Stilts in Orion

Dear Friends and Family,

Well this week has been quite the adventure here in the Philippines.  I went on my first exchanges in Pilar with sister Penaranda and that was fun to be there for a day but it just didn't feel right.  I really love Orion and I am learn so much.  sister Fuggle is great and I love being with a companion that is a foreigner so that she understands me and we have the same culture.  not that I don't love the culture but with this work and with all the things I still need to learn she is great.  I still feel like sometimes I am living in two areas because we are working so hard as a companionship to help the sisters.

Pero, I went on exchanges again on Friday and I went with sister Savage who is in our apartment and they have a very interesting area.  we went to this one area that is literally a village on sticks and it is crazy.  these people walk on a bridge of sticks and their houses on are stilts and I can't even describe it.  they live on top of the ocean.  it was so fun and so cool and I tried to sneak a couple pictures so you could see.  I thought I was going to fall a couple times.  I learned a lot from sister savage about just getting to know people missionary work is not hard if you just talk to people.  so I got some work to do on that one, but then again who doesn't need to work out problems.  

On Saturday we had a baptism his name is Brian and all of his buddies have been baptized so he has great support in the church and  they all want to work with us.  they are astig talaga (awesome) and I love to teach to them.  

we also went to General Lim for the first time on Thursday and that was crazy.  that area is so far and there are so many people there.  we talked t over 50 people and found a family that was baptized in Pilar and had president Samson coming to get them every week. mind you that is like a 15 minute drive one way.  then they had some things happen and just stopped coming. they were baptized in 2006 a family of 5 and her husband is abroad.  it has been 8 years since they have come to church and it just amazing to see how much they miss the light.  General Lim has become my new baby but it has also created a lot of stress for us.  we have a family of new investigators there as of Thursday and they are so interesting and we have a lot of return appointments but the problem is how do we get these people to come to church on their own.  it will cost them almost 80 pesos one way and that is for like two people.  SO FAR!! but it is still progressing so we are going to pray about it some more and figure out if we really want to focus there or not.  so hard because we both love it there it is like entering a completely new world and then leaving is so hard.  we will see on that one.

we have one of our LA who loves to come with us and he is the best it is almost like he love to hold on to the feeling of helping these people and he has saved us so much money because he drives us there.  we are hoping this helps him get back to church.

anyways there is so much going on here that sometime I can't get my head around it.  but one thing I learned that is so important and I have been thinking about is in Ether 3:4 which talks about the light that the brother of Jared gets from the rocks and I compared it to the light of our testimony. it is so important for us to share our testimony and make the action to help it grow so we can help others to grow.  so I hope that this week you will all take the time to not hide your rock but to let it shine for the world to see for those who need some hope and some light.  honestly we can't do this all by ourselves, just like we need our savior we need to help one another.  well I love you all and I wish you all the best for this week.  thank you all for your support and I will talk to you next week.

Love,

Sister Snow