Bald and Clumsy

Hello hello hello family! Sorry I missed you today earlier emailing, we had quite the adventure as a zone! ha We went to Banal na Bundok again (the mountain with the statues of Jesus, and the zoo with the crazy monkey!) And me and Sister Tupa'i got a sweet picture riding these huge giraffes!! But that'll be one you'll have to wait to see because I want to send different ones for you to see of the rest our adventure :) After that, we went to...(oh PS we woke up and left at 4 am for this day!!)...but we went to Jesus Mountain.

 You have to walk quite a long way and cross this big river, and it's Gorgeous!! Then when you get to the top there are three HUGE statues of "the godhead" in human form. It's pretty cool but it feels a little weird because it's a catholic site and so of course it's not a spiritual experience...but it was really pretty and cool to see!

And now I can say I've stood on Jesus' lap before. ha I was actually the only sister that got up there, the other ones were so lame! It was something I know our family would have had a lot of fun doing :) ...it's beautiful! And I'll send it so you can be jealous :) ha SO it was really fun, especially crossing the big river on this "barge" thing that the Filipinos would pull across the water as we stood on it. Quite exciting! Sadly I got sunburned though so my face is all red and it makes it even Hotter which is miserable! Speaking of, I can't believe it snowed there!! Crazy. Here it's coming out of the colder season and getting very very hot again, so actually I'm a little jealous! I honestly don't remember what it feels like to sleep at night or get ready in the morning without sweating... It'll be nice next year when I get some cool dry weather ;)

Other than our great adventure, this week wasn't too eventful. However, we have been blessed with an amazing new investigator!! Yay :) She actually is the neighbor of one of the less-actives we teach, and her name is Yam. (Like yum really..haha) and she is really really receptive and I can tell that she already is beginning to love the gospel. One thing that's hard is her husband is really ayaw, which means he doesn't want anything to do with it because he's devoted to his religion, which is hard because she didn't come to church and has him saying things that kinda work against what we're trying to do. But we try our very best, and we've had some real spiritual experiences with her so I'm very happy about that :)

Also just a few random facts about me I thought you might like hearing about...I am going bald. But really I lose so much hair here, I think I've already lost as much as Syd has on her head! haha Actually a lot of the sisters here say they have like half the hair they come with...I don't know why! But it sure makes me grateful for my thick thick hair so it isn't noticeable :) Also...I was exercising the other morning and doing yoga, and had the bright idea to see if I could still get up into a headstand from when I was taking the class at Utah State. Well. I got up and was real proud, then I started to fall backward and hit our couch SO hard. But the thing about the furniture here is that it's all made of wood...my shin hit it SO SO hard, I was just rolling on the ground in pain! I screamed and sister Tupa'i didn't even check on me. haha So now I have a big bruise on my leg and it hurt pretty bad walking the first day, but I made a nice little ice pack and I'm all good :) ha Also I'm really beginning to appreciate the nice safe place we live at home. The word Baliu in tagalog means crazy, and that's where Baliuag got its name actually. And it's true! I won't lie, earlier today I saw a completely naked old beggar woman on the street. It's crazy! I just wanted to come back to Utah and cleanse my eyes...hahah So it's definitely an adventure.

I really am learning so much every single day though, especially as I really read the scriptures and I can feel my testimony growing so much! Being on a mission is the very hardest thing I've ever done, but I am so grateful for the opportunity and I know it'll just make me a better person. Thank you for all your support, I love you all SO much!!! xoxox

Love,

Sister Benesch

PS next time I email you I'll be turning 20, because it's transfers which means I'll email Tuesday on my birthday!! WOO it's finally here! Love you all :)

PSS I forgot to tell you a great story from this week...I got hit by a tric!!! haha It actually is funny because I didn't get hurt, luckily my bag just took the blow and my body turned and my arm kinda flew out...

Sister Tupa'i and Sis Rosana thought I was really hurt...but the tric driver just kept driving and looking back all scared! Sis Rosana said he was probably thinking he couldn't stop incase I wanted money from him because I'm american..ha But it was a new experience. Gotta love the transportation here :) Love you all!!!

(I pulled this photo of a "tric" from the internet - Ron)