Week 52: ONE YEAR

July 8, 2019

Hope you all had an amazing Fourth of July this last week! My mom told me before the mission that i would never sing any of the America songs in the hymn book for 18 months, and yet this week at one of our meetings with mission president and other missionaries we sang "America the Beautiful", and haha Sister Ela, my Filipino companion, was the chorister and she had never sang that song before in her life! 

I also found out from our house mates that i should be washing our spoons and forks before we start using them because there are cockroaches that apparently crawl all over them. Which i knew that there is this hole by our sink and i will find cockroaches on our counter top all the time, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that it would touch the things i would be putting into my mouth. Well what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

I hit my ONE YEAR mark this week on July 11and its so crazy to think i left home and decided to try and learn Tagalog and then in 6 week after that be a missionary in Philippines Cauayan Mission. Its been a year of lots of adventures, learning experiences, new people, new language, growth in my testimony, and so much more! 

In this past year I'm better at: 

*Speaking Tagalog 

*Talking to complete strangers (in general and about the gospel, in Tagalog and English) 

*How to pay bills in person (in a different language)

*Make hard decisions

*Know how to handle hard situations

*Reading the scriptures

*Teaching/sharing the Gospel

*Being confident in what I am saying and who I am as a person

*I am a better disciple of Christ

There is so much that i have gotten better at, or that i have learned to do, and so much more. It has been really hard, Missions are really hard, but i honestly don't want to picture myself anywhere else right now. I have learned so many things that i think only a mission would have taught me, and I am so grateful for the person My Heavenly Father is turning me into.

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing Dad! I'm so grateful for him and his love towards me and everything he has taught me. He is one of my biggest support system!

This Church is True and the Blue Book is True! I love my Savior Jesus Christ and He Guides His Church up until this day through a living Prophet, whos name is Russell M. Nelson. I love you all and im grateful for your love and support and prayers! Have a great week! Love you all!
Sister Thayn

-Me and Sister Crawford got to be companions for the day and this is a cute member Stacy, her and her mom came and helped teach 10 year old Paoleen that is preparing for baptism on July 20.

-Me and Sister Ela, Sister Dapper and Sister Taylor

-I loved this quote on the wall at McDonald's!

-This was our 4th of July dinner. 7-ElevenSlurpee and hot dogs

-The cutest senior couple missionaries EVER. This is Elder and Sister Allen, they are from Wyoming. Me and Elder Allen had a inside joke back when he came and gave us a new stove when i was in my last area and he joked around and told me that there would be a chef to show up to cook us food. And now that I'm in Cauayan and see the Allen's all the time we keep joking about it and then last Monday he told me and my companion that he would cook us breakfast. So this morning Elder Allen cooked us breakfast.