Bloom Where You are Planted

Hello hello from the other side of the world! Today's theme is, "bloom where you are planted". My district leader is awesome. Even if it's been rough, I’m still enjoying this transfer.  I got both packages just this morning. I haven't had time to open them, but as always, super excited and super grateful. I feel so spoiled when compared to the other missionaries here. Love you all :) Can't believe it's my birthday either. Shoot, seems like just yesterday Huss and Hay were giving me a lap dance to Usher.... Bahahaha. Good times.  Oh yeah. And about Wendy...my goodness. Count my many blessings. For reals, I have an entire list of topics I want to study but I just don't have any time for. Maybe I'll send it to her, give her a few ideas. Ha. Ouch. 

So for this week! We had quite the week. It always feels like nothing happens, but at the same time so much. Pres. DeLaMare came to church yesterday. I think it was a result of my plea for help in my last report to him. Haha. But for reals though. He talked about the city of Enoch, or Zion. Then said, we as the church are Zion. And in Zion, I don't think there was chismis (gossiping). I think in Zion, everyone fulfilled their callings. I think I Zion, everyone paid their tithing. Ah, it was just so refreshing to have a bit of backup.  He's so phenomenal and I have a ton of respect for him. The person for this week is Sister Santiago. I don't have a picture for you or anything because we just met her last Saturday. She was baptized in the late 1990's and was super gung ho. When the elders came, she basically told them, you're just kids. What can you possibly teach me? So they just gave her a Book of Mormon and said, read this. She's a scholar, so later that night, she was reading in the Bible about Christ when he teaches in the temple when he's just 12  and she goes, ok, maybe they do have something worthwhile. So she read the Book of Mormon and bam, converted. She was super active in the church, endowed, you name it. But was having serious problems with her husband and family because of her religion. She made a really hard choice to fix her broken family and gave up the church. But even now she says, I'm still Mormon at heart. She teaches the kids how to pray, that rebolto...idols, like saints, shoot I forgot the word, well whatever, that they're bawal. Oh my goodness, I can't speak English. Ha. She teaches them the plan of salvation, uses primary songs, hymns. You name it. It's honestly hilarious. She said that's her way of sharing the gospel and the truth. We were just laughing. I was honestly shocked. But her husband died almost 2 years ago, so I'm thinking it's the right timing for us to show up. Time to do some work for the dead and start living the gospel again. Haha. Too funny. 

So I basically live in a tropical wonderland. Let me just tell you....so one of the days this week we took tally of all the fruits we came across while walking between appointments. It's getting summer, so they're all starting to come out. This is our list. Guaynabo, mango, eggplant, star apple, guava, banana, pomegranate, papaya, coconut, tomatoes, sugarcane, grapefruit, dates, and of course, palaya (rice). Um, can you say crazy. I feel like I'm walking in the middle of a jamba juice shake. 

So you know how I once told you that we tend to have a lot of miscommunications with the language barriers and all. Haha. Here are two very small, but kind of funny examples. First: so last week Sister Shoukat was showing her Pakistani outfit to Sister Joseph. (She has a few of her clothes here. Don't you worry, we're going to play dress up and do a picture taking session. Yep, I still haven't grown up. Ha). Anyway, Sister Shoukat says to me, "Do you want to see my birthday suit?!". And I'm just laughing knowing that's not what she's talking about at all, but can you imagine if that was said to just any random person? Bahaha. I just laughed and explained to her what that means to us. Not so much the same.  Second: we were washing the dishes and I was thinking, man this would take forever if you had to wash the dishes of an entire family. And then I remember, oh wait a second; dishwashers exist in America (I’d forgotten. ha). So I asked Sister Shoukat, "Do you have dishwashers in Pakistan?" and she goes, "Of course. but we do all the cooking". And I’m going, well duh, of course! Took me a second to figure out, she was talking about a person while I was talking about a machine. Haha, we had a good laugh about that one. Oh man, there is way too much culture going on in this place. But I enjoy it. 

So yep, that's all for now I think. I can't believe it's already April. Shoot, speaking of April! You lucky ducks have general conference this weekend I'm super excited, there are no words. Eat some of dad's yummy food for me, eh? :) Mahal ko kayo at sana magiging maganda ang linggo ninyo! Bye!! :)

Oh yeah, p.s. We taught someone who knew about the quorum of the 70's. What the?! People barely know about the apostles, let alone the 70's. And then he asks, so how do you know if you have authority to preach the word of Christ? Welcome to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints my friend. We're going back this week. Of course :)

PICTURES...Morong area

Dinner anyone? A pan of  chicken feet.

The home of Sister Riza, one of Candace's favorites.

The new MTC in the Philippines.  Candace did tours here.  In her words "shoot it is way nice. I feel kind of ripped off in the Provo MTC with my little elementary school flip desk shoved into a tiny room."

Candace holding two very adorable children.  The one is nicknamed Taba meaning fat.  He reminds Candace of Gusgus on Cinderella.

This is the chapel that Candace attends while in Morong...pretty standard for the Philippines.  

Refiner's Fire

Hello my dear family! I'm happy to report this last week (well, half a week) has been much much better! After I vented to you guys for a bit (aw, always feels so good) I realized my problem was that I actually was just irritated because I hadn't said anything. I felt walked over. Shoot, is that not just the story of my life or what. So I gave myself an attitude adjustment and decided this was stopping now. Haha. I'm MUCH more bold with her. It's working much much better.

So can we just say this area makes me feel like I'm in the refiner's fire. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I've never felt so on the edge of my patience for such an extended period of time, and not just with my comp, with the branch, with LAs, with myself, with everything. My heavens. This branch is a mess. But on the bright side!! Yesterday I was making a list of all the things I've learned in this area....yeah, it's a pretty long list. That's one thing about being here. Usually in real life it takes a few months for you to learn a valuable lesson, you know the ones that will change your life and how you look at things. In this area, it's about 2 a week. I'm in the Metamorphic process and it does not feel good. We can do it though, right? 

 We do have a new roommate. She's also Pakistani...Sister Joseph. She's doesn't speak Tagalog at all. And she also doesn't speak English. Ouch. It's made me very grateful for my comp who is  Pakistani as well, but at least has a grasp on the language. It's been a little rough I think for Sister Segovia, but she's great, she'll figure it out. Oh the joys of having a companion.

I'm not sure what else has happened this week. It's only been a few days right? We're struggling with our less actives. They get it, it seems like they know everything, but apparently they don't because they don't want to ACT. Which means there's kulang somewhere, there's something missing. Haven't quite figured it out yet. 

So I've decided to start to give a little short blurp about one person in my area that we visit, about their life and such and then a picture so you can check it out and see their life. For this week is Sister Riza. She is honestly my hero in so many ways. One of the hardest workers I've seen here in the Philippines. So this is her story. When she was about 17, she started dating a guy and got pregnant. They didn't want to be together, so she went and lived with her aunt and starting raising her son all alone. That's when she met the missionaries. She was living with her aunt and they were actually teaching her aunt. She wasn't interested at all, but then she decided to just read the Book of Mormon and see what they were talking about. Read it, prayed, got baptized. Still has one of the strongest testimonies I’ve seen. Then she was super active, but then met her next spouse and current spouse. Fell away from the church, then got pregnant. But they stayed together and are married now. About 1 year into their marriage, she started to get active again and wanted him to join the church. He had no interest. So you can imagine the gap that's caused. She pulls sidelines just so they can eat and honest to goodness, has the most incredible attitude ever. She knows what's happened to her it's because of her choices, but she ALWAYS has a smile on her face and is so welcoming and happy. It's incredible. And such a reminder to me that, #1, your choices truly do determine your destiny, and #2, you can also choose to be happy. I wish you could just meet her. She still glows, despite everything that's going on with her life. So that's sister Riza. I tell you, one of my favorites. 

That's all I can think of. Hopefully all is well with you and you're enjoying your snow. It's starting to get a little toasty over here with summer approaching. Wowsa! Pero mahal ko kayo, at sana maganda and linggo ninyo! Ingat kayo!

Transfer Day...No Changes

Hello my dearest family,

Oh man....so we just had transfer announcements. Shoot guys, you ready because you're just about to get a whole lot of venting from me that I've bottled in for the past 6 weeks. We're not transferring. I'm with the same companion in the same area and I literally could cry right now.  I feel like I've reverted back to high school all over again where I don't have a say anymore and I just let it all bottle up inside of me instead of sticking up for myself and there's no outlet of running. But not an option. I wanna trust that this is the companion God wants me to be with, but shoot, I'm struggling.

On to something else before I tear up in this computer shop. Ha. So updates for this week! We had MTC tours this week. They just finished the new MTC in Quezon City (it's SO nice) and we were the tour guides for the open house last week. It was pretty good. We were there for 2 days out of the week so pretty much patay sa work namin. But no worries. Funny stories from that though. I met this gross old man. For reals though. He's 85 years old, from Rexburgh, Idaho. And just icky, hard to describe. Just kind of a creepiness about him. So of course he wants to talk to me because I actually speak English. So we're talking, and I asked him what he's doing here in the Philippines. and he goes, my wife died (like that explains everything or something). And I go, so you came here for retirement? And he goes, no to find a wife. And up comes his 35 year old wife and grabs his hand, and I'm barfing in my mouth as she's talking about it doesn't matter what your age is as long as you have love. And I'm thinking, yeah right, total gold digger. I've lived in the Philippines long enough to know how that works here. ew, ew, ew. Seriously disgusting. I just don't understand that at all. Did you even love your wife? is what I wanted to ask him. Gross. Other weird story. So a few elders came over from the MRC to chill with us while we waited for people to tour. Oh yeah, MTC's like the hospital place for missionaries from the entire Philippines. Anyhow, towards the end of the day, one of them comes up to me and goes, did you work back east in Bennett's office? And I'm going, ah....do I know you?? And he goes, you probably don't recognize me. I look way different now. My hair was longer back then". And then it all came back and I was like, "Wait, you're the kid from the copy room!".  Haha, yep. We both had projects we were working on and were together for like 2 hours in the copy room in the senate building. So of course, 2 hours, you start to chat right. Seriously too funny. Such a small world. We caught up on life, the mission, people we knew from DC (he worked in Hatch's office), just like we were the best of friends or something after only talking to each other for a total of 2 hours in our entire lives. Hahaha. Too funny. Kind of got asked on a date too. Haha, weird moment, but I just laughed. Anyhow, those are my two stories from MTC tour.

Sister Lorente had a seizure last week. She's epileptic so not super surprising but still. She's ok, but she calls me from the hospital and goes, So guess what? I'm watching Harry Potter 7 P1 right now. I thought she was kidding. Nope, that's what was on TV in her room. She's doing ok now though and back to her area so that's good. The work is coming along here. Sister Macaranas and I found a family a couple weeks ago that we've been teaching and they are honestly so fantastic. Sister Dina and Anthony. They're young, 18 and 24 and have a 1 year old daughter who is so cute. They have so much faith. They already believe it's true and are still praying for an answer. You don't find a ton who immediately have faith like that. They've been coming to church too. I'm just so excited for them and it makes me super happy! As I've been here longer you can just honestly tell who gets it and who doesn't. Something it will just click for them and because of that, they'll be the one to ask when church is, or what they need to do; those are the ones who are prepared and ready. I love it and so grateful for the help in finding them. We have another new investigator too, Sister Jackilyn, who's a friend of a member. We've actually never met with, just in passing or when she's at the member's house, but it was our first time. She had an appointment, but she didn't go and instead waited for us to come to her house because she feels like she just needs help with her family and her life. It's incredible sometimes how much trust they put in you to help them solve their problems. And most of the time as I listen I go, I have no idea what to do. I'm just a little 21 year old girl, I have no idea about this kind of thing. But then I remember how the gospel seriously can solve any problem. Sometimes I forget the power of the message we bring. That Christ lives and the heavens are open, ready to help us.

So that's all for this week. Wish me luck this transfer. Shoot. I need to get a better attitude maybe. Ha. Love you all and I'll talk to you soon!

Awesome Mission Conference

Hello hello for another week from the Philippines!! For questions, comp has been out 15 months. She has 3 left. Yes, the bucket is the shower. The other sisters speak English, but it's broken and sometimes hard to understand. Haha. So we stick to Tagalog. They're actually better at understanding it than speaking it. I get to play the piano about once a transfer. So not very often, but at least a little right?  Nothing else I need for my birthday. I'm set to go here. If anything, just milk :) Shoot, every time I read about the presidential race I just want to find a newspaper! But thanks for the updates. I always appreciate them. 

So catch ups for this week. First things first about mission conference. Elder Nelson is from the 70 and holy cow, it was SO awesome. I'm kind of sad that I only get one on my mission. But there were two talks I really loved. The first was Sister Nelson. She talked about, "Nelson's do diversity". It was about loving your companion. Haha. I may have gotten a little thrashed by the spirit, but it's ok because I totally deserved it. She is an amazing speaker though. And she's got a firey personality. I like it :) Then Elder Nelson talked about receiving personal revelation. He talked about the Joseph Smith story and how it shows that any one, who ever they may be, has the right to receive personal revelation and then we talked about how to go about doing that. We studied in Nephi 11-14 and a lot of other scriptures as well and basically mapped out the way to receive personal revelation. And you know what, this is something I've been trying to figure out for about 3 years now and I just haven't gotten it down. But after we compiled all these scriptures and put them together, it just makes so much sense for me now. My faith has seriously grown. If we ask, he will answer. It's an eternal principle. We just have to go about it the right way and with enough faith. I absolutely loved it. So that was a good part of the day. Pres and Sister Delamare spoke too which was also awesome. One thing Elder Nelson said too was that when he had the chance to go with Elder Oaks to assign missionaries to their missions, sometimes Elder Oaks would put them in a certain mission, not because of the place, but because of who the mission president was. I think that's part of why I'm here. Only part of it, but I feel like it contributed. Also he said, as a missionary, don't ever forget how important you are. He said that each time they meet for meetings during general conference, the very first meeting they have in the temple, they start with a series of prayers and the very first prayer is always for the missionaries. He said, you have no idea how much time and concern is dedicated solely to the missionaries. Don't every forget how important your role is and how much we love you. I thought that was pretty awesome...good boost for our soon to be missionaries in the fam. Then the last 2 hours of the conference, we get to ask any question we want. So of course we got some pretty sweet information, about when they reorganized the first presidency, about other internals things with the church. And just other random questions to doctrinal information. So next time I gotta brain storm for some good questions. If you think of any, let me know and I'll ask it next time :)

Other randoms from this week. I found the big dipper! I've been looking for that thing for 6 months now. Apparently it's only out here in the early morning.  Transfers are next week which means I won't be emailing until Wednesday. We'll see what happens. Pretty sure I'll be staying here for a good while. I'm feeling my comp might just go. Anyhow, that's all for now that I can think of. I'll add a karadugan here if I think of anything else. But love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Mahal ko kayo!!