Mangoes, Mice and Phreak-outs!

I had a pretty interesting week. First of all, I’m still in Baguio in Pacdal C with Sister Tune! Hooray! Sister Ackerman is still in my zone. I saw Sister Dial last Monday and it was so happy! I love those two so much.

Yesterday, I was walking through my area. I heard this kid yelling my name and then asked me if I knew Brother Romero. I asked her if it was Bro Romero from San Fernando and she said yes. She asked me to wait and then her aunt came out. Her aunt is Brother Romero's daughter! She is his grandkid. Out of all the places in Baguio she could have lived, she lives in my area. Anyway, they invited us inside and gave me another giant bag of mangoes from his mango tree. She then gave us letters for me, Sister Ackerman and Sister Oco. He is SO active now. He hosted a family home evening at his house and over 60 people went. He wrote us a letter that was so sweet. He said that he was so sad and had depression when we first started teaching him. It was due to the two biggest trials of his life-- his son had destroyed his life because he was an alcoholic, and he found out his wife had been having an affair for the past 12 years. He said he was so depressed and distressed. He said that he loved the teaching of the gospel, especially scriptures from the Bible and Book of Mormon, and our desire to teach him and help him accept the gospel and make covenants. He loved that the focus of our teaching and of the church is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said that through the Atonement and because of what he learned from the gospel, he was able to forgive his son and his wife. He emphasized that the reason he had fears about baptism, was because he wanted to make sure that he could fully keep his covenants with God. He was worried about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the law of tithing. Finally, he felt like he was able to do it and he was ready to be baptized. Now, he is taking his covenants so seriously. He loves the gospel and he seems so happy. He said, “We all have the duty to share the gospel. We are all missionaries.” He then closed by giving me his daughter's cell phone number living in Baguio. He told me to please work on his daughter.

So, I asked his daughter if we could teach her. She was reluctant, but she said we'll see. I really really want to teach his daughter. I feel like it can't just be a coincidence that his daughter happens to live in my area. I just hope that her heart will be softened because of the change she has seen in her dad.

Brother N and Sister M got married on Saturday. Their wedding was super fun. I thought we were invited to just the reception, but it turned out to be the whole thing. It was really cute. She is cutting down her cigarettes. Hopefully she stops soon.

On last Monday night, Sister Tune and I were at our desks planning for the next day. Then we found a cockroach, so we were trying to kill it. All of the sudden, we just hear this blood curdling scream coming from downstairs. It was the most awful sound I'd ever heard. Well, our first thought was that someone had broken in and someone was getting murdered or raped. So quickly I ran back into my room and slammed the door. Then I thought, oh no, I should go help them. I'm a little worried that my first instinct was to flee, haha. So we run downstairs and Sister Jackson is just having the biggest freakout...sobbing, hyper-ventilated, the whole shebang. It's like in Parent Trap when Hallie and Annie put a lizard on Meredith times 10. Finally we calmed her down enough and she told us that she had STEPPED on a mouse. She said it crunched under her foot and then squealed and ran away. She said she did some pretty bad damage to it, so we suspected it was dying somewhere. We couldn't find it, so we forgot about it. Fast-forward to Sunday. Last night we notice this AWFUL stench coming from the closet under the stairs. It was the grossest smell ever. So, we had to carefully remove everything (which was a lot) from the closet. Finally we discovered the little decaying culprit. The dead mouse was just laying there behind my suitcase. Luckily Sister Tune is really brave so she threw it away for us and then we dumped a whole ton of bleach on the floor.

This week I got harassed by a drunken man on a jeepney for 25 minutes. Don't worry, I was always safe and everything. It was awful though. This super super drunk guy gets on the jeep and plops himself down right in front of me. He offered to pay for me, but I told him I had already paid. Then he just goes on and on about America and about how sometimes he hates Americans, but he usually loves Americans and how he loves me and all of this other stuff. Meanwhile, these two ladies who knew him were just apologizing nonstop for him, but everyone else on the jeepney was just cracking up. Then he touched my leg, so we got off the jeepney. I can definitely see why we have the word of wisdom! Look what it does to people! Also, I find it pretty alarming how many drunk people are actually members.

Did I tell you how we teach someone in Tuding (the area of elders in our ward) because the daughter is too pretty and they don't want to get distracted? Anyway, so we've been teaching them. It is pretty hard though, because it is 2 jeepneys and about an hour of travel time with the jeepneys and the hike to their house…an hour each way. So it puts a giant dent in our day, but it is worth it. The mom is really progressing. She has a ton of questions though. She’s really smart. Questions like "how could the fall of Adam and Eve be part of God's plan if they transgressed a law of God through yielding to the temptation of the devil? Are God and Satan working together?" But I think she is just inquisitive. I don't feel like she's trying to argue with us or prove us wrong. We shared some scriptures and asked her to read 2 Nephi 2. So hopefully they will start to progress more. The walk to their house is also beautiful…Giant mountains, rice terraces, it's awesome!

We also had a ward family home evening on Saturday night. We taught some games and an elder gave a workshop about missionary work. I thought it went over really well. I am really starting to love the Pacdal ward. I really love here how they have ward family home evenings on like a Saturday night. They consist of a lesson (usually about missionary work), games, and dinner. It appeals to all age groups which is great. We did games for the kids and then a church trivia thing for the youth and adults. They are low stress and everyone has a great time. I love the stress-free environment without people worrying about decorations and having everything super planned out and stuff.

Love you! Have a great week!

Yummy Guacamole with Sister Jackson

 



 

Look what one of the members made me!

Lessons and Baguio Speciality Phood

Things are good in Baguio. Sister M (the fiancé of the returning less-active member) came to church. She and Brother N are getting married on Saturday (we're invited. cowboy attire.) Hope I'm still here because transfers are on Friday. Hopefully she will be baptized in June, found out she has a big Word of Wisdom problem though. Sister S has been out of town. Brother D didn't come to church, he had to work. He is still reading though, he has read most of the Book of Mormon and is living the word of wisdom.

The L family is doing great. We used to be scared of the mom, now she loves us. Sadly they still didn't come to church. We had a very interesting lesson yesterday with a man. He is in his 60s, he refuses to speak Tagalog--only English--he's fluent. He is very active in the Catholic Church. He kept trying to argue with us, but whenever he would argue, he would just perfectly prove that we were right. He was like "oh, let's just check the meaning of prophets here in my bible." He looks up prophets "ay! one who is authorized by God. So prophets need to be authorized!" "Yes. That is the priesthood we were telling you about." He also pulled out this verse from the bible that perfectly explained the apostasy. Whenever he would pull something out, he would just smile like he'd gotten us. He also said the word "undeniably" about 80 times in our lesson.

We have a giant problem where we can teach people right on the spot while tracting but then they won't let us back. So we have like 4 actual investigators and probably 30 plus potential investigators. We just have to figure out how to turn them into investigators.

Did I tell you about Brother C? We found him one day and found out he was a former investigator. He is very serious when he's not drunk. He’s a baker. He is smart and really pays attention in the lessons. He tells us he studies the Book of Mormon every morning and prays to know about Joseph Smith. Sadly, he is ALWAYS drunk so we can never teach him. We were teaching his wife the other day and he walked in drunk so we had to stop our lesson.

Brother N and Sister M always feed us after our lessons. Last time, they were telling us they would give us this chicken stuff called pinikpikan. Then they kept joking and singing "killing me softly..." we couldn't understand what the joke was about. Anyway, then we ate this delicious chicken. It was very tasty. They then informed us that it is a Baguio specialty/tradition. They take the chicken, cut its neck, hold it upside down and gently whip it until it dies. I don't even like animals, but that should definitely be illegal.

We had zone interviews this week. There was some chastising but it was actually really helpful and hopefully our zone will improve because of it. I will just tell you a direct quote from President Balledos to one of the elders. "If you don't update the area book, you don't understand the Atonement." I'll just leave it at that...

I went to Agoo on Saturday because there was a baptism in Sister Tune's old area. It’s really hot there and it is tiny. The branch president gave us a ride in his little side-car thing attached to his motorcycle. I think it is actually designed for pigs, haha. That was pretty fun.

Today, we woke up early and went to Burnham Park and rode these awesome bikes. It is a bike with a side car. Not quite as cool as the tandem, but pretty close. Then we got breakfast at McDonalds. Delicious!

I love you! Thanks for everything. I will let you know where I am on Monday! Have a great week.

Burnham Park

San Fernando

Phone call + Email = Phantastic Mother's Day

Hello! Mom, it was so great to talk to you earlier. Thanks for your encouragement and whatnot.

After I got done talking to you, Sister Jackson decided she better think about what she's going to say in case her family asks to speak to her in Tagalog. She said it was funny watching me try to think of something to say.

After our lesson with Sister S last week, I was asking her about Filipino history. She is in her 70s. She told us that during WWII she was 4 years old. Her family and all the people in her village had to hide in the mines because of the Japanese soldiers. They lived off of boiled sweet potatoes and goat milk. Everyone in her village decided that they were going to escape over the mountains. When the day came to escape over the mountains with her village, her brother got sick so her family had to stay behind. The people in her village met Japanese soldiers on the way. The Japanese soldiers lined up everyone and shot them all. Her family was saved because her brother got sick. Then eventually, American soldiers came, captured the Japanese soldiers, and gave medicine and help to her family and other people that survived. She said she couldn't understand why they were so white because she had never seen an American before. What an amazing experience!

Yesterday, we taught a less active family. (The Relief Society president told me that only 1/4 of the members in our ward are active.) Sister Smith and I tried to contact them last transfer. We went to their house and the lady there said that they must have moved because no one by that name lived there. But we had a feeling she was lying and that she actually was who we were trying to find.  So I went back with Sister Tune and a member who knew them, so she couldn't lie. We started teaching them, but only the dad and son would listen. The wife was a little hostile to us. We were kind of scared of her. Then last lesson, she actually listened to us, but didn't participate. Then yesterday, we had a great lesson about the restoration. She admitted that she had lied that day, because "she didn't want to go down that path again." but after we left, she prayed to Heavenly Father to know what to do. She said she was so grateful because of the change in her family. She said she and her husband don't fight anymore, they have family prayer, etc. I am so glad that we went back and that she let us in the second time. They seem so much happier now. I am grateful for the effect that the gospel has had on them. She said she was so thankful that we came from different countries, learned Tagalog, all in order to "bring back the Lord's lost sheep."

Our investigators are good!  I am so happy Sister S came to church yesterday. She seemed to have a good experience. The ward was very welcoming. Gospel principles class was a little sketchy though. This investigator had all of these questions and was sort of attacking us about the apostasy/restoration and whatnot. Of course, it was in Ilocano. The missionaries couldn't understand, and neither could the teacher of the class. So, members that were in the class were handling it. We were just praying that they were handling it well. It seemed like a straight-up debate, to me. I’m sure the members did a good job though.

Ever since the Ilocano debate incident at church yesterday, I’ve decided to try and learn some Ilocano. It is so hard! Sister Pelayo taught me some. Still hardly sounds like words and a language to me.

This week, I decided that I wasn't going to be frustrated with the way the work is going. I decided that not everyone is going to accept the gospel, and that we might have to sort through a whole lot of people before someone does. I remembered that even if I don't have any more baptisms my whole mission, it would still be worth it. But then, luckily the work picked up too at the end of this week, haha.

Did I tell you that Brother Romero [from San Fernando] sent me a giant bag of mangoes and invited me to Family Home evening at his house? Obviously I couldn't go... too bad. I'm so proud of him! So sweet!!!!!

I have to go. I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

[A few random things, Ally shared on the phone]

1. It is starting to rain every day and it is getting warmer.

2. Her apartment has cock roaches and mice, but they have put poison everywhere.

3. The rats in Baguio are huge!

4. She has been sick two times on her mission and both times were after eating at McDonalds.

 

Rainstorm in Baguio--It quickly turned into mud-sewage water because the open sewage canals filled up and overflowed. I took a very thorough shower that night!

[The rest of the photos are from San Fernando]

Phacing Phears

Well, this week was actually pretty good. It was off to a rough start. Last week after emailing I started feeling pretty sick. We went home and I was throwing up the entire day. It was awful. Then, the next day, my companion got really sick too. So we didn't work at all on Monday or Tuesday.

Anyway, Wednesday we worked... we were both super weak though so we spent a fortune on taxis so we didn't have to walk as much. We actually ended up having a successful week, considering we didn't do any work for 2 days and hardly any another day due to a ward activity. I think a record has been broken in Pacdal C area. We had THREE investigators at church yesterday. It was wonderful!

Our 3 investigators were Brother D, Sister M (the fiancé of the returning less active member), and this other girl named Sister G. We'd never taught her before. She just showed up. She came with her two friends who are members and they are all in a police academy thing that's basically like the military. They apparently are allowed to leave for 3 hours of church on Sunday and that's it. So we taught her during Relief Society and that's our plan. Sister M is doing so great! She needs to get married first, but hopefully we will be able to extend a baptismal date soon.

We have about 4 members in our area. We visited all of them pretty recently. I think we're going to make more regular visits to them. Good news though. Right before we came here, these people stopped us and said they were members moving to Baguio and they need a house in our area to be close to the school. So we're going to keep our eyes open for a place for them. They seem super nice and they have a daughter who has lived in the U.S. for about 7 years who is going on a mission in August. Hooray! Hopefully she can work with us!

Anyway, you know how I had a fear of walking in floods with sewage water? I think that fear may have been realized this week. I was walking through this flooded place (probably just above my ankles). It reeked of sewage. It was super gross. Just had to plow through with the comfort that we were going to teach Brother D. Sadly when we got there his daughter wasn't home so we couldn't teach him because we didn't have a fellowshipper! I’m just so happy he came to church. We will hopefully teach him 2 times this week.

Also, I got tinkled on again this week by a small child. haha. I felt something on my skirt and then the parents flipped out and yelled at the kid saying "No! Did you just tinkle on Sister!!???" This was right after the sewage incident. I took a pretty thorough shower that night!

Fortunately, we don't have a bucket shower. It’s legit-- hot water and everything!

 

We had a ward activity on Saturday. The zone leaders made all the missionaries go [to the activity] to improve our relationships with the members. The activity was at a hot spring in the mountains. We ended up just watching the members swim for about 9 hours. It was super pretty up there. The members fed us soooo much food. Everyone packed everything you could think of. Someone was handing us food every 10 min. I was trying to look for a cup to get some water. I asked someone if there were more cups (I just saw 2 plastic cups on the table). They just looked confused and they were like “the cups are right there!" Apparently they brought two cups for the whole ward haha. So I just drizzled some unfiltered water on it to get the saliva off hopefully. I don't want to know how many people drank from those.

For the last couple of weeks, things have been hard. The work was bad and I was struggling to be enthusiastic. Things have definitely picked up now though. This week, I just tried to work really hard and I’ve been trying to stop getting annoyed with the work (or lack of work) and just try to be able to adjust to whatever and learn from it. Things are going much better now!

Love you! Have a wonderful week!

 

[Still no pictures from Baguio, so here are a few from San Fernando]