This week was like a blur.The rest of my birthday was good! In the town where I am assigned thefood situation is not good. If you're lucky enough to score a dinnerappointment the food is always amazing, but the restaurants and placesto eat are not so good. We literally spent 45 minutes going from placeto place before we found somewhere that didn't only sell pancit bihon,which we eat several times a week anyway, until we finally went to theplace we always go to. In Aparri theres a ton of wicked places, plus Icelebrated with a buko shake and Dunkin Donuts so couldn't get anybetter really. Had a sleepover in Sister Ramos apartment so I was SOhappy to see her! But it didn't get too crazy because her comp gotsick, she ate something bad and was suffering pretty bad. She'dalready been to the hospital and was advised to go home and just waitit out. Personally, I was genuinely concerned she was going to be thelatest person to enter the Spirit World that night, but luckily forher she has the best comp in the world. So we spent the night by herbedside while Sister Ramos boiled water and made food and tucked herin and did all those beautiful things. It literally looked like thatscene in Legacy where shes sitting there dying from some disease andshes all "has God forsaken us??" and the friend is all "we can't losefaith Eliza!". I took a picture with her permission. She survived, itwas a miracle.Had our zone con on Tuesday, said goodbye to Sister Storey. She isgoing home in a week. What the. I remember when we got our calls, andwhen she left, and she left like 5 seconds before me. Oh goodness. Butthe conference was amazing. It had this huge emotional undertonebecause everyone is so close to the end now, and everythings changingand everyone is so tired. But the trainings were inspired. The part Iloved most was about being chosen. We all know those scriptures 'manyare called, but few are chosen', and we're already called, that partsover, but we have to chose to be chosen every single day. The onlydays we are the chosen one are the days we give it our all. I neededthat. I'm tired. And its hard to sprint when you feel like you goalmost nothing left, but thats why we have the Atonement right? Andfor all those other reasons too.President Barrientos quote of the week:"I texted all the missionaries in Ilocos who were trapped in theirapartments during the typhoon to check if they had any food left. Oneof them texted back and said "we only have our 72 hour kits and theAtonement." Lol.Our RC dad blessed the sacrament yesterday after only being a memberfor 3 weeks now. He was worried about messing it up and studied it allday every day all week, plus he didn't have a white shirt and tie onSaturday night, but we arrived on Sunday and someone had donated tohim and he was already up there ready to go. Got it right first time.He is the man!We were told last minute we were having a missionary fireside onWednesday night so we dropped all our plans for it, got there and itturned out to be a welcome home party for a missionary in the branch.Luckily we had a bunch of investigators so it was still a good use oftime. It was the weirdest thing. We watched him get out of the van,straight from the airport. Then he bore his testimony, had some talks,and then while we were all eating they took him out to be released. Hecame back 10 minutes later without a name tag on. Oh gracious it wasawful. Its crossed my mind about leaving the mission, but the thoughtof actually getting home was weird and shocking and I didn't know howto handle it. I had to leave, I hated it. Pero! We went and taught hisfamily yesterday, and it was him and another boy in the next ward whojust came home on the same day, the sister who also a new RM, and theparents who are service missionaries. So we had a wicked missionarylesson about missionaries with a whole room of missionaries. Luckilythey are keen as to start reactivating everyone in the branch.Blessings.It feels like we've had literally no time to teach lately becausewe've had so much going on. This week we just had a ton of meetings, afuneral, activities, all of it. But sometimes when you feel liketheres no way, the Lord opens a way for you. So we have investigatorson the way to baptism still, with little or no time to teach them ornot!Still loving it. Still the best mission in the world. Still love you all.Sister McKim
Photos: Last generation picture! My mum and my daughter, we did a 'spontaneous
laughter' picture. Magunda.Our RCs pig had 11 piglets and this is the morning after they wereborn. They are the best thing I've ever seen.Sister Ramos saving her comp, so sweet.
HISo its my birthday, again! Yep. I'm here in Apparri for a conferencetomorrow, which means SLEEPOVERS with my favourite sisters! Blessings!This week was just a lot going on. Actually this whole transfer hasbeen a lot going on, felt like I haven't had a moment to sit or thinkor sleep in my own bed, but its been good, loving the ride. This weekwas another week of typhoon, we had power for a couple days which wasgood, always makes life a little easier. Had exchanges this week, metthe sisters at 6.30am and the told us they still hadn't emailed 3 daysafter P-day because of black outs, so President let them do it then,meaning I got a blessed hour of LDS.org time while we waited - itliterally felt like Christmas day. I watched the documentary aboutPresident Thomas S. Monson's life, and here I am at the crack of dawnin a weird computer shop in the back of someones house in some darkalley tearing up, just thinking about the Prophet and how amazing heis. I can just tell how great of an example he was his whole life,even when he was young he was so humble and such a great leader. Ican't remember ever being so inspired so early in the morning, but Ijust want so much to be like him, to just be anxiously engaged in agood cause literally all of the time. I can't imagine his life. Thosegeneral authorities are really earning their exaltation. It reallyjust gave me that push this week that I so desperately needed, notjust to finish my mission, but to keep earning my exaltation. Nothingscares me anything more in the world than thinking I just might notget there.Had exchanges again and WENT BACK TO MY OLD AREA! I had been waitingever so patiently for the day, and the beautiful sisters over inSanchez had planned to visit all of my recent converts. Ah man.They're so good! And so many more of the people we found have beenbaptised since I left. Such a blessing, not a chance that comes arounda lot. Plus I ran into so many of my old investigators who have sincenot been progressing so well, and was able to be very bold in a veryloving way with them. After that I felt like I had to leave on thatspiritual note, so I didn't feel right about taking pictures. Siyang.So no pictures this week, sorry! Stuck around for district meetingwith my Aussie mate Elder Naulu - finally in the same zone so caughtup on all the chika-chika. I was called on to be the surprise musicalguest and the two of us had everyone going with a rousing rendition ofAdvance Australia Fair. Its in the hymnbook so its allowed.In blessed news, the dad we've been working with came to church onSunday. I just felt so strongly from the moment I got here that he wasone of the reasons I came here, and when I teach him I just feel likeI know what to say, WHEN I've been working to maintain the Spirit. Ican't even describe the feeling when I saw him walk in with his wholefamily just before the sacrament was passed. Of course, I've had a lotof investigators come to a lot of sacrament meetings before, but thisone was something special. I feel like if I don't put my whole heartand soul into this one he might not make it at this time, so its thepush I need to give it my all. I think we're gonna do it. In otheramazing news, the AP's came up to do a training, and one was justnewly called coming from my first area in San Nic. He told me that TWOof the families we found and baptised last year will be going to thetemple in December to be sealed, and HOPEFULLY also the third if theycan be ready in time. It was the most amazing news I'd heard in a longtime. The bit thats a little sad is its literally a week before I willbe in Manila at the temple anyway, otherwise I would have been able tobe there with them. I don't think I'll be able to swing a trip downthere a week before I go home, but it doesn't mean that I'm not goingto beg President super hard when I see him tomorrow.So, I love my mission. I'm so so tired. The last couple weeks havebeen 5am wake ups MOST of the days, and I'm tired, I'm so tired, butthe work will go forth boldy, nobly and independent until it haspenetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every countryand sounded in every ear. I didn't even mean to start writing theStandard of Truth just then but my mind fell asleep for a second andmy brain thought thats what I wanted to write. The life. Haha. My newfavourite song is the April 2014 conference version of Let Us AllPress On. I have to listen to it on full volume at least 10 times aday right now. Ah man. Can't wait for conference.Work hard my dears,Salvation is not a cheap experience!Sister McKim
Shortest week ever this week!After the worlds most tiring weekend ever we got back on the bus uphere on no sleep and having eaten nothing with nutritional value forat least three days. We got on the bus and my comp recognised theconductor as the one involved in the bus crash she was in just acouple weeks ago, where a person was killed, so we were already off toa sketchy start. Having no other choice, we stayed. Now bus rides herearen't like bus rides at home. Its more like a roller coaster. You'regoing super fast, weaving through traffic, overtaking things andrushing back to avoid head on collisions, suddenly stopping, gettingliterally airborne, its out of control. Plus the road is on stilts onthe side on a mountain above the ocean. Its magunda but itsnakakatakot. So we're all trying to get some sleep when BAM, smashinto another bus and the guardrail protecting us from a watery grave.Everyone starts yelling at the bus driver but we don't really have anyother option we just have to keep going. The ride was ok after that,but one of us threw up in a plastic bag, again....I won't say who.The whole time I was thinking about this training someone gave a whileago. About when Nephi was tied to the ship and everything was out ofcontrol and how at that point he just really didn't feel like aprophet. I have a lot of those moments. Sometimes you're just in thesereally awkward situations and you're just thinking man, I just reallydon't feel like a missionary right now. But then you get home, pullyourself together in the 5 minutes you have to spare, head out to alesson and you just testify, and then you have those moments when youcan feel like a missionary again.So I had one of those this week! I think I said it before that 6months ago I used to come on exchanges in this area so I'd already meta lot of the people. There was this one family where everyone but thedad is a member. 6 months ago he'd done a 180 in his life, was comingto church, loving the scriptures and set for baptism - the onlyproblem was he was struggling to give up smoking. I remember teachinghim back then and seeing how much he wanted it, but its like the focuswas all on his smoking. When I got here my comp had never even taughthim before so somewhere along the line he got lost, and obviously wasnever baptised. I felt so strongly to go there, and have been going onabout him for weeks. Finally we found them, and at first he tried tomake an excuse to leave but we managed to get him to sit down. Ihaven't felt the Spirit that strongly in a lesson in a while, it wastelling me every word to day. I told him we wouldn't even ask himabout his smoking, because thats not what were here to do, we're gonnafocus on his spirituality, and helping their family to be as strong asthey can be. And then out of nowhere I went on about how sometimes wefeel like failures, and we get kicked when were down but if we justremember that the main goal is them going to the temple theneverything will happen in its right time. He looks at me and goes,"Sister, thats exactly how I felt, like a failure." I knew I'd saidthe right thing. I felt like a missionary. Sometimes you really justdon't, but sometimes you just really do.So Saturday afternoon at 3 we get a text from President saying at 5everyone is to be inside, were on lockdown because theres a massivehurricane coming. Take a sneaky peek out the window - not a cloud inthe sky. Nevertheless, being obedient, we we go home and at 5 on thedot it starts to rain. Wake up in the middle of the night to a ragingstorm. It went all morning til literally about half an hour beforechurch, and there was sudden calm. Not even half the members werethere because the areas flood super easy, but as it went on we watchedpeople start arriving one by one. I was so happy for them, they reallyarea amazing to do that. Then like clockwork about half an hour afterchurch, power cuts back out and the storm starts raging like nothingelse. It was a violent, violent hurricane. I sat and watched theshore for a while waiting for the tsunami any second, our house wasshaking, the coconut trees were bent further than any tree shouldbend, and the rain was basically horizontal. But were not scared,because we're missionaries. But were a little scared to see what thestorm did to the members houses, so were going after this. We've stillgot no power but we managed to find a computer shop with a generator.So thats my week. I just love this place so much, and I don't like tothink that theres going to be more storms and more problems in thefuture and I'm going to be oblivious to it all in my happy little lifeat home. But like everything else, the Lord's got this, and thatsreally the most important thing.Love you,Sister McKimxx
Hi guys,Quick one today since there is no p-day this week. Woke up at 5something to write this email and so that we could eat this week soI'll do my best to keep it short and sharp!Feels like we barely even taught this week, travel and meetings allweek but still managed to hit the standard of excellence, since itsnot allowed to be anything less than an excellent missionary! We ran atraining for the district leaders and the training I gave was aboutnot being boring. Haha. It was actually about working with members andleaders but it was really about how if you're motivated and fun andexciting its way easier to get people to work with you, give youreferrals, and all that great stuff. Gave another training atLeadership Council on Monday which I was informed about at 9.15 thenight before. After spending the last few days with all themissionaries closest to going home, I felt inspired to give a trainingabout enduring to the end and not getting trunky. Everyone is stilldoing awesome but with about half the mission going home by the end ofthe year the trunky influence can get spread super easy. I'm nowherenear trunky yet but other people freaking out about going home makesme freak out so gotta stay away.Baptised a family on Saturday! This family is amazing, they remind meso much of the Ramos family back in my first area. They have 3 girlsbut one of them in studying away but will be baptised as soon as shecomes back for summer break. What I love about these families, is howit all goes back to a good dad. The dad is awesome, and so nice andjust so excited to get the Priesthood and bless his family. When youhave an awesome dad, you have an awesome family. BTW, happy Father'sDay Tatay McKim, you're the man! It was a blessing to be a part oftheir conversion, and like all baptisms, it wasn't without its drama.We all arrived at the chapel on time assured that the font was beingfilled, and found it had been taken care of in time, except that quiteoften the water just runs out without warning, and the water was stillabout shin deep. They insisted it was going to be ok but looking atthe size of Bro I wasn't sure even if he laid on the floor of the fontthat he would be covered enough. So most obvious solution, BEACHBAPTISM! The best kind. Everyone was keen except for the people beingbaptised, until the district president came and saved the day. He gotall the men together, sent them down to the well and bucket by bucketgot it sort of up to knee deep. Worked out alright in the end.Favourite quote from this weeks district meeting. Talking about theAtonement, our district leader referenced Elder Uchtdorf's talk fromlast conference, "are you sleeping through the Restoration?" butchanged it to, are you sleeping through the Atonement? Really made methink, are we?? Are we forgetting that we are living in a time wherewe have the blessing of repentance and forgiveness, that if we aresick we can us the power of the Priesthood to be healed, or that if westruggle all we need to do is call on the power of the Atonement whichwas wrought for us?? After that it really made me ponder what I can doto even more apply the Atonement in my life each and every day.Thats all I got time for.Love you all,Sister McKim
So after no time whatsoever to prepare for Exile Island, I was forcedon a bus, said my goodbyes to my beloved barkada and made the 9 hourjourney to the absolute middle of nowhere. I had an obscene amount ofluggage because instead of packing it I just decided to buy the worldshugest plastic bag and emptied my closet into it, still haven't hadtime to unpack it so like true survivors, I've been living on thesmall rationed luxury items I managed to find in the rubble. Got tothe bahay, no electricity, and no water, standard. So all day we wereup and down the so steep they should be illegal steps of our apartmentto pump water from the well so we could shower, eat and wash dishes.Eventually it came back so now we can happily go back to showering outof the massive garbage bin in the bathroom, but none of the taps workso were still washing the dishes by pouring water out of an old cup oftwo minute noodles. All in all, Cagayan means great times and I dolove it here. About a ten second walk from the house is the church,and about another ten seconds past is the beach, so I've been draggingmy companion out for beach runs every morning which she seems to behating less now which is good! Haha.This week was just getting to know the place and the people, and thenI realised that I basically already knew all the places and thepeople. We had a meeting with the District President to discuss goalsand he talked to me as if I was the veteran here. What I really likeis everyone here is super motivated, the Zone Leaders are awesome, andeveryones stepping it up, there are different trainings happening forall different leaders and there is a real focus on missionary work.Blessed to be here for real!Had interviews at the chapel on Saturday so while we were waiting wewatched the Primary Talent show. Talent shows are always awesome herebecause Philippinos are obsessed with dancing and are all awesome atit. The final act was a bunch of the 10 & 11 year old kids going avery suggestive dance to a very inappropriate songs. I couldn'tbelieve everyone was just sitting there watching it happen, and then Irealised absolutely nobody understood the words. They then played thesong again over and over when the kids played musical chairsafterwards. I had to leave the room.And for the third mind blowing time, we were filling out records forsome investigators who are about to be baptised, when we asked whenthe birthday was of the 9 year old daughter. '2006' they said. Iliterally face palmed myself in the lesson before I realised what Iwas doing. I couldn't believe I was saying this again. 'Your child isnot 9 years old, shes 8.' In Tagalog, siyempre. Everyones mind isblown. At least she can still be baptised, thats the main thing! Butever since then whenever somebody asks her how old she is I have totry drag her away really fast. She tries to say 9 still but herparents give her that look and she has to really disappointedly say 8.P-day in Apparri today, which name you would recognise if you're atrue Survivor fan. After email we're going to squish into the worldssmallest burger place and watch the Polynesian elders smash down aburger challenge without even thinking, if they're still allowed to doit. If they complete the challenge they get it for free, so a bunch ofthem have been bannned.Love you all,Sister McKimThe flash on my camera is broken so the pictures are super dark!Pictures are, my barkada in Santo Domingo. We had a forever flowingfountain of YSA fellowshippers that often we had to turn people awaybecause we had too many people in our entourage. Almost all of them webaptised or reactivated and now they're all preparing for missions!
My lovely companion Sister Mente having what we call a "Lehi's dream"
on the jeepney this morning.And me at Dunkin Donuts. I literally couldn't believe my eyes, I'venever seen one in the city here let alone in the middle of nowhereCagayan. It was delicious.
So in one of the most unexpected and faith promoting experiences thisweek, we had a miracle baptism, and a baptism fall through. So this isthe story. We have been teaching a woman and her kids and they are alldoing amazing, but the husband has no religion and isn't toointerested in getting one so he hasn't been too good about making timefor us to teach him. Story of the mission, diba! He always takes themto church and does his bit but just doesn't think its for him. Wethought we had a miracle breakthrough when for the first time everthis week he actually stopped and talked to us. We were about to watchthe Restoration DVD while he was on his way to work, he looked at meand was like, are we gonna watch that? I'm like jaw to thefloor.....uhh ok. Push play. He sat there for the whole movie, askingevery question about Joseph Smith and really just loving it. TheSpirit was there! It was amazing. Complete silence except for themovie. At the end, I said were going to pray now and he justgoes.....nope. Jumps on his tricie and leaves. Siyang. So. No baptismis without its dramas. We found out a couple days before that wecouldn't have the baptism on Saturday like we planned, and because ofthe funeral and a bunch of other stuff on we had to push it to theonly available time - 7am before church. Nobody is loving that newshaha. So drama one over, we sit them down to fill out their records,and some people just don't know their own details, so you have to getthe birth certificate out and check them for reals. Check the 8 yearold daughters. Me: 'Um, this says 2007. Shes only 7 years old.' Facepalm. The mum contested it, we all did the math, but yep, 7 years old.Man. Drama two over, tell the kid she can't get baptised after all.Super sad. Saturday we go visit them with AJ, our little miracle, whowe love so so much, and is the most active non-member there ever was.It was supposed to be her baptism too but we had to push it backbecause of a worthiness issue. As we were going home after the lesson,I was just watching her face thinking about how disappointed she wasthat she couldn't be baptised yet. This thought came to my mind, aquestion that I should ask her, and I didn't know why, but the Spiritwas adamant that I ask. So I did. And she answered. And I realised -AJ IS WORTHY! I get straight on the phone to President Barrientos,told him the story, her whole story, how she was supposed to begetting baptised in the morning but we thought she wasn't worth butshe is and she hasn't had her interview and can we interview her now.Usually you really have to do the interview a week before, and here Iam the night before begging. But President understood, and he agreed,and we got the Elders straight over. We told her and she freaked out,then she was scared, and she was in shock. But she was ready. The nextmorning we all arrive at the chapel at an obscene hour of the morningand start setting up. Nobody even knew she was getting baptised sowhen she walked out and the branch members saw her in white everyoneflipped out!! So happy. Her best friend was the one we had asked to dothe talk and she walked in more surprised than anyone! It was the bestfeeling. And we waited and waited, and the others never showed up. Wesent someone to their house and they said that the husband of thewoman getting baptised had flipped out and changed his mind and saidhe wouldn't support it. Super disappointing. But when we sat andthought about it we realised, if her husband wasn't going to supporther, its not her time and its not for the best, no matter how bad shewants to be baptised, but when the time is right she will. And thewhole baptism, it was AJ's baptism all along. She needed that random7am Sunday morning baptism and if it hadn't worked out that way, shewouldn't have been baptised. The Lord works in mysterious ways, butlooking back on the day, I think everything worked out the way itssupposed to, for now. Miracles.So our dear pipi is pregnant. Pipi means can't hear or talk. But shecan do both a little bit, basically shes hilarious, we just make upour own sign language and only people whol really love her canunderstand her. Basically we found her one day, found out she was lessactive and brought her back to church. She was doing so good, and thenwe found out a little while ago that she got pregnant before we foundher, so it really truly is a whole part of the plan for her that shecame back so she can raise her baby in the gospel. We had to explainto her about repentance, in made up sign language, but she isabsolutely amazing. I just love her so much, and everyone loves her somuch, and everyone just wants her to be ok! Its just true that thereare so many good people out there who just want to help people andlove people no matter what. I'm gonna miss her but I know the branchis going to take care of her now!This week we had our interviews with President, and anytime we get tohear from President Barrientos is my favourite time. I have neverlaughed so hard and felt the Spirit so strong, that man is the mostinspired man, its like he gets inspiration mid joke. I told him abouta dream I had where I was getting transferred and he just laughed.Then afterwards in his training he said 'I'm not going to tell anyoneanything about transfers, you have to wait until Sunday night to knowif you're being transferred. Unless you've already had a dream thatyou're being transferred, then you're definitely being transferred."Face palm. Love President.So I'm being transferred. And I'm going back to the jungle! I thoughtI was going to the city for sure, everyone was getting my psyched forhot showers and malls....and I'm going back to the middle of nowherehaha. But its ok. The place is called Ballesteros, and the area I'mserving in I already know everyone because I used to go on exchangesthere back in the day. So I already know what I'm expecting, so shouldbe good. It was Zion back in the day so hopefully theres still a fewnon members out there for me to baptize, plus I'll be going onexchanges in Sanchez Mira, with my old comp! So all I can think aboutis everything I need to buy in the next 3 hours before I get shippedback out there but I know its going to be good, I know everything isinspired!Love you all, I'll write you from the jungle again!Work hard everyone.Sister McKim
This week had one of those moments you never expect, but as amissionary, always have to be prepared for. Thursday night we weresitting out the back of the house, I was baking brownies for acelebration the next day and Sister Roma was doing laundry when ourlandlady who is a member came down to get the money for the bills. Shetold us she was going to give it to her niece to pay their billsinstead because their electricity was about to be shut off for good.Their mum, our landlady's sister has been in the hospital in Manilafor three months waiting for spinal surgery, which they couldn'tafford, so every day she waits in the hospital racking up their billsand making it harder for them. The three teenage kids have stoppedgoing to school because they can't afford the fare to get thereanymore, so were over there all the time teaching them. Ones a recentconvert, one is less active and one isn't yet a member but is 17 andpregnant. The landlady got a phone call, walked away and came back asecond later and just said, 'shes dead'. It was awful just watchingher process this as we sat there in our pajamas literally unable to doanything for her. Then she got straight on her motorbike and went tothe funeral home. By the next afternoon the body was already home andon display in their house. The branch put on a service at her houseyesterday as they always do, sung hymns and shared the plan ofsalvation to everyone who doesn't know about it. Everyone kept ittogether pretty well until after it finished someone got the guitarout and started a massive sing-a-long of Ilocano songs. I didn't evenunderstand most of it except for the chorus which said over and over'you're gone'. Everyone lost it.I had this moment during the sacrament this week where I sat there andlooked at everyone in our area, and thought about all their problemsand their struggles that they've shared with us, and thought about allthe people who should have been there but don't go, and the people whoare having miracle changes in their lives for the good, and actuallyjust started crying. There are some people with some seriously deepproblems, and they're not the kind of problems that just go away. Butwhat I did think about, is how great is the grace of God, that He letsus call ourselves the Saints, even though we are so imperfect and justcause so much need to stress. And the way we can access that gracemore fully is by just being obedient to God's commandments. Its sosimple, just do it. Just do what He says and let him take away the sadthings and give you the blessings He wants you to have.In happy news, a less active showed us how to make this little paperboats, then we floated them down the sewer canal and had a race withour entourage of people who follow us around. Mine won, but ourinvestigator got confused and thought it was hers, and then everyonelaughed at me because 'mine' came last and was the biggest fail ofthem all. I said nothing. I leaned that day that I am better applyingcharity which is good to know. We also found this disgusting eel inthe middle of nowhere and this girl in our branch picked it up and wasswinging it around. I can't get over how ugly its face is, I literallystill think about it all the time.Transfer day next week, its probably me, even though I keep tellingSister Roma its her. I don't want to leave, I feel like my work hereis still half done, but of course, I'll go where He wants me to go.Love you all,Just go on a mission! And if you can't, just go to the temple! What Iwouldn't give right now to be able to go inside the temple again!Sister McKim