Philippines Week 31

Another week has flown by. I can hardly believe that it is June.  This month is the half way mark on my mission.  I feel like I have changed so much but I also know that deep down I am still just Katie.  If there is anything that I want to share with you all this week its about prayer.  Prayer changes things.  I remember in the MTC, Rach once wrote me and said, that "love can break down and soften anything." I believe that the same can be said of prayer. This week I saw prayers soften the hardest woman that i have ever met. It was amazing to feel truly and completely understood because of a prayer. 

 I have also been focusing my study on my purpose here.  Sometimes I feel like I get lost in myself and in the flow of Mission Standards of Excellence and I just forget.  But this is what I learned this week:  I love the people here. I love the gospel. But if there is one thing that I realized this week, it's that I am here because I believe in the Plan of Salvation. My family can be together forever.  That is my purpose here.  This is just one way to bless my family and many other families.  Sometimes, I just pretend that everyone I meet is you or David or Caroline or Rach or Matty or Ash.  That is how I love the people. I know that as I work hard, they are receiving blessings because I am sharing the true gospel.  I want my family and all the families I meet here to be eternal.  

This is an excerpt from my letter to President Querido this week:

The purpose of trials are to prepare us for our future lives. These trials that we see all the time on our missions are for our benefit. They are here to help us become better people for the future. We have so much to learn, experience and do on our missions in such a short time. Sister Raynor

I realized that all this crap that we go through in this life is for our benefit.  This is making me a better more humble servant of the Lord, and a better person.   I'm definitely being refined!  That's what He does for us. He gives us challenges to refine us.

Other things from this week:

• Exchanges with Sister Pilkington:  Sister Pilkington is from Dublin, CA.  She goes to BYUH and is friends with Chanel.  She is also awesome. I learned so much from her on exchanges.  It was fun to be kind of American again.  We had a lot of fun--mainly eating mangoes in the street and speaking a lot of English.
• I miss David a lot.  
• I hope Lindsay had a good birthday.
• Shout out to my home girl Cali Ann.  I miss her so much.  
• Ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga Banal sa mga Huling Araw is true.

I love you all.  Until next week, Sister Raynor

This is a picture of the gas tank in a jeepney that we drove in last week.  I thought that we were going to crash and die.  Super dangerous--its more fun in the Philippines!

Sister Bautista and I cleaned the kitchen. Pretty eventful just because I dont think that it has ever been clean. I am also the first missionary to ever check the water purifier filters...yuck.