Week 26 in the Philippines - "thanks a whole bunch"

Hi family and friends! 

Thanks sooooo much for all the emails and love you are pouring out on me! You're all just the best. Thanks so much! I love you all with all my big mushy heart! This will definitely be a birthday I will never forget here in the beautiful Philippines. crazy. I woke up this morning and as soon as I stepped out of my room, the three other sisters yelled "Happy birthday!" and they blew confetti poppers! They had decorated without me knowing with streamers and a banner and everything! They are so awesome. I love them so much. I'm super lucky too that my bday is on P-day! And right now the huge Sagay festival is going on so we are gonna go walk around it a bit today. There are booths set up everywhere with people selling stuff and there's a carnival with rides and a stage for live music and everything! It's in our area, so we've walked past many times the past few weeks and watched the set-up process. 

I'm attaching a picture of when we ate dinner with our RS president and her husband, the Bustamante's, Sister Fanny and Tatay Joe. They are so sweet and Sis Fanny is an amazing cook and baker. She sells these amazing cakes that she makes. They have two sons serving missions right now and are just a really awesome family. Tatay Joe really helped a ton with making sure the ward followed through with doing CSP helping Sister Maricel and Angelina to build them a house. 

This week we had zone training and they asked me to do the musical number. Sister Shakespeare and I just did the same "I believe in Christ" that I sang in sacrament meeting, but it went well! Pres and Sister Lopez actually came to our zone training to observe. 

We didn't have a baptism this week but we're super excited for our baptism this coming Saturday. Sister Pamela's grandchildren, March and Cyrell are getting baptized and we asked Sister Pamela to be the speaker. She was hesitant to agree, but we assured her that we would help her prepare. She's seriously the best. Sister Parada and I were talking about how awesome it would be if we could go through the temple with her in a year. Her husband, Tatay Willy, who kind of gives her a hard time and is in every single one of her prayers, has started calling us his children. He calls Sis Parada his child and me his adopted child because I'm white:) haha He's gonna come around sometime, I just know it:)

I ate chicken liver this week! Haha I wonder what body parts are left... haha Don't worry, I didn't even get sick:)

Well, things are great! I'm so excited to read all of your emails! Thanks so much for all of your encouragement, for your incredible examples to me and for your love!

Love you lots and lots!
Sister Malyon