Allyson with Sister and President Balledos

Hello everybody!

So our new apartment is nice! There are ten million bugs, but it's manageable. It's in our area so it's convenient. Also, we each have a bathroom because the new people [another set of sister missionaries] don't move in for 3 more weeks.

So yesterday we went to a huge Filipino birthday party. Everyone in the ward always invites all 6 of the missionaries to birthday parties and other events so that's nice! I ate goat, liver, and tiny little whole fish that look like minnows. Just put a spoonful on some rice-- yum. Then yesterday we were trying to find this less active in Santiago Sur (that's the mountainous part of our area). He told us he lived really far away and he was right. We hiked for at least 1.5 miles maybe 2 miles in a rainstorm through the jungle. There was just this little dirt path that was soooo slippery because it was raining so hard. So we had to go so slow because we were sliding all over the place. Then we had to go down a mountain that was so steep to get to his hut. The only thing I can compare it to is our fishing hole at the outlet….Except steeper and muddier and about 10 times as long. So his house was in sight and I thought to myself "wow, this is miraculous that I haven't fallen yet" then bam. I hit the ground and literally slid down the mountain on my butt. I was already soaking wet and now I was completely covered in mud (Oh, and Caribou [water buffalo] poop too was mixed in there). So we taught the family a good lesson then hiked back to the road in the rain... that sure was an adventure! I hope next time we go to that family it's not raining! Haha, we tell all our investigators that story and they think it is so funny though.

On Saturday, I witnessed probably the grossest thing ever. We were visiting a less active and it was dark outside and they live in this creepy little dark place where we have to walk in the alley for a long ways and climb over all sorts of junk to get to. And everyone is just squatting on the side of the alley doing laundry or cooking and they just stare at me. So all of the sudden I see this giant heap of feathers that is moving blocking the alley. Then I realized that is was probably 10 or 15 chickens. They were about to kill them, so they crippled them. Their feathers and heads were all at weird angles and they were just slowly moving waiting to die. Oh my gosh! It was so gross. So we had to squeeze through this heap of almost dead chickens to get through. It was so awful.

So our lessons are going pretty well! We have a family that is really progressing and I like teaching them because they understand English really well. Haha. We taught the 84 year old woman again and had a great lesson. I had a million more things to tell you, but I'm almost out of time and I still need to send pictures.[which never came!] I got Gr. Tell's package! Thank you so much! All those snacks are the best! So I think it took a month from the date.

You might get a fb message from someone named Rose Salvatera. She said she wanted to message our moms. We always go to her house and she feeds us delicious food and gives us wisdom and she just takes good care of us. She reminds me so much of Gr. Tell. She has a daughter that lives with her (she's less active and we've been teaching her).

I love you all very much and thank you for everything! Have a great week!

Love, Sis. Mortell

PS. The rumor that there are no good toiletries here is a lie. I bought some Irish Spring soap and some Secret deodorant. They also have Colgate toothpaste.

 

[Thank you to the Dinkels for these pictures]

I'm in San Fernando Zone, in the Sevilla Ward. We are Sevilla C. Sis Ackerman and Dial are Sevilla A and B so I get to see them a couple times a week. They get to live together and I am very jealous. We are still living with the Sister Training Leaders, right by the mission office. It takes us 30 min to get to our area every day but apparently we're moving this week.

We had dinner last night at the Dinkels. It was so good to have some American things and talk to some Americans and not be expected to speak Tagalog.

Our ward is good. There are quite a few strong members and we have church in the stake center so it's actually really nice. Last night we were having MCM and it was supposed to start at 5:30... 6:15 came around and the Bishop finally showed up! And we had dinner at 7 and everyone was like "oh, we'll just be late" but the Americans insisted that we call Sis. Dinkel and tell her we would be late because they were American and she was so grateful. They tell me how organized and functional the Sevilla ward is. There are bottles of coke in the mission office and church.

Yes, we are teaching some people. We found 10 or something new investigators last week so now we have a total of 12 or 14 or something. One day we didn’t find any investigators and my companion told me it was because we had broken the Word of Wisdom the day before because we ate cheese puffs. Anyway, we've had some really good lessons! My Tagalog is really bad. I taught a really good lesson to this really hard-core Catholic lady yesterday. We were trying to visit one of our investigators, but they weren't there so we taught this lady. She was basically debating with us but then I just felt like I should show her Ether 12:27. It wasn't really related to what we were talking about but I showed it to her and she burst out in tears and started to ask how we could have known to show that to her because it was an answer to her prayers. So we tried to testify that we knew to show it to her because we were representatives of Jesus Christ and the Spirit told us. She kept crying throughout the lesson and she said she wants us to come back. But she is really set in her ways... We'll see how that goes. It was really cool to be led by the Spirit like that in a lesson though. Also, it was great because she works for a call center so she spoke great English :)

The other day, I was sitting in a broken chair in a shack in the jungle. I was eating a fish ball (nasty) and there were ducks and roosters running around my legs. There was also a partially clothed man getting a massage right behind me. And I had just finished teaching two drag queens how to pray. I just thought to myself-- what a weird situation! How did a girl from Idaho get here? Anyways, the drag queens were so fascinated with my eyes! I kept looking up and they were staring at my eyes. People here love blue eyes! Also, I almost died laughing when I saw one of them running in a towel because he just showered. His towel was so so short and he had it pulled up to his shoulders like a girl! We felt like telling him that even though he thinks he's a girl he's really not and he needs to be concerned about his lower half, not upper half. He tried to leap into the house before we saw him, but it was unsuccessful.

I was talking to a lady yesterday and then I noticed there was a picture of Idaho on her shirt and it said "Capitol Soccer" or something. I asked her where she got it and she said she didn't know. There are so many random American things that have made their way to the Philippines. For example, there are signs for Avon and Kumon learning center everywhere. Weird.

Our area is partly in the city (really crappy tiny houses all squished together), partly in the hills (it is very beautiful and I have some great pics I'll send next week), and partly jungle. Our area is really beautiful. Also, it's nice because the place where we switch from a jeepney to trike every day has a McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and some Filipino fast food places. McDonalds has never tasted so good. I swear it's better here. I have no idea what our address is. I don't even think our street has a name. Most streets don't have names. Also, there are no traffic laws. No stop lights, no stop signs, people just go whenever they feel like it.

So, Brother Goff was right. Every day is an adventure in the Philippines! I still don't understand what's happening most of the time. People do the weirdest things and they don't even care. It rains really hard. Ok, my time is almost done but I might be able to send pictures.. hold on.....

This is how they drink soda....just pour it in a plastic bag and use a straw.

Ally's grandma with the Elder from the Philippines whose mother fed Ally her first night in the Philippines. He is serving in Idaho Falls.

The Sevilla Sisters having dinner at the Dinkels. Sister Dinkel assures the moms that the girls are doing well! (photos from bradvalarie.blogspot.com).

[The editor of this blog is so grateful for the Dinkels!]

 

 

Hello!!!!!!  So, I'm in the Philippines. Crazy! The past few days I have basically had no idea what's going on. Haha. So, we flew to Hong Kong... the flight was a breeze. I probably slept for 12 hours. We got some McDonalds for breakfast and then got on our flight to Manila! When we got to Manila, we finally found the person that was waiting for us after we went through customs and all that. Anyway, we found the guy in Manila and then we took a van to the bus station. We were all just staring out the window. It was so shocking. There were people everywhere, everything was so loud, we saw a dead dog laying on a table, and tons and tons of slums. We all felt extremely humbled after only being there for 2 minutes. So then we had to figure out how to get the bus to San Fernando. Luckily Sister Ackerman's Tagalog is fantastic. I used a bathroom for the first time in the Philippines. Good thing I had my little toilet paper roll with me! The toilets flushed, but the stalls were so short that if you stood up you could see into the other stall, haha. So, we were not prepared for how terrible the bus ride would be. So so long. It took 8 hours. And it’s not 8 hours of smooth sailing on the freeway... It's go 90 mph, slow down, dodge some children, dodge a cow, etc. There was also movie after movie blasting in our faces.... but we had to do our best to ignore it since we're missionaries. So the ride was a little rough, but it was really cool to look at the window and see everything. It helped me get a little more used to the Philippines.

We got to San Fernando at 8:30 at night and then we met the mission president and had dinner. This very sweet member had a big meal for us. Guess what? Her son is on a mission in Idaho Falls right now. I told her my grandparents live there and she asked for their addresses, so a Filipino elder and his companion might show up at Gr. Tell's or Papa and Ronda's house. It's crazy how small the world can be!

So Thursday and Friday we stayed with the sister training leaders. We had some activities-- we had a little scavenger hunt thing where we had to take jeepneys to different places. We learned how to wash our clothes, go to the market, and cook some Filipino food. It was really fun! We went to the mission home and it was beautiful!

Friday morning I got my new companion. Her name is Sister La Torre and she is from the Philippines (Bicol). She is basically fluent in English, which is very useful! She has been on her mission for 5 months. This is her third transfer and I am her second trainee. It's normal here to be a trainer right after you get done being trained. Hope that doesn't happen to me! She is very sweet and I like her a lot.

So, we're opening our area. Apparently our area used to be part of another area, but it was so far away that no one bothered to go to it. So there is one strong member family in our district, one pretty active family, and a handful of less-actives. We really struggled to find these people. Our area book was totally empty.

Apparently there is something wrong with the water in our apartment so we're living with the sister training leaders right now. It's nice because their apartment is nice-- there's even a shower (but no hot water) and a washing machine! It's inconvenient though because it's pretty far from our area. We're moving either tomorrow or Wednesday. We don't know. Everyone has a different version of what's happening.

I met the Dinkels! She gave me a big hug when I got there! They are very nice. There's another office couple and she gave us the name of her blog so you could look at it, haha. I think it is myronandfaylenesmission.blogspot.com.

I just can't even believe how different the Philippines is from anywhere I've ever been. Probably the closest thing I have to compare it to is Adventure Land at Disneyland, haha. On Saturday, we were trying to track down this less active member. We were in a super sketchy area...Tiny little alleys with people doing their laundry just staring at you (especially me because I'm a giant American). We had to climb over like a million roosters and cats and trash and whatnot. Then we finally found this man's house and he didn't answer and then his neighbor came out. He was super big and grungy with a big beard and was only wearing basketball shorts. He said he would go see if he could find the man and when he turned around he had a gun in his shorts! I nudged my companion then we started to be a little scared... Luckily he couldn't find the guy so we high tailed it out of there! The next day we saw that man tinkling in a bush, haha.

On Saturday, we were trying to visit the member family but they weren't there so we taught their neighbors. It was an 84 year old woman and her 13 and 15 year old granddaughters. They were really interested which was really cool!

Every day I just keep seeing more and more things that are so crazy! Ah! I'm running out of time on the computer. Yesterday, I trudged through water mid-calf through the jungle to teach a family under a little tin roof, I ate a whole fried fish (everything but the bones and fins), and hiked through rice fields in a rain storm in the dark.

There are a million more things I wanted to tell you but there's no time! Thank you so much! Love you all! Thanks for the scripture dad--I actually read it this morning and thought "what a good scripture!"

[It's 2 Nephi 31:19-20 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.]

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Mortell

 

 

This picture and the two that follow are from Brad and Valarie's blog.  Sisters Dial, Ackerman and Mortell from the MTC in Provo.   Brad and Valarie Dinkel are missionaries and do a great blog.  See this link http://bradvalarie.blogspot.com/

 

This photo also includes the four new sisters that came from the Manilla missionary training center.  Sister Dinkel is on the right.



 

All the new missionaries arriving in the Baguio mission, September, 2013.  Seven from the MTC in Provo, the rest from the Manilla MTC.

I'm excited to talk to all of you! We have to be at the travel office at 12:30 then we take the front runner to Salt Lake then the tracks to the airport. Then our flight is at six. I guess they really want to make sure we're there on time! It's pretty intense-- we even have a travel leader haha (Sister Ackerman is in charge of our group). So, if we end up stuck in Hong Kong or something, it's her fault.

Well, we had in field-orientation all day Friday---It was so long! Also, most of the people from “The District” teach at the MTC in in-field orientation. I was taught by Elder Christensen (the one from Florida who was in a band). Weird. There's also Elder Murray and some other people that I can't remember. Also, we found out that they were selected for “The District” before their missions and they were specifically trained for it! That kind of ruins it because we all thought it was just a normal district. By the way, Elder Christensen is the biggest goofball I've ever met. In-field orientation was exactly like efy, except more intense.

We had our last gym time-- it was very sad. The elders in my district and I have become addicted to four square. We're really going to miss it! My clothes have now been washed in a washing machine for the last time in 18 months. I can't believe I'm going to the Philippines so soon! We are all so excited.

Haha, so last night we were in class and all of the sudden we smelled the most foul smell I've ever smelled. It smelled like a combination of eggs, sewage, and the paint pots at Yellowstone. We thought Sis. Titabu had pulled out one of her eggs (We have hard boiled eggs almost every day at breakfast and almost every day, Sis. Titabu pulls one out of nowhere at like 7 at night or something. She just keeps it in her pocket all day and pulls it out for a little snack haha). Anyway, she didn't have any eggs so we tried to figure out what the smell was. We couldn't find anything but all of us were starting to get light headed and we all had our noses plugged. It was so awful. Elder Eagar actually went back to his residence because it was making him sick. Sister Cope just laughed and laughed and told us that we better get used to it because it constantly smells awful in the Philippines. She said that the Philippines basically made her immune to bad smells-- she could hardly smell it. We walked outside and it smelled even worse! So pungent! The only thing we can think of is that there was some sort of sewage backup problem. Thankfully it has somewhat subsided today.

Thank you so much for the package for the plane! You thought of everything. You're the best! That story about the kid serving in Boise is funny. Glad I dodged that! I will definitely be having the experience he hoped for. Last week, Brother Ward [teacher from Boise] and I talked about Boise for like 20 minutes. We pretty much have our district convinced that Boise is the best place ever. He loves it so much too!

Gr. Tell told me in her letter that she was very touched by Maddy's testimony. I'm so proud of Maddy. She's such a good example to everyone.

Good news. This week I found a list of Tagalog proverbs in the back of one of my books. Here are some of my favorites:

He who is accustomed to a loincloth will never be comfortable in pants.

A piece of meat that has been carried away by a dog will forever be defiled by its saliva.

A man cannot maintain his dignity once he is caught defecating.

After the suns sets, there will be no colored iguana (At night all cats are grey).

This week, Brother Ward let us ask him some questions about the Philippines and he told us stories and stuff. It made me very excited! He told us that it so overwhelming at first though. He said he got there and all of his senses were confused-- the food was totally foreign, so were the smells, he said he had never knew what it was like to never be dry-- either drenched in your sweat or rain. He also said he would see people and be like "what are you doing? I know you're doing an action, but I have no idea what action that is." Sounds pretty crazy! Can't wait.

Oh my gosh, some in the room next door is playing "you've got a friend in me" from Toy Story on the piano. So magical! They better hurry up before someone tells them to stop playing worldly music.

Here's one of the funniest moments this week. So Sister Cope [MTC teacher] is very quiet and reserved and very strict about rules and things. She also has the habit of constantly reminding all of the sisters in our district to maintain our "quiet dignity". If we ever laugh too loud she just says "quiet dignity sisters, quiet dignity". Haha, so during class she kept saying this word when something bad happened that sounded like "crape!" (accent on the e). So we all just thought it was a fancy Tagalog way of saying crap. So I raise my hand and ask her about it and she says "Ano??!" ("What?!") She looked so offended that we would ever say that. So I explained to her that that's what we thought she was saying, then she told us it was actually "grabe". We asked for an example of when to use it and she says in Tagalog "Like oh my brother was just shot. Grabe!" We were all just busting up laughing and I asked why that was the example she just happened to have on the top of her head. Then she realized that it was funny too and we have been laughing about it for days. Ok, I just typed it and it didn't sound that funny. But it is super hilarious when it is in Tagalog and if you knew Sister Cope.

So I thought I would be pretty much fluent in Tagalog by the time I left the MTC. Not even close. I really hope I have a good trainer, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to understand most things when I get there. Hopefully I can start picking it up really fast when I get there!

Well, I will talk to you in two days! Then next time you get an email from me I'll be in the Philippines! Can't believe it. Thank you all for your letters and package and things! I really appreciate it. Your notes in the plane package were very sweet. I’ve received a lot of letters from people. I really appreciate them!

Thanks for everything! I love you all! Talk to you soon!

Love, Sister Mortell