Week 5

AMUSTA  KAMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week has been so exciting! So many fun things to share! But I need to share with you something that literally just happened.... I was in our room writing letters and waiting for Sister Hogge to finish showering. I really wanted to write to everybody and tell you guys of the amazing week that I have been blessed with. So, we finally go and switch our wash and get to the computer. I see so many emails from my family and the cute baby bump that is growing... and I see an email in response to a story I wrote on Saturday to my friend Danielle Forbush that left the MTC last week. It contained at least 7 sentences. Saying the story was hilarious..... and that she was going home. She hates it in Florida and is done. When I think of a missionary, I think Sister Forbush. I wrote her back and I'm hoping she will respond. She cannot go home! No one should go home! We as missionaries have been given authority from our Heavenly Father! We bear the name of His son and preach and bless and promise blessings just as He did. Satan is after us more than ever! He does not want the happiness and light of the gospel to bless anyone! So he dissuades them to think that they can't do this. Or that it is entirely false, even though it is only an echo of what they already know. We all knew of this plan and this gospel before we came to earth. And we leaped for joy to become like our Heavenly Father, but knew we could only do so if we were tested and received a physical body. Satan cannot win the fight! Nor will he ever, just like Uchtdorf said in conference, darkness will never have victory. I can't sugar coat this or put a cherry on top, we all need to go to work and fulfill what our Heavenly Father has planned for us. Missionary work or not! We need to go to work!! Satan can stuff it. I hate him and his followers, that they don't want anyone to ever be happy or enjoy eternal light! I hate him! DO NOT, let the adversary get to you. Every day the battle raging, we need the Lord to help us win the fight. I could go on and on about this, but I needed to tell you all of the things that have happened this week....

Ok, so something really cool happened this week........ WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll send you more pics of it! Yup, yup! I am so excited!!!!! We go out on the 22nd and fly up to Seattle, to Tokyo, to Manila, and then down to Tacloban! We all couldn't be more pumped!! It is coming so close and none of us can even believe how fast his time has come! We will be in the Philippines and sharing the gospel, and sweating our butts off in nearly a week! Can you believe that it has already been a month??! Neither can I!!!! IT's insane how fast the time goes by!

We still have alot more to learn and to review so that we have the language down and that we are able to teach even better! Such great adventures await us! Hahah, so will you guys send me a bunch of the Kleenex packets that go in your purse/pocket??? Guess what we use our left hands for.... :) yup, hard pass. I'll try it once, but after that.... deli salaam (no thank you)! Oh, and the bugs are sketch! Mukluks (cockroaches) everywhere all the time, and they fly at you! Hahah, but get this, and I might have already told you this, but the spiders there don't bite for some reason! They are big and massive and icky, but don't bite. Not entirely sure if that is true, but I have a friend that went to Iloilo and held a massive banana Spider! Wicked coo. Not sure if I will be able to do that, but I feel my fear of spiders will lessen by the time I get back! Oh, and I need lice shampoo kit.....yup! Very permanent I hear! And a bed cover! Sister Rosdahl recommends Allertec, at Wal-Mart. It's a Better Homes one! It zips up your entire mattress and keeps the bed bugs, dust mites, allergens out! and is waterproof! It also comes with a Pillow slip one!

A funny story that happened this last week..... So, Batman  came to visit the girls residence! Legit! A bat was in the residence! So, on Friday all the internationals go to go down to Temple Square and see everything and have an awesome morning! But, they had to get up at like 5! So, Sister Delfin from Guam go and had was almost ready. She went back out of the room because she left something in the bathroom down the hall. And she sees a woman, at the end of the hall, starring at the ceiling! They exchange good mornings and Sister Delfin asks what she is doing, "Oh, just trying to catch the bat." Calmly and non-chalantly! Hahahaha, kid you not the bat out from behind Sister Delfin, clipped the side of her head, kept flying and decked sister that was walking out of her room, still half asleep, eyes closed, right in the face!! Hahahahaha, good morning! :) Hahahah I am chuckling at the computer as I am writing this! Hilarious! I snapped some pics of the bat, I'll send them!

We said our goodbyes to Sister Rosdahl today! She is on her way to go to Bacolod! Hahah, 20+ flight! Just how ours will most likely be! She is such a sweet heart and has an amazing spirit! Her voice, all the time, is so cheery! All the time! I told her that every day! IT was weird coming back and seeing an empty bad and closet. But she will be doing amazing things out there and I know that I will be able to see her again! We were lugging her suitcases to the travel office and got so many people saying goodbye and where you going :) she is ready to do this work and knows that no matter what, it will be the best decision she ever made. I should tell you a little something about her, she is engaged. She was planning on getting married and then got a revelation to go an d serve. Then the age change happened! They both knew she needed to go! The wedding was planned and everything! There was a ring! But, he said, “I’ll wait for you!" Hahaha, so the first week was very difficult for her to analyze f she really needed to be out here, or if it was just cold feet. but she is meant to be here, and she knows that! But, right when she gets back, they are getting married :) Hahah, crazy! But, I really am happy that she is so happy about everything!

Everyone in my room I found out, knows Rigoletto!!!!!!!!!!! So we most def belt those songs all the time! Another cool thing, Brother Young is from Payson! He had lived there for about 11 years. He's originally from South Carolina though! Those are just some cool little things that have happened this week!

Ok, so yesterday for Relief Society, we had Mary Edmunds come and talk to us. If you do not know her, just like me, go and look her up! On Google! Or, as she calls it, Google and Thumim :) hahaha, she is hilarious! We were cracking up the whole time! She served in 1973 on a two year mission, in the South East Mission. Meaning, Hong Kong, Taipei Taiwan, parts of Indonesia and Micronesia, and the Northern part of the Philippines! CRAZY, right?!? She is a total crack up! But, probably one of the most profound people I know. She held up a stack of papers. 780+ to be exact. Her journal. She said she wanted to quit every single day. she held up a tiny stack of that paper and said, "This is what my journal would have been if I only made it 25 days in the mission. *holding up her massive 780+ stack* This is what you want, ladies. Do not settle for anything different!" She is now one of my greatest heroes! I went to go and meet her after, as did every other sister. We told her we were going to the Philippines and she spoke in her Filipino accent, "Tey have four seasons der. Hot and hotter, and wet and wetter!" I busted out laughing I could not hold it in!! It totally is like that too!

Our computers are starting to freeze and I want to make sure that you get everything! But know that I love you guys so much and I can 't wait to talk to you guys on the 22nd! I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!

Sister Bray