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]

 

 

Phun Times in the Philippines

It’s getting warmer in Baguio. We’ve had another disappointing week with no investigators at church. We had a couple random less actives, but no investigators. My companion is good and we're getting along really well. We made some goals to improve. So hopefully things will go better next week!

Anyway, our week was really slow. We had a couple good lessons with people...had a powerful lesson with the less active member who doesn't like Mormons (she even once tricked the missionaries into drinking coffee then called them hypocrites to their face). One of our investigators finally accepted a baptismal invitation (no date yet). We had a good lesson with our new investigator, but then she didn't come to church. Hopefully we can help her progress. She really wants to know the truth but she says she's always busy so she can't come to church... the usual excuses.

Last Monday, I got my haircut…just a couple inches. The Filipino men were absolutely intrigued with my eyes and hair and skin and the fact that I could speak Tagalog. Literally there were 5 guys huddled around me while I got my haircut asking me all kinds of questions. The man who cut my hair asked me where I was from, then asked me if I knew Lady Gaga or had met her, then asked me if I believed she was the Anti-Christ. Haha

I almost died last week. I am not exaggerating at all. We decided we wanted to go find where the Iglesia church is by our house. We’ve only seen the signs, but never actually seen the church. So we dart down this little path by a cliff thing. I’m confidently walking in front of my companion. All of a sudden, this GIANT black fluffy dog charges at us. It is snarling and sprinting straight towards us. It was probably more the size of a small bear than a dog. Not kidding! We’ve named it the BDB (Bear Dog Beast). Anyways, I dart behind this little wall and it just flies past me towards my companion. So I am sort of crouching behind this wall thing that there is exactly only room for one person back there because it is right by the cliff. My companion is slowly backing away and the dog is going crazy. We both went into survival mode. We had our bags off and I was ready to bash it in the head with my Book of Mormon. The dog totally had me trapped behind the wall. Sister Smith and I tried to devise a plan with our eyes. She was trying to climb up this wall thing. haha. Finally this woman came out and called it off and we had time to run away. Right when I came out from my hiding place though, it charged again. So I just yelled at it and acted like I was going to come at it and it ran away. It was probably one of the most terrifying experiences of my whole mission.

We think an Iglesia member probably saw us coming and set it on us. They hate Mormons. They apparently talk directly about us in their churches. This Iglesia girl randomly invited us to church the other day. We said no and she was just begging us, "Please!  Please! Just once! Just come and see!" yeah...I don't think so...

On Saturday, we were teaching our recent convert. Then all of her family who is LDS wanted us to stay and eat some food because it was someone's birthday. So, they load our plates up with pansit and cake. Then they pause over the dinugohan (blood dish) and say, "Oh, you Americans won't want that." For some reason, I then decided that I wanted to win these people over. I was even cracking all of my best Ilocano jokes (which are very very limited). So I say, "Of course I do! Dinugohan is delicious! Dish me up some!" So this man (his name is Toots. Awesome, right? Make sure to tell Jack) loads my plate up with blood. Soo much! Heaps! I start to eat it... it's really cold and the meat inside the blood was unidentifiable. There was for sure goat, liver, and something else that I don't know and the blood was so grainy. So I had to force myself to eat all of it. I was mixing it with my pansit and swallowing as quickly as possible. Meanwhile I was saying a prayer to help me not gag. After that we had to go proselyte to our most hilly place with all of the stairs. Thought I was going to throw up the whole time.

I know a tiny but of Ilocano…iwan ti quarta (I have no money), agkaragdag tayo (let's pray), basit lang (just a little bit). Things like that.

I just went to this really cool place right before this. It’s called Minesview. There’s an awesome view and then you can dress up in these Igorot costumes. I look awesome! They tried to just give me this dumb little flower thing to hold at Minesview. I said, "Excuse me, but could I please have the spear and shied?" much better!

Yesterday at church was ridiculous. The third hour was combined and the lesson was on the priesthood. The bishop says, "Oh, well there is this crazy group of women in Salt Lake that are demanding the priesthood.... what has the world come to..." then it turns into this giant bash of American women! All the Filipinas are like, "Oh, we know our place. Those American women are just so demanding and rude and all this stuff... meanwhile this man next to me keeps saying in my ear, "Stand up! Defend your culture! Don’t let them treat you like that!" Everyone was freaking out. Then the super strict stake presidency member (the one that makes us address the Deacon’s president as "president") is saying all this crazy stuff. Like this, "YOU CANNOT GET TO THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM WITHOUT YOUR BISHOP!" (Say that in your head with a Filipino accent. Way funnier). Then he says, "And you missionaries! I don't care how good you are! You don't have the authority to baptize without the bishop!" it was so crazy. Then one of the sisters makes this joke about how the husbands hold the keys, but the wives turn the keys. Everyone laughed at the comic relief, and then the guy just freaked out and gave us this other big lecture. I was trying not to laugh the whole time. Imagine everyone yelling at each other during church, but amp it up about 10 times, and add all of the miscommunications coming from Filipinos trying to speak in English…pretty funny stuff!

I didn't say anything. I didn't want to throw myself into that big mess!

I just got an update on my investigator in San Fernando that is getting baptized soon. His family is coming to his baptism! They are driving from Baguio to go to it. They used to hate us and not want him to get baptized. Hooray! It sounds like he's very excited for his baptism.

Some interesting people sightings:

Yesterday at church there was a man from Pocatello who graduated from IF high school who owned a business in Boise. He looks like the prospector from toy story. That was weird. I don't know why Pocatello was there. But like every other old white man in the Philippines, he was with a young gorgeous Filipina.

I have found the Filipino version of Uncle Bob. Brother O….he's older, healthy (he even runs marathons), he's a very deep thinker, and he says the same things that Uncle Bob would say. They kind of even look similar. Bad news though, the Jehovah witness missionaries have been teaching him. Someone might want to check up on Uncle Bob...

Anyway, have a great week. Thank you. Love you all too. Thanks for everything! Make sure to have family scripture study and family home evening! (Sorry... I’m such a missionary...)

Happy St. Paddy's Day Phrom the Philippines

I am so happy right now because a sweet member from San Fernando just emailed me. She told me Brother R is doing so well. His testimony is so strong. She asked him if he was going to be baptized on April 5. He said, "Of course, for Sister Mortell". Haha, he is so funny. She said he also prayed for me in his prayer and he was really sad I got transferred. He said, "What is that? We were very close and then she just got transferred." I love that sweet old man and I am so proud of him. I am so excited. She also said that he said I was the only one that helped him be desirous to be baptized. That makes me so happy! Hooray! I really wish I could be there for his baptism.

Well, one of our investigators and her family already moved back to San Fernando. We found them last night with all their stuff outside of their boarding house. We literally helped them load all of their belongings into the back of a taxi. It took less than 1 minute. So hopefully Sevilla B can teach them. After they left I just almost started to cry. I can't imagine living like that. They have a 10 year old kid and they can't even stay there until he finishes school because they have nowhere to stay. They are going to live with their family in San Fernando. I know all of them because I taught them in San Fernando.

Also, sometimes I forget I’m in a 3rd world country and that this is actually a really sad and poor place. Then things happen that just jolt me back into that reality... like all these little 5 year old beggar kids that won't leave us alone, or the man I just saw that his face and body were entirely burned and he only had slits for eyes begging for money on the street. That’s super sad.

On a more positive note, we found this awesome new investigator last night. We were trying to teach these other people, but they were hiding from us. We asked their neighbor if we could share a message with her and she said yes. We taught her the restoration and then she said a beautiful closing prayer thanking God for sending these two people to teach her even though she couldn't go to church that day. She even started to cry and just said how much our message touched her. So hopefully we'll be able to teach her a lot and help her progress!

Our other investigators are doing pretty well…progressing at their own pace. One of them didn’t come to church. One of our other investigators always reads the Book of Mormon but we couldn't teach him because his mom was in the hospital last week. We got a referral from a member. She actually seems really promising. She was busy on Sunday but she really wants to come to church. Our other investigator is good. She's 16 so we have to get permission before we extend a baptismal date though, because she's a minor.

The ward here is good. In this ward, I don't play the piano; almost everyone wears white shirts and ties. However, I definitely miss the Sevilla ward. The people in the Sevilla ward are so sincere and helpful. I just wasn't quite ready to be transferred.

We proselyted in this area last week that is straight up mansions…complete with guards. Also, every Sunday this lady that owns a chain of jewelry stores and a hotel invites us to her penthouse for lunch. Things sure are different here!

This week was also really good because we had zone conference. Elder Ardern came. He’s a general authority. I learned a ton. He talked a lot about how you are in control of your own mission, even if your companion is being disobedient. He talked about setting a good example and listening to the spirit. He said that if we do everything we can then Heavenly Father will know the intent of our hearts. I’ve really been trying to apply the things he talked about.

Random facts:

We don’t have a laundry person here. We take our clothes to a laundry shop and hand wash garments.

Mail takes longer to get here.

Yesterday we did run into this man who is the leader of this church called the Church of Baguio... they only have 130 members and they have some very strange ideas. He just kept trying to argue with us.

We randomly had to go to San Fernando last week. Sister Smith had to sign something for her visa.  They called us at 12:30 and said, "um, you need to be at the office by 3..." so we took a two hour bus ride, were there for literally 5 minutes and then came back. Now that I’ve been in Baguio, San Fernando is way hot! I stepped off the bus and the humidity just hit me.

I didn't even know it was St. Patrick’s Day until I saw some other missionaries at bowling.

 

Love you all very much.

 

[No pictures from Baguio, but here are some pictures from December in San Fernando.]

 

 [Every Christmas, each missionary makes a photo of 3 words that have meaning to them. This is Ally's "Three Word" poster.]