Wow, it's December now, and I got quite the surprise last night:) Yes the Dyers did make it here safe and sound. They made it in time to attend church yesterday in Noveleta. Bishop Dyer even took the opportunity to bear his testimony to our great ward. It was so fun seeing them. They told me that you were just down there in Orem chatting with them and that just seemed so weird to me that you were just talking and then days later I was talking with them. Sister Dyer gave me a big hug and said it was from you, so THANKS:) And then Bishop Dyer let me know that my dad didn't seem too happy that I was coming home in April; he wanted me to come home in March:) Haha, is that true? It's only one month, Dad, then I'll be home with ya'll! Oh and then Bishop Dyer was telling me that he and Mom have a lot of "mutual friends" in the college of business. Then we went to dinner with the Soletas, and the Dyers joined us. That was a lot of fun to sit and chat. Then that's when they gave me my package with that WONDERFUL FUDGE!! and the pecan rolls and all the delicious chocolate! You just have no idea how much I have been craving Fastbreaks lately! That got me really excited! Yeah I definitely felt the Christmas spirit yesterday and weirdly felt like I was home for a minute. When I tried the fudge, that really made me feel like I was home with Grandma Pat:) But don't worry, not in a trunky way at all. To sum it all up, THANKS!!
And I'm sending a little something back with the Dyers so you'll have to get it when you go to Sister Dyer’s homecoming talk. It's not a lot, but it's about all I could find here in Cavite. I actually had Janeth get me something in Palawan for my name, but it hasn't made it back to the mainland yet. So I'm really hoping it gets here before they take off on the 12th of December, or I might have to mail it, and it will be late:( We'll have to wait and see. Oh and I've received all of the Twelve Days of Christmas except the Third Day. Hopefully it's still on the way and didn't just get lost.
Moving on to missionary work:), this last week we had a lot going on! We had a great CSP this last Wednesday where we got to go out to the "beach" and help our investigator JohnMark with his job. He's our investigator right now who is closest to baptism:) He's SO awesome! He's 18. We used to teach his brothers and his mom, but his mom moved to Dubia, and his brothers lost interest I guess. But he will be baptized right before Christmas on the 22nd!:) He's such a stud! And because his mom doesn't live with them anymore it's kind of fend for yourself now with them, which here in the Philippines that is really rare. Your parents usually support you even after you're married and have your own family. But he is a fisherman and does that every day and has to get up SO early every morning and gets done late at night and is just such a hard worker. Well we decided we would get up early and go help him with his fish:) So yeah we went out and that just happened to be the one day that their fish weren't coming in until 9:00, and we were there at 6:00 a.m. and only had a couple of hours. So we ended up helping a bunch of strangers with all their fish! haha. I'll attach pics. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully we can teach our new friends when we return to that area! We also had a really neat lesson with JohnMark where he opened up to us and told us when he went to a friend’s b-day party, he was offered a drink. He really didn't want it and told them that but in the end up drank a little and then felt bad and left the party. Then he told us that he didn't feel worthy to be baptized, and he was just so sincere and concerned. Then we just had the neatest lesson about repentance and read some of the scriptures from Alma 36 about Alma the Younger (one of my favorite chapters). It was such a good lesson. JohnMark is so great because he's around the rowdiest crew all day every day. They are always smoking and drinking coffee, and he just sticks with his values and is doing his very best to get ready for his baptism. He had a problem with coffee before because that's what he would eat with his rice when he didn't have any money to buy real food, and coffee is really cheap here. But he's been sacrificing and hasn't bought any since we taught him the Word of Wisdom. Yeah that's why I say he's a stud because he's being such an example to all those around him and going against what's "cool" with all of his workmates. I just can't thoroughly explain. But I'm SO grateful for the Atonement and the miracle of forgiveness and to see the hope that our message brought to JohnMark that he could repent and continue to prepare for his baptism. ASTIG! 
Then we have a new investigator, Tessie, who is the nanny of a member. We had such an awesome lesson with her, and she now wants to be baptized. She said that she prayed about Joseph Smith and got her answer that he is a true prophet, and, man, she's so awesome! She's so humble and in all of her prayers is just pleading that she can understand everything that we are teaching her and talks about that being her only concern is that she can understand everything, but she has been doing great. We're just taking it slow with her, and she's just such a sweetheart! I'm so excited for her!
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This last week it was Sis. Richardson's birthday, and Joyce and I arranged a surprise birthday dinner at the church! Man, that sure was hard! How do you keep something a secret from someone you're always with and you share a phone with and you literally can't be separated from?Yeah, we can thank Joyce for the most part, but Sis. Richardson was really happy and surprised so it was a lot of fuN!
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Well I love you all so much and hope you have the greatest birthday week! Happy Birthday Jasen and Dad and Ryan!! I wrote y'all letters so I hope they have gotten there or will very shortly!! Take care!
With Love,
Sister StrombergP.S. Oh and I forgot to mention that transfer day is next week, and EVERYONE kept mentioning at church yesterday that I'm going to be transferred:( One of our ward missionaries even had a dream that I did:( It will be really hard if I am transferred right before Christmas! But I know that I'll be where the Lord wants me to be... so we'll see next week!
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