That's All Pholks!

Thanks for the emails. Mark got baptized. Mendoza family finally came to church. Just had my interview with President. I'm so happy with the mission I have served. So excited to see you. See you in a couple days.

Love, Sister Mortell

[Allyson will report her mission February 8 at 1:00 in the Vienna Woods Ward.]

Phinal Countdown

I was at career workshop yesterday so I didn't get to email, so I’m emailing today. I can't believe my mission is just about over in one week more and I will see all of you at the Boise airport! The past weeks, I have been really sad and also nervous about coming home but, I think I am content now. I know that I have done everything I can and I am very proud of the mission I have served. I guess it's time to move on to a new phase of life!

I can also see that all of you are going to great lengths to keep me from being trunky... either that or you're not excited to see me. haha, just kidding. On Sunday night, I will go to San Fernando then the next morning, I will wake up and go to Baguio with Sister A. Then I’ll come back to San Fernando and have interviews with president and hopefully have time to visit some of my Sevilla friends. Then on Tuesday morning, we will go to Manila and go to the temple and then we can do whatever we want in Manila and then on Wednesday morning, I will get on a plane and come home! Haha. I'm actually getting really excited to come home. I’m just excited to see all of you. I know it will be hard to come home, so I’m a little nervous, but I know everything will be ok.

I have some good news!! BROTHER M IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY. I got permission from President to go to his baptism. So excited! Three of the branch missionaries and Brother M visited me in Bauang on Sunday. They just showed up at the chapel. It was so happy! I was so glad to see them and I’m glad that I will be able to see some people in Agoo before I go home. As for our missionary work this week, we had a great week. We had 39 lessons last week, which is really good. And Brother R came to church again! And so did Brother C. We had a great lesson with Brother R. I was so happy for him. He said that he will not miss any more Sundays and he is ready to be baptized. He’s even planning who will baptize him and everything. He just still needs to quit smoking. We were riding on a jeepney earlier and saw him smoking which was kind of depressing but I know he can do it.

 

In other news, a couple days ago a man yelled at me, "you wife me!" haha, that's a new one. I get "you're beautiful" "I love you" "what's your name" and things like that 20 times a day, but that one is a new one.

We just had lunch with the Elders in my district. Elder M woke up early this morning and made this delicious food (bicol express) for all of us so we could have a nice little party for Sister Mortell's last district meeting.

I’m just about out of time; I need to go proselyte in 5 minutes... I’m not sure if I will have time to email next week or not. I am just trying to enjoy my last few days as a missionary. I honestly think everyone else here is more trunky for me…endless jokes about eternal marriage. But I am so excited to see all of you. I love all of you very much and I will probably talk to you next week. If not, I’ll see you next Wednesday!

Love, Sister Mortell

Eternal Phamily

I forgot to tell you some good news I learned a few weeks ago! I was in the office and I was talking to an elder that is assigned in my first area right now. Brother and Sister G (my very first baptism) got sealed in the temple! Hooray! I am so happy for them. They are so awesome!!

We have no baptisms scheduled until after I go home and I don't know about Agoo. I just emailed my old companion, so hopefully I’ll hear soon. As for as investigators and stuff like that though, a miracle happened this week! Brother R came to church! He will hopefully be baptized on Feb. 28. He has been taught by the missionaries on and off for several years. He has two children that are RMs and all of his kids are members. Yesterday was the first time he came to church—EVER in his whole life. We didn't have much of a chance to talk to him about his experience, but we're visiting him on Thursday. I hope he had a great experience. We were so happy when we heard this voice say "Sisters! Sisters! My dad is at church!" The whole branch was really happy too because a lot of them come work with us for his lessons and a lot of them kept telling us to give up on him because, "He'll never change." haha, looks like he's changing now! In other news, Brother C finally came to church again. We were pretty frustrated with him because it seems like he doesn't really care about anything and it's been hard for us to teach him because we can't always find a fellowshipper, so we were going to pass him to the elders. We asked him about it and he doesn't want to be passed to them, so I guess we'll keep teaching him for now. It is extremely hard to teach him because it is really hard for him to understand things. But we had a pretty good lesson with him last week, so things are definitely looking up.

Remember how I kept feeling sick? Well, that continued last week. All of us were having all kinds of tummy problems (except the Filipinas). My companion was really sick for a day so we had to miss like 2 hours of proselyting. It drove us crazy to stay in the apartment. She just rested and I cleaned the entire house very thoroughly (including the fridge-- that was a big task). Then we just went out and worked but she was still pretty sick. We think we figured out the problem... I think our filtered water isn't actually filtered. We stopped drinking it and now we pretty much feel better.

Other things... hmm... this is my last normal pday. Next week I have to go to career workshop and the Monday after that I think I’ll be with Sister A (my MTC companion) and I think we're going to Baguio. Then, not this Sunday, but the next one I will go to San Fernando and then have my next pday the next day and then go to Manila and then home I guess. That’s pretty weird. I can't believe it. Meanwhile, I’m the joke of the ward. Everyone loves teasing missionaries who are close to going home. My emotions are getting more and more confusing the closer I get to coming home.

Last week President surprised us all by surprise visiting our apartments and then making us teach him. And then he videoed it and evaluated it and whatnot. He made everyone teach the restoration in 3 minutes (not even apostasy or Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. just the restoration-- which is really easy.) For some reason (maybe because we're probably the oldest companionship in the mission) he made us teach the entire plan of salvation in 3 minutes. haha. It actually went pretty well though. It was weird to watch myself in a video. I realized that I move my eyes around a lot.

We had zone activity earlier today. We played games including an egg toss and volleyball and soccer on the beach. It was really fun. An elder from my MTC group was my partner in the egg toss since he's in a trisome and my companion was the one in charge. We made it pretty far--just barely lost. I also discovered that soccer is actually really fun.

I love all of you! And I will see you in a short 16 days! I hope the inversion and birds are gone by the time I get to Boise.

Love,

Sister Mortell

Phireworks Ring in Two Thousand and Phiphteen

We are in Baguio. We woke up early and did our studies early so we could have more time. It is a little cooler, I’m pretty tired, but we're happy. We are excited to celebrate my companion’s 21st birthday and also I’m going to buy some souvenirs.

New Year’s Eve and day was ok. It was hard to teach lessons because everyone was sleeping. Surprisingly, no one had us over for dinner or anything. We just came home because we had curfew at 6 and chatted with my housemates... then we attempted to go to sleep at 10:30, but that pretty much failed because it was noisy. We dozed off then I got woken up at about 11:55 because the fireworks were going crazy. So I went on our balcony and watched the fireworks until midnight then wished myself a happy new year and went back to sleep. haha, the fireworks were great. There were several shows within view of our balcony that matched the quality of the Handel Court show on the 4th of July.

Oh! Also, on New Year’s Eve, we had MEXICAN FOOD. We found this weird Mexican place and tried it out. It was absolutely delicious. There is never Mexican food in the Philippines, but there happens to be a large population of older white men that have married beautiful young Filipinas in Bauang. So, this place is catered toward them. We walk in and it kind of looked like the inside of the Wrangler or something. Anyway, we had some delicious Mexican food, but then we all felt sick after that! Everyone in our apartment has been having stomach problems and such! We even had to stay home for a couple hours one day because of my companion's problems, but I think we are both ok now.

Our week was good. We struggled more this week getting lessons than we did the week of Christmas. I’m just treasuring the last few weeks of my mission so if I have a stomach problem, I’ve just been continuing to work because I don't want to waste my last little time while as a missionary in the apartment.

We are struggling with investigators. We haven't taught Brother C (our 17-year old investigator) all week. He was always at this member’s house, but now he is never there because the member doesn't want him there because he is being a bad influence on his kids because he got drunk on Christmas... so we're going to have to figure that out. Right now our more progressing investigator is this girl. She’s awesome. The only problem is that she's only 16. :( But she is way more mature than most adults. She is very smart and understands our lessons well. She really wants to be baptized and wants her family to be taught, but it is hard to teach them because they are always at work in Baguio and only come home once a week. So hopefully we'll be able to teach them this week.

We’ve also been working on quite a few less actives. haha, this less active older man named Brother N came to church on Sunday for the first time in a very long time. We had taught him earlier that week, but our lesson was really short because we were about to be late for our curfew and my stomach was killing me and this guy is really old. He fell asleep while we were teaching him. haha, luckily he woke up after a few seconds, but we ended the lesson so that he could sleep. But then he came to church! He must have somehow been inspired, haha.... or it was just a coincidence... we have also been working on this less active family. They have a lot of struggles and our lesson with then last week was difficult... they were telling us all these concerns about family problems and drinking and being offended and they were just blaming each other and they were like almost yelling at each other. The husband kept saying really mean things about his wife under his breath. But then we went back and taught them a couple days ago. They are still having problems, but there was a dramatic change in them. The husband hasn't been drinking (which is a miracle because literally everyone gets drunk on New Year’s, occasionally including active members). They haven't been fighting that much and they even read the Book of Mormon! So hopefully we'll be able to get them to church sometime in the new future.

Church this week was ok. There was a switch and the order of the classes reversed and church is now 30 minutes earlier. They reminded people about it like 10 million times, but 45 minutes after church was supposed to start the first class finally started. But sacrament meeting was really good. The testimonies were great. I think everyone is all motivated because it’s a new year. I bore my testimony because I realized that would be my last fast and testimony meeting on my mission. That was kind of sad and I cried.

There were a lot of funny things that happened this week. We have this really funny older less active lady. She is a piece of work. She can be so grumpy that it is hilarious. She’s just a character. So we were teaching her and my companion was saying the opening prayer. I thought to myself, "I wonder if she closes her eyes during the prayer." So I open my eyes to check. She is looking around and fixing her hair and whatnot. I just smile, but I thought she didn't see me peek. Then she just slaps me! haha, I tried so hard not to laugh but when the prayer ended both of us were chuckling and my companion  and the lady's husband were pretty confused.

Yesterday during a lesson, a baby duck had diarrhea on my companion’s foot. haha. I’m lucky because the duck had gotten close to my foot right before that, but you know that I don’t like animals, so I just nudged it away from me and it went over to my companion.

This week I've been noticing that Heavenly Father is very mindful of us if we are being exactly obedient and working as hard as we can. There were several instances this week where things were not going the way we had planned, but then something else good would end up happening. Some examples-- we got punted for a really long time, but then we met this family and got 5 new investigators. If we would’ve had lessons, we wouldn't have met them. Also, we were annoyed because our member that was supposed to work with us yesterday cancelled last minute but then we were teaching an investigator and her cousin is a less active. She joined and we had a great lesson. The less active shared her feelings before when she was active in church and they committed to come to church on Sunday.

My companion and I were just talking about all of the blessings our families have experienced since we've been on missions. Her dad became active again when she was in the MTC after he had been inactive for 10 years. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve Heavenly Father. I absolutely love being a missionary. I'm excited to come home and see all of you too, though. Love you lots! Have a good week and I look forward to more nice long emails from all of you.

Love, Sister Mortell

Phantastic Christmas Pheast

It was really good to talk to all of you! I'm a little nervous to come home though because for some reason I felt kind of overwhelmed seeing everyone on skype. But I was still very happy to see all of you. Wow, that's pretty trunky having my travel plans. Good thing I’m still really focused. When I get home, I will need a few days before I see everyone. There are only 3 Americans going home with me, Sister A and an Elder.

I’m a little worried about our 17 year old investigator. He hasn't come to church in 2 weeks. He has attended several activities and things recently but hasn't been coming to church.

We have a curfew again for New Year’s eve and day so we will spend it probably just chatting in our little air conditioned room. We are trying to look for sparkling cider today. We’re not sure if it exists in the Philippines, but we'll look.

Things are going well here in Bauang. I’m having a great time with Sister S. The work was hard last week because of Christmas, but we managed to teach a good amount of lessons.

The relief society president had us over for lunch on Christmas. It was awesome! We had lots of seafood and homemade sushi. She has a really nice house. Then we visited another family who also had a really nice, clean comfortable home. Don't worry, I don’t think I’ll ever move here permanently, but I’m really going to miss the Philippines! I keep looking at things and becoming all nostalgic.

Wow, good thing I got out of that apartment in Agoo! They had some problems with some drunken men and other things and some people tried to break in, so they're moving.

I just remembered what else happened this week. I got really sick! I was at a dinner appointment and all of the sudden I felt awful. So we left and then I went home and threw up a ton and then I went to sleep and felt 100% in the morning! It was very strange, but I’m glad I was only sick for a little bit and I didn't miss any proselyting time!

Love you! Have a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

Phar Phar Away on Philippine's Beach

Wow! I loved the Christmas video. [The young men in our ward, made a video for the missionaries. It had greetings from all of the missionary parents and our former bishop and current bishop.] It was awesome to see everyone! I’m freaking out over how big and luxurious everyone’s house is. Thanks for all the Christmas messages.  At our house, I saw a bunch of young women and mom announced that there were only 48 days left haha. I wonder how many there are now [36!] I’ve been trying not to count. Sister D is home. She emailed me. Pretty weird. She's sad to not be a missionary but she said she's really happy.

The apartment is good... by far the apartment with best living conditions on my mission (air conditioning in our room, non-smelly water, and even a washer). Haha, the washer has to be filled up with buckets of water though and the way it drains is that a hole just opens in the bottom and all the water comes out. The door to our bathroom is pretty funny. It’s completely broken. It is off the hinges. So when we use the bathroom we have to prop it up against the door frame.

The new area is ok. I'm happy to be here. The branch is very very supportive which is great. It seems more like a ward than a branch. Church was good. For the first time in my mission, I’m not the pianist. There’s a very capable lady that plays. Everything ran very smoothly... there was even a gospel principles teacher that wasn't a missionary. A huge portion of the branch is endowed and sealed which is awesome. I think the only reason we are still a branch is because the other branches in the district are still struggling and we can't become a ward until all of them are ready to become wards and then we can become a stake.

I miss the people in Agoo though. People over there are just so nice! Here, we have 3 investigators with baptismal dates. I’ve actually only taught one so far because everyone is busy doing Christmas things so it’s hard to teach everyone. All of the baptisms are all on January 24. They might need to be extended though. One of them is pretty difficult. He is 17 and is really good friends with an active member family. He lives alone though because his parents pretty much abandoned him and his mom now has a new family. He’s really hard to teach though because he stopped school for a long time and now he's going back. But he's at grade 1 level. So it's like teaching a child. He always comes to church and seminary though. Hopefully we can think of a way to teach him so he can understand it better and everything.

Our apartment is so close to San Fernando. It only took 20 minutes to get here and that's because of lots of traffic. On my first day here, we went on a morning run and accidentally ran into the Sevilla ward boundaries. Then we realized we were crossing zones and turned back haha. Anyway, my new companion, Sister S is great. She is half Japanese half American, grew up in Hawaii, and went to BYU. She only has 2 transfers left of her mission. She’s a little stressed because the area could be doing better, but we are getting along great. We live with 2 other sisters. We’re planning on buying some cream cheese later and attempting to make a cheesecake for Christmas. haha,

I had a good week. On Tuesday I hopped on a bus with some other sisters going to San Fernando. I got off in Bauang and my companion was supposed to meet me but she wasn't there. So for a few seconds, I found myself alone with two giant suitcases on the side of the road in Bauang, Philippines. Haha. Luckily I’ve been to exchanges in their apartment so I knew where it was. Then these two men run over to me and offer to carry my suitcases to my new apartment for me. One of them was super old and one was a little special... haha it was so funny. They kept saying "just trust us, just trust us." I didn't have any other choice, so I just trusted them. My companion was pretty surprised when I popped up at the apartment. There was a miscommunication and she thought I was coming later.

We had a branch Christmas party on Saturday and a seminary Christmas party on Friday. Both were pretty fun. We played games and ate. That’s what happens at all parties pretty much. By the end of next week, I will have had more dinner appointments in Bauang than I had in Agoo.

It’s been a little bit of struggle to teach people because everyone is so busy with Christmas stuff. Our apartment is by the market and in the center of everything. Yesterday, there was a parade there (we saw a little bit of it. It was pretty cute!) and there are all kinds of Christmas parties and whatnot.

 

For Christmas, we'll spend our day proselyting... we have a lunch appointment. We’re not sure if we have a curfew yet. Maybe not because president hasn't said anything. I just hope we have people we can teach... I don't really want to spend Christmas walking around... oh well. Whatever it takes. This Christmas season keeps motivating me to share the gospel with everyone I can find, but it's also really hard because everyone is too busy watching parades and street dancing and whatnot haha. But the Christmas season is making it easier to start talking to people about the gospel. I just really want to have some success in this area before I go home. We have been working hard and are trying to do everything we can.
 

Our area is partly in the beach! It is beautiful! I usually have sand in my shoes.

My time is up. Love you!

 

 

 

 

 

At a Korean restaurant in Baguio. It's delicious and they give you free costumes to wear!

 

Relaxing on the beach on p-day.

Phinal Transfer

Today for p-day, we went to the beach earlier and to lunch. We just discovered this surprisingly delicious restaurant... I enjoyed some tuna, calamari, shrimp, and scallops. Anyway, it was delicious.

We watched the Christmas devotional last night. It was awesome. My favorite thing was when someone (I can't remember who) said that we need to find joy in being obedient. haha, I was cleaning out all of my stuff earlier (every time I’ve been transferred I’ve just shoved all my stuff in my suitcase and not cared if there are lots of bags because the zone leaders just put it on a jeepney for me. But this time it changed and we now have to take a bus by ourselves to the new area. So I’m cleaning out all my stuff that has accumulated over the past 18 months.) Anyway, I found a letter from dad from the beginning of my mission. I remember writing home because I was very frustrated with what I thought were stupid rules and leaders that had strange ways of doing things. I remember getting dad’s letter and that was when I started to do my best to be exactly obedient... and have a good attitude about it. Ever since then I have been very obedient and I am so grateful that I chose to listen to dad and humble myself... even though I occasionally still think some rules are silly and stuff, I have done my best.

We had Christmas conference in Baguio on Friday. It was good. We had some workshops and stuff and then President had the missionaries that are going home tomorrow bear their testimonies. As they spoke, I realized that that was going to be me in 6 short weeks. President then gave a very good little talk. We then watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. I didn't enjoy it that much... I was just reflecting on my mission and everything. I’ve concluded that I have done my best. Sometimes it's frustrating because I have had relatively low numbers of baptisms. But I know that I have done what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I have learned that our success should not be measured based on stats, but on other things like fulfilling our purpose and having the Spirit work through you and working diligently every day no matter what. I am excited for the next six weeks. I am very excited to see all of you and there are a few things I'm looking forward to like a decent shower in clean water and the freedom to wear sunglasses and listen to an iPod, but I am very sad to leave. Oh well, I'll just do my best to not think about it and to give it all I have for the next transfer.

Only Brother MA and an investigator daughter of a less active came to church...that was disappointing.

Wait... the APs just called... I’m transferring! Ah man. Dang! I didn't want to get transferred. I'm going to Bauang. It’s pronounced "ba wang." with the a like "ah." My companion will be transferred too. My new companion will be Sister S. I actually really love Sister S, so I’m glad she'll be my companion. She’s from Hawaii. She goes to BYU. She’s one transfer behind me. I have a good attitude. It will be fun. I have just been on exchanges in their area... their stats are really low... it's a hard area. Most of their investigators are children... oh well. Hopefully we can fix it and get the area moving. Dang,I feel bad, my companion is sitting over here crying because she doesn't want to get transferred. She’s just moving next door. Same apartment, different branch.

Bauang is between Agoo and San Fernando. Wait, I just remembered something awesome.... I'M GOING TO HAVE AIR-CON. That apartment in Bauang is the only one with air conditioning. Yay!!! Bauang is a branch. Anyway, the biggest restaurant in Bauang is a little burger stand I’m pretty sure. But it's close to San Fernando so you can go there on p day. My area apparently has the beach in it. So that's fun.

I got the Christmas packages! I loved them sooo much. Thanks a lot. I haven't opened the presents yet. We have been greatly enjoying the chocolate. I think I’m going to give the nativity set to the H family.

I've been planning all of the things I would like to do if I ever come back to the Philippines for a trip. We wrote a pretty good line up. It sounds like it would be the best vacation ever. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back at some point after my mission...

Ok my time is up. Love you.

 

Beautiful Waterphall and Phast Trip to Manila

Hello family! My apologies for the late email, we went to a waterfall and just got back. It was beautiful! This waterfall place we just went to was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We went with the six of us sisters and we brought a couple members. We rented a jeepney and drove down to Sison. The jeepney driver is included in the renting of the jeepney. Too bad, I would love to drive a jeepney!

There was a beautiful hike to get to it including a super long swinging bridge. It was awesome! Then you climb over all these rocks and whatnot and it is this waterfall thing partly enclosed in a cave with perfectly clear blue water. It was so beautiful. Don’t worry, I took lots of pictures.

The weather is very normal here. We haven't had any effect of the typhoon. I had a pretty eventful week. On Tuesday, I found out that I would have to go to Manila on Friday because they need your fingerprints before you go home. So I had to hurry and get the x-ray of my chest. Good news! Everything checked out.  It freaked me out though that I am going home so soon. The night I found out I had to go to Manila I couldn't sleep. I was very restless. Then the next day I just didn't even want to study. I just wanted to go teach everyone. The next day I dragged my companion everywhere and we taught 9 lessons and found 5 new investigators.

On Thursday night I went to San Fernando. Who was my companion? An elder! Awkward! I went to San Fernando with just one elder. It felt like a date. Then we met up with everyone else going home. There were 6 of us. Then we all got on a bus and drove to Manila.

So then we drove to Manila overnight. At night it took 6 hours to get there, but in the day it takes about 8 hours. We got there at 4:00 in the morning. When we got there we were so hungry and the guy wasn't there to pick us up yet so we walked to a fast food restaurant.... Manila was slightly creepy at 4 in the morning. There were lots of homeless children sleeping on cardboard. Then the guy picked us up and took us to the immigration place. Unfortunately it didn't open till 8. I don't know who planned that. So what did we do? We curled up like hobos outside of the building and slept on the cement until 8. We were at the immigration place for a few hours then we got back on our bus and came home. We got home at 7:30 at night. It was pretty tiring. It was really good to spend some time with Sister A though!

Manila seemed very different from the last time I had been there (first day of being in the Philippines). I think Manila looks awesome now. I wish we could have spent some more time there. They have a ton of giant nice malls and everything we could ever want. We tried so hard to convince our driver to take us to Taco Bell and Krispey Kreme, but he said no because it was out of the way. We were pretty annoyed with him haha.

Then, I have more good news. On Sunday we had 8 investigators at church! Hooray. Brother MA brought his two sisters, a friend, his less-active grandma, and Brother M and Sister R were at church. And even more good news.... Brother M had an interview with President and he cleared him for baptism! So their baptism should be on December 27. They just have to get married first. Weddings here are pretty expensive for people so I hope they can save enough money. Also, Brother MA's sister is really progressing. She is awesome. She accepted a baptism date of January 24 and we moved Brother MA to January 24 too because he isn't ready yet.

Brother MA told us that he is finally ready to give up the Catholic Church. He still really wants to attend simbang gabi though (I don't know what it's called in America--that thing where they go to church at night time before Christmas). But he says that will be his last time...

We teach his grandmother. She lives in the creepy place. It’s really difficult because she only knows Ilocano. We pretty much muddle our way through lessons and usually just make our fellowshipper teach most of the lesson.

We also teach Brother MA's sister and she is doing really well. Sometimes she says things and I’m like "Wow, that's exactly what was in my head," such as: "I think that I will know the truth not from you, you are just like guides. But I think I will know the truth from God through diligent scripture study and prayer." She told us that she is really searching for the truth--searching for a way to be saved. I hope she had a good experience at church yesterday. Our branch is a little crazy sometimes... but good news! We had an attendance of 90 yesterday! It went up by a lot. Hooray!

We have Christmas conference this Friday in Baguio. It should be fun. I’m pretty excited. For our Christmas conference, each missionary makes a photo of 3 words that have meaning to them. When I was trying to think of what to do the only things coming into my mind were things like. "See ya later" "Sister Mortell out" "one month more" but I decided to do "All My Heart." I took a picture of me holding an x-ray up to my chest with a heart.

Other things that happened this week... I saw this giant group of men looking at this giant iguana thing. One of them had just bought it…new pet apparently. So I took a picture of me holding it. It was huge. The scariest thing this week was worrying while Brother M was being interviewed that he wouldn't be able to be baptized. Also, that swinging bridge earlier today was pretty scary. The funniest thing this week was probably in Manila when I saw a guy with his pants fully down tinkling off a bridge. (That might also count for the yuckiest). The most spiritual thing was probably just in our teaching. It is just great to be a missionary and feel the spirit helping us know what to say and seeing the spirit change our investigators.

 

I am almost for sure not going to be in this area for their baptisms. I pretty sure I will get transferred next week. I really wish I could just stay here though. Oh well. People almost always get transferred for their last transfer and after training; the trainer almost always gets transferred. But don't worry, I let President know that I would really love to not be transferred, but if I absolutely have to be transferred I would love to open an area with Sister S. We'll see if he takes my suggestion into consideration. haha

Oh yeah, I got one of my packages when I went to San Fernando. There are 4 packages for me there. They are holding all packages until the Christmas conference. It took some convincing, but I finally persuaded the APs to let me take one. It is the one with the giant bag of bacon. haha we love it. We have been having a hay day with our bacon bits. You’re the best. I hauled that package to Manila (good thing because we were hungry on the bus). Too bad I didn't look in the bottom of it until I got home though, because I had forgotten toilet paper on the trip to Manila. So we just had to make do without. [There was a nice, soft roll of toilet paper in the bottom of the package.]

Sister T says that the transition out of missionary life is hard, but she's doing pretty well. She’s working part time at a hotel. I’m not sure there's much hope I’ll ever see her again.

Love you! Have a wonderful week.

 

Phunny Things, Phlaming Goats and SnowPhlakes

We had a good Thanksgiving feast. It was awesome. We had stuffing, tons of mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green bean type of thing, “yams,” and chicken. My yam stuff was a hit. It was delicious. Everyone loved it so much. We also had cake and ice cream and cookies. It was so great. We were all very happy. Sadly, Sister A just emailed and said she spent Thanksgiving with no running water.

Here are some funny little things that happened this week.

1. This week I was on my morning run with Sister M. I look to the side of the road and see a dead goat being blow torched. 100% black. I saw it and screamed and sprinted away. Horrifying! Apparently it's some Igorot dish.

2. One of our returning less active families doesn't have a clock. So, on Saturday night they borrow Sister C’s watch so they know what time to come to church. They made it to church!

3. This week we were teaching someone and there was this really old grandma there. I open my eyes after the closing prayer and find her squatting about a foot away from me. What was she doing? Tinkling.

Our branch attendance is usually about 40 or 50 nowadays (counting 6 missionaries and about 10 investigators). Our branch is struggling quite a bit. There are some really great members though. People are very kind here and I will be sad to leave this branch.

Three of our investigators came to church. One of them hasn't smoked in 5 days so everyone just cross your fingers that it continues. He still needs to get married though. So, hopefully everything works out there.

Well, let me just tell you about our other investigator. He’s quite a handful. We had a great lesson with him on Saturday. It was probably one of the best 5 lessons of my mission. We taught the restoration really well, we had a perfect member present, we were asking him great questions, and the spirit was so strong. It couldn't have gone better. I asked him, "If you have come to know that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ on the earth, why do you then need to join/go along with other churches?" He was quiet for a minute and then said, "That’s it. Because I'm catholic!" We just don't know what to do. He is definitely receiving answers to his prayers but he is refusing to accept it because he is scared to leave the Catholic Church. At the end we all knelt down and prayed and he prayed very sincerely about what he should do and if he should be baptized and stuff and which path was the right path. We all felt the spirit very strongly. Then we asked him now he felt and he said he didn't feel anything. Most of our energy has been going to him lately. Hopefully he just softens his heart a little bit and gains the courage to leave the Catholic Church.

Last week, I think we broke our record of the number of lessons in one week. We were pretty happy about that.

It’s been sad saying goodbye to my missionary friends who are going home. I was so sad when I said good-bye to Sister T. Today, I’m saying good-bye to Sister D [been together since the MTC]. She’s going home this month. Luckily, I’ll see her at BYU.

Also, don't worry I’m not trunky during the week. It’s ok to be a little trunky on Monday because on Tuesday I go right back to working hard and only thinking about the work. Don't worry; we are very focused and productive.

I'm also glad I’m staying that transfer, but I do wish I could be home for Christmas. Oh well. You’ll be happy to know that I have decked out my apartment in snowflakes. I didn't have any paper so I had to use the back of various church talks and whatnot.

I think I might have some major culture shock when I get home. I haven't received travel plans and no one has told me to go get my x-ray yet. I think they forgot about me. I’ll just keep being a missionary here forever apparently.

Before you go home you have to get an x-ray of your chest [to make sure you don't have tuberculosis]. I do already know my stomach is clean though from that one time I had to give a stool test. Worst moment of my life!

Ok, on that note, I’m out of time. haha. Love you! Have a wonderful week! Good luck with everything!

I thought the little man on the caribou should join the nativity crowd.

 



 

Thanksgiving Pheast and Musical Phireside

We are planning to have a Thanksgiving feast. We are going to have a Thanksgiving lunch with the other sisters. On the list is mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken, corn, stuffing (from my package). We were also thinking about doing some sort of yam type of thing because they have this stuff called kamote here and I think it's the same as yams. We don't have an oven, but we do have a toaster oven and a stove, so hopefully we can make it work.

This week I banged my head on a water pump. Yes, it bled. I had this big cut on my forehead. Haha. I looked like Harry Potter. As much as I love Harry Potter, I do not want to be him. Actually... I take that back. I wouldn't mind being Harry Potter.  It is mostly healed now though. I don't think there are any vitamins or anything to put on it in Agoo, so I've been putting sunscreen on it. I don’t think it will scar. Literally everyone asked what happened to me. We were teaching this one lady and then she interrupts in the middle of the lesson and says in English (haha this is the first time anyone has spoken to me in English in Agoo) "What happened to your face?" I explained then she said, "Oh, so it seems you were very what's that called? Clumsy. You were very clumsy at that time." haha.

Yesterday at church I just watched a mom pick the lice out of her kid’s hair for the whole Sacrament meeting. I was afraid one was going to make the leap into my hair.

We had a musical fireside with the other branches on Saturday. The missionaries were in charge. Sister S and I made this nice little arrangement of “Count Your Many Blessings.” We were so proud of ourselves. The second verse was staccato. It sounded so great in the practice. Then we got to the actual performance and apparently everyone thought the staccato was funny. We were standing there in front, like right in front of where the people presiding sit. The stake president had one of the elder’s bottoms in his face, so during the staccato part he just starts to smack it to the beat of the music. Haha, all the elders lost it and our song was destroyed. Things we learned from this experience…Don't Do Staccato in the Philippines!

Our Sacrament meeting attendance was about 30 yesterday and about half of them were missionaries and investigators. I taught gospel principles yesterday... Second coming. It turns out that's a little hard to teach to a giant group of investigators. I’m glad that's not in the missionary lessons. It went well though. Everyone was complaining because the gospel principles class was way bigger than the gospel doctrine class... and we have this big beautiful chapel but it is so empty... really sad. The other branches are doing much better than ours.

Our investigator with the next baptismal date came to church as usual. He is still struggling. He wants to be baptized but is still attached to the Catholic Church. He has been praying to gain a testimony. His concern goes back to apostasy and Christ establishing His church. We’ll work on it. We are trying to not get frustrated with our investigators. We are just going to do some finding so that we can find some people that will actually progress.

When our investigators don’t come to church, they always have an excuse. Excuses, Excuses. Filipinos are the kings of excuses. But there's a motto here that is very true. "kung gusto mo, maraming paraan. kung ayaw mo, maraming dahilan." "If you want something, there's lot of ways. If you don't want it, there's lots of excuses."

Also, I’m not being trunky... but do you think we can make stuffing when I get home? I kind of miss snow. I miss seasons. Do you think there will still be snow when I get home? I also miss being cold. The only time I’ve been cold since being in Agoo was when I randomly got a fever and then took a shower and it was freezing. I've probably gotten sick the most in Agoo compared to my other areas.

Ok, looks like my time is up. I will talk to you next week. Good luck out there! Have a great Thanksgiving! Eat some turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie for me.

Make sure to bring me a coat and some real shoes to the airport because I’m going to hop off in my crocs and short sleeves. Well, on that trunky note, have a great week! love you!

 

One of our shortcuts

Doing some service in Agoo