Week 30

Dear Family,

The work is good! This time of year, we wade through water every single day! Haha right now, I am sopping wet- I didn't have any more clothes because I haven't done my laundry in a while (its been busy we had exchanges)- so I don't have ANY dry clothes right now. I washed them this morning, but we didn't have any power so I couldn't use the electric fan to dry them and it was raining outside! hahaha this life... Can I just take a second to give you a feel for how doing laundry goes? I don't know but I just want to share because as I am living this life over here and sometimes I forget about how absurd this all sounded 7 months ago. *disclaimer: please don't think I am complaining, I love this life over here- it helps me fit in with these amazing people and have empathy with them. And laba (tagalog for doing laundry by hand) is my favorite thing- I'm not joking it is kind of meditative.

So this morning- I woke up at 4 to get the water going. We still had power, so I didn't have to pump water and bring it in with a bucket. I fill one bucket and put soap in- it takes about 5 minutes to scrub each piece of clothing to make sure it is clean- there is a technique, but I can't explain it! I'll show you when I get home. After you scrub, you squeeze it and put it in another bucket. When everything, is all scrubbed, you start rinsing. So you go through and scrub again, but this time without soap in order to get all the soap out. You rinse each piece 3-5 times to get all the soap out. Sister R woke up at 6:30 , so I moved outside by the bumba (a water pump- you hand pump the water out), so that she could laba inside because it was raining. To finish all of my laundry for a full week at once and get it hanging up to dry takes about 4 hours. Can you imagine what life is like for these Nanays who have 7 kids? Its rough. After you rinse 3-5 times, you do one more rinse but this time with fabric softener para mahamot (smells good). I was done with about half of my labahan by 7:45 (I had about 2 weeks work this week ;P)  and got ready to start studies at 8. haha I'm sorry, I just wanted to share because I remember how nervousI was to do this before I came on my mission! But it really is a lot of fun- I like to think about how Grandma Johnnie and her mom lived like this before they had washing machines. I love learning knew things like this... I'm still working on learning how to cook though.

ANYWAYS: so this week was good- we had exchanges which is fun, but a lil exhausting. The travel sitch is still rough. But it was good! We saw miracles our faith grew and we learned a lot :) I'm sorry I know that I have a lot that I should share, but hard to think of right now! Oh I have one. The A family- from exchanges. So this family is SO sweet. I met them before on exchanges and was so excited to see them again. We shared and the whole time they were so involved- they are going to be baptized next Saturday and are just so jazzed. And the dad is from... Borongan! Its so fun, because he actually understands my Borongan Waray! Anyways, it just built my testimony that the Lord is preparing people to hear this message. Its just our job to find them and give them the chance to feel the Spirit.

Love You Family, you are close to my heart and in my prayers,

Mads


From Amie-
I wanted to share a portion of the letter she wrote me. I am having a rough time with some personal things in my life and wrote to her about some of it. Her response was so sweet. I have read and re-read it many times. I thought maybe someone out there might need it like I do. ((hugs))

Dear Momma,
I'm really sorry, I know that you probably don't need or want preach-y right now, but that is kinda what I was set apart to do, and I kind of don't have another way to handle things like this without gettin all preachy too. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 13. I thought of the song "Consider the Lilies" because it is my absolute favorite and reminds me so much of you. Jesus is speaking to the Nephites and he says, "Behold the fowls of the air, for the sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. "Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you."

We can take this in a lot of different ways, but right now, I take it that Heavenly Father knows you. He loves you. He knows exactly what you need right now. He will take care of all of your spiritual, temporal, physical, emotional needs if you have the faith to follow Him. And I know that you do because you always have and that is what you are doing right now. I testify, mom that the only thing that can heal broken hearts like this is prayer and reading the scriptures and coming closer to Him. Faith talaga is the only thing that can heal things like this. Faith in God's plan, His timing, and especially His infinite love for ALL of His most precious children. So don't worry Momma, just give this thing to Him- Christ Atoned for us for exactly this reason, so you don't have to bear this weight alone. I SO wish I was there just to squeeze you right now!! but, prayers are all I've got so hopefully you can feel them too.

Love you so, Mads