Monkey See, Monkey Do

Magandang Hapon!!!!

Kumasta kayo?? I love you all so much :) Man this week was a roller coaster definitely, I feel like it was Forever long, but I learned so so so much!! As far as investigators go, we found some new ones that seem really promising, one is a FAMILY yay!! But they are very smart and have been part of many religions and so it's hard to get them to see the importance of coming to church, but I think the more we teach them it'll hopefully turn into something great :) And we've found like 3 people, just by talking to random people on the street, who have previously been taught by missionaries and wanted us to come back and teach them! So hopefully that'll lead somewhere good too. AND my favorite news, Cathy got a new baptism date set for August 8th and she chose it herself so I think it's really promising, she's so excited!! And then Winnie FINALLY got her papers done for her wedding, her 'husband' just needs to get his and then it's a 15 day process...so hopefully in the next month something will get worked out, but it's one step further than they've gotten in the year she's been taught, so I'm SO grateful for all the little miracles this week from our Heavenly Father! Me and Sister Mabini both agree it's because of our diligence from the past hard weeks, where we'd honestly come home and sit in silence for an hour eating dinner because we just were so stressed. But it's really looking up and I've gained a whole new testimony about humility and really subjecting yourself to the Lord's will. You never know what He can do through you until you completely give yourself to Him. It's an incredible thing!

THEN, today was absolutely a blast!  We had a zone activity that was so so much fun! We went to Banal Bundok (look it up, it's BEAUTIFUL!) but it's a mountain kinda far from us, and there are SO many beautiful trees and it's so green and there's like TONS of butterflies everywhere...so beautiful! But it's a lot of stairs on this hill leading up to a big cross, and on the way is statues of all the phases of Christ's atonement and then the resurrection, and it's so cool! Then we went to this little mini zoo that was 20 pesos entrance fee (50 cents! ha) and they mostly had birds, but there was a tiger and literally just behind this chain fence, so it was a fingers distance away from me! So crazy. ha AND then monkeys.

The picture I attached of me almost touching the
monkey was after one of the scariest moments of my life. haha It was showing its teeth at me like it was smiling and reaching to me, so of course I want to touch it and I shook its hand, THEN it clung sooo hard to my hand and started sticking it's face through the fence hissing and pulling my hand to KILL ME and it was so scary! It's a good thing I've been doing my pushups and was stronger than the monkey because I could pull my hand away, but I decided I don't like monkeys anymore. haha Except then I fed it mango that was on the ground and it was cute again :) But I think I literally had a heart attack trying to get my hand away!! But it was a fun adventure, taking lots of pictures in this beautiful place, I wish I could send them all but I can only send a couple! It was a good stress reliever to start out a new week :)

Oh and one story from this week... I was still pretty stressed until about Wednesday, that day was actually really hard in the morning, but there was one single moment that turned practically my whole mission around. A sister in our ward was working with us, Arianne (she's 27 but a little special...normal enough to work with us but not married or anything and her parents are very protective of her) but we were going to an investigators and so Sister Mabini and I get in the tric and then she gets in to sit in front of us on this tiny little shelf thing where the pamasahe is (fare/money) but the tric driver started driving and she fell on the floor and was clinging to my legs and made this Hilarious screaming sound and then pulled her legs in and her shoe was ripped (we only wear rubber) and I literally could NOT stop laughing...I felt so bad! But it was the most hilarious thing that has happened my whole mission! You probably need to have been there..haha But it was hilarious! I realized though, that everything that stresses me out, I just need to not worry about it. I need to be obedient and work as hard as I can, do my very best, but just enjoy the little moments I've been given and this experience, because I'll never have it again! Then, to top it off...later as we dropped her off we were getting in another tric to finish our night with our last appointment and it happened to ME! He started driving and I fell on sister mabini! haha SO I guess that was just karma..but it was hilarious. So it's definitely gotten better, I know that if I just keep having faith and sticking it through, doing what I'm supposed to even when it seems like nothing really is happening, it will ALL work out. I love you all so much, thank you for all you do for me :)

OH and late happy 4th of July! I was thinking about you guys watching fireworks and all that fun stuff...we made up hamburgers with some beef patties we found and little pandasal rolls, and I found cheetos!!! It was fun :) And some other random facts, I have 25 mosquito bites JUST below my knees so that's pretty exciting..ha But I'm using Off lotion and bug spray so I don't really know, there's just Tonsss!! Oh and most important that I almost forgot, we are starting to teach an english class!! ha It's every saturday night at 6, and yes, I'm the teacher to a bunch of Filipinos.. Pray for me! Ha I'm so excited though :) And it's for members and their friends so hopefully we'll find some investigators that way!!

LOVE, Sister Benesch

Remember, ang ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo ay ang plano ng Diyos para sa kaligayahan at kaligtasan ng kanyang mga anak. Mahal niya tayo, and gusto niya tayong lahat na makabalik sa kanya...kaya nga, kailangan natin na sumunod sa kanya! Alam ko na Ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga Banal sa mga huling araw ay totoong simbahan ng Diyos sa mundo. Kailangan lang natin na STAY FAITHFUL. You're all the best :)