SHARING THE LIGHT ❂

Me and my friend Sister Canlapan. She was my housemate for my first

3 cycles. She goes home in a few weeks! I love her!

Hello!

My week was a good, but busy week. Busier than normal missionary life, if you can imagine that! Haha. On Wednesday, it was Sister T's birthday! She turned 24 years old. Ah! That morning, we had a community service project. It was really fun. We, along with our district, helped a lady weed her yard. We used huge machetes to chop the grass and the weeds. Luke would have liked that part! It was nice outside. There was a little cloud cover and a nice breeze - not too hot. It was fun to do a little work. After, the woman we helped fed us lunch which was really nice of her. Yum! That night, we went and had dinner at a member's house. The woman's name is Emily. To make a living, Emily raises pigs. It's called a piggery. She has SO MANY pigs. She said she has 70 of them! And they are huge - I mean HUGE. Like the size of a twin size bed. HUGE. I had never seen pigs so big. They were kind of scary! She had a ton of little piglets too. Hopefully within the next few weeks, we'll do a service project at her house. She said she wants us to wash the pigs! Haha, gross! But it will be fun.

After dinner, we went home and surprised Sister T with a cake and ice cream. She is so cute! I hope she had a good birthday. My companions are doing great. I love them both! To be honest, being in a threesome is kind of strange, but we are finding ways to work better together and become a more united companionship. Training is going well. Sister Teabwabwa and I are still trying to get Sister Recano out of her shell a little bit more. It's probably hard for her to come into our companionship - especially because Sister Teabwabwa and I are so close and get along so well. I am going to focus this week on making sure that no one in our companionship ever feels left out. Overall, we are doing well as a trisome.

On Thursday, we had Zone Conference! I love Zone Conference. It was just a day with President and Sister Rahlf and a few of the zones in the Philippines Cauayan Mission. We received the new Standards of Excellence for the year. I helped with the special musical number...by singing! Four of us sang, "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy." It was really beautiful. That is one of my favorite hymns. After that, we talked a lot about how to contact people. It's called "CASH" contacting:

C - compliment them

A - ask them a question

S - smile

H - help/offer to help them

This is a really effective way to contact people on the street and to talk to new people. It makes it less weird! We practiced it a lot. After that, we talked about the phrase "bloom where you are planted." We talked about doing our best, whatever the circumstances may be. It was a really great day.

Also....I am so sick. But don't worry, sister Rahlf is taking good care of me! She checks on me every day. I have had a fever for 6 days and I have a cough, runny nose, and body aches. Also - I can't talk over a tiny tiny whisper! It hurts to talk too. I have a still small voice. Hahahaha. In the lessons, I just have to sit there and smile. But I am taking medicine, and I am starting to feel a little bit better. Our area is doing well. I was so happy with some of the goals that we achieved this week! But, all of that work wasn't from me: it was from my companions. I've been kind of out of commission since I have been sick, and I was really pleased at how well Sister Teabwabwa and Sister Recano picked up the work and took off with it. They really worked hard this week! Our area is doing well and we have been consistently improving each week.

I am so happy! I love it here in the Philippines and I love all of you. I can see you in the faces of the people here and hear your voices in theirs. As I teach them, I often relate them to you.

I love you! I miss you! I think of you always!

MAHAL KITA!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sister Allen