I am feeling your love from across a very long stretch of water. I am overjoyed to hear from dear dear friends and family.
I have been feeling very strongly lately that I need to stay an extra transfer than I was planning. ( Mid-april, instead of beginning of March, 2013) I prayed about it and think that I might do that, with faith that everything will be fine for me planning/getting classes I need to be in. I am learning so much and I feel like I'm really only getting started on my mission.
I am learning so much from Sister Lumanog. We have very different teaching styles. My style is a bit more slow with more questions and her style is more fast and is actually really entertaining, even as her companion to see her interact with people. She is really great with analogies and I'm starting to use more analogies as well in my teaching, which is great as I wanted to improve in that area. I am seeing the combination of our styles start to mold. Some investigators really connect with her and some really connect with me. Some really enjoy listening to a foreigner speak Tagalog (ha) and some really want to speak with a Filipino missionary. With both of us, it seems like we are able to reach more people than with just her or just me. My tagalog is improving especially being with a filipino companion. She understands English and every once in a while, I'll have to explain something in English, as I don't have certain words yet in Tagalog. Sometimes she will say things in English like, "I'm really tired!" or " This is hot!" haha.
I extended a baptismal invitation to a long time investigator yesterday and I re-remembered one reason why I wanted to serve a mission/why I am still here in the Philippines and not at home: I have not experienced this kind of joy before, a kind that almost swallows me completely. Tears aren't even adequate. The reality of so many things has hit me while being on my mission.
I loved people before my mission and had a great desire to love people but I'm slowly learning 'how' to love more fully. How. I also realized that I spent not enough time on other people before my mission. There is a balance between spending time on 'oneself' and not on 'oneself' that I want to readjust for my life after my mission.
this first picture is of Brother Razon and his wife, who I won't ever forget and helped to make me a better/stronger missionary. the second picture is of my plan for my hair after my mission. the third picture is of Sister Lumanog with a lot of colored bags.
P.S. If you know my mother, please feel free to bombard her with a birthday chat/email/call/text/love. Her birthday was last Monday!
Hey Mom! ---> It's your __--=***=--__birthday!_--=***=--_
john 15:1-5 - beautiful.bb. (( & Jacob 5-check it))
