Palompon Week 7

Eva~
Have fun using my car. ;)

Mom & Dad~
I love you!!!

Tiffany~
I DID get your email, don't worry. Haha. Actually I think I might have gotten it in the actual letter before the email. But I did get to read it. :) Haha, salamat (thanks) for the letters <3

Jessie~
Agay means ow. Agoy can be used in the same way. But it's been used in a sort of "Yeesh" kind of way. Haha. It's just language stuff that meshes into my brain that I don't want to bother filtering out when I email. Hehe. I printed off your talk last week and read it. It was so good! :) I'm really happy that you are feeling more comfortable in giving talks. It's really actually kind of fun now (having so much practice on the mission... hahaha..)

Emily~
I sent you an email. ;)


Transfers have been answered! And I am still here with Sis. Farnworth in Palompon. :)

What's Loratdine? We have a member asking what kind of medicine it is and I dunno.

We eat lots of kinds of fruit here in the Philippines. I've had guavano, which is like a super sweet gelatinous mass thing. And this other fruit is in season now, that looks like a small oval spiky ball. There's a red and yellow variety. There's also jackfruit, which looks like a giant puffball fruit thing. And that really smelly one that I mentioned before. They also have watermelon and fuji apples (expensive) and mangos. But it seems like mangos aren't as much in season anymore, so they're getting more expensive now.

Justin came to church again!! He REALLY does feel a difference when he's at church. He says that he feels refreshed after he comes to church. We committed him to baptism this month too. They only thing we're really worrying about is trying to teach him twice a week so we can finish all the lessons beforehand. :P

We also taught one investigator, Mayann Mabini and two new members, Gary and Juliet. This week was pretty fun with lessons because we had them teach US the lessons. Mayann wasn't even prompted, she just started teaching us everything that she remembered and it was amazing! Sis Farnworth and I were just looking at each other and smiling during the lesson because of her teaching us! xD

On another lesson, Juliet was having a blast because we basically told her it was her turn to be a missionary. She just started snickering while she was teaching us and we were pretending to be investigators. "What's the Book of Mormon? That's your bible right?" She loves a challenge. xD

How's your Book of Mormon reading going? ;P I got past 2nd Nephi yay! Now I'm in Jacob. :)


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Palompon Week 8

Mom & Dad~

I love you!! Eva said that someone at your work asked if you were going to sell your red car, haha! Stewed tomatoes?!

Emily~

Do you remember my friends Autumn and Zack? They go to singles ward in El Dorado, on Woodruff street. :)

Eva~

Child Discovery Museum? I actually remember going to one with Tutu and Grandpa. My memory's not very clear, but I remember that fact. :) It might be the same one!

I don't quite understand your entry about Lizzie's ABCs. Does it have something to do with the picture?

Stewed tomatoes every meal? Hahah!!

We will probably be emailing from this time from now on. :) So make sure you give enough time to send me a letter!~ (This email chat has really bad speed connection today. Argh.)

The flies in the Philippines are evil. We got a couple in our apartment this week and they are just so bold! They were literally landing on your food as your are eating it. And they don't move if you wave your hand at them like other flies. They just sit there until you are basically hitting them with a fly swatter, then they fly around and avoid you.

We have a problem with our investigators! They agree with everything that we say! To a point where its trouble because we know they don't REALLY agree/understand it.

We have a couple of investigators who tell us Joseph Smith is a true prophet when we ask them to pray about it. Agoy. (But they haven't prayed yet about it! How do they know he's true? I dunno.)

Filipinos aren't skeptical enough!

We had a lola named Nanay Sevilla who agreed with everything we say! But she's read only a little bit and has NEVER even prayed. And she likes to insert by saying: It's all one Lord, just different ways to get there. (Even though she agreed that there's only 1 true church of God on earth)

Then we taught her daughter who lives down the street. And when we asked her to pray about it, she said: Oh, he's true. Sister Farnworth and I just looked at each other without saying a word. Like Mother, like Daughter I guess...

I took a while to read through your emails, so my email is short today. But I love you all and thanks for the love I get every week in my inbox.

I started reading Mosiah yesterday. How's your Book of Mormon reading?

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Palompon Week 6

Eva~

Jordan has the Loveland chin!! There's also a movie about that Mafia man, Jessie has it. Oh and before I forget, the day after you told me that you saw the Eclipse movie in theaters, I saw it for sale from street vendors in Ormoc, the stake center of our area. Hahaha.

Emily~

Yay! You got to visit Eva this week!? :) I am jealous.

Mom~

I love you!!

HI FAMILY and FRIENDS!!

I love you all so much!! *MUAH*

It was so great getting emails from you and encouragement! :) I have some things I'd like to tell you about here..

JUSTIN CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN! yay!! He's had quite a life-change this past month. The first time we met him, he was all happy and bright and wanted to go to church. When we last visited with him this week (we lost contact for a couple weeks in the meantime) his finance broke up with him, and he hasn't been able to find a job! Agoy! He was telling us how he had no idea what to do now, so we encouraged him to come to church, because even though we wouldn't be able to give him an answer, the Lord can. And then he did come! Ahhh. We're so happy for him. He really gets along well with people and the members.

We also have a Sister named Enie who has come to church 3 times already! In a row! THAT'S AMAZING!! :) She's even started reading the Book of Mormon! We're so excited to teach her again on Tuesday. We're planning on committing her to baptism. :)

I wrote last week how Filipinos are "ulaw" right? Well, there's one thing that they are DEFINITELY not ulaw about. And that is singing at the very top of their voice, no matter how badly, on street-side videoke. (Cheaper versions of Karaoke). Only 5 pesos for 3 songs. There's also a culture difference here where the Filipinos LOVE dance groups. They had TV shows of people competing with their dance groups. A couple times when we were coming home from appointments, we'd see a dance group on the street starting their practice. Filipinos love to dance and watch other people dance. :) (Oh and they also have TV shows of people guessing the tune from videoke songs with the first 5 notes only...) They really like videoke and dancing. Haha.

The 'L' thing that our BML was doing, is the thing people do in pictures. In Korea/Japan/China everyone does the 'V' sign right? In the Philippines, they do the L thing. It means "Gwapo/Gwapa" ahha. :)

Working in a branch has given me so much appreciation for my ward back home. There are a lot of hardworking people who really magnify their calling and the strength is so strong. Here, I can see the people working so hard, but because there are so much fewer, it is harder as a branch. I can see more of the full scape of the Church and members and people of all stages of backgrounds.

The goals in our mission here are insane!! 20 Lessons with Members, 20 lessons to recent converts or less actives, 6 baptisms a month, 20 new investigators a week! It's a little overwhelming! X_x Occasionally we've made the goals of one or two, but to make them all would be a miracle. But I believe in miracles... :)

How's your Book of Mormon reading going? I'm in the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi. Agoy... :S

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Palompon Week 5 Pictures

Palompon Week 5 (7/26/10)

Hi family!

The week has gone by as usual it seems.
I included some pictures. (You better appreciate that! It takes so
long to load it. :S) That is me and Sis. Farnworth and the other one
includes our BML, Jetro. He's working on his mission papers right
now!! :D

We did have some investigator children sing a song for us yesterday.
Hahaha. We were really happy because it means that they think about
us when we aren't even there. Their family was really open from the
beginning, but now they're just like friends. This family, the Alayon
family is actually one family and lots of the neighborhood
youth/children. They are sooo welcoming and all love to listen, week
after week. Usually the kids would get tired you'd think, but they
come every time! And some of them actually read their assignments. :P

We had one investigator FINALLY BAPTISED AND CONFIRMED these past two
weeks. Joselyn Hylo. Her first baptism scheduled (The day after I
arrived here in Palompon), she forgot to come! Her second one, the
week afterwards, she was all ready and dressed up and she even arrived
2 hours early so she wouldn't forget. But it didn't go through
because we had missing priesthood! One person to baptize, and one to
witness, but no one else to witness! Agoy! So two weeks later, her
baptism goes through! But her fellowshippers didn't come because they
were doing laundry. Agoy. Then she didn't come to church on Sunday
because she said she didn't have a skirt. (she would always wear pants
before) So this last Sunday, she was FINALLY confirmed and given the
Gift of the Holy Ghost. Whew. She's had a lot of trouble getting
that to happen.

There's this philippino culture that I really don't understand.
Filipinos are really SHY. The word they have for that is ulaw. It
can mean, embarrassed, shy or ashamed or anything like that. You
invite them to read, or pray during the lesson and they say: Not mee,
I'm ulaw. Or this week we asked a youth to come with us to a lesson.
She was fine saying hi to us and talking, but as soon as we asked her
to come with us, she attached herself to a wall, wouldn't look at us
or say anything and busied herself with drawing on the wall with her
finger! ?! Then as soon as we found someone else was coming and she
didn't have to come, she came off of the wall and walked away like
normal. It's so umm... DIFFERENT. And the general populace of the
Philippines tends to just be ulaw. America is just so loud in
comparison. haha.

Haha I want to do a short term mission (One transfer) in California
when I get home. Just to see what it's like in the States on a
mission. :P

KK, I hope that your Book of Mormon reading is going well. Tell me
all about it. :)

It's been hard recently. Those ups and downs of the mission are really
starting to become clear to me. But I know that I'm supposed to be
here in Tacloban mission. I could feel it right as I read my mission
call letter. There's more to be done. I have a long way to go before
I become like Christ. Thanks for your support and love. I miss you
too and think of you. But I also know that I need to be out here for
the people here, for you, and for myself. Everything in it's proper
time frame. :)

Love you all. <3

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Palompon Week 4

Hello my family~ :)

What's the price of the normal hymnbooks that you see in the church? Haha.

I hopefully will never take washing machines for granted AGAIN!!
It takes soooooooooooo long to wash by hand. :S

We had our Zone conference this week. One of the members of the area presidency, Elder Teh came and attended. He actually spoke at the Temple dedication last month. The only part I remember him saying is how when he was young, he didn't know why his family was dressed up in white around an alter in the temple. But later on in his life, he knew exactly why he was kneeling at an alter with the "most beautiful girl in the world" on the opposite side. :P We got to meet his wife at the Zone conference. The Zone conference was different than usual. We came fasting to the conference, and overall I think everyone was a little more well-behaved. The catering we had for conference was COMPLETELY different too. There were tables and goblets and tableclothes and it was all really pretty looking! Ahh! It was funny to see the effect the atmosphere had on the missionaries. It was a lot more quiet than it would normally be.

I also got to have some one-on-one time when Elder Teh interviewed me for a bit. He asked about my family and I told him my connection to the Adduru family. :) He knows you! Hehe. One thing I really noted was when we talked just for a little bit about understanding the Spirit. He looked over to the side, paused for a bit and then said: "Yea, it takes practice." Haha!


Justin, our investigator is sooo good! But we didn't get to see him this week. :( He wasn't there when we had our return appointment, but we actually saw him going home on our way to another appointment. We were all riding put-puts though, so we couldn't really stop and talk. Just pointed and yelled a bit acknowledging that we saw the other person. And then we were sad because he didn't come to church, but later on that day we went to the Hospital to visit the child of a member who is in there. Justin was at the hospital because his 2 month year old baby is sick. His family was grateful that we stopped by. <3

The members are so poor here. But they all want to go to the temple!~ The 2nd counselor and his family are sooooo good. They don't have a lot at all, but they're saving money, little by little! Sometimes they don't have any food to put on top of their rice, or no rice at all. Our BML too, Jetro, wants to go on a mission so badly. He's trying to save up money, but his sister always "borrows" money from him so its really hard to save!! Even though he moved, she still shows up at his house and "borrows" his money. He says he can't refuse her because she's his older sister. (That's just how kind he is :[ ) They sacrifice so much! I really admire them. And I think how lucky and blessed I've been all of my life...

How's Book of Mormon reading? I'm in 1st Nephi again so I can re-read it again. :)

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Palompon Week 3 (7-12-10)

Mom~

I got your email. :) I got all of the pictures too. It just takes SO long to even get close to looking at them. It'll probably take me a really long time to even look at them.

Eva~

On that note of bugs, I saw a cockroach fly for the first time this week. I knew that they flew, but I had never seen it before! It's so weird because I imagine them as creepy crawly things, not flying things. I killed one last week. The thing is, I don't mind if they are there, as long as they stay out of sight (Ignorance is bliss in this case) and don't bite me. (I'm pretty certain I've been bitten a few times in my sleep! GRR) But to actually kill one is... urgh.

~

We have no TIME!!

We always have things to do and not enough time to do it! Including email! ahhhhhh. :S And the cafe we're using today is really slow too.. agoy.

Sis. Farnworth is always stressed, and this no time thing is starting to get to me toooo!

We had a golden investigator come to church on Sunday! All by himself!! His name is Justin and he's a dancer. He does choreography and his brother has been an investigator for a bit already. He ended the second lesson by saying: I want to go to church, I want to go on a mission, and I want to go to the temple.

WOW! By the way, that was from no prompting from us. Although we had just taught him about temples a bit. :) We are now teaching the temple in every lesson we have because of the advice of President Malit.

We're so BOOKED this week. If we make any appointments, they have to be like, for next week! Yay!

When I speak English now, sometimes I say things funny, because my brain is thinking Cebuano ways to say things. Like, I said yesterday: "I asked that of him"

How's your Book of Mormon reading going? :)
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