July 4, 2011

"Do not err, my beloved brethren"

Maganda ang buhay!!!! (life is beautiful)

Well, just imagine 2 little girls finding out they get to go to disneyland and meet all of the disney princesses....and they get to ride in a horse drawn carriage.......now times that by 5 and you have me and sister whitley like 20 minutes ago when we looked at the transfer list and saw there would be NO changes to our companionship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Yeah, we were just a little excited hahaha! Sister Whitley got to the Philippines in December so i'm just a little older than her in the field, and in real life too haha, she just turned 22. Speaking of age, i've realized that when i get home i will be about to turn 24--dang, haha im old. ;)

Well, we have finally been humbled haha.....we have had a rough couple of days! But the awesome part is....we haven't even felt like they were hard because we are so happy all the time. All day friday and saturday, like not one of our investigators were home and there was no one out and about. We walked A LOT! That was the first time this whole transfer that that has happened. It was weird. And then only 3 investigators came to church and 2 of them were kids.... But proselyting yesterday was really good, so we can't complain!

The week was fun, we got to work in a bukid (field), of which i sent a few pics!!! It was way cool, i feel like a real filipino now! Except is was only for 2 hours and it was hard and we were extremely slow haha! Other than that....we were just like filipinos! you have to see these guys at work though! they are nuts, they make it look so easy! Planting rice kills your back cause you are just bent over for however long you are working....we were SO sore the next couple of days haha! We were definitely made for the USA!!! Oh yeah, by the way........HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I could only list the thousands of reasons I am proud to be an American, I would....but that would take a while so i'll just say it from a person living in the philippines....i am VERY proud to be an American, we are so blessed its not even funny. We are a free people, we are on the Lord's promised land. That brings me comfort. Later we are having family home evening and having the members light off fireworks for us! i think i already said that last week.

We've been making awesome american food! We just have been able to whip it up out of no where, its awesome....like rice crispy treats, salsa (amazing!), mashed potatoes and gravy, banana oatmeal pancakes....mmmmmm. I love american food.

One funny thing the filipinos do is when you ask them a question they dont want to answer or they are shy to answer.....they ignore it like they didn't hear you, even if you ask them a couple times after, they just look away and pretend to notice something else. It's super funny....they all do it! Makes teaching difficult at times.

Well I had a really good personal study earlier today that I'd like to share....I read from James 1, which is an awesome chapter, of coarse we only usually refer to verse 5 but the rest of it is good too! One sentence I like is "a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways" it makes me think of 2 other phrases in the scriptures: "how long halt ye between two opinions" and "choose ye this day whom ye will serve" .....plain and simple, it's the gospel of Jesus Christ or nothing at all. Which will we choose. Did we know that that is a conscious decision we need to make daily, and even several times throughout the day?!
If we are not choosing Christ, or serving him, we are serving the devil. There is NO in between. God has given us the Spirit to help us know what is from Him and what is from Satan...we have no excuses, we NEED to follow Christ which will lead to a beautiful life. Who doesn't want that? And then I got to thinking about another verse in that chapter....it says "pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this...to keep himself unspotted from the world" Why are there so many "rules" in our religion? Because we are a pure religion and the Lord wants us to be clean at all times.....we must keep ourselves unspotted from the world by following ALL the commandments in this church. If we can't learn to control ourselves in this life, how do we expect to live forever in happiness in the next without these things??? it just wont happen. Something to think about.........

I love the gospel, it is the light, it is the truth, we all must be found living it when our Master comes to redeem HIS people. And we will only be HIS people if we endure to the END!!!
I know He is always saying to us:
"Do not err, my beloved [children]" James 1:16

Sister Carroll

So ya'll wanna know what we eat at birthday parties and get togethers??? .....mmmmmm haha, very interesting eh?!

1.BIG SPIDER IN ONE OF OUR BEDROOMS!!!!! EW!!

2. Us working in the BUKID!!! woohoo!! we planted rice!


This creepy crawly thing can only be found in a CAVE!! ......at least i hope that's the only place he's in.....

I just love these people--they are SO FUN!!!

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