Abbey in the Philippines: Sister Abbey Hafen // Week Thirty-Eight // "laughing so hard"

Life is dang good.

So my new companion- Sister Dasalla. Oh my heck. She is so funny. Like, the way her and I joke, is EXACTLY I used to joke with my friends. The only difference is we're speaking tagalog, so like its a little different obviously, but seriously, she would be one of my close friends if she lived in St. George. Everyday is sooo fun and we just laugh so hard all the time. I honestly am sooo sad that one day, i won't get to see my old companions anymore... and maybe, after our time together as companions, i'll never see them again. It's so crazy. Each one of my companions have become my legit best friend... Sister Acoba, Obnias, Atienza, and now Dasalla.

One cool experience we had was with a less active, 23 years old, her and her husband aren't married, one baby, her parents died, and her little sister is serving a mission right now. Not all of them are members. the sister on the mission had emailed to one of our branch missionaries, pleading with her to"fix her family". so one day we were working, and we had an FHE at 6, and it was 5:30 so we didn't have a ton of time before the FHE, but tried a few more people to visit- none of them were there. then on our way down the hill, we saw the house of this girl, the one with the baby (sister Shane), and decided, what the heck, lets go see if anyone's home. we go, and she's home. we go in, sit down, and her little 2 year old is sitting next to me, being soo good. we get talking, and then share a little message. Then sister dasalla just follows the spirit and shares to her what Shane's sister said to the branch missionary in an email. As we share this, Shane begins to cry. We share to her the blessings of the gospel and that we KNOW she felt the spirit testify these things to her at the time she was baptized. we talked about her sister, sharing the gospel to families on her mission, although HER OWN family isn't all okay. We all just cried and the spirit was so strong. She shared how much she loved her sister, and I just felt like she was HEIDI- I am serious. (like they have similar faces to me.) After the lesson i just told her that i don't have my sister on the mission with me, and HER sister is on a mission too, so for now, WE'RE sisters. She said okay and hugged me and cried. It was so cool and we're going to really try and fix their family, help them every step of the way.

I really don't have too many crazy stories for now because I am still new in the area, but I really do see the small and blessed tender mercies of Heavenly Father everyday <---- I used to hear that phrase all the time from missionaries and used to think, ah, its probably because nothing good ever happens to them, so when one little thing happens, they are happy. Maybe to be honest, sometimes it's a little like that, but really what's changed is my attitude. Things we had before and were comfortable with, we don't have anymore. So we're realizing, as missionaries, what blessings we REALLY DO have.

I seriously am so happy heavenly father let me come on a mission. i love studying this gospel. its so awesome, i am so lucky that heavenly father trusted me to come. i know i was not prepared, not even CLOSE to as prepared as these filipina sisters are when they come, holy cow. but He's been patient, so its okay. Right now, my strengths are my companions weaknesses, and her strengths are my weaknesses... i love learning from her everyday and it's so fun to not have to worry about the language anymore. I can just be a normal missionary and not have to cross that barrier every 5 seconds of my life. She just finished her 12 week training, so she's still pretty new. I love the new missionary feel and hope I am companions with new missionaries forever. It's so golden and I love it.

This week was awesome. My companion is freaking hilarious and we just laugh all day long.

That's all for now. Peace out.

-Sister Hafen