Dear Family and Friends,
Well transfers happened this week, I am now in Bacon. Now I know what you are thinking. You are thinking of the food, but that is not how you say it. It is like Ba as in what a sheep says and then con like an ice cream cone. And no they are not famous for their bacon here, but actually well known for their fish.
My new companion is Sister Iqbal she is from Pakistan. She actually came out here the same time as me. I think she is still just really frustrated because she still doesn't know how to speak Tagalog very well. She is so diligent though. It actually is kind of hard because she doesn't understand me when I speak Tagalog so I speak it in English and she still doesn't understand me. So it is just some of the challenges that we have.
Also I am sure you may know that they have the position of Sister Training Leader in the missions now, it is like a zone leader, but for sisters. Sister Natividad and I were made new STL for Sorsogon zone. Usually in most missions the Sister Training Leaders are suppose to be companions, just like zone leaders, but because the mission is still growing and things, and Language barrier in a few zones like sorsogon it is not that way. So Sister Natividad is companions with sister Flake and then I am with Sister Iqbal. We get to go on exchanges with all the sisters in the zone.
It was different coming into an area that was already opened. I am however, the first American Sister this branch has. Everyone still thinks I am so beautiful. They call me an actor here. So I am in Bacon Branch, there are not very many members and actually they don't even have a chapel. They only have a rented meeting house. I remember when the Stake President told me when I was set apart not to worry about the circumstances that investigators come to church, but just remember that the spirit is the teacher. How true that is. Even though the circumstances are super humble the spirit is so strong in this branch. On Sunday there were 53 people in attendance. They say when they reach 60 consistently they can petition for a chapel.
I feel that I have already learned so much from this branch. They are so humble, and so so loving. This are probably the friendliest people I have met. And they have great leadership. We went to the Ward council meeting on Saturday night and it was so cool to see the humble branch president that really understands the use of council. They started talking about some of the less actives and why they stopped coming to church and how it all starts when they stopped reading the scriptures, and he asked everyone if they had any experiences with scripture reading and how it helps them in their life. It was a really spiritually edifying meeting.
So I forget how hard it is to transfer. It was hard this week. I just loved all the people in Bulan so much and it was hard not to always think about them. But I am starting to love this area. I keep on praying that I will love this area as much as I loved the dear people in Bulan. I know that I will, it is just hard when you don't see it yet. But I have a lot of faith that he Lord's hand will be able to help this area continue to progress. The teaching pool is really small here, but we are making sure we were obedient and using our time well and we have found quite a few new investigators. We are still working to get our area up to the standard of Excellence, but I know that the Lord will help us reach our goals.
Bacon is kind of a mountain town it is right up in the mountains, next to the beach. It is a lot different than Bulan. Our area is a lot of rice fields and we hike a lot- lots of hills. It is really super pretty, and the people are super sweet. So I get a lot of exercise. It was a little rough to adapt to the accent of the people here. Also I don't understand the Bicol here because it is a different dialect of bicol. So now I have to work on learning Bacon Bicol. Of course all the people know Tagalog, but it is a 2nd language for them, so it is good if at least I understand it. It's good though because the kids love to help me.
I hope everything is going well at home. Have a great week everyone.
-Sister Richins
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