New faces and new places

Man this week has been so crazy! First off... I got to work in Laoag with the Sisters there! It was so awesome! The bus ride from Camalanuigan to Laoag was a little sketch.... actually there was one time that we stopped to go to the bathroom and I walked to the little shack things that they have for their bathrooms, and oh what the heck?!?!?! there was no toilet..... you just go on the floor!!!! Freak no!!! I'm not doing that!!!!! So even though there was a huge line waiting for the bathroom with the toilet.... I made the bus wait for me and I waited patiently (as patiently hat you can when you really have to go to the bathroom) And used the lesser of the two evils.

When we got to Laoag, we stayed at the Laoag 5 apartments..... What the heck!!!!! They have air conditioning.... hot water.... a bath tub... showers.... and an oven.... I have not seem most of those things in almost a year! I almost cried when I took that hot shower! Actually I think that I might have a little bit.

So I worked with Sister Richards and Sister Dillman in Laoag in their areas, It was way fun, but it is always a little exhausting when you aren't working in  you own areas.... But I love those two girls so much! AND we got to go running while we were there because they have a huge rooftop area that they can just run around.... some people get all of the glory.

We had trainers training and both of my trainees are training now, so I will get two grandkids the same time that I have another child hahaha. Supposedly I'm training in 6 weeks again too.... I'm starting to feel like I am never going to get away from 12 week training in my whole mission. But training always has its fun little surprises.....

Before training we did a little Book of Mormon placing and it was really fun, that was the first time that I have ever done it and I worked with a new Sister, Sister Cooper. It was really fun, the poor girl hadn't slept in about 36 hours so she was so tired, but her Tagalog was really good! And she was really excited!!!

Best ICE CREAM EVER= yellowcab Ice cream! go team! It was the best investment of my money that I have had so far on my mission:)

And now the moment that you are al waiting for! My new companion is Sister Katy Smith from Utah! I'm so excited! Her Tagalog is way good! So I actually knew a long time ago that she was going to be my companion, ever since my sister told me that her roommates little sister was coming to my mission I said to myself, I am going to be her companion some day. I didn't want to hinder inspiration or anything, So I didn't even tell President Barrientos, But lookey here! She is my new trainee! Crazy small world!

Well, opening an area has its ups and downs. First of all everyone was really excited to get new missionaries, but we have no idea how to do ANYTHING! Upon arriving at the apartment.... well let's just say that the Elders before us weren't exactly the cleanest.... okay our apartment was disgusting! So President told us we could clean first.... we spent about 6 hours cleaning the house and even now it's not exactly the cleanest thing that I have ever seen. Then on Saturday we had our weekly planning. First we had to go to the church and meet with the Branch President to split the area and coordinated fellowshippers. The branch her is super great with their callings though and so the coordination has gone really really well! Then we went back to the apartment and split the area books and tried to figure out who was what in the area book.... the elders just kind of shoved all the papers in the book not bothering with the labels, so we don't know who is progressing who is recent, baptismal dates? nothing. We just have a lot of names.... so it looks like everyone who was taught at least twice in the last year will be getting a visit from us in the next couple of weeks. Planning basically took all of Saturday as well.

By Sunday we pretty much had cabin fever so we were way excited to go to church! There is a WICKED rain storm going on all day on Sunday, So there wasn't tooo many people at church, but I will tell you what Paoay does have!.... Carpet and cushy benches!!! Oh man I was so happy!

After church we had a great meeting with all of the branch missionaries and they are all really excited to work with us! That is really great because we don't even know how to get to and from the market yet:)

So even though the streets were all flooded with a foot of water on Sunday, we couldn't take not working anymore and we paired up with the Branch Missionaries and headed out to work! We only taught three lessons but there is a really great story here. So While I was in Sinait way back in the day I went on exchanges with Sister Deyro and we taught a recent convert named Kharen. We were like instant best friends. Well she is now a recent convert/less-active and when she saw me she was soooo happy! She was like Sister Schultz you have no idea how hard it has been for me to stay active in the church! I have WOW problems and I've been praying for you! I prayed for you to get assigned here so that you could help me come back to church! Crazy! way to receive that revelation President Barrientos!!!! She committed to come back to church and she is going to fellowship with us every other day!

Sister Smith is SOOOO good at Tagalog! She is already teaching sections of the lessons and she understands most of what people are saying. I'm sure it's a lot harder than she lets on, but she is one tough cookie!!!

Til next week.

Side note to Sister Woahn: This week feels more like LONGER instead of SHORTer, we will see what next week is.

Love you all!