Well this past week has been quite a week. It has been an amazing week though. I have learned a lot of things that have definitely helped me grow and improve, and that I will carry with me.
One of those things was to just be myself. I have really struggled with that here--betweeen not speaking the language, and adjusting to a different culture and to being a missionary, I wasn't letting me be me. And that is really hard. It made everything more difficult. I finally had an epiphany last week and acknowledged it to myself, and my thought process went somewhere along the lines of "Screw this! Not being myself sucks. I'm going to make language mistakes no matter what, so I might as well have fun doing so." So that's what I've done--I've been myself. Which sometimes means buying zebra sunglasses and just being a dweeb XD and let me tell you, life is so much easier and sooo much more fun when you're yourself.
This transfer was Sister Alfoja's last, so after the senior couple picked her up yesterday morning to go the mission house, Sisters Latu, Arcangel, and I were a threesome. We spent part of the day in our area, and part of the day in the other area. It was fun to be able to see both. We kept talking about the transfer, and wondering how it would work out. I said that I would end up transferring, and that Sisters Latu and Arcangel would be companions and the ward area would be combined back into one, instead of there being two separate areas. Welp, the gift of prophecy is real peeps. The Zone Leader called this morning, and come to find out, I'm transferring to Taytay 1st, and Sister Arcangel and Sister Latu are being companions and our areas are being combined. Talk about a lucky guess haha. So most of my pday today will be spent packing :)
I think it's kind of funny that I'm transferring now. It's really only been in the last two weeks that I've learned how to love this area, and to appreciate it. And it's really in the last two weeks or so that I've felt like me and my companion were actually friends. We've never had any bad disagreements or anything, we just weren't really friends. And the past couple of weeks we have just had a blast together; laughing and joking around, even if we get punted from every single one of our appointments. It's been a lot of fun :) I'm going to miss her, but I'm excited to see what this next area will bring.
And I'm not a baby missionary anymore!! I have now officially graduated from my 12 week training program XD we're trying to think of something to do to celebrate haha.
My scripture for this week is John. "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." This is so true!! We learn things little by little, and gradually. When I first came into the mission, Sister Arcangel told me I would be comfortable in the language by 3 months. Well, I had a really hard time believing her. This language is difficult. But it's now been 3 months, and as I look at my language, I can see the progress. I don't know that I would necessarily say I'm comfortable yet, but I'm a lot more comfortable than when I got here. Patience really is a heavenly virtue guys.
My quote comes from the area broadcast we had on Sunday. "Faith is not something that you either have or you don't. It is something that you build, that you grow."--Neil L. Anderson. Sister Arcangel said something profound to me in one of our companion ship studies this week. She told me that maybe we weren't sent to this area to baptize; maybe we were sent here for the rescuing efforts. We haven't had a single convert baptism since we've been here, but the sacrament meeting attendance has definitely gone up. I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve in Sumulong 2nd. It's been a hard area for me, but one that I've learned so much from.
Well, I'll be emailing next week from Taytay, so until then, ingat po kayo and have fun!!
XOXO
Sister Payton Pectol
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