HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Wow! Time really does fly! It seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating a New Year With Sister Stackhouse and Sister Villa, excited to start my full-calendar year as a missionary. I remember at that time, a year felt like SOOOO far away! I would listen to Sister Stackhouse tell stories about her mission, different areas and how fast the time had gone for her. But for me, it still felt like I had FOREVER left! But now, I cannot believe I am already looking back on 2017, and that I can now say: "I JUST SPENT EVERY DAY OF 2017 AS A MISSIONARY!" And I am actually kind of sad to have just finished the fastest year of my entire life.
With our super busy schedule this week, including Christmas, New Year, exchanges, 3 baptisms and 3 baptismal interviews, we ended up having to push our personal study to the night. Which has definitely been a challenge for me. Because it means that we don't have the extra time we need to cook, clean, wash laundry, update our journals or even just take a minute to cool off.
Instead, we have been waking up everyday at 6:30am sharp, trying to cram in the time to cook, eat, shower, exercise and update the area book before 8:00am when we start our planning.
After that, we rush out the door without a minute to spare before getting home around 9:10 or 9:20pm every night, doing our personal study and then going straight to sleep. Needless to say, it has been a pretty draining week just trying to keep up with everything.
But thankfully, with Christmas and new-year celebrations complete and a bright new year in front of us, we are excited to get back to a relatively normal schedule and a week of hard work to start the new year.
Speaking of the new year, thankfully the noisy chickens in my first area got me used to sleeping through just about anything, so I didn't have any trouble falling right to sleep last night without being bothered by all the karaoke, loud music, horns, fireworks and just about any other noise you could think of just outside my window. Let me just say... Filipinos really know how to celebrate New Year! I don't think I have ever experienced such a noisy one.
I remember when I first got here to Daet, Sister Segovia was SUPER worried because she didn't know if we would be able to have any baptisms for December. But once again we saw the miracles of the Lord working in our life, as time and time again He proved to me that if we simply work hard, do our part and HAVE FAITH, He will do everything to help us succeed.
Sister Segovia and I have been blown away by how many people The Lord has helped through us here in Daet, and how much more there still is to come. I am SOOO grateful for every second He has given me here, every person He has allowed me to help and every little thing He has done to help us succeed here in the Naga Philippines mission.
It's true, I have seen a lot of self-improvement over the past year. I feel like I have changed a lot, and now, I want to make it a New Year's resolution to make those changes permanent. I want to be able to take everything I have learned home with me from the mission. I want to continue to learn to clean, cook, and work hard. To continue to do my best to help those around me. To continue saying my prayers, reading my scriptures, and to continue to rely on the Lord.
I love you all and challenge you to find ways to not only make Jesus more a part of your life this upcoming year, but also to find ways to make Jesus more a part of who you are as well
Love,
Sister Matheny
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