Shinguards to Sandals: Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Courtnee's part in the Christmas program was the part of a TREE - hahahaha, tall people probs.

Sister Wood loves Giraffe's. This is a necklace that her Grandparents sent to her for Christmas from England. She was so excited about it.

Sister Wood's brief flower video. I must say that it is beautiful!

Hi everyone. :) Life in Laoag is going great and I am loving it here. Soooo.... there are so many little things that happened this week so I will just go right in order from where they happened! It has been a fun week that's for sure. We did so many things that the only issue is is that we didn't get to teach very much. So that's the down side of it! But don't worry, next week we are going to get at it! I want to say Happy Birthday to Dawsy Bear my Nephew and also my girl Taylor Swift for their birthdays this week! I did not forget. Thank you for being in my life. :)

My mom will be proud, but I made a filipino dish this week and it was delicious! It is just called sopas or soup! And it is super easy: just sautee some onions and garlic in oil and then add oil and then brown growned beef inside and then fill it about half with water and then put like that chicken boolion stuff and then put carrots and potatos and cabbage and noodles inside and let them soften and then put a can of evaporated milk. it is delicious!

Sopas - Soup

Oh my heavens so funny... okay so we went up to La Paz on Tuesday and I mean the ride is pretty long and there are hills and stuff. We took a tricey just how we normally do and I sat on the back and Sister Fuchs sat inside. Keep in mind this is what we do every time. Well the rule here for triceys is that whoever sees you and honks first to pick you up gets to take you. So this guy picks us up on the road and I tell him where to go. I for some reason always notice the type of motorcycles the men are driving, maybe cause stetson is obsessed, i don't know! But the brand of this one was Euro. That's it. haha so we head up there and it doesn't sound like the others and we get to the hills part and it was just like putt putt up the hill so slow haha. Anyways we were laughing our heads off and the guy kept saying bigat kayo! You two are heavy! But it made it up the one hill so no worries. Too bad there was still one more big one right before you get there. He got up speed but there was no way it was making it. We almost got to the top and it just died. Wouldn't even turn on again. I WAS DYING LAUGHING SO HARD! This poor filipino man and his euro motorcycle. Us sister missionaries had to help him push it up the hill. Haha I bet it was the funniest site in the wordl. Sister Fuchs said it best... "Pretty sure that motorcycle was built in a Toy Shop." We just told the poor man we would walk the rest of the way, so we apologized, paid him then left hahaha. Anyways, HILARIOUS.

Next thing, CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE! It was such a fun day, but we all know... time flies when you are having fun! We had a really good devotional on Wednesday with the entire mission! We all squished into the Chapel at our church and President and the AP's and Sister Barrientos gave us a training. It was awesome. Hahaha this is a funny thing: Elder Tate got up and had everyone stand up who had investigators. So everyone stood. He then said okay if you left a boyfriend or girlfriend before your mission stay standing. A lot sit down. But still a lot up too. And then he said okay if you have been dear johned sit down. So basically it was just to see who has been Dear Johned and dumped on their mission. So horrible, but so funny at the same time.

Elder Tate

After the devotional we all ate lunch together and then went and changed to play sports. It was a blast. I played soccer for half the time and then basketball with the elders and president for half too. Elder Egan that was in my math class in high school played with us and we scored a sweet goal. Haha so happy to have the kid who helped me in math class all the time in the same mission as me haha! Such a small world. I could've played all day. Nothing has changed with my lay ups though. Extremely embarrassing haha. Then we went and changed and had dinner at the church again and that is where we had the skits and dances. Haha everyone was so creative and for the most part so out of their element. I think our dance was the worst though. Sadly. Haha it was not too hot. But ours was cool because the polys in our zone put a twist to it at the end and ended it with this polynesian dance that involved president! So that was cool. And then our skit was pretty funny. It was a cool twist on the Christmas Carol. And yes my part in it was a tree. Hahahaha. I am still laughing about it. One zone did a skit to the song "The Hardest thing I have ever had to do." If you are a part of the "MISSIONARY MOMS" don't listen to it, you will bawl your eyes out haha. It was really sweet though. Then we did a gift exchange with everyone and that was fun too! We got home at 11:15 that night though and of course woke up at 6:30 am the next morning! :) It was a fun day that went too fast.

This week is transfer week! Nope I am not leaving! So I will be going on 6 1/2 months here in Laoag! I love it so much. But we will get a new apartment mate this week and she is filipino! Not only filipino, but ilocana! So I may be touching up on tagalog and ilocano. :) We are all excited! So many new different transfers this one. It will be a fun change!

On Saturday we had a stake primary activity that we spent the day at. It was specifically for the special needs kids and it was so fun. There were also so many people there which was even better. They need things like that here to get everyone involved. Such great missionary opportunities as well.

Yesterday all 6 missionaries had to speak in sacrament meeting. I spoke on the talk by Elaine S. Dalton, Be Not Moved. It was my goal to have it completely in Tagalog. It turned out being really good and I was super nervous haha. I don't know why! But I actually did it and even added in parts that were in ilocano! Yes, the whole congregation died hahaha it was so funny to see the reactions! I loved that talk by Sister Dalton. It is so important that we are constantly standing as witnesses of god at all times. As members of this church, there are always people watching us and we need to always stand as a witness of our savior and be not moved!

Also yesterday we got a text from President saying we had to go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders right then. We didn't know why but we found out Sister Diamond was sick and Sister Pamittan had to go out and work so Sister Fuchs went with her and I stayed back at the apartment with Sister Diamond. So we really really did not get any time to work! haha. But it is okay because to end the night we got to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. I loved every second of it and seeing the video of temple square with all the christmas lights. :) felt like home! They all gave amazing talks about our Savior. It was such a good boost.

It has been an awesome week, but we are ready to go hard this next week! People to teach, souls to save! haha. Thanks for all of the love and support everyone. You're the best

Love,

Sister Wood