PICTURES....Morong

Candace with her companion while hiking with her zone.

Men stacking rocks on top of each other.  "Wicked sweet"...according to Candace.

Candace comparing the size of her foot to the foot of little girl in the statue.

Dog anyone?!?  Notice the 4sale painted on its back.

Every day is crazy hair day for Candace and Sister Shumway who both have natural curl. On the bucket list was to comb out the hair.  Also on the bucket list...straighten it when they get back to Utah :)

Of course, Candace took Harry Potter along on the hike. Can't leave him behind!

Candace just hanging out!

Time has Gone by WAY Too Fast

Oh my pamiliya!!! So crazy! Can we just have a moment and say it's transfers next week. How is that even possible?!?! I'm praying I don't transfer. I'm not quite ready yet. I just want one more. One more is all. We'll see what happens though. But that means, I won't be emailing til next Wednesday just as a heads up.

Reactions: yeah, hair is pretty much a mess. On our companionship bucket list for when we get home (we have one here and one when we get home); straighten our hair! Welder from the MTC is sadly still welding at the MTC. We've only taught him once because he's always at work in Manila. We'll see. Sister Dina still doesn't have a baptism date because they're saving to get married. She's still just as awesome as ever. Never seen someone so dedicated with reading. She's already almost done with 2 Nephi and is in chapter 8 of gospel principles. Seriously one of my favorites ever. Also on the bucket list is to go to the Manti temple. I seriously want to get into this whole family history thing. One of my goals to keep me busy when I get home so I don't go crazy. Someone asked me that the other day, what I was going to do when I got home, and I said, no idea, it's forever away. Then I counted. Hindi pala, it's like 7 months. Shoot, made my heart sick. This has gone by WAY too fast.

 So I'm kinda short on time this week, so I think I might just send pics because they speak a thousand words each right? That'd take me forever to type that :) a few updates for the week. We met this crazy guy. Haha, well, he was actually quite sane. But get this...he's read the B of M, D & C, Pearl of Great Price, and JST of the Bible....and he still doesn't get it. Not even kidding you. He just wanted to debate with us and tell us what the real answer was to all of his questions. We just told him, the only way to know is to ask God. He doesn't think that's allowed. Anyway, the best part of this is...he totally slapped me! Bahahaha. Not even kidding you. It was more like a love tap, but still, shocked me just the same. We left there just laughing. The work is going just the same. I could probably sit and tell you a million stories about a million different people, but no good quick stories are popping up. The latest news from last night:  2 of our recent converts, their dad just died last night. They're the oldest (20 yrs old) and second oldest (17) of 6 children and their mom is pregnant with #7 right now. Their dad was a member but has been less active since he was baptized as a teenager. And you wanna know the sad part of it all.... the reason it all went down was because "napatrouble", which means basically a street fight, which means, they were all drunk. So sad and so preventable. My heart aches for them. 

So we had a zone activity today. Hence the short on time. I held hands with a monkey. Almost rivals shaking hands with an apostle of God, but I think last week's still takes the prize. I forwarded some pics from Sis Shumway. We went to the falls again, and then went to this sanctuary place with a big statue/temple thing. Who knows. But it was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. The one with the 2 guys and the rocks...they stack them on top of each other. It's pretty much wicked sweet. Anyhow, that'll all I can think of for now. I'll talk to you all next week. Have a fantastic week! Much love!!!

Temple day...Russell M. Nielson

Hello my family!! 

Oh ma, can I just say it actually feels like it's been a month since we talked on the phone. Last Friday I told Sister Shumway, so this is day 12 of the week. Haha, for reals though. Sometimes that just happens. This week just happened to be one of them. So you wanna hear my cool story today though! About 3 hours ago, I shook Russell M. Neilson's hand! Sweet right. We had temple day so we were just waiting to get everyone gathered together, and what do you know, up comes Russell M. Neilson and Elder Neilson from the area seventy. They had a training meeting, so they were at the office buildings. Such a cute little old man. He was very nice with us. Temple day was great as always. I literally froze the entire time; I was shaking I was so cold. I was just waiting to get back into the heat and humidity. I'm gonna die in Utah.  Sometimes I just want to sit in the celestial room for an hour or so. Take a nap or something. It's so peaceful. We had to get up at 3 am to get there though, so I'm pretty much dying right now. 3 hours of sleep because I had to wash clothes, out of garments. Shoot. Never fully appreciated a washing machine like I should have. 

So updates this week! I have a lot of random ones. I'll start with the weird ones. So you wouldn't believe how much attention we get being 2 white girls walking around. It's absolutely hilarious. The other day in the tricycle, the driver was so excited he's yelling at people on the side of the road and other tricycle drivers, "Hey look! 2 white ones!" and the whole ride he's going, "ang ganda ninyo" which is like an emphasis of "you're so pretty", which is just super awkward. At one point I thought he was going to start caressing Sis Shumway's leg. Bahaha. We laughed so hard. 

So we met a guy from Cali. He's philippino, but when he was 6 he moved to the states and grew up there. He's like 45 now or something and he just barely came back a few years ago to take care of his parents. He's totally Cali gangster, which is just hilarious. Did care detailing for his job. You can just picture it right? Anyway, can I just say it was the weirdest thing doing missionary things in English. As in, I can't do it. I don't know how to be a missionary in English. I can do a regular conversation, but if it's missionary, it's immediately in Tagalog, seriously struggling. He's kind of interesting though. But the point of this story is, it just made me realize the faith that philippinos have. We were just talking to him about religion, nothing big and he starts going into exorcism and all this weird stuff and you can tell he just doesn't have a firm foundation of faith in Christ and God. But any philippino you approach, as in every one of them, they have faith in Christ. They know he is their Savior and he will help them through trials. It's not a complete faith, but they have the foundation. Meeting someone who grew up in America just put it into contrast for me. In America, you see more dependence on self than on God so it doesn't get stressed. Here it's just opposite. You don't have to teach belief in Christ because they already believe.  I love it. 

So we have a new investigator that is progressing like crazy. We've taught him for 3 weeks and the change is already visible. Ha, so funny. His 3rd lesson he asks us what the bawals are in our church because he wants to get baptized and he wants to start now. p.s., that doesn't happen very often. So awesome. But get

this. This is how we found them. I met a random guy on the street and just started small talk. Anyhow, the street ended, he went one way, we went the other. But the whole time I just felt like we should go to his house or something.  So the next time we had some extra time to track I just said, hey, that one kid came out of this road, lets see if we can find him. So we tracked over there and didn't find him, but found this new guy we're teaching, and his family. And turns out, there next door neighbor is the random kid, who's aunt is a less active that's been wanting to come back to church but just hasn't found the strength to do it yet. So we found 2 in one. I remember a quote by Elder Bednar from the MTC about the Holy Ghost and he just said, “Stop worrying about it. Just be a good boy or a good girl and the Spirit will guide you". So true, and most of the time you don't even realize it until you look back and see the effect. So cool. We're way excited for them. We really are starting to see progress in this area. A lot of our less actives are coming to church. It just takes time you know. They just have so much baggage to deal with; it just takes a while. I'm just so proud of them all though. Love these people here so much. 

I have a ton more, but this is way long right now, so that's all for this week. I hope you all are having a fantastic week! Mahal na mahal ko kayo! bongga-bongga sana ang linggo ninyo! Haha, that's my new word. That and hanep. Working on my slang now :) Much love! 

PICTURES...Morong

This is Candace's zone after cleaning a school for a service activity. 

Candace doesn't have milk, so I occasionally send her some from Gossner's. When she received her last package of milk she was so excited. She is enjoying her rare treat of real milk with her cold cereal.

Candace after a run with her new companion, Sister Shumway. She was so excited when she called because she had been running 3 times since she got the new comp. Candace commented how out of shape she is because after running she was sore for days.  Hard to imagine for a girl who could knock out 5 miles with little effort...wait until she gets to the elevation :)

This is the Aurora chapel in Quezon City where missionaries getting transferred meet their new companions. Candace loves seeing her MTC buddies when they happen to be there for transfers too.

Time Flies By

Hello my dear family!!

I can't believe it's already the end of the semester. Seriously blowing my mind right now. And I get to talk to you all next week! Sounds like everyone is just growing up. What is that about. Ha, you wanna know my favorite though....Twit, Chase, me, Chanae, we're all the same. Still single and just going through life. It seems to be everyone else who moves on. We always were a little resistant to growing up :) And Tate leaves so soon.

And I just got your package of REAL MILK!!!! Oh my goodness, that is just pure happiness packaged in a cardboard carton. For reals though. I'm going to buy me some cold cereal this afternoon. Love you mom. And thank you :)  And pretty much I don't want to talk about Ryan leaving, or Chanae, or Tate. It pretty much makes me sick inside that I don't even get to say good bye and I just know for a fact come next week, I'm just going to sob when I get to hear their voices and know that when I come home they won't be there. Pretty much hate it. It's ok though. I keep telling myself, I'd so much rather that they are going on missions than not. I'd be more sad if they weren't going. So count our blessings, right? :)

So for questions, my comp has been out just 4 months now. This is her 4th transfer. I still feel like we're equals though. I wrote a little 7 up on my new planner and just about died. I still feel like I've been here a few weeks or so. For transfers, everyone who is moving and their companions go to Aurora chapel. It's where the mission office is and just a little ways away from the mission home and temple. And then you have all the announcements, see where everyone is going, load up your stuff and head to your new area. Short and sweet. Also, you know that new address I sent you? Will you make sure to post it on my blog again with big caps note saying, "use this!!". The office couple are starting to get mad at me. Haha. 

I don't have much time cuz I still gotta write my letter to pres, so I'll catch you up next week...when I talk to you! My mouth can move lots faster than my little fingers can here :) Love you all and good luck at the farewell! I'll talk to you soon! For reals! :) Bye!

NEW ADDRESS...USE THIS PLEASE

The office staff is getting a little confused :) so please use the new address.  Thanks!!!

Sister Candace Weller
Philippines Quezon City Mission
Aurora Blvd. Cor. JP Rizal Street
Project 4, Cubao
Quezon City 1109, MM, Philippines