Sisters Conference Sadja!

Well this was one of the best weeks ever! Mostly because we had Sisters Conference and it was awesome!

So we went to Bacolod on Monday so that Sister Sheehan could have a follow-up doctor's appointment and then we went and had lunch and emailed. Then the fun began. We went to the mission office so we could get picked up and taken to the "O" hotel in Bacolod. It was awesome. HOT SHOWERS!!!! WITH WATER PRESSURE!!! Yes, these are the simple things in life that I don't even remember. Anyway, we got fun new t-shirts and then after changing they took us all to the Pana-ad Stadium, which is the big sports stadium here. It was so much fun. We had frisbee, volleyball, and basketball. I got to see my mission president in track suit bottoms and a t-shirt. It was the greatest thing ever. I played Volleyball the whole time and it was awesome. We had awesome food for dinner, I got to just hang out with my mission president and then we went back to the Hotel, had some sister hang out time and then went to bed. Tuesday we had to be at the local chapel at 8am and then we had training. It was amazing training and the APs had some WAY fun object lessons for us. One of them was actual fishing, like they got real fish and had some of the sisters try to catch them with a net. Needless to say it was ridiculous and people were crying they were laughing so hard, but it was actually a way good object lesson. I love trainings, especially from President Tobias, so it was the best. After lunch they had us go out and try to apply some of what we learned. So we worked just in the area around the chapel. It was fun. We got a couple of referrals for the elders in that area. After the afternoon events were over we had a talent show. It was ridiculous. President decided he wanted me to MC the whole thing, so I got to announce all the acts. Since I was in charge of announcing the acts I decided to on the spot call on the APs to present a talent. HAHAHA. I just didn't realize how the sisters would react. They got so excited they started chanting and banging on the tables in unison. It was hilarious. I'm pretty close to the APs, but they still wanted to kill me. Ha ha ha. But they were good sports about it and so they, the senior elder, and president all did a skit. It was great. Way fun. After the talent show we had dinner and then watched a movie at the chapel. It was way fun. We were exhausted when we got back to the hotel so we just crashed. On Wednesday we had more training and it was awesome. Then lunch and then everyone just kind of hung out for awhile.

I got permission from President for us to go to the mall before we went back to Victorias. So we went and got some things. Two others sisters were not going to be able to make it back to their area that night and so President gave them permission to spend the night at our house that night before going back. So we went to the Ceres terminal to catch a bus. There weren't any buses. We were a little worried, usually there are tons. I asked someone and he said there would be buses. So I stopped worrying. Well there were a ton of people all waiting, so anytime a bus came they would all RUN and jump on and they would all fill up before us, and all of our bags, were even close to getting on. While we were waiting someone started talking to us. He is a member in a nearby ward. He was waiting for a bus to take him to the Cebu temple. He was way nice. He left and then came back with Dunkin Donuts for us. So Nice. Then he asked us what we wanted to drink, we told him not to worry about it. Then he left and came back with 4 gatorades for us. We're pretty sure he got a store to open up just for him. Then he left again. When he came back this time he told us that he had made arrangements on the next Ceres for us to have seats. We have NEVER seen anything like that happen before, so we didn't really believe him. You don't save seats on a Ceres in this country. Anyway, he told us to get ready. We still didn't believe him. But then the bus drove up and there were 4 seats all saved for us by a terminal aide. We couldn't believe it. He got our bags on the bus and we were on our way. We figured he had to have paid they guy to save those seats for us. It was amazing. He was truly a guardian angel. It was getting late and we might have been stranded. We were truly blessed.

Anyway, it was a way fun week. I had a great time with all the sisters and President and the APs. We got great training and feel a new sense of urgency for the work. I love being here, I LOVE my mission. It's the best in the world. I hope you are all doing so awesome. I'm so grateful for all my friends and family. Tomorrow marks my 6 months left mark. I can't believe that's all the time I have left here. It's gone by SOOOO incredibly fast. I can't believe it. Anyway, this is the best place in the world. I know you're all jealous! :) Love you!

Sister Jackson