Kumusta!

Hello my wonderful family!!! Can you believe another week has gone by? Seriously. I have been out for 3 months already! Isn't that crazy? HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!!! I hope that you had a great one. You old man, you. Tigulang. I hope your kids treated you well and that you ate some yummy food.

I feel like so much is going on at home. I wish I could come party with y'all in Las Vegas! That sounds like fun. When is Josh's graduation?? So many good things are happening for our family right now. I can just feel it from all the way across the Pacific :)

This week was GREAT. Oh my gosh, I l.o.v.e.d General Conference...and it was in English :) We traveled to Toledo for Saturday and Sunday. If Mom or Dad could dearelder me some of the talks I would appreciate it. Pres. Eyring's talk, Pres. Uchtdorf's, Elder Holland, Elder Andersen, and I think Elder Hallstrom?? He's the one who spoke about being active in the church and active in the doctrine. Sat. morning session. The people of the Philippines need to hear that talk :) So yeah, Saturday it was practically all the missionaries from our Zone and then like 10 other members. Sad. Then there was a big turn out for Sunday Morning Session and then an hour later for afternoon session....like HALF of the people left. Just to give you an idea...our Branch President didn't even attend and the RS Pres left after the first session to go swimming. Oh, the joys. Our branch just doesn't seem to get it. They always talk about how they want to help us as missionaries but how can they help if they are setting bad examples? I'm afraid that our Recent Converts will follow in their footsteps. I will keep praying for them. Let's just say we have LOTS of lessons planned for this week about Keeping the Sabbath Day holy!

Right now I am in Cebu City. We just finished our temple session! The Cebu temple is NINDOT. Seriously, beautiful. I love temples. And here the temple just feels even extra special because it is very dirty and loud outside but then you walk in the temple and it is so peaceful and clean. You can feel the spirit so strongly. Amazing. Later we are going to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I have only been gone 3 months so I'm not going crazy with Mexican food cravings, but the American elders are dying!

We have an investigator named Rachel and she is GOLDEN. However, she is not married to her "husband" who is a Less-active member. They have 3 kids and we told her she had to get married before her baptism. They seemed kind of hesitant but she has such an amazing testimony. So I know if we have faith in her she will do it.

I'm trying to think of what else to say. Oh, so we ride in this trisikad things--motorcyles with a little cab attached to the side. So the trisikad drivers all know where we live. It's kind of weird. And they laugh at me everytime a Cebuano word comes out of my mouth. They are just so surprised to hear an Americana speak Visaya. Don't worry, they just drop us off on the side of the road so they don't know exactly what apartment or building we live in. Like the other day. We slightly passed where we usually get dropped off and the driver says, "Oh yeah, I forgot this is where you live!" Haha......weird. And the rest, just you know....either stop completely or slow down as they approach our apt. building....

Anyway life is great. I take showers before bed and then a fan blows right on me on high speed while I sleep. Wala AC= hotness. But it's all great. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve. It's hard but I have learned so much already. Thank you for all of your prayers!! You have all been a strength to me. I think you're pretty great.

Love,
Sister Nicole Trayner
ps. Thanks to Katherine and Spencer for your mail :) I wrote you back!!!