One Month already!

Kumusta!
This week was such an amazing week.  One of the best weeks I've had here!Sister Stokes and I got released from our two week calling as music directors this Sunday, and got a new calling:  we are the Sister Training Leaders for all the sisters in the Tagalog branch.  There are 17 sisters in our branch total.  Three left this past week, and six more came this week.  It's been so fun to get to know them!  One of the sisters that came this week is another from Kiribati, and they don't have a temple there, so we got to go to her endowment session today.  It was really fun!  Everyone I've met from Kiribati is so loving and nice, and they always grab you and hug you and tell you that you're beautiful.  It's really fun to have her here!  We also get a cell phone as training leaders. AH!  But it can only call the branch president and the MTC office, in case of emergencies.  It's really weird having one!  It's just a crappy old flip phone, but we still feel high tech, because it's the only technology here!  We'll be training leaders until we leave for the Philippines.  

Playing the piano in church on Sunday was also good.  I played all the hymns, and a district that left this past week asked me to accompany them for a special musical number.....but they asked me the night before.  (AH!)  I was really nervous!  Then they told me it was the song "We are as the armies of Helaman..." or whatever it's called, and I already knew it really well because it's the song I played at my farewell!  I didn't play my whole arrangement for them to sing to, just a part of it.  It went pretty well!  

Something embarrassing but also funny....on Sunday night, I was on my bunk bed and jumped up really fast to stand up and whacked the back of my head SO HARD on the top bunk.  All the other sisters squealed and I fell over.  It hurt a lot! (But I didn't even cry so....yeah, I'm tough hahaha just kidding.)  My eyes weren't dilating right, and I had a HUGE goose-egg on my head, so we had to call someone to come and check me out.  Anyways....turns out I got a mild concussion.  It was SO EMBARRASSING.  A security guard had to come and check on me, and I had to talk on the phone to a doctor.  But I am okay now!  My head still has a little goose-egg, but I am fine!  I kept wishing that Dad was there to check my head and tell me what to do!  I'm very cautious going in and out of my bunk bed now so that I don't whack my head again.  Haha.
 
My hair is a lot better, and I think it's already grown a lot since I've been here.  Or I've just gotten used to it.  Either way, I like it now!  And I will be fine in the Philippines with it. 
Yesterday afternoon, we GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS!  We head out at 3:30am, October 1st.  We fly to San Francisco, then to Hong Kong, then to Manila!  I am so so excited!  We all have to fly back to Hong Kong on November 1st to pick up our Visas too, so that will be fun to see my district again after the first month there.  I am the travel leader for everyone in the MTC that is going to the Cauayan mission, so I'm basically in charge of getting about 15 missionaries where they're supposed to go.  Hopefully I'll be good at that!  We also found out that the Asian airline we are flying on only lets each bag weight 50 lbs. (which we knew), but the carry-on can only weigh 15lbs. UGH.  But it's okay.  With all my language books that I got here, I'll be sending some stuff home to you so that my luggage will clear.  It's $300 if you go over! LESS THEN TWO WEEKS UNTIL I'M THERE!  YAY!
I am good!  I am happy and ready to get out there. :)
MAHAL KITA! 
Ingat, Sister Allen