Dead Toes and Pants

pictures:

*Sister Cabanilla, Shaina, and Sister Stewart 

*A couple of Sister Stewart's favorite families

*Pinaglabanan Shrine of Mabitac, Laguna...a historical place of the American and Filipino battle field (World War 2)

*Her new style...ugly sandals and a bandage

*Stairs to Mabitac, Laguna Catholic church (127 steps)

sydney.stewart@missionary.org

Magandang araw sa ating lahat!! Today is a beautiful day here in the Philippines. This week was interesting. My companion, Sister Cabanilla, is such a good missionary, it's insane. Everyday I just feel so uplifted and moved by the testimony she bares in our lessons. Hopefully her skills will rub off on me a little bit!

So before Sister Ferrer left, we visited one of our awesome friends, Brother Bryan. His father died and we went to view the body and offer our condolences (which is a very common thing to do, whether you know the person or not).

So here in the Philippines, when someone dies, they keep the body in their house for about 3 days to a week. They eat and do everything as normal right there with their loved ones. They say it's a way to feel like they are still there for a little longer.

With Bryan, we went in and were talking and visiting. I'll try and translate this in a way that makes sense...

Bryan: "Sisters, I have a sin against you."

Us: "What? We doubt it!"

Bryan: "You know the pants that you gave me to be able to wear to church? I used them on my father."

So last week, Bryan told us he didn't have any clothes to wear to church so our zone leader, Elder Douglas, gave him pants and a shirt. Now the pants are in the ground on someone that we don't know!! 

Sister Cabanilla, Sister Doney, and I are now in a trisome and will be for a week. Sister Obusan, Sister Doney's trainee, has some health issues and is now in the missionary recovery center, so please keep her in your prayers!!

Love you all!! Oh one more thing, my toe is infected. It started with intense pain and then blew up into some sort of boil. But I felt pathetic because my toe was so painful that I was limping!! It was wild that so much pain can come from a little toe haha. So I now have to wear these ugly sandals for a week while I'm on my meds. I have all these pills now and this medicine I have to put on it... it's a pretty high maintenance toe. 

Anyways, that was my week. TILL NEXT WEEK, AMERICA!!!

Sister Stewart