Well, we were back in Naga today!
Earlier I had the opportunity to stop by and visit Nanay Cea, the Balmes Family, Tatay Nagrampa and just felt so happy to get to be back in my last area!
So we headed into Naga earlier this morning for an eye checkup for Sister Habla. She has been getting head-ache's because of her eyes, so we went there to figure out why?
Well... it turns out she needed GLASSES!!!!
So that was fun to go get those for her.
So here, I haven't had much problem with budgeting throughout the mission, but it has been a lot harder here in Iriga because our area is SO big, so we spend SOOOOO much more on transportation! We have even been reaching 600 or more pesos a week! Which is WAY more than in my other areas. And in addition, we decided just to eat at calendaria's for lunch because we missed real food (and neither of us are very good at cooking). Well... that ended up about being the dumbest thing I have done the whole mission, because as we pulled into Naga on Monday with no food in our fridge and 300 pesos left of our emergency fund, I was thinking "crap. We are going to die." It is stressful not to have money!
So we ended up making a good budgeting plan, and as we walked around the grocery store choosing what we were going to eat (according to our pre-made menu)
I actually ended up having to put things back and plan smarter as we hand-added up the expenses to make sure we would not exceed our budget. Now we have envelopes to separate our money for food, transportation and bills :) Hopefully that helps! I will say, budgeting definitively makes life more stress-free!
I think this week, all the fried food started to catch up to me when the other day, my heart started hurting
Luckily the senior couple are just next door so I asked them what to do and they told me that I was not having a heart attack... we just need to eat healthier.
I was feeling super stressed and told Sister Hanson that I just didn't know how to cook any healthy food here! And she gave me a list of healthy ingredients and told us that she would come teach us to cook healthy food that isn't deep-fried (it seems like everything here is fried!) So ya... we have been eating healthier and I don't ever want to eat unhealthy again!
Anyways, HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all of you there!
Anyways, on another note, it has been another good week of work and as usual, so much has happened! For one, our interviews with President were this week, which I had really been looking forward to so that I could get some advice on how to better help our area.
President ended up giving us some awesome advice on how we can improve and we have really made an effort to do the things he told us and it ended up being really effective.
In addition, interviews also left me really happy, energized and ready to work hard throughout the rest of the week. And we definitely had a good week.
I remember on Wednesday morning feeling so happy as our district got to go over and spend the morning weeding at an investigator's house. When we went over and saw that some of the weeds (which covered their entire yard) were as tall as I am, I started to have second thoughts about the whole "service" thing. But with smiles on our faces, we got down to work, me carefully working on pulling out a big thorn vine.
Although I definitely came home with a few splinters, we all felt so happy and grateful to have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of helping others. I think I felt especially happy when after the project, we ended up with a pile of weeds taller than I am.
All in all, we have been really lucky this week as God seems to be guiding us to exactly where we need to be and who we need to teach.
I have constantly been amazed and left thanking my Heavenly Father for all the amazing experiences we are having. Like on Wednesday when Nanay Norma (one of our investigators) cried during her closing prayer and after, thanked us for everything she was learning. "Before" she said, "I never knew that I could pray like that."
Or on Thursday, when we got to share with our Part-member, Sister Andrea and got to see how much the gospel is changing her life. When we first met Andrea, she was quiet, wouldn't smile and seemed depressed. But now, she is always so happy, smiley and seems to be a light to her family.
And finally, on Friday when after gaining the opportunity to go on splits, I got to meet sister Vangie! An investigator who has been out of time since I got here.
I always wondered why Sister Habla kept pushing us to go back to her even though she was never there, but last Friday, I understood why. As we shared with Vangie, she told us about the trials and challenges she has had to face these past few weeks and finished by saying "But I know that God will always give us challenges in life, to test our faith and see if we are really determined to stick out to the end. As for me, I am determined to make it." I felt so inspired by Sister Vangie and so lucky to get to be a part of her life.
I think that out of all of these unforgettable moments that just leave you overflowing with joy, the one that seemed to leave me smiling and laughing the most was when on Friday night, we walked up to a guy we had met the month before in the hopes of sharing with him, when at the moment he saw us, he literally took of running across the highway just to get away from us. From the way he kept looking back, it seemed like he was under the impression that we were going to start sprinting after him! Haha. Don't worry, the dogs took care of that for us. I LOVE dogs!!!
Anyways, all in all I am grateful for all these experiences and the ones still to come in the next weeks.
But for now, I hope you all have an awesome week! And always try to remember the little things God does to make life better and to help get us through. I promise that if you will write them all down, not even all the books in the world could hold them all!
Ingat po palagi
Sincerely, Sister Matheny
P.S. Check out this bug...
GROSS!
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