Allyson's Mission to the Philippines Baguio Mission: Phinal week in Baguio?

Sister Tune and I had a great week. We had 5 people at church again yesterday.

There is a 14 year-old girl who has been coming to church and seminary with her friends. She has a few friends in Pacdal ward. She actually lives in la Trinidad though. We taught her last week. Right when we started talking to her, she informed us that she has already received permission from her mother to be baptized "in the true church of Jesus Christ." I asked her how she knows the church is true and she told us that whenever she reads the Book of Mormon or attends church or seminary she feels really good so she knows it is true. She’s awesome. It’s kind of hard to baptize a special case though. We talked to president and he says he will have to think about it because she doesn't have a support system…only teenagers in a different ward. So the missionaries in la Trinidad now have to start to teach her mom. Hopefully she will listen. I think that is awesome though that her friends invited her to church and were a good example. She's the first person I've ever met that wanted to be baptized before we even taught her.

One of the members is always telling the full-time missionaries that he doesn’t have time to do missionary work because he is too busy "in another part of the Lord's vineyard." He claims real missionary work isn't that important because family history work trumps it. We just rolled our eyes and laughed.

We met this lady yesterday while waiting for the jeepney. She started talking to me and asking me about how many churches are in Baguio and if I went to the MTC in Provo or what. I asked her if she was a member and she said yes and that she lives in New York but she is here to pick up her friend’s daughter who is on a mission in Pangasinan. Then she informed me that she was a lawyer and she keeps very close tabs on the news. According to her, they have done away with border regulations in Arizona and Texas. I was a little confused, but she was saying something about how only children are allowed to pass through the borders. Apparently, the U.S. is going to make slaves out of Mexican children. I then told her that I don't think that's true. Haha. I forgot for a second that it's against the rules for missionaries to participate in political conversations... then she keeps telling me all this stuff. There was a lot more but I forgot it. Then the jeepney comes and we get on. It’s full of people. Sister Tune and I are sitting in very back; she is sitting in front passenger side. She then writes her email on a paper and has the people on the jeepney pass it back to me. She yells to me to email her when I get home so I can tell her that she's right. haha. Everyone on the jeepney was just staring at us. Also, I can't even read her handwriting because it's impossible to write anything legible on a moving jeepney!

We found a wonderful lady when we were tracting a couple weeks ago. She has really been searching for the truth. She just moved back to Baguio because she had a surgery and she has been looking for the right church to attend. She felt really good about our message and last week she accepted a baptismal date. She could really feel the spirit in our lessons. We taught her on Saturday and she told us that now she was very confused because Jehovah’s witnesses came to her house and taught her earlier that morning. She told us she didn't know what to do. She said she felt like she was lost. We had a great lesson, focused on Moroni 10:4-5 and how she can know the truth. At the end, she said a very sincere heartfelt prayer. She literally started to cry just asking God what she should do. The next day she came to church and I think she had a great experience. She is in her 50s and lives with her daughter and grandchildren and her husband. We haven't been able to teach them yet but will hopefully be able to teach them. They are nice, but they always run away when we come.

People running away is the story of my life. Filipinos are the nicest people ever... it can be kind of bad sometimes. Instead of just telling us they are not interested, they keep acting like they are but then we can see them hiding in their house. haha. I don't know who the missionaries are that will teach her. We're most likely all going to be transferred down to the lowlands on Thursday though. I've been saying my goodbyes to people and it's very sad! I love this area.

Everyone in Baguio calls everywhere that is not Baguio or la Trinidad or some of the other random places up here "the lowlands." I thought it was really dumb when I first heard it, like we were in Lion King or something. Six months is the maximum someone can be in an area and President Balledos asked me if I was ready to go down to the lowlands in my interview.

I just love Baguio. Not too excited to leave. Oh well. I’ve been looking for things to look forward to... they are: no stairs/hills, transportation is 10x cheaper, probably more lessons, maybe I'll be close to the ocean. Where will I be transferred? My first prediction is Agoo. My next prediction is Bauang. The places where white sisters can go are kind of limited. There are parts of our mission that are just a big mess and only Filipino elders can go there because of people getting killed in political elections and stuff. One of the Elders from my MTC group almost got shot when he was in Candon... just lots of murders and robbery and whatnot.

Did I tell you about when we met JW missionaries on the street a couple weeks ago? They ran up to us and tried to trick us and stuff. It didn't work. We felt really bad talking to them though…very bad feeling.

Someone gave Sister J an Iglesia Ni Cristo magazine the other day. I read that. It is straight up propaganda. We discovered that there is a congregation in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, and Anaheim. Looks like I'm going to have to drop in one of those when I get home to see what they do. Freaky stuff from the sounds of it!

Here’s a quick cultural difference. Yesterday we were teaching this couple. After the lesson they gave us a snack (very typical here) and we were talking to them. The wife starts to tell us about how her periods last for 10 days and the flow is heavy for the first 4 days apparently. This is all in front of her husband. Then she asks us how many days our periods are and how the flow is. I was just trying not to laugh. Then once that conversation is over she asked us how much we pay monthly for our apartment. Surprisingly, both of these things are quite common topics of conversation here as well as how much money you make.

I think a lot of people have forgotten about me. Once missionaries have been gone for a while people forget about you. Just a fact... I'm not sad about it or anything. That’s just the way it is. On that note, my time is up. Have a great week!