One Giant Step--March 29, 2016

 This week in our interweave lessons we talked mostly about commitments. There is not a direct translation of the word in Tagalog so we talked about the definition of the word. We explained how keeping short term commitments are like little steps up a stair case to help them reach their long term goal at the top, having a successful business and becoming self-reliant. I would show them a picture of a big stair case and ask do you think I could get to the top in one big step? I would demonstrate by lifting my leg up really high and taking a giant step. They always thought that was funny. The lesson about commitments is the end of unit one. We only got to introduce interweave but I really hope that it is going to change things and pick up some speed and help change lives and create businesses. I am grateful that I could help get the ball rolling and be apart of something great! 

Puerto Princesa--March 28, 2016

 We flew in Friday night and it was a super cute town. It is the capital of Palawan and my favorite part of the city was the cute lights they hung from the trees all over town. The city is bigger don't get me wrong though. There is a mall and stuff. We saw two movies while we were there. The third divergent and a Christian movie Sunday night called Miracles from Heaven maybe? It made me cry of course. Wasn't a fan of the divergent movie. Sorry Liz. One of my favorite parts of the whole week was riding on the back of Brads dirtbike. Sorry mom. And Andrew. Don't worry, I didn't even hold on to him and it definitely wasn't as cool as the motorcycle. But I did kind of feel like Lizzie McGuire all week. On Saturday to get to the underground river we drove the motorcycles which was like two hours. It was so beautiful! I loved it! I couldn't listen to music or books like everyone else but it was such a fun time to just think and look around. This place is kind of like Hawaii but third world and even prettier! The underground river was cool. One of the new seven wonders of the world I think. It is basically seeing a cave in a boat. With bats everywhere. They have to close around five because there are so many bats coming in and out. Oh we stayed at a place called Nelly's Nipa hut off air bnb and it was actually pretty fun. The host Jessica was awesome. It was a fun city! Sunday we went to church, drove around, and went to visit Bennie's, one of the mentors, family. They fed us SO much mango shake. His niece plays tennis and is apparently pretty good which means they must be doing alright. She is super cute. That night something was messed up with the bookings and we stayed in this other hostel which was awesome. We slept in a bamboo hut. The next night we woke up bright and early and headed to El Nido. A 6 hour bus ride everyone needs to make in their life! 

Happy Birthday Shamae! March 27, 2016

 I realized I didn't write home about the week before we went to Palawan! It was a good week. We taught more interweave and the work was good. We had a meeting with Joy and worked a lot on creating a template for her to use to keep track of all her income and expenses. She is implementing it right now so we will see how this pay period goes. The goal is to get it so that she can separate her home and business expenses. She is going to be paying herself a commission now which is really important. Hopefully by doing this she can then easily create monthly profit and loss statements. I think that is what we will do next! Anyway, back to the subject of the email and the highlight of my week. I went to Shamae's, a girl in the ward, birthday FHE with a bunch of YSAs in the ward and stake. No one else wanted to come so I came to the office and my friends Verly and Kim took me. The sisters were there too. I love being with Sister Lloyd from New Zealand. There was of course a ton of food which was really yummy. And strawberry cake. I am usually not a cake fan but the funniest things taste so good here! We had a lesson and talked and then played games for a long time! It was fun! They have the funniest idea of games and think everything is hilarious. We left around 10 or 10:30 and some of the kids took me home because it was so dark. I love hanging out with them! They really have brought a light into my life! I am really grateful to have friends here who like to be with me. 

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Another Happy Sunday-- March 14, 2016

Church seemed to be a bit on the Tagalog side this week but I didn't understand a good talk on the sacrifices we give as members of the church. Listening I felt especially grateful for the missionaries, my parents who raised me, and the example mom and dad and many other friends and family have been as they served callings in the church! The English I did hear was being asked to speak in sacrament meeting on Easter. The topic is the second coming but said that I could of course tie that into Easter. I would love some input or ideas. For some reason I am really nervous. I am grateful though. I really felt like I needed to bear my testimony last week and didn't because I was nervous or something. I felt so bad for ignoring the prompting. It is just what I need and hopefully I can say something that is just what they need to hear. I read a couple of conference talks about church and there were a lot of tears. I think about Grandpa a lot. I realized that I haven't born my testimony in sacrament meeting since he passed away, an event that really strengthened my testimony. Between August and know I have also gone through some other hard things and really felt my testimony grow. But please, suggestions or ideas, send them my way! I am going to invite Nanay and Joy so hopefully they can come. It might be hard though... Easter is one of two days that every Catholic goes to church. I love this gospel and it is true! I don't know where I would be without it! 

The PBA-- March 14, 2016

If the PBA reminds you of the NBA than you guessed right, it is the national Filipino basketball league. They loooove basketball here. But the PBA is so far from the NBA.Saturday night we decided to check it out for our selves and paid 120 pesos to get into a game. That is like $2.50. Inside the seats kind of look like airport seats but in every color. We heard we were in one of the crappier stadiums though. They teams aren't based off region but just sponsors so most the games are around Manila. It is pretty sloppy basketball. It was fun though. And experience.  They foul a ton. We didn't last the whole game. We made our way to the MOA and the boys found a casino in hotel on our way. The played a couple dollars worth of roulette and made me place one of their chips. My first time gambling. Luckily Sundayy came fast so I could repent ;) That is one thing I will never be tempted to do! The MOA treated us well with subway and am ice cream sandwich. Of course it was packed as ever. And we had a race home. Taxi vs. buses and public transport. I opted for the taxi and got very car sick on the way home. Next week I have a 6 hour bus ride through the mountains to get to a place called El Nido so wish me luck. 

Painting Party--March 14, 2016

Friday afternoon we headed over to the La Torres to paint the preschool. We painted it all sorts of colors. It was a lot of fun though. The best comment was when Che was telling me she usually has the missionaries help paint but this is great because they have a time limit of two hours. I laughed and thought of Andrew and all the times he has painted for service. It isn't too bad, especially when the sanding doesn't have to be up to American standards.. We are painting plywood here people. She made us dinner and we took a break. She made pasta, toast, banana bread, and mango float. I felt like I was carb loading for a marathon or something. But it tasted good. We got home pretty late that night. Oh and my outfit. So that morning I stopped by the Palangke on the way to work. I bought some real nice maroon basketball shorts for a whopping two dollars. And by nice I mean fleece lined and covered in cat hair or something. Girls got to do what a girls got to do. I think I may be ditching those before they come back to America in my suitcase. 

Joy March 14, 2016

She is my favorite right now if you can't tell how she gets her own email every week. She couldn't meet with us wednesday and I felt so bad because her phone wasn't working so we didn't know what was going on. But she really wanted to meet this week and rescheduled for Thursday. Everyone else was home sick so Brad and I met with her after going out in the field. She is so sweet and is genuinely trying. She brought her business explained in 30 seconds written out with why they are better and all the list of services they provide. It is a bummer she can't actually use her name on anything because of the whole business permit thing. That makes it difficult so we are putting that on hold for now. She brought her most recent financial records and we focused on that most of the time. Right now we are really trying to separate her business from her personal expenses. She says she used to do it but when all those financial difficulties hit she got them all mixed up. Right now she takes money out of the business for her personal expenses and then uses her husbands salary to pay her employees. We need to get that switched and she understands why she just doesn't know where to start. We also taught her about keeping more specific track of her expenses which she has never done. She just includes them all in "shop expenses". We also taught her the difference between variable and fixed expenses. Which isn't detrimental right now but it was good to introduce it. We are going to create an excel template and print it off for now until she gets a new computer. That way she can transfer her daily sales and expense log to a monthly or bi monthly report. Kind of like a profit and loss statement. Anyway, she loves us and is so sad we didn't find her sooner. I told her I am sad too. She couldn't believe we were leaving so soon. I don't know her religious views but I bought a Book of Mormon at the distribution center the first time we went to the temple and I think she is the one I want to give it to. Luckily we get to meet with her again before we leave for Palawan! 

Interweave March 14, 2016

We finally started teaching Interweave. They are still in the process of getting the participant manuals in Tagalog though. Since the centers don't meet weekly they decided to have us teach the group leaders once a week and then when the center meets monthly the center chief and the group leaders will teach the unit. The first principle has like 7 principles so we taught the first two this week. It is kind of an introductory chapter. It talks about the three circles of success. The participants are going to make a plan for each circle or category thought the program. They are business, home, and community. In the middle of the Venn Diagram is self reliance. We discussed how they all affect each other and how they help you become self reliant. Usually the mentor has to translate some. That part is kind of hard. It would be so much easier if I spoke Tagalog. We went with Connie two times and by the Thursday had the lesson down. We visited really good centers. Her center on Thursday is awesome. It is huge. The chairman doesn't really need a loan but she an amazing center chief. She is going to get an individual loan too so she can do both. It is cool because all of Connies centers are good. I think some of it has to do with being a woman and being able to connect and become friends with them easier. What we teach the grameen clients is different than what we teach the individual clients. I learned today that it is really hard to try and teach your grameen woman about separating personal and business expenses. All the interns have different opinions and what to teach and who they think has potential. I think we need to teach the basics. Even just having them describe and truly understand what they are selling and why. Some argue though that no matter how hard we try you can't teach someone passion or drive, for the successful ones that should just come natural. I disagree to a certain extent. I think many more than we think can be successful they just need a little help to see themselves as more than just poor. They don't have a vision because no one in their lives has ever had one either. Teaching is more difficult than I thought but so fun! I am sad I only get to teach one actual unit of interweave!  

Face 2 Face :)(:

I forgot one quick thought. This week on our office day I tried to watch the YSA Face to Face live. Of course with the wifi it was hit and miss but after a lot of stopping and going five hours later I finished it. I want to go back and re watch it when I have a really good connection. It would probably help if it wasn't being streamed live too. I got the beginning, it was the middle that got a little bit tough. And I was cleaning out my email and probably a little distracted. Anyway, from what I did hear it was amazing. There were definitely tears and I tried to hide so no one in the office would see me. Sometimes when I tear up everyone starts staring at me and talking about how beautiful my eyes are, I think the tears make them more blue haha Elder Holland led out and started with three things he wanted us to know right away:

1. Heavenly Father loves me. The church loves me. The first presidency loves me. His words were powerful and I could feel both Heavenly Father and Elder Hollands love. 

2. We have strength in the church, a united brotherhood and sisterhood that extends all over the world.

3. I am of a royal generation and the future of the church. Take seriously the next steps of my life.

The first questions right out of the gate was on marriage. Elder Holland teased about what he called the "M" word. They did a great job at balancing and recognizing those who weren't married. They really did their best to make sure they felt loved. Elder Holland also laid into any boys who say they will only date return sister missionaries. He answered that questions pretty powerfully and it encouraged me. Side note: The Philippines puts more pressure on its sisters to serve missions than the US. Anyway.. back to the first questions. This was their advice on how to have a happy marriage:

Elder Holland: It is simple.. Love each other. "Love is what you go through together"

Hallstrom: Build a relationship upon a spiritual foundation. Talk about gospel topics when you are dating and when you are married. Not just at church but as a couple.

Sister Stevens and Elder Holland: Work at it. Nothing good in the world comes easy. Nothing good "just happens". If we try God will help us. "Of course He will. Of all things! He will help you if you do your part!"

I stopped taking notes with the wifi was getting spotty.. I really need to go back and listen to some questions on overcoming difficulties and same gender attraction. There was a lot of good stuff in there. I should have kept writing things down! Their testimonies at the end were really powerful too. Elder Holland' gave me chills as I was hidden in my corner of the office with tears streaming down my cheeks.

This was my favorite part though! I learned something new and it is something we should all think about. Elder Holland explained that as far as he knows there is no reference to their being any ward or stakes or organization like that in the celestial kingdom. We will only be organized BY FAMILIES. That concept struck me as pretty powerful and I loved thinking about it. Sometimes life after death makes me a little bit nervous but the concept of that makes me so happy!!! 

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