Forever Exchanges

Hi everyone! It's been another beautiful and crazy week. This week the mission had a conference for young missionary leaders from Wednesday to Thursday and then Friday we had exchanges. This means that my companion from Wednesday to Friday was Sister Fifita because both of our trainers are Sister Training leaders. She is only a month older than me in the mission and neither of us know the language. She is Tongan and from New Zealand so she has a super sick accent. Anyway, I thought everyone was watching when they saw one foreigner but they REALLY stare when they see two. But we have a lot in common so exchanges, while crazy are always fun. This time I had to lead the area for two days and then we went to a new area in Sister Fifita's area. Pretty much we just prayed a lot and had to just laugh every time something wack happened 

Sister Francisquete showed me a cool way to make my emails look cooler so the photos will be with their appropriate sections this week! Also ignore the footwear in all photos please…. Its a struggle and the blisters are for real.
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OMY AND SUNBURNS

Oym stands for "open your mouth" and its what we call street contacting or just walking up to people and talking. Because Sister Fifita and I were exploring a new area we did lots and lots of OYM. It normally goes like this. *Sister Larson and Sister Fifita are walking down a small dirt road through rice fields and the people outside are not even trying to pretend they aren't staring*. So we walk up and use the little Hiligaynon we know and *they respond in Tagalog*, naturally. Then we try and ask some questions to get to know them and then hand them a pamphlet and/or Book Of Mormon and do out best to explain what they are. Then we try and get their names and ask if its ok if we visit again. Most of the time they say yes (although I actually never understand if they said yes or no so guess what, they're getting another visit). But we really so saw many miracles from just trying our best to talk to people, even though we barely speak the language. We can always just talk about Jesus or Jordan Clarckson. Either works.
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This is Sister Fifita's area: Tigbauan. Mostly its just A cute pic but also you can kinda see my sunburn. Lets just say my legs and arms are two very different colors.

MIRACLES

So so many miracles this week. One of my favorites is when we were trying to get into to the Tigbauan apartment and we didn't have the keys. We didn't really have another option so we were just praying and praying to find a solution. Sure enough Sister Fafita gave the window a good little rattle and it popped open. Then we were able to reach through the window and unlock the door from the other side. Heavenly Father really said just break in. But don't tell anyone that. The window trick surely only works for missionaries.

Another miracle was Friday night we were so tierd but we still had a few hours before we were supposed to go back to the apartment. We didn't have any appointments so we decided to just choose a direction and start walking. There were zero people. Which is perfect for teaching. It was dark at this point but we decided to just keep walking until 8:30 and then we could turn around. Well, eventually we ran into some less interested interested people we had contacted before and after a brief, polite conversation with them we kept walking because it wasn't 8:30 yet. At bout 8:25 we passed a tiangge (small store in someones house) and the man outside started talking to us. He was super friendly and he wanted to hear all about why we were in Iloilo. As we started to talking to him he told us that he knew members of the church and even used the correct name! While we talked more and more people just spawned and joined the conversation including his twim daughters. He told us that they play basketball on the varsity team with the boys and they are in 7th grade. He invited us to their game and also to come over anytime and he would make Pancit (kinda like ramen and my favorite filipino dish). His name is Homer and he is definitely well loved by the community. By time we left he had introduced us as "his new friends" to almost 20 people of all ages. The next day I found out we aren't allowed to go to the basketball court so we dropped off some gatorade with a note. I don't know if that story makes sense but it was seriously a miracle. We were beyond exhausted and we didn't want to keep walking but because we just tried to make it to 8:30 we met the coolest family. Sister Fifita and I are going to visit them again this week!
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OUTSTANDING IN A FIELD

So when we were in Tigbauan we visited an area called Gimbal where there are very few members. It's very much a coastal farming town. Anyway, we had tried to visit an IP who wasn't home and I had had a mountain dew that morning. Frankly I had to pee long before we even got to the appointment but there aren't really options for a bathroom. By the time we were walking back from the appointment I looked at Sister Fifita and I was like " Sis I think I'm gonna have to wilderness pee". And yep I did. So I had to pee in this farmers field and sister kept watch. I think only some cows saw but who knows. Classic pee story. These photos were taken mere moments before the incident.
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2 NEPHI 2 

Fire chapter. I started reading here because it is one of the chapters Preach My Gospel is based on. This week I've been copying Sister Fifita and using sticky notes to write notes in my Book of Mormon as I read and 2 Nephi 2 doesn't even close all the way now. I've also been reading 2 Nephi 25 which is where my mission scripture is from and its so good. Both of these chapters talk all about Christ's grace. "It is by grace that we are saved; after all we can do" 2 Nephi 25:22. This verse used to confuse me honestly. I used to think that meant that only once we did every thing perfectly Christ was able to step in. I'm learning more and more that "all we can do" does not  mean perfection and that it is different everyday. Sometimes all we can do is get out of bed and sometimes we are able to successfully complete a day's challenges with a smile on our face. It doesn't matter what kind of day you are having or how much "all" was today. His grace is more than enough to cover the rest, everytime. He loves us and wants us to rely on Him so we can use His readily available grace. I love the quote from Elder Holland "It is not possible to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's atonement shines". I testify that Christ will always always make up the rest, no matter how much that it.

We finally got to watch general conference and my favorite quote was " love people because it's the right thing to do, not because they are doing the right thing". So good! Definitely going to be studying that talk this week.

Thank you for your prayers! Go to the temple. Read the scriptures. Pray lots and lots. God is with you and He has a plan for you that is so much better than anything you could imagine.

Some more OYM pics and Adobo made by Sister Francisquete.

Lots of kids just want to practice English with me!
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Delish
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