The week of Tacloban!

I'm copying and pasting part of my letter to President Maurer so I
don't have to type it again haha. Kapoy!

Hello President!
This week was kind of sad because we only got to work in our area for
2 days. You actually already know this, because we were in Tacloban
all week. Poor Sister Asug has a pretty mean ear infection that she
didn’t tell me about for a week! She’s so cute, she said she was shy.
But I have straightened her right out about that she doesn’t need to
be shy to me because I just want to help her. So she’s doing good now.
Apparently there’s still a discharge from her ear but it’s different
from the one before in a good way? .. (I don’t fluently speak Tagalog
and she doesn’t fluently speak english so sometimes our communication
isn’t completely clear.. Haha.) But anyway, it’s been a good week!
Lots of companionship bonding. The funny thing is, no matter what the
reason is that I can’t work, I’m never fully happy or content with
just sitting around. I guess I’ve been blessed to learn the value of
good, hard, work. It was only for two days, and our number of lessons
is kind of small because we have a ward member who translates
literally everything I say into understandable Waray Waray, but
there’s really no acceptable substitute. I go home feeling SO tired
that I just want to drop and sleep, but it’s like the best tired
feeling in the world. I guess that is my miracle this week. It’s that
I further understand the healing power of the atonement. It doesn’t
happen when you’re giving all the attention to yourself, it happens
when you “forget yourself and go to work!” It’s like they always say
in Preach my Gospel, I’m so tired and I don’t know why, but I’m so
happy! And I feel a sense of peace that I don’t think I could find
anywhere else. About the language.. from what you read you already
know that I’m not doing so hot. I think my anak speaks better Waray
Waray than I do! Haha but for me it’s just an Ether 12:27 moment. I am
glad that Heavenly Father cares about me enough to teach me about
trust in Him. As for the work, it’s going good. We had more
investigators come to church, but unfortunately some of them are
children that have been previously taught without their parents. So
we’re going to try to get their parents to listen and see how that
goes. We have seen a LOT of less active or inactive members and we
want to focus there, because it’s pretty pointless to bring more
people to a ward that’s losing them as fast as they comes. We’ve
already had a couple of stories of success with that, and one even
brought her live in to church with her! So we’re just going to press
forward with faith and rescue the sheep that had previously been found
but were lost again, though we will of course be looking for new
investigators also.
Well, that’s about it this week. Thanks for everything President!
Love, Sister Sprouse

Okay, I might do that more often. That's such a time saver! In
addition, we went to Tacloban (a five our van trip) for specialized
trainings. It was so fun! We got lots of good instruction from the
APs, Zone Leaders, and President. Then my favorite workshop was Sister
Maurer. She's concerned about the health and nutrition of the
missionaries, so she taught us to cook and then we ate the lunch we
cooked! Best workshop ever! Haha (: After that, we stayed in Tacloban
for 2 days for Sister Asug's ear infection. We were literally out of
our area from Monday to Friday! But like you read, we got to work for
two wonderful days in Dolores and DapDap. Dolores Branch is so good!
President Cesista told the youth that they have to work with the
missionaries to get their makeup work done so we have members to work
with us every day!! It's so funny at MCM it's like an auction for who
can work with us on what days. I've never felt so popular! They're all
yelling "Waray na utang!" Which means no more debt!

Arnilyn, the awesome one who came back after being inactive since
April, began the Book of Mormon after our last visit to her, and is
now in Alma 5 as of Saturday. She also brought her live in partner
with her to church and has a desire to get sealed in the temple. She's
amazing! Also, because of her, her less active mom has come to church
for the past two weeks and her little brother wants to be baptized and
also came to church with her. This all happened after just one visit
that I didn't even think seemed that insignificant! Lesson learned; we
never know what lives we can change from one visit to one person, even
if you don't think you did that much. We're just working on her father
and younger sister so they can all come back as a family (:.

Alright, that's what I have for you this week! Missionary work is the best!!
LOVE YOU!
Sister Sprouse