Week 18: Christmas Lights Up in the Philippines!

Dear tanan, 

This past Saturday marks 100 days until Christmas. So just so you all know, Christmas is coming soon, the Philippines knows whats up and they already have lights up and are playing Christmas music :) 
This past week, it rained so hard because of storms coming through and we couldnt even go out for a couple hours tuesday. A few people have been asking what I live in and I live in a little apartment and we cook with a gas stove and have no oven :) Saturday I was cooking mashed potatoes (from scratch!!! I even found an easy gravy packet) and we ran out and we were blessed to have a sikad driver help us bring the propane back and forth with his sikad (a bike connected to a little side cart thing for people). 
A typical day for me is filled with walking on dirt paths and seeing the beach right on the side of some people we teach and houses with dirt or bamboo floors and bamboo and concrete homes. The people are always kind and very happy to learn I speak Hiligaynon/Ilonggo. We have some people we teach who speak tagalog and I am learning Tagalog now too. I have Ilonggo pretty ok :) The Lord has blessed me to learn very fast.
We have 2 baptisms this Sunday. One of them is a man who feels very much like a grandfather to me. He is 78 and was a very religious Catholic and he has truly discovered the truth of our message as we invited him to do through reading the Book of Mormon and through prayer. He is truly converted and as he says "Im ready!" after each lesson. He reminds me of my Uncle Bill :) 
I counted the other day and we have 50 people we plan for and go and visit on a regular basis each week (Some are families) so you can imagine we are very busy visiting and teaching people.
I am very blessed to be here in the Philippines. 
This week I got to eat a whole crab! haha (I ate 4 tiny crabs about 2 inches long each and you eat them whole with vinegar and theyre fried). I also got to serve this week by picking u trash and vines on the side of the road. That was fun to do. We also had a zone activity and it was a blast to play various games :) One of the games in you have flour and there are chocolates inside and you have to use only your face to get the chocolates, very fun :) 

Spiritual thought: THis week I studied in Mosiah 24 (In the Book of Mormon) and I came across a verse that realy helped me this week. In verse 15 it taks about how the people of Alma (a prophet) had many trials and they were restricted in theyre worship and treated like slaves and they prayed to the Lord to help and God made their burdens easier by making the people stronger. I learned that we must remember that all things are according to what our Father in Heaven wills or desires for us and He wont always change our trials, but he will make us stronger if we go to Him and they will be lighter. 

I love my Savior. He loves you. Thank you for your prayers and emails :)

Sister Masters

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