Grace Shall Be As Your Day: Everything is Awesome!!

I can't believe my little brother is going to Madagascar! That is so cool!! I guess he can "move it, move it" along with the Leemers, right?! Sorry..that was a bad Dad joke... ; } He'll be so great and speaking a language I've never even heard of before...Malagasy? what? At least I had heard of Tagalog before I got my call. He is totally meant to go there! I'm just sad we will miss each other by just a month or so.

As for me..Seriously, "everything is awesome!" (Que the music). I'm having a good time. Love this area. Love my companion. Love my housemates. Splits are pretty fun and I didn't get us lost! We had two splits this week, so we've been pretty busy. And we have another two this week... a little crazy, but it is a good experience getting to help the other sisters here. This area is super progressing. Already we had a baptism this past week and one planned for almost every week (exception of General Conference weekend) until May 9.

Miracles are happening here. I'll just share a few tender mercies of the week.

1. There was a sisters that the missionaries have been teaching for quite a while. She used to be really active in going to church, reading, praying and whatnot...but I guess something happened and she stopped doing all of that kind of stuff. We were about ready to drop her, but we weren't able to get to her house last Saturday. She ended up coming to church this past Sunday and we plan to follow up with her tomorrow. I hope she continues her progression.
2.Another girl is about 10 years old and is our new investigator. She is so excited to learn, as in if she even sees us walking she runs as fast as she can, arms waving and everything, yelling "sisters, sisters! Are you going to teach me now? What is my reading assignment? Am I a Mormon yet?" She has about a million questions, but is already looking forward to when she is old enough to go on a mission.
3. As we were walking one day we saw a member who introduced us to another member. We thought that he was a less-active member, but it turns out he is pretty active. He just sometimes attends church in other areas because he travels for his job. But we set an appointment to meet with him (this was before we knew he was an active member) and we come to find other that his wife is not a member. She had attended church a couple times with her husband, but has never been taught or even introduced by the missionaries. She is really interested in learning more and has some really great questions. She is really searching for truth. AMAZING!

I love this work! I can't wait for Jason to get to experience it too! As for exchanges it was pretty fun. I split with Sister Acosta on Wednesday and Sister Sutherby on Saturday. Sister Acosta is from a part in the southern region of the Philippines. Their native language down there is normally Cebuano, but in her part they all speak Ilocano. Too bad here in Ilagan there aren't very many Ilocano speakers. It is more Ibanag and Tagalog here. She is awesome though. She is in the same batch as my anak (trainee), Sister Garcia. And Sister Sutherby is from Colorado and is only in her second cycle. Still pretty new and it kind of reminds me of how little Tagalog I new when I first got here. She is trying really hard and to speak as much as she can. It's weird for me to think back to how I was so shy, scared, and completely intimidated and realize now, I can totally speak and understand Tagalog! Crazy! I have come along way...

Anyway, it was a good week and I have two more companion exchanges this week. Looking forward to another great week in the mission.

Love you all!
Sister K

P.S. Sister Atienza and I counted how many times we have to hand wash our laundry. She is at 10 and I am at 22. I'll be home in 22 weeks!?! OH MY GOSH! But as much as I LOVE washing my clothes in a bucket every week (not), the giant spider eating the cockroach on our walls