A little nervous just being here two weeks

Magandang Umaga!
     This week went by pretty fast. This week we actually had interviews with President. He flew in Thursday night, and then we had our interviews all day Friday and training from the AP's. There were a lot of missionaries, and I was one of the very last ones. You could tell that President was tired, and it was a pretty quick interview. But it was good to talk to him, and I had a little more time to chat with Sister Stucki. She's going to find out where I can buy my medicine here when mine runs out.

     So as far as the work, it went well this week. We are up to 15 investigators now with baptismal dates as of yesterday. But there are some that we need to help with WOW problems and some that need to get married first, but we have a lot that are wanting to progress and find out the truth of the gospel so it's been a lot of fun teaching all of them. We didn't have as many at church yesterday, but that could have been because it was raining. When it rains, Filipinos don't want to leave their houses. I went on my first splits yesterday with a branch missionary because we had a lot of appointments we had to get to and little time. I was a little nervous just because I've only been in our area for two weeks now, and I wasn't sure if I could remember where everyone was. But I went to the easier part of our area, and we did just fine. It was kind of fun, but I did miss teaching with Sister Afu at the same time. I really like teaching with her.

      Our branch is really fun. They had a little culture and talent night Friday night, and we stopped by and watched for a little bit. We have a lot of YM/YW and then a good group of returned missionaries here in our branch. It's different than Carmona because their YSA were all 18-20ish and hadn't left on missions yet. Here we work with RM's sometimes, or we'll work with Relief Society sisters or sometimes YSA from the other branches. There are two branches in Puerto (that's where we live), and sometimes they want to work with us in our area. Mom, to answer your question: yes, the church is in our area, Santa Monica. They have another church in Puerto for the other two branches. The people in Santa Monica some have electricity, and some don't. They all cook over a fire pretty much that I've seen. Then some have to pump their water from the ground. We did a CSP last week for an older lady in our branch, and she is very hard of hearing. We would pretty much yell at her, and she wouldn't even hear. Then she didn't even really tell us what to do; we just guessed, and we weeded her back yard with the machete looking thing again. We had dinner last night at a member’s house, and this mom just loves missionaries. She showed me all these notes from missionaries and pictures, and you can just tell she likes to get close to all of them. She has a son coming home this week from his mission who they said is going to be our new branch mission leader. So yeah our branch is great. I'm excited to get to know each of them more.

      Other than that not a whole lot went on this week, just the usual work. I'm really enjoying our investigators right now and am excited to see them continue to progress. Dad, Mom said something about you have had some cool experiences working with the missionaries... I want to hear. Too bad you can't come work with us here:) Incidentally, Sister Afu has been here for two transfers. They kind of have a pattern (I've heard) lately where they have one sister come to Palawan each transfer so you'll be here for four transfers and usually with two companions. But I'm sure it also depends on revelation that President gets, but they said that's usually what happens.

     Then as far as the phone call, I think I'll just call you Monday morning like we did for Christmas. Sister Dyer said that here they use Skype because in one of the computer shops they have cameras. So if you want, we can Skype, or I can call. If you do want to Skype, I need you to figure out what computer you would use and then set me up an account and just e-mail the username and password that I will use because I don't have the time to set it up. That's what Sister Dyer said she did with her family. So it's up to you. That way I could see my new nephews also...

      But anywho have a good week. Before we know it May will be here, and then Mother's Day will be here. That's exciting:) Thanks for the e-mails and updates. Love you all so much.
Mahal ko Kayo,
Sister Stromberg