Phabulous Baptism

Brother S’s baptism was sooooo good! They were so happy. I felt so happy for them. He bore his testimony after and it was so sweet. He’s really shy, but it was so good. He talked about always feeling the Spirit when he reads the Book of Mormon. Then his wife, Sister J bore her testimony and she was crying saying how she knows families could be together forever. Right as she was saying that, their baby came running up the aisle yelling "mama, mama!" it was the cutest thing in the world.

I’m getting transferred and so is my companion. So that should be interesting for the new missionaries. We haven't had transfer awareness yet, but president called and said I have to show Sister Dial where all the people live so that she can then show the new missionaries. So I get to go on exchanges with Sister Dial for a day! Yay! I love her so much. I don't know where I’m going. I'm guessing Agoo. I tried so hard to get it out of the Assistants to the President last night at a dinner appointment but they wouldn't budge.

I kind of wish I could stay here one more transfer. I feel like we have been working so hard in this area and things are just starting to get moving. There are a lot of investigators and members I don't want to leave, but I feel confident about being transferred. I’m not really nervous. I just feel like we have worked so hard in this area and I don't want to leave it yet. But, I know that there will be great opportunities in my next area!

One of the members was so sad that we’re getting transferred. She wrote us a song on her guitar. Last night after our last mcm she just burst into tears and hugged me and hugged me and wouldn't let go. She’s so sweet!

 

I rode in an elevator for the first time in the Philippines! Our super nice investigators’ daughter was in the hospital because she was dehydrated. So they asked us to come to the hospital so we went there (the same one where I had to go at the beginning of my mission with my companion). Turns out only the emergency room part is sketchy! I felt like I was in America in the rest of it! Their room had a TV and computer! It was so nice. Their daughter is ok now. We just shared a message about faith. Then they gave us a little gift for coming (some gourmet Filipino treats) and told us how appreciative they were of us. The mom whispered in my ear as we were leaving, "Thanks so much. We really needed you here." Dang it! The next missionaries better baptize them!

 

One of our other investigators is doing so great. We taught him almost every day last week and he is progressing like crazy. He had a wonderful experience at the baptism. He had his baptismal interview yesterday... sadly we need to postpone his baptism. He was good on everything and really wants to be baptized but is still a little unsure about some things. I don't understand it because he knows the Book of Mormon is true. I know he'll be fine. I feel worried for the new missionaries though. He has every concern in the book. I’m going to have to write the new missionaries a novel on his concerns. Sweet moment from the other day… I literally had no idea what to say in the lesson the other day. I had no idea how to resolve his concerns. Then I just randomly opened my scriptures to a great verse for him about trusting in the Lord and He will extend his arm of mercy to you. It was perfectly what he needed in that moment. Then he just pulled out his little scripture marker which we had given him earlier and highlighted the verse. It was seriously the cutest thing ever.

My English has been going downhill lately... before my mission when I would read people's blogs about them forgetting English I would just think they were being dramatic... it's true! It’s harder for me to think of the words I’m trying to think of!

Terrifying moment of the week… I literally had to sprint away from GIANT geese things that were charging me! Charging! It was terrifying!

I love you very much and thank you for all that you do! Have a wonderful week and I’ll email you next week! My guess is in a computer shop in Agoo!

[No new pictures this week, so here are a few from a LONG time ago...the day they left the MTC and the day they arrived in the Philippines.]

 

 

Not yet Phluent in Tagalog, but improving!

I spoke in church yesterday. My topic was "heeding the promptings of the spirit.” People couldn't stop raving about my Tagalog. That’s new!

[I received a facebook message from a member of Ally’s ward: “sis mortell gud mrng.your daughter was a speaker yesterday sunday and you know what.. she speak in tagalog fluently. wow i was so amazed!”]

[We told Ally what she had said and here’s Ally’s response] She’s exaggerating. Definitely not fluent yet though. That’s sweet of her. My Tagalog has improved SO much the past two transfers. I know that the Lord has blessed me with the gift of tongues in some instances and He has also motivated me and helped me work hard so that I can learn Tagalog.

Anyways, this week was kind of a rollercoaster as far as the work goes. But first and foremost, OUR INVESTIGATOR PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW! His baptism is next Saturday. I am so so so excited for them. I love their family with all my heart and I just want them to be sealed in the temple. His wife is a member and she is totally active and strong now and they have the best family ever. He has been investigating the church since June. I have seen him progress soo much since we've been teaching him so it's really amazing. It’s amazing to see the gospel strengthening their family. Their family is strong and awesome now and they are the kindest people in the whole world. haha, I learned that his wife is 2 months older than me while filling out the baptismal record. Crazy!

Here’s the weirdest thing that happened to me this week. We were walking through one of the barangays and we see this giant group of kind of creepy men (they're everywhere here!). Anyways, they were yelling at us and saying things like usual, then I started to listen and they were saying "ay, you like this! paniki!" then I remembered paniki.... bat! That’s right. They were roasting a GIANT bat on a grill thing and a baby bat too and were going to eat it. So I asked them if I could take a picture and they said yes. They were just having a hay day freaking out the Americanas with the bat. It smelled super weird.

I had one of the saddest experiences of my mission this week. Did I tell you about our investigator that was super interested but also easily confused with a ton of questions? We went to teach her a couple days ago and I could just tell something was off. Before we started to teach she started to tell us about how she had a giant argument with her husband. He said you have already been baptized in the Catholic Church and we are Catholic. It turned into a big thing and she decided she would stop listening to us even though she thinks it might be true. She says she wanted her family to be united. (You have to understand how rare this is here. Here, if people don't like us, they just avoid us. No one ever tells us to our face). I just tried to look her straight in the eyes and testify. It literally was breaking my heart because I could just see her rejecting the gospel. I could just feel her basically throwing away her chance to go to the celestial kingdom. We testified pretty powerfully then I asked if I could just say a prayer before we left because she wouldn't let us teach her. After the prayer I looked up and my companion's eyes were watery and she had tears streaming down her face. We were all so sad for her. It was so painful to watch her throw away that opportunity especially because we knew there was nothing we could do about it.

Yesterday we were having a pretty rough day. We only had 4 hours of proselyting because we had church and mcm. In those 4 hours, we had SIX return appointments. We didn't know how we were going to get to everyone. Then, literally every single person punted us. They either weren't there or said they were busy or whatever. I was so sad because we really needed to teach all of them. Anyway, then one of the members told us that he had a referral for us. It was his nephew. Also, another member came with us because he is cousins with the wife. We taught the restoration and I’m not sure, but they may be a golden family! Hooray!! They were super receptive and the husband is really really interested in the Book of Mormon. I really hope they can progress. Lately we’ve been having a big problem because we can't teach men with no other women there. So it means that we usually try and teach women. Then it turns out that the wives are interested and their husbands don't like it. That has happened so much recently! So we are so glad that the husband is interested! In the Philippines, pretty much what the husband wants goes.

Remember our investigator whose girlfriend is a member? He really wants to be baptized. Anyway, last week his step dad AND his brother died. Separate instances. So he is pretty shaky right now. Luckily he's still really interested and progressing. I feel so bad for him. His brother was trying to get him to go somewhere with him on his motorcycle. He said no. Then his brother went to the Shell station to get gas and then he got drunk and drove his motorcycle back and crashed it and died. Apparently his body was pretty mangled and destroyed. By the way, they don't have 911 or anything like that here. So, someone saw the crash and ran up to our investigator’s house to go get him. So he ran down and had to see his dead brother in the road. We seriously feel so bad for him. But we are so happy that he wasn't on the motorcycle with him.

The Philippines is actually a really sad country. Sometimes I just feel so sad for the people around me. There are so many broken families because the dads are alcoholics and there is so much sad stuff everywhere. On my mission I have definitely seen probably the saddest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I have also seen the happiest though. I love being a missionary. I am so glad to be here even though I have to see really sad and really hard things all the time.

[We asked Ally some random questions.]

1. What is the bathroom situation? No toilet paper in public places, but you can buy it at stores for your apartment. Fun fact: before I became companions with an American, I just used a ladle. I’m fine either way, it doesn’t really matter. When we are proselyting we go at the church if it's open or at the shell gas station (squatty potty!)

2. What's your favorite Filipino food? GRAHAM CAKE. pronounced gray-ham. haha. Also adobo, sisig, banana q, pretty much anything with pineapple, also buko (coconut) shakes, and spicy peanuts from the peanut man and also mang inasal (the restaurant)

3. What is your bed like? foam mattress

4. How does the laundry lady wash your clothes? hand wash, hangs them up.

5. What’s the weather like now? It's been pretty hot here. But it's actually not too bad. I don't really notice it that much anymore.

Another fun fact: I met someone whose name is "elldyesse". Yes that's right "LDS"! Awesome!

It's just a different world here. I have to do gross things all the time and I don't really care anymore. Everything is just different! Anyway, you'll be happy to know that I got a shirt and a couple of skirts that actually fit me. I got them from ukay ukay last week (term for like a thrift store just on the street). We decided that they were selling all of the clothes that didn't sell at goodwill in the 90s. They’ve finally made it to the Philippines! Also, Sister Dial insisted on giving me one of her shirts because she's sick of seeing my too big clothes.

I'm really glad I’m on a mission. I feel like it's turning me into a better person (I still have a really long ways to go)... but I feel really glad. I seriously think everyone needs to go on a mission.

Ok, time to go. Love you all very much! Thanks for everything and have a wonderful week!

[No new pictures this week, so here are some old ones.]

Phamilies can be together Phorever

I had a pretty good week. It was stake conference and it was pretty good. They spoke 90% in English which I don't understand because only about 5% of the people really understand... but it was good. There are actually Tagalog translations for almost everything, just not general conference, until it's in the magazines and they have it in Tagalog.

Our referral, the woman with the Dr. Seuss name, came to stake conference and told us she wants to come back to church and she wants to be reminded about our religion and what she needs to do. She is the nicest human ever and she gave us pancakes and is going to make adobo next time.

Our investigator with the next baptism date is really good! I love him and his wife and their baby so much. They are the most perfect family ever. I just want them to be sealed in the temple and be happy forever. His wife was so sweet when we taught him about priesthood. She just said that she was so happy that she was going to have a priesthood holder in her home because her dad was never worthy so they always had to go to the bishop. They are so adorable and their baby is the cutest baby in the entire world.

Our other referral didn’t come to church... but we taught her and her husband. They are also a perfect little family. We are trying to figure out why they didn't get baptized. They told us they knew the Book of Mormon is true and she told us this story about God answering her prayers through a dream that Joseph was a true prophet. They are super willing to listen and are so sweet. So that's convenient that they already believe in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith!

A member worked with us for one lesson last night. We were teaching the man who had been very active in the church but was now inactive. We taught about the atonement then asked the member to share his testimony. He had basically been sleeping the whole lesson and then for some reason he just taught the entire gospel of Jesus Christ (scripture included) and then kept emphasizing how he could be sealed to his wife (nodding with his head to the woman in the kitchen who is actually the woman he's living with. His wife died after they were sealed in the temple and she wasn't worthy and it's a big sore spot with him!) So that was rough...

We had this super intense lesson with one of our investigators… just trying to get to the bottom of his concerns, testifying our guts out. Then at the end I asked if he had any more questions and he just says, "No, but I do have a joke." I asked what and he said "mahirap magiging banal! (It’s hard to become holy!) You have to attend 3 hours of church and read the Book of Mormon and be taught by the missionaries and you always have to pray and you have to attend your priesthood classes and Bible study!" I almost burst out laughing. The way he said it was so funny, but he's willing to do what it takes, he just doesn't necessarily like it. haha.

Anyway, last week my companion tried to ask a member if she was baptized in the sea (dagat). She actually said "were you baptized in the dugo (blood)" so that's awkward. We all had a good laugh at that.

Also, good news! Our ward finally got home teachers! Before my mission I thought home teaching and visiting teaching were kind of silly. It is not! It is a huge deal. After my mission I’m going to take visiting teaching so seriously!

It is hot... it was less hot for a couple weeks but now it seems really hot. Yesterday I was having some serious problems because I couldn't get my face dry with my hanky because it was so wet! Also, that's probably TMI [too much information]. Looks like I’ve been in the Philippines too long! That's because I told you about my sweat and people here love talking about sweat, bowel movements, and the like.

I've been running every morning. Also, I borrowed Sister Dial’s fitbit one day. I walked 11 miles in one day. We are on the weirdest eating schedule here. I eat some toast or cereal for breakfast, a GIANT lunch, and then get fed a bunch of coke and crackers or cookies or pastries or whatever while we're teaching, and then usually a tiny or nonexistent dinner.

Thank you and I love you so much. Have a wonderful week!

 

We have to double stack our chairs so they won't break! haha. I guess that's what happens when there are 4 Americans in one apartment.

[We just received some really old pictures from Ally.]

 

Phirst Phebruary in the Philippines

We just got back from a delightful activity at the mission home. We played some games on the beach including military crawls and potato sack races. Then we had a competition to cook a delicious meal. It was pretty tasty. Also, I peeked into their bedroom. It's very clean with a queen sized bed in case you wanted to know.

Let me tell you one weird experience from this week. We were going to teach a less active member. So, we walk in and there is just the oldest, grumpiest, scariest lady sitting in the middle of the room. She also has this weird cigarette stub in her mouth that I'm really confused about because it wasn't lit. Anyway, I walk in and stick out my hand and introduce myself and she refuses to shake my hand and just says, "Just sit down." So we sit down and our friend turns off the TV and the old lady freaks out and starts to yell at our friend in Ilocano. Then Sister Bircher tried to ask her what her name was and she said "I already told the missionaries my name" and we said, "We have never met you" and she said, "The other missionaries ..." and refused to say her name. Then our friend told us it was her mom and what her name was. Then we were about to start the lesson so we asked if we could turn off the TV and she just looks at us with an evil look in her eye and says "Ayaw" then translates it into English "I do not like" then our friend tried to make her leave and she started to yell in Ilocano and then she just looks at us and says to us in Tagalog, "I ask your forgiveness" something like that and it was super hateful. Then she just mockingly gets on the ground and starts to kneel before us like mocking us and "asking our forgiveness" because we asked to turn off the TV. Our friend kept apologizing to us and trying to force her to go away but she refused so we taught the lesson with that scary woman staring at us the entire time. As we were saying goodbye, we tried to shake her hand and she refused and just glared at us. Our friend just kept apologizing over and over.

We’ve been teaching another lady. Our lesson yesterday was the most exhausting lesson ever. This lady has a really strong desire to learn and to understand our message but she gets confused SO easily. It also doesn't help that she mainly speaks Ilocano and not very much Tagalog. We taught the Book of Mormon so simply and here were the things she was confused about: she thought Joseph Smith was in the Book of Mormon then he slept for thousands of years and an angel named Moroni came and woke him up and then he got the Book of Mormon, she thought the Book of Mormon was a summary of a bible, and then she thought the Book of Mormon prophets were the same ones from the bible just with different names. She just takes what we say and gives it this weird connection in her head. Oh, and we said that Joseph dug up the plates from a hill and she kept saying "oh Mount Sinai! with Moses." So she was super hard to teach but she is super eager... she went and got a notebook and was taking notes as we were speaking!

Oh, here's a good story. A few weeks ago someone from the mission office called us and said there was a less active member in our area that no one knew about. We tried to contact her 10 billion times but she was never home (we finally found her house after a big ordeal). Oh, and we thought we’d been given a fake name because her name sounds like it is from Dr. Seuss. So we finally contacted her on Saturday. Coincidentally, she lives in the nicest house besides the mission home or the Dinkel’s house that I’ve ever been in in the Philippines. Anyway, we had a really good lesson with her and she said she was baptized in the 70s, then she went inactive because she went to work abroad in China so she stopped going to church in the early 80s. She said lately she had been thinking she was going to come back to church. So luckily we found her! Hopefully she will come back after 30 years of inactivity!

Also, we received another referral and the person that referred her to us literally knew nothing about her except that she was nice and her first name. She wasn't even sure if she was a member or not! So we had no one to teach so we went to contact her. She also lives in a really nice house. So we show up and she just says, "Oh, come in sisters." Turns out she used to investigate the church about 4 years ago. She just went and got her Book of Mormon which was right next to the TV and let us teach her. She reads the Book of Mormon sometimes and we had a really good lesson with her. We have less active members that we teach twice a week that have to go search for the Book of Mormon and finally find it in a random cupboard every visit. So, hopefully we'll be able to teach her! She super nice and also has perfect English! (We teach in Tagalog, but it's comforting to know that if there's the occasional word we don't know we can say it in English.)

Our investigator with the next baptismal date is good. His family is the cutest family in the entire world. I love them so much. He needs to come to church every week until his baptism because he needs 4 weeks in a row. He was 5 minutes late last Sunday and it was awful. We were so so worried he wouldn't come. But then he walked in with his wife and his baby and they were so cute and they even came to the gospel principles Sunday school class! (We’ve been trying to get him to come because usually he just goes to the gospel doctrine Sunday school class). He’s really excited for his baptism.

We teach less active members just as much as we teach investigators. The standard of excellence in our mission is 15 recent convert and less active member lessons a week (at least 10 less active lessons) and 10 investigator lessons each week. We were 1 lesson away in each category this week. We teach about 25 lessons a week usually. We need to figure out how to spread our lessons out... last week we either had 6 lessons a day or 2 or 3. Six lessons a day in 8 hours of proselyting means a whole ton of speed walking between appointments! We are really busy. There are recent converts we've been putting off for weeks because we never have time to go to them!

I feel like I'm in the groove of being a missionary. My Tagalog is okay, I don't have culture shock anymore, and I actually really like being a missionary now 90% of the time. Last night we were talking about how sometimes when we're at our apartment we forget we are in the Philippines because it's just Americans and our apartment is pretty nice. Then this morning, I had a rude awakening of where I actually was. I opened the cupboard under the sink to get some bleach and an overwhelming stench hit my nose. Upon further investigation, I discovered a halfway decaying dead lizard. So that's gross.

Here are a few random items.

1. I cannot believe JK Rowling would doubt herself. Hermione and Ron are the perfect couple.

2. I have lately taken up running in the morning with Sister Dial.

3. Everyone had school off for Chinese New Year. There were a few fireworks but that was pretty much it.

 

 

 

 

President Balledos, Sister Dial and her companion, Sister Dinkel, Ally and her companion

 

 
Love you! Have a wonderful week