The Power of God!

Dear family,

This has been an absolutely crazy week. Like crazy.

First and foremost, we are safe. You probably all know more than I do about the earthquake, but we're all doing well here. We were in a zone training meeting in the chapel in CarCar, so we were with Pres. and Sister Schmutz, and all the missionaries in our zone were together. It really was pretty strong, and we all ran outside of the chapel together- you could see everyone running sort of sideways, and things shaking. But in 15 minutes, we just went back into the building and had our meetings. There were some aftershocks, during our meeting, until now- like right now, there was just a little one. It kind of feels like a really big loud truck driving right next to you for a minute. Apparently, everyone here is safe and doing well. We don't have much news at the moment, but it feels entirely normal.  I guess after a 10 days with a flood and earthquake, nothing else is going to phase me!

Now for more stories: I am training Sister Harris, who is 19 from Ogden, Utah. We're doing great here- I think I gave her the craziest first week possible, but the Lord's helping us lots.

After emailing you all last week, we took our 6 hour boat ride, and then more transportation and then staying in one of the city sisters' apartments. I stayed in a different apartment than Sister Yanga, and from that moment on, because I needed to, my Visaya got to a point that it needed to. It's been incredible. The Lord truly will qualify us to our calls.

On Thursday morning, we went to the mission home and were trained as trainers. There are 5 other missionaries who've been called to train straight out of training- most of them Filipina, but one other American sister. Then we went and met our anaks! It was strange to sit in that meeting and reflect on that time less than 3 months ago. I'm truly different than I was then, and that's great.

We spent a lot of time traveling to Sibonga- and I loved going through Baranggay Vallodolid on our way. There are many old time Spanish houses here, and we're going to spend a lot of times tracting those big houses. 

The Zone Leaders came with us to check our house, and I'm glad they did. We got there and while we had a table and chairs and a bunk bed frame, otherwise, we had nothing. So they quickly went to CarCar and carried mattresses on their heads on a jeepney for us to sleep on that night. And the next day, they went into the city and bought things. We're functioning without a refrigerator or desks or dressers at this point, but we're living well. We got a stove and lots of cleaning supplies, so life is good. 

 

On Friday night, we walked around and tried to find some places in the area, and had some little miracles- we found a less active as the first person we talked to, and we ran into the only returned missionary in the branch who's now worked with us twice.

Then on Saturday and Sunday, we traveled 1.5 hours away to go to Talisay for general conference. It went by way too fast, but I love to hear the words of our prophets. This church is so incredibly true. More thoughts next week.