Mice, and Medical Moments...

Well I'm so happy you are all fully enjoying the pictures and videos of the last 8 or so months of my life :) Just wait till you hear all the stories that go along with them! So this week was great we got a lot accomplished considering all the many distractions and "happenings" that occurred. The first one...we were successful in a massive mouse extermination! We killed two with the traps, we trapped three in our bedroom that is concrete and impossible to escape and killed them.. (it was kind of gross but necessary) then this morning we found one in our pot swimming (we had filled it up with water last night because there was burned rice on the bottom) so if you count them all up we have rid our apt of 6 mice! I know... Quite the victory! I just hope we are done with them now! They were disgusting little guys whose unhallowed hands were definitely trying to stop the work from progressing. We also had one of our investigators (Theodore our amazing recent convert, his brother Chris) got stabbed 3 times after we left his house on Friday night it was sooo sad because their brother just got shot and killed in March of 09 and now not even a year later they were back in the ridiculous hospital here fighting for his life. We went and visited him and it was an experience I'll never forget. First Sis Ball and I were both overwhelmed the second we stepped into the Public Hospital, extremely over crowded, dirty and we saw things that we definitely weren't expecting to see. We finally found his bed in the sea of beds and tried to hold back tears as Theodore told us the story. Theodore and his Dad looked awful, my heart just broke. Then we look over and see his Libro ni Mormon on the table, then the tears came I was so overwhelmed with everything around me and watching Theodore tend to every single need of his brother who looked terrible with no nurse even in sight, he is such an amazing person I know without a doubt he will do incredible things in the Church. In the 6 months I have known him I have seen more Christlike Attributes in his everyday life then in any other person I've ever met. His brother asked me to say a prayer and with tears streaming down all our faces we prayed. I prayed for comfort and healing to come upon their wonderful family that has been through so much already and that we might all learn the lessons needed through this experience. I'm so grateful for people here, I can't even put into words the feelings I have for them. I have learned more from them in the 10months I have labored here teaching them everyday then I could have EVER taught them. They are so ready and willing to accept the gospel and anything the Lord puts in their paths. They are Humble, and Happy. They understand whats important in life and they cherish those things. I love them and this work so much. I love you all too so much! thank you so much for all the letters and emails ya'll are seriously great. I've truly never been so happy in my life! I'm so glad you are all doing so well and are staying healthy and fun :) LALU!
Love Always,
Sister Grant

Well another week has passed in my beloved Handumanan and not much happened this week surprisingly. It rained a lot and there was supposedly a big storm a brewin :) but it never hit to bad. My umbrella broke that Sis De Leon gave ,me so that was pretty sad but other than that there were no causalities in the storm. We had an interesting sacrament meeting when the Bishop tried to ordain a 9yr old boy for the priesthood and I had to "walk briskly" up to the front to whisper in his ear that they kind of have to be 12 to receive the priesthood haha but turns out he had just mixed up the names and was supposed to give it to his older brother who is both worthy and of age ;) haha Gotta love it.


I'm really sorry to hear about Uncle Larry the AP actually just texted me to come to the office and then asked if I'd seen Sterling I'm pretty sure that's what its about. Hopefully I'll get to see him after this and talk to him at the office. We talked about his G-pa a few weeks ago and he said he was pretty certain he didn't have much longer but I know it'll still be hard on him. I'm grateful I'm at least close to him and can hopefully offer some comfort or anything he might need. The family is in my prayers, Always.

I'm so excited and relieved to hear ya'll finally got my pictures and cds! I was positive they were lost at sea. I seriously just can not wait to bring you all back here and show you everything and have you meet everyone I know you will love it just as much as I do! Having a "bata" (trainee) is a blast! I get to show her everything I love and teach her everything I wish someone would have taught me! Sometimes its really hard because she has a lot of questions especially about the language that I don't always have an answer for but so far its been going really well. We get along great!

I'm glad everything is still goin forward with your work dad and that your "procedure" was a success mom haha it was so weird when you said Bailey was driving you to the hospital I still can't picture them driving its just so weird!

Congrats Duna! and happy bday ashton and brin :)

I love you all so much and pray for you everyday. I'll admit having an American companion especially fresh from home makes it a little difficult to not think about home a few times but its great I'm excited youre all doing so well. No worries about me I'm still lovin every minute of it and cant believe seriously how fast its going it really does scare me a little bit but what can ya do?!

LALU, miss you
Always, Sister Grant

"The Package!!" Post 1

We have been waiting and waiting and WAITING to receive this package of pictures, video clips, and tape from Brooklyn for months now and it finally came yesterday. At first we thought it had been lost in the mail, or that some Filipino was enjoying these wonderful missionary photos somewhere but then realized that Brooklyn never even sent it. After weekly emails of us hounding her for months that she needed to send it nothing. Finally we confronted her at our Christmas phone call, at which point she said she had "sent it" again. Riiiiiight! Well lucky for her she really did :) I thought we'd all smother her if she hadn't again. We haven't received pictures or anything like that since she was in the MTC and in her first area so it was so nice to finally get them since she comes home in June and all. So although I'm sure it's picture and video overload for all of you, here they are.

Our family just laughed at Brooklyns personality still being the exact same and her laugh. We miss that funny laugh of hers. As my mom put it, she has NO SHAME lol. Never embarrassed to sing a silly song or look funny, as you'll see in some of her videos. Also for all of you who know Brooklyn, you know that she's not that tall. Notice in all of the pictures how she is taller than the Filipino people it just cracked us up that she's probably a giant to them, and yet when it shows photos of her with her american friends and companions she's short again. :)






























































































































































































All the bats up in the trees.














































































































































































































Our cousin Sterling :)