Numancia Baby

Hey guys, you are reading my first ever email from Numancia. This past week was lots of goodbyes, bus rides and me not understanding what people are saying. Double thumbs up. My new area so far is super different from my last area in San Jose but I love it here. My new comp is Sister Castañaga and she is the nicest person I have ever met. Anyway, here's the rundown. 

LAST MOMENTS IN ANTIQUE

My week from Sunday to Thursday was still about normal work wise with some added packing and goodbyes. It was so hard saying goodbye to some of our new converts and so yah I maybe cried a little. My very last day of work in San Jose almost none of our appointments went through and was feeling a little bit the worst. But Sister Pernitez and I (shout out to my daughter she's all grown up and saving China) decided to introduce the Book of Mormon to this lady we met on the street. She was outside this lodge full of drunk men and while we were explaining the Holy Ghost this absolute broski pokes his head out and is like “ kaon kamo” or basically “you guys will eat”. Anyway later he came out with plates full of food and bought us soft drinks. Answer to prayers because we were so hungry. Later we left them with a Book of Mormon for a birthday present and all of them were taking turns looking at it and were saying what translates to “this is a good book I think”. Anway we're best friends now and they make mean spaghetti.

EXCHANGES  

We also had exchanges last week in Antique and I worked with Sister Inonimarawa in their area! It had just rained and everytime we saw a puddle sister Ionimarawa said “that's a big swimming pool”. Good one sis.

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SISTER PERNITEZ

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Sister Pernitez finished her Trainee days. She is now old. So of course we got her a princess crown, magic wand and stuffed cat. Its only natural. Love you lots ses. Kaya mo yun. Indi pwede malipat- palangga taka.

9 HOURS

So turns out the bus ride actually is really long from Antique to Iloilo, Iloilo to Kalibo.  But it was chill and as far as I know everyone made it to their areas and I didn’t even throw up. Gold star.

NUMANCIA 

So here's the chica on Numancia. Right now Sister Castañaga and I are actually covering our area and what used to be the Zone Leaders area. Also Sister Castañaga has only been here about 3 weeks longer than me so we are just maybe a few steps above a white wash (both missionaries are new in the area). The other chica is people here either speak Tagalog or Aklanon. Hehehe. I'm working on it. Hearing people speak pure Aklanon kinda makes my mind feel like scrambled eggs but I'm starting to catch on. I can understand Tagalog kinda ok so that's something I guess. 

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Numancia is close to Kalibo city so we can go to the city if we ever need anything but Numancia itself is fairly provincial. It's been fun trying to learn our area. Also I saw a really big cow yesterday. Just feel like that was important to mention.

We also got lost yesterday for a few hours and had to call the zone leaders for directions. Then some super kind strangers gave us a ride in their trike for free. Then later another set of members found us and got us the rest of the way to our appointment. This is us looking pretty while we were lost. 

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Sister Hulse also worked with us for a day and it was insane talking about Ferron Utah and stop lights in Emery County while sitting on the back of a trike. 

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IT'S IN THE EGG

Yesterday Sister and I were exploring one of our area's called Lezo trying to locate members. We came to one house and the nice nanay let us in. There was also a kid inside that nanay said she was healing. I was like ok that chill. Then the kid pulled out an egg from under his shirt and gave it to nanay. She cracked it into a bowl and then proceeded to examine the egg. When we asked what she was doing she explained that the egg will reveal what kind of sickness the boy has in his stomach. A few seconds later she announced the condition and rubbed some menthol on the boy's face. I will be trying. I guess I don't have the ability to read egg but no one can stop me from trying.

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THE WHY

This week and my whole mission we have invited people to church everyday. Most people say that their relationship with God and faith are not affected if they do not go to church. At first I wasn't sure how to respond. The more I have tried to find a response to this comment the more I have realized how valuable the sacrament is. The sacrament is why we need to go to church. We can do almost everything else on our own time but partaking of the sacrament can only happen once a week, at church. Only once a week, at church are we given the opportunity to renew our promise with God. We are asked to sacrifice that one or two hours so that God can give us more blessings. So once again we are indebted to him. There are so many people here that sacrifice so much to go to church. Let's not take God's covenants for granted.

That's all. Go to church. 

sister larson