Phantastic Baptism in the Philippines

Sister G’s baptism was great! They were so happy. We went to their house every day last week to make sure she was all ready for her baptism. They have a ton of faith. We've been having some problems in the barangay where they live and where we spend a ton of our time because we have a lot of investigators there. Filipinos love to gossip and in a pretty rural place like that gossip travels very quickly. The G family overheard a ton of our investigators and stuff getting together and bad-mouthing us. And some people are ignoring and being really rude to the G family because of Sister G’s baptism. But they say that they don't care and people can say whatever they want. Their attitudes are really inspiring. So we are trying hard to find people to fellowship them so they feel really welcome at church since not so much in the barangay any more.

Sister G was so cute when she bore her testimony after her baptism. She had it written down because she was very nervous. She said she knows this is the true church and some other stuff like that and said and I'm thankful to Sister Mortell and Sister La Torre for hiking to my house to teach me about the gospel. It was so sweet. I am just very happy for their little cute family. Also, surprise…Brother G got advanced to the office of Priest on Sunday.

I'm really good friends with the Samoan sisters now and I'm so glad they live with us because they are awesome.

Anyway, terrifying moment of the week--There I was, peacefully taking a shower, washing my hair. Then all of a sudden I saw these huge hairy legs wrap around the clock in our bathroom. I barely had time to wrap my towel around me, and then I burst out of the door. I discovered it was a spider literally the size of my hand with my fingers extended. I am not exaggerating! It was the most terrifying moment of my life. Also, the other day, Sister T "killed" a cockroach and put it in the trash. 30 min later I opened the trash and a headless cockroach leaped out at me. It was so scary.

Oh sad...Remember the less active girl that we finally found last week? We went to visit her again yesterday (hiked for like 25 min to get to her hut) then we went to shake her hand and ask how she was and she said not good and then ran away. So we asked her brother what was going on and he just said "wala daw" which means "she says she's not here." So that was pretty depressing.

Good news. Manny and his cousin and his sister came to the baptism. And Manny and his cousin came to church the next day! Hooray! His mom even gave us all a ride in their car. It's the first time I've seen Manny wearing clothes. Usually he's wearing these little boxer shorts with his white tank top tucked into them.

We went to go contact a referral last week. So when you're looking for someone here you just have to ask people because there are no house numbers or street names. So this group of kids was helping us find this girl and then they spot her at the end of the street and just yell "Hoy! Armie!" so loud and sooo many people were just staring at us. Then the girl didn't hear so they took off sprinting to get her….This herd of little boys sprinting to tell this girl that the missionaries are looking for her. Then we talked to her and had to just teach her in a field because her house was too far and she had to go somewhere and the little kids were sooo amazed by me. They were fighting and like tackling each other to get to hold my hand. I had 4 kids on each arm and the rest were just staring at me. They told me my "color contact lenses" were beautiful and couldn't believe it was natural. They kept feeling my skin the whole entire lesson. They were so cute. Then, haha, they gave us the names of all of their families and begged us to come visit again. So hopefully we'll be able to get some investigators from that!

 

Sometimes it is really, really hard, but I'm seeing that it's worth it. It was very special to be a part of Sister G’s conversion and her baptism. I loved seeing the changes that they made as their testimonies grew.

 Super creepy worn out doll hanging from a tree. It's in our area and we walk by this all the time!

 

 On the way to the G family's house.

 



 The G family's house

 

 Ally and Brother and Sister G's daughter.

 

The Americans--been together since the MTC!

Pheeling the Love after Typhoon

That's sweet that everyone is concerned about my safety. Maybe you can update me on some of the facts of the typhoon. Because I'm not sure how reliable our sources are. Everyone says the Tacloban missionaries are safe and they're in Manila and they are getting reassigned. Is it true that it's basically madness and people are looting and killing each other and it's super dangerous?

[Editor’s note: We shared some of the details from this article http://www.deseretnews.com/article/print/865590735/Surviving-the-typhoon-A-story-of-fear-faith-and-what-it-means-to-be-prepared.html ]

Sister LT is laughing at me because I just started to cry when I read about the missionaries. I am so thankful they were safe and Heavenly Father was protecting them. That is so awful in Tacloban. Have they gotten relief yet from the Filipino government? We saw on the news that they were preparing stuff but they hadn't delivered it yet. Why was international aid late? How soon did America help?
 

Anyway, on a happier note…You'll all be glad to know that we are teaching Manny from Modern Family. He’s a 10 year-old kid and he and Manny are the same person...Super rich, super serious, super adult-like. And he looks exactly like Manny. We found “Manny” and his sister and a couple of their cousins in a preach by the way. We were asking them where these other people live and we asked when we could teach them. We’ve had two lessons with them. I'll let you know how it goes. They have a car and a gate and air conditioning and everything.

Sister G passed her baptismal interview! We are so so happy for her and her family. She is excited for her baptism next week. They are just so sweet. We went to their house every day last week, most days they fed us too. They are so cute and when they're saying the closing prayer, they just bless the food. They literally have no money, but yesterday they gave us a HUGE plate of pansit each (when Filipinos make pansit they make sooo much.) It was basically a giant feast. They just seem so happy, even though they are poor. Brother G said the reason he came back to church was because he couldn't provide for his family without God. Now they are so happy. They just live in their hut in the middle of jungle and blast music through these huge speakers, so you can hear it for about a mile around.

Yesterday Brother G was showing us where this less active member we've been searching for a month lives. We are so happy we finally found her! She, too, lives in the middle of the jungle (not quite as isolated as Brother G). She was so happy we came and started to cry because she said she was thankful the missionaries came to remind her of these things. We invited Brother G to join our lesson and he bore his testimony about how happy he has been since he came back to church. He said he was so grateful for the Book of Mormon and prayer and he can feel Heavenly Father blessing his family. And he's so happy his wife is getting baptized.  But he's so determined to give up smoking. He now smokes 3 sticks a day. When we first started teaching him he smoked 3 packs a day.

There are some people in our ward that sacrifice so much like Bro. Garcia. It's really touching.

I had exchanges this week! I was very nervous, because I was leading exchanges so that means it’s in my area. And my companion was Sister T. She's from Kiribati and she’s still learning Tagalog and English. So, I was super worried no one would be able to understand us and that we wouldn't be able to understand each other. But everything went well! We taught a few lessons and everyone could understand us. We just asked them a lot of questions to make sure they understood. So that was actually a confidence booster for me.

Every Christmas each missionary is supposed to make a photo of 3 words that have meaning to them. So, my three words are "Climb Every Mountain" and my picture was on a trail on the way to the G family’s house. I like to pretend I'm in the Sound of Music.

The Dinkels are having everyone over for a short Thanksgiving dinner, which is good. Everyone says Christmas in the Philippines is the best!

You should ask the missionaries if they need people to work with them. We really need a good solid married couple to come with us to appointments because they could be so influential. Members are so so important. So, ask the missionaries what you can do to help them.

I love you very much. Thank you for everything. I had a ton more to tell you but I’m out of time. Thanks for your advice and being good examples and everything. Have family scripture study, family prayer, and family home evening. Love you! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Mortell

District Meeting

Not touched by Pherocious Typhoon Yolanda/Hyan

[Editor’s Note: We have been very touched by the outpouring of love and concern for Allyson this past week. Thank you so much. Our thoughts and prayers go to the people of the Philippines who have suffered such tragedy and loss.]

Thanks for the emails! I'm glad our mission wasn't affected by the typhoon! We just had rain…Nothing too out of the ordinary. That's so nice that everyone was making sure I'm ok….Very sweet. The typhoon is all we hear about from the people we visit. It is such a tragedy. It’s really, really scary. I'm going to make my 72 hour kit like the mission president told us to.

The G family is great. Sis G is living the word of wisdom (she's giving up coffee). Brother G still smokes 2 packs a day. But he says he's made huge improvements. He really wants to give up smoking but he's really addicted. Sister G is very excited for her baptism. Her baptismal interview is next Saturday. We still have a lot to teach her before then so we're going to go there pretty much every day. Starting the day with a hike to their place leaves me sweaty the whole day, haha. Also, Brother G is so sweet and eager to participate in everything. He heard about a temple trip announced at church and wanted to know when he could go. So we explained he needs to wait a year for Sister G and get sealed in the temple. He's very excited. Just needs to give up smoking. It’s really inspiring to see Sister G and Brother G change and keep their commitments. It's so good how excited she is for her baptism. Their kids refused to go to primary without us yesterday so we went to primary with the kids so Brother and Sister G could go to Gospel Principles.

This week we found a lot of new people to teach. We found 16 potential investigators and 8 new investigators. Usually people act super interested for like 2 lessons then they just hide after that. We need to find a way to get around that, because it's very frustrating. We taught the B family again last night. Except we only teach the kids. They are the people that live down the awful alley full of hundreds of cockroaches that reeks of urine. I'm pretty sure every trike driver in San Fernando relieves himself in that alley based on the smell. They live in this boarding house thing and there are people just staring at us while we give our lesson. It's the worst, but they are getting better and being more interested.

Have I told you I usually play the piano in Sacrament meeting now? I also play at baptisms, church, and everything. And they usually just announce over the pulpit that I'll be the pianist before they even ask me. Haha.

We had dinner again this week with the O family. To get there we have to take a super long jeepney ride up this really high mountain and then they fed us fish and pansit [noodles] with liver and gizzard (yum) and some delicious chicken. Then they gave us enough left-overs to feed us for two more meals and brought us home in their 35 year old vw red bug. They're the best! Also, everyone invites the missionaries to dinner for their birthday and Filipino birthday feasts are the best. We had another one yesterday. So much food!  I've yet to have a meal in the Philippines that's not accompanied by coke.

The other day I thought about everything I did that day and I thought "my family wouldn't believe this." just a typical day. I pet a goat. I let ducks and chickens walk around my ankles. I didn't care that much when a baby had just gone to the bathroom then touched my leg with her wet bottom. I was in mcm on Saturday and I felt something wet on the back of my skirt, touched it with my hand-- bird poop. I had to walk through this alley thing behind an outhouse that somehow had something leaking out the back of it and smelled awful. I turned on the water in my apartment and it was black. (Don’t worry. it eventually turned clear and we've stopped brushing our teeth with the unfiltered water). Also, I plucked a pomelo from a tree and opened it with a bamboo stick I found in the jungle.

I'm glad you made the Filipino spaghetti. Delicious. Too bad you can't really buy whole fish in America. Those are delicious fried. You could also make adobo or sisig. Sisig is also delicious.

Well, I have to go now. Love you!

The gospel has blessed our lives so much and we should help other people have those same blessings.

Love you so much and thanks for everything.

 

San Fernando zone at District Meeting.

[photo from the Dinkels blog]

Phrightening Halloween in the Philippines

[We asked Ally some questions and here are her responses]

Are you taking the vitamins provided by the mission?

Yes, those who aren’t taking them are losing their hair. Their hair is falling out!

Do they use diapers (Aunt Bev wants to know)?

I assume so, considering that almost every day I walk past an adult and infant diaper store. Except most of the poor people don't use diapers and their kids are usually just naked on bottom.

How was Halloween?

Halloween (All Saints Day) was sad. It was hard to find people to teach because they were all in the cemetery.

 Cemetary on All Saints Day (October 31)

I am Good! Someone in this internet cafe is watching Monsters University. What a great movie.

Anyway, unfortunately there's a rule that people from home can't donate anything to people here. The G family is still progressing. Good news...J cut his cigarette intake in 1/4 since we began teaching him and that was before we even taught Word of Wisdom. So he really needs to give up smoking and J needs to give up coffee and alcohol. We're hoping J will be able to give it up without much of a problem since her baptismal date is soon.

Somehow all the people we taught last week just loved to argue with us. It's because they're all from the same church. They keep stealing our poor investigators by giving them free rice and then they just join that church. And they all argue with us because they study about why Mormons are wrong in their church. We've been teaching this old couple. They are very nice, but they don't want to change their religion (catholic) because they are old. They agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon last night though!  We inadvertently ended up teaching the Barangay Captain of Tanqui last week! He doesn't technically live in our area, but we are going to keep teaching him so we can convert him and then he can tell the rest of Tanqui to listen to us. Tanqui is a barangay (small village) and the captain is the leader of it…equivalent of a mayor maybe just on a smaller scale. The Dinkels worked with us last week. We're even more conspicuous when there are 3 Americans rather than just 1.

I had Filipino spaghetti the other day and I thought it was going to be disgusting but it was delicious! It has noodles, sweet spaghetti sauce, finely chopped onions, carrots, and bell peppers, and cheez whiz. Sounds disgusting, right? Best thing ever.

Sister LT and Sister Mortell with Sister Salvatera. Sister Salvatera is so good to the missionaries! Thank you!!!

Nothing too crazy happened this week, just the normal crazy things that happen. The person in the internet cafe is now watching Toy Story. This week we noticed that in this family's house that we visit at least once a week, there were chickens climbing ALL over their clean dishes in their kitchen. So we were extremely glad they never offered us food. The next time we went there, they gave us a whole ton of food. Oh well. It was delicious. Most spiritual thing this week was probably our lessons with our less active member, Bro. J. Yes, my testimony grows every day!

Studying is good. I study the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, and conference talks usually. Tagalog is going better. I can understand most of what's going on, but my speaking is still rough. It's really frustrating because my Tagalog is slow and I feel like they get bored when I'm talking because it takes me forever. But it's getting much better. Sis. LT and I speak more Tagalog. I'm not good enough to fully communicate in Tagalog.

Have to go! Love you very much and hope you have a wonderful week.

 

[From Elder and Sister Dinkel's blog] Sisters enjoy peanut butter blossoms. Sis. Mortell said that every time she wishes for a certain treat, I end up bringing her that treat. I told her that shows that Heavenly Father really loves her, and sometimes He inspires me to make the treat. It's cool to be His hands--occasionally, at least!

[Also from the Dinkel's blog] We got to visit with this sweet sister and her three daughters, and each of us told why we are on a mission. Two of the daughters are going soon, and the mom went several years ago. It was a very special afternoon with these sweet, humble people.

 

[Thanks to the Dinkels and facebook for the pictures this week.]