Barugo Pictures

Barugo Week 7

YES! I CAN UPLOAD PICTURES!!! Yay!

So I've included pictures of my companion for the last six weeks, Sis Sacayanan and I in front of the Carigara chapel.

A picture with Mark, who was recently baptised and the branch members.

Our thanksgiving dinner! Sis Sacayanan said 'Thanksgiving is delicious!' haha.

Thank you for the packages and the love that was inside!

In order to form a branch here, we need a minimum of 15 Melchezidek priesthood holders who are full tithe payers. We probably have like 5 active Elders in Barugo area. There aren't even 15 potential, INCLUDING those that are inactive right now. So I am about 100% sure that I will not 'live' (in the mission) to see Barugo actually become its own branch. The next city, Carigara is about 7 kilometers away.

I really need to practice Waray Waray. The first 3 days I was here I just asked Sis Sacayanan how to say this or that in Waray, and I picked up the transition really well. I just am lacking in vocabulary, because I haven't been putting new words in recently.

I'm totally fine with my needs Mom, don't worry. :) In fact, I received FIVE toothbrushes in total from the ward Christmas box. FIVE! That's a lot. o_O I'm totally just going to give them to the Elders. Haha.

Maybe you won't recognize me when I come home! I remember taking a double look at Eva when she came down the escalator from the airport, cuz we weren't sure if it was her. haha. I think you'll all be fine.

Filipinos love basketball. They love it! There are makeshift basketball courts everywhere. On trees, on big poles, or suspended from other things. Most of it isn't even standard sized hoops or basketballs. They just love to play. So when there IS a standard sized court, it tends to be a really big hangout spot. Sometimes if the churches are open, non-members will ask permission to play on the church court cuz it's so nice.

I don't know if I wrote about this. Filipinos love to talk about tall noses. Meaning American/European noses. They say their noses are not attractive because they are short. I just laugh. I tell them we don't care about noses in American, because there are lots of different kinds of noses there.

Sometimes people call me Sister Lovely. And then laugh really hard. I generally don't respond to people unless they call me by my full last name, just so they know that that's important. Sometimes they call me Sister Love, and then I ask: Who's that?

So we have a recently new investigator named Liezel who is pretty awesome. We've only taught her 3 times. The first time, a short Message of the Restoration, the second time a full MR and the 3rd time all about the Book of Mormon and her prayer to know if it's true scripture. I felt like it was TOTALLY guided by the spirit! We asked how her prayer was to know if it was true. We asked if she felt different. She said yea, but it's difficult to describe. So we asked: Well, is it a good difference? She said yes. So then I sat there and thought about what to say next. I thought "I need to know what to say!" So I was silent for about 15 seconds just thinking and I thought: Did she get a desire to read the Book of Mormon while she was praying? I was kind of happy and hesitant at the same time because I thought: Yay! I thought of a specific question that could have some good results. On the other hand, I was thinking WHY would I think of that question? What if she says no? So this inner battle of sorts turned over I should ask the question, because I won't know until I try, right? So I asked her: "Did you get a desire to read the Book of Mormon while you were praying? And she said yes! Of course, I was so excited. I told her that was definitely an answer to her prayer. But I personally, was rejoicing inside because I feel like maybe I am starting to understand that the Spirit IS using me. I still have a lot to learn though about understanding the language of the Spirit. Whew.

We met a recent convert of another religion (Yikes!) that refused to accept the Book of Mormon we offered (haha.) But the funny thing is that when we told him it was our Christmas present, he just looked at us. "Oh. So you have Christmas in your religion." "Uhhh yes, cuz we celebrate the birth of Christ." "You don't need 1 day to be nice and kind to your family." He told us that if we believed that Christ was born on the 25th of December, we were mistaken. We agreed, because we DON'T believe he was born on that specific day. haha. But honestly, I see nothing wrong with spending a certain time of year to celebrate the birth of the Savior. Honestly, this time of the year is a time when all Christians can really unite with one another, regardless of certain doctrines and remember Jesus Christ. And even people who are not religious spend the Christmas season being able to spend time with their families and be reminded to show more love. I feel like if there was no Christmas, there would be less joy in the world and less unity as a people and families.

Christmas conference was lovely! I love how Elder Uchtdorf quoted 'The Grinch' in his talk about the true Christmas spirit.

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~the end~

Barugo Week 6

Eva~
I read a nice article in the recent Liahona about giving kids assignments so they can feel like they have a responsibility, and gives them something to do at the same time. I don't know, but maybe that will help a little bit?
It may be really really hard teaching Primary, but I know that I will FOREVER be grateful for Primary teachers from now on. The branches here usually do NOT have a strong Primary organization because Primary seems like the last priority for the branch. There are ALWAYS kids running around during church. Running down the halls, in and out of Relief Society, even during Sacrament meeting they just run in and out of the chapel. X_x So yea, I thank you Eva and Morgan for your good work!!

The date we're allowed to have phone calls is December 25. I'll email you with more details later about that, like the phone number you can call.

We had a little Thanksgiving of sorts because I really wanted to have SOMETHING to show Sister Sacayanan, about this crazy American holiday where everyone just EATS. I ended up making mashed potatoes (FOR REALZ! FROM REAL POTATOES!), some pork and beans, corn, and lechon manok (rotisserie chicken basically). We got a really cute picture of the two of us with the food, but the internet cafe doesn't let me hook up my camera here to upload pictures. :(

Don't worry about those packages you sent! I got them already! Wow super fast. ;) One reason is because our zone is somewhat close to Tacloban, so the Zone leaders go to Tacloban fairly often. I haven't actually SEEN them yet (there are 3! oh my!) because they are the Elders apartment, but they've arrived here safely. :) The Elders told me that they were reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally tempted to open them, just because the boxes are so big and inviting and probably full of candy. Haha.

I don't know if I told you about Athena, She's the niece of a less-active member named Liberty. We just talked to her the second day I was here in this area and said: We'd like to teach you. She said sure, and she committed to baptism on the first lesson! ;) The only reason she hasn't been baptised yet is because she hasn't come to church. She has a 2 month old baby and it's been raining a lot. We've also been working on re-activating Liberty. She has a really crazy conversion story. She was working at the most presigious Catholic university in Region 8, which is Samar and Leyte when she decided to get baptised. (She had been attending Institute! haha) So it caused quite a stir at her school, because she was a gospel doctrine teacher there. HAhaha. I think the only problem is that her fire for the gospel might have dimmed a bit. She says she knows its true, even if she hasn't come to church in a while. So this ENTIRE transfer, we've been working on getting them to come to church. We taught Atuz, who is a 9 year old boy that Liberty basically adopted as her son because his dad died. We asked him if he thought it was important that we go to church on Sunday. He nodded yes, so Sis Sacayanan and I just looked at Sis Liberty and Athena with a smirk. Heheeeeeeee.
The great end to this story so far, is that we were sitting in Relief Society and I was again thinking that they didn't show up, when Sis Sacayanan turned to me and said: Athena's here! And the first person to come through the door was Sis Liberty!! I jumped up and gave her a hug in front of everyone, cuz I was HAPPY. I know Liberty had a good experience because at the end she asked about the last General conference and remarked that she should get a subscription to the Liahona. :)

We taught the Baquiran family and showed them the Restoration video. They hadn't read their assignment in the Book of Mormon, so my heart was broken. They are just such wonderful people, I want to help them GET THE BLESSINGS OF THE TEMPLE. After we watched the video we testified we knew it was true. Sis Sacayanan started to cry. The Spirit was just really STRONG. The Spirit is always especially there when we teach the Baquiran family. I'm not sure why, I've just been thinking that it might mean they're ready to accept the gospel. They've been taught for 15 years by Baptist missionaries, and we've only taught them for 1 month. But I believe in miracles with the power of the Spirit. After we left the lesson, the feeling came to me that the thing that might be stopping them right now, is Sister Becky is scared of changing, because she's felt the influence of the Spirit and understands that what we're teaching them is very important.

Sister Merlita is having a lot of personal problems, and she said the time isn't right now for her to be baptised or continue the lessons. We're heartbroken. We still need to talk to her about everything to see what we can do to help.

Mark was confirmed a member! YAY. A week late. haha. Oh well, it's all good. He knew he didn't have the gift of the Holy Ghost yet, so we were happy that he at least knew he needed to be confirmed to be complete. During fast and testimony meeting, he got up and bore his testimony! AHHH. It made me so happy to see him smiling so hard and talking with his new friends in church.

We taught Abraham 3 times this week. He's DIFFICULT to teach. He's very well educated in lots of things, so he tends to go on a lot of tangents. >_< There are points in the visits that I look at sister Sacayanan and SMILE because what Abraham is saying is REVEALED truth! He says a lot of things that are consistant with the doctrine restored in clarity in the gospel. Like eternal progression, that the righteous will become HEIRS with Christ not just angels in a heavenly place, the gathering of Israel, agency... it's alot. But he has a LOT of other stuff that's not right. Like, God the Father is JUST a spirit, Adam chose to follow Satan and FAILED in God's plan, that there were no Prophets after Christ... He really loves his Bible. And I can tell that he really loves God too. I was mistaken when I said he was 7th day adventist, because he told us he has no religious affiliation! o_O I guess he hasn't found the "right church" yet. Hahaha. Anyway, it's really slow with him just because it takes FOREVER to go over one principle because he always has a lot of things to say.

There are various reasons why I'm glad that I did go on a mission. I feel that I am more appreciative of everything, that I can be more considerate of other people, that I can really try to truly love EVERYONE. I feel more influence of the SPIRIT. I am not very well versed in understanding the Spirit, but I feel that I made progression this week. We had interviews with President Malit, and I ALWAYS feel the spirit when I get to talk to him. :) I was able to have some really nice prayers too this week. It's just hard to stay on the high sometimes.

I love you all! I pray for you! I know you pray for me too. :) Thanks a lot.
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~the end~

Barugo Week 5

Hi my family!

Our Branch Mission Leader is looking for a wife, so he keeps teasing me. It's worse though because Sister Sacayanan teases me too now. But she told me that he did the same thing to Sister Garcia, who was her companion before I got here.

I saw a 4 year old smoking a cigarette last week! That was HEARTBREAKING. All his little friends were laughing at him. Hehee cigarelyo! Sister Sacayanan and I just looked at each other with open mouths.

Mark was baptised! :) Mark is 16 year old young man who really wants to do whats right. He was found by Sister Sacayanan and Sister Garcia last transfer. Before he met the missionaries, he would drink and smoke with his friends. But not anymore! Whenever we ask him a question while we're teaching him, he looks down and holds his head with one hand and makes little noises like he's thinking REALLY HARD. hehe. Whenever we would ask him how he feels about his baptism he would say... I'M EXCITED! So of course, I was so sad when I thought that he wasn't going to be there on Saturday. Someone told us that his dad was making him work and he was going to miss his baptism! But he showed up! (apparently disobeying his dad) So I started thinking, what's better to do, disobey your parents by being rebellious and drinking or disobeying your parents by going to church? o_O

We currently have about 12 people that have agreed to be baptized. The hard thing is that most of them don't have transportation to church. We didn't have any investigators at church on Sunday, including Mark! AHHH. HE HASN'T BEEN CONFIRMED A MEMBER YET!! But I'm mostly scared that his dad might not have let him come to church.

We gave Laura her Book of Mormon! She was excited that we found one in German for her. (It was hardbound too!) She asked how much it costs, and we said: It's free. o.O She just sort of looked at us for a second not really believing us. haha. So we said that we hand it out because even poor people who don't have money deserve to be able to read it. We gave her 3rd Nephi 11 as her assignment, so when we went back to teach her, we were a little surprised at what she said. "I read what you told me to read. It was kind of negative." "Huh?" "It was talking about how... if you do this, bad things will happen." So I asked her where she read, and it was page 66-69. But her assignment was actually 566-569. So she started laughing. She actually read the end of 1st Nephi and the beginning of 2nd Nephi, where Nephi is exhorting his disobedient brothers to keep the commandments of God or they'd be cast off. So we just all started laughing. We read the beginning of 3rd Nephi 11 with her, and it was a really nice experience. In the part where Christ invites all the people to touch the wounds in his hands and feet, I asked her how she would feel if SHE was being invited by Christ personally to touch his hands to know that he died for us. She said: "Wow. I can't really describe that." It's really weird teaching in English. hehe. When we read the BoM together, she reads her German book and we read our English books and follow along with each other. :)

We also taught a VERY active 7th day adventist church member named Abraham. He and his family are basically the reason why there is a 7th day adventist church in Barugo. His relative in America gave them the money to build it. So in other words, YEA they are active. Our second visit, he basically told us when we got there: "I don't think there's a point in us continuing, because this is not the gospel that's found in the Bible." I thought: "MY GOODNESS, all he's read is the Restoration pamplet!" He was very advent about not accepting the Book of Mormon, because he says the Bible is perfect, in terms of doctrine. We spent almost the whole hour just trying to use scriptures to help him see that the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER WITNESS. It felt like going against a wall for a short time. Sister Sacayanan turned to me and said: "Gahi siya" (meaning, he's hard [not accepting]) My only worry though was if he was WILLING to read the Book of Mormon or not. So I did my best to just TESTIFY and ask him to read it. He said he would. Wheeeeew.

We also taught a woman named Jenny, who told that she's a member. It turns out though that she is not all there in her head. It seems like she has the mental capacity of a 5 year old or something. But she says her grandma is a member in Tacloban, so it's likely that their family are members. Anyway, near the end of the lesson, the following conversation happened:

"Does your husband have time, so he can join in on the lessons?"

*She shakes her head no*

"Oh, he's always busy then?"

"We don't have a clock."

Yea, they don't have time because they don't have a clock. hahah. It was just really funny. :)

I love you! I think about you all alot! Maybe too much. Agoy! Miss you. I will get to hear you in December! Yay!

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~the end~

Barugo Week 4

I wanted to send pictures this week, but the internet cafe has
restrictions on uploading pictures here. :( Looks like I'll just have
to try next time.

Grandma Edy sent me a letter! It was a really nice letter, but she
told me that she hasn't gotten to read any of the emails I've sent! :(
Sooo... who's going to convince Jesse that he should print off the
emails for her? :)

I'm trying to figure out what to do for Turkey Day. I want Sister
Sacayanan to have a good experience. :P Haha. I think I'll have to
wait until next week though, because then we can buy mashed potatoes
and other things in Tacloban supermarket. The grocery store here is
so small, so the selection is kind of limited.

You don't have to worry about me sending things home mom. Sending
stuff home is expensive, so I'm not really going to send presents for
Christmas. You can all wait until I get home so I can give you some
neat stuff. :) I'm probably going to just leave a bunch of stuff
behind when the time comes for me to leave (like certain clothes and
my towels and stuff), just so I don't have to freak out about weight
restrictions. But I'm still going to have a lot of neat souvenirs!

We found a German Book of Mormon for Sister Laura! I think I might
have mentioned that already. haha. We're going to teach her on
Tuesday night.

I got my hair done again! (Permanently straightened) So now I won't
have to worry about it for another 6 months! woo! In the salon, they
started playing some Japanese songs I used to listen to. I thought to
myself, YAY! I didn't forget Japanese! I just had to hear some words
again and now I remember what they are. :) Last night, Sis Sacayanan
was asking me what some words in Japanese are and I couldn't remember
some! It made me so sad. Cebuano really kicked a lot of things out
of my head.

How was Harry Potter?! Haha.

We had an investigator come to church on Sunday, Sister Merlita Avila!
She's accepted everything we've taught so far, she reads her
assignments, and she's agreed to prepare for baptism on Dec 18! And
then SHE CAME TO CHURCH! OHHHH. She's visited the church before when
she worked in Manila, because her boss was a member. We actually met
her by talking to her daughter on the street, who is named Glyzia.
She went home and told her mom that she has an American friend now.
Of course, her mom had no idea what she was talking about. And then
she told her mom that the American wanted to interview her. Sis
Merlita thought that might mean we were from Census. haha! Until she
actually met us, then she knew what it was all about. She told us
that when Jehovah's Witness missionaries would go to her house, she
would always tell them she's too busy. She said she doesn't know why,
but she didn't do that to us. She just let us in.

We have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday! His name is Mark
Anthony and he's 16. Whenever we ask him a question while teaching
him, he always grabs his head and makes a little noise as he's
thinking. It makes it look like it's really tiring to think. Because
he's a young man, I was pretty sure that at some point he's going to
get ridicule from his friends for getting baptized and following the
word of wisdom or law of chastity. So I shared with him how I have
friends back home that tease me about word of wisdom. But when it
comes down to it, they know I don't, so they don't even try or offer
me coffee or alcohol anymore. Mark looked at me and said:
"Eventually they understand?" Yes, Mark. Yes!

We went on splits last Tuesday. The Elders didn't really tell us
about the splits until the last minute. Bah. I guess I just like
knowing beforehand. We went finding for two hours, by asking a member
family all the names of their neighbors and then walking around with a
member. "Soo... Who do you know that lives on this street?" We
taught one Tatay that is really working towards getting baptized.
He's been off his cigarettes and drinking for at least 2 weeks. He
has a hard time hearing, so we had to be loud when teaching him. Sis
Quimson is really cute. It was good having splits with her. :)

How's your Book of Mormon reading? I'm in the part where Jesus Christ
is quoting Isaiah. Isaiah really makes me sleepy.

I miss you! I pray for you. Love you all.
--
~the end~

Barugo Week 3

Grandma Edy~

I got your letter today!! But I haven't had a chance to read it yet! :) I'll write you a little note too!

Mom, Dad & Emily~

I love you!!

Eva~

I remember when Elizabeth would scream because she hated baths as an infant! Now she loves showers? Haha. :)

Jessie~

Cafe Rio is in Lakewood now? Haha... Now you don't have to move to Utah! ;)

I got my "trunkie" letter. The letter that tells me I have to get all my information together because I'm going home in 6 months. Wowie! I need the Stake President's name, contact number and email address. I also need to know Mom's phone number. I'm not sure if I remember it anymore haha. My release date from the mission is on my birthday! Haha! How cool is that? ;) I also need to know what your plans are. Are you planning on coming to pick me up? Or am I just headed straight home? I know that Jessie was thinking they might come. I need to turn this form in in the beginning of January. So... start thinking about it, k? :)

Yesterday was the Pacquiao fight. You probably don't know who Pacquiao is. He is a Filipino Boxer. The people here are really proud of him. Sis Sacayanan told me that there wouldn't be any trikes to take us back to Barugo after church because everyone would be watching the fight. Haha. She said the TV stations would be showing replays of it for the rest of the day, and the other networks would be broadcasting it all today too. The only thing I can think of that would compare to that is the Rose Parade. That's an all day thing too.

We had almost NO ONE to teach when I first got to Barugo. Sister Garcia was sick for a week before she transferred, so they missed all their appointments and didn't make new ones. So I felt a little O_o. We ran around that week and found 25 new investigators by teaching everyone we could come in contact with! We've been blessed with a lot of people to teach now. :)

There have actually been 2 people that have approached us this week asking if they could have one of our pamplets! One of them was a really old man riding his bicycle that speaks REALLY good English. The other was a man that lives near our apartment (His mom told us to not come back! Agoy!) But we still have to follow them up.

One such family is named the Baquiran family. We came from a member's house where we had just taught her niece and we saw some teenage girls sitting around their house outside. So we talked to them and found out that their families were taught before. So we made an appointment with Hazel to go to her house (which is just next door, haha). We met her mom and dad the next time. They all just immediately gathered around to listen. Sister started off by making sure that we knew that they were Catholic. "That's okay Sister. We teach everyone, including Catholics!" So we taught them the Message of the Restoration (MR) and made an appointment for next time.

President Malit had promised me that if we committed our investigators to be baptized as soon as we felt the spirit, that would we have a lot of baptisms. haha. Well anyway, when we first taught them the MR I was feeling the spirit and I TOTALLY wanted to commit them to be baptized when we were teaching the second principle! But I had NO idea how, so I just ended up waiting. The morning of our next appointment, Sis Sacayanan and I spent our companionship study time by thinking up of ways to connect each principle of the MR to baptism. When we came back to this family, Brother Benedicto had completely read the MR pamplet and he said: "Joseph Smith was given the Priesthood by Peter, James and John, the original apostles!" Sis Sacayanan and I were almost shocked with happiness! WHAT a thing to remember from reading! So we talked a little bit about how the Priesthood is used in TEMPLES and families can be together forever! And we taught the Book of Mormon because we wanted to give them one and read it for next time. :) We committed them to be baptized. They said they weren't sure yet. But they are totally excited for us to come back and WE are totally excited to go back tonight! :D

Laura came to church with us yesterday! The girl who is from Germany. I sat next to her and did my best to translate everything. She speaks good conversational English so a lot of the members who know some English were estatic to talk to her. ESPECIALLY some of our returned missionaries from here who are looking for girlfriends! (Like our BML) haha. I just hope they didn't scare her away. She says she wants to do some research about the church because she had never heard of it before until we met her.

Remembering these good experiences make it all worth it! I love teaching someone and then feeling like the Apostles in the New Testament where they "went away rejoicing."

I love you all! I'll see you soon enough. :)
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~the end~

Barugo Week 2

Thanks for the recipes everyone, but I'm not really sure how I can use some of them here. Haha. The ingredients are so different here! Dairy is available, but it's kind of expensive. We always buy 2 liters of milk for the week, but it's expensive (imported from New Zealand). And the cheese here is not really CHEESE. It's like some processed yellow thing. We do have peanut butter available, the expensive imported kind from America, and Peanut butter from the Philippines (way cheaper), but its got way less sugar so it tastes different. We don't have a crock pot. We have a rice cooker, but I'm not sure how well that would substitute... o.O The bread here is a super white bread. My first area was the only one that had wheat bread available. Haaaa...

Last week I asked for toaster oven recipes (because we have a toaster oven) or rice pudding (cuz we have lots of rice), or the no-bake cookies that we love to make, so I can make them for my companion. :)

Sis Sacayanan and I had the craziest day on Saturday! We were just talking to EVERYONE and teaching them a 10 minute lesson and making return appointments. The requirement for a new investigator is they are taught 1 lesson and they agree to a return appointment. Well, we got a lot of return appointments with them, so they all were new investigators! A total of 20! (That's the standard of excellence by the way for 1 week) So we found 20 new investigators in 1 day, plus 5 from other days of the week, for a total of 25! Now the real question is: Who will actually be there at the return appointment!? Finding people is sooooo important. Nothing happens in missionary work until you keep finding new people to teach. Even if you've been teaching the same people for 6 months, you still need to keep looking for those who are ripe for harvest, right?
A couple times, we've asked people where we can find somebody when we knock on their door. We tried using it as a tracting technique for getting people out of their houses. But it really feels like it works best when we're not actually trying to change the topic into the fact that we're missionaries. We met three 7th day adventists in a row in one day! We get a lot of return appointments cuz we're real persuasive! ;) What time are you available so we can come back? Afternoon or night? "Oh I'm busy" Oh, but you get back from work before night, right? "Yea." Oh okay! So would you like us to come back at 6 or at 7 at night on Tuesday?

Elder Tenney, our District leader was telling us some of the experiences he's had with people. It is really true that people are generally more nicer to women than men. Just as an example, in the Philippines, you might see an American man every 5,000 people. I've seen a couple American men in every area I've been in. But American women? I dunno, maybe 1 in 100,000? I am a rare species here. :P But Laura is here too! (Even though she's from Germany, they would still call her Americana.)

We were able to set up another appointment with Laura, the girl from Germany because we didn't see her last week at the appointed time. But at least we know where she lives now! She's Protestant, but she said that there's no Protestant church in Barugo, so she just attends Catholic church. So of course, we invited her to come and visit the church. ;) She is really sweet, we're excited for our appointment with her tomorrow.

I got Dad's letter, so don't worry. :)
I love you all! I include you in my prayers

--
~the end~

Barugo Week 1 - 11/1/2010

Request: please send me some simple recipes that I might be able to cook here. Of some cookies or american food, like french toast! ;P Toaster oven recipes or rice pudding. Is thanksgiving the 3rd or 4th Thursday of the month?

So you might have noticed that my title that I'm at a different place now! Oh my!!

It was a pretty interesting transfer day actually. They tell us on Wednesday morning if there is a transfer, because there is a transfer meeting in Tacloban on Friday. So we got the call and the Zone leaders told us that we were not transferring! So I thought: okay, got some more time in Palompon now!~ And we spent the rest of the day teaching people etc. And then Thursday morning, we had weekly planning. So we planned everything we would teach and what we would do and we had companionship inventory. Spent the rest of the day teaching people. Then on Friday, we were all finished with our studies and about to go teach our investigator (Lolong Pajaron) about priesthood authority (cuz he doesn't really believe it) and I was all excited because we made a great lesson plan, when I looked at the phone before we walked out the door and I saw that there were 14 missed calls and 1 text. I thought: oh my. They were from the ZLs. The text said: "Sisters! Call us, It's an emergency!" Soooo we called them back and E. Stringham was like: Sister! You are transferring!!

So we just dropped everything so I could go and pack and we could get a companion for S. Christianson while I'm leaving, and I was just a little freaked out. I left as soon as I could to get to my new zone, Carigara! Which is Waray by the way. We spent the night in Carigara because there were no more trikes available in the evening. My new area is called Barugo. It's only a 10 peso ride from Carigara, so it's fairly close.

The members in Barugo actually go to church in Carigara. Which can have some problems. Relatively, it's far for investigators to come to church, and almost impossible for families (at 10 pesos each, a family could easily cost 60 pesos one way). We have very few members in Barugo compared to Carigara. It's literally on the border of missionary work! Not even a branch yet. haha. o_O So, there's a lot of work a head of us here. haha. We didn't have any set appointments when I got here because Sis Garcia was sick for a whole week before she transferred. So I felt a little bit like we're opening the area. But Sis Sacayanan knows where things are. haha.

Sis Sacayanan is so cute! :) She always has this little smile on her face when she looks at me. I'll try to get some pictures for next week. the suffix -an in the language means: location, or place. Sakay means to ride, Sakayan means vehicle, and so when I saw her name, Sacayanan, I figured out it must mean terminal or bus stop! :D She's from Mindenaw, (sp) So Cebuano is her native langugage.

Waray is actually NOT as hard as I thought it would be. They have some words that are similar, just pronounced differently, and they have

other words that are completely different, but the foundation is the same. So I think that I'll be able to transition well.:)

My companions so far:

S Holden (trainer!) 1 transfer - Hilongos

S Taunan (first native companion!) 1 transfer - Hilongos

S Malicdem (first companion for 2 transfers instead of 1!) 2 transfers - Hilongos

S Farnworth (first junior companion!) 2 transfers - Palompon

S Christianson (my trainee!) 1 transfer - Palompon

S Sacayanan (my companion now!) We will see how many transfers! - Barugo

I'm not counting my companions in the MTC, but I did have 4 of them! oh my. That would make 6 so far in the mission field, and 10 total, hahah. I still have 4 transfers left too, so i dunno what will happen! Maybe I'll be with S. Sacayanan for the rest of my mission. haha.

Last Saturday night/Sunday morning, it was about 4 am and this Catholic group of people were just marching down the street or something singing a song about Maria in a microphone. I don't think that group was very considerate of those who might be sleeping! Sis Sacayanan said they do that every Sunday.

We met a girl named Lauran who is volunteering here from GERMANY when we were riding home from Carigara yesterday. The members riding with us were pretty excited, another person to speak English with. haha. We actually set an appointment with her for tonight at 8 oclock. This would be the second person I would be able to teach in English. :) I'm excited.

Filipinos don't really do anything for Halloween, Oct 31. There was a disco going on last night thought, which was pretty loud. Some people dress up aparently, but not alot. There's also Nov 1 and 2, which is pretty big here. It's called Kalag Kalag (soul soul) or in English, All souls day. Everyone goes to the cemetary to clean the tombstone and area of their deceased family. Alot of families come together for it. It also has a Catholic base though, apparently they do some praying that their family will go to heaven too.

I love you!! But the hours up. Hahah

I'll see you next week
--
~the end~

Palompon Week 18

Mom~
Have you put any fans in the bathroom so that the paint can dry? o_O We always end up putting a fan on our clothes if they are heavier because otherwise they would take days to dry.

~
I don't remember what it feels like to be 'normal'.

I was looking at our white board we have for writing our investigators on and I noticed that we have more people committed to baptism now than I've ever had on my mission. So that's awesome! But the really weird thing is that even if we commit people to baptism on the first or second lesson, they still end up falling through! We teach them once or twice, commit them to baptism, and then a couple of them we barely ever see again and they tell us they're too busy. The only thing I can think of is that Satan is working really hard on them once we help them decide to do a good thing. More people will agree to baptism than actually come to church or even READ. x_X

We don't live with anyone. It's actually (bawal) not allowed to have anyone else in the apartment except for Sister missionaries. It must be nice to actually live with someone.~

One of our investigators, Risa, is living with her boyfriend who is an in-active member right now. She wants to get baptized and she's come to church twice. She has something of a hard time understanding what we are teaching though. So the last time we went to go visit her this week, she had "Book of Mormon Stories" on her lap. She said the actual Book of Mormon was difficult for her to understand, so she borrowed the member's copy of "Book of Mormon stories"!! Hahaha. She's been reading it and praying a lot, but didn't come to church the past two weeks. We're really excited to still be teaching her. She was able to tell us the whole story that Nephi went to go get the plates and Zoram ended up accompanying him. It's amazing to think how the Spirit will really help people remember and understand when they do their part.

We have a long-time investigator family named the Pitugo family that lives near the Branch President's house. They have been visited by missionaries for over 1 year now and they are still investigators. Brother is working on trying to be able to get Sunday off of work and to get rid of his problems with the Word of Wisdom. We've been following up his cigarettes this week so he knows we're going to ask how he's doing. He's gone from 10 cigarettes a day to 1 cigarette, because right now he's working on eating a lollipop anytime he gets a cigarette craving. Haha. But we saw him drinking last night with his friends. We need to talk to him again x_X Sister just needs to make sure she finishes all of her work on Saturday night so that she can come to church the next day. And her mom is very very opposed to them becoming Mormons. (Her dad is a Catholic pastor, and doesn't have a problem with it. haha) We haven't met those two personally, but maybe someday. They are one of the few few investigators who actually do read. They're in 1 Nep 18 or so right now. :)

We had a one day mission on Saturday! We had 21 members all dress up and we all went to San Miguel area, about 2 kilometers away from the church. There's no members there yet, and the Branch Presidency was thinking that maybe it would be good to "open" up the area over there. So we all got in a cab and headed over and started going from door-to-door. It was really awesome leaving one house and then seeing your fellow member missionaries next door talking to other people too. We got a lot of names of people that are interested, so next Saturday we're going to go work over there with some members so we know where the house is. I was a little frustrated at first though because we gave all the members "potential investigators" lists, which has slots for their names and addresses. But the addresses are different here in the Philippines. There's not really numbers for every house in the smaller barangays (communities). They just say they live in so-and-so barangay and then you have to ask around and figure out where they live. It can end up becoming dead ends. So the members just wrote that those potential investigators lived in San Miguel. So as I looked at it, I thought: This information is so unhelpful! >_< But yes, the members are going to come with us to find the houses again, so its all good I guess. :S People here are just so vague though. They don't give specific times or addresses. Most of our appointments aren't there half the time. They just always tell us: Oh, I had to go out for something. *Sigh* But we had an appointment! :(

I was thinking about something that our AP, E. Cerdhe, said last LTM) Are we drawing people to baptism or dragging them? So I sit here and think about my investigators and I think: It seems like most of them are just... standing there! Or at least, turning away their faces from it. I don't know what to do to draw them other than what we've been doing. It also reminds me of the recent article we had in our mission newsletter (The FIRST one I've had in my mission!) about how outstanding young people might have a hard time on a mission. And I think it's true. Some of our key indicators (like progressing investigators) are based on how OTHER people will use their agency, not on my characteristics. I feel like I have basically no control about things like that. Sigi lang. (Oh well)

It just seems like there are an awful lot of tares in comparison to the wheat.

Challenges will come, but I know I'm supposed to be here! Missions are hard, but I've already grown so much just as a person. I've still got a ways to go too.

See you next week my dear loved ones! <3
Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of my heart, that I might go froth and speak with the trump of God with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentence unto every people!
--
~the end~

Palompon Week 17

We had JohnPaul's baptism this week. :) It was really nice when he gave us his testimony at the end of his baptism. He said that he's been to 3 different churches, but he didn't like the feeling he would get when they would debate. He said this is where he was able to feel peace. :)

President Malit has been recently focusing on not being hesitant to invite people to baptism on the FIRST LESSON! We've been inviting more and more people to baptism as a result. Right now we have 7 people who have agreed to be baptized. The hard part is helping them come to church and the lessons. But they've all said yes! and they have a specific date too. :)

We also spent the first 3 days of the week in Sogod again because we had another LTM (leadership trainers meeting). We had a small amount of training and then we just practiced role-playing a specific part of a lesson. We spent like 6 hours the first day just practicing and evaluating. Wheew.

Next week we also have a one day mission planned where all the members can come with us and we'll all go out and find people in this area called San Miguel. There are no members in that area, so the branch presidency was thinking we could try getting some investigators over there too.

We went to visit one investigator family called the Graciano family. We met them as we were going to someone else's house so we asked if we could teach them. I've been on and off visiting them for 3 months. The kids are mostly the ones who join in, the mom rarely comes. And so we were thinking of dropping them because they don't really progress and the parents aren't really involved in the lessons. So we were going to give them one more chance (again!) and their daughter, Israelita gave the opening prayer. In her prayer she said: I'm so glad that the Sisters come even if it rains or its hot. And I'm glad they come because I get to learn a lot. And I hope that they keep coming. Afterward the lesson, Sister Christianson and I talked to each other and we both said: OKAY! Is that a sign Heavenly Father that we're supposed to come back!? We just laughed at how that one turned out. I just hope Heavenly Father continues to guide us.

We've also been going around this week and making appointments with all the part member families that I can think of. Some of the recent converts, like Juliet, are really freaked out that we're going to be teaching their family! I just hope that it will all turn out well.

The Old Testament is kinda weird. haha.
Love you all! Miss you all! See you soon enough. ;)
--
~the end~

Palompon Week 16 (10-11-2010)

Eva~

Your graphic design project is soooo cute! Monkey Tree! It makes me think of here in the Philippines. :)

Mom~

We get about 8000 pesos, which is 175 dollars or so a month for food/transportation/personal supplies.

We have a baptism scheduled this week! The JohnPaul that I told you about. :) He's been really excited for his baptism. What I really love about it is that he UNDERSTANDS what we teach him. I've taught so many people who just don't understand. We teach about the Restoration and Joseph Smith and then our investigator just say things like: Yeah, pray. In my first area, we taught one mother of a family about the power of God/Priesthood and I asked her why is the Priesthood important? And I swear, she looked me straight in the eye and said "Pagampo!" (Which means pray) Anyway, JohnPaul is great! I asked him why he wanted to be baptized, and he said: I want to follow Christ. :) Doesn't that just make your heart melt?

We watched General Conference this weekend and it was great! For some reason, the last two general conferences, I've just really liked the Saturday morning session the best. :) I think both of us were expecting another hell-fire sermon of sorts from Elder Holland, and so we were surprised when he just started in on how thankful he was for EVERYTHING. We still liked it very much though. President Monson had a very similar talk too.

I was thinking about how last general conference, I was homesick for a couple days just because of the topics that everyone was using. Nearly half the conference was all about FAMILIES. People's responsibilities in their families and how to strengthen the family, etc. So of course, I got a little lonely. :)

We have a very good new investigator named AnnAnn. She is such a funny mom. All her worries that she tells us about are the same worries as moms back home. I told her last time that all the moms across the globe are united in their worries. She just laughed. She has come to church once and read a little bit already. But she is the first investigator that I've heard say: Wow. Families are really important to Mormons. She's seen the pictures in the pamphlets and listened to the Relief Society lesson about reverence and to teach reverence to children, and she just repeats to herself: Wow. They're really focused on families.

We also have another LTM (leadership training meeting) so we're going to be on the other side of Leyte for two days. Wow!

I read a lot in the Old Testament this week. All of King David's story and his life. It has a lot of stories I'm not as familiar with. And there are also some really weird stuff that used to happen back then. o.O

I just realized that I've been in Cebuano areas for 10 months now!

Well, I love you all. I miss you all too. Till we meet again.

--
~the end~

Palompon Week 15

Mom and Dad~

Thanks for sending me jokes every week. :) I'm doing good

Jessie~

Whats Brazo de Mercedes? I haven't seen it yet here. There's a Goldilocks here (that Filipino cake store that's in Cerritos) in the city where the stake center is. Maybe they sell it there.

Eva~

How's my car treating you?

Emily~

How are you doing? :)

Diay means something like "oh really?" Like if you made a mistake or just learned something new that you were mistaken about. I just wrote Palompon - Week 14 in the subject line. But then I double checked and its actually 15. So i put in week 15 diay. :)

If you ask people "Kumusta?" (How are you?) they pretty much always respond: "Mao ra gihapon." (Same as always). Though I always say "Maayo man" (real good)

Mao ra gihapon! We've taught a lot of new people this week because Sis Christianson wants to talk to everyone. It's good in that we have a lot of appointments, but its bad if you can only meet with someone once a week because of the other appointments. Ideally, you should visit your investigators 3 times a week.

Sister Christianson told me that sometimes when she's there in the lesson, she thinks: OH! We need to talk about this! But she doesn't know how to say it in Cebuano, but while she's thinking I end up talking about what she was thinking! It makes me really happy to know that! I remember having the same experiences like that when I was with my trainer and I didn't know how to talk. haha. That means we have the Spirit guiding both of us in the same direction! :) I am pretty confident in saying that I feel we are both being guided by the Spirit during lessons. There are times where I feel that I need to stop talking so I just look at Sister Christianson and she picks it right up. When she stops, I just start going. We're being given what we need in the moment that we need it. :)

We watch General conference one week after it broadcasts in America. So you've all gotten to hear it, but we're going to hear it this Saturday and Sunday. I'm glad you didn't spoil any good surprises from conference. :P But next week, I'd love to hear about what you loved about Conference.

We have one really really great investigator named JohnPaul. He's the top of the top. I don't think he's made any DRAMATIC life changes in order to join the church, but he is progressing. :) He's been coming to church for like 7 weeks and his baptism is scheduled on Oct 16. He's really excited. We're planning on having his interview this Tuesday, right after district meeting. He was taught before by Sister Dustin and he came to church but the teaching stopped for some reason. All of this great result came about because his sister stood us up for the appointment and I just turned to him and said: Hey can we teach you instead? And it's just been on a roll since then. :)

Sometimes I wonder why I was sent to this area. Not because I doubt or anything but because I wonder WHO is it that I am supposed to be helping? WHO is the person/people that are waiting specifically for ME to be their missionary? Sometimes I wonder.

I'm still reading in the Old Testament. There are a lot of unfamiliar stories to me that I think are so funny. Like Balaam and his talking donkey. And the old fat king getting assassinated. It has a lot of things in there that really relate to the church now. It talks alot about the 'Elders of the church', making 'atonement sacrifices' and occasionally mentions the 'latter-days.' The word Atonement is only in the New Testament once! But it is ALL over the Old Testament! It's been pretty fun to read, minus the whole geneology pages and how many cubits the building of the temple has to be and EXACTLY what you have to do in order to offer a sacrifice and all of that. :)

Recently I was reading through some of the talks from last conference and the thought entered into my mind: This is living scripture! This is from a living prophet. I'm really excited to watch General Conference.

How's your Book of Mormon reading?

--
~the end~

Palompon Week 14 (9/27/2010)

I have an awesome picture to show you Eva, when I can get my memory card back. It shows this really big and hairy spider that we found in our apartment last week. It was BIG. And hairy. Sis Christianson was like: I'm not leaving until it's dead! And we weren't sure what to do with him because we thought that he might run if we tried to smack him with our flyswatter. So we called the son of the landlady who lives behind us. We showed it to him and he just left the house w/o a word, came back with his own fly swatter, swatted him, picked up him and left without really saying much. Hahaha. I don't really know how much bigger they actually can get.

I got your post-its Eva. They look almost too nice to actually use. Haha.
And I got your letter too Dad. :)

This week was different in that we just got rejected ALOT. This week somewhat challenged my theory that almost everyone in the Philippines just wants to listen to "The Good Word" and all that. They just refuse by saying "Next time" instead of actually saying they want you to go away. haha. It almost annoys me sometimes. Don't say next time if you don't want us to come back next time! But i already know that they say that because it's kinder than saying "I just don't want to listen to you."

Cebuano really is a dying language. Sometimes I ask people how to say something in Cebuano and they just tell me the English word I just used. Like Representative.

The people here are starting to celebrate Christmas now. They say that Christmas time is the 'ber' months. September is the first BER month. SeptemBER octoBER novemBER decemBER. There are some nativity scenes out and Christmas music playing.

We taught a really good investigator this week named Lolong Pajaron. He was really interested in asking questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We found his family because we were walking around with the Relief Society President and we were going to take her home and she started talking to them. She is actually the godmother of their son! (So yea, they are REALLY close) It was just so funny because everytime we taught a doctrine, he would throw his head back in disbelief, then think about it for a second and agree with it. So funny! He really likes the idea that there's more scripture than just the Bible. The first time we taught him, we discussed the Book of Mormon and what it is. And then I talked about how the crowning moment in the BoM is when Christ goes and visits the Americas. He DIDN'T believe that. He just straight out told us. "I don't believe that!" So we just asked: Why not? So he thinks about it some more and then said: "I guess it's all possible with the Lord" heheh. And then last night as well, we talked a bit about how General conference is coming up and how the living Prophet will speak to us. He said: You guys have a prophet? We said, yes, he's alive! And then I said "There are Apostles too." He said really? And then I said, yep, 12 of them. Then he did threw his head back again and just laughed. He's already read from the beginning of the BoM until 1 Nep 2. The only thing that makes us sad is that he might be leaving on Wednesday for work because he's a seaman. When they leave for work they LEAVE for 9 months. :( But I don't think he'll ever be the same after listening to the restored gospel. :) haha.

I don't remember what it's like to be normal! We had zone conference this past week, and we had a "test" of sorts from the first chapter of Preach My Gospel. It was WEIRD! The feeling you have while taking a test and thinking really hard. I haven't taken a test in over year! hahah.

I've started reading in the Old Testament. There are some really cool stories in there (and a lot of weird ones too!) I finished Genesis this morning and am in Exodus now. Moses is currently getting owned by Pharoah. But we all know how that's going to turn out. :)

How's your Book of Mormon reading?
Alma is getting back from his mission now!

--
~the end~

Palompon Week 13 Post Its

Palompon Week 13

Mom + Dad~

I haven't gotten Dad's handwritten letter yet. I DID get that package of post-its though. I included a picture of them. I just HAD to laugh when I opened the package because I asked for post-its and you sent me almost every type of post-it that they have in the stores! haha. This is just evidence to me that you love me. :)

Hi~

I remember writing week 13 on my Hilongos email and thinking: AHH I've been here for SO LONG! But now, I feel like everything has passed by sooo much more quickly. I'm almost forgetting what its like to be "normal" with work and school and free time. Haha. There's soooo little free time here. I always have something I need to do.

I wrote about tuba last week, remember? It's funny that that was the topic of my email because later that day we went to go teach our investigator Jovert and everyone in his house was partying because of someone's birthday. Yes there was tuba. Sister Farnworth said something to the effect of: The Spirit's not there if there's tuba too. So we just said we'd see him next week. :(

We were told that Sis Farnworth was transferring. So the next day, she packed her bags and we were just finishing up things and eating our lunch when I heard a vibration in my bag. It was our phone! So I picked it up and our zone leaders said to me: You're training! My first thought was: Oh. Well they didn't tell me that yesterday. So I was like: Okay. I'm training. So I have to go to Tacloban too? And then he told me that I was supposed to be in Tacloban now. At that moment. o_O Soooo. I told Sis Farnworth and we ran around the apartment going: AHHH WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE NOW! I grabbed a bag and put some stuff inside and we left to Tacloban and got there in the evening. The whole ride I was thinking how sad my trainee (aka. anak, or child) must be because her mommy (ie. me) wasn't there. But when we got there that night we found out they weren't separated yet into companionships so Ha. :)

So I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Christianson. She's actually Sis Farnworth's friend from high school! haha. She's told me a lot about her family, that she has 12 people in her family. Her mom went crazy trying to look up Tacloban on the internet and she found a blog from a missionary who is in Tacloban mission right now. HMMM. I WONDER WHO THAT IS. :D The world is just too funny. Or should I say, the internet is funny. SOOO my first couple days of training. It's been interesting so far. Sis Christianson isn't afraid to ask questions, and she's asked a lot. haha. We're starting to do the new training in our companionship study. It was interesting during the first few days of work with her because she expressed how tired she was at the end of the day. It makes me think back a lot to when I first got here and how much I've learned and grown.

Hilongos had a piano, but Palompon has a keyboard. They're both branches. Hilongos is in a district, and Palompon is in a stake. So as soon as Palompon gets enough Priesthood holders and attendance, it could easily be made into a ward. Sister Farnworth was the pianist for the branch, so now that she's transferred there were a couple members who were freaking out wondering who would be the new piano player. haha.

The Sanoy family (2nd counselor) in Palompon Branch just came back from the temple! Yay!! They have a picture of their entire family in front of the temple, all dressed in white! I'm sooo happy for them. They came back and are just glowing. They were already great member missionaries, but now Bro Sanoy just wants everyone to experience the happiness that he felt. :)

October is general conference!! Yay. :)

How's your Book of Mormon reading?

I love you all. I miss you all too. :) I keep you in my prayers.

--

~the end~

Palompon Week 12 (9-13-2010)

Mom~
I'm feeling a lot better now. Sister Malit tells me what anti-biotics to take whenever I get sick. Haha.
No one is supposed to send chocolate through the mail? o.O

Eva~
I LOVE INDESIGN! I MISS IT! :)

Filipinos offer everyone food! They have a phrase that says: "Bisan saging, basta loving." Literally it means: Even banana, at least loving. The idea is even if you only eat bananas, if everyone eats with you, its all happy.

I would like to spend some time telling you all about tuba. Tuba is basically the cheap alcohol here in the Philippines. They make it from coconuts and they put soda bottles of the coconut milk on the coconut trees and somehow it ferments while its up there. So when its ready they climb up the tree and bring it down. Our teacher in the MTC told us that even little kids drink tuba. When I first got here I saw a sign on the street next to someone's house and it said: Tuba for sale. I thought that the kid in the house must have played a musical instrument. Nope.

We were at a members house and their neighbor was there with his tuba bottle. The people here like to speak English sometimes so he asked us: "You drink tuba?" We said "Dili, dili maayo para sa lawas!" (No, it's not good for your body!) He very blatantly disagreed, "Yes it is!" while holding his bottle in one hand and cup in the other. I was pretty sure that he had already had a few sips.

We were going down the street in a put-put and this one man that we see around a lot was standing on the side of the road. He's taken to saluting us whenever we pass by. We saw him from down the street, so he just put his hand on his head and held it there until we passed, then he finished the salute as we passed by. Standing up straight, one hand up on his head, saluting us, and the other hand holding a bottle of tuba. He kind of cracks us up. It happened again as we were on our way to the market this morning. One time when we passed by he simply gave us a really big thumbs up.

This week we also had one man stop us as we were passing by his house. He spoke to us in English. I had no idea if he was drunk, but the experience was funny enough to share now. "Mam. I would like to help the CIA." We just looked at him. "Huh?" "Mam, I would like to help the US government." Oh that's nice. "Umm.. Sir, we're just missionaries. If you want to help the government, maybe you should go to the embassy. But we'd like to invite you to church this morning at 9 am!"

We had a very strange week where about half of our appointments just simply were not there at the scheduled time! Three days in a row, everyone was just NOT there. So we just ran around trying to see what less-active members we could visit instead to make use of our time. It was a little stressful. The branch also has started re-activation on Saturday nights. Simply going around on Saturday night and inviting people to come to church. Both of those efforts had a good result I think, because attendance went up. We had several less-actives come to church. :)

Because ALL of our appointments were falling through, Sis Farnworth and I were thinking where to go and I said: Let's go to Eric's house. Eric is an investigator that I had NEVER met before (even though I've been here for 3 months), but Sis Farnworth would tell me about him. She didn't think he would be there because he's a really busy guy, but we tried anyway. And he WAS THERE! So I got to meet him. haha. We talked a bit about the past visits with the missionaries (3 months ago) and how he liked the Cebu temple open house. It was a GREAT lesson! And we got to teach in English because he's really good at speaking English. And we committed him to be baptized on October 30 when he finds out the Book of Mormon is true! It was so cool! :) We came home super high and happy.

We gave a BoM to a recent convert named Jesus that can't read. We used to teach him before Church on Sundays, but now we're trying to spend our time bringing our investigators to church. (The past two weeks it hasn't worked. x_X) BUT Jesus is now living with another member so at night they spend time practicing reading. It makes me so happy to know that! :)

Our BoM fireside was cool. We borrowed Elder Reyes' "The Testaments" DVD and showed it. There were lots of members and less-actives that came and we had 5 investigators come to watch the movie. Our only regret is that there was no Tagalog option for the movie, so we had to watch in it English. I hope everyone got the idea. haha.

This week I was reading Alma 5. I've decided that that is my favorite sermon in the Book of Mormon. He gives a lot of self-reflecting questions like "Have you received His countenance?" and at the end he basically gives his testimony! It was so great reading it and feeling the Spirit. Testimony is so important! I really need to include it more in our lessons. As I was reading it I started to laugh because Alma 5 is basically the sermon that the prophet gives in "The Testaments" and the part where Kohor gives his defense of the judges during the trial he basically quotes the last chapter in Helaman! Hahaha. Sister Farnworth and I love that movie. :)

How's your Book of Mormon reading?

--
~the end~

Palompon Week 11

Hi Family!

Mom & Dad~
I love you so much! I've been thinking about you lately! Like how Mom always makes us wear slippers and how Dad really likes pistachio nuts. It's all the little things that just remind me of your love for me. :-)

Eva~
Adobe inDesign is what we used in Yearbook! I miss that program!!

Jessie~
The 3rd picture of Zoey on the swings made me think of squirt from Finding Nemo! Because of her tiny arms and legs and head and a big "shell" body. Hahha.

Emily~
You're in the choir now? Yay! I love to sing. Both of us actually sang last week at church as a special musical number. It was fun. :-)

It's actually starting rainy season again right now, but we get occasional weird days where it turns reaaaally hot. It's been pretty hot this past week.

Preparation day usually goes like this:
Wake up, soak laundry, eat
Go to market
Email
Lunch
Cleaning apartment and then Laba! Which means laundry. We have to wash all of our stuff by hand. It takes at least 2 hours. I really miss washing machines.