Don't Fear Imperfection!

"We inspire others not by our perfection, but by how we deal with our imperfections."

I'm all settled into my new area. It's in the same zone as my first area, so the members always joke with me like "laayo kaayo ba siya?" haha. My new area is small, but has many more members. They are still a branch so there is plenty of work to do in helping them progress and grow! The exciting new things about my area are: 

1. Naa'y aircon nga chapel na!

2. I now live with Sister Weech, who was in the MTC with me and is also from Colorado and BYU! and her trainer gihapon :)

3.  there are showers in our apartment...not very CLEAN, but still, a shower!

4. My new trainer, Sister Fernandez, is bisdak kaayo (very good at Bisaya, native) and is like a walking dictionary for me :) Also, she used her language study hours to practice sentences with me, teach me new words, and help me with my language study. She says I will learn Bisaya by MAKING MISTAKES, by trying. We made a language wall and she made me sign a paper saying that I will only speak Bisaya from now on....sorry about all the English in this email Sister! haha

My trainer and I are whitewashing the area, which means that we are both new and have to learn where everyone lives and who everyone is. We have been walking and wandering a lot! They don't have "addresses", we just know which buarangay (neighborhood) and then we ask random people who point us in the general direction until we find their home. It's kind of fun, actually.

KINAMOT: With my last district we marinated and barbequed pork and cooked rice. Then we went outside and ripped off a giant banana leaf. We piled the rice in the center then spread the meat ontop. Then we gathered around it in a circle. I was just about to ask, "should I go get plates and forks and things?" when my district started grabbing the rice and meat with their hands! It was a lot of fun, but my parents probably wouldn't approve.

"What you think about is either conducive to faith or distracts from yuor ability to exercise faith. Your thought with respect to faith cannot be neutral. If your thoughts are not productive or edifying, you have the responsibility of replacing them with productive or edifying thoughts."

Sigi, human na ko, 

Amping 'mo!

-Sister Bertoldo