More Phoul Things and Typhoons

Well, let me just start off by telling you that the worst experience of my entire mission happened this week (ok, that's a slight exaggeration). But it was pretty bad. We had just finished an investigator lesson. We had taught the wife 2 or 3 times and it was our first time teaching the husband. All through the lesson, their brother-in-law or something kept walking back and forth holding a giant rooster in his hands. It was the kind they use for cock fighting. Pretty common, I’m used to people holding their roosters and taking them everywhere. No big deal. Then right when the husband said the closing prayer, the rooster leaps onto my upper back! It latches it huge talons into my back and starts to flap around and freak out. It was flapping all over my hair and on my head! I slid out of my chair onto the ground in an effort to get away from the huge bird. Then the guy half-dove over the chair and finally was able to catch the rooster! My hair was all tangled from the flapping of its giant wings. Everyone thought that was pretty funny. They all just laughed. Luckily I laughed too... I brushed it off pretty well, but as soon as we got home I ripped off my shirt and right after nightly planning I washed my hair very, very thoroughly. Sister Smith just laughed and said that could only happen to me because of my hatred of birds.

So far in the Philippines a rooster has attacked me, a chicken has pooped on my head, several children have tinkled on my leg, this morning we found lizard poop in our rice, I sweep up the rat poop upstairs almost every day and every day I go back and there’s more... ok, I better start a new topic now...

Good news! Sister A (the lady we found tracting in Baguio) passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized on Saturday!

October 4 is still the day Sister J (age 32) and her 11 year-old son will be baptized. Sister J’s husband is a returned less active brother. We are just making sure everything is set and they will have their baptismal interview on Saturday. We still have some stuff we need to teach them. They recently changed it so now we have to teach lesson 5 out of Preach My Gospel before someone can get baptized too. They are doing great though. It’s kind of hard to make sure that the 11 year-old is ready. We have to teach things pretty simply.

There was another typhoon... we missed quite a bit of proselyting time on Friday and Saturday. The zone leaders made everyone go home. It was very boring just sitting there at the apartment. This typhoon wasn't nearly as bad as the last one though. As soon as we were allowed to get out we ran around and taught lessons like crazy while the weather lasted.

Once again Sacrament meeting attendance took a huge hit because of the storm. People refuse to leave their house when it's raining. Also, I feel very sad because I feel like everyone has been having all these problems lately. The other sisters in our ward have investigators who were kicked out of their house and are now living under a bridge. They have 8 kids. They also have investigators that had to stop all their kids’ education because they can't afford transportation to the school. I just feel so sad for them. People in our area have been having lots of problems too. A lot of people’s houses flooded pretty badly... the water was probably as tall as Maddy [5’2”].

Our apartment is pretty elevated so it was fine. Although the other sisters’ apartment next door had their desks and beds soaked from rain coming in somehow through the windows and like seeping through the ceiling and walls.

One of our other investigators that used to always be drunk is doing well. Too bad she didn't come to church. We taught her the Word of Wisdom. She just readily accepted it and committed to live it. She hasn't drunk in almost a month, but she smokes. But she's already cut it from 2 packs a day to 5 sticks... so hopefully we'll get that figured out. I was about to extend a baptismal date to her and then a thought popped into my head in the lesson that I should make sure she isn't a special case... turns out she and her "husband" aren't married. Too bad. So we can't extend a baptismal date until they decide to get married... but she has been reading like crazy and she is doing great.

There are lots of problems before people get baptized... and alcohol and cigarettes are extremely popular in The Philippines, as is living with people before marriage.

I don't like this. Right now people are waiting for computers and there are all these teenagers looking at my screen hovering around waiting for me to be finished.

Also, Brother Romero still writes me all the time. He wrote this poem about his conversion and stuff. Very sweet.

Love you! I’m out of time. Have a great week.

 

 

 

[More Photos from Baguio]

 

Things are Phine after Typhoon Luis

Hello family! I missed e-mailing you yesterday. Yes, power was out for a long time because of the storm and internet didn't start working in Agoo until this morning. So we are allowed to email you today. We were hoping President would e-mail our parents and say we will e-mail tomorrow, but apparently not. We thought maybe all of our parents would think we were killed by the typhoon haha.

Anyway, on Sunday there was a big storm. We had church with no power. Dark room, really hot, and nobody could hear because there wasn't a microphone and rain was pouring down. But it was ok. We only had 5 investigators come to church on Sunday. Church attendance was about cut in half because of the storm. Filipinos also have this weird thing where they refuse to do anything outside if it's raining. They don't want to get sick. I don't really understand that.

Then we went out to work and right when we were about to go to our first appointment the zone leaders texted and said go home immediately... you know how when it rains it seems like someone is sprinkling water from the sky or even a watering pot? This was just like someone dumped out a huge bucket of water. It was raining so hard and there was lots of wind. When we went outside on Monday morning, it kind of felt like when Kolipoki and the gang go outside after the big storm and everything is ruined... except of course much less dramatic. There are lots of trees down and some people’s houses were damaged, but everything is good. Yesterday we went out for p-day. Haha, missionaries were the only people outside. It was like this creepy ghost town.

Everything is fine here... we hung out at the beach for a couple hours yesterday…that was fun. Well, first we went to this part of the beach that was by all these houses. It’s kind of like a little shanty town sort of thing on the beach. We had to walk through the houses in flood water almost to our knee to get there... so the beach was pretty dirty…a lot of trash and the ocean was a little brown because of the storm. But then we walked up the beach a bit and it was really pretty. We had a great time just relaxing and watching the waves and eating rambutan (our favorite fruit).

The conference in Baguio was good. I didn’t have time to go to the store, but we did stop and get a hamburger so that was delicious and Sister Jackson is going to buy me some peanut butter and jam and send it to me, so everything will be ok. It was really good to see Sister Tune and Sister Dial. I miss Sister Tune. She was such a great companion. I was also pretty sad, because I realized that this could possibly be the last time I ever see her... she goes home in November. [Sister Tune is from Kiribati.] Also, good news from Sister Tune! Remember Alicia? We found her through tracting? She's getting baptized in 2 weeks! Hooray.

Let me tell you a little bit about our investigators. The H family is doing great. J and D are on track for baptism. They are so sweet. J has been reading like 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon a day and she said she usually has to repeat it because she sometimes doesn't understand it the first time. I am very excited for October 4. We’re teaching them the Law of Chastity later today. I’m not looking forward to teaching that to an 11 year-old boy. Oh well. Also, do you know about our other investigator with a baptism date? I can't remember what I told you about her, but we found out some more of her story. So she can't read, because she never went to school because she was abandoned by her parents and then adopted and then the adoptive parents were horrible people. Then they sold her to a prostitution club thing but she somehow escaped. So that's crazy. I can't believe the problems here. I feel really bad for her. She and her live-in partner are both going to be baptized but they need to get married first. Sadly marriage is really expensive here, so they still have to earn enough money to get married. Their baptismal date is up in the air right now. We are going to re-extend it this week. Brother M is set to be baptized October 25, and Sister J and Brother D are set for October 4.  

Sister Glori and I are getting along well. She did get a little bit mad at me yesterday though. I had a couple vegetables in the fridge that I had forgotten to eat, and they were bad so I threw them away (one cucumber and one large carrot). She told me that people here are starving and I’m just letting food go to waste. That’s kind of sad. She told me this story about how when she was little, like age 10, she had to work so that her family could have food. She would make coconut juice and go and sell it at cock-fighting events so that her family could have food that day.

I also had exchanges in Bauang on Wednesday with Sister Tanner. This is now the 3rd time I’ve been on exchanges with her. It was good. I think I like Agoo better than Bauang though. While I was on exchanges, I was riding on the back of the trike. The trike driver was just zipping along and then bam! He ran over a dog. He didn't even slow down. No mercy. I yelled, and I could hear someone screaming. I thought it was Sister Tanner at first, but then I realized it was the dog. Meanwhile, Sister Tanner was on the inside of the trike and the window was blocked so she didn't know what happened. She was freaking out because she thought it was a person.

Also, it's really funny because in San Fernando there is a limit on the number of people on a trike. It’s usually 3 or 4 people. In Agoo there's no limit. So sometimes there are 5 inside the side car, 2 on the back plus the driver and two standing on the back of the trike, one standing on the other side of the trike and a few times I’ve even seen people on top. Then the trike has to go so slow because it is so weighed down.

Things are going well here in Agoo. Going back to Baguio made me miss it a little bit though

 

I'm about out of time. It is time for me to go to district meeting. Love you! Have a great week! I’m glad I got to email you.

 

 [Ally on a trike--They apparently can hold many people.]

 

 

[Ally and Alicia (She's getting baptized in 2 weeks.)]

 

 

 [Pictures from Baguio]

 

 

No news Phrom the Philippines

[Editor's Note: We did not receive an email Sunday evening. Typhoon Luis made landfall on the northern part of the island of Luzon. We haven't heard anything from Allyson's mission, but two of the neighboring missions have reported that the storm was intense and there have been flooding and power outages from the heavy rain and strong winds. They expect to receive rain through Monday morning as Typhoon Luis moves out to sea and makes its way toward southern China. They also said to not worry if we do not receive an email from our missionary at the time we were expecting it.]

Goats and Phrogs

I am 100% fine now. Thanks for asking. One of the sisters in the other apartment might have dengue though... hopefully not. Sister G has been asking me to make mashed potatoes for her. I made some. They were pretty delicious.

I’m going to Baguio on Friday! We have a zone conference there. There’s a big mall there where they have all the food. Hopefully, we’ll have time to go there.

Since I’ve been in Agoo, I feel like I have been having culture shock all over again…especially since my companion isn't a foreigner. It’s very strange. This morning she asked me if I’ve ever been to Disneyland. Then she told me she really wants go there, but then she said it's possible only in her dreams. I just about cried. So sad! I also found out that only a couple years ago they got a concrete house. Before that it was bamboo.

Our investigators are doing ok. Right now our little golden stars are the H family. Brother R is less active, but he is coming back to church. His wife and 11 year-old son are going to be baptized on October 4. They are just such a cute happy family and I love them. The gospel is starting to make a good difference in their lives. I’m excited for their baptisms. We have 3 other investigators with a baptismal date. They have all sorts of problems that we are trying to work out. We just really don't know what to do with them. Our 20 year-old investigator has come to church 3 or 4 times now. He wants to be baptized. His baptism date is on October 25. We are still having some major problems though because he doesn't understand authority/priesthood/apostasy and stuff like that. So he wants to keep going to the Catholic Church even after he is baptized. So... we're working on that haha. He just makes everything very difficult for himself. He is very smart, but he just keeps confusing himself.

Our other investigator is always drunk and she has a lot of family problems and whatnot. She is drunk all the time. One time she came to church drunk and caused a whole big scene before I got here. But, we have now taught her twice when she isn't drunk. She hasn't been drinking that much lately. She is very smart and attentive in lessons. She has been really reading the Book of Mormon and she wants to be baptized. We had a great lesson with her the first time we taught her. The spirit was really strong and we just helped her understand that Heavenly Father loves her and understands her problems and talked about the difference the gospel can make in her life. It was great. We had been planning on teaching our other investigator that lives in her house that night. We were really praying that we would have the spirit and that we would be able to help our investigator, but he wasn't home and she was there, so we taught her instead. It turns out that she probably needed a lesson right then more than the investigator we were planning to teach that night.

I have noticed some really good things about this branch. It is much smaller than Pacdal ward, but I think it is great here. The branch president is very involved in things and so is the ward mission leader. The members love us and the members and missionaries are much more united. We have had a few service projects which is great. On Saturday we dug a canal for some less-active members and cleaned out their current canal. It was kind of gross, but it felt good to do some actual work. This week they have also been having free vaccinations for kids under age 6 in all the barangays. We helped with that. Our job was to hold the kid down while they put the shot in. That was pretty fun, except there were way too many helpers so it also involved a lot of sitting around. Elder R and I were laughing because we hardly got to do any work because there was so many people, but in three hours we also received 3 soft drinks, several cookies/crackers/treats, and a full on meal of grilled fish and these weird shrimp-like things that people eat. (The shrimp things are still alive and they are still wiggling. They just put vinegar on them and eat them. I didn’t try them.) Filipinos really are so hospitable.

Here's another funny little thing. The other day I was riding on the outside of a trike. My umbrella is the long stick kind. My umbrella was sticking out a little. All of a sudden I heard a thud. I looked back and realized that my umbrella had hit a goat…and it was pretty hard. Anyway, this goat was right by this irrigation canal thing that is mostly just stagnant water because it gets stuck in this one place and everyone throws their trash there. So it's like this black goop stuff full of trash. A couple hours later, we drove by again. I saw that the goat had somehow fallen into the canal thing and was trying to get out. It was just looking back and forth all confused and trying helplessly to get out. (My description makes this sound really sad, but it was actually really comical). It was just going baaah baahhh and looking around haha. Also, there was a man there just watching it and kind of laughing. Weird!

Don't worry though. When we drove by that spot again it was gone. I think it's too shallow, so I don't think it drowned. But I hope my thud from the umbrella didn't weaken the goat and cause it to fall into the canal!

Here’s a quick summary of my umbrellas on my mission. I used the missionary mall umbrella for about 3 transfers. Then I hated carrying it because it was too heavy and too big and couldn't fit through small spaces. So I bought a small one. I left it at an investigators house. I bought another one and after a while, I left it on a taxi. Then this all happened in one week-- bought one and it broke from the wind, bought another one in the same day and it got bent because I accidently stepped on it. So, I went back to the missionary mall one and then it finally just wore out and broke. It couldn't close anymore. Then, I used Sister T’s and then it got a leak in it. Then, I bought this purple one that is like a cane. It has now held up for about 5 weeks! Hooray!

Also, this was awful. This morning I was cleaning the kitchen and then a container of something fell over and knocked a glass container of ketchup and a glass container of fish sauce onto the ground. Fish sauce smells awful. Glass broke everywhere and the kitchen and I were covered in fish sauce and ketchup. We cleaned it up the best we could, but now our apartment smells a bit fishy haha. Also, yesterday morning I woke up and found a frog by my bed. What on earth? How did a frog get into my apartment? Also, we found two giant spiders in our apartment. The kind that are as big as my hand (I’m not exaggerating. I took a picture so you can see.) Sister S has a big fear of spiders. So, I captured one in a Tupperware container and gave it to her and told her I made some mashed potatoes for her. She opened it and freaked out and screamed and ran upstairs. It was hilarious. My companion got it on video.

So far, it hardly rains in Agoo…maybe only every 3 days or something and even then it's not that hard. In Baguio we were soaking wet every single day during rainy season.

 

My time is up. Have a great week! Love you!
 

 Sister Mortell and Sister Tune

 

Showing off my $1 Ray Bans

 

 Sister Mortell and Sister Dial

Pheeling much better!

This week was good. We got a lot of work done and hopefully made some progress with some of our investigators. On Wednesday, I got really sick…fever, stomach problems, body aches, etc... We went out to work in the morning and I almost died. It was awful. Then I went home and laid on my bed for the entire day. It was absolutely horrible. If I even slightly elevated my head, I felt like I was going to throw up. Then the next day I was kind of better, although I still had stomach issues a lot and felt pretty bad. But we went and worked and that's how Thursday and Friday were. Then I still had stomach problems on Saturday, and people started to tell me that I had amoebiasis. They’re all like "Yes! Those are the symptoms." So to be safe, I went to the hospital. Things you should never ever do-- go to a hospital in a 3rd world country. It was disgusting and terrifying. Private hospitals here aren't that bad, but in Agoo there are only public ones... the chairs in the "waiting room" were like seats taken out of a minivan. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my mission... I had to give a stool test. Awful! And the women’s restroom was broken so I had to go in the men’s and the urinals reeked and no soap, no toilet paper, and had to flush it with a bucket. It was super dirty. Then they analyzed everything and discovered... good news! I don't have any parasites! Hooray! That was a big relief. They don't know what the cause was, but they gave me some medicine to stop it and it's gone now. I’m totally fine right now. But it's probably good we went there because they discovered I was dehydrated so I had to drink all this nasty stuff to get me hydrated again. They wanted to admit me, but I wasn't about to let that happen haha. But I’m hydrated now and I don't have parasites so life is great!

Don’t worry mom, I’m being safe and healthy. I am very diligent about my vitamins.

[Editor’s Note: We were emailing back and forth with Allyson and after we read about her illness, this was what Tom wrote to her: “I just forgot about this until now. When I was saying my prayers one morning early this week, (I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday) I had this distinct impression that you were struggling with something that was very difficult. I didn't know what it was, but I knew you were going through something difficult. I prayed fervently that the Lord would help you through it. I felt a sense of peace and then forgot all about it.

Now that I think about it, I'm glad The Lord gave me the chance to exercise some extra faith on your behalf.” Allyson responded with: “Dad, that's a really cool experience. Thanks for your prayers and faith! Turns out I'm ok now. I'm glad Heavenly Father let you exercise your faith for me.”]

Our investigators are doing ok. Missionary work…same old same old. Two of our investigators with baptismal dates have all sorts of concerns. They are just a mess, but they have really strong testimonies and really want to be baptized so we are working on that. The H family is doing great. We have another investigator that is really progressing. He’s been to church 3 times now and is doing well. He is only 20, but we got permission from president to extend a baptismal date. We’ll do that this week. It’s a little hard though, because he struggles in Tagalog. But luckily he understands Tagalog really well; he's just a little slow at speaking it. So we're going to bring an Ilocano speaker with us next time.

We also got this awesome new investigator yesterday. Earlier this week, Sister Glori and I were taking a picture in a rice field. It was very pretty there. Then we both slipped off the little path thing into the rice field. That was embarrassing. So our feet and legs were really muddy. So we went and knocked on this door and asked if we could use their water pump. The girl there was very nice and we washed our feet and she said we could come back and teach her. We taught her yesterday. She is only like 17 though, so that's a problem, but she lives there and helps her older sister who is deaf. They do sign language. Her dad lives there too and her mom is working abroad. When we got there she told us that she was confused because she is being taught by Jehovah’s Witness and she doesn't know what to do or what the truth is. She really liked our message though. We had a great powerful lesson with her and I am excited to teach her again!

I’m missing Baguio just a little bit right now... last week I tried to look for some jam to buy. I couldn't find any. Guess I’ll be saying bye to jam, honey, mustard, my favorite hot sauce, and basically every food that isn't Filipino. Welcome to Agoo.

We have a zone conference in Baguio and Sister Smith and I are trying to figure out how to sneak away to the grocery store and get everything. haha.

There are so many missionaries here. In Baguio, probably about 5 times a week we would see missionaries from either Jehovah Witness, Iglesia, or Baptist. We just awkwardly greet each other, "Good afternoon."

You're the best. My time is up. I love you all very much. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for everything.

 

Last P-day in Baguio. [Thanks for the Pictures, Sister Jackson]

 

 

 



 

 

 

Phootsteps in the Attic

Everything is pretty good here... same old missionary life.

None of our Investigators with Baptism Dates came to church yesterday. That was kind of rough. Two of them were out of town and we don't know what happened to the others. Our ward choir performance went well yesterday (I was the pianist) haha. Choir practice was so funny. One of our choir members is quite the character. She sang so loud and proud and way out of tune. She was also like an octave higher than everyone else. There were about 8 women from the Relief Society and 6 missionaries in the choir. Also, yesterday we had branch conference and all these people from the district came to evaluate it. They asked us to attend the evaluation with them... I thought it was pretty harsh…the young women got laid into for not starting on time, no young woman conducting, not using personal progress enough, etc. I felt a little bad for them. Also, we were at the church from 12:30-7:30 yesterday. At least we were able to get some proselyting done in the morning.

 

My Sunday school lesson was fine. We had 2 investigators at church--both boys about 20 years old... one of them is actually really interested, only problem is that he has a hard time with Tagalog and neither of us know Ilocano. There is so much Ilocano here. Turns out throughout my whole mission there is at least a little bit of a language barrier. As soon as I get with a Filipina we go to a place that is mostly Ilocano. Guess I better start learning Ilocano!

My companion is from Cavite. They just speak Tagalog there. Only Northern Luzon speaks Ilocano. It’s good to be with a native Tagalog speaker though. Sometimes the missionaries from Visayas or Mindanao don't speak very good Tagalog because it's their 2nd language.

Here's a good story. Last night my companion was in the bathroom while I was updating the area book. All of a sudden, I hear so much movement upstairs. It sounds like chairs and furniture moving around and footsteps. It was so loud. My first thought is that there is a man upstairs. So I bang on the bathroom door and make my companion open the door, then she hears the noise too and we both freak out and run to the sisters next door. She then says "Oh no! The ghost is back!" She and the other sisters start telling me about how the house is haunted because someone died there a few years ago. We faced our fears and went back and checked upstairs. Then we could hear the noise again. It was coming from the ceiling of the upstairs. It sounded like people walking around. I became convinced there was someone living in our attic, but then I started to believe the ghost story. Then we started to hear it again. It happened a lot of times. Then this morning, we decided to open the attic and see for ourselves. I open the attic thing and out falls tons of.... RAT POOP! So that's that. Turns out it's not people, not a ghost, but several giant rats. That’s cool...

I can't tell you how many stories I have heard of missionary apartments being haunted. Also, we are in the Philippines and there are all sorts of believing in stuff like that and witch craft and whatnot. Also, I have heard about 100 stories of missionaries being in danger and then they look back and there are 3 American men behind them. Yes, the 3 Nephites. Haha Missionaries get carried away sometimes. But, I am telling you. I legitimately think the apartment in Baguio was haunted. I don’t think the apartment in Baguio had rats. It was haunted. How could a rat grab my leg? Or put a cell phone charger around someone’s neck in the middle of the night? I didn't believe anything about any of this until it happened to me... also; President Balledos told us it is real.

He said Satan has spirits on the earth that are part of the1/3 who rebelled and they sometimes do things. He said it's real, but when you're at home, pretend it isn't real and "don't humor it" and it will go away. I’ll do some research.

 

By the way, one of our less active members is named "Bonjovi." He also happens to love Bon Jovi the band. Have a great week!

 

 

With Brother Romero's daughter and granddaughter

 

Attending the "Western" wedding of our investigator

 

 

 

Pharewell to Baguio

Guess where I am? Agoo [pronounced A-go-oh].

I really like my companion…Sister Glori, from Cavite. That’s right, first Filipina companion in a long time. She’s really funny and talented and awesome. I’m pretty sure I’ve learned as much Tagalog in the past 4 days as I did all of last transfer... she doesn't really speak English so we speak straight Tagalog. There are 7 girls in her family…no boys. She is 30 years old and she spent the last two years working abroad in a factory in Japan to support her family. She just finished her training. She was trained in Agoo. So I’m her follow-up trainer. I am assigned in Agoo branch 1. It is very very different from Baguio. I’ve been having some minor culture shock.

We went roller skating last p-day in Baguio. It was awesome! Most fun 30 minute I’ve had in a long time. I was skating along very confidently, and then I biffed it. I tore the knee of my jeans and scraped my knee. haha, people keep asking me what happened to it... embarrassing. I had a great few last days in Baguio. It was really sad saying goodbye to everyone. Here’s another shocking thing. When I got to Pacdal ward [Baguio], we probably had 2 lessons a day. When I left it, we probably had 5 or 6 lessons a day. On Friday, we had 10 lessons in Agoo! So weird! People are very nice here and they just let us teach them. It’s hard though because a lot of them don't have money to get to church.

I actually just got back from Baguio. We can go to Baguio if we get permission. My companion wanted to come to Baguio and buy some things. It takes 1.5 hrs to go up to Baguio and 45 minutes to go down.  I just got off the bus.

My branch seems good. I’ve already been snatched up to be the pianist, and I have to pick the song for the choir to sing next week at ward conference and help them practice it and accompany them, and I’m teaching Sunday school next week. The members seem really nice. They have attendance of about 90. There are 6 missionaries…2 sets of sisters and 1 set of elders. We have 4 investigators with baptismal dates from 2 part member families.

It’s only my companion and me in our apartment. But next to us in the other apartment there are 4 sisters, including Sister Smith. So we can go over there whenever we want, so that's nice. It’s also the perfect set up though because there are only 2 to a bathroom. This morning we woke up and jogged to the market. Some more culture shock! Every single part of the pig... snout, all kinds of organs, ears... and even dog is available at the market! Dogs just hanging upside down by their feet! I was pretty surprised. Agoo is beautiful though…lots of rice fields. Agoo is a very cute town…not even a McDonalds. You know some of those tiny towns we drive through to go to Island Park? It’s maybe a little bigger than one of those. I think it's very charming though. I really love the area.

Also, it is sooo hot in Agoo! I got really used to the nice weather up in Baguio. Baguio is just a smaller slightly grosser version of America... Agoo is like real deal Philippines.

It was so good to ride on a trike again and to see a rice field and caribou. I’m very happy here. So far it's great. Also, good thing I got transferred out of my last apartment! Weird stuff was starting to happen. I’m usually very skeptical of things like this, but there was definitely some sort of ghost or something from Satan in that apartment. Scary! Luckily I’m not there anymore haha.

I am close to the ocean, but it's the other sisters’ area. Too bad! We have a shower head and stuff. Just imagine the powder room. Now stick a drain in the floor and a shower head on the wall and that's the bathroom haha. I spent the morning cleaning lizard poop off the walls. The water smells AWFUL here. I come out of the shower and feel dirtier then when I got in. It’s ok though. Still happy!

On the way to transfer meeting, we were happy because the Baguio jeepney broke down. So the la Trinidad jeep picked us up and all three of us (Dial, Ackerman and Mortell) rode down together. I also got to see Kasan and Brother Romero in San Fernando. That was very happy. Brother Romero is extremely active and works with the elders almost every day. He’s awesome. It was very happy.

We very rarely got referrals. But lessons are very effective if members are present. They are easier to identify with the people and whatnot. Also fellowshipping investigators at chuch is very important.

I'm out of time! Love you! Have a great week!

[Here’s a cute video of Sister Glori [Allyson's new companion] opening her mission call. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXyqj4LQSQg]