Another Week 5/27/13

The latest from Katie.  Short and sweet.  She must be doing better  ;) ~Linda

Me and S.Tumala at the baptism and at the beach :)

 I never know how to start these things haha,Has my language improved? Haha not yet. That is one of the most difficult things for me here, but I'm trying not to let it get me down. I'll get it, I just need to learn and become confident in applying what I learn...and start learning more. I need to push myself! I've lacked that this first transfer. That is my goal for next transfer. I'm praying really hard for it!

Guess what we did this week? We had a baptism in the ocean! It was SO cool!! Jude is AWESOME. 

This week went by extremely quickly. We were so busy! We had exchanges this week, and while we were out I was able to find in English! We went to a resort and got to talk to the owner of the resort in English. Turns out he's catholic, but we're going to keep trying. I learned a lot during the exchanges, just like last week. There's so much for me to do here. Every day I find something new I need to work on. Sometimes it's really frustrating. I have this HUGE to do/to change/to work on list, and I just have to laugh. I wonder if I'll ever stop adding to it.

Us at church yesterday...I straightened my hair to see if I could look nice one day! Way too hot.

. All of our friends :) The youth here are awesome, we love them! 

We got to clean our apartment this week...it's so clean, for the Philippines. It's made me feel a little closer to home :) having a clean place to shower is a bigger deal than I thought. The shower is now my favorite most relaxing place, despite the scary event from last week.

Sunrise this morning, at 5am. I was so tired but LOVED it. It was actually cool. I'd wake up every morning at 5 just to be cool, our house is SO hot.

So worth it!!

Love from the Philippines!!!! (this is for nicole, and Kaitlyn and Jackie)

We also got to attend the funeral this week for the family I wrote about last week. Sister T and I are trying our hardest to help them. We've started committing them to reading and praying every week as a family. We're praying really hard for them! They seem to appreciate us being there, and hopefully we can start the discussions back up with the mom soon, when she's ready.

So during our cleaning day (Our apts here are so bad that President assigns a whole day once a month to cleaning them), we got done around noonand aren't allowed to go out until after 6, so we just studied all day. This is like gold as a missionary. I started reading M. Russell Ballard's book, "Our Search for Happiness". My knowledge has increased 100%.  Oh my goodness, I love that book. I can't even express my love for that book. His purpose is to increase every bodies understanding of the church. If you haven't read it, read it. The gospel is simple, it just reminds me that I need to be thinking and teaching simply. I can't stress out about not knowing everything right now. In time, it'll come. The book is short and easy to read. So just read it :)

Duck face? :) Kind of a fail...

I love you! Like always :) Hope you enjoy the pictures from this week. I'm doing a lot better. I won't lie, home ALWAYS sounds much better than here. BUT I'm not letting it affect me negatively. I love home, and I love my family, friends, ward, everything. But it'll still be there when I'm done here. So I can't waste the Lord's time missing it too much. I'm trying! I promise!!

Have a good week :) I'm praying for you all! (Literally, all of you. My prayers are so long. I should start thinking of shortcut words so I go to bed on time)

- Sister Hogge

(MORE PICTURES!!)

We went on splits this week...I was SO nervous, but I survived. And learned A LOT. I have a lot of work to do. 

Me and S.Tumala during a rain storm. Guess what?! I got sick from this. Lame. She said it was from the temp. going from really hot to cold, then to hot again. My nose has been killing me ALL week.

Mango float, probably the BEST filipino dessert. 

This was just this afternoon. We had lunch at Nanay Fely's house! Lumpia, Rice, Beef adobo, chicken curry, pork puffs, and homemade pancit canton. It was a feast! This thing i'm eating...not sure exactly what it is. But it's some kind of cooked vegetable that was actually really good. (Probably because it tasted sugary...) 

I did not eat this, but it looked cool. 

We ate this with our hands...filipino style!