PICTURES...Morong

The service project that Candace described in her letter. Where is the backhoe? Notice the houses in the background.

Hauling 5 gallons buckets full of dirt. Thank goodness for the couple missionary's truck which alleviated carrying each bucket back and forth by hand. Wow!

 Andy and his cute family. He is getting baptized in September. Candace won't be able to be there...moving on :-(

Scene from Morong.

Planting rice.

Transferred to...???

Hello my dearest family!!! First of all, holy crap to Chanae's pictures!!! I feel like she got photo-shopped into a calender, you've got to be kidding!! It's beautiful!! Defs going to be taking a little trip back to her mission. And Ryan’s mission sounds absolutely crazy. As in, straight up crazy. He sounds like he's adjusting ok though, so that's good. I can't believe he's already been gone 2 months. Time is flying! Love this...by the time we all get home, we can literally travel the world. Haha. 

So here we go again....transfer!! Yep, I'm headed out. President told me last week in interviews so my last week here was just a go go go week to try to get everything in and everyone visited so we can the leave the area in good shape. I've only cried a few times.... that I've counted. Haha. No, we've all just cried together, me and my anak. And it just adds to it that Sister Segovs headed home yesterday. How weird is that.  Shoot, it breaks my heart to leave this place. But it's how the mission goes, learn to love it, learn to leave it. Half the zone is going too so we'll see how it all turns out. Not sure where I'll be headed but I’m just praying for province. Ha, watch me head back to the city. Whatevs, it'll all work out.

News on the camera....we got a text that says it's fixed and come pick it up. But we'll see. If it doesn't hold, I’ll just have to buy a new one. Shoot. Hopefully that's not the case though. In all fairness, it has lived a good 5 years and been through many good memories.

So cool happenings from the week!

We have this member in the ward. They are honestly so poor. Every time we go there we try to take all of our extra food that we have just to help them out a bit. So we were talking about her reading in the Book of Mormon and she'd just read Mosiah 4 about giving to the poor. And get this.....they get 300 pesos a week for their budget. Let me just tell you, that will buy you nothing. Our food for us four in the apartment for the week is usually around 500 pesos. And there are 7 of them in the family and 5 boys going to school which is mahal. Anyway, she goes, don't tell anyone this, but when I pay my tithing I pay 100 pesos. Yes, you read that correctly, 1/3 of their income!! Because she said, she just want to help all those people who are really in need. She didn't realized that tithing and fast offerings were different, so we explained that to her. But just the mere fact that the poorest person is the one making the most sacrifices to help the poor. Huge lesson learned. And the best part was, she just went on to tell us all the blessings they get every week and how their money always ends up fitting their budget. They don't have extra, but they always have enough. Shoot, talk about faith. It's incredible. 

 

We had a service project this week at a member’s house. They building their houses from wood into cement blocks. We just helped fill in the floor of the houses, about 3 feet so they won't flood. This is the process...get this. They start digging a canal, with a pick and shovel, about 50 yards away, haul the dirt into a 5 gallon bucket, carry it to the house, dump it, walk back and go all over again. And we're filling in a floor with 3 feet of dirt. Do you have any idea how many 5 gallon buckets that is?!? Shoot. Luckily, a couple missionary came with us and brought their truck. Thank heavens. We had it done in an hour what it takes a whole day to do. I just kept thinking....my dad could do this in 5 seconds with a backhoe. Oh, the luxuries we enjoy.  

This last week, Sister Suarez and I were talking just about life and such and she says to me, "You're so lucky. You're family is your treasure. I want that for my family too". It's so true what she said though, my family is my treasure. I think I talk about my family 9 stories out of 10. The other 1/10 is music and movies. Ha. Seeing all different kinds of families and meeting so many different people has just been so eye opening to see how blessed I am with my family and the people that surround me. You are my treasure. 

Love you all and I'll talk to you next week! We'll see where I end up going! I'll give the scoop on our meeting with Bednar. Sups excited!! Mahal na mahal ko po kayo! Magenjoy kayong lahat diyan at magingat lagi! kita kits next week!

Open your mouth and it shall be filled

Dad, it's so good to hear from you!!! I miss our chats. I actually just got mom's hand written letter last week in mail run. Ha, gotta love the time gap in news. The thought of Instant text messaging actually blows my mind right now. Haha. So how are you all my family!!! They finally all made it into the field!! I feel like they were in the MTC for 2 weeks. But Dad, I can't believe you wrote me an email and not one update about the presidential race...what the?! :) 

So disclaimer: This email is going to be LAME. This disclaimer is mostly for Whitney so that she doesn't complain too much when I have no good news to share. I can't think of anything huge that happened this week, that's the problem. So I'm just gonna give you a list of the happenings

1: I finally convinced Curtis and we went running for the first time in 3 months. OUCH!! Bahaha, honest to goodness, I am sore everywhere. I forget how much of an overall body workout running is. Can't wait til I can work out so hard I can't walk.

2: We cleaned this old Nanay's house this week. She's 83 years old and just can't get around very well anymore. Tatay is 84 and had a stroke a few years ago and straight up, he can barely stand, let alone more. And most of the time when he tries to, he just collapses. And you wanna know the sad part about all of this. Their kids just live a little ways away and they don't even come and visit them, let alone take care of them. And their son is an RM, all members. LA granted, but still. Just came away with a greater resolve to take care of my parents (that's you, ps) better when they get old. My goodness, they sacrificed everything for you, it's the least you can do to repay them.

3. Brother Andy hasn't smoked in 3 weeks!!!! yay!!! I'm so proud of him. He just decided, enough is enough. So he stopped. His baptism will be next month. Incredible to see the difference in him. My favorite is that every time he reads the scriptures, he immediately thinks of himself. You get some people, and sometimes myself too, that when you read a certain scripture, you think of everyone else that needs to hear that. Not him; he just immediately thinks of himself and what it is he needs to do. Love it. 

4. My camera broke. Shoot. I don't even know how. But we're headed to the big ol' city to get it fixed today. Wish me luck. 

5: The rains stopped a bit. Apparently the flooding is still out of control in some parts of the city. I have no idea. Still isolated in Morong. Haha. 

6: So I had a realization this week. When I'm teaching a lesson, I've finally gotten into the habit that I don't think about what I'm going to teach or say. I just noticed this this week. Because here's the thing, if you think about it, you end up saying what you want to say, which usually is not what the spirit is wanting to say. But if you just sit there and don't plan or think or anything, the moment comes and you open you mouth and whoosh, you all the sudden just start speaking. And it's cool too because sometimes you have no idea where it's even coming from or it's something totally new for you, but it's the coolest thing ever! It's the scripture in D&C that says, "take no thought what you shall say; open your mouth and it will be filled". It is honestly impossible to do this work without the help of the Holy Ghost. 

That's all I got. It was just a normal week. Nothing too huge. Just the usual.... sitting on a Cauyan floor explaining about Joseph Smith. Ha, funny that's my "normal" in life now. Transfers are next week. Pretty much 110% sure I'll be headed out. I'm super super sad about it, but it's time to move on to a new challenge. The time is seriously flying though. Anywho, I love you all and I'll talk to you next week! Mahal na mahal ko kayo! Magingat kayo diyan hane! 

God Keeps His Promises

Wowsa, we are late today. I think I just sat on a jeepney for a total of 5 hours today. A good 3 of which was filled of movies and music analysis with the good and faithful Lynn and a couple other missionaries from the zone. I've still got "what about Bob, "is this corn home chucked?" in my head. Bahahaha, Hilarious. Whoosh, time to get back into missionary mode. But the temple was awesome, as always! I just wish I could sit in the celestial room forever. Can I just do my personal study in there please??

So yeah, the floods are out of control. Only in the city though. We haven't really gotten anything. There's been a few floods down by the dagat, but nothing that's effected our investigators or LAs too bad. Shoot though, in Manila, it's absolutely incredible. We've seen some of the news just walking by houses and when we first get to appointments. Holy hannah, it's incredible. Marikina I think got hit the worst, but they pretty much always do. Salamat po sa package!! So looking forward to the new CDs.  Jessi has a kid! What the?!? I swear, in my head, nothing's changed at home. That's going to be a rude awakening. Ha. I'm so glad though that everything's ok with him. Blessing iyen.

sige, updates sa linggong ito!! Let me pull out my list. Oh yeah, so my clothes are molding. Haha, I'm not even kidding you. Apparently that's "normal" during the rainy season. Normal?? Don't you worry, I worked out a system so as no mold can grow. I seriously am living in a sauna. And this place is so incredible fertile, I swear, if I just stood still for 24 hours, I too would start to grow mold.

So we had a pretty great week. The work is starting to pick up. Honest to goodness, this training has been more training me than it has her. It's been a complete review of everything you need to do just to be a more effective missionary. One of the points in the 8 fundamentals is to invite them to be baptized in the first lesson. Seems kinda crazy right? So I've never really done it. But with training, shoot, you just do whatever they tell you. Ha. So that's what we've been doing and let me tell you the "aha" moment I had about it. I think the Lord is trying to change the way missionary work is done. It's getting time for the big harvest, and he doesn't want us wasting time on the ones that aren't ready. He wants us to find the ones he's prepared and bring in the sheaves. It's been a huge realization to me to see how it's changed how I've run this area. If they're not ready, sige, on to the next. But the area has just flourished because of it. We're finding people that are progressing and not just progressing, but are strong. It's because they've been prepared. Shoot, wish I would have know this 1 year ago. The learning curve on the mission is just so incredibly slow. I read a line though by Elder Holland that said, the Lord cares more about the faith you come with, not so much about the time you get there. Translation for this situation, I'm late in the game, but at least I picked up on it and it's time to go to work!

Sweet miracle this week. So Tatay Padrid, he's a fisher. They're dirt poor. As in, for reals. They make it by because they catch fish everyday and then if they have any extra they'll sell it for money to buy rice. Well last week we promised him that if he would keep the Sabbath day holy and come to church, he would catch more fish. We talked about how the apostles of Christ were fishermen and they had families to feed too. And they left it all to follow Christ and he took care of them and multiple times, their catch was overflowing (what is that word in English, it's masagana here. basta). And we said, he's not asking you to leave everything, he's just asking you for one day. That was last Friday. They came to church on Sunday. Went back on Tuesday, bam....he'd caught 20 kilos of bangus at 100 pesos a kilo. Not kidding you!! And honestly, he usually get 3, maybe 4 if it's a good day. 2000 pesos, that's HUGE in Philippino money. Guys, God keeps his promises. Just gotta trust in him. I love being the one to give the promise and then see it kept by the Lord.

So that's all for the week I do believe! Salamat sa pics, sa updates, etc. P.S. I got a ton of pics from Wendy yesterday. Holy hannah, her mission is BEAUTIFUL. I love that she's loving it. Much love to you all and hope you have a fantastic week! Hanggang sa susunod na linggo!! Give Jess a big congrats for me!

P.S. just a shout out. We get an answer/question session with Elder Bednar. Any questions you want me to ask him? I'm racking my brains over here, but can't come up with anything stellar yet. Let me know if you got a good one!

Obedient when Commandments fit our Liking?

Hello my family!!!

Happy to report no more incredibly freaky moments this week!! Thank heavens. Ha, I still can't even believe that happened. Reminds me of Moses 2. Go read it....yeah, pretty much feel like I experienced that.  Honest to goodness, we were freaked out for about 3-4 days. One of the ZLs with us wouldn't sleep without the light on for 3 nights and another elder goes, if that ever happens again, don't you dare call me. Ha, needless to say, a little shaken. Seriously talk about a test of faith. You know you read about all the things people have done with faith like moving mountains and stuff. Now I understand that just a little bit more. So updates for the week! It's actually like a mesh of the last 2 weeks, but I just have some good stories for you. So first of all, we have this new family we're working with. Remember the guy who stopped me in the street and asked me how many God's there were? Well, we visited them, but  last transfer with the 3-some, of course it got shoved to the back of the list. Then one day, I just thought, you know, I think we should go back tonight. So we did. Good thing too. So their names are James and Angelica and they are hilarious. Straight up jokesters, which you know I love. They were taught by the missionaries about 12 years ago, but didn't remember anything. Anywho, these past couple of weeks they've just really started to progress. Last Saturday we were teaching Angelica, just a review about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and Sister Suarez gets done teaching and the spirit was way strong. So of course, as any properly trained missionary would do, you point it out to them. So I explained to her that the Holy Ghost bears witness of truth through our feelings. Then I was going to say, can you feel it now, but I felt a "wait". So I did. And I just sat there. Then after about 10 seconds she says, "he's here right now, isn't he. That's why none of us want to speak". We just nodded our heads. So awesome. Love when those moments happen. Then just last Saturday, we go back and Bro James goes, I have a question.  I need to be baptized don't I. Ha, and the best part is, his wife goes, well what do you feel when you think about it. And he goes, light, happy. And she goes, that's the Holy Ghost. It means yes. Haha, I didn't even have to do the teaching. Anywho, they're just awesome and they would be solid members. I'm super excited about them. It always just amazes me when you find the prepared ones because it's just so easy. It's hard to explain. It's like I don't have to try so hard to get the spirit there. He just comes and does it job. The difference between an open and a closed heart. I'll keep you updated on them. 

So get this! Last  Saturday we had a temple tour and we were the hosts. So we were at the last station and guess who comes walking in but an investigator family from my last area. What?! I was absolutely shocked! We honestly had dropped them because there just was nothing. But they just got baptized last Saturday! How awesome is that! I think it was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father telling me no effort is unwasted. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I tend to get these investigators that take forever to get baptized. Even though I stay in areas forever, it's like this curse I have. So it just made me so happy to see how well they were doing and how excited they were too to see me. That makes 5 of my former investigators that have been baptized. Love it. 

So do you feel like this letter is forever long yet? It pretty much is. One last thing. We had district conference last week and something one of the speakers said just struck me as pretty profound. He said, when Nephi and his brothers went back the 2nd time to Jerusalem to get Ishmael and his family, Laman and Lemual didn't murmur. Why? Ha, good question, right. still the same distance, still have to try to convince someone to do something. Then he said, it's because the commandment fitted their liking. Of course they liked the idea of going back and getting a wife. Duh. Then he said, are we obedient only when the commandment fits our liking? But when it doesn't, we murmur? Another good question, right. So he said, if we don't understand a commandment, we need to humble ourselves and do what Nephi did... ask God for understanding. And then the spirit will be the one to teach you and you'll understand at a deeper level than you ever could logically. Interesting point right. He had some other good ones, but that was my favorite. Just a little spirit food for you all after last week's letter of horror. Haha. Anywho, that's all for me right now. Anywho, love you all so so muches and I'll talk to you next week.