Staying Put for Another Transfer

Hello my family!!!

So......Transfers tomorrow. I just found out what'll happen to me. What's your guess? Am I staying or going?...................I'm staying. Yep. Sister Ramilo is training and is getting transferred and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Ok, actually, that's a lie. I know exactly how I feel about it. I don't want to stay. You know how sometimes you just feel like you're outgrown a place? That' me right now. I've decided to adjust the words to, "I'll stay where you want me to stay dear Lord". Definitely be praying for some patience this transfer. Bhhhhhhh.

The bagyio that happened here is actually down in Mindinao, in the city that my companion, Sister Ramilo is from. We text her aunt through an investigator and found out her family is ok, but the whole city is basically destroyed. About 20 members from their stake died, most of them little kids. We were pasaway for a bit and watched the news at a member's house. Absolutely incredible. As in the entire city is gone off the map. The flood was over 30 feet high. I feel so bad for all of them and right before Christmas. I'm just glad that her family is ok. And no we didn't have to move everything by ourselves, thank heavens. haha.  The office elders came with their truck and helped us move.

Sigue, so updates for the week. Pretty much it's just a bunch of random stories for you this week. First of all, this is specifically for Leona and Huss...I can't remember the guy's name, but you know the guy on Prison Break? The one that's super gorgeous? Well, there's an elder here that is so so beautiful and I figured out this week they are look a likes. As in, I sat there trying to figure out who he reminded me of and then it clicked. No wonder half the sisters have a crush on him. haha. This one's for Ryan....my next door neighbor is a Friends fan! Every morning about 10:30 AM I hear, "so no one told you life was gonna be this way". Bahaha, too funny. Sometimes, I have to be honest, I try and listen in and see which episode it is :)

So this week has been a little different. I feel like I'm on a scavenger hunt. For reals though. We started hunting down less active members. It goes about like this. We go to the place where the address says they supposedly live, then we ask people there if they know them, and they tell us to go ask down the street because the people there have lived there longer, then we ask them and they tell us the numbers have been changed to the houses and to go ask the guard who has the master list of who lives in the subdivision, then we go ask the guard and he tells us there is no list, and there's actually two subdivisions with that name and the other is at the other end of our area. Or we go to a member, and ask if they know this person, and they say, well no, but I think this member does, so we go to their house, and they give us an area where that person used to live and then we go there and start all over with the asking questions. Hahahaha. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. It's seriously a scavenger hunt, like finding a needle in a haystack. Actually, more like trying to find one individual in an area with over 200,000 people. Oh wait, that's exactly what it is. It's gonna take a while, lets just say that. But we're sure to have fun while we work so we don't get too bored :)

We actually taught our next door neighbor this week. He started asking us questions about who we were so of course we were super happy to let him know :). My goodness, he has some seriously deep questions. We were just talking about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, as in the first part of lesson 1, super basic and Sister Ramilo mentioned that God has a body of flesh and bone. That's just routine. And he goes, wait so if God has a body, does that mean that he came to earth and had the same experience we have? Yeah, that's the first time I've ever had an investigator ask that. So crazy. they just moved this week, but we'll be sure to forward their address. We also taught the plan of salvation to another investigator this week....get this. They didn't like the plan of salvation. As in, they were sincerely upset. Ha, I couldn't figure it out. We teach them the restoration, no problems, which is usually where people disagree the most. But the plan of salvation, they can't accept. They were upset there was no purgatory and there should only be heaven and hell. Not kidding. Go figure that one. That's about all for this week. It's been kind of off what with finding less actives and the holiday's and such. Oh yeah, I forgot! Our ward Christmas party was bomb! Seriously, so much fun. Every auxillary did a dance and honestly, just so funny. Loved it. It was a good break to feel like there's is actually a holiday coming up.  

 Anyhow, that's all. I love you all and I’ll talk to you soon! Actually sooner, than I'll be emailing again!! Holy hannah's, time is flying. Have a fantastic week. Merry Christmas!

 

P.S. Holy cow, Kim Jong-Il died!! Who's taking over? His incompetent son or the 5 star general aunt who doesn't know a thing. I'm dying for the BBC right now. Go figure :) One more question...how's the presidential race going?  Love you!

Missionary service project. They helped demolish houses for a street widening.

Moving Day!!!

Candace at the temple with the Christmas lighting.

More Christmas lights.

Candace with her missionary roommates. I see she didn't wait until Christmas to open her presents! She is wearing the shirt I sent her!  To be completely honest,  I would have opened them too :)

Gospel Centered Converts

Hello hello hello!!!

So first of all, I just have to have a moment and say, listen to this....we went to the mall today to get a whole bunch of stuff, and, of course, we went to the National bookstore....did you know the last book of the Eragon series is out!!! WHAT?!? Are you kidding me! Oh my goodness, I just wanted to sit in that book store all p-day and read. And then, I was flipping through Sun Tsu's "Art of War"...ah, it nearly killed me. I've been wanting to read that forever! grabi I miss my politics. I flipped through a couple books on the economic crisis and terrorism in Africa too....I just couldn't help myself :)

 Sigue, so for this week...I'm trying to think of what happened. This week was pretty busy because we were the tour guides for temple tour and then we had other meetings so it was pretty nuts. But yesterday though we got some new news with the direction the mission will be going in the new year. They changed our key indicators, where our member present lessons are now way low and our Less Active lessons are way high. As in, they no longer care if we are baptizing people. Of course, we'll still take referrals and do finding as usual, but the new focus is on less actives. President doesn't want any more missionary converts, welfare converts, or church converts, only gospel converts, which means we will be thorough with our teaching with investigators and doing a ton of finding people who joined the church and went immediately inactive, instead of adding to the pool of less actives here. Which is kind of funny actually, because that's basically what Sister Ramilo and I have been doing. This week we found 3 less actives and have been teaching them. One of them is a family where their dad is a former branch president, one is a convert when she was 18 that just honestly does not remember a single thing (she came to church last week, yes!), and, get this, found out our next door neighbor is the former Stake president.  Less active too.  Although I think in this case it was due to getting offended. Anyhow, that's our focus. And let me tell you, it's actually a lot harder for find less active members than it is to find a new investigator. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. So this'll be fun and a new shift in how we do our work. I'm excited though! I think it's tamang-tama, meaning, exactly, or something like that in English. Ha, that doesn't translate very well. But I’m excited. 

So I'm learning to cook Philippino food! I haven't told you that yet, but Sis Ramilo and I have a deal where every other day we cook lunch. So she's teaching me Philippino food and I'm teaching her "American" food, whatever that means. Let's be honest, American food is just a rip off of everybody else's...lasagna, tacos, chow mein. But I cooked lumpia for the first time this week and the best part was, it was actually good! So proud of myself :) I've decided I'm practically Pinay now...cooking lumpia, have a hole in my gym shorts, "Ay" is my new expression. Hahaha, too funny.

So in your letter mom you asked if I had figured out why I'm in the Philippines. I don't think I've figured it out completely, but one thing I have figured out...I'm here to learn charity and how to be giving. Let me give you an example. We have a family in our ward that is struggling for money. They don't have electricity anymore and they're struggling to buy school materials for their daughters because they just don't have the money. But they're so awesome and so faithful. And every time we go over there, without fail, they will always buy us a merienda. We can tell them no a million times, but it won't make a difference. They just want to give, even if it's just a little bit. Whatever they have, they are willing to give it away. It's incredible. And there's so many people here that are like that. They will bend over backwards to serve a guest and make sure that you're comfortable. And it's like they don't even think about it. It's just second nature. My companion is the same way and so is sister Lorente...they just think of other people before they ever think of themselves. It's so good for me because we all know most of the time I'm in my own little world and I don't stop to think of others as much as I should. It's humbling and I feel like I've learned a lot about what it means to just give because that's what will make not just them happy, but you happy as well. The people here are awesome.

Anyhow, that's all I can think of for this week. Love you all! I'll pray for some snow for you Ry!! :) Have a fantastic week!

Receiving the Holy Ghost

Hello my family and Merry Christmas!!!

Guess what! I actually got your package today! I'm assuming it was a bit quicker than the last one. I haven't looked at everything, but I did find the most important part....REAL MILK!!! Oh my goodness, I've never been so happy in my whole life!!! I'm trying to decide how to ration it out you know, since this is a treat that should definitely not be wasted by any means. Haha, I literally jumped up and down, that was my level of excitement :) Thank you so much for all your love and support. Seriously, every mail day I have a million pages of letters from Twit, and Chanae and you and then some randoms here and there and I just feel so lucky.  Some of the other missionaries don't even get an email every week, how sad is that. I just feel so blessed, that's all.

So first to answer questions: No I don't remember a thing of Spanish. Actually, just yesterday, I was talking to Jeyer and I asked something and then I sat there and thought....how do you ask that in Spanish? You know what, I still can't figure it out. What is the word for "what" in Spanish? I'm drawing a complete blank even now. Como maybe? Seriously the only thing coming to my head is Ano...that's tagalog, not Spanish. Oh boy, sad day. But no worries, I have a firm belief that Heavenly Father will let it all come back to me when I need it again. Right now I just need Tagalog so that's what's he's giving me and you know what, that is perfectly fine with me :) I love dad's comment...thanks for the booster :) honestly, I'm not really homesick. It's hard to be homesick for Christmas when there's no snow, no Christmas tree, no lights, no parties just work, so...not bad. The only time I really feel a twinge of homesickness...get this...listening to the Forgotten Carols. It just makes me think of coming home for the break with snow and our beautiful Christmas tree and of course, the Forgotten Carols playing in the house. Yep, noticed that last week, so we stopped that practice real quick like. haha. Nah, it's not bad at all. and ps though dad, I’m still working on your Christmas letter. Work in progress....well, I'm still in the thinking stage so hopefully it'll be done by Christmas. Haha. We all know how slow of a writer I am. And just one request, could you send me some pictures....#1: of a sunburn. I was thinking of the one from San Diego where twit and I are laying on our stomachs on the bed and our legs and backs are just fried. I tried to explain it to my companion, but I think a picture would be a little more effective. They get sunburned of course, but it's more like it just hurts a bit and they're darker. It's not like a  white and red difference. #2: lights at Temple Square. Once again, hard to explain. They have  temple lighting here too, which I'm stoked about. And what's even better, we get to go twice! Once because we're in charge of the stations and another with our investigators. Can you say happiness. #3: our house with some snow and Christmas lights. I just want to behold it's glory, that's all. Surprisingly enough, I'm actually missing me some snow.

Sigue, so now for the week! This week has been interesting because our schedule has been all sorts of skewompus so you know how that just throws things off. It's because, we moved!! We moved houses. President was having troubles with our land lord because they kept raising the price for "taxes" so we got a letter to give to her on mail run day that says, we're moving out and we were told to move the next day. Yep. Life of a missionary. So yep, we're in a new house now. Just image, 4 sister missionaries moving everything. bahaha, it was super fun. And can I just say, oh boy were we all just DEAD by the end of the day. I was carrying my desk up the stairs in our new house and I just got to the top and was dying. Haha, too funny. But bonus! The toilet flushes, although I've decided I prefer non flushing toilets. Much easier, and also there's screens which means I won't get eaten alive my mosquitoes. Pretty happy about that one.

But what with moving and such this week, our work struggled a bit. Sunday night we were practically running to a less active so we could make our key indicators before curfew. No seriously though, we really ran there, we had to make it before the gate closed. The work is going just as usual. We have 5 baptisms coming up that I'm super happy about. I have to be honest, they were a hard case to crack. But they're finally starting to get it. We started teaching them almost 4 months ago. Sometimes I forget that it takes time to change. Haha. of course. News of the week though! I have a stalker. I am not even kidding you. He is CREEPER too. Oh my goodness. So we go to the computer shop every Monday right after district meeting so that's what we did last week. And creeper man was there. I think he's an addict or something. Not sure. But he's looking over my shoulder the entire time, talking to me and such. He's usually there at the computer shop, but most the time he leaves us alone. Anyhow, we leave and go to the grocery store.  I'm in the aisle and look to the side and what do you know, but creeper man is there at the end of the aisle staring at me. I am not kidding. Then, he leaves and we're checking out and he shows up again! Then disappears, then we decided to eat there and he starts pacing back and forth at the front of the grocery store waiting for us to leave. Oh my goodness. So as soon as he turned the other way to wait at the door, we grabbed our stuff and literally ran out of the grocery store. He didn't follow us, but in case he did, well, we just moved houses so a lot of good it would do him. We're in a different computer shop right now, so I think he'll no longer be a problem. Creeper seriously.

So this is my thought for the week. I was listening to a talk by Elder Bednar about the Holy Ghost. Man, that guy is seriously so smart. He really understands about the Holy Ghost, that's one of his specialties I think, and how to be in tune and recognize promptings. I can think of 3 talks off the top of my head that he's given just about the Holy Ghost. Brilliant he is. So this talk though was about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He highlights that when we get the gift of the Holy Ghost, it doesn't mean that we just all the sudden have him as our guide. It means that we now have access and the right to have him as our guide. But it is our choice is we will actually "receive" him. And the only way we can receive him is, #1, we have to constantly ask for his guidance, and #2, we have to be worthy. We have to keep the commandments, however small they may be, and we have to be diligent in our sacrifice and consecration. Then we can truly receive the Holy Ghost as our guide and as we do, he will change our hearts and our desires to match the will of our Heavenly Father. I just thought it was so interesting, because it's actually a process. I feel like that's one thing that I've really learned here on my mission...how sensitive the spirit really is. Even the tiniest things can drive him away and I can honestly FEEL it. Holy cow, it's crazy the difference. But I know that he really can change our hearts. I've had a few times where that has happened. My mood will honestly just switch like that and all of those feelings just go away. But we have to desire it and we have to work for it. We have to  "receive" it, go up and take it. It's there waiting for us whenever we want.

 Love you all and thank you for everything! Mahal ko kayo (means, I LOVE YOU!! so does Mahal kita, ps. mahal ko kayo is just plural) bye!!!