September 4-9

Kamusta y'all
  Well this week has been pretty crazy. We spent a lot of time traveling because we had to leave our area so many times. We spent Tuesday night in Santiago with the Sister training leaders because we had to be in Cauayan City at 8 in the morning on Wednesday for a mission conference. Then we had interviews with President Hiatt on Friday. It was fun to see other missionaries a bunch and have some excitement in our schedule, but because of that we weren't out proselyting as much as normal which was rough. Sunday was great because we found several people that were so kind and seemed really interested in what we were teaching. It's so interesting how people here are willing to stop what they're doing and listen to us for a few minutes. We just have to be able to tell if they're actually interested or not.

    One of the sisters we're teaching had her baptismal interview on Saturday! Her name is Karene and her baptism is scheduled for this Saturday. She is so sweet and I've learned a lot from her as we've answered her questions. Her husband is an inactive RM and they have a cute baby girl. We're so excited to help their family come to church and receive the blessings of the gospel.

   The Diffun area is pretty rural. There's a decent sized city center, and a few "neighborhoods" spread out around it. This last week we went to a neighborhood that is out by the rice fields near the mountains and it was so pretty! Every day I look around and am just amazed by how beautiful everything is. The people here have so much fun with the littlest things. And I think it's all pretty well summed up by something a brother we're teaching said, "Even though we are poor, we are happy."

   Tagalog is still a challenge, but I'm already seeing improvement in my ability to understand. I'm getting more familiar with the area, and the members are so generous. Sister Tampus' native language is Bisaya, so she had to learn Tagalog when she got here. And though she speaks pretty English pretty well, she's working on that too. And she's learned some Ilokano. So she's pretty awesome. But when she says things sometimes I have to ask which language she's speaking. And occasionally we have to look up words in the dictionary in order to communicate! It's so crazy but also pretty fun.

   I've learned so much in just the short time I've been here, and I'm so excited to continue learning and growing. I know that as I try my best, the Lord will use my limited abilities to perform miracles here in Diffun. I am so grateful for the privilege of serving the Lord here and the opportunity to see the way the gospel changes lives.

  Ingat po!

       Sister Harrison

1. Our roomates are the lizards

2. Rice fields and mountains

4. Preparing meat to barbecue (I didn't ask what it was...)

5. Sister Tampus is just a little crazy :)