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.]

 

[This week’s e-mail began with, “Is anyone on the computer, I’m here!” So, we were able to instant message with Ally once again this week! So, here’s what she had to say.]

Well, I'm safe from transfers. We now have roommates. Two Samoan Sisters, one of them is brand new. They seem nice. Good news! Sister G said she would be baptized! Haha, her exact words were "oo naman" which means like "duh, of course, why would you even ask that question." So, that's great! They are so diligent! Bro. G hadn't had any sleep in 24 hours and he still came to all 3 hrs of church. He went right from driving his trike all night, changed his clothes, and came to church. They are very sweet. Last week we asked them if they had any more questions about church or anything and he said I have a question "when was the last time you ate?" And they pulled out some snacks and papaya from their tree and RC Cola….a big sacrifice for them because they live in a bamboo hut. So, her baptismal date is Nov. 23. We might actually move it closer because she is very eager.

Everything was a little messed up last week because Barangay elections are today. So everybody was busy campaigning. Basically they just ride around with music blasting on the back of trucks and stuff. It's like a mini-parade and it's awesome.

We found a bunch of new investigators this week. We found a previous preach by the way when we were walking to the G family’s hut. It's actually super amazing we found her because she happens to live in 1 of the 4 huts that is a mile off the road by the G family. She seemed really interested in her lesson.  We also discovered that the man with the gun down his shorts from the very beginning of my mission that is so scary is actually a member! Hahaha, he's been less active for a super long time so we're trying to get him to let us teach him. I could only think of that fat scary guy in the Other Side of Heaven that is inactive that ends up being his counselor. [We then asked if he was the same guy that she saw tinkling in the bush the next day] Her response…. yes, yes it was. And basically everyone is the guy TINKLING in the bushes/alley/middle of the road. I count 9 or 10 per day.
 

They kind of celebrate Halloween here. No trick or treating, but apparently all they do is go set up tents in the cemeteries and light candles and stay there the whole night. Creepy. I'll let you know how it is.

I can't really think of anything too exciting that happened this week besides the usual craziness. I came really close to eating balut [a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell and is commonly sold as street food in the Philippines] but then we were in a hurry. Um, I saw a dog that I'm pretty sure had leprosy... Good news. We always feed our laundry lady lunch and I cooked that day. She said my cooking was good enough that I could get married. I was called "sir" twice last week. I sweat and walk a lot! People feed us a lot, sometimes we get 3 dinners!

We were eating at Sis. Salvatera's daughter, Sister Precious’ house. She is YW stake president and Ginalyn is her counselor. Mom, I think these would be your friends if we were Filipinos in the Sevilla ward. They are hilarious. She has us over for dinner sometimes. This week we're learning how to make bananan cue from Ginalyn!

BYU BEAT BOISE STATE????????????? That is the greatest news! Almost as good as when I found out Rocky beat Eagle. What is the weather like in Boise? I keep getting tricked into thinking fall is coming, and then I realize that's just my imagination. This just feels like the longest summer ever.

Thank you very much. I love you all and thank you for your emails and packages and everything. I appreciate it so much. Have a wonderful week! Love you!

 

[Editor’s Note: Allyson’s email came and it said, “Hello family! I just started my email time. Is anyone on the computer right now because I would like to talk to you?” Well, of course we were on the computer because that’s how we spend our Sunday nights waiting for our email. So, we were able to have a question and answer through email with Ally!]

We just got back from a zone activity in the botanical garden. Most beautiful place ever! We took a terrifying jeepney ride in which we almost rolled down the mountain since it was so steep. It's high in the mountains and there are animals--monkeys, butterflies, owls, some weird animals that I don't know what they are... It was really fun!

Good news. My zone leader recovered some of the pictures from my camera. An office elder says he thinks he might be able to get some more so he's going to try. I've been taking pictures on my other card but I'm too scared to plug it into a computer to send pictures home. It's been happening to everybody.

How are the lessons going with your investigators?

Lessons are good. I went on exchanges last week with Sister T from Utah. She's only been here 6 more weeks than me, so the language was pretty rough haha. We had a bit of an adventure. We were in a creepy shack in the middle of a rice field when a giant thunderstorm hit (the weather was super crazy because of the earthquake-- it was sometimes flooded 3/4 of the way up my calf). Anyway, we decided we needed to go even though it was raining really hard. So we were trudging through the water in a rice field and thunder and lightning started. I have never seen lighting that close. And the thunder was sooo loud. Anyway, the lightning struck RIGHT in front of us and we could feel our hands tingle, so we threw our umbrellas out of our hands... we were so scared we were going to get electrocuted because we were the only thing besides rice... so we just grabbed our umbrellas by the nonmetal part and ran to a waiting shed. Hahaha, we were completely drenched and we had just run for a long time and there were like 20 people in the waiting shed. When we got there, they all just moved to the other side, turned on the light, and stared at the two crazy panting soaking wet Americanas. Haha.

The Dinkels had us over for dinner last night. Lasagna! Delicious! We had to leave early to go to a referral. It was literally the worst place I've ever been in my whole life. There were probably 50-80 cockroaches crawling in their "house". Not exaggerating. And it was just this creepy dark cement thing that smelled like a sewer and you had to walk in a really dark alley for a long time and there were lots of cats. Anyway, but dinner last night was great! I love the Dinkels!

We love the Dinkels too. That lightning story is a little scary. How did you deal with all of the cockroaches?

It would have been fine if the member wasn't stepping on them all to kill them then making them mad and laughing at our reactions. Also, a couple days ago, I was drying off my hair after my shower and felt something on my ear. What was it? An Ipis (That is... COCKROACH!)

Question: How's your little family doing?

They are good. They came to church yesterday. J hadn't even slept yet! He drives his trike at night and then he came straight to church. At church, we had investigators and less actives there. It was good. Then we taught the G family later that day... they are really progressing. They were very sweet and gave us some food and RC Cola and papaya from their tree.

How's the tagalog?

Crappy! It's actually coming along. I'm way better at understanding it than I am speaking it. I just really need to study it more.

Are you going to stay put when all of these new missionaries come?

Yes, they are adding a fourth companionship to Sevilla, so they will live with us. We have transfer awareness on Wednesday to find out for sure if we'll be transferred, but I'm 95% sure I'm staying here.

Are you excited to have two new sisters in your apartment? Will your area change when the new sisters come?

Luckily our area won't change. It will be fun to have more people to talk to, but we're not looking forward to it because right now we keep a ton of our stuff in the other room and we each have our own bathroom.

I slept outside for the first time in the Philippines last week. On transfers, their power was off so it was too hot to sleep inside with no fans. So we just drug a couple mattresses outside and slept outside with the other sisters in the apartment. As we were doing it, we were like "What does this remind us of?" Oh yeah, girls camp. Haha.

I bought a fan with the best design on it. The fabric is creepy off-brand Toy Story. It has all the characters but they just don't look quite right. It's the best. Love the Philippines!

Did you sleep on the road? Is your apartment in a neighborhood?

If we did that we would have been attacked by animals. They had a balcony. Our apartment is kind of in a neighborhood. It's up a hill next to a boarding house and next to some shacks and then there are some nicer houses above us.

What has been your most spiritual experience this week?

I don't know what my most spiritual experience was this week. Probably just seeing our investigators progress-- we've been having some really good lessons with a less active named Brother J. He feels guilty for not coming to church, but he has lots of problems he's been trying to give up. He came to church yesterday though. We were very happy about that.

I'm impressed with how you are handling the dogs. Is that ok? Any more sickness? What else has happened to you?

Yes. It's ok. One dog slammed into me the other day and left a ton of saliva on my leg. Whenever they get close I just get out my umbrella and when you act like you're going to hit them they run away. Good news. I now have a bamboo stick that I got from the jungle. I was trying to break it off but didn't have a knife. Luckily a man with a machete walked by and chopped it for me. So, I used that for dogs yesterday.

Oh yes, the old drunken men love me! And yesterday, I was teaching a lesson and the girl stopped in the middle of her prayer so I opened my eyes to see what was going on and I found a kid sneaking a picture of me. They all just say "maputi! maputi!" which means light skin. Also, a couple days ago, I got called Joe. Excuse me! I am a girl. No more sickness. Hopefully, my stomach is back to normal.

Are things still shocking and worthy of a freak out? Or are you getting used to the crazy things that are around you?

I'm definitely getting more used to it. Still a bit shocked sometimes. For example, I just cleaned all the ants off the counter and didn't even get super grossed out. Also, I let ducks and roosters and chickens and dogs and cats walk around my feet and I don't freak out. Sometimes I get really freaked out though. Some of our barangays (Barangay-- it's sort of like a neighborhood. It's the smallest unit here-- they have a barangay captain and counselors with ordinances and stuff. We have like 8 or 9. It's like a big neighborhood or small village) are way better than others. The ones in the city are disgusting and smelly and dark and scary. I would much prefer to teach in a bamboo hut or tin hut in the jungle than in the city.

Where are you right now?

I’m in a sketchy internet cafe across the street from our apartment.

What else do you have to do today?

Eat lunch, go to the market, clean our apartment, and go to a bunch of random stores to get various things. P days are the busiest day ever. We are always running around the whole day. Then we start teaching at 6.

Ok, my time is up. I love you all so much. Thanks for the package and everything. I hope you all have a great week.

 All of the foreigners had to be fingerprinted.

 

 

First of all, Bon Jovi is playing in the internet cafe. Just heard “Bed of Roses,” now “Livin' on a Prayer.” So great!

So this week was really good! We are so excited because we have a perfect little family! It is the family that I fell down the mountain on the way to teach the first time. Brother J was baptized when he was 10, but has basically been inactive ever since and now he's 35. His wife isn't a member. They have two adorable little girls (5 and 1.5 or something). They are so cute and the older one just carries the little one around everywhere. He is a trike driver. They live in a little one room bamboo hut in the middle of one of our remote areas (you have to hike through the jungle to get there). Bro. J saw us walking a couple weeks ago and he just said "Sisters! I want to come back to church! Will you help me?" So he is very enthusiastic and his wife has been searching for the right church for years. We invited them to general conference and we didn't really expect they would go because he has to work a lot, but their entire family went to priesthood session, Saturday morning, and both Sunday sessions! He texted us on Sat. morning as priesthood started and said "sisters, is it ok if we go in?" and we told him yeah but they were so scared so we had to quickly text some elders who were there and tell them to take care of our family! We were so impressed they went to so much conference, especially since they have little kids and they don't understand English very well (conference is only in English). Then we taught them and they are making tons of progress reading their Book of Mormon. We are so happy. Please pray for the family.

Remember last week how I was laughing at how I hadn't got sick at all. Yep, I jinxed myself. I started to feel sick like an hour after I sent that email. The next day I was totally sick (Sis. Balledo's case #21 this month of LBM in case you were interested). I basically just curled up in the fetal position all day. Also had a fever and felt like I was going to throw up the whole day. We taught a lesson but then I had to go home. But don't worry! I'm better now. I feel perfectly fine. That was not a good experience. So awful.

General conference was great because it talked so much about member missionary work! We wish more members would have been there to hear it. They have general conference at the stake center. I think that's the only place you can see it. Sunday morning session the chapel and cultural hall are completely full. The rest of the sessions? Like 1/4 of the chapel. Our little family was so diligent! But we thought the talks were so great…Because one of our biggest problems is getting help from the ward. Also, it was great how they talked a lot about less actives because we have like a million of them. Last night at MCM, we talked to Bro. G a lot about how we can involve the ward more. Brother G is high priest group leader. He does so much for the ward.  Their family is great. His wife is our laundry lady, and their kids all are strong and have leadership positions in the ward. Bro. G works with us all the time.

So, about the typhoon. That's all we heard about for like 2 days. It was supposed to be signal 3. That means that elementary, high school, and college don't have school. And apparently signal 3 is so stormy that tin roofs are flying around. So we made sure we had enough food and water and our apartment and then it just never came. I think people died in other parts of the Philippines, but it never hit us. Seriously, people were freaking out and all the stores were so busy because people were stocking up, but it never came so that is great! It's also great because it was supposed to come on Saturday, but it didn't, so everyone could go to general conference!

This morning there was a giant furry striped spider the size of my palm in our apartment. Yesterday, Sis. LT saw some guys grilling a dog (thankfully I didn't see it). I walked across a super long rickety bridge that was swaying back and forth a lot. We met a woman who told us she was a daughter of the moon and then we pulled a furry caterpillar out of her hair. I feel like the fascination with me being an Americano was amped up again (especially by creepy drunk men-- don't worry, they're really small and I could beat them up). We were surrounded by dogs... like they were circling and growling and one licked me. When that happens we just make our umbrellas long and get ready to whack them.

Thank you for your comments from your mission and your update on America, dad. I really appreciate it. I’ve decided I can live in America for the rest of my life, but I'll probably only have these crazy experiences once. Last night after we taught the family, I realized that I love my mission even though it's really hard.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you very much and I am very proud of all of you. Thanks again for everything and I love you all!

Love, Sister Mortell

 

 

San Fernando Zone at District Meeting [Photo courtesy of the Dinkels]

Our mission president is probably an average sized Filipino. Everyone is soooo tiny. And things are smaller here. I keep bumping my head on things. [This is in response to my questions about the photo of Allyson with the mission president and his wife.]

I was wondering if you have any ideas or maybe could send me recipes of things I could make. We need things to make for lunch/dinner.... do you have any ideas of things I could make out of chicken/pork/fish, vegetables, and rice? We have soy sauce, hot peppers, oyster sauce, garlic, onions, and a few other random spices.

Let me answer your questions.

1. We have a laundry lady that comes twice a week and hand washes our clothes. It is very handy! My yellow skirt is basically destroyed from the hand wash though. Here was her response when she saw my muddy skirt soaking in the bucket and we told her the mountain story "Oh, poor, poor sister. How many people saw?" haha

2. Normal toilet and normal shower. Can't flush toilet paper and no hot water. But at least we have a shower head.

3. Yes. We listened to Relief Society broadcast on Saturday and we're watching general conference next weekend. It's delayed a week.

4. My shoes are good. Although I wish I had ones with better traction. But they definitely have to be rubber because I literally scrub the mud off them every morning. But good news! There's a croc store in Baguio! And we're allowed to go to Baguio on a p day if we need to buy something not available here. So if I need new shoes I can just go there and get them.

So this week was pretty good. A few days ago I was really, really missing America. I would quietly sing patriotic songs to myself while in the shower. I decided I'm going to get over missing America and start loving the Philippines.

Also, I don't know if I told you, but our new apartment is in a great location. It's in our area and it's right next to San Fernando town plaza. And it's probably 1/4 mile from McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and some Filipino fast food places, and 1/2 a mile from the market. It's great. If it weren't for the bugs, our apartment would be perfect! Oh, and the fact that the water sometimes goes out, but that's mostly fixed :)

Have I told you about the market yet? I can't remember. But we always get our fish and fruit and vegetables at the market because they're way cheap and fresh. The first time we went, my companion said that she was really scared to go the market with a non-Filipino. I'm like a magnet. Everyone just swarms me and tries to get me to buy their stuff and little sad beggar kids ask me for money. The market has the most overpowering disgusting smell ever. There is so much fish. There is a huge room just full of fish. All of them were caught that day and some of them are still alive when you buy it! But they just gut the fish right there and cut them in chunks so we basically just walk over fish guts. It's great.

I haven't gotten sick at all! I feel perfectly fine….just a few random cuts and scrapes and bug bites. I also found out that I accidentally drank unfiltered water for like a week. We weren't using our filter properly. But I didn't get sick. Don't worry though; I'll be very careful about the water.

Oh my gosh! For some reason, last week in one of my areas everyone suddenly says hi and makes weird comments to us. They hardly acknowledged us before, but now for some reason everyone always stares at me and they make creepy comments to us. Everywhere I go I just hear "Americana, Americana!" And they all just stare at my skin and creepily stare at my blue eyes. And everyone calls me "madam". Just me. Haha, also, a couple days ago we were walking and this random kid just pops out of this trike used for transporting animals and stuff and says with open arms and a big grin on his face "Welcome to the Philippines!" and then just goes back into the trike. It was so funny.

Yesterday, I had a disturbing experience. We were getting off a trike and I saw a crazy man standing there staring at us. He just looked crazy. I could see it in his eyes. So I quickly walked away from him and I looked back and Sister La Torre was talking to him! I went back and he started asking me all these questions about where I was from. He was speaking in English, but neither of us could understand him. Finally we understood and I told him I was from Idaho and he said "close to Arkansas" so I explained where Arkansas was and he just kept saying "Arkansas Bill Clinton" "Arkansas Bill Clinton" so funny. I don't know how he knows that. So then he just is staring at me. Then he grabs my hand and I thought he was just going to shake it and he plants the biggest, slobberiest, kiss on my hand. Eew. He was so gross. So we quickly said bye and luckily we were right by Sis. Salvatera's so we ran there and washed my hand and told her and she said "No! We will find this man! I will ask the Barangay Council who this man is! Because, here, in Tanqui Gabaldon, missionaries are respected!"

So lately we have been focusing on working with members. We really, really need their help because since there are no addresses or street names here, we need them to show us where people live. Also, there are some areas that we should not go at night alone so we really really need members to go with us. So we've been trying to think of ways to get the ward more involved in missionary work. We are trying to make the ward stronger here. They really need leaders in our ward. There are a few (like 3 or 4) strong families that pretty much handle everything. The problem in the Philippines is that the poor people get converted really easily but then they go inactive so easily because they don't have enough money to get to church. It's really sad, but our mission president told us we have to focus on the people that live within one jeepney or trike ride of the church. That is a tiny percent of our area. The ward really just needs people who will stay in the ward to strengthen it.

Did I tell you that the lady that is really hard headed and that cried when I told her the scripture is the daughter of the 84 year old woman? We've taught both of them a few times. The older woman is Sister S and her daughter is Sister J. She keeps telling us to come back because she thinks our message is good, but last time she told us "I was born a Roman Catholic and I'll die a Roman Catholic." I guess we'll just see what happens. We're focusing on the C family right now. Their daughter is a member and they've been investigating the church for almost a year. But they totally refuse to ask God directly if the Book of Mormon is true because they think it's rude. Good news though! The husband finally agreed to ask God if it was true yesterday!

Okay, I'm almost out of time. Thank you very much for the emails. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. I'm going to try to send pictures now. It doesn't always work though. [And once again, she didn’t send any pictures; luckily the Dinkels had a few pictures of Allyson this week.]

Love, Sister Mortell