Letter- August 24th, 2015

Hey everyone,

This week was a good one. Lots of tracting. We spent a lot of time this week finding new investigators. We walked so much. Good thing I have Ibuprofen :) One of the people we found. It was so awesome. They live right across the church. We taught their whole family more than once this week. They really could be golden. 2 of them came to church for the whole time on Sunday. They all couldn't come because they have a special needs daughter who had the chicken pox. But hopefully this week. I really love them they are awesome. SO KIND. They area always wanting to feed us  and when they do they bring out their nicest china. Its humbling to see them treat us with such respect. I really hope we can keep teaching them. 

Also this week I did my first ever training during district meeting. It was fun to teach again. I missed that from the MTC. And after one of my teachers from the MTC showed up. It was totally random. He and his dad were came back to visit the Philippines and he came to say hi. It was awesome. He gave me some good advice with working with less active members. Which there are a lot. So I was happy to see him. Good ol' Brother Waggoner. 

I also got this week a post card from my family. The sisters thought Yellowstone looked so cool. They were like. We want to go there. I just laughed. Its so nice to live somewhere with so many natural beauties. This place is also really pretty. I can't wait to see more of it. Right now I am in the city, so maybe my next area. Who knows what this place has in store. 

I read the "Our Heritage"book. I love church history. There are some amazing stories. Those early saints of the church had such amazing faith. Its so cool to know that's our background. It really motivated me to keep working hard to build the kingdom here in the Philippines. I only get one mission. So might as well work as hard as I can and Run hard the whole race. 

This week I will be with the Sister Training Leaders or STL's. They live with us. So we will be a 3 some until Thursday when I get my new trainer! I am excited to meet her.

Today we went to our Presidents birthday party. We did Zumba. It was so funny to see all those missionaries doing zumba. I love it. It was awesome. We also had a big BBQ. Obviously a little different foods, but it was good. This Sister who used to serve her mission here came back and visited the mission. Its the same sister who Facebook messaged me when I first got my call and told me so much about my mission and helped me so much in my prep. She came in and came right over to me and was so excited to see me and talk to me. Her and her parents were so nice. It was nice to meet the girl who helped me so much prepare. 

Until next week! I love you all!!

- Sister Miggin 

Letter-August 16th, 2015

This week was really good. We had two meetings that were kind of long but really good. We had zone training and also trainers and trainees' meeting. I cant believe this is my companions last week as a missionary. She is doing really good. Not too trunky. I think now she is just excited and why wouldn't you be. She had a good mission and worked hard until the end. I hope I can be like her at the end of all of this. So next week I will get my "step mom" or my new trainer. Hopefully she will be just as great. Now that I feel like I have adjusted more to being a missionary I really want to focus more on the language. Its not east but I know through prayer and faith that God will provide a way. This week we did a lot of finding. Its kind of hard to go up to people and bring up religion especially in a language I don't know. But once you get going its not as scary. Good thing the Lord guides this work. Otherwise we would have a lot of lost missionaries in the world.

So we have some pretty great investigators. We are teaching a 11 year old named Jhana, her baptism date is on August 29 I think. So hopefully everything goes accordingly. We are also teaching quite a few others who have dates in September. Here in the Philippines they have a 4 week rule. That the investigator must come to church for 4 weeks in a row. So if they miss a Sunday we have to move back their date. Its sometimes frustrating but I quickly realized why. There are SO many inactive or less active here. Its sad but true. So I understand why they have this rule. 

Anyway this week was good. We had a family home evening with this cute family. They have 4 girls and just had a baby boy. It reminded me of my family. It was such a fun family night. It made me grateful that we always had FHE growing up. I also experience my first brown out. It was so hot without the fan. But thankfully right as we were going to bed the power came back and I was able to sleep with my fan!! YAY!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Love, Sister Miggin

Letter-August 9th, 2015

Hey this week was great! (The rain came down and the floods came up!) 

It rained and rained and rained. And then it flooded. We tracked in some areas with water up to my knees which meant my poor little companion was soaked. It was fun though. Quite the adventure. There was even fish swimming in the streets. This week for district meeting we had a pancake breakfast at the Sr. Couples apartment. It was the best. Finally some American food hahaha. 

 We went finding a lot this week.
Its hard to tract when you cant speak much of the language. I defiantly understand more than i can speak #interpretation of tongues. So its good that at least I'm progressing a little bit there. We also had a service project where we helped some of the Elders move to a new apartment. It rained the whole time. So we just played in the rain after. Why not?!

 I had my first baptism!!!! It was so cool. Little Abegail got baptized on Saturday. She is 11 and takes herself to church every week. Her mom didn't make it to the baptism but she came after. Anyway she is so cute and a little shy but she has such a testimony. She also knows some English so I did get to teach her a little in English over the past few weeks.

 What else happened this week. Oh so some guy that was with us on a trike had a baby pet monkey. He had it chained around his waste and sitting on like a fanny pack. I got to pet it and feed it. It was so cool. He was so nice too. 

Anyway this week was really good. We had some fun times and some really good experiences. This week I was really looking for tender mercies in my life. And once you stop to look. You can find so many everyday and really see how the Lord blesses you. 

I love you all!! Until next week. 

Sister Miggin 

Letter- August 2nd, 2015

Hi everyone,

This week it started to rain a lot more. Which I am very grateful for. It cools down a little. The only thing that really sucks is it makes the bucket shower colder. This week we had Zone conference. It was really good. I learned a lot and really felt the spirit. But that night we had dinner at a members house, and the whole next day I was sick. I'm still adjusting to the food. But happy to report that I was better the next day and back to working hard. We are teaching and finding a lot. The language still isn't very good. I don't feel like I'm getting better yet. But I need to keep trying everyday. This week we should have a baptism! I'm so excited. 

This week I was reading a talked called the 4th missionary. It really helped motivate me into become a great missionary and for the right reasons. It was an amazing talk. Not much happened this week just working hard :) 

I love you all and miss you. Until next week!

- Sister Miggin 

 

 

Letter-July 26th, 2015

This week was great. We have been teaching a lot of lessons. Right now we have like 14 investigators that we see often. However only 4 have baptismal dates. I hope that they go through. I just have seen this week such a love develop. I want them all to come unto Christ and just feel the joy it can bring. I really am starting to love the people even though I cant hardly understand what they are saying. I love going out to work. It keeps me from worrying about things and being homesick. I can start to see now how forget yourself and go to work is a real thing.

I notice that I feel the need to hunch over so I'm so as tall. I didn't realize that I was doing this until my back started hurting. So unless I'm riding in a trike or something I need to practice sitting up straight. Also I'm not sure how Elders fit in some of these modes of transportation, because I barely do haha. Its weird being tall. 

So what my one of me awesome MTC teachers told us I didn't believe until I got here. He said he got off the plane and started sweating and didn't stop until he arrived back in Salt Lake, well I'm beginning to believe that its totally true. I never stop being hot and thirsty. But I do carry water with me everywhere. Its actually not too bad. It could be worse. Oh and it rained for like the first time! It was awesome. I was so excited. My companion just laughed at me because I was excited. It was nice to have it cool down a little. 

Everyone has been asking me about the food and its been pretty good. I'll admit though I don't really know about 70% of what I'm eating. Lots of rice. I know I didn't eat rice before, but I can now. The girls I live with are so surprised because they think I'm not a picky eater, and I guess it has gone away haha. 

This week was good. Its cool to start to see the lords hand in all of this. Its only the beginning but you never know what his plan is. I'm grateful to be a missionary. :) Thank you all for the prayers, I feel them everyday and they are needed. 

-Sister Miggin 

Letter-July 19th, 2015

Hello everyone.

The manila MTC was good. Basically what we did was have some classes. The main purpose of our stay was to go to the immigration office and get our visa stuff done, then we went to the Manila temple! It was good. And then we went to the American WW2 memorial. That was really cool. The traffic here is unreal, like its crazy all the time. I'm not sure how people aren't dead. But thankfully all of the drivers were good. We traveled to Iloilo at like 7 am on Tuesday. We arrived at like 10. There was a bunch of Elders and the Mission president that met us. They were all set up with this big welcome sign, it was pretty cool. Its hotter here in Iloilo than Manila. I'm glad also that its not a big city. So after that we went to the mission office and had orientation, then we went to bed. I woke up with so many bug bites. The bugs love me. I now spray everyday before i leave and before bed. Also sunscreen. Yes I'm using both religiously 

This week was long. Its hard to be so far away, but I know its where I'm supposed to be. I am so glad to finally be here. Its so hot and the sad part is, its the cold season right now. My best friend is my electric fan. I sleep with it right on me. Otherwise I would probably melt away. My area is Mandurriao, its a city, well a "city" and it also has some pretty poor areas. Our apartment is in a nice area, its apparently one of the nicest ones. My companions name is Sister Villiagomesa. I am her last companion. She is amazing. She was a trainer right after she trained for 2 people, then was STL for like a year. She is awesome. I am so blessed. She is Filipina, actually me and the 2 other girls that came with me are the only white girls in the whole mission, and the only Americans. There are Elders of course, but we are the only sisters right now. 

I stick out here way bad, I feel like a giant. I'm very tall and very white compared to others. People stare at me ALL DAY LONG. I have been whistled at and catcalled, thankfully the things people yell at me are nice things. The little girls love to touch my hair. They all call me barbie, and if my hair is in a braid, Elsa hahaha. I love the people, everyone has been so nice. On Sunday they had me bare my testimony, of course I can barely speak anything, so I wrote it down and read it. Lots of people came up to me and were like " look how good you are for only 5 days", or " you can write in Hililgaynon that's wonderful" The people are funny that's for sure. 

I have not had any culture shock really, yes i have been homesick, but not too bad. I have learned that once I start working and teaching that it goes away. So its true what they say about work being a good medicine. They people here are awesome. I love the kids. Its crazy though to think that people live here. I'm so grateful for America. And for my wonderful house. My apartment is really nice so its a good transition. 

Doing laundry by hand isn't that bad, its ok actually. Bucket showers are actually really nice. They first few seconds suck but I'm so hot and sticky all the time that it feels so nice to cool off. I look forward to them everyday hahaha. I know that's weird but really I'm constantly sweaty and hot and shinny faced. My teacher told me I would get off the plane and start sweating and would stop until I was back in SLC. I think he may be right. 

Please keep prayers coming this week. Its defiantly going to be an adjustment and I thank you for all your love and support. I love you all.

-Sister Miggin

 

 

Letter-July 10th, 2015

Hello everyone, Its crazy that I am finally here!!
Ok so travel story. Ok so from SLC to LA the flight was good. We were
on this little plane that held 50 and we had 27 missionaries. So most
the flight. It was awesome. Once we got to LAX holy cow was that
airport huge. We luckily found our way around just fine. We had a long
layover but it was great because i got to call home. It was so nice to
talk to everyone. It made me so happy to hear how everyone was doing,
and to hear your voices. So after that we got on this huge plane to go
to Hong Kong. I got to sit by a girl in my district and the row in
front of us had other missionaries so we got to talk with them too. It
was such a long flight. 15 hours on the plane, was crazy. I got a
window seat each plane ride which was AWESOME! The elder in front of
me his name is Elder Kresge he and I played games. Each seat had like
an iPad TV in front you could play games or watch movies. So obviously
all we could do was play games. We made it so we could verse
each other. It was awesome. The air plane food was actually pretty good.
So after that long flight, we went to Hong Kong. It was crazy. We had
a shorter layover and then got on the last plane to go to the
Philippines.
Ok so arrival in the Philippines was as expected. It was raining. We
got off the plane and was in the terminal the humidity hit me like a
wall. It felt like you could eat the air and it was HOT. After
  immigration people from the MTC met us and helped us get out bags,
nothing was lost! And then we exchanged money and that stuff. We went
out side and the humidity was worse. Oh my gosh its awesome though.
We then went to bed because well it was 1:00am. So we woke up and my
hair decided it wanted to poof up and be curly frizzy. We go down
stairs to breakfast and one of the elders was like WOW sister Miggin
what happened to your hair, isn't it supposed to be straight? Then the
other elder was like " no don't listen to him, you look great"
regardless its awesome. Ill try and send photos next week but i don't
know whats going to happen. Anyway we had some orientation and stuff
and now we are emailing you :)
It was a great trip with no problems really. It was a blessing for
sure. I'm so happy to finally be here. We will be in the MTC till
Wednesday, then jump on a plane and get to Iloilo.
While here in the Manila MTC we get to proselyte with the missionaries
in the manila mission. We will teach in English unless the person
knows Ilongoo. So we will see. Well that's where I am at right now. I'm
feeling fine. A little tired. I got a bit dizzy once we arrived but
that's normal for humidity. Now its better. Its so crazy that I am
finally here!!!!!!
I love you guys!
-Sister Miggin