Phellowshipping, Phaith and Un-Philtered Water

Good news! Brother D passed his baptismal interview! He's getting baptized on Saturday at 5:00. He is super ready and excited and has a great testimony. We gave him a conference edition of the Liahona. He loves it and takes it with him always. He understands everything so well and says he is very committed to leaving behind all his Word of Wisdom problems and not going back to them. I just really want his family to get baptized. Hopefully they will start listening more to us. Luckily we found him the perfect fellowshipper. They both had a ton of Word of Wisdom problems in the past, comparable jobs, they were both the first baptized in their family and they live by each other. It’s perfect.

It’s amazing how we found him. The missionaries before me found him. His niece was a member, but she moved to America. Her name was on an old list of records called AUNs (address unknown. Somehow the church in the Philippines got rid of all the records of people that the wards didn't know in the 90s. Now they decided to find them all again so Manila sent them back to us. It's a huge mess, but because of it we found him!) The missionaries before me taught him twice, and then couldn't teach him again because he was never home and they couldn't find him. Then I taught him twice with Sister Smith, and then he disappeared again. Then he really started to progress and come to church and stuff last transfer.

Sister M has been out of town, so we haven't been able to teach her. Our other investigators are doing ok.... Brother D is the star right now! haha We were so scared... we were going over the baptism interview questions with him. We asked if he had committed any serious crimes. He gave a hesitant vague answer. Then he said, "Well... I’m not sure, but I think it's pretty common for men..." then we found out that he had gotten into a couple of fistfights when he was young. Good thing that's not a crime here. We really hope his family will come to the baptism.

We had a funny experience last week. We were trying to teach some less actives members. We went to their house and they told us to come. We walked in and who was already there? The Jehovah witness missionaries….awkward.... they told us to sit down and wait until they finished. We just told them we would come back. We felt like that would be stirring up a pot of trouble if we stayed. When we were coming back we met them on the street. They were condescending to us. They gave us a magazine thing which we took and then we gave them a pamphlet but they tried to refuse it. haha, but Sister T just said, "No, this is kind of like a trade. We'll take yours and you take ours." They were so nice to us when we were there in the less active member’s house, just going on and on about how great it is that I can speak Tagalog. Then their claws came out on the street... I read their magazine. They believe in some weird stuff… just doesn't sound right. I’m glad I belong to the true church... oh yeah, and the less active they were teaching told us she was just listening to be nice. And then she came to church on Sunday! And she brought her nonmember husband. First time she's come in about 6 months. Also, the L family finally came to church!

Jehovah’s Witnesse are one of the more popular religions (Catholic is by far #1, also lots of Iglesia ni Cristo, and Baptist). Oh creepy... we were walking home the other night and heard this awful terrible chanting noise…Chanting and wailing and all sorts of creepy stuff. Where was it coming from? The Iglesia church. Apparently that’s what they do in their services.

Last week we were trying to buy load at a tindahan. [Huh? Here’s Ally’s explanation: haha. To send a text or call, you pay money and get what is called load on your phone, instead of having a phone plan. And a tindahan is a little store. People have them connected to the front of their house to earn a little income. They usually have snacks, load, soft drinks, beer, cigarettes, and things like that. There is a tindahan about every 10 feet in the Philippines. It's awful though because when less actives or investigators have a tindahan they use that as their excuse for why they can't come to church…"I can't leave the tindahan!"] We started to talk to the owner. She told us that she used to be a Mormon but then she stopped coming to church when she moved to Baguio because her husband was dying of a stroke. She also told us that she is dying of cancer. She hardly has any hair because of the chemo…so sad. She is so nice. So we taught her and are going to go back this week. She is now an active Catholic. She belongs to some Catholic senior citizen club thing and she told us that they always tell her to pray because they love her prayers (she said it was because the Mormons taught her to pray from her heart).

We had a tri-zone conference last week. I always feel so motivated after those. I wish they could be more often. Baguio zone has turned around its stats so much. We used to be dead last in mission. Then over the past 2 or 3 transfers we have improved a lot and now are #2. Our mission president basically took everyone from San Fernando and transferred them to Baguio. I’ve had the same people in my zone pretty much my whole mission.

The focus of the conference was increasing your faith. You have to have faith that Heavenly Father will help you, faith that our message is true, faith in our investigators, etc. We have been working on setting goals with faith and then working hard to achieve them. That’s how Sister T and I improved our area I think. Also, we really focused on working with members which helped a ton. Now we visit all the members in our area for about 30 minutes once a week. We have found it extremely helpful.

Transfers are July 4. I’m pretty sure I’m getting transferred. I’ll really miss the people in this area though. I hate to say it, but I think it has become my favorite area. Either that or it might be a tie with Sevilla B. When I got here this was by far my least favorite. Oh well. At least I’ll be ending with Brother D’s baptism.

I wrote all of you a letter today. It was during language study though, so I had to write it in Tagalog then I translated it into English. It was actually a very useful language learning activity! I’ll start taking more pictures. I just hate looking like a tourist. I saw this giant bald white guy taking all these pictures of jeepnies the other day…pretty hard not to laugh at him.

One of my housemates has amoebiasis. She got it from drinking unfiltered water. She will apparently start feeling better in about a week but the bacteria are always in her and she has to be very careful about what she eats now. She is pretty miserable and she hasn't worked in almost a week. It's also extremely contagious. We’re being very very careful though. We’re cleaning everything and not using anything she uses and we don't touch anything she's touched. She is the 3rd person in our zone to get it... don't worry I’m being very careful.

By the way, my face is a lot better and my hair is maybe very slightly better. I bought a face mask thing and some thickening shampoo and conditioner and a hair spa thing. Good thing I was in Baguio when this happened or I wouldn't be able to get anything. I have been eating avocados like crazy because they are in season. Delicious!

Thank you. Love you! You are the best and I appreciate everything so much. I hope you have a great week. I will take all of your health advice.

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes Phoul Things Happen

Hello!

Have you ever heard of Unification religion? It was started by some guy in Korea? One of our investigators belongs to that church and she told us her church had something like Joseph Smith too. She's all about trying to unify everyone. She tells us her church strongly encourages interracial marriage in order to eliminate racial barriers. She also has some interesting views on the Atonement. We had such a powerful lesson with her about priesthood authority and families being together forever and temples. Her husband died a couple years ago and I think she was really touched by our lesson. We thought we had finally helped her to see the difference. Then she just said, "Oh yeah, that's basically what my church believes." We about screamed! She is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and praying... hopefully she'll be able to recognize answers to her prayers.

One of our favorite members (who always works with us and is the best) has a 6-year-old son who is in the hospital. He got mumps or something then some sort of parasite and pneumonia and a fever. He’s coming home today or tomorrow. Apparently he's just really weak and can't even walk because he hasn't eaten anything. I feel bad for them...I think everything is ok though.

I kind of had a gross week. I was walking to a member’s house and all of a sudden I felt something drop on my head and arm. I looked down and to my horror, saw bird poop! And not just from a sparrow... I was walking underneath a tree with chickens in it! So I quickly flicked it off my arm and then screamed at Sister Tune to get it out of my hair. She refused... finally I found my handkerchief in my bag and she wiped it off my head. It was so much! Not just a little. I quickly threw my handkerchief away. We walked to a member’s house, I told them, and they laughed and laughed and then provided me with a bucket of water and a bar of soap. So I washed my hair in front of their house while their neighbor just stared at me. The funny thing was I had already washed my hair twice that day. I forgot to wash the conditioner out in the morning haha so had to wash it again at lunch. Then I had to wash it again when I got home to make sure all the bird poop was out…probably not good for the hair fall situation.

Sadly, the bird poop incident wasn't the grossest thing that happened this week. Sewage backed up into our toilet. I think it's because we always flush toilet paper because that is disgusting if you don't. It was just straight up brown smelly water. Good thing it didn't overflow. I tried to plunge it a bit, but to no avail. I took a break from plunging to finish getting ready for church. I looked in the mirror and saw my sad thin hair and teeth and skin and the smell of sewage wafted over to me. I just about burst into tears. I just told myself to deal with it and grow up and I was ok. Luckily our care taker guy came home and I asked him to look at our toilet. He fixed it with all these really complicated tools and then told us that he will be our dad while we're here. haha. We’re lucky to have that crazy old man.

We visited Brother D yesterday. He’s doing really well. We asked him about his drinking and he said, "No problem. I’ve just been thinking about baptism." That's good to hear! He also had just learned about missionary work earlier at stake conference and was so excited to apply it. He referred us to his best friend. He’s the best.

Our stake conference yesterday was good. The stake president emphasized missionary work which was great. We also watched a broadcast for all of the Philippines. We heard from Elder Cook and that lady in the Young Women presidency…forgot her name and that general authority from the Philippines. I was very glad he was there. Brother D made a couple comments about how all the leaders of our church were Caucasian.

I eat way more fruit and vegetables here than I do at home. I eat meat pretty rarely here... I feel like I’m basically a vegetarian.

[From one of Allyson’s housemates: “Just take a cold shower in church clothes if you are wondering what life is like here in Baguio.]

Love you! Have a great week. Thanks for everything. You’re the best!

Phastidiousness pays off!

This week, the MTC presidency from Manila came to visit our mission. They picked two apartments to inspect. Ours was one. They said our apartment was so clean that they are going to replace the pictures they use in the slideshow to show missionaries how an apartment should look! So now, all Filipino missionaries will be seeing my bedroom as a model. Haha

We have been having some major water problems in our house. We don't have water for several hours a few times a week and our apartment situation is much better than most people here. Some people haven't had water for like 2 months. I guess that happens every year in Baguio and people just kind of deal with it. Luckily, usually, when the water goes off and we really really need water, the caretaker person gives us a couple buckets. Our apartment doesn't have a water filter so we buy filtered water to drink. We always have enough filtered water on hand to drink. I hardly ever drink soda any more…Only if people give it to me. I mostly drink water sometimes juice. And I only drink filtered water.

I have a story. A couple nights ago, we heard some people yelling outside in Tagalog. They were saying, "No! Hurry and call the lawyer." "No, the lawyer won't be able to help!" all this stuff. Then we kept listening and discovered that under-cover cops were at our neighbor’s house. They were driving a big black SUV and they were wearing normal clothes. They yelled at each other for a while. (We turned off all the lights in our house and sat under the window eavesdropping). We discovered that one of them had apparently stolen a car. He claims he paid for it. But it was a super nice car and only 400,000 pesos. Then after an hour or so, actual police officers came, hand-cuffed him, and took him away in the police car. That's all I know about the situation. Sketchy! Our neighbor got arrested for stealing a car!

Our investigators are good. Sister Tune and I had another great week. We increased our number of lessons from 12-16 a week to almost 30. We have a lot more progressing investigators too. Brother D is good. Sister M is still smoking a lot…progressing slowly. She says hopefully she will be ready in August (We almost died. That is so long!).

Yesterday, I was riding on a jeepney. This lady next to me was all in my space and pushing her elbow into my stomach and basically sitting on top of me. I wasn't sitting on the seat the whole way because it was so squished and my skirt was pretty slippery and I was kind of falling asleep. Anyway, the jeep went around the corner and I fell right off the seat! Haha, it was so embarrassing!

I'm starting to get to know the members better in this ward. I really love Pacdal ward, despite the huge amounts of gossip and stuff. One of my favorite members fed us delicious food last week. She’s hilarious. I also feel bad for her because her husband is abroad in Canada and she is just raising her two kids without him. She said they always pray together over skype and on Christmas, they skype him and both eat dinner at the same time. Isn’t that the saddest thing you've ever heard? He actually might get sent home due to some weird thing where they are only allowing a certain amount of people from the Philippines or something. If that happens, they're super worried about money.

One of our less active members just broke down crying to us telling us all these really serious problems with her family and all this stuff. We tried our best to comfort her and told her she needed to meet with the bishop. It was really sad. I can't imagine having to deal with stuff like that all the time.

I have to go. Love you!

 Saying good-bye to a dear friend in San Fernando.

 

 Three missionaries from the same MTC district.

 Baguio

 

All of the jeepneys are very decorated!

 

"Phortune and glory, kid. Phortune and glory."

I can't believe it is almost summer! I always forget what month it is. It is weird for me to not really have seasons.

Sister Tune and I had a great week. This week was the highest our stats have been for at least the last 6 transfers. I don't know about before then. We have really been trying to maximize the members and it has been working. Bad news, we had to change Bro. D’s baptismal date again. June 28 now. He drank again last week. But, Brother D’s 13-year-old son did come to church with him on Sunday which was good. Brother D has now read almost the entire Book of Mormon…Stupid word of wisdom problem is the only thing holding him back.

Also, Sister M is still having a big problem with cigarettes. She doesn't seem to be making a whole lot of progress. But yesterday we had great lessons with both of them with members who had similar word of wisdom problems before they were baptized and that seemed to help a lot. I think both of them were pretty inspired.

Yesterday when we were teaching Brother D it was raining really hard. His 7 year-old son then stripped off ALL of his clothes and went outside to play in the rain. Then he came back and his mom gave him a towel. Then, he thought it was so funny, to come and stand right in front of us, then open his towel and flash us and laugh and laugh. Crazy kid!  Last week, he flat out threw a fit when I left. His parents literally had to pry him away from my legs. He was sitting on my feet refusing to let me go. Then somehow he escaped and followed us for a long time. We were getting a little worried because we were pretty far from his house. We had to give him some candy to get him to go home.

Nothing too out of the ordinary has happened this week. On Saturday, we were walking to the family in Tuding. Whenever I walk there I feel like I’m in Indiana Jones because of the incredible scenery. Sister Tune loves this story. So I was marching confidently along the path, singing the Indiana Jones theme song, waving a big banana leaf over my head. Then I came upon a giant dead rat (about the size of a medium size cat) on the trail and flipped out. Sister Tune doesn't think I’m Indiana Jones material...["Rats." Why'd it have to be "rats?"]

We have really good lessons with the family in Tuding, but they won't commit to come to church. She said she will schedule one day to come to our church. Hopefully that will be soon. She is still reading a lot and understanding everything.

Here are some more funny things about our ward... So remember the guy (counselor in the stake presidency) that kept saying "you cannot get to heaven without your bishop?" Well, he decided to do another 3rd hour combined chastisement of the ward. Here are some of the highlights: "if you say the name of Deity more than 3 times in a prayer, you are profaning!" or "if you're in the hallway during the sacrament and you don't hear the 'amen', you are not allowed to take the sacrament." and about 6 or 7 others, including a big lecture on using thee instead of you in prayers. This seems a little silly when English is everyone’s second language here.

It is absolutely ridiculous the amount of gossip and talking about people behind their back here. They call it "chismis." We just run around trying to reactivate people that were offended by a member... almost always a leader.

Gossiping is definitely a Filipino culture thing. Also, a lot of times they are very passive-aggressive. But, someone being offended in my opinion usually comes from a lack of faith. If they had stronger testimonies, it wouldn’t matter what the relief society president said to them. Man, we had a really rough lesson this week with a less active. She was basically yelling at us about how fake "plastic" our members are. She said the missionaries are always fine, but it's a different story when you come to church.

Also, we have had a ton of anti-Mormon stuff thrown in our faces recently…hard questions that we can't really answer any other way then by telling them to have faith and pray about it. There is this old man in our ward. He is 85-years-old and been a member since the 70s. He is tiny and has these glasses that magnify his eyes to 3 times their size. We noticed he hasn't been at church, so we went to visit him. He informed us that he was a little bored with our church so he has been attending Baguio Bible College. He made us look at all these papers they gave him. Straight up anti-Mormon stuff. Turns out he was offended by the guy in the guy in the stake presidency. The thing is, he still has a testimony and whatnot. So, hopefully, he’ll come around.

We've just been telling people that we're not there to prove to them that the Book of Mormon is true, but we just try and explain it, testify about it and then help them to read and pray about it so they can know for themselves.

Sister Tune and I had a creepy experience last week. We were walking home and then we both started to feel really nervous. We didn't know why. We were trying to figure out why we both felt really nervous. Then we walked underneath a street light and it just went off. Sounds stupid, but it was so scary! We sprinted home. Right when we got under another street light a little ways away, it just came on. Sounds really silly, but it was the scariest feeling ever. Everything was ok though. I don't know if something would have happened. I usually don't believe dramatic missionary stories like that, but that one actually happened to me!

I need to go. Love you very much! Have a great week!

 

Photos from Brother S's baptism in San Fernando

 

 

 

Mangoes, Mice and Phreak-outs!

I had a pretty interesting week. First of all, I’m still in Baguio in Pacdal C with Sister Tune! Hooray! Sister Ackerman is still in my zone. I saw Sister Dial last Monday and it was so happy! I love those two so much.

Yesterday, I was walking through my area. I heard this kid yelling my name and then asked me if I knew Brother Romero. I asked her if it was Bro Romero from San Fernando and she said yes. She asked me to wait and then her aunt came out. Her aunt is Brother Romero's daughter! She is his grandkid. Out of all the places in Baguio she could have lived, she lives in my area. Anyway, they invited us inside and gave me another giant bag of mangoes from his mango tree. She then gave us letters for me, Sister Ackerman and Sister Oco. He is SO active now. He hosted a family home evening at his house and over 60 people went. He wrote us a letter that was so sweet. He said that he was so sad and had depression when we first started teaching him. It was due to the two biggest trials of his life-- his son had destroyed his life because he was an alcoholic, and he found out his wife had been having an affair for the past 12 years. He said he was so depressed and distressed. He said that he loved the teaching of the gospel, especially scriptures from the Bible and Book of Mormon, and our desire to teach him and help him accept the gospel and make covenants. He loved that the focus of our teaching and of the church is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said that through the Atonement and because of what he learned from the gospel, he was able to forgive his son and his wife. He emphasized that the reason he had fears about baptism, was because he wanted to make sure that he could fully keep his covenants with God. He was worried about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the law of tithing. Finally, he felt like he was able to do it and he was ready to be baptized. Now, he is taking his covenants so seriously. He loves the gospel and he seems so happy. He said, “We all have the duty to share the gospel. We are all missionaries.” He then closed by giving me his daughter's cell phone number living in Baguio. He told me to please work on his daughter.

So, I asked his daughter if we could teach her. She was reluctant, but she said we'll see. I really really want to teach his daughter. I feel like it can't just be a coincidence that his daughter happens to live in my area. I just hope that her heart will be softened because of the change she has seen in her dad.

Brother N and Sister M got married on Saturday. Their wedding was super fun. I thought we were invited to just the reception, but it turned out to be the whole thing. It was really cute. She is cutting down her cigarettes. Hopefully she stops soon.

On last Monday night, Sister Tune and I were at our desks planning for the next day. Then we found a cockroach, so we were trying to kill it. All of the sudden, we just hear this blood curdling scream coming from downstairs. It was the most awful sound I'd ever heard. Well, our first thought was that someone had broken in and someone was getting murdered or raped. So quickly I ran back into my room and slammed the door. Then I thought, oh no, I should go help them. I'm a little worried that my first instinct was to flee, haha. So we run downstairs and Sister Jackson is just having the biggest freakout...sobbing, hyper-ventilated, the whole shebang. It's like in Parent Trap when Hallie and Annie put a lizard on Meredith times 10. Finally we calmed her down enough and she told us that she had STEPPED on a mouse. She said it crunched under her foot and then squealed and ran away. She said she did some pretty bad damage to it, so we suspected it was dying somewhere. We couldn't find it, so we forgot about it. Fast-forward to Sunday. Last night we notice this AWFUL stench coming from the closet under the stairs. It was the grossest smell ever. So, we had to carefully remove everything (which was a lot) from the closet. Finally we discovered the little decaying culprit. The dead mouse was just laying there behind my suitcase. Luckily Sister Tune is really brave so she threw it away for us and then we dumped a whole ton of bleach on the floor.

This week I got harassed by a drunken man on a jeepney for 25 minutes. Don't worry, I was always safe and everything. It was awful though. This super super drunk guy gets on the jeep and plops himself down right in front of me. He offered to pay for me, but I told him I had already paid. Then he just goes on and on about America and about how sometimes he hates Americans, but he usually loves Americans and how he loves me and all of this other stuff. Meanwhile, these two ladies who knew him were just apologizing nonstop for him, but everyone else on the jeepney was just cracking up. Then he touched my leg, so we got off the jeepney. I can definitely see why we have the word of wisdom! Look what it does to people! Also, I find it pretty alarming how many drunk people are actually members.

Did I tell you how we teach someone in Tuding (the area of elders in our ward) because the daughter is too pretty and they don't want to get distracted? Anyway, so we've been teaching them. It is pretty hard though, because it is 2 jeepneys and about an hour of travel time with the jeepneys and the hike to their house…an hour each way. So it puts a giant dent in our day, but it is worth it. The mom is really progressing. She has a ton of questions though. She’s really smart. Questions like "how could the fall of Adam and Eve be part of God's plan if they transgressed a law of God through yielding to the temptation of the devil? Are God and Satan working together?" But I think she is just inquisitive. I don't feel like she's trying to argue with us or prove us wrong. We shared some scriptures and asked her to read 2 Nephi 2. So hopefully they will start to progress more. The walk to their house is also beautiful…Giant mountains, rice terraces, it's awesome!

We also had a ward family home evening on Saturday night. We taught some games and an elder gave a workshop about missionary work. I thought it went over really well. I am really starting to love the Pacdal ward. I really love here how they have ward family home evenings on like a Saturday night. They consist of a lesson (usually about missionary work), games, and dinner. It appeals to all age groups which is great. We did games for the kids and then a church trivia thing for the youth and adults. They are low stress and everyone has a great time. I love the stress-free environment without people worrying about decorations and having everything super planned out and stuff.

Love you! Have a great week!

Yummy Guacamole with Sister Jackson

 



 

Look what one of the members made me!

Lessons and Baguio Speciality Phood

Things are good in Baguio. Sister M (the fiancé of the returning less-active member) came to church. She and Brother N are getting married on Saturday (we're invited. cowboy attire.) Hope I'm still here because transfers are on Friday. Hopefully she will be baptized in June, found out she has a big Word of Wisdom problem though. Sister S has been out of town. Brother D didn't come to church, he had to work. He is still reading though, he has read most of the Book of Mormon and is living the word of wisdom.

The L family is doing great. We used to be scared of the mom, now she loves us. Sadly they still didn't come to church. We had a very interesting lesson yesterday with a man. He is in his 60s, he refuses to speak Tagalog--only English--he's fluent. He is very active in the Catholic Church. He kept trying to argue with us, but whenever he would argue, he would just perfectly prove that we were right. He was like "oh, let's just check the meaning of prophets here in my bible." He looks up prophets "ay! one who is authorized by God. So prophets need to be authorized!" "Yes. That is the priesthood we were telling you about." He also pulled out this verse from the bible that perfectly explained the apostasy. Whenever he would pull something out, he would just smile like he'd gotten us. He also said the word "undeniably" about 80 times in our lesson.

We have a giant problem where we can teach people right on the spot while tracting but then they won't let us back. So we have like 4 actual investigators and probably 30 plus potential investigators. We just have to figure out how to turn them into investigators.

Did I tell you about Brother C? We found him one day and found out he was a former investigator. He is very serious when he's not drunk. He’s a baker. He is smart and really pays attention in the lessons. He tells us he studies the Book of Mormon every morning and prays to know about Joseph Smith. Sadly, he is ALWAYS drunk so we can never teach him. We were teaching his wife the other day and he walked in drunk so we had to stop our lesson.

Brother N and Sister M always feed us after our lessons. Last time, they were telling us they would give us this chicken stuff called pinikpikan. Then they kept joking and singing "killing me softly..." we couldn't understand what the joke was about. Anyway, then we ate this delicious chicken. It was very tasty. They then informed us that it is a Baguio specialty/tradition. They take the chicken, cut its neck, hold it upside down and gently whip it until it dies. I don't even like animals, but that should definitely be illegal.

We had zone interviews this week. There was some chastising but it was actually really helpful and hopefully our zone will improve because of it. I will just tell you a direct quote from President Balledos to one of the elders. "If you don't update the area book, you don't understand the Atonement." I'll just leave it at that...

I went to Agoo on Saturday because there was a baptism in Sister Tune's old area. It’s really hot there and it is tiny. The branch president gave us a ride in his little side-car thing attached to his motorcycle. I think it is actually designed for pigs, haha. That was pretty fun.

Today, we woke up early and went to Burnham Park and rode these awesome bikes. It is a bike with a side car. Not quite as cool as the tandem, but pretty close. Then we got breakfast at McDonalds. Delicious!

I love you! Thanks for everything. I will let you know where I am on Monday! Have a great week.

Burnham Park

San Fernando

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]