Mission: Definitely Possible

Goodbye, everyone! I love you.

NOT COOL.

Local weather forecast

Bacolod, PHL

Five-day forecast
Tomorrow Apr 30T-storms	Saturday May 01Scattered T-storms	Sunday May 02Clear	Monday May 03Fair	Tuesday May 04Scattered T-storms
Hi: 93° Lo: 76°	Hi: 97° Lo: 77°	Hi: 96° Lo: 78°	Hi: 92° Lo: 77°	Hi: 98° Lo: 77°

Can I just go right now, please??!?!!!

Happy b-EARTH-day to me!

Go do something good for the planet today!

Filipino Culture Lesson #2

Ube: the Filipino word for purple yam. Ube is used in a variety of desserts, such as ice cream.

Seriously though, don't try it. It's nasty.

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This guy doesn't have a name yet. This is a new species of lizard that was just discovered in the Philippines. Pretty neat, eh? Thanks to Uncle Johnny for sending me the link to this article!

Lift Your Mind Higher

What's on my mind lately? I'll tell you.

These guys:

GC

So far this weekend I haven't fallen victim to this.

What I have fallen victim to is homemade chicken noodle soup
and homemade banana nut bread. And the spirit.

Filipino Culture Lesson #1

Kamayan: the traditional art of eating with your hands.

Sarah Status: HAPPY!!

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Brown Huntsman Spider (aka Cane Spider): fairly large arachnids having a leg span of approximately five inches. These spiders are known to hunt by waiting quietly on a vertical surface (or even a ceiling) and then rushing forward when their prey gets within close range. Their exceptional agility and speed, as well as their ability to contort and squeeze through tight spaces, give them a strong advantage in capturing prey and evading predators. They feed at night.

Sarah Status: ...........?!?!?!??!??!?!!!?!?!?!??!?!?!!!?????????

Add to shopping list:

• bug repellent
• mosquito net
• long handled flyswatter
• electric bug zapper
• exterminator
• small hand gun
• heart attack medication

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If only this were an April Fools joke...

Click

me!

Define: Sarah

I like who I am.

I like the passion that I have for my religion; the faith that comes naturally and the feeling of having both hands clenched, white-knuckled, in muscle-spasm-turned-numbness to sturdy things like God and Truth. And the temple.

I like the words that I have to say and the overly dramatic fashion in which I say them. The songs that I sing and that stick in my head and that play in my subconscious as my life unfolds in movie form. Or at least in the way that I can see it.

I like my mission call. It fits me and I see the wisdom in it. God knows what situations I will face and what strengths of mine will come in handy. He knows what weaknesses I will have to overcome in order to make it through this life and knows that somewhere in the Philippines there has been built a place for my own personal refiners fire that is now in the process of being lit. The temperature will be just right to burn out some of these spots. Some of the more obvious ones will be easy to remove, but the ones I can't see (or won't) are festering beneath the surface and will take some prodding and pain. I just have to trust that they'll come out when the time is right.

I like my warm hair color and the shape of my nose and the fact that my lips don't require lipstick. I like my short fingernails and I like that I can't stand to wear fingernail polish. I like my weird clothes that are the kind of weird that isn't fashionable and that even though they may not make me look good, they make me feel good. I like that they're plain but have little tastes of character. Maybe that's how I would describe myself too.

You know, I even think I like that my dress size isn't a negative four. I'm not voluptuous and not concave. I'm somewhere comfortably in the middle. Soft, maybe. That's feminine too.

I like that each person in my family says "I love you" twenty three times or more before breakfast and another forty nine times before bedtime. And we mean it every time. I like that we burst out into seven-part-harmony as we clean the kitchen together after Sunday dinner or at Family Home Evening or when we go for a drive in the car or just when we sing "Happy Birthday."

I like that I can be totally at ease in a big city with traffic that causes perpetual honking and layer upon layer of buildings to the horizon. Then I can be just as wonderfully content in a place full of farm animals and the smell of horses and hay and blue jeans and lying in the grass and dirty tennis shoes perfect for working in the garden.

I like that my life is so full of little kids right now. Nannying, babysitting and teaching primary to kids of all ages is one of the joys of my life, and it all happened so suddenly. Just a few short months ago I was overly cautious and wary around small kids. They are so breakable and retain everything you teach them, good or bad. I have felt so inadequate at times, but my heart is so full when I watch my little toddler learn to walk or my preschooler learn to read or my nine-year-olds learn about the Atonement. Their humility and teachable natures are so beautiful and sweet. They're easy to love and easy to serve and I find myself constantly thinking of what more I can do for them. They are my beautiful little investigators.

I like the certainty in my life and the knowledge of my potential.

You MUST see this.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

It's truly worth every penny.

A New Perspective

I'm going there today!

Drumroll please.

Magandang araw! (Good day!) This is the mission call post!

I came home from work yesterday around 1:30 (quite impatiently) and my call hadn't come yet. By the time it got here around 3:15 I could hardly sit still! I tried to be calm, but I had to leave the house so I went for a long drive. After I got home, we waited for my dad and Jake to get back from work and my boyfriend Jonathan came over as well. By 6:27 everybody was here. My family all gathered around me while I opened it. (Jake says he'll teach me how to use a letter opener before I leave... haha... oops...) My whole body was trembling and I could feel my heart knocking away. I used a magazine to cover up the words so I wouldn't see where I was going immediately. I moved it down line by line, but it didn't take long to see where I was going. My eyes moved to "PHILIPPINES" before my words could catch up, and I'm pretty sure I laughed out loud.

I have been called to serve in the Philippines Bacolod Mission.

I had almost convinced myself that I would be going stateside, so to see the name of another country was enough to shock me. But ASIA?!??!?!?!? I could hardly believe it. I honestly couldn't have been more surprised and happy.

The Bacolod mission is right in the middle of the country. It includes the island "Panay" (where you see the city "Iloilo") and the upper half of the island called "Negros Occidental" (where you see "Bacolod"). I have a good friend who returned from that same mission last summer and she has told me a lot about it within the past few weeks. From what she's told me, I'm looking forward to this. I still can't believe it!

I will report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on June 2nd and I'll learn Tagalog (pronounced ta-GAH-lug... not like the English word TAG-a-long). Tagalog is the official Filipino language, however there are over 200 different dialects spoken there, so once I reach the mission field, I'll have to learn a new dialect. They can't teach every dialect at the MTC. I'm nervous, but excited!


Well, that's all for now, but I'll be updating this as much as I can and let you know when/where my farewell will be. Thanks for everything! Love you all! Mahal kita!

REALITY

I remember being little. It wasn't too long ago, I guess.

My brothers would often chase me around the unfinished basement and up the staircase and around the furniture and back down again until they caught up with me or I found the perfect hiding place. Those were the only kinds of adventures I ever had. Those shivers of excited and pretended fear that shook my little frame and popped out in giggles and squeals were the only manifestation in my life of fright in any form. I knew nothing of hunger or cold or desperation, yet I complained of being hungry before dinner or chilly when I stepped outside or upset because I scraped a knee. I've wasted so much time whining and wishing and waiting.

I wasn't being ridiculous. I was honest. I was a little girl.

The world outside my house is a big one and an exceptionally frightening one. I still have not seen all the hunger or the cold or the desperation that goes on... not even in my own neighborhood. I won't ever see most of it. I can solve almost none of it.

There are books so big with words I can't pronounce and in languages that I'll never learn, and they come by the hundreds of thousands of million-bajillions. Places that I'll never hear of will sit undiscovered by me or anybody. And as if this planet wasn't enough to deal with, there are bigger things that cannot be explained or imagined that float along far outside of our atmospheric bubble.

I am far more a little girl now than I used to be, so why is it that I feel ready to face this enormous place? My emptiness is filled with one simple truth: I am a daughter of God.

What can I be afraid of?

Knotted

This is a poem that I love from President Packer's most recent conference address, "Prayer and Promptings."

With thoughtless and impatient hands

We tangle up the plans

The Lord hath wrought.

And when we cry in pain He saith,

"Be quiet, man, while I untie the knot."

What a beautiful, uncomplicated parable! I'm finally learning to loosen my grip on the knot and allow the Lord to take over. It's hard at first, but seeing the benefits that come has most effectively changed my attitude. Now it's not a matter of wondering if I should trust Him or not, it's a matter of allowing Him to do with me what He will.

Small World?

My mission papers have been officially submitted! My stake president said that my call should come in two or three weeks and I can't believe how excited I am.

Any guesses as to where I am going?? :)

(For your benefit, here is a list that you can choose from.)

Undercurrent

I have found a kind of truth that will not let my thoughts wander far. The outline of this map surrounds the ground that is safe and wonderful. I trek a multitude of terrains within these borders, sometimes meandering slowly, allowing the air and the details to fill me up and other times I sprint rapidly with only seconds to glance fleetly at the horizon. Everything is beautiful. There is so much to explore here, more things than I could find in my short lifetime.

In the times when I come to the edge of these safe lands, I watch others who dwell outside and see them exploring dangerous and hostile areas. They are thrilled at the risk and sometimes have no idea there could be another way to live. Unfortunately I've walked those vicious roads too. I still do by accident sometimes. But I know where I live now, and I want these people to live here too. There are several rules and boundaries that should not be crossed here, but there is so much depth. Steep cliffs and snow and glinting, blinding sun, and there are caves and ravines that are deep and full of life that we cannot see with our human eyes. Oceans full of green things and sand and multicolored life forms that blink and gape at us. Prairies with hundreds of different kinds of grasses and flowers and insects. Forests and deserts and islands. It is safe here and it is a seedbed for growth and discovery. Everything here denotes truth and expands our minds. Each element of this place within the secure lifelines is a metaphor and a lesson to be learned.

I need to tell people about this place! Cry out as loudly as I can and show them the way. The rules to be followed here spell out FREEDOM. My mind becomes flexible and stretches farther than I ever thought possible. Do not try to stop me. You cannot. This undercurrent of joy and of excited energy tugs gently at my heart, reminding me of home. This is a feeling I have known before, and this is a feeling I want forever.