The Fabulous Life of....

Sorry this will be kind of a short email, its been kind of one of those weeks where I'm just not really sure what to write. A lot happened this week, we had our Zone Conference that went so well it was great! I learned sooo much from the Assistants and of course from President. It really was a great conference, our musical number went well too, we played "Where can I turn for Peace" one of my favorites :) The conference was in La Carlota which is like a little over an hour from Handumanan and we had to drive through Vallodolid ( my first area) that was exciting for me and I loved showing Sis Ball my first area.

Sis Ball experienced a life in the day of Sis Grant last night, poor thing. We were walking along the road to one of our appts. it was about 6pm and a little boy ran out in front of us and got hit by a car right there in front of us. It was pretty bad he was only about 8 years old. I ran over to him and started talking to him and...we'll just say dealing with the situation. haha A crowd gathered and to make it worse the driver of the car was drunk and angry at me because I wouldn't let him touch the little boy who I was afraid was going to be paralyzed from the look of his body. I had blood all over me and gross I know but I also had 2 of his teeth in my hand. Anyways to keep this from giving you nightmares mom know that all is well they took the little boy to the hospital after his Grandma finally showed up but not until after the drunk driver man tried to snatch the boy away from me and I "Kindly yet forcefully" told him NOT TO TOUCH THAT BOY and then he slapped me a good one right across my face! It was the so ridiculous haha I was so shocked at what happened before I could even look back at him and say something two men had grabbed him and were rippin him a new one. Anyways a bad, and sad situation turned out fine and the little boy was taken care of and so was the reckless man driving drunk and I walked away with another 'Brooklyn Story turned Sis Grant story" and a sweet red hand print on my face for evidence. Stuff just really does happen to me haha even in the Pines! Most people say I have awful luck but I think its awesome I'm always in the right place at the right time to help someone and even though its not always the "ideal" situation I'm grateful and excited for those opportunities :)

On a lighter note. ROSANA DOGOMEO got baptized and confirmed yesterday!!!! Oh man I was one happy girl I'm pretty sure you could see her beautiful smile and her family beaming from AZ if you were watchin for it. It was sooo awesome! and then for my LAST Sunday in Handumanan both Bishops asked me to bear my testimony BUT since I had just spoken in church last week and have born my testimony at the pulpit there sooo many times AND since I had my violin still I bore my testimony through my music which is one of my personal favorite ways anyways :) I played I know that my Redeemer Lives and there wasn't a dry eye in the church...including mine! haha its a good thing I know that song well because I couldn't see a single note on my page haha. The spirit was so strong and both bishops got up afterwards and gave incredible talks about the importance of listening to conference and the opportunity it is to gain a testimony of our Savior and his plan and of our Living Prophet! It was sooooo wonderful I can't even express in words the feeling in both meetings. It was sooo sad though because it was my last Sunday and I can't explain how much I love Handumanan and the people there especially the members and the Bishops.Tomorrow I find out where I'm transferring to on Friday which will most likely be my last area. My feelings and emotions are soooo mixed and up and down. I'm stoked for a new area and the challenges and new things that come with that, but I will definitely be leaving more than a piece of my heart in Handumanan.

I'm sooooooo thrilled to hear about the work ya'll are doin with our Indian Ancestors!!!! That's SO COOL! Keep it up so I can come home and join ya'll in the temple! Because please believe I will be in the temple AT LEAST once a week for the rest of my life!

Well I'll have more about everything next week!

LALU

P.s thanks for saying you got the package I was getting worried it got lost at sea.

Hope you like it all I'll have more when I come home :)

Always,
Sister Grant

Small World!!!!

Alright well I know we should all be pretty used to ridiculous things happening to me by now but mom you will LOVE this one haha

So of course its my P-day and after we practiced for our musical number on Thursday my whole district decided to go bowling! I was so excited. We went to this random place, we got 2 lanes and started to bowl when all the sudden there was a mans hand on my shoulder....haha I turn around to hear " Are you Brooklyn Grant?" Hah! I looked at the sunburned white man standing there and said..."are you Rick Eaton?" haha Are ya kidding me? of all the random places in the whole city of Bacolod and he had decided to play pool with his bro in law! We talked for awhile and he got to hear my Ilonggo as I chatted with his Bro in law, I took a picture with him no worries mom. I gave him a way to contact me and hopefully I'll get to see him again soon and meet his family :) Small World...RANDOM!

So this week was great, to sum it up we had 2 really great lessons with 2 families that have been kind of struggling both teachings were so powerful. I love when you can almost see the moment the spirit touches them or the moment understanding and peace changes their whole countenance. We have a baptism this coming sat..which will be a FABULOUS way to end my stay in my dear Handumanan. Its the baptism of Rosana Dogomeo and I've been teaching her since my first transfer here! She is the only one in her family that isn't a member and she has had so many struggles and trials that she has gone thru and overcome in order for her to finally join her family and I can't think of a better way that I could leave my town of Handumanan than to see her whole family (there's 7 of them) all reactivate in the church and sweet Rosana sitting there on the Bench with them! I can't wait!

It sounds like your Hawaii trip was awesome! I'm so glad you girls loved the PCC that was my favorite too. I went there almost everyday when I was there. Remember how I met those kids and jump roped with them every morning..and then it turned out his dad was like the V.P of the PCC and he gave me a free pass any day haha I love my life. That place is so fun and entertaining. I am STOKED about your ukes! I'm having a guy carve the phils islands into the back of mine here so I can have when I get home I know so many cool island songs I've learned here I can't wait to teach you girls! Keep it up and it'll be a SWEET jam session just like old times :)
Dad your trip to China sounded like it went really well too, Its so crazy to imagine you speaking in front of 500 people! But that's awesome I'm so proud of you. I'm still really planning on taking over your company someday when you and mom serve your own missions so keep up the good work Boss ;)

The Doctors went really well, first of all I didn't even flinch when they were drawing all my blood. I've definitely overcome that fear now haha same ole same ole now. They changed my Medicine again and its really working so far so this week has been accident free and wonderful! No need to worry, I'll probably go in for another checkup in 2 weeks or so just to make sure all is how it should be and then I think I'm in the clear! HALLELUJAH! how ever you spell that haha

Anyways, I love you all so much and I'm so glad your all doing so well. Keep reading your Scriptures everyday...I gave a talk in church yesterday about the Book of Mormon and how its the answer to all our problem and concerns. It went really well and I hope all of you are reading even if its 10 minutes a day. It makes a difference I promise!

Well LALU K BYEEEE!
Always, Sister Grant

Amo man Gihapon...

I can't believe ya'll are going to Hawaii!!!?? no one ever told me that was even in the game plan I'm so jealous! Girls you are gonna have a blast! I'm so excited for you and when ya'll step off that plane and the humidity smacks ya in the face like a semi....think of me and smile ok? It is definitely getting hot over here. I'm pretty sure ya'll stole all the rain because we are in a drought they call it El Nino...(which means the Nino haha ;) colton) but we haven't seen rain in forever and the sun is Blazin everyday. When we come home in the afternoon for lunch we can't even wash our hands because the water that comes out of the pipes from the faucet is like boiling!
So this week we had some disappointing things happen with our investigators we had to move back the baptismal date for the Subiaga Family but that's actually ok because I know it will be so much better for them even if I get transferred and don't get to see them get baptized. Sis Ball can just send me a pic or something :) Then The Camasora girls had a few issues with their father and no matter what we did he decided to forbid them from getting baptized...it was so sad I was seriously heartbroken but I know their Mother has the desire and so do they and in the due time of the Lord they will be able to be baptized and I know they are strong and until then will continue to exercise their faith and keep strong. On the other hand we went to visit one of my recent converts if ya'll remember Josie Durmentes and her family...we went there last night and they showed me their plans that they had made with Bishop to be sealed in the Temple this Nov. They invited me and said they would be doing it in the new Cebu temple I was so happy I could hardly stand it! SO the work is still going great, we're still truckin right along with our new male investigators and working really hard with Less active families and the retention of our wards its really fun and exciting seeing families that haven't been to church in forever come to church and be welcomed so warmly by all the members. I LOVE IT!

I just had our monthly interview with President and it went well he thanked me for the work I've done in Handumanan and told me some great things from the stake presidency there. He also hinted that I would be transferring which..considering I've been there for 7 months now I kind of figured haha. We talked a little about my health and he said since the medicine they gave me that I've been trying for two weeks now hasn't really had an effect they'd probably have me come in again on Thursday and do some blood work which we all know is just my favorite...NOT! We'll see how that goes, I'll keep ya'll posted.

So everything is going great. I'm conscious and happy haha We have our Zone Conference coming up on the 24th and President asked me to play the violin so that always makes me even happier and means I get to take his violin home for a week or so :)
Hope all goes well with your trips and everyone has fun. Stay safe and girls try surfing its soooo fun once you get the hang of it! Love you all and miss ya tonz!

LALU Always,
Sister Grant

RoLlEr cOAstRr aNYoNe?‏..... and look below for another post as well

Alright so sorry I just realized my letter last week never sent but it wasn't a very good one anyway so its ok. SO this week was up and down for sure I'll tell you the bad part first to end on a good note :) Unfortunately my symptoms from the MTC and earlier days in the mission started again. Its really frustrating not to mention painful but I spent a lot of time this week trying to rest and let my body re-coop. I had another "seizure like" episode on Tuesday and passed out a few times which obviously isn't normal haha but I went to see a neurologist and a regular ol doc the same one I went to with the rabies ( yeah he just looked at me like seriously sis grant...again?) haha I got some medications and have been feeling a little better. No need to worry I promise I'm alive and really fine, just a minor set back. But on the other hand even with all the unconsciousness...haha We had some awesome things happen this week!

Last week at our District meeting they announced that Tracting is now not allowed and we have to use the members and Referrals 100%. This is fine in Handumanan because we just had 2 great reactivation activities and have plenty of work plus the members are awesome so I wasn't worried about that. Then they said we have to have 5 new Male Investigators each week! Obviously we focus all our efforts on finding families and especially young fathers to help the priesthood and organization of the church here but I was a little nervous about reaching 5 every week. We have 3 really strong male investigators right now, but its always tricky with men because...being the only 2 white women in town we get quite a bit of attention luckily I've been there for so long everyone in the city pretty much knows me haha but its still hard finding men that are actually interested and don't just want to talk to us. Also Men are usually working and often to shy to talk to us. BUT of course when the Lord gives a commandment he also gives you a way to do it. So Sis Ball and I went home and prayed to find ways to reach this goal...that very day we started seeing the Lords hand in our work. We went to the house of Bro Subiaga and his 2 sons who will be baptized on the 20th and his friend were there. When we walked in he looked at my tag and said "Hey I have one of your books..but I have some questions.." REALLY? haha we were so excited and got his address and set an appt right there. Then the next day the family that we live with has a daughter who lives with them right now with her baby and husband, as we were walking out of our apartment after lunch to go back out the daughter informed us that her husband wasn't a member and would love for us to start teaching him....YES PLEASE! haha 2 down 3 to go... no farther than right outside the gate a man chases us down saying "Hey are you mormons?" we stopped and talked to him for a sec and he asked if we had anything he could read about our church...Um yeah we GLADLY handed him a pamphlet and our names and set an appt! I LOVE IT! Then, one of the Less Active ladies we found through our activity the other day helped us find number 4. We had been trying to go teach her family 3 times and each time she would either refuse or hide from us, then the other night we went by one more time and she was there and invited us in, we focused on building her trust in us and talking to her to help her feel more comfortable...things were going really well and then I had a feeling we should leave a prayer before we left so I prayed and asked the Lord to help her be an example to her husband and family and to soften the heart of her husband so that their families life could be blessed by the gospel. When we said "Amen" she was sobbing and she opened up about some problems they were having and we were able to feel the spirit so strong and she told us she would talk to her husband and invited us back to her home to start teaching him. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!! haha We're still workin on #5 but with the way things are going I'm not to worried about it ;)


So I hope all is well with everyone and youre all enjoying the blessings of having a missionary out for 4 more months ;) haha I love you all so much and miss you even more!
Seriously Mom, Dad don't freak out about my health I'm talking all my pills everyday and drinking like 2 gallons of water daily too. I'll be fine don't call the mission office. I'm in the Lords hands, it will all work out. If I'm not worried about it neither should you guys. I got my "trunky letter" last week my official departure date is June 23.. and I told them I'd like to fly into Sky Harbor haha they asked me and I just laughed. It felt so weird to even think about that airport I can't believe I'm getting those kind of papers from the office! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MISSION?!

haha welp, LALU
ALways, Sister Grant

From last week that didn't send so she resent it

Alright I'm sorry its going to have to be quick this week but I've redeemed myself already
because I sent a package home this morning to you guys and you'll LOVE it :) it has pictures
and a tape from me! haha

So this week was good one and we didn't have anything really exciting happen.
I was a little freaked out in the beginning of the week because ya'll wrote about me bleeding
from my ears and getting all bruised and what not then like 4 other people told me the same
thing here so lets just say I was on my guard a little more this week haha but I'm still in one
piece and lovin life :)We have 2 baptisms coming in March on the 13th and on the 20th I'm
really excited I'll tell you more about them when they get closer. I'm so jealous of your
trip mom and hope ya'll have a blast! Its definitely hot here and just getting hotter! haha I
haven't heard anything about the storms coming up but I'll keep ya posted.
Dad I want you to know I'm so proud of all the hard work your putting into "our" company haha
and I know that the Lord will help you make all the right choices in order to be successful if
you continue to trust him. Colton I'm so happy for your new job offer and I'll keep praying
it goes well for you. Denee, glad to hear your still preggers :) and Alexa and Bailey I love
you girls more than you could EVEN imagine P.s new favorite song...PARTY IN THE USA!  haha I
always here it on Jeepneys and I love it. Well all is well in Handumanan as usual and I'll
write more next week I promise!
Love you thanks for the Letters! P.S Dad your slackin on the writing! haha lalu
Always, Sister Grant