Can't even describe the happiness

MaBUhaY!!
     How are you all doing this nice warm day? Oh wait, it's probably far from that for all of you...

      But yes my new companion is here, coming straight from the MTC in... Provo!:) She even had my MTC teacher, Brother Ah Mu, as her teacher. Her name is Sister Tuia, and she is Samoan:) She's 23. Her whole family are members of the church, and she was born in the church. She was actually the only foreign sister that entered the mission, and I was the only foreign sister that is training this transfer. So yeah the Lord decided to stick us foreigners together:) So it's pretty exciting! I'm quickly remembering how difficult Tagalog was when I first got here. But Sister Tuia is awesome and is ready to work hard to learn this language and already loves our ward. We've had so many ward missionaries work with us, and Sister Tuia has been so surprised. She keeps talking about how awesome the youth are here, that they all want to help in missionary work. She loves them all, and it's so fun to see that. They are all helping her with her Tagalog also, so it's great!

      We have a member in our ward who is less active, and he's a boxing coach. They have a bunch of their boxers board at their home, and they range from the age of 12-20+. Well when we go to visit them, they want us to teach their boxers. So right now we have four that are really interested. We went and taught them Sister Tuia's first night and had such a good lesson about the restoration and then were able to set baptismal dates with them all. Then on Saturday we had a temple tour, and three of them came with us. Christian also used to box with them, and he's our investigator that is getting baptized on the 9^th.  He also came to the temple tour. So that's the majority of our investigator pool right now:) A bunch of wanna-be Manny Pacquiao's! But they're great and say that they really want to find out the truth for themselves before they get baptized. They have already come to church three times before so I'm really excited for them. Our strongest recent convert right now who has perfect attendance at church, Allan, is also a boxer. It's great because they can't have any problems with Word of Wisdom because of boxing, and their coach is a really good influence on them (even though he doesn't quite get to church).   
     Oh and speaking of temple tour, it was such a great day at the temple. We had our boxers there, and then we also got Shirly to come. She's the one I told you that is less active and one day just ran into us and asked us for a Book of Mormon. Well she came and loved it, and then last night we met her husband for the first time and were able to share with him. He's really interested as well. He has a lot of questions about life and religion, and most of all he said he just doesn't want to be confused anymore and wants to know the truth. We got him to pray last night for the first time, and he said the best prayer. We're really excited for him and Shirly right now.

     Oh back to the temple tour, I was so blessed because it happened to be the same day as Noveleta ward's temple trip!:) YAYY!! So I got to see SOooo many of my members from my last area! I also got to see a lot of my converts as well!! I got to see Tessie for the first time since her baptism, and she was so excited! She was supposed to do baptisms for the dead ran into some problems so she went along with us for the tour, and we got to chat!:) Then Johnmark, Mark, Khaycie, and Ben all did baptisms for the dead for the first time, and I got to see all of them! It was so fun! Also all of our great ward missionaries were there so it was just a great little unexpected reunion:)

    I also ran into a member from Carmona, and when I started talking to her, she was so surprised at my Tagalog:) haha She kept saying, “Wow, you can really speak now, and you speak really fast.” She also told me that Jewel, one of the less actives that we always visited and helped reactivate, now has his mission call and got endowed last week!:) Ahhh it's SO great! I can't even describe the happiness of seeing these people that I love progress in the gospel. It's such a blessing that we have a temple in our mission, and I got the opportunity to see these people I love so much again. So as you can tell, I was on cloud 9 on Saturday!:)

Three sisters because Monday-Thursday we were a threesome

Sister Sabordo's companion went home,

and she joined our companionship:) 

She was great! She's Sister Ronquillo's trainee!

 

      As for sister De Leon, you'll never guess where she got transferred... Santa Monica B:) Yeah I'm so excited for her, and she will love her new area I know it! So yeah I think that's about all I have for right now.

     As for my strep, the antibiotic worked, and it is now gone:) All this being sick and all happened right before Sister Tuia got here, and I kept thinking, “Man, Satan just wants to stress me out, doesn't he? Right before my new companion gets here.” But the Lord helped me through it, and I can gladly say I'm just fine; all of that is in the past now! haha
     Okay well for questions... Mom, your comment with directionally challenged... I have the spirit here in the mission:) and great ward missionaries if all else fails:) so I'm not alone in this big city! haha. With Sister Culango's brother, I heard they are working on negotiations right now, but nothing has happened yet so please keep praying! And yeah there you have it.
     Have a great week! I can't believe that January is coming to an end. It's all going by so fast! Well I love you all so much, and thanks for your e-mails. Take care always!:)

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Stromberg