Phone call + Email = Phantastic Mother's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. The rats in Baguio are huge!

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

 

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

[The rest of the photos are from San Fernando]

Phacing Phears

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Love you! Have a wonderful week!

 

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

 

 

 

 

Good end to a Phrustrating Week

Well, we had an extremely unproductive, awful week. Sunday was the only day that we had any success. Probably the hardest week of my entire mission as far as the work is concerned. Sister Tune and I are getting along really well. She’s very kind (makes my bed every morning while I’m exercising and stuff). This week was really hard. We have basically started over with our whole teaching pool because no one was progressing. We have done tracting every single day. A lot of our area is pretty wealthy. Not as many people are as willing to listen. We knocked on almost every single door in a whole barangay one day and didn't even get one potential investigator. It was pretty discouraging.

Yesterday, though, we taught 4 lessons. We finally were able to teach brother D again! June 14 is his new baptism date. His family even listened last time. He has an issue with alcohol that we didn't know about, but he agreed to live the Word of Wisdom. We also have been making progress with a less active family. They committed to come to church and to a ward activity on Saturday. Then, yesterday at church, this less active member randomly showed up. No one told us he was in our area. I had never met him. But he wants to return to church and his fiancé wants to learn about the gospel. So we had a great lesson with them last night. I think there is a lot of potential in the fiancé. So we had a good end to a pretty crappy week.

Baguio is basically like America. Well, I guess it's definitely way closer to America here than it is San Fernando. We have had an extremely hard time finding fellow shippers. The members are just not involved no matter how hard we are trying. It makes it so that we cannot teach men as often as we need to. No one in our mission enforced that rule until a couple transfers ago. Those were some great days of just running around teaching whomever you wanted.

For our zone activity, we had a talent show, played games, and had a water fight. Sister Jackson and I taught kickboxing as our talent. Everyone loved it. Also, we were playing a Filipino game kind of like capture the flag and I was trampled to the ground by a couple large Samoan Elders during a game. I think I’m going to have a pretty big bruise.

We had a ward service activity on Saturday. The women were cleaning and picking up trash and whatnot. Meanwhile, the men were clearing a lot that was pretty much jungle with straight-up machetes. A lady was randomly talking about John Groberg at the activity. So Sister Tune of course pipes in and says I’m related to him. Everyone was just in awe. Pretty funny. All the missionaries are always amazed because I get letters every couple weeks from him (they don't know it's just the family newsletter). haha.

You should write me some dear elders. I feel like I haven't gotten mail in a while. I think things are just slow getting to Baguio. We have an address but it's not like a mailing address. I don't think there's a way to send mail directly to me. I guess Baguio isn’t that close to America afterall.

There are stray dogs literally everywhere here, but you just bring your umbrella to fight them off and you're fine haha.

 

I have to go. Love you lots! Thanks for everything and have a good week. Continue to be a good example to everyone around you. Love you!

[These pictures are from San Fernando]

 

Phinding in the Philippines

Easter was good. Sister Jackson and I drew on some hard-boiled eggs with sharpie... haha. I don't really know about Easter here... it was very strange. No one even mentioned that it was Easter in church. Everyone just went out of town because it was Holy Week last week.

This week, we basically just did a whole lot of finding. We found 4 new investigators and 10 potential investigators last week. We straight up tracted this week. I’ve never done that my whole mission. It surprisingly seems effective! We have been a little frustrated with the ward lately. Yesterday, a missionary asked about home teaching and visiting teaching and was flat out told that it was too hard and it would never work, so they aren't going to try. So, we are really trying to find a way to get the members more involved. I have been seeing lately what a huge difference the ward can make.

We taught Sister S again this week. She seems to be progressing. One of the members went with us again. You would think that she would be the wrong fellowshipper for her, but they love each other! She is so nice and seems to be making progress. We’ll teach her again tomorrow.

We haven't been able to teach Brother D. We have been searching high and low for him. His wife says he has this big project so he's been working overtime. It’s kind of discouraging. It feels like everyone has a problem! The super prepared golden guy's problem is that he's never available! His wife said his next day off is Sunday. So hopefully we'll be able to teach him then!

I have really enjoyed reading Jesus the Christ recently. I am learning a lot about His life. I never realized before that He gradually came to the knowledge that He was the Savior of the world. He gradually learned and grew just like the rest of us and eventually realized to the full extent what His purpose was here on earth. He understood His divinity as the Son of God, but gradually realized through revelation that He would atone for the sins of the world.

Lately, I’ve been realizing a lot that Heavenly Father really cares about us and His hand can be seen our lives. My testimony has also been strengthened that he is preparing people to receive the gospel. Not really any big experiences, just little things here and there.

I asked my companion what I should tell you about what happened this week... she wants me to tell you this story: last week this 11 year old boy kissed me on the arm! What on earth? 11 is pretty old. Thankfully my arm was as high as he could reach. I think he was aiming for my lips. Also, I have become accustomed to people staring at me and I hardly notice it any more. But Sister Tune is freaking out because everyone is staring at us/making all sorts of comments/cat-calling, and the like. Sister Tune isn’t white and she’s never had a white companion before so this is new to her. The cat-calling is at me (the white American). One time, Sister Bircher and I counted in one day and there were 32 different occurrences…mostly creepy men. Last transfer though, Sister Smith and I got harassed by this giant group of women. It was super weird.

Oh, they have these really gross giant gutter things that are about 20% rainwater, 20% dish and laundry water, 10% human urine, 5% human feces, 20% other animal waste, 25% trash. Yep, we totally dropped our phone in one last week. Sister Tune plucked it out really fast. Then we dumped alcohol all over it. I’m surprised it still worked after that!

I’m still walking a lot every day. My calves are getting huge. Sister Jackson and I woke up early today and went to a kickboxing class in the park. It was super fun. I think we're going to try to start going every day.

Well, I don't think I will tell you any scary stories Hahaha. Maybe when I get home ;) don't worry, I won’t forget them and don't worry, I’m safe and am not in danger. I’m perfectly fine.

 The three Americans reuniting at general conference…so so happy. Made us realize how happy we will be to see our families. I love those two so much!

Pictures from San Fernando

 

Love you! Have a great week!

 

 

Pheliz Cumpleanos in the Philippines

Thanks for the birthday greetings! I had a nice little birthday dinner last night, provided by the white people in our ward (the Colons)…complete with a cake and candles. So sweet!

Anyway, I have a new companion-- Sister Tune (too nay), from Kiribati. She's very nice and so far we are getting along really great. She is obedient, humble and willing to work hard. I am really happy. Sister Dial is in la Trinidad. Too bad not Baguio! But we saw her at general conference and it was so happy. The 3 of us were finally reunited. Sister Ackerman even burst into tears, haha.

Sister Kasan [from San Fernando] is so sweet. She rode around on her bike and got ward members and people I used to teach to write me a little birthday message. Then she sent them all to me. It was very thoughtful and I really appreciated it. Also, some members in Sevilla ward remembered my birthday and sent me a little greeting. So sweet!

I thought general conference was really good. I really liked Elder Bednar's talk. He quoted a lot from a previous talk he gave at a BYU devotional a lot of years ago. Also, President Alder [our stake president when Ally left on her mission] is now an area authority!  And yes, President Eyring is Glen Robert Ward. I was so excited for general conference and I enjoyed it so much…such a missionary. I also really liked that talk in Sunday afternoon with the guy [Elder Corbridge] that just talked very simply about the restoration and Joseph Smith. I loved how simple it was. The longer I’m a missionary, the more I’ve been realizing how simple the gospel is and how perfect Heavenly Father's plan for us is. Our area has really been struggling lately, but I am thankful for the opportunity I have to share my testimony with others every day.

In other news, everyone has been telling me that Brother Romero [from San Fernando] gave a 30 minute talk after his baptism (it's usually about 3 minutes), detailing the entire history of the missionaries teaching him. Haha. He announced to the ward that I was his favorite missionary because of all he learned. He has also written me two letters in English. Hilarious! And so sweet.

We had a very rough week. I was in a threesome for 3 days with Sister P because her new companion hadn't come yet because her old companion's father just died and they went to the funeral (she happens to live inside of our mission boundaries because she submitted her mission papers in Manila). So we had to split our time between our areas and we mostly taught people in her area. We have stopped teaching some investigators. One of our investigators told us that missionaries in Gisad were teaching her because that's where she lives (we teach her at her restaurant in our area). She even gave me an Elder’s name. I asked him about it and they've never met. Then we were so sad. Yesterday, we had the perfect fellowshippers for Brother D and then he wasn't home. I don't know what happened. But, we did find a man and taught him one lesson. He seems very serious, but hopefully interested. We’ll see where that goes.

Also, Sevilla C [my first area] got turned into an Elders’ area this transfer…partly because it is a little bit dangerous.

Have a great week and I am so proud of all of you! Remember what they say in Baguio,
#youcannotgettoheavenwithoutyourbishop.

Phun and Pheathers in the Philippines

Hi everone! I can't wait to watch general conference next week. We watched the Relief Society thing on Saturday.

Brother D is getting baptized on May 17! Hooray! We also did have another investigator with a baptismal date.... but then we found out she was a special case, so that's going to be delayed. Brother D is the best. We taught him yesterday and immediately he just starts asking what the requirements are to be baptized. He totally knows this is true and he has been searching for the truth for so long. He asked specifically about Word of Wisdom and chastity so we taught it to him. He pretty much just accepted it right off the bat, although he was a little surprised about coffee. We are so excited for him!

We had a very unique experience last night. So, there are 2 white people in our ward. He works for Texas Instruments so they are here for 6 months. Until yesterday, we knew them as "the white people." Turns out they have a name and last night they invited us over for dinner with some of his coworkers (3 guys just barely older than us. Awkward!) Anyway, the friends are atheist and liberal and such. Then we had to share a message. Man, I’m glad I’m in the Philippines where everyone is nice and believes in God. It was good though. And it was good to have some American food and some American company. Anyway, they have taken a liking to us and are taking us out for burgers tomorrow! Hooray!

Yesterday, there was quite the disturbance in Relief Society over visiting teaching. This lady raises her hand and says, "I have been a member since 1989 and not once been visited by a visiting teacher!" Then all these people were chiming in and yelling at each other. It was not good. Finally, this one sister took control and said something like, "We're all in relief society. We all have the same purpose and we need to work together."

I just heard from Sister Bircher in San Fernando. Brother Romero was baptized! Hooray!!!! I’m so happy he was baptized!!!!! Sister Bircher said that Brother Romero said I was his favorite missionary. I wish I could have gone. I'm so happy! Doesn't he look so happy in those pictures? I'm so proud of him! Oh no, I'm just crying over here in this random computer shop.

[Editor’s Note: This is a message I received from a member that works closely with the missionaries. Disclaimer: If you’re not her mother, it may be too much, but I loved it. “Brother Romero was baptized April 5. Brother Romero mention Sister Mortell a bunch of time in his testimony. He also said that Sister Mortell's his favorite missionary because he learned a lot from Sister Mortell. I witnessed his miracle changes because of Sister Mortell and the former missionaries who taught him. Sister Mortell's just sooo amazing.”]

Anyways, it happened. I ate balut. Well, it didn't taste that bad…pretty good actually. You could see the feathers and the little shape of a bird. Sister Smith says mine was huge compared to the one she ate before. I was chewing it and like "oh, that's interesting... but not that bad." Then I swallowed and involuntarily gagged. It’s the texture. I think I’ll try it again though. Now the balut man always sees us and laughs and says "balut, ma'am?" and laughs and laughs. People just walk around on the street selling balut…yelling "baloooooottt! baaaloooot!" I wish you could hear my impression. It’s dead on.

[From google: A balut is a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines.]

 

 

 

Have a wonderful week and thanks for everything. I love you.

Phalling up the hill in the Philippines

This week was pretty good….more successful than last week definitely. Really up and down though. We had either 5 lessons a day or 0.

In other news, one of the highlights last week was when Sister Smith and I found a SUSHI place. Yes, I ate sushi last week and it was delicious. We discovered this pocket of tourist places that we didn't know was in our area.

Anyway, yesterday we taught this man that Sister Smith and her old companion had taught two times, but it was about 2 months ago. We finally taught him again. He has been reading the Book of Mormon ever since them. He's in Omni. And he said this, "Hmm... it seems to me that the way to return to our Lord is through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Wow! Golden! He is really smart and understands a lot of things. He was asking us all these questions about what tribe Lehi is from and all the stuff like that. Hopefully his family doesn't present a problem. Every single one of them is a different religion. His daughter is a Baptist missionary and she always tries to preach to us. He’s only available on Sundays because of his crazy work schedule and we've gone every Sunday since them. Hopefully we can start teaching him regularly. We need to get him a baptismal date ASAP!

News from Brother R from San Fernando: HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!

Remember when he said, “It takes a lot of work to be holy.” He's also the one where when we were describing the terrestrial kingdom said, "ay! pupunta ako doon!" "I'm going there!" haha. I'm so proud of him!

More good news! We had a returned less active family at church again yesterday. They’ve now come to church 4 times in a row. Hooray!

Last week, we were walking and then we saw this herd of children emerge from the forest with sugar cane in hand. So, we went on a little quest for sugar cane. We trampled down the side of this mountain and started to look for it (turns out neither of us are really sure what it looks like)... we were giving up, and then I spotted something on the ground. Sugar cane! It was delicious.

The sugar cane left some weird wood stuff in my mouth. It just grows naturally. It has all these awful prickles though so it's hard to get. Oh that reminds me, last week I was walking and I accidentally knocked over someone’s planted cactus. So I picked it up without thinking. Yes, that took a while to remove all the prickles.

We recently found out though that they did a study of where all the beggars in downtown Baguio are from... turns out most of them are from Gabriela Silang... that's our area, haha. It’s pretty gross there…just full of these giant trash river/waterfall things.

Last week, we accidently stumbled on a wake. That makes the second dead guy I’ve seen in the Philippines.

Here’s a pretty funny story. Lately, my companion has been waking up in the middle of the night and starting to pray out loud. It’s even in Tagalog. I then get confused and think it's companionship morning prayers so I just join in with an amen. Then we sit there and think... "Why did we just pray...."

I just asked my companion for ideas of funny stories to tell you. Here's her response: "You fall almost every day. That’s pretty funny." yeah, sometimes I think I’m more athletic than I am. I tried to run backwards up a hill the other day, totally biffed it.

[Here’s a non-mission related, funny string of emails]

[Did Mom mention that I'm the new Bishop?]

WHAT???????? I don't believe you. You're joking.

[You're not the first person to be surprised.]

Are you telling the truth?? Mom, please verify this. I can't tell if you're joking or not!

[This is your mother, yes, yes it is true! What do you think?]

Is this an early April’s fools day joke?

When were you sustained? Yesterday?

Wow! Look at you! Tom Mortell. Bishop Mortell. Weird. Wow. I would love to have a bishop like dad!

You will do great. I'm so proud of you!

Hey. You knew last week! Why didn't you tell me? I'm clear over here in the Philippines!

Have a great week!

 

 

 [Pictures from Baguio from conference with Elder Arden]

 [The Baguio Zone]

 

 [Pictures from San Fernando--Ally with a very special family. The sister was baptized]

 [Christmas for the three Americans in San Fernando]