Maligayang Pasko at Bagong Taon! 12/28/14

Kumusta everyone!
So this was my first full week of work here in my new area of Quezon Hill. It's called Quezon Hill for a reason because literally my area goes to the very top of the mountain, so it's a work out the entire day! This week we had some curfews for Christmas which made it a little hard to proselyte, but we were still very blessed to be able to find where more people live and find a lot of new investigators as well. It has been a little hard and stressful for both me and my companion opening this area, but we really are so blessed to be here in this ward. The members love us, and they're all excited to finally have sisters. Filipino's like to show their love by feeding us, so even though I'm climbing mountains everyday, we probably eat twice as much! On Christmas, every house we went to fed us, and finally when we couldn't eat anymore, they gave us food to take home, so don't worry parents, I'm being well taken care of here :). It's weird to think that this was my last Christmas as a missionary, I have really enjoyed being here during the Christmas season to celebrate the gift of Christ and share His gospel. Looking back on my week now, even though some days were hard and filled with walking for hours, searching for houses and people by Filipino directions (aka people telling us "over there" or up the hill") I still had a really great week and I just feel so happy to be here. I just always have a smile on my face no matter what. I love my mission, I love the Filipino people so so much, they will forever have a special place in my heart. I can't believe it's about to be 2015, my new years resolutions this year will be really become the person God knows that I am, and to work hard each day that I have left here on my mission. I hope that ya'll will always remember and appreciate the blessings of this gospel, because it really is what matters most!
Mahal Kita,
Sister Bangerter
 Shout out to Grandma for the Christmas card, love you!

Found some prayer flags, made me think of you MC, I miss the Carlson fam!

Our kabahay on Christmas Eve

Our kabahay on Christmas Eve

My area

Me and Sister Steedman

Full Circle 12/21/2014

Oh my gulay, this has been the craziest week oh my mission! Well one of the craziest!
I'm start from the beginning, so last Monday, I was anxiously waiting for the transfer call. They called at about 3:30, and Elder Harris told me that I'd be transferring to La Trinidad Zone in Quezon Hill ward, and open area, and still an STL! My new comp is Sister Steedman, the trainee of Sister Tapusoa, and we are the first sisters in Quezon Hill since 2001. Not going to lie, I was really nervous after I got off the phone. I didn't want to go back to Baguio and I was scared to death to open an area, but like my good friend Sister Sawada told me, President must trust me a lot to put me here. So after hours of packing and mentally preparing myself to come here, I am now back in Baguio and loving it! I have officially come full circle. I was born in an open area in Baguio City, and I'll die here in the mountains in an open area. It's going to be challenging, but both me and my companion are up for it! Oh yeah, and my new comp Sister Steedman is from New Zealand, she plays rugby and TENNIS so we're going to find some courts up here too. But the first day that I got here, I was the only one that knew that we would be opening an area in Quezon Hill, the poor elders had no idea that we were taking over their area, but they showed us around our first day and it was a lot of fun getting to meet the members. I'm a little intimidated because the members here love the elders soooo much, but I think they're excited to have sisters again too because it's been like 13 years. Apparently the sisters in the past couldn't handle all the hills and stairs...so still wondering why President chose me to be here haha but I know he's inspired and at least now I can tone my legs before going home, always a plus right? But the past week, we have been going back and forth between our area in Quezon Hill and Sister Steedman's old area in Guisad because we switched with the elders, so both of us are in an open area and neither of us know where anything is, but it's been an adventure for sure, and I'm so excited to be here in the mountains again now. It's great to come back and realize how much I have grown and changed, and most of all I love seeing people from my first area. In my ward now is my first Bishop from my first area, and another family from Burnham 1! The first night that I got here, I saw Bishop Canite and he told me the best news, one of me and Sister Aroa's investigators just got baptized! I don't know if ya'll remember the Arellano family, but Brother Jon-Jon got baptized last weekend, and he and his family came to the Christmas party on Friday to see me! There's really no greater feeling than to see those that I helped share the gospel with accept it and just glow with the spirit. This gospel is true and I love my mission so much, I really never want to leave!
Shout outs to Lexie for the letter! And Happy Birthday Ryan and Shanoah!
Mahal Kita,
Sister Bangerter

Packing for days with the departing sisters too, I miss you so much Spjut and Rea!!

Ordona family, their relatives in Agoo are my recent converts, small world!

We are literally in the clouds

The cutest little boy I've ever seen, he looks like he could be my child ha

The Arellano family!! Brother Jon Jon got baptized and I can't wait for them to continue to enjoy the blessings of the gospel!

The new Quezon Hill sisters and the new Guisad elders

My comp Sister Steedman, people thing we're twins haha

Christmas Conference- 12/14/14

Musta!
Well this might be a little rushed, and I don't have much to say, and my mind has gone blank cause I'm waiting for the transfer call...so I'm sorry for this lame email. Here are just some highlights from my week
1. I went on exchanges with my old companion Sister Hatch and it was lots of fun and it was her birthday so people fed us so much desert I had a food baby, but it was worth it. Oh and during the day we got checked out by a Tomboy (lesbian) so that was uncomfortable.
2. We had the Christmas Conference and it was much better than last years mostly because I got to be there with Sister Tapusoa and Sister Sawada, my favorites from the MTC! We also got a nice key chain and woven bookmark from President, and we watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 which was really cute.
3. I got to see some people from my last area in Agoo, and it made me feel so great how excited they were to see me too. I think Agoo was my favorite area so far, I left a piece of my heart there for sure!
4. The work here in Lingsat continues to move forward, I love my companion and our area and the people that we teach are super great, life can't get much better, so I really hope that I don't transfer, but I know that it will be the right decision and will lead me to even better things in the mission if I do.
Shout outs to Mom and Tami Minnick for the packages, ya'll are the best! And the Christmas Card mom, thanks so much! Also, I can't believe you're home Whit, hope you're emjoying RM life!
Ok, I love you all, keep living the gospel and share the gift of Christ!
Mahal Kita,
Sister Bangerter

Birthday dinner while on exchanges with Sister Hatch

We crashed and FHE in Sevilla cause one of the members knew Sister Hatch's Dad from Canada!

Some of my favorite people in the mission

MTC4LYFE

Me and Sister Lunar

 Me waiting for my nice street pancake with all the other little kids

Happy December! 12/7/2014

Kumusta everyone!
This week once again went by so fast. We had MLC on Tuesday and President is making a lot of changes here in the mission! Not only do we have a new Standard of Excellence, but we are changing the way we have our meeting and conferences as well as transfer day even. It's all good change though and it focused to help us to use our time wisely and to be more accountable for our work and achieve our mission goal of 100 baptisms a month. If there's one thing I've learned on my mission, it's how to be flexible, so I'm going to embrace all this change and I'm excited to see how our work improves because of it. I love my mission President, he is truly inspired and is really helping our mission to live up to its potential. I'm grateful that I get to be here at this time, and I know that I was called to the Baguio Mission for a reason.
Other exciting things that happened this week, I got to have exchanges with Sister Dial, the only other Texan sister in the mission (she's from Austin), so yes it was a great day, and yes we did talk about all the things we miss in Texas, and yes we both agreed that it truly is the greatest state and promised land #proudtobeatexan. So it was a really fun day and she's a great missionary, she used to be an STL and she is leaving this transfer, but she's super diligent and we were able to teach 8 lessons that day and extend baptismal invitations so I learned a lot from her. We just said that it was too bad we only met at the very end of her mission, but let's be honest we probably would have gotten pretty trunky together with all of our talk about Texas ha.
The work here in our area is still progressing nicely, and we had a way good Sunday! Almost all of our IBD's came to church, and we were so happy cause the past few weeks we haven't had any investigators at church. But I am really seeing great progression in these people, and I know that January will be a great month of baptisms! We are still working with Gab for his baptism in December. We haven't had any contact with him or his Mom, Alalaine, for the past two weeks becasue Alalaine left her phone in Baguio :/. So we were kind of freaking out, but they were at church yesterday and we got Gab's number (luckily 9 year olds have cell phones these days) and we will be seeing him this week and helping him prepare for baptism, so please pray that all goes well for Gab!
Happy Birthday shout outs to Elyse, Bianca, and my former comp Sister Hatch, love ya'll!
Also, thanks for the package Mom, we now have Christmas decorations in our apartment, but it's nothing compared to the way you decorate the house!
I love you all, keep sharing the gospel and the Gift of Christ this Christmas season.
Mahal Kita,
Sister Bangerter

My Batchmates at MLC

My previous comps S.Aroa in Baguio, S. Lunar now, and S. Sawada from the MTC

Me and Sister Dial

Me and Sister Dial

The Lingsat district