Sister Brittany Ann Mecham : The Philippines. (Robbed Again!!!) week 58

Well. this week was nuts! I thought we were getting back to normal missionary work but it definitely wasn't. I'll start by the days...

Monday- We celebrated Sister Woodruff's 20th birthday by going to SM. We met up with some of our favorite members and ate lunch with them and then they came grocery shopping with us. We got stuck in traffic on the way home and made it in time for just one FHE at a members house. We are trying to teach her husband because he isn't a member yet, but he wasn't there. After the lesson we came home and ate birthday cake.

Tuesday- Started out rough but we were able to teach a new investigator. She is SO interested and pretty much just asked us 'where can I get a book like that' after that we introduced the Book of Mormon. It was a pure miracle. We then visited some members, so it actually turned out all good.

Wednesday- Started out normal. We had District meeting in Cabuyao. I gave the talk. We got home around 2, did our studies and left by 5. AND WE LOCKED OUR DOORS! We taught the lessons we had planned for another new investigator:) and the mom of the Grefaldo family. It was getting pretty late so we decided it would be best to start traveling home. It was good we did because we got home to a LOCKED house.

As I was putting my flip flops on outside, I hear sister Woodruff yell "THEY DID IT AGAIN. HOW DID THEY DO IT AGAIN?!!?!!!". And there it is. WE GOT STINKIN ROBBED AGAIN! Thank the heavens I followed the prompting to take my camera with us.

This time they stole 1,000ish pesos from me, a speaker and an ipod from the other sisters.

We were just furious because the DOORS WERE STILL LOCKED! We called president Mangum and started to explain then I went into our room and noticed they had been looking through my closet again and I just lost it and started almost hyper-venalating on the phone. I was really upset! President Mangum is incredibly calm and peacful though and just told me to call the other sisters and get them home then he was sending the elders to come get us so that we could stay the night at the mission home.

We were too scared to leave anything, so we just packed everything and had the elders there around 9:30 to help us clean up some stuff. Our bishop and his wife came to help us and it just felt good to have those safe people there. We all refused to stay there that night and just packed as much as we could in case they came again. We assumed they had keys to our house.

We left around 10:30 and all went and talked to the barangay hall to report the theft then headed to Alaminos to stay the night. The Mangums were there waiting for us when we got to the mission home around 12 and helped bring all our stuff in.

They had our beds all made and sister woodruff and I got to sleep on real mattresses. We crashed hard that night.

Thursday- we took HOT SHOWERS, ate a delicious breakfast with the Mangums and started studies, but like half an hour into it, President Mangum said maybe we should just get a ride back to Canlubang and start looking. So we did.

House hunting with no car is awful.

We were so hot and tired. We split up to get more done and we ended up at a members to ask for cold water and next thing we knew she was walking with us, calling the owners of the houses, flagging down tricycles to take us everywhere and pretty much doing everything for us. That was the biggest miracle for us. Then we took a break to eat around 12.

Earlier that day, the AP's had given us a ride to our old apartment to check it out and we were showing them around and the one elder discovered how the robbers were getting in. They had been using the old air con hole to crawl in and out. There was just a flimsy piece of wood over it and the holes in the grate are small enough for a Filipino to shimmy in and out! We were SO mad! It was good knowing that it wasn't our fault! Our land lady looked pretty guilty when we showed it to her though...

After we ate, we got a call from one of the owners saying that we could come and look at the house and that she would consider our budget. The house was SO nice!! So we scheduled to come back the next morning to figure out a contract. Then we spent the rest of our day recovering from our slight heat exhaustion and finished packing up our old house.We took a bus back to Alaminos to sleep.

Friday-We got the contract filled out with the office couple from Alaminos. They dropped us off to start cleaning our houses. We cleaned ALL day then took another bus back to Alaminos, took another warm shower and slept hard.

Saturday- was our last breakfast with the Mangums. We reloaded our stuff and headed to the new apartment. And moved stuff till 7pm that night.

We got the elders to dedicate our house too.It was really good because after that crazy week, it was good to all kneel down and ask for Heavenly Father's blessing to be on the house for all the future missionaries. The priesthood is amazing I must say.

Then we got to sleep in our house!

Sunday-Was normal. We had church, ward council and then had time for all our studies and had to weekly plan. It was good for us to get our spiritual strength back up.

Today- we had zone pday and went to los banos to see some falls. I'll get pictures sent next week.

Today we are just getting laundry done and shopping. Wehave a couple family home evenings planned too. We are just hoping this week won't have any crazy interruptions again. Here's to hoping.

So we are safe. we have a nice big safe house now and we have a good week planned ahead of us.

I love you all!!

Love,

Sister Mecham