Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Duha ka Americana sa Balamba

My dearest family (and friends who are loyal readers of my beloved blog),

Wow. I have survived 6 weeks here. This is so great. So first, I LOVE MY NEW COMPANION!!! Now don't get me wrong, I love Sister Gumayao to infinity and beyond as well! I just feel that I have grown so much this last week than I have my whole mission. Leading the area....after 6 weeks....and we haven't gotten lost yet! Sister Brand is awesome. She is 5'11, beautiful, and smart. This is her last transfer and then she will return to the Land Bountiful. We also have a couple of common friends. One of which is Josh Stapley. So Katherine or Laura if you are reading this, you need to go find him (he might be hiding). I just wish she could stay with me for 6 more weeks! When we were at transfer meeting, President Schmutz came up to us and said, "This companionship is just too perfect. People won't be able to handle it!" Haha! I have learned so much from Sister Brand! I feel like 100000 more times confident with her here. She is super outgoing and it's so much easier for me to talk with people because she has set such a good example for me. She is also super helpful with the language because she can explain the grammar and such. The branch has accepted her so quickly because she is so kind and her Visaya is WOW.

I have grown a lot. Before I kind of just hid behind my Filippina companion and I guess I didn't know how much I was capable of. Now the branch is forced to talk with me because I am the familiar face and I feel much more included and my Visaya has improved so much.

We have an investigator who right now is refusing to pray to know if the Church is true. He has been listening to the discussions for 6 months and it has been good to have Sister Brand here because she is not afraid of directly addressing his questions about the gospel. Anyway we go there 3 times a week, he and his family feed us, he goes to church every Sunday, he reads the Book of Mormon so honestly I have no idea what is goin on. But we are going to reteach the Restoration and strengthen his testimony about Jesus Christ. I hope that you are all praying. It is seriously the only way we can know truths from Heavenly Father. If it wasn't for prayer I wouldn't be here right now. I have prayed more times in the last 6 weeks than I probably have my whole life combined. I am praying SO much. On the trisikal, on the bus, while we are walking, you name it. I am always praying. I have such a strong testimony that if we will pray the Lord will help us through any of our trials. I am evidence of this!

We are trying to locate more Less Actives which is pretty hard seeing that people don't have addresses here. We get told the general area where they live and we just wander around asking people if they know them. I am loving this. I love bringing people back into the gospel. To see that light in their eyes. It's amazing.

It finally rained yesterday. IT IS SOOOOOOOOO HOT here. But I am still so thankful I did not get sent to Russia. Haha.

Anyway life here is great. Thanks for your prayers, I know they have given me so much more strength.

Just so you know, I'll be emailing about this time from now on...so yeah....it's time that y'all stop complaining that I am emailing to early...haha

I love you all so much!!! It sounds like things are going well. Continue to endure to the end. If you stop that is when you will fall away.

The Church is true!!! Stay awesome
Sister Trayner

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