Week 28 - I'm a Big Girl Now

Each week, we send our baptisms along with the stories to the office and then this past zone conference they gave a paper to our whole mission of highlights of December and they chose two "White Christmas" stories to highlight and mine was one of them!!!! I felt so proud. I just love the story of Freddy and apparently the office did too(: So that was a proud moment.

As for this week, it was pretty busy. Monday, we, as a district, went to a place called Sugar Beach. It was way fun and way pretty. We brought rice and raw chicken, and like true boy and girl scouts we made our own grill out of rocks and bamboo and sticks and cooked it right on the beach. I will attach pictures of it. It was awesome. My district is like my family here. Im gonna be sad when I leave, not gonna lie. I just love Sipalay. I have gotten close with the members and the people we are teaching. And then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, we did exchanges with the STL which is always awesome. I went to Kabankalan and helped out in the work there and my trainee stayed here and led the area and did great! She's amazing. Then Thursday was zone conference, where a few big changes were made in the mission but nothing too interesting to y'all. But I am always so uplifted by zone conferences. And it's always fun to see old friends and meet new friends there.

And then Friday- so President Sumagpao came to our house like a week ago just to inspect it and afterwards, he told me we need to find a new house. So- on Friday, Sister Tagpuno and I went house shopping. Yes- it felt very grown up and no- I did not know what I was doing but yes- I pretended to. So we had like three houses we found that were all options and I did the whole negotiating thing and saying what kind of changes need to be made and all that. We settled on one house close to the chapel that is so awesome. Later today, we will get the owner to sign the contract and then we will move in this Saturday. Honestly, it's the first time I've moved like this. Where everything needs to be packed up in a truck and I won't ever live in our old house again. So yeah all very grown up things for a child like me hahha. But we have had fun acting like adults. Or at least acting grown up hahha. So yeah this week will be no less busy for sure.

As for the work, we have really been working hard to talk to everyone. Because we have a saying here that "If you want to baptize a few people, you will talk to a few people. If you want to baptize a lot of people, you will talk to a lot of people. But if you want to baptize everyone, you will talk to everyone." So we have really been trying to do that and we have seen the blessings come from that. One of the people we are teaching is a pastor so he is super hard-headed against our teachings, but I can see his heart softening to our message. I have a huge testimony that the only thing he needs to do is read the Book of Mormon and he would be converted. He loves the bible so much and I know if he would just read the Book of Mormon, his whole life would change. There is so much power in that book. He said this week that he wants to bring his buddy and just ask us a ton of questions for us to answer. So I have been studying like crazy for him so that when that time comes, I will be prepared. So pray for me!

And also I have good news, but don't want to get hopes too high, but Freddy's daughter, who was supposed to be baptized back in December, finally recommitted to be baptized this Saturday at the beach. So Sister Tagpuno and I are going to fast this week that it happens. We really want it for her. And we know of some details about transfer day, that make us extra want it because we don't know if we will both be here in Sipalay next transfer. So this seems like the right time for her. So we will be fasting and praying hard for this soul to enter the waters of baptism and receive the gift of the holy ghost. Freddy wants it so bad too.

I love y'all so much and I hope y'all know just how incredibly happy this work makes me. It's the hardest thing in the world, but the happiness that comes from it is I think only happiness that comes from serving a mission. Not sure if theres another place you can feel this much happiness. Cause this is the most important and amazing work on the face of the planet. I am literally doing God's work. Love it. And love y'all.

Sister Robertson

The video below is what was going down on sugar beach. We had a blast...

My super gwapa companion (: I love her to death. Oh, and we matched on purpose (: #momdaughtergoals

Most of our zone at zone conference in Binalbagan, except two elders, Love them lots.

A cute child who acted like me for a little bit haha

My "White Christmas" made the mission news

This was on the way home from Zone Conference. Not everyone got in but its most of the zone on the buses called Ceres. It was a hoot of a time.

This is water straight from the faucet. Just so y'all can get a sense of my life here. Sometimes we wash our dishes and bodies with not so clean water (: #YUM  p.s. I was washing the cup not drinking from the faucet. I would die if I did that haha.

This was on exchangs with the STLs so we took a pic.

The district after we ate and on the beach

the SQUAD! Wow they are like my family its gonna be a sad day when I leave Sipalay. I just love it so much here.

This wss our amazing creating of a grill. It fell apart a couple times and caught on fire a couple times but man the chicken was YUMMY and the idea was GENIUS! Felt like true boy scouts.

Us with our YUMMY chicken

Sugar beach

Sugar beach. So nami gid

Week 27 - Foodies

Hello fam!! I love you!!! I am so insanely grateful for y'all. Sister Tagpuno and I talk all the time about how grateful we are for our families and how we wish we had treated them better when we were young. Especially my parents. But I am excited for the rest of our time together here on earth and in eternities to make up for all of my lame bratiness!!!

This week was awesome. Not for any particular reason, but just because missions are the greatest. I love them. Kinda never want it to end but y'all would miss me too much if it never ended;) But seriously. I love it here. Everyday, I grow in love and excitement for this work, even on the super hard days.

Happy Birthday Matt(: I love looking at all our baby photos. Even though wow I was such a chubby one. Still am, but ya know I am working on that(: Rice and sweets- lots of those in the Philippines. Speaking of food, feels like all my pictures from this week are food. Sister Tagpuno and I have been cooking and baking, which is always fun. OOH I FINALLY MADE NO BAKE COOKIES!! AND OOOH they're so yum. They truly taste like home. Which I always love. Can't wait for moms cooking again and dads steak and hamburgers YUM.

This week, we had lots of fun and spiritual experiences. Sister Tagpuno and I have really been working on following the spirit in our work and this week, we both had pretty amazing experiences following the spirit. Ive loved it. They come in different ways but usually they are just thoughts to our minds that we act on. And all of them were successful this week which is always strengthening. I love this gospel and I love the fact that the heavens are still open. God still talks to His children today. He still gives us personal revelation. I know this for a fact because I receive it daily, and there's no way its from anyone else but the Holy Ghost speaking to my mind and to my heart. I love this gospel, I love the chance to be together forever with my family, and I love sharing it with others.

Sister Robertson

mga gwapa

NO BAKE COOKIES!!

Onion Ringsss

Shrimppp

Week 26 - I Boodle Fought

First off, let me explain the subject. Boodle fight is where you have a feast and eat with yours hands and can't leave until everything is eaten. We got invited to one and it was awesome. I loved it. I love this culture and being a part of it. I will attach pictures of what it looks like. Apparently its some army tradition back then. I don't know, but it was awesome, thats all I know.

I am loving the changes we're experiencing!! Both here in the mission, having a new mission president, and all the changes in the church, I get to experience lots of change and I love all of it. Just reminds me how true it is that God still talks to His leaders today. The heavens are open now more than ever and I love that and truly believe we are preparing for the greatest time in history- the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ to the earth.

I love hearing about y'alls running. Imiss running. I actually went running this morning and it just reminded me how much i miss it and love it. Definitely want to train for something when I get back. I was more in shape than I thought I would be cause its been so long so that always feels good. My lame morning workouts have been helping after all(: Thanks to moms great pinterest finds of home workouts! Ive been loving it. Nice to have a set workout instead of making things up. Crazy that I love running so much haha I still remember when mom told me we would run a half marathon and I cried cause I hated running so much. Thanks mom -- you're the best! You push me to be the best!!

Not much to account on this week. Just a regular ole' missionary week full oh happiness, challenges, and teaching!! Oh how I love this life. One weird thing that happened was all week I had super super bad joint pain in my elbow. Like it super bad hurt to bend or to straighten. Not sure what it was, because my feet and knees would on and off hurt as well. Sister Sumagpao recommended I go to the hospital but I really didn't feel like doing that again so I just saw if I could tough it out, and today, its all gone. Weird. It lasted from last Sunday to yesterday, super badly hurt, but now it's all gone. Not sure what thats all about.

Oh also I hit my 6 month mark this week. Thats crazy. I don't know about y'all but it does not feel like I've been gone for 6 months. Time goes so fast, especially when you enjoy your companion, the work, and you're having fun while doing work. It's just crazy. I cant quite get over it. I've been away for 6 months. Thats a long time. But feels so short.

Other than that, I just want to share about my amazing church attendance yesterday. So, Jeffrey R. Holland is here in the Philippines to break ground for one of the temples, and so the Philippines, not sure if it was the entire Philippines but Im pretty sure it was, held a huge multi-stake conference. So the building was in Manila, but it was broadcasted throughout the Philippines to all the stake/district centers. So all of Sipala District came and we watched the stake conference. Elder Holland said that is a new thing they are starting up so that the apostles and Prophet can talk to more people in one visit, rather than just to one stake at a time. Needless to say- it was AWESOME. I love love love Elder Holland and just wow- everything he says I just soak up.

As usual, I wish I could just copy and paste everything he said here cause it was just so good. But I will just paraphrase and summarize. He talked about the new home-centered church and its purpose. But first he started off talking about how for years and years the presidency has been trying to cut down the responsibilities of the bishops. Of course having a dad as a bishop, I'm aware of the weight and I don't even see all of it. So I enjoyed him talking about this. But he joked that, "bishops last about 5 years and then they die. We hold a little funeral service, put a lily in their hands, and then look around and see if anyone else is willing to die." Hahah it got a pretty good laugh. Bishops are worked to death was his point. And he just made the point that all these changes that are being made in the church are not some new revelation- they have been working on these changes for decades, and the Lord just now decided it was the right time to bring it to pass. I don't know. Cool to think of.

We are the chosen generation. And then he went into the fact that there are 168 hours in a week. Before this change, most people were spending 3 hours worshiping at church out of 168. In fractions, 2/168 and 3/168 don't have much of a difference. But he said it was reduced to 2 so that we can focus on the other 166 hours of worship in the home. He explained it better than me, but hopefully you get the point. That the 168 hours is the goal of worship. Not only 2 or 3. He said activity in the church is an assessment of all 168 hours, not just the 2 or 3. Being "active" in the church does not mean spending 3 hours at church every Sunday. But rather, spending 168 hours finding ways to worship our Father in Heaven. And then he also said this time is the time to prepare for the Savior to come to the earth. He said, "When Jesus Christ comes, we need to look like His church." So all of these changes are making His church look more like His  church and not ours. "We are going to be the ones to present the Church of the Lamb to the Lamb. We were chosen before this life to be on earth at the time of the preparation of His church to present it to Him. No other dispensation has gotten to do that."

Anyways, I could go on forever quoting him and his wonderful insights. It was all just so good and the spirit was so strong. We really are a chosen generation and we need to act like it. The second coming is on its way. Obedience is the first law of everything, not just heaven. It's so crucial that we are obedient to ALL His commandments. For that is how we will return to live in His presence again. I love this church, I love this gospel. and I love this work. It's all so true. No doubt in my mind or heart. This is the one true church of Jesus Christ himself. What a reason to rejoice.

Sister Robertson

Me and my gorgeous daughter (:

A very pretty garden of one of the members

Our zone after the multi-stake conference (we are missing the sipalay elders because they were hungry so they went home)

ooh! We made the cookies that were in my package and they turned out alright!! WOOT! - mom your homemade cookies are still way better(:

Boodle Fight!! Lots and lots of rice!!

Boodle Fight!! Lots and lots of rice!!

we went fishing again as a district and it was a blast. I caught 8 fish in 30 minutes!!

"Tinagong Dagat" or Hidden Sea

Here's a monkey that some random house owns

A super nami sunset at our Boodle Fight

Sister tagpuno made AMAZING fried rice. And it looked amazing too! She's pro.

Week 25 - I'm a Momma!

I stayed in Bacolod for three days waiting for my trainee so I spent New Years there. Well- my new years, for the first time since probably I was a toddler, I slept for the new year. Kind of sad, but Bacolod sure didn't sleep. They were VERY awake and VERY loud. As in- SO LOUD. Ambulances driving up and down the street just to be loud, banging pots, fireworks, screaming- the whole works. It was totally ridiculous only because I was trying to sleep hahaha. So I did technically wake up at midnight only to tell myself happy new years and try to go back to sleep.

My week was pretty amazing!! The three days I spent in Bacolod, I was companions with one of my old STL's and we just loved every second. We had so much fun together and really worked hard. She, also was training so we were waiting for our trainees to arrive that Thursday, so what we did was work in her area. She is actually opening an area in Bacolod so I got to experience that a little bit- on how to open up an area. It was awesome. The members are so strong there and we found lots of people and referals to teach.

And then!!! Thursday came!! At this point, I was super nervous because I just didn't know if I was ready to be training a new, filipino missionary, when I still feel new myself. But- we met and I LOVE HER!! She's seriously the BEST. Like seriously. She's so obedient, so so sweet, super smart, hardworking, and super fun. We are having a blast while I am teaching her Ilonggo and she is teaching me Tagalog(: She speaks english pretty well so if all other communication fails, we can always fall back on English. So no problems there. But she is super humble and teachable so she lets me speak in Hiligaynon and then tries to speak it herself also. I love it. I feel like a tutor especially in language study, and it's fun to be the one who knows lots for the first time(: It really has shown me that I know the language better than I thought I did. I have had multiple people here call me fluent which is always fun to hear that all my hard work is paying off. But yeah. Here on the mission, trainers are called "moms" and the trainees are called "children" so I am officially a mom!! At 19!! Hahaha but it's fun.

I totally had a humbling moment the first day we were working together. It sounds kind of cheesy but its real. I was praying and just kind of pouring out my heart to Heavenly Father that I am nervous to train her because I want to be the best trainer and all of a sudden the feeling came into my mind that "Whoa. I feel like a real mom. I understand the feeling I've heard of when moms hold their newborns and are so scared to mess this little innocent child up." So yeah- I totally had a mom moment. I told Heavenly Father that I am totally scared to mess this gorgeous, new, innocent missionary up. That I want her to stay pure and want her to keep the fire in her heart for this work, and I don't want to be the reason she loses that. But as days go by, I gain more and more comfort from Him that I am doing right. I am doing everything I am supposed to be and He is blessing me for it. We have had a really successful past days full of working hard and finding new people to teach. I love it. I am going to be totally sad when we split. I already have a heart FULL of love for Sister Tagpuno, my child(:

The only sad news I have is that JamJam, the child we tried to baptize two weeks ago, told us yesterday that she has no desire to ever get baptized. I talked all about the importance of baptism and confirmation and immersion, and she made the final decision that she doesn't want to. So that broke my heart. Sister Tagpuno right after said "I can see how devastated you are." It really is a hard part of missionary work. To see someone get so close to salvation and then turn back. It's hard. But I promised JamJam that when she grows older, and she understands the importance of baptism by immersion, she will want to get baptized. I felt the Spirit in our lesson and even though it broke my heart, I felt comfort that the Lord has perfect timing for everything, so I need not worry. So now, we are focusing on finding and being guided to people who are prepared. For that is what this work is about(:

As for my sickness and all that, I am all recovered and no issues there(: So happy day. I am so happy. I love this work. I love God's plan for me and His children. And I love being exactly obedient. It's the best for real. I am sooo grateful for this opportunity to be trusted enough with an innocent, new missionary so that I can train her how to be the best missionary. And I love being humbled to my knees time and time again, reminded that I can't do this life alone. I need my Savior and I need my Heavenly Father. And I am so grateful they are here for me.

I love y'all. I miss y'all. And I hope this new year brings the best of memories to all.

Sister Robertson

Sunset Selfie

my GORGEOUS new companion and some elders who got in our shot

a family in bacolod that i got super close with in two days and they said they hope i get assigned there one day!

Why I never want to leave Sipalay