Phlying through the Philippines on a Trike!

Last Monday I had a cool experience I would like to tell you about. We were trying to teach this recent convert at 6:30 but then we didn't think we had time, so we were just going to go to our dinner appointment at 7. Then our dinner appointment cancelled. Then we tried to teach one of our investigators with a baptismal date, but he wasn't home yet, so we just went to the recent convert’s house. The man her mom is living with answered the door and he usually just pushes us away and acts like he doesn't like us, but he let us in and told us to wait for our recent convert until she got back. We weren't going to go in, because we thought we would just try later, but for some reason we just went in and waited for her. Then we started talking to the man and he is telling us about his work and I asked him what his religion was and he said "Actually, I am a less active Latter-day Saint." Then this man just goes on this big thing about how he was sealed in the temple, but then something happened that made his wife unworthy and then his wife died and he was so sad she wasn't buried in her temple clothes. Then his kids started making all of these mistakes so none of them are worthy. Then he was unworthy so he told us how he knew he was unworthy so he just properly disposed of his garments. I have literally never seen so much pain in someone as they were talking. He just kept saying, "We were all sealed in the temple, imagine that." Then while we are sitting there, someone calls him on the phone and he answers. Then he proceeds to have a heated and super sad phone conversation with his son. He just kept saying "ano nang yari?! ano nang yari?! uminom ka ba?? nagdrug ka ba?" So from the conversation, we gathered that his son had drank, done drugs, slept with a girl, then passed out and called his dad to confess it all to him. So that was a little dramatic and awkward for us to listen to. Then his dad just kept saying on the phone "you should be going to seminary. You should be preparing for a mission and to get married in the temple." So then, he hangs up and literally was just the saddest human being I’ve ever seen and he starts to tell us about how he feels hopeless because of the choices of his family and how it kills him that he wasn't keeping his covenants and he really wants to come back to church but he thinks he has used up all of his chances. So we had a really good lesson with him and reminded him about the Atonement and told him that now was his chance to come back to church. It was so amazing that the one time he happens to let us in the gate is the time his son calls and he just is breaking down because his life is falling apart. So we told him that Heavenly Father wanted him to come back and that was why we were at his house when all of this was happening. He started to seem really comforted and agreed to let us teach him.

We have been focusing more on finding this week because we are super sick of our dwindling pool of investigators who do not progress. We found a lot of potential investigators so we'll see how that goes. We have been having a big problem with getting punted all the time. A few days ago, we only had two lessons and the first one was at 6:30 and the next was at 7. That was super rough. Anyways, a lot of people came to church yesterday so that was good! Also, there is a less active member who is returning to church and she is dating this guy that wants to be baptized! They are so kind. They're living together, so we’ve just got to get them married then get him baptized and then they can live happily ever after!

We had to move one of our investigator’s baptismal date. He didn't come to church and then it turns out it was actually a blessing because he had been drinking coffee too and not telling us. He was so so so sad when we postponed it. But, he's good now and we're going to make sure he's ready.

Last night, the woman that cooks for the mission that has a son on a mission in Idaho Falls made the Sevilla ward missionaries a DELICIOUS feast. It was the best.

For some reason, the ward wants us to teach the youth how to be missionaries so they can go proselyting by themselves. We keep just saying to ourselves that it isn't the job of members to go proselyte. They need to do member missionary work and fellowshipping. We've been trying to get visiting and home teaching set up in this ward since we got here. We are just trying to work our guts out to build up the Sevilla ward. I’ve been told that the Sevilla ward is actually one of the, if not the most functioning ward in the mission.

I am really happy. I feel a lot better now in my mission than during my training. I had a hard time with being a missionary and the work and everything in my training. But now it is really good! I am working really hard and my Tagalog is getting much better because I now do so much of the talking... I am finding much more joy in being a missionary.

My new companion and I are getting along well. She's nice and we don't have any problems. We’re just trying to focus on the work and it's good!

[We commented to Ally that it seemed like less crazy stuff is happening to her.]

That either means I'm used to the crazy or it was too crazy for me to tell you about... haha, just joking...and I’ll use my judgment about what I share with you!

I love you all very much! Thank you for everything! You're the best and I appreciate all you do for me!

The best part of this picture is that Sister Dial is sitting on the back of the trike behind us taking a picture. And hopefully, you have learned by now that pretty much anything goes in the Philippines!

[A couple of older pictures of Ally]

Another Phun week in the Philippines

Hello! This week has been a crazy roller-coaster of a week. My new companion is Sister Bircher from South Jordan, Utah. She has been here one more transfer than me. She just finished training an American. She has been in Baguio her whole mission where they speak a whole lot of English, so she hasn’t had to speak much Tagalog. So I am leading the area and doing most of the talking. Sister Bircher is nice and we get along well. She likes Harry Potter and the “Sound of Music,” so I guess we're set. I feel like there's a hole in my heart though! I miss Sister Ackerman. Sister Ackermann is in Baguio now. She really wanted to go there so I’m happy for her. I can't believe how hard it is to lead the area. I just feel this weight on my shoulders for all of the people in my area. I know everything will be okay though. I know that I just need to work hard and strive to have the Spirit and everything will work out.

So, this week has also been crazy with the IBD (investigator with a baptismal date situation). Last week, Sister Ackerman and I had a GREAT lesson with one of our investigators. He told us that God had answered his prayers and he knew the Book of Mormon was true, he told us about the change he had felt in his life because he feels closer to God. So, we started to talk to him about baptism... he had a ton of concerns, but we did our best to address them. Sister Ackerman was just pulling scriptures out that fit perfectly and I could feel what I was supposed to say. Our Tagalog wasn't a problem and we were able to express ourselves. We committed him to prepare to be baptized on March 1. Then, the Bishop, Sister B and I had another good lesson with him. Once again, we felt the spirit helping us know what to say. Bishop was a good fellowshipper for him and he bore his strong testimony. But then after the lesson we made sure he was going to church tomorrow and he said no because he was busy. So I was pretty serious with him and told him that he needed to come and then Sister B told him to pray about it. So we weren't expecting him to come, but then he showed up at church!...except he ran away after sacrament meeting. I could see him heading out the door and I was sitting on the stand because I was playing piano. I had to speed walk and dodge through all these people and grab my companion to talk to him and get him to stay, but it was too late. We are just hoping and praying that everything will be fine and that we can continue and help him progress towards baptism.

As for one of our other investigators with the next baptismal date, we have been having good lessons with him and we can really see him progressing. He is reading the Book of Mormon and True to the Faith and seems really excited for his baptism. He says he is living the word of wisdom. He missed church last week because he went home to see his extended family. We taught him about why it's important to come to church and told him he wouldn't be able to be baptized on that day if he didn't come to church this week. Sacrament meeting started and he still wasn't there. I just sat on the stand scanning over everyone just praying that he would come. He never showed up. His wife says he went home for the weekend and was supposed to come back before church, but he got back late and was at their house. So we are going to have to postpone his baptism. We are hoping it will be a good lesson for him to learn and that we will make sure he is really ready to be baptized. It has been discouraging lately because we have had a big problem with recent converts still having word of wisdom problems and starting to go inactive lately. Another sister’s recent convert told her, "It’s okay that I drink because abon camacho (my recent convert) drinks"... so we're going to have to figure that out. However, I'm happy to report that the G family (recent convert) is doing really well! They are so diligent and faithful :)

So we now have 4 Americans in one apartment. We can't believe it! Sister Dial is training an American from New Mexico and Sister D is doing a great job. Apparently next transfer, 15 people or something are coming and they are 100% foreigners. No Filipinos. We usually try to speak Tagalog in our apartment but it's hard. We are more diligent at speaking Tagalog outside of the apartment. Plus, if we didn't speak some English in the apartment, Sister D's trainee would have literally no idea what is going on. My companion told me that our apartment was the cleanest missionary apartment she had ever been in. I think I will take credit for that because my apartment was a mess when I got there! Straightened things right up!

Good news, the Dinkels had us over last night for some delicious casserole and salad and rolls and personal brownies for dessert! It was the best!...A little slice of America. The Dinkels are so great for the missionaries. And Sister Salvatera invited us over tonight for dinner.

Let me just tell you how flimsy things are in the Philippines. I broke a chair a few weeks ago in our apartment by leaning on it. Sister D broke one last night. I just leaned on the little place where they keep the keyboard in the internet cafe and it broke. I hope I’m not banned from the internet café!

[Here in the Vienna Woods Ward in Meridian, Idaho, we have a new missionary from the Philippines. He told us that he knows President Balledos and that he’s wonderful and really funny.] That's awesome there is a Filipino elder in our ward who knows President Balledos!

 

Thank you for the letters, packages and dearelders. It’s really hard to send letters because there is literally no time on p days, but I really appreciate all the letters and dearelders I receive.

 The Sisters of the Sevilla Ward at the Dinkel's home.

 Ally and her new companion at the internet cafe emailing home.

 

 

 

An older picture of Ally and her first companion with one of her favorite families.

Another Phantastic week in the Philippines

Let me just tell you two pretty typical things that happened yesterday at church. We watched one of our recent converts tinkle in the bushes next to the church then come and shake our hands. We then spread the urine germs to each member of our ward through handshakes. Also, after church we saw this mom helping a little boy pull down his pants so he could tinkle in the courtyard of the church that is inside the church.

Anyway, we have been very busy... we taught Relief Society/Elders Quorum the other day about rescuing less actives members and on Saturday we held a ward activity where we taught the ward how to be missionaries. We distributed copies of the Book of Mormon and asked them to each think of one person they could give it to. We also did workshops and role plays with them.

Our investigator that has the next baptismal date is good. He made these cute bracelets for us. His little family is so cute and nice. His wife is a member and he wants to become a member and be sealed to his family in the temple. Their baby is so so cute. We love him. Last time we taught one of our inactive members, he just told jokes and jokes and jokes. He said he just loves to make us laugh…too bad we could hardly teach him haha. He told Sister A that she needed to change her major because it wouldn't make her enough money. He recommends becoming a doctor. I told him my major was political science and he said "ah science, like the moon. Do you want to be an astronaut?" so that's that. Also, one of our other investigators came to church yesterday on his own which was awesome! He knows he needs to be baptized, he's just afraid. We taught him about kingdoms of glory last lesson and we said "terrestrial kingdom is for good people but they didn't accept the gospel" then he just does this comical gasp and this little evil laugh thing and says "I’m going there." What a character!

There are so many issues getting people to progress. Word of Wisdom is probably number one. Also, we have been having problems getting people to understand the Book of Mormon lately. It is difficult for them. They need to read the Book of Mormon so they know it's true. A lot of the people we teach don't have very much quality education. Most members that have been in the church for a long time read in English. Most investigators and recent converts read in Tagalog and sometimes Ilocano. Many people have to read Tagalog and English side by side to understand it.

One of our new convert families didn't come to church last Sunday and we were so worried about them. They said they didn't have enough money but then they were here yesterday so that was a relief.

Yesterday we worked with an awesome member. She was baptized a few years ago and she has the strongest testimony ever. She just ran us around to everyone yesterday just asking people if we could share our message with them like crazy. It was insane. We visited this less active who is actually pretty crazy and catholic now so we don't go to her very often... this member just got so intense and kept saying about the Book of Mormon "Sister! ITANONG SA DIYOS!" ("ask God! ask God!") I love this member. She's the best! Her kids all got baptized a few years ago then her husband got baptized a year ago then he died 3 months later of a brain tumor.

Divorce is super expensive in the Philippines, so lots of time people just separate and go find a new "spouse" and live in a totally family relationship but they just aren't married. One of the members had separated from her husband because he ran off and left her with their kids. Then she had 4 other kids with this other guy that she was in a totally committed relationship with, but then it turned out he was an alcoholic too. Then she met the missionaries and she couldn't get baptized because she was living with this guy. She needed his money to support her family, so all of her kids got baptized, she went to church every Sunday for 4 years and paid her tithing and then finally she got enough money to live on and support her family because her daughter went abroad. So after four years, she told her "husband" that she had found the truth and she ditched him and got baptized.

One of our less active members is the sweetest lady every. Her husband is abroad and she has two really cute kids. She's pretty poor (mice are always just running around her house). She doesn't come to church because apparently everyone thinks she had an affair. We believe her that she didn't. We really want to help her though because she is so sweet. Last week, we went to visit her and she had this giant thing of delicious pansit waiting for us. She always pulls out her two nice glass cups, fills them to the very top with RC Cola and then lets her kids drink whatever is left. She is so sweet so I really want her to come back to church.

Our schedules are pretty full. We usually teach at least 5 lessons a day.

We've been working a lot on our schmoozing skills (actually it's really just being friendly). I am playing with babies, making teenagers love me, kissing women on the cheek (that's common here), and the whole shebang. It has resulted in our fridge being constantly full of members' food and more referrals!

Don't worry, we’re not kissing any men although all the men would love it. Sister A and I are constantly getting yelled at from men on the street. Also, lots of men love to look directly into my eyes and then wink at me.

Haha, haha. anyways, I need to go! The snow sounds crazy. It’s hard for me to visualize... my body keeps thinking it is still July or August. Longest summer of my life...

 

I love you all very much and I love getting your emails and letters! Thanks for all the support and words of encouragement!

 

 Sister Dinkel had the sisters over for an impromptu cooking class.

  [These are some older pictures of Ally. There were many photos of Ally trying to get this fruit from the tree. It must really be delicious!]

It's 2014! (Two thousand Phourteen!)

Sister Ackerman and I have had a pretty busy week... Lots of recent convert and less active lessons. We met the standard of excellence for that last week--15 lessons. And the AP (Assistant to the President) called to congratulate us. So that was good. We seriously need to do some finding though. We need some more solid investigators. We haven't been able to teach Sister R this week. But yesterday we talked to her and set up an appointment and we had a ward member with us that calmed some of her worries. One of our other investigators keeps talking about how he has such a desire to know the truth and have the gospel help his family but he is unwilling to read the Book of Mormon and he only comes to church if we go pick him up. Last lesson, Sister Ackerman and I were just pouring our whole souls into this lesson... our Tagalog was actually going really well, we were asking great questions, we were in tune with the spirit, we were just testifying powerfully about how important it is to read the Book of Mormon. We spent like 30 or 40 min talking about how important it is to act and how God will answer him. Then at the end we tried to commit him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he just said "pwede panalangin na lang, walang magbasa?" translation: "Can I just pray, and not read?" Oh man. That was soooo frustrating. But then in his closing prayer he asked Heavenly Father to give him a desire to read. So hopefully he starts reading soon.

So let me just take a moment to tell you some more about this other sweet man that we teach in front of his house. He refuses to get a chair, just does the Filipino squat the whole time and his pregnant goat is always right next to him too. He's less active, but he LOVES the church. He always tells us about the missionary that converted him "Si joy enriques, taga cebu! ay, maraming missionaries pumunta sa akin." translation: "Joy Enriques, from cebu. Many missionaries come to me." Then he starts to name the missionaries. It is sooo sweet and funny. Anyway, on Saturday, I was a little annoyed because all these people kept making fun of me and kept complaining that we didn't know very much Ilocano. I just told sister Ackerman, "Why can't anyone ever just say 'oh thanks Sister Mortell. Thanks for being here and trying your best.’" Then the next day during sacrament meeting, this sweet man got up to bear his testimony. He started by talking about Joy Enriques and the missionaries and then he started to get a little tear and said he is so thankful for the missionaries that always teach him "Si Ackerman, Si Mortell." It made me smile because someone was grateful for us. Touched my heart. Then he randomly told the entire ward that we always come to his house to eat which is a flat-out lie. haha. I have not once eaten at his house. Then the ENTIRE ward started to crack up and look at "Si Ackerman, Si Mortell" and the ward was laughing and joking with us so much that he could hardly regain control of them so he could finish his testimony.

For my personal study this morning, I reread "Of Regrets and Resolutions" by President Uchtdorf. I would recommend that you reread it too. Good things to think about. [http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng]

My Tagalog has improved a lot. I can now basically understand everything that people say most of the time. However, everyone speaks Ilocano. A lot of people don't know Tagalog super well, so it's hard for us to communicate because we're both trying to communicate in our second language. Ilocano sounds so hard. It doesn't even sound like words. Yesterday we were with a member and we were trying to teach this lady and we just heard a man's voice from inside the house say something in Ilocano. The member told us he said "Oh looks like the Americans are here again." haha. Yeah, they just continued to hide from us.

I wish you could see my tan lines. I have a tan line from my shirt, and a tan line across my chest where my bag goes and a watch tan line. It is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. Also, I stopped taking my vitamins for about a week because I didn't think it was necessary then my hair started to fall out. So I got right back on those vitamins very quickly. I can't figure out what nutrients I’m missing! I eat vegetables and fruit every single day. Don’t worry! I always drink filtered water except when people give us unfiltered water.

New Years was good. We had about 5 dinner appointments throughout the day... and then one of our dinner appointments got interrupted because their neighbor came and told us we had to come to their house and eat when we were finished eating there. Haha then people gave us all of the leftovers. We ended up having 4 giant bowls full of spaghetti, endless macaroni salad, endless rice pudding stuff (bico), and a whole ton of pansit. Then after our curfew a recent convert delivered a whole bunch of more food to us. And the fireworks were pretty loud. I woke up right at midnight because all the fireworks went off but then I just went right back to sleep because I was so tired. I was at this less actives house and they have this GIANT gun that they used to shoot fireworks off from on top of their roof. I am not kidding that it was probably at least 15 feet long. They took a picture of me holding it and put it on facebook apparently.

You would just not believe how many people greet us/yell things at us as we walk. Most people are very friendly. Literally, everyone on the street says hi, the kids always just run up to us to shake our hands. There is also this crazy homeless lady that won't stop touching our bottoms. We also got spit on the other day from a car... that was a first. But for the most part people are very, very friendly towards us and they love us. They are so surprised that we know Tagalog. Their favorite joke is when we greet them we say "magandang hapon" (good afternoon) and they say "maganda ka sa hapon" (you are beautiful in the afternoon). They don't think we understand... but we do. haha.

We gave our Christmas decorations to one of the ward members. She loved it and I’m glad she has some cute Christmas decorations now.

Love you very much! Have a wonderful week! Also, I really like getting dear elders... so you should write me some.

[To send dear elders, go to dearelder.com. Ally is in the Philippines Baguio mission. It’s free!]

The "bell choir" rehearsing for their performance at the ward Christmas party. Ally was the conductor. No actual bells were used. They made the sounds with their mouths, but the movements look pretty legit!

 New Year's Day at the Dinkels.

Phaithful Phamilies

 

[We were able to skype with Ally on Christmas. It was awesome!]

I'm so glad I got to talk to you last week. It was so great! For Christmas, we got little hand towels with our names on them from Pres and Sis Balledos. They're cute.

 

 

We taught Sister R again a couple days ago. Guess what? She read the ENTIRE book of First Nephi. And she said that her family is lots of different religions, but she knows that this is true. She said she prayed about the Book of Mormon and she knows it is true. We were asking her about what she read in First Nephi and she told us about Lehi and Nephi and all that. The only problem is we can't get her to come to church. She said she would come but didn't. She’s worried that her baby will cry. We kept trying to tell her that so many people have crying babies, but she still didn't come... But we are very excited about the progress she is making!

Everyone else is good. We have a baptismal date figured out (Jan 25) for one of our other investigators. He seems very excited and he claims to have been living the word of wisdom. We are teaching law of chastity tonight. Got to memorize all those words in Tagalog haha. One of our other investigators has been reading the Book of Mormon and he keeps saying he knows it's true. Then he also keeps saying that all religions are true.... he says yes this is true and that is true. We taught the restoration and apostasy and all that again.... so I don't know. We also had a really good lesson with another investigator last week. The G family is doing well.

Lately people keep asking us if we are rich. One of our investigators just constantly talks about how poor he is and how rich we are. Kids are constantly just running up to us asking for money. It's sad. We are definitely very blessed to have been born in America. It's weird here because I think in America and other parts of the world, Filipinos are kind of looked down on because they are all working abroad. Here, only the wealthier Filipinos can work abroad. The others don't have enough money to go to another country. It's just amazing that those who work abroad are the wealthy people here. It just makes me sad because of all the problems with poverty here. Filipinos think all Americans are rich. And comparatively, they are. Even a really poor American would be sort of well off here. It's just totally different.

A lesson that I have been learning recently is that sometimes when things are hard and we pray for everything to be ok, Heavenly Father usually doesn't take away the problem right away. In fact, often he makes it harder. But if we rely on Him, He'll always give us the strength to overcome it. Here's a story to illustrate it: On Saturday, our entire mission was doing a fast for the success of the Baguio mission in 2014. It started after lunch on Saturday and ended with lunch on Sunday. Saturday was SO hot and we were getting punted like crazy so basically we spent most of the day walking. We needed to go visit a less active member that lives in the one junglish part of our area. To get there, you have to walk on this super slippery trail uphill for quite a while. We just sat down on a bench before we started and I just thought "I am so thirsty. There is no way I can even walk there to go to this person." But then I said a prayer that I would be able to do it and be happy about it. Then we were walking on a trail and we saw a member who lives by the less active member carrying all this stuff. She said they were getting kicked out of their house because apparently a politician bought it or something. So they had to move. So we volunteered ourselves to help her. So we walked back and forth along that trail for a couple hours carrying boxes and furniture and other things from their house. Somehow, once I got started I wasn't thirsty anymore and I had more energy to do it. We were able to do it quickly and we weren't tired or thirsty anymore. Later that night, I was so thirsty, but while we were helping we were able to do it. So I realized that Heavenly Father will always help us through our challenges if we ask for his help. It will still be really hard, but He will give us the strength we need to do it.

As Kolipoki said, “Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He calms his child.”

There are some really faithful families in this ward. Our laundry lady and her husband are a very faithful family. Her husband has at least five callings. Also, he rides his bike 20 miles to work every day. Another faithful sister is stake primary president, seminary teacher, relief society first counselor, and family history specialist. Her husband is YM president as well as a bunch of other callings too.

This apartment has a shower but no hot water. We have to flush the toilet with a bucket. Last P [preparation] day, I scrubbed the entire bathroom for about an hour. I finally got it clean. By the time I finished, I had to shower because I was drenched in sweat and my knuckles were bloody from scrubbing. Haha.

Ok, I need to go. Out of time! I love you all very much and thank you for all of you support and advice and everything always. Have a great week!

 

 

 

Pheliz Navidad

Oh no! I just realized I forgot my planner. That has everything I was going to tell you and my grocery list! Dang. Anyway, we had a mission Christmas party/conference last week. Some people from Utah that are the medical advisor for Philippines came and talked to us. President Balledos spoke too and he was so sweet. He is so humble and willing to learn. He just could not stop praising these people. He just respected them so much and was so humble. He was also very sweet because he told us that we probably miss our homes but he said he misses his home too but he and Sister Balledos are trying their best to help us. And he just talked about how much he loves us. He is so kind.

Then we had a great big fancy meal including lechon baboy (whole roast pig). One of the APs asked who was adventurous enough to try the brain. I volunteered. It was pretty mushy. And then the best thing ever happened…Pres. Balledos let us watch a MOVIE. A real movie! Not a church movie. A real one! We Are Marshall. It was a delightful, inspiring football movie with Matthew McConaughey and Jack from LOST. It was so wonderful. We also had a gift exchange and performed our Christmas presentation. The 3 wise men [the three American sisters] did a bang up job.

Sister Ackerman and I get along great and are having a lot of fun. We are also learning so much from each other. Sis. Ackerman is great. We understand each other and help each other when we're having a hard time. The language is still a bit rough, but I'm really glad we're companions. I am learning Tagalog much quicker than I did my first 12 weeks. Sometimes it's a little rough though... we can't fully understand some things people tell us, especially when they're trying to be discreet or imply things. For example, we are still not sure if a less active invited us to her house for Christmas or not, haha. We're hoping her son who is active will remind us. If he doesn't we'll just show up. Apparently that's how it works here on Christmas. Everyone just has a whole ton of food and you just go visit everyone. We have a few invites for Christmas, but we're hoping to score more.

Caroling here is so different. It is every single night and people just go to someone’s house and start to sing outside. Then they sing until the person comes out and gives them money and then they leave. People ask us about caroling in America and they can't believe it when we say that it's free.

On Christmas day we have some sort of zone training/meeting in the morning. There might be an uprising from the missionaries if our zone leader makes us do a role play on Christmas. Then after that, we are invited to Sis Salvatera's sometime during the day, also we need to stop by and see some other people.

You would not believe how well some people treat us. The kids just run up to us and shake our hands and pretty much everyone greets us "magandang hapon po, sisters." We went to the birthday party of this baby of a less active family. They sat us inside the house (everyone else was outside). When we got there, they went and stole the table from outside (took it away from all these really old ladies), dismantled the table to fit it in through the door, set it up, and gave us the hughest plates of spaghetti and pansit and a giant slab of birthday cake and this Filipino jello stuff (all on the same plate). Then they just talked about how much they love missionaries and how nice we are for like an hour. People love us. One of the members that always works with us said we are her new best friends, she made us cards, she went to an SA conference in Vigan and brought us back key chain souvenirs and she asked us if she could call us "atae" (a term for older sister) after our missions. She is the sweetest!

Generally, I am feeling pretty good about the way things are going. In my new area we get around by walking. We can walk our whole area if we want because it's so small. Sometimes we take a trike if we're in a hurry or if it's raining really hard. The ward members love us and I like being in Sevilla B better. All the members are pretty much in our area so we are able to develop better relationships with them. I am so glad I'm companions with Sis Ackerman because we love each other a lot and are always there for each other. The language is getting better. When one of the members works with us she just says "bawal english." bawal means forbidden. So we learn a ton of Tagalog like that. Sometimes church is difficult to follow—too many languages...English, Tagalog, Ilocano.

Basically we just got punted the entire day yesterday. We only taught one lesson (to a recent convert), everyone else couldn't because they weren't there or were hiding or busy or something. But it's ok. We found a maybe golden investigator last week. Actually we found her before that but we taught her again last week. Last time we gave her a Book of Mormon, then this time we taught the restoration and when we got to the first vision she just said, "oh yeah, and then Joseph went into a forest by his house and prayed and God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared". So she read the introduction and into 1 Nephi 1. She also said that she has been investigating lots of other churches but that none of them feel right. So I hope things work out with her! She’s also the kindest person ever.

There’s a very popular church here. All I know about them is they hate Mormons and they keep telling us our pictures of Jesus aren't accurate (don't know why that matters too much) and they go to church like every day and have an even stricter "word of wisdom " than us and they are apparently dunked under the water repeatedly until they "see the face of God" to be baptized.

 

I hear New Year’s is just as crazy as Christmas and that's why we have curfew at 7 for December 24, 25, 31 and January 1. Oh no, the ward members found out where we live and they are planning to bring us a banana cue and camote cue on Christmas (fried banana and fried sweet potato with this delicious brown sugar stuff) after our curfew. That's pretty against the rules, but it's not our fault! We just won't let them inside.

Love you lots and I will talk to you in a couple days!

Phun Ward Christmas party

I’m late emailing because our zone leader had us practice for our Christmas presentation tomorrow. The 3 American sisters have been cast as the 3 Wise men. We had to practice our 5 seconds on stage in which we walk in and give baby Jesus some gold. We have a Christmas party/conference for 4 zones. It's at Sevilla. It lasts from 9-5! We also have a zone something on Christmas morning here.

I ate blood yesterday at a member’s house. It was pork with thick sauce made from blood…Pretty tasty actually.

Right now we have 3 IBDs. They all have baptismal dates at beginning of January but they all also have word of wisdom problems so we have to move some of their dates. We have a whole ton of other investigators too and less actives and recent converts. There is pretty much always someone for us to teach.

Our Tagalog is definitely improving. Luckily we have a ward missionary with us about half the time so they can help us if we don’t understand. This one girl LOVES us. She is so sweet and helpful and she even drew us little pictures of ourselves.

Anyway, there was a ward Christmas party last week and it was so fun! Sister Ackerman and I helped decorate. We made some awesome decorations, considering our only tools were things we rummaged up at the church. Ward parties here are so different. There were a whole ton of games, in which the adults get right in there and are totally involved. The adults are running around and screaming and joking around with each other. It’s hilarious. Then the missionaries had to perform a song. We did a lively adaption of "Carol of the Bells." we pretended to have bells and just used our mouths. I was the conductor. It was pretty funny and we think we won over a big chunk of the ward with it.

We had a mini disaster when the ward found out all of our first names and wouldn't stop calling us by them haha.

I have to tell you about the proudest moment of my mission so far (ok, joke-lang). But, so you know how Samoans and Polynesians are all about family and their own people and whatever? I've been accepted by the Samoans. Direct quote "We love you like our own blood, Sister Mortell" Haha.

"Lang" means "only" kind of. So joke-lang is like just joking, but it's way more catchy, so I think I’m going to continue saying it even after my mission.

What else has been going on? We're just super busy all the time teaching lessons and whatnot. Good news, we have a dinner appointment tonight with Sister Salvatera. We found a very nice lady yesterday to teach. She seems really interested. She accepted a soft baptismal invitation. Did you know we're supposed to extend baptismal invitations on the first lesson? It actually works pretty well! Oh, Brother G was wearing a tie yesterday and white shirt and he has his hair cut nice and he just listens intently with his little family. So sweet! The first time we met him he had crazy hair and an earring and was wearing a bandana over his face. We are very proud of him!

Bye love you lots and Maligayang Pasko! (Merry Christmas)

 

 Sister G's baptism

 

 

 Hanging out at the Salvatera's home

 

This tree is decorated with hundreds of tiny boxes tied together.