) 

 

Miller is never far away

 

We have found and contacted lots of referrals/investigators this week! The investigators are super solid and we should have baptisms at the first of June. There was a referral for us from a missionary in Manila mission and it was his grandma and his extended family. We of course gladly went and taught them. They aren't as open as we would hope, but we are not going to give up on them. I just put myself in his shoes and I would be terribly sad if the missionaries were to give up on my family! They will come along. :) We were going to have a rescue baptism at the end of this month from the Bo, less active family, but they didn't come to church so we aren't sure if it will still happen.

We were on our way home the other night from an appointment and we turned the corner of the street and there sat a 12 year old and a 10 year old smoking cigarettes. I was so angry. We immediately stopped and asked them what they were doing. They hurry and threw them in the street. I was so appalled by it. It makes me so sad to think that these little tiny kids who haven't even hit puberty yet are smoking. I can't even imagine what it is doing to their bodies. When we were about to walk away a young basketball team comes walking down the street. All smoking too. I asked if they won their game and they said no. I said i know why! Because you are smoking cigarettes. They just giggled then walked away. 

Lots of people around me here hit their year mark this week! Holy smokes. It was crazy, because the next batch to hit a year will be mine! Next month... Time is just a ticking a long.

My companion is really sick right now. We spent the whole day at home yesterday. She thinks she has tonsillitis or whatever. Not really sure. She has a bad fever and can hardly talk. Filipinos are frustrating when they are sick because they hate medicine. Like for us its just like pop some pills and call it good. Well, they have to make a full blown meal before taking medicine, so they don't have an empty stomach haha. Its just really different and funny haha. All that matters is that I don't get anything horrific like her haha. None of us have been feeling too hot, but I am taking airborne and my vitamins. :) Haha its so funny because the big sickness here is  A fever. But it doesn't make sense to us americans because we are CONSTANTLY hot. So when they feel us, they automatially say we have a fever. But in our minds we are like no, it is just 100 degrees here haha. 

Well, I think that is all! Life is going great! I'm enjoying it! LOVE YOU ALL LOTS. :) 

Love,

Sister Kahoy. (wood)

xoxox

P.S. Mahaba ang hair ko. 

 

Sister Wood doing her laundry - this picture just tugs at my hearstrings!

 

Binyag, WOW, Taylor

Sister Bacalla and Sister Wood's surprise baptism - Love it when that happens!

 

Sister Wood holding pictures of an animal called a Dik Dik. Stetson them in her package. Funny!!

Here goes another weekly update on my awesome missionary life in Aparri! Lots last happened and was actually one of those longer weeks it feels like. First off, we had exchanges! I feel really bad for having a negative attitude about it. It was really honestly one of the best exchanges I have been on. It was fun because we knew each other, kind of how we taught, and stuff, but way more fun because we were both way better at the language! We worked way hard and learned a lot. Haha not very many people get to say they went on exchanges with their trainer!

 Also, from the photos you can see that I finally got all of the packages! The APs came to our district meeting and it was the best thing in the world. Haha my coaches are so awesome. Thank you so much for the little package. I was laughing so hard when I saw the watermelon gu snacks. Definitely reminds me of BYU. Elder Tate loves them too so I gave him a pack of them. It was so thoughtful of you guys! Thank you thank you thank you!  Stet and mom, your packages were nothing less than perfect and I loved them so much. Thank you Stet for the Layton City basketball trophy and the golf ball. Not quite sure what I will do with it, but thanks anyways! It is so fun getting treats from home. There is nothing like it!

Stetson's letter to Courtnee

The package Stetson sent to Court

Happy Easter a couple of weeks late

I forgot to mention the lunar eclipse that happened here a few weeks ago. Okay we saw it, and it was the perfect time and everything. But not to brag or anything, but our view of it was in our area overlooking the red moon on the ocean. Probably the most gorgeous thing I have seen on my mission. It seemed as if you could reach out and grab it! Our world is so beautiful! A random rain storm blew through here the other day. Haha you can see the photos. We were SOAKED. That little umbrella did absolutely nothing. Its kind of fun to be in though. Except for the fact that we went back to our apartment and inside the ground was wet, and upstairs in our rooms, the ceiling was leaking. Yeah, keep in mind that this is a brand new apartment. It was getting all of our stuff wet. Can't imagine what is going to happen when it is actually rainy season here. We will just pray for no more rain the rest of the time i am here! It is summer time here, and it is roasting. The only good thing that it serves for is drying our laundry super quick. Before we came to email we were helping the girls in our ward who were washing my laundry hang it all on this home made contraption haha. It was way funny. They did it for the first time to earn money for their temple trip! I was glad to help them out. 

We have worked so hard this week! You know it was our goal to hit standard, and we ended up getting standard on almost everything! There is just this feeling of reaching goals that feels amazing. We ended up with 35 lessons which is something that hasn't happened in this area for a while. Haha but some big news for this week was..... we had a baptism!!! Surprise surprise! Haha I can't even explain how random or weird it was. So Barry is married to a member and has been investigating for 7 years, but had not been taught very much by the missionaries... no idea why. He would go to church with his wife. He is working at Savemore a couple hours away and just comes back here on the weekends Well, supposedly the previous missionaries had set a baptismal date with him on May 3rd. THey didn't think it would happen cause he didn't have all the lessons. Maybe that is why they didn't inform us. Well this family was planning on him still being baptized! So yeah, Sister Bacalla and I retaught the lessons, he was interviewed, and baptized all in 4 days. It was CRAZY but it was super cool because that family will be sealed in the temple  in 1 year, and he was so incredibly prepared. Everyone was so excited in the branch because they will have another priesthood holder. It felt weird baptizing someone you don't know super well, but at the same time, we had taught him more times than any other missionaries! It was a blessing and cool experience. We are doing a lot of finding right now as we continue to teach the recent converts. We can see the blessings in our work that are coming from it. 

Hahaha oh my funny story. So the other night we were at the church and found this book that did not belong there. Sister Bacalla took it with her and after we updated for the night she went outside and we started burning it. It is totally okay to do that here. Just burn stuff randomly on the cement. Anyways, we are out there burning it, and a friend of our neighbor walks over by us and motions and asks if he can light his cigarette with the fire. I couldn't believe he was serious. We kind of sat there in shock and he walked over and just tried to. Hahaha it wouldn't light and then finally I told him no, that is so bad for you don't do it! Finally I told him just to throw it in the fire. He wouldn't, but then sister copeland came out with a word of wisdom pamphlet and told him to trade us. The cigarette for the pamphlet. After much persistence on our part, he gave me the cigarette, I threw it in the fire, and then he took the pamphlet and left. :) Yay! I pulled some statistic out and said he will add 45 years to his life. Haha my companion corrected me and said maybe just 45 minutes hahaha.

So Sister Copeland transferred here and is our new apartment mate. Haha the world is so small. She went to BYU and knew my roommate and had actually been to our apartment. She said that she came to all of our games and sat right behind the goal every time. Haha we talk BYU all the time is the best thing ever. We miss it so much! Not to mention she is from Nashville and has seen Taylor Swift getting frozen yogurt. Side note, Taylor Swift is doing a show in Manila in June I think... yeah... that's it...  

I think that calls it a week! Guess what... I get to talk to my mom on Saturday... :) I AM SO EXCITED! I love to see my family. Well, I love you all. Keep writing me! 

Love,

Sister Wood

PS Clara get better. 

 

Sister Wood helping members clean bottles - This is how they make a living.

Happy Day! Package Day!

Rain Storm