PICTURES!!!

The run to the cemetery. I am sure this made Candace's day:)

Candace and Sister Ramilo.

Some of the people are buried in these houses complete with air conditioning and a bathroom. Definitely the more wealthy I presume. Candace was joking that the people in the squatters areas should just move into these houses with the dead:)

Graves. Very beautiful and green.

Candace and Sister Ramilo at the home of an investigator.

Rollercoaster

Magandang Umaga pamilya ko!!!!

Yay, I LOVE our Christmas tree!! That just made me so happy to see it in all it's glory. I've been trying to find a little one to buy here, but lets just face it, I’m a cheap skate and if it's not a necessity, I don't buy it. It just doesn't quite feel like Christmas though without a Christmas tree. And snow. Weird. I've been listening to the Forgotten Carols over here. Makes me pretty happy inside. For thanksgiving though we did get to celebrate a bit. We stopped at a bakery and bought a slice of pineapple pie and went to mang inasal. So I had lechon chicken and rice for thanksgiving, which is pretty close to turkey and stuffing right? Haha, it was good though.  And we have an H&M now! That's like a shopping dream come true. Can I just say, I'm so so tired of dressing like a missionary. We went to an Ukay-ukay last week and Sister Lorente and I just mourned for a bit the fact that we can't dress cute at all. We miss our shoes :) I NEVER thought I'd say this, but I miss being a girl! Even just once to actually get ready and not have my hair foofed to no end and sweaty and blugh. haha, but it's all ok. Much more comfortable to be gross and frumpy, that's for sure. Especially when you're walking around squatters areas and jumping in and out of tricycles all day.

So I've noticed as I’m typing this my vocabulary is starting to get smaller and smaller. Sometime I find myself saying a word in English around my Tagalog structure if I don't know the word in Tagalog. Then I realize that that is a way deep English word that they probably don't understand. Haha. Example, I said, "ibig sabihin kung magiging apathetic tayo...". Haha, I didn't know the word for apathetic and it's now habit for me to just use my tagalog and if I don't know the word, I just use the English version. That's happened a few times. Apathetic, vicarioius, disconcerting. yep.  So I've had to abandon my vocabulary so they and I can figure out what's going on…dumbing it down.  

Sigue, so updates for this week! Yes, lets just say being a missionary, period, is a rollercoaster. I'll give you an example. Yesterday was Sunday and it was just so great to start with! We went to church and the mom and dad of Melvin and Ester, two of our converts from last transfer are now coming to church and have baptismal dates. And they were there and also the Traspaderme family came even though their baby was sick and had a fever. And I was just so incredibly happy. You can't really describe the kind of happiness that it is, but it's like your heart is going to burst. I'm just so happy for them!!! Then as the day went on, oh boy. We went to Sister Jescel...she told us she can't get baptized or go to church anymore because her husband doesn't want to listen too. So that's code for, she really doesn't want to listen anymore. It made me super sad. But you just kind of have to take it, keep having hope for them that it'll happen for them someday, and move on to the next. That's just one stop that we had, but the whole day was like that. As we were headed home, I'm was just walking through palenke and looking around...seriously, the only thought was, "Sabbath ba ito?", Is this really the Sabbath? There's a barcada to the side listening to their American rap music and drinking, the lady in front of me is dressed like she's headed to the corner and then a herd (and when I say herd, between 10-20) baklas come walking down the street (baklas are boys that are gay and cross dress. as in, you can't even tell sometimes that they're guys. Oh my goodness. Don't you worry, I am always sure to address them as BROTHER), all in the midst of this busy market. Serious chaos. I felt like I’d just stepped into Sodom and Gomorrah. My heavens and that was in the matter of one day. Roller coaster is kind of an understatement. It's not so fun when all of your emotions hang on someone else's agency. But no worries, the good feelings more than make up for everything.

For example, we found 2 new investigators this week that I am SO excited about. Sometimes I hesitate to get too excited about a new investigator. Mostly because it's like dating...you know, you meet them the first time and you're way excited and then you get hopes up and get crushed. Yes, buhay ng misiyonero iyen. Haha. So I usually get excited, but not TOO excited if you know what I mean :) Anyhow, their names are Evelyn and Rea. They're both moms with kids. We've only taught them 2 times but they have such great questions. Our last visit there we taught the restoration and after I explained about the church of Christ and there has to be only one!". Oh my goodness, yes! I swear, sometimes you can explain it so clearly. Evelyn goes, "wait, so there's only one church then! I've never thought of that before.  And it clicked for her before I even said it! And we talked about prophets and Joseph Smith. And after we were talking about prophets, Rea asked, "So the prophet is like the pope kind of. Who has more followers, the Pope of Thomas Monson?". And my companion just looks at me, like, your turn. Haha. So I just said, "Remember how we talked about priesthood authority.  In  your opinion who holds that priesthood authority for God to guide the church, the Pope or President Monson?" She goes the prophet. Oh my goodness, never been so happy in my life. We walked out of there like we were walking on clouds.  Love it :) That's one thing that I’ve really noticed being here. It doesn't matter how good of teachers we are or how clearly we can explain the gospel, if #1, they're not prepared, or #2, they don't feel the power of the Holy Ghost bear testimony, it does absolutely no good. They just won't understand. They won't get how important it is, or how it applies to them. We just can't do this work by ourselves. We HAVE to have the Lord's help. It’s that simple.

This week we've been trying to find a lot of the Less Actives in our area. That's the new focus of the 70 Presidency, the less actives. We have new key indicators for it that are super specific and new rules too. We can't baptize a kid if they're younger than 12 and don't have an active member in their family. Active meaning, goes to church every week, has a calling, goes to activities, etc. Also, we can't even teach someone if their house is more than 2 rides away from the nearest chapel. We've been told to wait and build the areas where there are already members.  They're just picking up on the fact that there are a ton of less actives that need help. For a lot of them, they were baptized years ago, usually 20 years or so, and went inactive immediately. A lot were missionary converts. Of course, 2 guapo foreigners, of course they got baptized.  Many times we've found that they don't even know what the restoration is or who Joseph Smith is. example 1, sister Ghina. She was baptized when she was 14 years old, nearly 35 years ago. She's a VERY active Catholic and she straight up told us that every time a ward member or the missionaries come by, she tells them to go away and never come back. I still don't know why she even let us in. But she did, and we were able to share with her about the restoration. She really listened like it was all brand new information for her. It was honestly like teaching a brand new investigator. She's still a little fuzzy on the restoration and thinks there are a lot of true churches. It's like, "Sister, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that your Catholic church is not the true church of Christ. The good news though is that you're already a member of the true church!". Haha. We found a ton of members like that this week. It's incredible. Elder Eyring talks about having a living testimony and uses Alma 32 to talk about continually nourishing our testimonies. I think for a lot of these less actives, they felt that it was good, they planted the seed, but after it sprouted, they forgot to take care of it. And I don't care if your tree is a little tiny sprout as a recent convert or if it's a huge strong maple as a seasoned member of the church. If you stop giving it water and sunshine, it will eventually die. That's just how it works. Those little things that we all brush to the side, that's what makes the difference; daily scripture study, daily prayer, going to church. Just the basics. They're so crucial. So we're on a mission to find all those members that had their testimonies die because they weren't ever taught how to take care of it. It's just starting from the basics, square one, and helping them to regain their testimonies. But it's the same for all of us as members too. I feel like I've learned so much not just about the gospel, but about those things that I need to be doing in my life to make sure that I'm continuing to become more and more like my Savior. I feel like everything I teach applies not only to them who are struggling, but also to me too. Anyhow, that's all for today. This email is LONG if I do say so myself. Ha, and I’ve only scratched the surface, seriously. Man, I really can talk a lot :) but I love you all and hope you're enjoying this Christmas season. Maligayang paskol!! Sa susunod!!

ALL DAY P-DAY

Kumusta family!!

Oh my goodness has this been quite the week. First things first though. So, as you probably noticed, I'm emailing late right now...let me just tell you why. It's this little something called ALL DAY P-DAY!!! That is right, no district meeting. So that means, it is now 1 PM and I have already gone running (Yay! I convinced the whole apartment to join too! We headed to the cemetery and took a ton of pictures. I'll try to send them), cleaned my room, the kitchen, our bathroom, finished ALL my laundry, finished my plan of salvation diagram thing that I'm been working on for the past forever but haven't had time to finish, ate lunch, caught up in my journal and that was just the morning. Oh boy oh boy, has it been a great day! Can you tell I'm pretty excited :)

So...it's the weirdest thing that it's Thanksgiving this week. I almost can't even believe it. I feel like I'm stuck in a perpetual cycle of summer here. Honestly, I swear it's still July. Oh you lucky ducks with snow. Ha, just kidding, I'll take my island climate for now. I got Dad's email and I'll start working on it. Dad I was so happy to hear from you. I have officially decided I'm a daddy's girl. Not in the spoiled brat, "I want a pony way", but Sister Lorente and I always end up talking about our dad's and how great they are. So we've decided we're daddy's girls :) I'll get right on it writing that letter, don't you worry. I can't believe I'm missing my open house brownies...remember the last time when Chanae brought some up to Logan for me and little piglet Brett ate them? Bahaha, yeah, I was not too happy. Ah, those things are practically heaven.

Ok, so I usually end up replying as I read your email and I just got to all the missionaries headed out....wow. Also, can I just say, I wish there were a lot of Logan Huntsburgers out there too...man, that boy is good looking. And on that note, I just found out Twilight came out this week. Yeah, had no idea. That's how isolated I am. I found out because we went to jolly bees for an ice cream cone and the cups had Jacob's face printed on them. I'll have to break out my Volturi shirt when I get to watch it so I can cheer on my team. Haha. Also, I'll find some Christmas ornaments. That's a brilliant idea.

Ok, so now for this week's updates. Holy hannah, can I just say how crazy it is how quickly things can change for our investigators in a matter of days. Sister Jescel is struggling  big right now. Her husband has no idea to listen at all and she's stopped progressing because she won't read the Book of Mormon. Seriously though, it's the craziest thing. We start teaching them and you can see how their understanding just blooms. But if we teach them for a while and they don't read the Book of Mormon, their progress stops. It's like they just don't fully understand the importance of it anymore. And that's why the good old BofM is the best thing in the world. It works like that for members too. If they’re reading the Book of Mormon consistently, they understand the gospel so much better. Not necessarily because of what they read, but because of the spirit it brings into their lives that helps them to understand the things that they can't on their own. It's incredible to see the difference in investigators. Example; Sister Connie...my goodness, we have taught her for 3 months now, and oh boy, sobrang matigas ang ulo niya...that means, she is WAY hard headed. It's like, no matter what you say, it doesn't get through to her. Well, her house was down where the fire was and nearly burned down. She just prayed and told Heavenly Father that if he would save their house, she would go to church every Sunday and be obedient to every commandment.  And now she's ready to listen to us. That night she picked up the BofM and now she's in 1 Nephi 9. And it's like she all the sudden gets it now. Ha, last night she told us...I don't want to go to the terrestial kingdom, I only want to the celestial kingdom. Haha, you should have seen the look on my face. Utter shock...those words coming from her? Really? I love it. It's incredible to see what the power of the Holy Ghost can do. When people are coming unto Christ, they just desire to make those changes. That's how you can tell if someone is really seeking after the Savior. They desire to be better in whatever aspect of their life it is that they need to change. So awesome.

So I have a joke for you. It goes like this: 2 philippinos and one foreigner were in an elevator. One of the philippinos says to the other, "Bababa ba", and the other goes, "bababa". The foreigner just looks at them confused and goes, are you aliens? Haha, this is why it's funny. "bababa ba" means, is it going down? and bababa means, it's going down. So of course it sounds like jibberish if you don't know what it means. It made me laugh. I also have an assignment for you! Will you do me a huge favor and research the Iglesia ni Cristo church? I'm dying of curiousity over here. So this church is way popular here in the Philippines and the rumor is that the founder is an ex-Mormon who wanted to become an apostle, and well, of course it didn't happen for him. Let me just tell you a bit about them..it's crazy. First of all, their members are not allowed to talk to Mormon missionaries. You'd think that'd be a red flag for them. I mean, it's only the liar who says, I'll tell you this but don't talk to anyone else about it. The person who's being honest says, yeah, go ask them. No problem. Go figure. Anyhow, no one is allowed to own a Bible only the leaders (what is this, the dark ages?), every year they have to pay a fee to be a member like it's a gold club or something, if they miss church one week they also have to pay a fee, and get this, this is what happens with all of their tithing. The founder has 3 kids and the churches sign is a flag that's green, white, and red (our code name for them is the Italians. haha). Anyhow, each church has a different color of roof. If the roof is red, all the tithing goes to the oldest child, if the roof is white or blue it goes to the middles, and if it's green it goes to the youngest. Can you believe that!! Oh my heavens, and their members are way super dedicated people and totally believe it all! I just do not understand how that is even possible. But I think they must really have some ties to Mormonism. They were having a debate on their religion show (yes, that have those here. each different church has their own tv show that shows every day) and they were talking about the afterlife and the iglesia representative was talking about the three kingdoms, celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. But no where in the bible does it mention all three. That only comes from JST. So I'm just super curious, that's all. Let me know what you find out. Also, can I get the recipe for crepes. Sister Ramilo and I want to experiment a bit :)

So we have another investigator. Well, technically, his dad is the investigator but every time we've gone over there he hasn't been there. But his son, Leo is always there. He's born again, which means they're not allowed to talk to us either. bahaha, it is the funniest thing. Literally, he will not talk to us. He just shakes his heads and hands and won't respond, even if we ask a question that requires a straight up answer. It is honestly the funniest thing ever. Well guess what happened?! This week he actually spoke to us! We both just started laughing and go, “Brother Leo, you have a voice! So that's what it sounds like!" We've decided we want to be assigned to be his missionaries in the spirit world...I can just picture it now..."brother Leo, kumusta! Remember us?! We're back!". Bahaha, we laughed for probably a good hour :) That is just a little snipet of my week. Pretty much we're struggling to get new investigators, because, well, apparently it's bawal for people to listen to the Mormons. It's ok though, it's only because they know we're right :) It does make me a bit sad for them though. Hopefully their chance will come. But we did find a few golden investigators this week that I'm way excited about...they're what we call the honest in heart. But I'll keep you posted on their progress. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! Send me a pic of our beautiful tree once you get it all beautified. And don't forget to put up the Christmas lights even though I'm not there to do it for you. Haha. Mahal na mahal ko kayo!! Have a great week!!!

PICTURES!!!

This picture was taken on Halloween. Christmas was out about a month before Halloween.

In celebration of All Saints Day --- November 1.

Of course Candace just had to try it:)

A huge fire in Candace's area.  It was in the squatters area where many families lost everything they had. Electric wires caught on fire due to too many jumpers.

Part of the area where Candace is teaching.

"tao po" (Knocking Doors)

Hello my dearest family! I gotta be honest, I don't feel like a whole lot has changed in the past 4 days since I last emailed. Maybe as I sit here and type I'll remember. Usually it works that way; once I start talking, it just comes :)

But first of all.....WOOHOO for my Aggies! Oh my goodness, I'm just so proud right now. Of course they would win… this is the spectrum people! I can only imagine the mess it was to get into that game. Ha, been there, done that. LOVE it! :) And I actually heard about the missionaries that died last week. The one that had extended is a really good friend of President DeLaMare's daughter and they're next door neighbors with their family. So sad. I can't even image what that must feel like for their families. They've been in our prayers as well. And no, I haven't heard from Wendy at all. Well, I did in the MTC, but not here. So sad. I sent her a letter though a little while ago and hopefully I'll get a response too. She is so stinking funny. I got a letter from Huss this week and honestly just sat and laughed. Oh boy, I have some pretty great friends if I do say so myself, but then again, I may be a little biased :)

So this week has been just a bunch of finding, finding and oh, more finding. After the area split, we've only been left with a few investigators and we are dying for more. So as a result, that has been our life. We have 4 areas in our area that we've divided among the days, and one of the areas is subdivision type so for the first time on my mission, we did straight up tracting, knocking doors. Well, actually, it's "tao po", no knocking, but it's all the same. It actually wasn't too bad once we started. But as you can imagine, most people didn't want to listen. Go figure...I would consider us to be pretty fun people... :) Transfers came and went, thank heavens. Man, I am not so much a fan of transfers. They're just stressful. Sister Lorente got a new companion which means we have a new roommate in our house. She's from Samoan and from Hawaii and she is PASAWAY which means, disobedient. Oh boy, I don't even think we've seen half of it yet because it's only been a few days, but it'll be interesting to see what comes out. We already know she has textmates because she's texting all the time, baboloyn music (don't you love you're getting to know all the mission terms right now. Haha:), the works. It's interesting. That's a part of me that just sincerely does not understand though. If you don't want to be obedient, if you don't want to focus on the work, don't go on a mission. No one is forcing you. Who knows.

What else happened this week.....um, we had a run in with the elders from the QC North mission. Our area borders theirs and apparently they've been working in our area for a long time now. And 50% of their ward lives in our ward boundaries. Yep, no joke. It's a mess here trying to keep track of members and less actives because all the wards and boundaries are like that. As of now, they've told us not to go into that area to work anymore, which is kind of a problem because it's a huge chunk of our area. But we'll see if they'll realign the boundaries or what will happen. That's honestly about all for this week. We were able to teach Sister Jescel's husband for the first time this week. Hopefully he'll continue to listen to us, because it would just be the greatest thing for their family. Oh yeah! How did I forget! There was a huge fire in our area. Apparently the electric wires caught on fire because there were too many jumpers. And it was windy, and it was down in a squatters area and so they whole thing just blew. It was crazy. My heart just ached for the people down there. Everything they have, literally, up in flames. It was way sad. It was only one house away from the house of one of our investigators and barely missed about 4 different member families that live down in that area. So crazy how things can change in our lives so quickly.

Anyhow, that's all I can think of. I know there's more, but my mind's going blank right now. But I'm sending some pictures so that'll make up for my lack of words! :) Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

YAY!! No transfer, same comp

Kumusta kayo!!! tapos na sa isa pang linggo! Paano ba iyen?!

Guess what, guess what! I am NOT transferring AND I get to keep my companion!! YAY!! I’m so stinking happy right now! I thought for sure that we'd get split, but they're going to just white wash one of our areas and we're staying together. Holy hannah, I'm so happy. It is just no fun at all having to adjust to a new companion, new habits, new teaching style. Blugh. I’m shocked though. Sister Lorente is going to be opening our other area. She's the other sister that lives in our house. And I'm way excited about that because she's absolutely hilarious and that means at least 3 of us will be together up until Christmas. Well, at least til Dec 22, so that's happy enough :)

I can't believe how cold it is over there. Honestly, I don't feel like time has moved at all. It's still July for me because the weather hasn't changed one little bit. Yeah, there's a storm every once in a while and that's about it. Every time I actually sit and think about the date I'm like, wow, it's cold at home. I wouldn't mind sharing a bit of that cold at all. We all thought we were going to die yesterday, not even kidding. One of the hottest days we've had here. Sister Lorente goes, "MAINIT! I just feel so sticky ALL OVER! I'm like a big giant sticky note. I bet I could stick to the wall right now!". Haha, we all just sat there and laughed because it was SO true. Holy cow, it just drains you. I just sat and day dreamed for a second about what it would be like to lay my head down on a cold pillow. You don't get that here. There's only 2 temperatures, hot and hotter. Haha.

I see a lot of people from my district actually. Elder Webster is in my zone so we see him every pday and every Sunday because our wards share a building. Also, Elder Brunker and Sister Losefa are in our zone too. And then, temple trip is every 3 weeks so we usually see just about everyone else there. I love my mtc district. haha, seriously, so many good memories. I'm doing ok with the language. It honestly depends on the day. Usually I can understand about 90%, but if they start pulling out some deep tagalog or if they have a funky accent, I’m lost. So grateful I have a Pinay companion to act as translator for moments such as that.

Tell twit I’ll send her progressing letter soon, if I can find a post office that is. haha. Oh my goodness, it is basketball season now!!! My Aggies, taking on BYU in the Spectrum. Come on, we know my Aggies will blow them away :) How's the team this year? Oh boy, do I still just love Utah State. Tell Ryan to cheer loud for me :) I can't believe fall semester is almost over. Time is seriously flying. And ps, how is Bre doing with the new house and everything? I've been meaning to write her, I just honestly haven't had time yet. Jake is in Africa? When in heavens name did that happen?!  Holy cow, I feel like everyone is all over the place with graduating, marriage, turning into dating machines (What! Is his goal to be married by the time I get home? haha) and jetting off around the world. So crazy. As for piano music, I do get to play every once in a while, but not much. My only request is the TSwift/coldplay music. I'm curious to see what it's like.

Oh, now for updates for the week. It's been a long week so I'm not even sure where to start, but we'll try to get the big highlights in. So Sister Jescel is doing really well. I'm kind of sad though because her husband doesn't want to listen right now. He's just not interested is all. But Sister Jescel is awesome. She's just so sweet and so humble. Last time we taught her, she just started crying and telling us how grateful she was for us. I don't think we realize most of the time what it is that we take to people. It's a whole new kind of knowledge; a whole new purpose for them. She still has a way to go, but her faith is strong. We have a new investigator that we taught for the second time last week and had such a cool experience. We taught her the restoration and we've learned that with the restoration, we honestly just have to take it really slow, ask a ton of questions and check for understanding, because if not, most people honestly just get lost. I know, you think it's so clear and it just makes plain logical sense (which it does), but it's like it shatters every idea or perspective they've ever had about God and religion. Everything. Sometimes it literally will take 5 times teaching the restoration before it will sink in. yep. So we took it show, we’re super clear and asked a lot of questions. And we got to the end and of course, had her pray. So we teach her the steps again, and she starts praying and then she pauses. Which happens, because sometimes they forget what comes next or they don't know what to say. So we both sat there for a bit and I thought, should I say something and help her out? And then it was honestly just like, Bam, the spirit hit like a wall. I can't even describe it really, but holy hannah, it was all the sudden so strong and she just starts crying. And I'm sitting there going, yep, she's definitely feeling this. SO awesome. We have high hopes for her :) Sometimes it's sad though because people can have witnesses like that (we have another investigator like this), they can understand and know it's true, but they still won't do it. They won't apply it. Sometimes, I seriously hate agency. If they just knew how much happier they could be. I'm beginning to understand how our Father in Heaven feels when we know something is good and we just choose not to do it. Frustrating.

So last week was November 1, which is all saints day. Which means everyone goes home to the provinces and goes to the cemetary to camp out, party, and feed food to the dead, which inevitably ends with us getting punted all day long. Haha, oh boy, we just sat and laughed because, well, there's not much you can do about it. But there are flowers and candles everywhere outside people's houses and it's Biko day in every house. Biko is a rice cake and I think we had biko that day like 4 times, no joke. Anyway, it's just so funny to see how ideas like that get started. They are all Catholic, so they believe in the resurrection, and yet they feed food to the dead. Go figure. It's like there's no logic. We met a Muslim friend this week as well. He went to the haj just this past month and he also happens to be a member of the MILF, one of the terrorist groups down in Mindinao. He gave us a nice insight into his doctrinal views, but I couldn't help but just laugh. it's illegal to kill a fly, but no problem to be in the MILF and kill a person. It's bawal to have tattoos in Islam, but it's ok, after I die, my body will be left here and only my spirit will meet God so he won't know the difference. Bahaha. That's only scratching the surface. It makes me sad at how confused people are and they try to figure it out, but with so much confusion, of course they don't get it right. I feel like that's been the theme for this week. People being confused by mans view of religion, of God, of everything. We walked by a church the other day and they had a stained glass of the baptism of Christ....John the Baptist is pouring water onto Jesus's head. Where does it ever say that in the Bible? Pretty sure he went to a river and then "came up out of the water". It's like what it says in the Book of Mormon, with following the traditions of their fathers. That's what it's like. That's just the way it is for them and no one really stops to think twice. But that's what we get to do. Honestly, I love being a missionary. It's so much fun to explain to them what God is really like and how much he loves us because so many times, they don't understand that at all.

Ok, I'm out of time for now and I'm trying to even remember what it is that happened this week. It's starting to all blur together. Ha. I love you all and hope everything is going well for you! Thank you for all the support and love. It honestly means the world to me. Mahal na mahal ko kayo!!!