Merry Christmas!!

So apparently Filipinos start celebrating Christmas on September 1st. I thought it was just a joke, but it's not! So many people have their Christmas decorations set up in their homes and there is Christmas music playing in the grocery store! It's really interesting! I'm not sure how I feel about it haha :)

This week we had a service project at a members home getting the trash and black sludge our of their gutter so the water can start draining. Afterwards, they fed us and I got to try passion fruit! It's the prettiest fruit I've ever seen! It doesn't have much of a taste though, but it's still good! :) I took my first bite and there was a maggot in it! Then all of the sudden, the maggot jumped into the sister's lap next to me. The maggot JUMPED. I didn't even know that was possible!? I at all the passion fruit anyway after that and only found one more maggot at the end. Hopefully there weren't other ones that I didn't know about hahaha :)

I tried another new thing this week too. Pigs blood! There are so many street vendors that sell it, so one day we stopped so I could try it. They add something to it, like gelatin I think, to harden it, then they put it on a skewer and grill it. The only way I can describe it is like a think brown blood clot on a stick hahaha. It wasn't bad! I had it a few days later on top of rice at a dinner appointment. 

Yesterday while we were proselyting, we ended up meeting this man. We went inside his house to teach him. He talked to us a lot about his hobbies. We said his whole life is drinking alcohol and cock fighting. He was proud of it though haha! He brought a tool box over to us and showed us what was inside. Turns out it was his cock fighting kit! It had the razor blades and knives they put on their legs, a long with a bunch of other stuff I didn't recognize but looked brutal haha!

Anyway! I'm doing good :) The work is great! The people here are amazing! I'm so happy that I get to share the Gospel with them. I'm thankful for the Holy Ghost that helps me know what to say and do. One lesson this week, I had an impression to share a scripture. It turns out my companion and I had that same impression and flipped open to the same scripture. That gave me goosebumps!

I know that say this a lot, but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us more than we can comprehend! They are always there to help us in this life and the challenges we all face. I really loved these scriptures I read this week:

2 Nephi 7:7-9

7 For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. [...]

8 And the Lord is near, [...]

9 For the Lord God will help me. [...]

1 Nephi 17:13

13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there to help us. They are our "light in the wilderness." They are always there giving us directions. The light is always there, we just have to choose if we will follow His light.

I love you all so much!! Thank you for all your support! I hope you all have a fantastic week!! :)

-Sister Durrant

PIG BLOOD!