New York!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Hello!!

Well this week was really good. We were literally led to 3 very "elect" investigators and the teachings with them were sooo powerful it was awesome you can definitely feel the difference when you find those that have been prepared to listen and accept your message. Like they always say the message of the gospel has a "familiar ring" to them. I LOVE THAT. It so true and wonderful when that happens.

I also came in contact with a modern day "Korihor" this week it was an interesting experience for me. Man am I grateful for the guidance and influence of the spirit. It truly is one of the most powerful and effective tools we have. This man was a wolf in sheeps clothing for sure. I instantly felt at unease when we arrived. I had an interesting experience with him and learned a lot about the deceptions of Satan and his powerful influence in the confusion and deceiving of men here on earth. Its scary, but if you are doing what you know you should and following the will of the Lord we are promised a constant companion to help us and guide us and clear our minds of the confusions of the world. I am so grateful for that and know it is available to all of us.

Mom, I have no idea where that address is that you gave me sorry haha can I get a Barangay name? or province? something else because I have no clue. I haven't got a package yet with a tree in it but maybe tomorrow at District mtg. I DID however receive a classic Tinkerbell package from alli and jeffy and beana I almost died when I opened it haha thank you guys soooo much I sure miss and love you all!

NEW YORK!! NEW YORK!! are ya kidding me?! Mamma Mia on Broadway! SPOILED ROTTEN!! jealous party of one your table is ready?! ahah busy over here trying to save souls and ya'll are taking over the big apple?! haha Hope you guys have a blast and try not to think of me to much while your all bundled up freezing and I'm in a tropical paradise? Melakalikimaka!!! haha I was singing that song the other day and just laughin at myself as usual and my comp just thinks I'm crazy but hey what can ya do right?

So the work is going really well, I have 4 baptisms lined up for this month and i'm excited for all of them they are really strong investigators and I know they will be great additions to the ward here!
I can call anytime on Christmas day or Christmas eve so it depends on you guys you just tell me when you want me to call and I'll do it. CANT WAIT!!

Love ya!!!
Always, Sister Grant

Famous in a small town...

Hello!!!

Happy thanksgiving to all. I know I'm late but I figured I'd let the turkey digest and then say it ;) for as many turkeys they have here you'd think they would eat it more but they really don't eat turkey here. I sure missed thanksgiving, especially going up to Vegas and eating my favorite potatoes and rolls! haha Transfers went well, I got my new Jr companion shes transferred from Panay island she was in her last area for 7 months! she's your typical cute, tiny little philipina and I'm really excited for this transfer. 1. i stayed in Handumanan for the holidays!!! 2. My comp is way good and 3. Sterling transferred to my first area in Valladolid and so now we are in the same zone again!!! I couldn't be happier :)

My area is really doing well, We've been working so well with the members and we are truly finding the elect right now everyone we talk to is really interested and progressing I'm thrilled it's going to be a great next 2 months!

So when the new missionaries came on Friday and I got to the meeting the funniest thing happened. They all already knew me...I was so confused they all came up to me and surrounded me saying "Sis Grant we've been waiting so long to finally meet you" Needless to say I was thoroughly confused. I guess 2 sisters before going into the MTC over 2 months ago found my blog and started faithfully reading it haha then while in the MTC their mothers would copy and paste my blog entries and dear elder them to them THEN they would read them each week to everyone in their 2 districts...hahah like my life here was some kind of adventure novel! Sterling and I almost died laughing, but I was glad my blog could help them learn more about the mission and help them feel more comfortable about coming here. I would be terrified after reading it personally, I assured them that the things that happen to me aren't usually normal so they didn't have to expect the worse haha. FUNNY!

Glad to hear all is going well at home and that everyone had a good, safe thanksgiving. I have a few baptisms lined up this month that should be nothing short of wonderful so I'll be sure to write about that. Hope you all are missing my Christmas singing and craziness during the Christmas season I've been looking everywhere for a cool Christmas ornament from the Philippines to hang on your tree mom hopefully I'll spot one and send with the package of the long awaited pictures I'll be sending maybe next week or the next.
Well Love you all so much and all is well here. Keep being happy and go to the temple lights for me :)

Love always,
Sister Grant

Nagapasalamat ko....

I am soo thankful for all of you and for the support you give me while I'm here on my mission and I know that Landry and Brock appreciate it too. When you get out on your mission you really realize all the things you had before when suddenly they are all gone....haha temporal things like for me, running water and dependable electricity, chocolate and cold weather. But of course also family time, Sunday afternoons and family vacations. I'm so grateful for the blessings the Lord has always given me. For our family and the way we live the Gospel and cherish our special pioneer heritage. I can't tell you how many times I get asked here if I have Pioneer ancestor and how proud I am to tell them of my family history. Heber J Grant wrote a book called Gospel Principles I think and it is incredible and has been passed around to many elders here and given them much needed guidance, how cool to know he is my great great uncle! I'm so grateful for the Gospel, of course being so in wrapped in it everyday you really recognize how important and necessary it is in our everyday life. It should be the focus of all our activities all our thoughts and especially in our homes. Depending on and trusting in the Lord is definitely one lesson I'm repeatedly learning here in the Philippines and I hope that all of you are given the experiences to learn this important lesson as well. He has given us everything we have and promised us sooo much more if we continue faithful and obedient.
I love you all sooo much and I will miss ya'll this thanksgiving (and Kathys croissant rolls) haha but I hope you all know how grateful I am for our family and for the blessings we have and for the blessings we can receive through this wonderful and perfect Gospel.

Always,
Sister Grant

Zions Camp

Well they say that Zions camp was the Lords way to prepare the men he needed in the future through challenges and illness they were proven faithful and prepared for the next challenges of their lives... well I have now gone through Swine Flu, frequent lack of conciseness and seizures. I've had violent food poising, floods, fires and now....drum roll please. Rabies. If this is my Zions camp I'm pretty nervous for the next half of my life! haha Yup you guessed it of course I would get bit by a dog and need 9 (count em 9!!!!) shots which could be easily compared to a dadgum pvc pipe the needles were huge! I got bit on my ankle and one hole was pretty deep. dumb dog. It was an accident I didn't see him laying down behind me and I stepped on him then he bit my leg. When I got to the doctor it was pretty funny he just looked at me and said sis grant why are you always in here, and why can't you ever just have the regular flu or something? hahaha he said you must have the worst luck ever! I told him actually considering my comp is a nurse so she knew exactly what to do and the fact that I got bit by probably the ONLY dog in the Philippines with a full shot record I think I'm pretty darn lucky! he just laughed so everything is good now no need to worry but that was an exciting happening this week...We went back and hiked Mambukal again today and it was a blast and my leg held up real well :) The work is going really well we had our Zone Conference last Tuesday and it was Awesome! the training was sooo useful and I sang in the choir of course which is always wonderful. Glad to hear all is well at home and the holidays are coming! I'm so excited to have Christmas here I hope I stay in handumanan for the holidays we have soo many activities and baptisms lined up but we'll just have to see. Thanks for all the emails and I'll write next week about the stuff i need or want in the package your sending. Love you all! Miss ya ;)

Always,
Sister (accident-prone) Grant

Same old same old

Well Same ol same ol here, This week was good we had a lot of good referrals to follow up on from our ward and they all turned out to be really good. We had a really fun big family home evening on Monday in ward 1 and the turn out was great. We had lots of our Less Active member families that we've been visiting show up so hopefully within a few weeks they will be fully reactivated. No life or death experiences this week but every day in the mission is life changing. The people here are just so wonderful they are so kind and receptive to the spirit, its no wonder the work is progressing so much here.I heard a rumor that we will get to go to the Cebu temple on the way home because The Manila temple will be closed. I hope that is true we hear so much about Cebu all the time it would be exciting to actually go there. I haven't heard from Elder Stradling (For those reading this he is our cousin who is serving in the same mission as Brooklyn right now) He is on the other island with my dear Sister Fairweather but hopefully I'll get to see him soon I hear he's doing really well though which doesn't surprise me he tore it up in his first area! Well no time sorry but I love you all and loved all your emails thank you. I can't believe Ben is home! Man I miss that boy, I laughed so hard to hear Jeffy and Jared and Beana are all back together as long as they remember the crew ain't complete with out B! Love ya all,

Always,
Sister Grant

Todos Los Santos....

So this week was a good one as usual, I just love it here. Yesterday was such an exciting sabbath full of events and new experiences haha. Sunday morning Jeffrey Palma was baptized. His wife is the one who just had her baby while we were watching General Conference. It was wonderful of course to see him join his new family in membership in the church and they set plans and goals to be sealed in the temple one year from now, Love it. :)
Yesterday was Todos Los Santos, Spanish for All Saints Day or Araw ng Patay, Day of the dead in Tagalog. Its the big tradition here in the Philippines. On Nov 1 everyone and I mean EVERYONE sleeps in the cemetery on sat night and all Sunday they walk around the cemetery and light candles and do a bunch of activities to remember the dead. The food is incredible! There is sooo much! I was sooo full haha With the help from the ward we set up a booth and had all these really cool posters all about family history, the plan of salvation and the restoration. It was AWESOME! we got soo many referrals and met so many Less active families and new investigators.

I borrowed a violin from my Mission Pres who actually plays himself...! and Played to draw the people in and invite the spirit it was such a cool experience for me. One of our investigators Theodore, had a brother get shot last march he was only 24, it was really sad and he's really been struggling with it. He has been our investigator for a while and he's been struggling getting over his gambling problem. At church yesterday in the investigators class they talked about temple work and why its important we do the work for the dead. Perfect topic for the days celebrations so last night he showed us his brothers grave. He sat down on the dirt right in front of the grave and just stared at it for a long time as he lit the candles, he looked up at us and said.."sisters, I know he'll accept the gospel in the spirit world" I smiled at him and said " I think so too" then he looked back at the grave and said with tears in his eyes "If he's accepting it there, I need to accept it here so that I can be baptized for him in the temple right?" We just smiled back and told him that's exactly what his brother and Heavenly Father want him to do right now. It was soo cool, watching him make that personal mental commitment in his mind to change and to do whatever it takes to be baptized both for him and his brother. I love this work!! Happy to hear all was safe, fun, and well during Halloween I love you all so much!

Always,
Sis Grant

Blessings!

Wow what a week! I'll just dive right in b/c my time is limited. So this week was full of experiences and blessings. On Thursday night we needed to go visit one of our investigators but it was getting kind of late. We decided we would just drop by and set up another appointment for another day. The lighting by his house isn't very good so we usually don't go there at night but we were going to be really quick so we jumped on a trike and headed over. On the way I started to get a weird feeling, I was confused at why, but the trike driver was talking to me so I was distracted. The closer we got to the end of the cement where we have to get off and walk the rest of the way to his house the stronger the feeling got. I told my Companion that I had a weird feeling and wasn't sure if we should go to his house. She said we would be real quick and we proceeded. As we were walking I remembered in my Setting apart blessing when it said I would be protected and safe if I was always found where I was supposed to be...I stopped and told my comp I wanted to pray. We walked off the road into the dark and I said a prayer, as I was praying I heard a voice as clear as if someone was standing right next to me. "Get out now" I ended the prayer and told my comp we had to go and go fast. Usually we have to walk all the way back into the city b/c no trikes drive in unless someone is going home and the road is dark. We started walking (very fast) and as soon as we had gone a few houses up there was a trike just waiting for us. We jumped in and as soon as we sat down the electricity in the whole city went out. Luckily we were already on a trike with headlights headed safely home. I'm not sure what would have happened had we been there but I know it would have been pitch black and not a very good area. I was so thankful for the promptings of the spirit and the blessing of the trike there waiting for us. I bowed my head and offered a prayer of gratitude in my heart right there in the tricycle.

Then there was Friday night, we had our baptismal interview for Josie and Christian Durmentes, I was sooo excited she was finally getting baptized. Literally 10 years in the making since she was first introduced to the gospel. Missionaries had been teaching her consistently for over 1 year. She never accepted a baptismal date until now and I felt so blessed to have shared so many powerful experiences with her in helping her recognize the spirit and blessings of the gospel in her life and of course witnessing her baptism. She was late for her interview so we started with christian and then her husband got home but..no sister...I asked Bro where she was and he gave me some excuse that he hadn't talked to her, something was wrong, different, I could feel it. We waited for her to come and finally she arrived she went into her house and set her stuff down, there was a weird tension in the air and she didn't even look at her husband. we were all sitting outside, she stuck her head outside and said "sis Grant can I talk to you for a sec" I went inside as my new comp stood at the door confused, as was I. Then I turned to sister josie with tears in her eyes she said she didn't want to continue and that she couldn't be baptized. I didn't say a word. I just listened as she explained how her and her husband had been arguing all week and hadn't spoken in 3 days and how all these things in her life were falling apart and she just couldn't do it. I was praying so hard in my heart for guidance in what to say to her. We had a very sweet and powerful talk, I testified to her that I knew she had been prepared, and blessed up to this point and that the Lord was so pleased with her and her family and that he wanted her to be baptized at this time. We talked about some of the experiences we had shared and about the testimony she had gained. I then asked her to offer a prayer. It was such a tender mercy for me as I listened to her plea with the Lord for strength, guidance and comfort. As she closed and we both wiped the tears from our eyes she told me she wanted nothing more than to be baptized and knew that's what the Lord wanted for her and her family. Sunday morning her and her son entered into the waters and I watched Brother Alex who recently just received the priesthood again after being away from the church for so long baptize his wife and son. At that moment I realized why I had been assigned to Handumanan if for no other reason I needed to meet the Durmentes family and I will forever remember them and the sweet experiences we shared.

I love this Gospel so much and I know that it is true. I know that the Lord places people in our paths daily to bless and help us, and if we pay attention and strive to be sensitive to the spirit our lives will be rich with blessings and experiences that will teach us the things our Heavenly Father would have us know.
I love you all so much.

Always,
Sis Grant