Typhoon...shmyphoon

Kumusta kayo!! 

Oh my goodness, I have to be completely honest. This week has been rough. In all senses. So I don't really have many good updates. I'm just glad it's over!!!

Typhoon, shmyphoon....yeah, it was pretty crazy, and the wind and rain was nuts, but don't you worry, we were still out working. The government might shut down, but there's no shutting down for us. Really, it's not all that bad. Just about 3 inches of water in the streets and you're soaking wet. One of the members in my ward described it as the rain is like heat seeking missiles....it seriously comes at you from all directions. There's no hope of staying dry at all.  But other than that....haha. I was actually cold yesterday though! I wore a long sleeve shirt and I was just a little bit chilled. Go figure. The city really isn't shut down. When they say that, it's just because people don't want to go outside for work or school. It's much worse out in the province areas. That's where all the flooding is happening. Four of the sisters from Marikina are staying with us right now. Their house hasn't flooded or anything; it's just a precautionary thing. It's pretty much over though, so no big deal.

I don't have my new companion yet. Transfer day is tomorrow so you won't get to hear about her til Monday. Sorry :) But yes, my other companion is gone. We dropped her off yesterday and she'll fly out tomorrow. They have a lot of going home activities and stuff.  This past transfer I just have really learned the value of the small and simple things. We think they're not important, so we don't do them, or we're not as diligent, or we fudge the line. Wrong, the little things are the most important ones, especially if we want to have the spirit with us. 1 Nephi 16:28-29 describes it perfectly I think. I'm so ready to hit the ground running. Hopefully my companion feels the same.

So we don't get to watch general conference live here. They used to do that, but it's at such a weird time, like 4 in the morning or something that not enough people were showing up to make it worth it. So instead, we get to watch a rebroadcast not this weekend, but the next weekend. So I’ll get to watch it a little late, but it's totally ok because I'm SO excited. Hopefully we can get a lot of investigators there with us. Some of the ward members ask me if I’ve been to conference before when they find out I'm from Utah and I always feel so bad because I'm going, yeah, usually every year. And they just are blown away looking at the pictures from the Ensign, let alone actually going. We are so so spoiled for sure.

Oh yeah, happy moment from this week! I finally convinced my companion to go running with me. First time in 6 weeks! I've never been so happy in all my life. We didn't go far at all and it was so super slow, but it was so great at the same time. Oh my goodness, I sure do miss it. There are no words. But my jump rope will just have to do for now.

Anyway, that's really all for today. I'll be talking to you pretty soon, just a few days and I promise my next one will be better :) Mahal na mahal ko kayo!!

Preparing for Area Split

Kumsta galing sa PHILIPPINAS!!! Hello my family, how are you all!? Holy hannah, I can't believe it's P-day already. Blow's my mind. But I have much to catch you up on. So this week has been pretty great. We're still trying to get ready for the split, so it's been really busy. It's kind of hard because, well, no one knows what our boundaries are. Not even the bishop or the ex-stake president, or any other leadership in the ward. Talk about grey areas. Kind of a mess. Haha. So we're trying to figure that out still. My companion goes home in less than two weeks....I'm really excited for next transfer....that's all :) I'm just ready to hit the ground running. So first of all can I just say how awesome my mission president is. We had interviews last week, and he's just so great. He reminds me of dad. I've heard of other mission presidents that when they do interviews just go through the lists of questions, but not President DeLaMare. All he says is, so, how are you doing? And goes from there. He's has a really laid back, open feel about him, but you know that there is a line and if you cross the line, bad things will/can happen. See why he reminds me of dad? :) That interview was exactly what I needed. He just told me to be patient and wait it out for now, so that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

The work is going well. We have about 5 people right now that are for sure baptisms. It's just hard because they can't get baptized til they come to church 4 times in a row, so we're waiting for their church counts so we can set final dates. Jeyer is doing really well. Man, the more I find out about that kid's family the more my heart aches for him. I just have no idea what some people have to go through. We have another investigator, May-Ann, she's absolutely stellar. Such a sweetheart and she really wants to learn. And then this week we started teaching Marvin. Holy hannah, talk about people that have been prepared! So we were just asking for directions so we OYMed him and gave him a pamphlet. He lives just around the corner from us. So the next day we stopped by and gave him a Book of Mormon. When we came back for the first lesson, he's already in 1 Nephi 26 and when we asked him to pray about it to know it was true, he said he didn't need to because he already knew it was. Yeah. So crazy. We haven't extended a baptismal date to him yet because when we went back yesterday, well, he was drunk. Haha. But that's ok! He doesn't know the word of wisdom yet :) It's just cool to see how the Lord helps us with the work so much. I was reading in Jacob 5 and I noticed that with the parable, the Master is already there pruning and preparing the trees before he even calls in the servants. That's how it is really. He prepares them, we just find them.

Spiritual moments from the week: so yesterday I just realized how great church really is. You know how you sit there a lot of the times and you go, yeah, I already know this, or yeah, I've heard this before. Well next time you go to church, imagine you're sitting there with a brand new investigator that doesn't really know anything about the church, all the doctrine, additional commandments like tithing, what temples are all about, about church culture, nothing...it's a whole new experience. I was sitting there with my investigators and it was just so cool because I realized how new all of this was to them and how lucky I am that I've just known it all my life. It makes me so excited for them because there's just so much for them to know that will help them with their lives. And it's great too because then they get additional information that we just don't have time to teach in lessons. It was pretty awesome.

Second one is from yesterday. We went and visited a member family that has a grandson that is a recent convert. We just shared a scripture and then had tatay, sorry, that means dad, actually the grandpa in this case. Anyway, he said the prayer. And during the prayer he just started crying and telling the Lord he was sorry they didn't have enough money for them to go to church and follow that commandment, and how he wished that they could and how bad he felt that he couldn't take his family to church every week. Oh my goodness, it was incredible. You see, this family, they make about 200 pesos a week, that's about 5 dollars. And here, there are some things that are cheaper, but a lot of things are American price. So they don't have much to say the least. And here's the 70 year old man, in their little tiny house, just crying as he prays to God for forgiveness. Holy cow, it was incredible. And you know what, God understands that. He understands the desires we have, even if we don't have the means to actually do it all. It was really humbling.

So questions ......Yes, the sisters are from a different area. So what they'll do is move them to a new apartment because they're putting 4 missionaries in their area as well and then all the missionaries from our two areas will live in our house. We figured out yesterday though that if they do that, they'll be switching out the sisters in either our area or the other sisters area with elders because we wouldn't have enough elders in our district/zone to fill all the leadership positions. So that means they'll be whitewashing either our area or the bago bantay area with 4 new elders. So we'll see where I am after next transfer. It'll be interesting. No, it doesn't make me the senior companion. I still have 6 more weeks left of training, but I will be the only one who knows the investigators, area, ward, etc. Yeah, I have a lot to memorize in the next week and half, lets just say that.

Oh yeah, and white washing means they take out all the old missionaries and put brand new ones in, which means they don't know the area, the investigators, anything basically. You sometimes loose a lot of investigators and potentials when that happens, but the mission is growing so fast right now there's not really an option. In July there were only 85 missionaries here. Now we're at 135 and by January it'll be back up to 186. Talk about a lot of trainers, a lot of new areas, and a lot of greenie missionaries.

When you said you were canning tomatoes and peaches, man I miss our garden. Vegetables and fruits are pretty expensive here in the city so they don't really eat them as much. Personally, that's where I spend all my extra money. I'd much rather buy some apples than stop at McDo for lunch. Doesn't look like I've changed much :) And ps, I think the boys being scared of girls is a good thing....keeps them out of trouble :) And much better for them so they don't have a girl when they leave on their missions.  I love that twit got chosen to represent her class too! Yeah, she's pretty much the greatest :)

Just a few more things because I'm out of time. Will you start printing off the emails I send and also the emails you send to me and keeping them in order? I figure if we do that as we go it won't be such a mess to organize and do later on. P-day is on Wednesday next week because it's transfer week, so email will be coming then. Also, what's Ryan's address up at school so I can write him?  So I also realized my emails are probably longer than Brooke’s and I just sat and laughed. I'm sorry if I bore anyone :) Iyen Lang. That's all for today. I love you all and hope the week goes fantastically for you! Mom, thanks for everything you do. I appreciate it more than you even know. Love you.

PICTURES!!!

                                                                           

Candace's apartment. Not bad. I was pleasantly surprised!

Candace and her companion doing laundry. I think she will  be forever grateful for a washer and dryer:)

The view outside the window of Candace's apartment.

These three little girls followed Candace and her companion around in one of the squatters areas.

Candace was able to go to the Manila Temple. This is an early morning picture. I love the angle she chose.

In Candace's words: "This is my ridiculously curly hair. It's driving me crazy if we're going to be completely honest!"

 Candace & Sister Schardt with a group of investigators they took to the temple.

According to Candace: A little piece of paradise in our straight city mission.

Eternal Perspective

Kumusta!!! So...I actually sent you some pictures this week!! Yay, are you excited or what!?! Haha. I'm sorry it's taken me so long. But since I sent pictures, I really don't have much time now so hopefully they'll say 1000 words each cuz I probably won't get much in. But I'll definitely get in the important stuff. First of all, I totally agree with the bed bug idea. We have this thing called "permetherine" here and it's so so strong, like, it'll kill a cockroach on contact. So we water it down and spray it on everything. So I think we'll redo that this week and see if that'll help. I'm not really sure anymore. It's just a part of life now, the itching. Haha. It's all good. It's so weird to think it's September already! And go Utah State! that just made my day. Even though I'm still 7,000 miles away, can't get rid of that aggie pride in me :)

So this week has been awesome. There have been a lot of ups and downs, I can't lie. I don't feel like we're doing everything that needs to and can be done in this area, but I'm still so unfamiliar with everything I don't know what to do about it. But it's just a learning process trying to figure it all out I guess. Some news for you, they're splitting our area, not this transfer, but the next. So we've been directed to figure out the boundaries for the two areas and then build up our investigator base like crazy in both areas. The ward that we're working with is absolutely incredible though. Our bishop is so on top of things and ready to get the work rolling so it's been so great to work with him. I'm pretty much scared out of my mind for the split though. Mostly because my companion goes home, meaning I'll be the only one left here that knows the ward, the area, our investigators. and let me tell you, after 3 weeks, I'm still trying to figure out what people are saying, let alone where the heck I am. Haha. The squatters areas are just so hard to navigate because there's all these little back way eskinitas... it's going to be so interesting. But I'm excited to get it split and start finding. It's going to be awesome. I'm pretty sure I'll be in this area at least until mid November, if not until next year. But that just depends on if they decide to white wash the area or not after November. We'll find out soon enough though I guess.

So I had some really awesome experiences this week. The first one is that I'm starting to be able to see people in an eternal perspective. I know that sounds so weird, but let me explain. Sometimes, it's so hard with your investigators because you can see they're not really progressing and you worry what they're really understanding or really ready to make such huge changes in their lives. It's kind of discouraging at points. But we taught a lesson to the Puod family this week, this is the family without the mom. And we're sitting in their little tiny house that's probably half the size of my room downstairs, on a wooden bench, teaching them about family prayer. And all of the sudden it was like I could just see them as a strong family, sealed in the temple and so happy because they knew who they were and what they are supposed to be doing in this life. It was like my heart just swelled for them because I could see their potential. It was the craziest and coolest thing in the world. And I was thinking about it, and I think we get discouraged because when we see people, we see them as who they have been and who they are now. But when God looks at people, he see them in the eternal perspective and he sees them as all they can become. It was such a cool experience.

Also this week, Jeyer decided to tag along with us on Saturday. Not really sure why; I think he might not have wanted to go home or something. He's still unemployed, and we found out his family story this week. His mom lives in a different province and he lives with his dad and 2 other siblings here in the city. There's 7 kids total. His mom left his dad because his dad is abusive. He said it's because he's crazy because he did drugs for a lot of years. Broke my heart when he was telling us all of this. I told that to sister Schardt and I said, I just want to help him. And she goes, that's what we're doing. What he needs is the gospel and that's exactly what we're going to give him. And it's so true.

It's incredible to see the difference in him already and it's only been 3 weeks. That's the power of the gospel in action. Anyway, he tagged a long with us and our last apt was to meet with bishop and figure out new boundaries. So we went to bishops and discussed what the ward can do to help, what we need to do, how to get prepared for the split and build our finding in certain areas, and then bishop just basically talked to Jeyer and said, this is what the church does and it's all based on volunteers work. We do it because we know in the end we're all children of God and we want to help as many people as we can. And then he talked to him about serving a mission and the perpetual education fund and it was just so freaking awesome and the spirit was so strong. And we leave, and Jeyer goes, I'm just so happy right now. Yes :) I love it! I have high hopes for that kid.

Another thing from this week...It's incredible to see how consistent the spirit is. There are some points when I can't tell if the spirit is there in a lesson or not. I feel good and everything, but I can't tell what our investigator is feeling. But I figured it out this week. It's so consistent that you really don't notice it's there unless it's REALLY strong; but you for sure know when it's gone. It is the craziest thing. Two examples. One...the traveling sisters came to the house on Thursday. One of them, sister Bernardo, is an absolute sweetheart. She's way huggy, touchy though, which is fine. I'm totally down with hugging you. But twice during that morning, twice, she pinched my cheek. The first time, I was caught off guard and I just laughed it off. The second time though, my heavens, really woman?! I am not 2 years old. I'm thinking in my head, bless your heart, but if you pinch my cheek again, something bad is going to happen. Haha. Maybe it's because she's Philippino and finds my red cheeks amusing. I don't know. Anyway, spirit definitely gone, it was like a "whoosh" and it was gone. Holy cow, so crazy. second example. We worked with one of the ward missionaries this week who has his call to Guam and leaves in 2 weeks. He was telling about his experience with us to bishop and was saying how the spirit was so strong in our lessons. I felt the spirit, but not that strong by any means. Anyway, point of the story, I think you get more immune to it. It's the craziest thing.

Ok, last things. First of all, Boo needs to eat like a philippino. I think that every time we eat a meal. They have the fork in the left hand and a spoon in the right hand and then you scoop the food into the spoon with the fork. It's absolutely genius. You get more food in one bite, and you don't have to use your hands to shovel it in. Just a tip for boo so he doesn't look like a heathen when he starts going on dates :)

I loved the updates in the letters. Made my day. It's always good to hear news from home. I feel things that I thought of for Christmas package: vegetable peeler and dayquil and nightquil. They don't have that kind of medicine here and the two sisters in my apt are way sick and that's exactly what they need. So I figure I should get some just in case. People here are already starting to recognize who I am. When I’m walking down the street people will shout "Sister Weller, hi". Honest to goodness, I never know who they are. Haha. It's hilarious. So I just smile, act like I know them and say hi back. I've only been here 3 weeks, how do they even know who I am already?!  Tell Chanae if I don't get a letter from her next mail run...... I don't know what I'll do but I'll think of something. And thank you for the world updates. I can't believe everything that's going on back east. I wonder if that's affecting Danielle any. I know they just barely moved there so I hope everything’s ok for them. Anyway, that's all for the week. I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for all the support. It means the world! Pa Alam until next week!

Questions Answered:)

kumusta!!!

 holy hannah, this key board is awful and falling apart so the spelling problems are probably going to be multiplied this week :) Anyway, how are you all! I've finally figured out how I want to schedule my time with this thing so hopefully I can get it all in.

So last time after I emailed you I realized I totally didn't answer any of your questions. So that's first....question answering time. Yes, we live with another set of sisters. There's 4 of us in the house in total. Only one of us is Philippina, sister Lorente and I stinking love her. She's hilarious. The other one is sister Nielson from Orem UT and she's so great too. We have way too much fun together :)

The temple session is in English. Everything is in English here; well, a lot of it anyway. Which is really annoying when we have investigators come to church and then they can't understand anything because it's in English. It drives me absolutely crazy. If I'm called to teach in Tagalog, then church should be done in Tagalog. It's hard because there's a really big economic gap in the wards. There's a lot of really really rich people and then a lot of really poor people. So it makes it really hard, especially with investigators, because a lot of the leadership are the well off ones so they are all magaling in English. It's weird how it works.

Yes, we have a fridge. You have to have a fridge in this place because everything that you open has to go in there because if not, it's so humid that it ruins your food. So bread goes in there, flour, sugar, even oatmeal. Anything that can collect moisture has to go in the fridge. Crackers, cookies, you name it. I have no idea if things ever really get stolen from people's houses. It doesn't seem like that's a big problem, but I have no idea. As for the number of lessons per day....our numbers have been really off for the past couple weeks with me being sick and then temple day and then transfer week for the first week. But usually, it's about 4-5 lessons. Lessons are longer here because people just like to BS. They definitely sent me to the right place :) our numbers have been really low lately though. It's been hard because it's my companion’s last transfer and she's working on planning her wedding right now. Yep. so she's not exactly the most gung-ho if you know what I mean. And I don't know the area or the language well enough to do anything about it. It's super annoying but I'm trying to work on it. We haven't really done much tracting. Most of the people we teach we find through less active members or from member referrals. Which are both great avenues. I want to do more OYMing (open your mouth) but I'm still so horrible at the language. I can spit out what I want to say, it's just really slow and really simplistically worded. On a good day I can understand about 60 percent of what they say to me.

Support money: we get 4000 pesos every 2 weeks, which is about 80 dollars. Most of our support goes to transportation for jeepneys and tricycles and such. It's funny though because when you convert it into us dollars, everything is so dirt cheep here. Five apples is 50 pesos, which is about a dollar. Or a pair of shoes is 100 pesos, which is about 2.50. But we operate on a peso budget, not a us dollar budget, so we still don't have oodles of money.

Yes, we have a cell phone. The philippines is called the texting capital of the world and it's so true. Everyone texts here because it's so much more expensive to call and texting is dirt cheap. We use to remind investigators about church, set up appointments, communicate with other missionaries, etc. it's really nice to have but kind of weird to have one after not having one for 2  months.

I asked about using the picture sight. I was told it was bawal. So I'm trying to upload some pictures today. Hopefully they'll send. It's hard to take pictures here because they tell you not to look like a tourist and I already stick out like a sore thumb so that doubles the problem. I'm trying though, promise.

As for sending things....really the only thing I can think of is more hydrocortizone anti-itch cream. I've been needing to use a lot. All of us in the house have this weird thing going on where there are bumps all over our skin that seriously itch like crazy. I can't even tell you. They're all over my feet and it's spread to my hands now too. And I just noticed yesterday that the bumps have these little puss bubbles in them and if I scratch hard enough they burst and become like little sores. Talk about weird. Don't worry, we went to see the doctor after 5 days of this and the only thing he could tell us was, don't scratch. Why thank you, that's genius. So glad I consulted an MD for such great advice. Haha. It was frustrating. But I’m hoping it will go away soon because it's talking all the self control I possess. So yeah, that's about all I can think of.

ok, spiritual moment for this week. So on Saturday we were able to take our investigators to a temple tour. We rented a jeepney and drove us all to the temple and it was so great. They have stations there where they talk about recommends, forever familiies, ordinances and such and it was just so great. It was fun to explain to our investigators what they temple is all about. I love showing them how much happiness they can have. It makes my day. One of our investigators friends decided to come and afterwards I was asking her how she liked it and she said she just started crying and she didn't know why. Yes, that's the spirit :) it was awesome. We just started teaching her yesterday and we're going to go meet her family tomorrow so hopefully....

So I've decided I'm totally going to get fatter, not skinnier in this place. Everything here is meat, carbohydrates, or sugar. Oh, and everything's fried. It's disgusting for my body. So much for loosing weight here. haha. I tried my first halo-halo this week though. The name literally means, mix mix. This is what's in it. crushed ice, sweet and condensed milk, jack fruit, a weird ice cream thing called uve-uve, coconut, bananas, jello, these weird jelly things, beans (like, as in black beans), and a wafer stick. Weirdest combination in the world. haha. but surprisingly, actually pretty good. But it's sugar and since when have I ever been opposed to sugar? :)

So there are 2 sisters here that are from Pakistan, how freaking cool is that. They read my palms for me and predict my life. It's the coolest thing ever. Today they taught me a song in Urdu. One is from Islamabad and the other is from southern Pakistan close to kashmir. I told them if they didn't think I'd get killed, I wanted to come visit them in Pakistan. They said, perfect come visit after the mission! They're so great. The one from Islamabad said there are about 3,000 members in her area. How freaking awesome is that. I was surprised, but so cool. I've been just picking their brains :)

So one of the families we are teaching is called the Puod family. The mom and dad are both members but inactive. This is the weird cultural note for you....the mom is in Dubai for the next 2 years working abroad. That happens all the time here. One or both of the parents will just up and leave to get a job out of the country. It's the saddest thing ever. These kids need a mom and you can tell brother puod is just lost right now. She only left a month ago. Last night we taught our investigator that is deaf. We figured out what his church was and he starts signing about purgatory and 666 and all this weird stuff. I felt like I'd stepped into a dan brown book. Needless to say, we taught him the plan of salvation :) They have some really weird church beliefs here and such. There's one church here called "iglesia ni jesucristo". Spanish. But, this is the weird thing. It started here in the philippines....so iglesia, is church in spanish and if you translate the rest of it "ni jesucristo" means 'without christ' in spanish, but in Tagalog "ni" means of, so it would be "of christ". So I can't figure out what their name is even. But they're really popular here and they have some weird beliefs. They're taught not to talk to mormons though. And they even have a temple here in the city. It's huge. Another weird church situation. we have a recent convert who's house was donated by another church, but in order to stay in the house they have to go to church at that church at least 2 a month. So they can't come to church all the time. And then there's another church where you have to pay a fine if you don't come every week. It is honestly the weirdest thing.

One problem that I've had is that people are religious here, but it's a complacent religiousness. They want to be members, but they only want to go to church if they want to, not all the time, or they only want to follow the word of wisdom if they feel like it. It's so hard. And it's also hard because a ton of members are inactive. So when you're teaching someone with inactive parents, it's like there's this precidence that's been set that it's ok to half-a it. pardon the french. I don't know how else to describe it. It's so hard because I don't know how to get across that they have to endure to the end. That's just as important, if not more important than actually getting baptized.

It's really hard.

Cultural insights for the week:

1- there is no cheese here that is actually real cheese. the only kind of cheese they have is processed. So picture the little cheese slices that grandma has you know, and squish it all together into a block and that's what cheese is like. Pretty much disgusting. I feel bad for them that they have never known the joy of sitting with a block of real gossner's cheese. mmm. Don't you worry though, I have been faithful in taking  my  calcium pills so I haven't been craving dairy like at all. Good thing because it's not really an option here.

2- rain here is nuts. When it comes down, it REALLY comes down. like pouring rivers in the streets that are 6 inches deep and pounding so hard you can't hear anything. Yes, we've technically had one typhoon while I've been here. They call them bagyos. They basically just really hard rain though for a lot of day and wind. nothing even that bad at all. it's weird too because you can tell when it's going to rain....it will get SOOO stinking hot, and then it will just dump. so crazy.

3- they have whitener in all their skin products. You have to be really careful when you get soap so that it doesn't have whitner in it. Weirdest thing ever… don't they know people lay in tanning beds and get skin cancer to have skin like theirs? One of the ironies of life I guess; we all want what we don't have.

4-  the telephone wires and electric wires are out of control here. Haha. it's hilarous. Just picture a big knot of string hanging between poles and that's what they look like. absolute mess. They have people called "jumpers" too that will steal electricity from other people. Wouldn't be that hard. There's no way you could sort through all the cables to figure out where they all go to.

Ok, to answer the missionary work blesses everyone thing.....I feel like missionary work has blessed me because for the first time I feel like I really am starting to understand what's most important in life. The most important things are just becoming a better person, loving those around us, and our families. It's hard because I feel like my emotions totally ride on someone else's agency, whether they'll decide to come to church or read the Book of Mormon; but when they actually do, it's the most rewarding feeling in the world because I know that it's something that will bring lasting happiness. So I feel like I've been blessed just to see how it's blessing the lives of others.

I'm going to try and upload some pictures now. We'll see how it goes. oh yeah! and this is how mail works....we have mail runs every 2 weeks so anything that you send with dear elder or through snail mail we get then. So we had mail day today and I got your dear elder and the one you sent snail mail. So I'm thinking dear elder would probably just work the best because then it's guaranteed to be there within the 2 weeks where as you never really know with snail mail. That's what I’m thinking, but who knows. so our next mail run is Sept 19. That's how it works. ok, out of time and this thing is LONG. yes, I got it all in :) Love you all so much. I'm so grateful for your support and love, you have no idea. Talk to you next week. Mahal na mahal kita!!