Milk Chocolate

This past week you had the opportunity to celebrate American Independence Day which I have come to realize is a pretty significant holiday. Before, I just thought of it as a get together with families and friends in the summer time to have a BBQ and go to parades and have fun watching the fireworks light up the night sky. It is a fun day that I love still, even here in the Philippines, but it means so much more than I realized. A little while ago, we were teaching about the Book of Mormon, when the investigator asked, "Why was the promised land in the Americas?" I was able to explain that it was one of the first countries to have religious freedom. It made me really think how mindful God is. His plan was and still is perfect. He knew that it would be the place that one day would become a free place for the church to be established. He knew that years from the time Moroni placed the plates in the Hill Comorah, a young boy by the name of Joseph would be there and the time would be right to find the ancient writings of the prophets and translate them for the world to have the fullness and that truthfulness of the gospel. Amazing, huh?  Our Heavenly Father is so aware and mindful of every detail in our life. Everything has a purpose according to His perfect plan.

This week was a little sad saying goodbye to my Nanay, Sister Lamac, but the Lord's plan for me seemed really evident when I met my new companion...

Meet Sister Matanatabu (or just sister Mat) from Fiji. With two non-native Tagalog speakers, it was obvious to me that this cycle, the Lord's plan for me was to really test my language skills. I'm excited for this new challenge and I think it is exactly what I needed. The other day, some members were joking around saying if I don't start understanding the language, they will sell me and I would have no idea of what was happening....They were just kidding....right? Haha. They also gave us a nickname: Milk and Chocolate!


Have a great week!

love,

Sister K

[Excerpts from Dad's letter home]  ---  So my week, it was pretty good. I had a good last half of the week with Sister Lamac. Oh Monday, I did get to experience riding up on the top of a van. It was too full, so they put us up on the roof top wear there is a metal rack to sit on. No worries..I was safe.. It just made me think of when we were little and you used to joke that you would strap us to the roof of the car. Haha. Anyway, later that night we had FHE with one of our member families and they fed us afterwards. That night, I tried my second exotic Filipino dish. It was still adobe, but the meat was not chicken or pork. I'll give you a clue: it swims in water and walks on the land. The family wouldn't tell us was it was until after we ate it. You probably guessed it by now, right? Yep...I ate crocodile! It was soooo gross. It kind of tasted like a fishy chicken and nice and chewy. I only took a little bit so I didn't have to eat too much of it. The family was laughing at our reaction afterwards. They even said next time they would give us frog or snake...I'm kind of nervous to eat there again...but it's all in the experience right?