The woman I will NEVER forget

okay this weeks blog.... it's not going to be super long because I'm sort of feeling like I don't want to type or something hahaha but! This week has gone really great! We had two more baptisms, LJ and Magie and that was really great! We did have one really interesting experience with one lady that we were teaching.... I will write you what I wrote in my journal that day:)

October 23rd

... don't worry though, that's not the strangest thing that happened to me today. For our last appointment we went to teach a sister that lives just down the road from us, (we decided that she's not really interested, she just wants someone to talk to in English) and her friend came in the gate, I was thinking, "oh perfect! she looks very interested!" she was interested all right! but not in the gospel, in me! She came right up to me and said (in English) 'I'm sorry, but when I saw you, I felt something, and I feel I need to talk to you." 

I'm still thinking, "Oh this is Perfect! She's going to be the perfect investigator!" Wrong! She then says, "What's your name? I need to know." At this point she is sitting RIGHT next to me with her hand on my knee, which I thought that that was a little weird, but I'm still going with that golden investigator thing.... still wrong. I tell her, "My name is Sister Schultz." She rubs my knee (which i thought might have just been an old lady thing) and says, "will you write it down for me please?" Perfect! Pass-Along card! She asks me to write where I live too, that's when I thought to myself, "wait what? What is this?" So I just write, "taga America" she was like "no! no! Which house where are you live now?" I didn't tell her, then she says, "you're so beautiful, I love you, I just am wanting to give to you a hug! Please Don't forget me! Oh I love you! You are so beautiful" What the?!?! Oh wait.... still gets weirder....

She gets up and awkwardly shuffles behind me and puts her hands on my shoulders like she was going to give my a shoulder rub... but no. She just stood there for like 2 minutes.... and there's me.... just awkward, chillin' with her hands on my shoulders. Finally my kasama says "okay, that's enough." Cause they were all talking with the other lady this whole time) and the crazy lady (still standing behind me) reaches around and hug/holds my head and starts crying into my neck (me, still awkwardly just sitting there... i pat her arm) she just keeps sobbing, "please! Please! Don't forget me" After that she ran out, OVERTAKEN with sobs and emotion... oh man....

Since then she has chased us down the street a couple of times and we see her almost everyday. I don't think that she needs to worry.... I will NEVER forget her:)

Plumbing Problems and Testimony Sharing

First off I am in a super sketchy internet place that the only light is from the screen... Sketch but okay:)

This week was really productive! We were able to attend my first baptism!!! Yay! Technically it was Sister Francias baptism only because he was already gonna get baptized before I got here... but I will still count him... I did teach him once! So that was way awesome! there were little geckos in the baptismal font... I think that they wanted to receive the gospel too:)
After the baptism, we went out to teach with Brother and Sister Demars, some senior missionaries in our area, they are very straight forward in their teachings. There was a less active member that we saw on the side of the road and we stopped to talk to, they were shout/talking to him saying things like "your eternal salvation is in jeopardy here! You need to repent!" It was crazy... but effective, he did come to church....
Speaking of this less active, he is the plumber for the apartment that we were in...  why did we need a plumber you might ask? Well, its a brand new apartment and they didn't do the plumbing correctly so our toilet wouldn't flush.... not good.... so we haven't had a toilet all week.... I won't go much further into it than that, but let's just say that Sunday was definitely a blessing because they had bathrooms!
Since we are on the topic of Sunday..... I bore my testimony all in Tagalog... well there was some English.... it was so ridiculous! I was laughing the whole time because I knew how ridiculous I probably sounded to everyone based on the looks that they were giving to me. Oh man.... well at least Sundays might be a little more interesting to them now!
They have these really yummy treats here called a yum bun.... its pretty much just nutella inside of a hamburger bun.... yum! The name makes sense! they also, when they buy soda, it all comes in glass bottles and they have to return the bottles to the store so rather than making the trip home and then going back to drop off the bottle, they just pour the soda into a plastic baggie and use a straw to drink it. Effective:) 
this week we committed two 12 year old girls to baptism... maybe that was last week... I don't know... but yeah! So on Saturday we will have two more baptisms!
Tuesday was Sister Francias birthday! So that was really good! We didn't really have food.... (cause our apartment is new) so it was very makeshift.... we had noodles and chicken for her cake:)
Last but not least! Today we were teaching one of our investigators and as we were walking away, there was a girl who was reading the Book of Mormon... naturally we stopped to talk to her and found out that she was a recent investigator before the missionaries got pulled out of that area and she still reads the Book of Mormon, she was hoping that we would see her and share more about the gospel... so we did:) we are excited to continue teaching her!

New Comp Sister Francias

At the airport with Sister Woahn

Temple, baptism and one really long trip.

Where to star,t where to start!?!?! Okay so we left the MTC and went by bus to the airport:) I slept:) But it was really good:) Then we got to the airport and I got to call home and stuff that was really great except the calling cards really only let you call one person... LAME.... so I only got two phone calls, which is better than Elder Reber I guess, because his card didn't even work, but to all those moms out there with trustworthy kids, I suggest doing what someone in my district did. Their mom sent them a prepaid phone right before they left the MTC and they just used that to call.... cheap... effective.... that's the way to go. When we got to the airpot the man printed off my boarding pass and when I left he said I think I gave you all of the passes... he didn't:( so when I got to LA everyone else had three more boarding passes and I had none, so I had to go and get all that worked out. After that I made some calls  and then it was off to Hong Kong. On all of my flights I sat by Elder Wright Elder Wilson and Sister Woahn (w's... makes sense) I slept for a little, but tried to time it so that it wouldn't be so bad for me to adjust to the time in the Philippines... I did pretty well.
From Hong Kong to Manilla it was a short flight but still good. I can't remember much about it so maybe I slept... Or wrote in Sister Woahn's journal... One of the two. When we landed in Manila we were greeted by Clem (After going through a ridiculous amount of security) the church travel coordinator. He took us to the hotel where we would be staying for the night. It was only like 12 at this point and I REALLY REALLY wanted to go to the temple in the Philippines but no one said anything about being able to do so  I was a bit sad.. okay really sad. So everyone was talking in the lobby with an Elder that was on his way home, but I wasn't all that interested so I just played the loner and read my scriptures on the side, which turned out to be awesome because as I was doing so a man came and started talking to me about it.... the whole time I was just thinking Crap! I don't have a pass along card!.... but it was still good. 

Then we went back up to our room and a sister who was on her way back to India to continue on as a missionary (because they just reopened sister missionaries in India) was in our room and she was going to the temple... She was the cutest  tiny little sister that I ever did see! And she couldn't find her temple recommend and she was really worried about it so when Clem came to get her he saw that she was upset about it and offered to have us come along... YES!!!! That was so awesome! So Sister Woahn and I got to go to the temple! Which we found out afterwards that they don't let missionaries go anymore so it was double awesome!!!

Manilla to Laoag was a short flight but had the BEST EVER movie training thing where they show you all the emergency procedures... I took a video of it:) So Someday you can see it:)

Picked up at the airport by President and Sister Barrientos and they are the greatest ever! I just love them! Then we went to the mission home where we stayed the night. They fed us a huge dinner of roasted pork and other stuff, and bananas!!!! But these are not like our bananas... these are the best bananas you will ever eat in your whole life!!! Oh man they are soooo Good!!!!! I can't even explain how good they are...\

Then in the morning we met our new Kasamas! Mine is Sister Francia! She is so great I just love her!!! She is very patient with me and speaks really good English. We moved into our new apartment and it is very nice and the next day took the bus to Vigan for conference. Came back and did some shopping and then the day again was over I was trying so hard to stay awake doing anything that I could, but I was falling asleep writing in my journal, so at nine my kasama said that we could go to sleep. Oh I forgot! On the way home I sat by a man who I'm pretty sure was a member, but he didn't speak any English but wanted to talk to me the whole time.... so that was fun! Yesterday we went to conference again and on the way home we taught one of our investigators, LJ, she is twelve. We taught her about the baptismal covenants and I asked her to be baptized in three weeks and she said that she would be:) All in Tagalog:) Look at me go!

Now we have 2 baptisms brother Dlemar and LJ

The Philippines is great! The traffic is crazy! there is not traffic rules at all! When we got here Clem said that the only two traffic rules that they have are, fill in the gaps and do [not] run anyone all the way over.... which is true.

On the shoulder of the road they harvest the rice to dry it out. It is always hot here but I just love it! People stare at me no matter where I go because I am literally the ONLY white girl that they have ever seen in Sinait:) It's great:) One lady came up and kissed my neck the other day.... that was a little weird.....

love you all send me letters!!!!!

Turkeys and Nuggeting

Not much to report this week, but the next week is going to be amazing! Since I might not be able to write about it next week, I will do so right now because I am so excited about it! 
So today is P-day.... enough said, and we got to go to the temple and eat omelets.... so that was awesome! AND My beautiful, sweet, charming, talented, humble, spiritual, responsible, caring, great future wife of some lucky man, sister of mine was at the temple! YES!!! that's like a turkey! (like in bowling).
I think I told you all before that we started playing lightning at the MTC. Well the other day the line went from one end of the gym to the other, we are basically the greatest... When I was playing basketball this vicious girl from Japan (that's what we call people who are going places.... she's from America, but we call her Japanese... I'm a Filipino) Anyways, she fowled me way bad and slammed me into the bleachers and I have bruises that correspond with the placement of the stairs all the way down the right side of my body. That's great fun!
In other news, the doctor told me that calcium should have broken up enough to run on now, so I have been running on it and it doesn't hurt! Yaya for doctors! I can still only go like one mile though.... but I will take what I can get!
Back to this week. So when you are here for long enough you get to "host" on Wednesdays, which is when new missionaries come into the MTC and you get to show them all around the MTC and take them to their room and their first class. Then you ditch them! hahaha Just kidding... But seriously.
Then on Thursday!!!!! This is really awesome! So the Ambassador for the Philippines to the United States is speaking at a forum and he is going to come to the MTC and observe one of the Districts that are going to the Philippines.... whose district you might ask.... oh it might happen to be the one that I am in! crazy! We are all very nervous but very excited! Him and the President of the MTC are going to spend the day in class with us! Oh man!
Then on Friday it is in-field orientation which is where they prepare us to actually be out in the world and be missionaries.... so we won't scream at people THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!! We will be civilized people lol.
Saturday and Sunday are conference, and then on Monday I am outta here! Yes!!! Philippines, you better be ready for my blonde hair and crazy ponytails, cause I'm on my way!

Something really funny that we did in class the other day: So our teacher is always telling us how he nuggets the other teachers backpack..... well the elders in our district wanted to get him so bad! and one day he came in and Sister Woahn and I were in the class room and he left so we were all alone.... and we nuggetted everything that we could in the room!!! It was hilarious! 
For everyone that doesn't know what nuggeting is, it's when you take someones backpack and take everything out of it, then you turn it inside out and put everything back in to it and zip it up so it's like a nugget! HILARIOUS! We did everything! Scriptures bags, backpacks, camera cases, purses.... everything! Even our own stuff so no one would suspect! And no one thought that the mature sisters would do it.... but they were wrong! Oh were they wrong! We got them so good! They still don't know, we are telling them tomorrow. videos to come! Love you all!!!
Mahal kita! (that is redundant... oh well)

-Sister Schultz