Transferred To San Pablo!

Hello everyone! 

Well, I just read your emails. I can't believe that Nathan fell 25 feet. I'm so grateful right now that he was protected and that he wasn't injured seriously. What an amazing miracle, really! I'm still in shock about it. I can't believe that it happened, that he's still alive, and that he only had a fractured wrist. I will be praying for you Nathan, that you will have a quick recovery. 

Haha, I thought I was going to have the "news to tell". But you got me, everyone. 

My news, though not nearly as exciting/scary is I WAS TRANSFERRED. 

Ayaw. 

Okay, actually, now that I'm here, I'm so excited to be in a new area and I love my companion and the people. But at first, it was really hard. Really, really hard. 

It started with Tuesday, the day you get "The Call."  I was dreading that day like the plague. 

Sister Johnson got the call first, at 10am. We were all so shocked. She had just became companions with Sister Ebuen, so we figured if anyone was going to go... it would be me or Sister Feinga and if anyone was going to stay, it would be them. After she got her call, I thought for sure mine would come within seconds. We waited... and waited... nothing. There was no call. After about two hours, we decided we would be companion for one more transfer.

We were so dang happy! We were on an ecstatic proselyting high - doing above and beyond just because we were THAT HAPPY. 

And then... at 5pm I got the call. Transferred- to San Pablo 1. My new companion is Sister Maagad. 

Sister Feinga and I were literally in tears. Of course, we had ward council right after the call. It was so emotion and difficult, saying goodbye to everyone I had come to love so much. The ward was so sweet and treated us to a fancy bamboo hut restaurant in Batangas as a farewell and it was really great to just relax and socialize one last time with all our ward members. 

And then, in just two short days... I was on my way. 

My companion:

Sister Maagad. (Ma-ah-gah-d) 

She is the best! She is filippino and so much fun! She is from all over the Philippines and knows 3 of the Filippino languages here. Crazy! Not to mention, being really good at English. I am excited to learn Tagalog from her. She of course, is fluent and knows exactly how everything is supposed to be pronounced. She loves to have fun, but also loves to work. She has a deep, hearty laugh that always makes me laugh. Oh... and she also hums hymns a lot... but probably not as much as Sister Feinga does. :) I'm really, really happy that I have her as a companion and I know that we are going to have a lot of good times together. 

My area: 

San Pablo 1. 

Sister Maagad has told me two facts about the area since I've been here...

1. We are the luckiest missionaries because we have 6 of the 7 San Pablo Lakes in our area. (I've already seen 2 of them! Gorgeous!) 

2. We are in one of the hardest area in the mission. 

I don't know if the second one is so true... it seems like everyone is pretty open to listening to us, but she has been here a lot longer than me... so we'll see I guess.

Well the area is really, really pretty! And thankfully, about 10 degrees cooler than Batangas. I actually sleep with a blanket at nights again.

There is a lot more jungle life here... a lot more of what I was expecting when I came to the Philippines, and I love it all. This is also a more "pure" tagalog area, which means I'm back to not understanding a word that anyone is saying. But its okay, because my companion does and she is really, really helpful with learning/ understanding it all. 

My apartment:

I haven't taken any pictures of the apartment yet, sorry mom. I'll get onto that. 

The apartment is one floor. We have a shower and if the air here is about 10 degrees cooler, that means the water is about 10 degrees colder too. I feel like I'm jumping into the artic ocean each time I take a shower. We sleep on the floor in the kitchen because our bedroom is a little on the small side and the fans don't reach us as well in there. Don't worry, I actually love it. It's like having a sleepover every night. 

Which brings me to the roommates; Sister Williams and Sister Vaka. Yes, that Sister Williams. My old companion. It's weird to be living with her but not be companions. We realized that so far we have lived together 3 times on our mission. (MTC, Batangas, San Pablo...) Her companion is American, but both of her parents are Tongan. She is so fun-loving, but also has a really big heart. I can tell we are going to have some great times together.

The Work:

I don't really know many of the families well yet, otherwise I would be able to give more details about them. 

I do know that I love everyone we've taught so far and I'm excited to get to know them better. There is a family that I'm really in love with. The mom is a member, but the rest of her family isn't. They have 5 adorable kids. We taught the Word of Wisdom, using Lora's visuals. They loved it. 

The Weather:

It's Tag-ulan now. (Rainy season). It goes on and off. We have really strong rain and then nothing. 

My second day here we had a small rain storm after one of our appointments. It was really exciting. We got so soaked. The appointment was out in the jungle, and so we had to hike back to the main road through the rain and mud. I loved every second of it, especially as we went up hill. There was a mini river coming down our way and it was so exciting. I'm sure there are more stories to come from my experiences with rain. 

Oh yes, and before I forget. I saw my first monkey! He was actually a pet of someone at  the lake, and he was chained up to a bamboo stick about 10 feet up between two palm trees. He was really cute and liked to jump spontaneously off the bamboo stick letting the chain catch him. 

Well, that's all. Once again, I'm so happy that Nathan is okay. I will make sure to pray for you this week. 

I love you all! 

-Sister Beaumont