Week 10!

Hello friends and family!! Life is good here in the Philippines. Still hard, but it gets better every day. The people are so willing to listen to us, so its a lot of fun. We teach a lot of lessons and talk to a lot of people! Nobody really keeps our commitments, ha ha, but I have faith we will find some people who are really prepared to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Traveling in the Philippines is a lot of fun. They have these buses called jeepnies and these tiny little tricycles. We mostly walk everywhere but it's so fun when we take one of those! Whenever I'm in a jeepnie I feel like I'm on that double decker bus in that Harry Potter movie that like dodges cars and goes super fast and jerks around haha. I hope some of you know what I'm talking about. 

Tagalog is coming slowly but surely! I'm trying to laugh at my mistakes and keep using everything that I know and that's helping. The Filipinos love when I try and use it though. They mostly just laugh and me and correct me haha. I also love the food!! We get fed a lot, it's so great. I also love my companion, Sister Cornaby. She is so sweet and a great missionary!! 

I love it here and I am learning SO much! Thank you for all of the support and love. I am having incredible experiences, good and bad. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to true happiness and peace. I know that it is so important to do the little things like study the scriptures, pray and go to church. So many people are inactive here and it's so hard because they don't realize how much easier and happier their lives could be if they would just start with the little things. So I encourage all of you to find joy in keeping the commandments!! Recognize the blessings that come from the commandments. I know God loves each of us perfectly and individually. I know that because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be strengthened and do things that seem impossible!

I love love love all of you!! Turn out and serve somebody else if life seems hard. I promise it will help. Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Giles 

How is the food?

This morning we had zone pday and we hiked this beautiful mountain in the area next to us, Paete. It was hard!! So I loved it! It felt so good to like breathe hard and feel like I was working out. I am basically on an all carb diet here haha. We are trying to eat healthy but people feed us so much rice and bread and stuff all the time. 

What is going on with your apartment?

So we weren't able to find a new apartment but we are going to move in with the Paete sisters. It's close to our area so the traveling won't be bad and their apartment is a lot cleaner and newer. I also really like those sisters so I'm happy about it. I know it was all in the Lord's hands so this is what is supposed to happen. We will move in like a week and a half. 

What is Church like?

Church is very different. I basically don't really understand anything for 3 hours haha but I grow to love it more each time. A little 12 year old plays the hymns and he is sooo off timing and everybody is so off key, it really is so cute. And everything is so laid back like nobody really listens in Relief Society and they all have snacks, but I love it. It's soooo crazy how different it is. But I just have to remember that the church is so new here. I'm trying to figure out how I can help build up this branch because I know I was born into the Northridge ward to help these people here. They sing all the songs in English so I haven't learned any Tagalog hymns.