11 February 2014 - Midweek Update

Me and my pillow with Sr. Henshaw, my new companion, and another Sister. Waiting at the airport to fly to Manila.

Alright family here is another update for you. I am now in Naval in Biliran. Biliran is an island and Naval is a city. This will be my first experience in the city. Not a huge fan of cities but that just means I have a lot to learn here. We are in my area now but I am actually staying in a sister's apartment an hour or so away until they get an apartment for us. So I feel slightly lost not having an area or people I can really, really focus on but it's ok-- I just have to remember I'm terrible at change and be patient. 

  The picture with the woman and the little boy- that is sister Angelina...
she is the one that shares the gospel like crazy
and will be baptized this following week (=

The other lady is Sister Jema Cuyos, the referral I snatched,
whose husband just adores her, and she is soooooo prepared for the Gospel.
Both women I love so very much and am so excited for them to be baptized in Escalante. 

The picture of the man and me is the beggar I told you about that chased us around the market, hahahah.  I'm gonna miss him.

Shopping in Manila.

    My new companion is actually another one of my batch-mates- we are both American.,hahahah, and we will see how things go. She is 19 and from Utah, her name is Sister Henshaw- she was in Tacloban as in Tacloban when the storm hit- one of the sisters that was super traumatized so this adjustment has been a little bit up and down for her as well.  We both served in Bacolod too- she is the short blonde in the pix at the airport.

Our new area in Naval.

   Umm... yes flying back into Tacloban was rough... I guess in a way I kind of forgot.... I forgot how bad it was, or maybe I just had my expectations subconsciously too high. It's still a disaster of course. The trees that looked like a blanket on the mountains before are just brow stumps.    Everything is just broken and filthy still. Little by little though right. Its weird how everything is sooo different but it still feels like home. When we saw President Andaya for the first time we all wanted to do cartwheels. We LOVE him soooo much!!!! He is so good to us. I got to see my Bishop in Carigara and Brother Kim- I nearly tackled them because I was sooo happy to see them. I just ksdjfdsjfsdjf ahh! So happy! Slightly heart-broken because I still don't get to see them or go back to Carigara but I know the Lord has a better plan for me (even if it's painful) 

So yeah... that's the news.

Sister Sarah  Ralph