June 14, 2010

Malbalhus Ako pirmi! (I'm always sweaty)

Hello family and friends,

Its rainy outside so the internet cafe refuses to turn on the fans in here even though its still VERY INIT (HOT). Basta, life is good. This week was wonderful!

On Monday night we went and taught the Corpin and Cabia families and committed them for baptism. They said yes! It was a great lesson. I was actually really excited b/c Sister Josie was asking questions and I actually understood exactly what she was saying...like allll of what she was saying! So that was new for me. Haha! It always takes a long while for both families to gather and some of the people were not wanting to be there really, but when we got into the lesson they did too and it turned out really great. They wanted to go to church on Sunday, but the first time (and last prob) in history there was no church b/c of the CEBU TEMPLE DEDICATION!

The Philippines got there second temple! It’s in Cebu which is just the next island over (three of the elders from my MTC district are there) and so that is our temple district. Basta, Raymond came to that lesson as well. Our little recent convert Abigail is doing great and inviting her friends to church. Mona however is hiding from us so thats sad, pero we are teaching another family that lives next to her. Gingging and Eugene. Gingging said her husband went to church for years before but she doesn't know if he is baptized. She also said, “Sister I am going to come to church with you on Sunday”...um what?! We hadn't mentioned anything about it....we then had to explain there was no church b/c of the temple dedication! How random is that. Ever since I got here we could never get our investigators to church and now its alll being turned around and people we are just meeting are telling us they are going to come. Anyways, Sister Lemmon and I are excited because June 20 is going to be a great day. We are expecting that all of our investigators will be at church! It is also Sister Lemmon’s last Sunday and Father's day, right?!? (Happy Father's Day Dad! and Aaron and Andru and Luke and Josh! ) :)

Well, we had a great week of lessons and worked really hard to meet our goals of finding and contacting and getting new investigators. It was a great week and we were really blessed b/c on Saturday and Sunday we couldn't work in our area b/c we had to travel to Naval b/c on Sunday we were leaving at 5 am to get to Carigara to view the temple dedication via satellite... anyways, we were blessed this past week with a lot of oppotunities to teach and work even though we were two days short of a normal week.

OH! Update on Daniela.. we were really concerned about her leg and the faith of her family, pero we had a lot of oppotunity to visit her and we were praying for her and really doing alllll we could do for this family. WEll, Daniela was released from the hospital on Friday and home and her leg is in a cast. She still can't move at all, but the bones seem to be healing correctly now. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for little Daniela and her family! We are hoping and praying this trial with turn things around for this family that we love!

Well, the temple dedication was wonderful. We went to the 9am session and 12pm session. President Monson and President Eyring were in Cebu as well as Bishop Burton and Elder Oaks! The dedication ceromonies were awesome! I loved being able to view it. It was a really special time for all of the Philippines. Elder Oaks talked about the faith of the Filipino people and how the church has grown here since he was over the area six years ago. It was so neat! It made me so proud to know these people and to live here and be a part of this special experience.

WEll, life is great! This week is going to be quite special b/c its Sister Lemmon's last week in the field! She goes home next week and I get to accompany her to TAcloban (fun!).

Well, thank you so much for all of your prayers on my behalf and our investigators. We need it and we are so grateful for them. The languages are tough, but my attitude now is how fun it is to speak these languages. It really is and such a miracle that I can say anything at all! haha. Well, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister B.

June

Hello family and friends!

ITs june now! Summa summa summa time para sa inyo! I bet all of your kids are so excited for summer. And the family reunion!

WEll, life here is going well. It's starting to get more rainy and the storms are awesome. Reminds me of Chicago summer storms, except for the huge ocean outside my window. Basta, this week has been great. WE started our week trying to figure out my allergic reaction on my foot and then when we thought that was under control my companion fell off the curb in naval and sprained her foot and then passed out. poor thing. So we both had foot issues this week--talk about companionship unity, eh? But , we keep pluggin along! Up and around and down the mountains and hills of balaquid. SIster lemmons been a real trooper and my foot seems to be okay na.

WE had another wonderful week of lessons, a few disappointments, delicious food, funny moments, good studies, an aewsome CSP, and a great sunday!

This week members came with us to lessons more than ever before! What a tender mercy. And we are continuing to teach the Corpin/Cabia family despite persecution. We are going again tonight and are hoping to commit them to baptism, however the last two times we have gone to do that something has occurred so we couldn't . . .Basta, our wonderful investigator, mona is going to work in manila--lame. she told us on tuesday that she is receiving persecution and doesn't want to continue, however then we had a great lesson and she felt okay about everything. DApos, we tried to visit her 3x and she literally hid from us. also, lame. we are not sure about that situation. I really loved mona.

I am beginning to pick up on more words and phrases daily and not just smile awkwardly when people talk to me, so thats been better...still not where i would like to be, but little by little , its coming..

NAnay helen taught sister lemmon and i how to make pansit and escabitchi (sweet and sour fish). Yes, be excited. IT's marasa.

This week was also wonderful b/c we really got to get back into our routine of studying . Its been fun to read the scriptures this week and get a deeper understanding for them as well as relate. I think missionary life is so funny. Ridiculous things happen all the time that you just have to laugh at and keep pluggin along. I seriously find it hilarious. I also was thinking about Nephi and samuel the lamanite recently. They too had ridiculous things happen to them even when they were being completely obedient and giving their all the lord. Yes , nephi's steel bow still broke when he needed it most and yes he had to figure out another way (a wooden bow /arrow) to get food. Yes samuel the lamanite was preaching the gospel and the people wouldn't listen so he literally had to climb a wall. Seriously, every day we have our own walls to climb (not to mention he still had arrows shot at him while he was on the wall...) and sometimes we have to start from scratch like nephi. . . even when we are doing everything right. SO, its okay! NEphi did it, samuel the lamanite did it, and so did many others before us. so , we too, keep pluggin along with a smile on our face.

sidenote: i sound like such a nerd. i promise i'm not a weirdo or anything, i'm still me....

Basta, our district actually has a 'nerd ' theme. Oh mom and dad, my DL did get the milk duds. and loved them. Anyways, my DL one day was making fun of all the missinaries who were "nerds" in the gospel. Then, literally the next day, he was giving a training and talking to us about how he they had had a teaching appointment and how excited he was for these people and he just went on and on about how he loved missionary work.. and then stopped dead in his words and said, "oh my gosh, i am a nerd!" SO, now our them is "Become a nerd" in the gospel and love missionary work and be the best missionary possible b/c you only have 18 months/ 2 years...so needless to say, we bought nerd glasses and wear them often. Cool ,eh?

That was a tangent! Sorry! SO, this past saturday we had an awesome CSP! (service project). IT was at raymonds house. (he was supposed to be baptized a while ago but couldn't b/c he couldn't got to church b/c of work in the bukid. Anyways, we got the foundation down. The foundatoin is rocks (big) and dirt. This means that we hauled dirt back and forth for 3 hours up and down the mountain. BIG, heavy bags of dirt. I tried carrying two bags (one on each shoulder) but i literally got yelled at and bernard took the bag off my shoulder halfway down the path. I was ticked. Anyways, it felt good to be doing some hard labor! It was hot and hard work, but awesome as well. Umm, my shoulders are really sore, but it was a great work out. We then had an awesome lunch, they all went back to haul more dirt for 2 more hours, but sister lemmon and i had appointments.

SUNDAY: we fasted...and we had 7 INVESTIGATORS COME TO CHURCH. SEVEN! AND, RAYMOND CAME! AFter 1.5months of not coming, he came. Wow, hwat a blessing. Sister lemmon and i also bore our testimonies. 3 of the Corpin and CAbia families came which is a realllly big deal. WE go teach them tonight as well.

WEll, life is wonderful. Thank you for all of your prayers and continual support. I appreciate it so much and need it. I hope you all are doing well. I pray for you and think of you often. I am loving my missionary life here in Balaquid.

Have a great week! Sigi!

nahigugma ko sa inyo,

Sister B.

p.s.--Hello to amelia smith! Thank you so much for your letter! I just got it last friday and i will make sure to write you asap!

BEnasi Luthi--got your letters this week!! SO good to hear from you!!! Say hi to david for me! AND, also, i couldn't read your address very clearly so write it on my blog would ya so i can write you back? or contact my sisters so they can get it to me. Miss ya man!

Updated Pictures

Picture overload!!! Finally!

My batch (district) an hour before we left for the Phillipines:

My MTC Comps the night before we left...

My awesome trainer, Sister Lemmon, and me under a very large umbrella.  They use umbrellas here to shade the hot sun!    

Isn't this beautiful?  We walk past this everyday.  That's a rice field. 

I'm not drinking out of this HUGE SHELL-I'm blowing into it.  That is how the men selling fish on the street get people's attention.  It makes a really loud horn-like noise:

The ocean flooded the homes we were supposed to visit!

My favorite picture of all time.  Sister Lemmon in the peddy cab and me sitting on the railing.  This is in Naval.  Sister Jones' took this picture from her peddy cab.  :)

This is at Laline Richard's house.  A very large rocking chair, indeed.  Haha.  She is the lady that speaks English and lived in America for 20 years.

Cezom(sp??)-ward mission leader, Sis. Lemmon, Me, Elder Webb-DL, Elder Aberin

 

Me & Jenna and her beetle pet.  I am holding/eating "ice candy" or frozen pineapple juice.

  

Huge lizards that are in the trees here.  First time I saw one.  We always HEAR them, but never see them usually.  

Carlo Vesar

That is a huge caribou poop-on a stick.  We used this for our object lesson. :)

 

The lock on our gate takes forever to lock and I was getting a bit impatient.

 

This is my little friend Jenna.  She tied a beetle tot hat string and kept putting it on my bum!  It was hilarious the first 5 times...

Me and my wonderful trainer!

Sister Jones and I @ the Taiwan airport, 5 a.m.  Free massage chairs! 

Huge tree blocking the road:

So, the machete idea didn't work too well...

Me & Elder Webb (and a bunch of Fillipinos) carrying motors over the tree.

(Tree fell & blocked the road) Finally a man came with a chain saw.

Biggest pizza ever.  A pizza place in Naval.  We don't eat there anymore though, b/c one bite makes me deathly ill. 

Our feast after fasting:  Ricer, dried fish, boiled bananas, toast, fried eggs, egg in a hole.

Awkward hiking picture!  Promise I didn't touch the water!

Another awkward hiking picture...That my DL-Elder Webb.  He made sure we didn't die...

    

Dried fish...

May 25th Letter

Maayong Gabii ang akong pamilia ug mga sangkay!

Sorry this email is a day late. It's tuesday here and we are in Naval.
Yesterday instead of taking our pday we did a half pday and cleaned
and did laundry and then went out and worked so that today we could
have our district meeting and then travel to naval because tomorrow is
zone conference! My second zone conference, what?!
So in my last interview with president malit he requested that i sing
at "every zone conference" sooo... tomorrow sister lemmon and i are
singing, "Did you think to pray." WE haven't had much time to practice
unfortunately, so hopefully all goes well.

This past week has been....a bit rough, but wondeful of course. We
taught some great lessons and i had some great days with the language.
Everyone wants to know how my language is and honestly i am improving
(very) little by (very) little, and some days are better than others,
and even some lessons are better than others. But it is a good process
to go through i think. I hear that this next month i will really be
able to understand people--so who is excited for that?! I sure am...
haha.

Well, my studies were a bit disrupted this week b/c Wednesday morning
i woke up and felt a bit sick. The sickness made it so I couldn't
study and we couldn't go out in the morning. The elders came and gave
me a blessing as well. I was really hoping to feel okay by our 3pm
appointment and tried to convince sister lemmon i was fine...but she
followed the spirit and wouldn't let us go out. The people we were
supposed to visit have a 1 month old baby and she said i wouldn't want
to get the baby a bug,right...so i agreed. Well, good thing b/c i
proceeded to get worse and ended up having a 101.1 fever and couldn't
move. I was a bit delirious and couldn't eat a thing. Anyways, long
story short, the sicknesses kept me down for two days. "Flat tire for
2 days!" is what we would tell people here. Sister lemmon couldn't go
get load or get me bananas either (sister malit made me go on the BRAT
diet--bananas, rice, apples, toast) so the members were kind enough to
bring us bananas and rice porridge. But i'm alive now and still
battling a few symptoms but i think i am good to go. Thanks for all
your prayers!

Saturday we attended a the elder's baptism-- and it was really
exciting. My first baptism is this saturday--abigail! It is going to
be so wonderful. She is so smart and so wanting to do what is right.
Her grandma is her guardian b/c her dad is no where to be found and
her mom died a long time ago. Sad situation but she is so happy! I
just love her.

Raymond: This past sunday was his last time working in the bukid so he
should be back to church and on track for baptism before sister lemmon
goes home! We had two great lessons with him. He is so funny and he is
so genuine. We talked about the importance of church and we also
taught a lesson on scripture study. He got really involved with the
2000 stripling warriors story and it was really fun to teach him about
scripture study. I love that kid.

Mona: We met mona through Jay Ann. She is 21 and has twin girls who
will be two, today! She is so smart and has so many questions. I loved
teaching her this week and completely felt the gift of tongues as i
listened to her--i actually understood what she was saying; like, all
of it..! I remember pleading pretty hard earlier that morning for
specific things with this language and i definitly saw it in that
lesson. Remarkable! We also taught her the plan of salvation and she
really loved taht and had studied the pamphlet we had given her
previously. She is awesome and is excited to get baptized. She really
has studied this out and knows its true. She will get baptized after
she goes to church 4times--so in june sometime.

Mary Jane--Mary jane we also met through jay Ann. She is actually a
less active member. She came to church last week, but has a hard
situation b/c her sister in law is a pastor at the born again church
and now is talking bad about her. She didn't got to church this week
and is torn as to what to do. We visited her and shared a message on
the fly and i was able to really bear my testimony about faith and
trusting god. This lady is so wonderful. I have so much love for her.
I was testifying of prayer and the spirit was so strong. Just the
night before i had been really in need of some peace and as a prayed i
definitely felt it and had a clear vision as to what i needed to do
and my prayer was totally and completely answered. It was great to be
able to share that with her.

Yesterday, after we taught mona and mary jane was also there at the
lesson we went down the road to the tindahan. All of a sudden there
was a great commotion and a little girl had been hit by a motor! We
found out that it was Mary Jane's little girl! WE couldn't believe it
and they rushed the girl to cabucgayan (20 min away) where they waited
for the ambulance to take them to naval (1 hr away)...We don't know
the condition of her or anything b/c we had to leave today. Keep mary
jane and her family in your prayers if you can!


Gihapon, there is a family here that i just love--Nanay Helen. She is
married to an american, daddy bob. Well, her son oliver is married to
shirlene and they have two adorable babies--a 2 year old and almost 1
year old. Shirlene went to saudia arabia for two months to work for
the prince there (she had a two year contract) but came back b/c she
missed her family. We thought she had come back for good, but on
sunday we found out her employer had gotten her a roundtrip ticket and
wanted her to come back...She left yesterday. :( They had a farewell
dinner for her on sunday taht we attended. I just love her. She was
one of the few that totally and completely loved me and welcomed me
and made me feel comfortable and that i had a friend. She is gone now
and it is a really sad situation. She left her husband and her two
babies. :( and us... I guess she originally got the job to help her
mom out and to explore the world---but once she was there she
regretted leaving her family and told the prince she needed to go
home...but since she is in the contract he made her go back... Such a
strange situation. And so sad. She won't be able to go to church there
at all. :(

Anyways, we've had some great lessons and great experiences this week.
I feel guided and protected each day and I am grateful for the
opportunity to serve and live here in Balaquid and teach people
Christ's gospel. It's incredible to see people understand that they
are children of god , that there is one church on the earth and it is
led by a living prophet and taht is is the same church that christ
established!

Tomorrow is Zone conference and i am so excited. I love zone
conference and all the inspired words and challenges and speakers and
being with other missionaries and with president and sister malit.

Life is great here in the philippines. My companion is on her home
stretch here in balaquid...which is weird b/c i am just
beginning...but we are truly enjoying trucking up mountains and hills
to teach the truth!

Sidenote: i had another nightmare this week that involved me jumping
up and across the room--weird. My poor companion! Lets all pray that i
will sleep peacefully so my companion can get some sleep too...:)

WEll, thank you again for your love, support , and prayers. I need it all!

I know god lives and i know i am His daughter! I know he wants me here
in the the Phillipines TAcloban Mission and that he protects me,
guides me, and supports me every day. I am humbled and honored to be
his servent at this time.

Quickly, i wanted to mention repentence. .. Preach my gospel talks
about how repentence is an every day thing and not something to look
at negatively. What an opportunity to Repent and come unto our Savior
and our Maker EVERY single day! In the MTC they taught us that this is
why being a missionary is so incredible. We teach repentence so that
we all can become like Him and return to Him. And not only do we teach
repentence, but we live this principle DAILY. I never before have
applied this in my life like i am now--every single day. I am not
perfect--at alllllll, everyone reading this knows that! But, i can
repent every day and b/c of the atonement of jesus christ i can become
like Him. I always had the desire to be the exactly obedient
missionary and i am trying my hardest, but i think part of that is to
repent every day as well.

BAsta, I love you all. I truly hope you know this! I admire you and
miss you as well.
Love,
sister B.

p.s.
Leslie MIles--I got your letter finally! It was so wonderful to get
b/c i just think about you and all my african friends and was really
starting to wonder about if you all were still alive! THANK
YOU!!!!!!!!!! I pray for you every night! AND i got your dear elder as
well. you are the best.
MAggie Louise and BIANCS-- MTC TIME IS HERE!!!! Expect a letter from
me. URs will send it to you when she gets it. I am sooooo excited for
you! love it and live it up. I absolutely loved the mtc. You will too!
Sing in the choir as well. :) Take lots of notes, eat a lot, build
great relationships with your teachers and district, and do the
sisters only exercise class in the morning! I am praying for you and i
love you so much. God IS with you every second! LOVES

Mama Nat--I sent you an epically long letter this week! Be excited! I
miss you and love you lots.

Aaron--if you ever wanted to send me cds that would be cool--there is
one song i really love ; Garden Walls --its on the "especially for
missionaries" cd and mindy gledhill sings it. My comp has it on her
ipod but she leaves soon.... :)

Annalee-- thank you for your emails! my mission is good! I am
teaching lots of people the gospel here. And so far 5 have agreed to
get baptized. I am glad school is good. Are you excited for summer?!
How are your mom and dad? Haven't heard from them in a few weeks...
how's samuel and lauren? Love you!

Last week's letter

Maayong Hapon ang akong pamilya!

So! Sorry about all that stress with no emailing....turns out President Malit called us and he decided that since this is Sister Lemmon's last transfer she needs to be in contact weekly with her parents so that they can all plan for her homecoming/life after the mission, etc. This means that he gave sister lemmon and me special permission to travel to naval on Mondays still. SO, until June 24th i can email weekly! Also, we didn't get transferred! YEah!

So, last week's email was a bit short, but i feel like it got the point across. . . We are doing well here in balaquid and we have some pretty stellar investigators. We taught 32 lessons last week...this past week was a bit more rough with lessons...rumor has it that 'transfer' week always makes it more difficult, i'm not sure why. But we are plugging along and doing the best we can.

Tis the Season....to move to Manila for work...LAME. A few of our investigators and some of the members are leaving their homes and families to go to Manila to work. When they leave, no one is sure when they will come back. So needless to say, that puts a damper on the 'progressing' part of progressing investigator. BUT, it's been neat to teach Jay Ann and Lodylynn while we could and teaching them led us to teaching new investigators ,which has been a great tender mercy.

Last night we taught the Plan of Salvation to 13 people. We asked them if we could return on friday and they said ,"duggay na" thats a long time....so instead we suggested , 'buwas' or tomorrow and they said, 'puede!' It's always a good sign when the investigator wants you to come back the next day. They are a great family and they have a lot of questions. We also met a couple (who are actually legally married , yeah!) with a newborn baby. The husband's name is rodrique, and the wifes name is nila and their new son's name is ...nilrikson....Creative eh?( Kinda like andru and marilee=annalee.) WEll, they are awesome! They asked a lot about why their are so many interpretations of the bible and they were a bit moawod about praying b/c they had never prayed out loud before. IT was a really great lesson and the spirit was so strong. I am excited to go back to teach them.

WEll, our dear friend raymond has been working in the bukid and we have not seen him lately. Unfortunately, if he doesn't go to church this sunday he won't be able to get baptized before sister lemmon goes home. However, we will be have a baptism in two saturdays--abigail-- and then two more in a few weeks after that if we can get the sumayan family to church!

AS of late: its been so so so hot. I am eating tons of filipino food and loving it. we have great investigators and i am really starting to understand charity and love for god's children in a different way than i've experienced before--bringing souls unto christ. Missionary work is so unique; i'm not sure one can relate to it unless you've been through it. I love being here and I've really appreciated all of your support and prayers for me personally and the work here in balaquid.

I have been in the field for almost 7 weeks--a whole transfer! WHOA. Time flies! I took some time this week to reflect on this past transfer and i was able to see that i have progressed little by little. What a relief! I was a bit nervous about that b/c i never feel that i am making progress.

RAndom story: WE got locked out of our house. ....we left the keys inside and realized it the second we had locked and shut the door. IT was going ot be dark soon so we knew we had to get the keys now rather than later....but we really needed to go and teach jay ann. So we tried to maguyver (spelling?) it....and whipped out a bobby pin. Nothing. We kept trying and could not figure out what to do. BReak the door down? yeah right... So as i am trying to break in (we had just locked the bottom) i prayed and pleaded that we wouldn't break the door and that we could get in and get the key and be on our way b/c this was the last lesson before jay ann went to manila......literally THE second after i prayed, the door clicked open!! Okay, tender mercy....

prayers are answered.

Another random story:

I am a sound sleeper. I sleep soundly. I can sleep anywhere. I sleep deeply. Things don't wake me up. Turns out; it is still true here on the mission. Well, this week (wednesday i believe) at around one am this is what happened according to sister lemmon:

sister blonquist says loudly/yells not very nicely and sits up: HEY, you ARE in here!

Sister lemmon is confused thinking sister blonquist is talking to her: sister?

Sister blonquist : HEY! There's a kid in here!

(i can see out our bedroom door into the hall, sister lemmon can't...)

Poor sister lemmon is petrified and starts panicking.." NO THERE'S NOT SISTER!!!!"

Sister lemmon is so scared at this point in time.....

Sister Blonquist goes down on her elbow and responds: "WEll, thats DUMB and WIERD. " and then lays down and starts humming and is fast asleep....

Poor sister lemmon slams our bedroom door and locks it and can't sleep the rest of the night thinking' there is a kid here.'

WELL, there wasn't. I was just talking in my sleep!! Poor sister lemmon!

OH the life of a missionary....

This week I got to teach about faith a lot as we were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. IT made me really dig deep about my understanding about faith and I was able to read in the Liahona from 2009 General Conference on faith. What a humbling topic.

One thing PResident Malit mentioned in my interview has stuck with me, gihapon. He said,"your attitude will bring you to the correct altitude." I'd like to relate that to faith. Having faith, believing and trusting God and having that mindset corresponds directly to our attitude and optimism about life. That attitude will help get us to where we hope to be, where we need to be, and where the lord wants us to be--the right altitude. . .President Monson said something to the effect that , "our future is as bright as our faith." I know that through faith we will see our lives improve as we see our desires become the will of the lord. I know that through faith we can overcome trials and find joy despite the large spectrum of circumstances we find ourselves in. Faith is the first principle of the gospel of jesus christ--and I believe it is first for a reason. We need this faith as a foundation if we are to progress and move forward in any aspect. Faith leads us to action and sincere repentence gihapon and it also helps us stay steady and sure, when all around us seems to befailing, falling, or unstable. So we move forward with faith in our god, our savior , and his plan of happiness for us. We will return to him, because that is his will, if we remain faithful.

ALso, I had a great opportunity to read this quick parable about the anti-nephi-lehi's. Its a quick read ( i read it on pday for hour or two...) entitled, "Burying Our Swords." (____ hinckley wrote it) I really enjoyed it b/c Sister lemmon and I had discussed this past week alma 22. 23. 24, 25 and this book helped deepen my study about why these people buried their weapons of war and how i can relate that to my life now. I really would love my family to read it ( and who ever else reads my letters...). There are great analogies in it that i think we all can relate to. Please get a copy of it and let me know what you think: noel, urs, aaron, andru, jarrett, katie, kiera, josh, luke, marilee, kerry....etc. :)

WEll, in conclusion--this is long now! This life is the time for men to prepare to meet god. What are we doing right now to prepare to meet our maker?! What did we do today? What are our holy habits? Not just our good habits; but our holy ones?

WEll, i love you all very much. God's plan, his gospel, is all about love. So let us remember that as we deal with frustrations and difficult situations or difficult people every day. It's all about love. :)

Here are a few quotes i read daily:

"How can I fear when the same hands that created the heavens and the earth, created me?"

and...

"Sometimes we don't see the fruit of our labors; but the point is , that we labored. "

THANK you so much for your prayers, support, and love. I feel your love and support daily, and i need it, daily too.

Email me! I'll be here next week to read them. Have a great week everyone!

love,

sister b.

Mother's Day Letter

Hello Family and Friends!

Happy Late Mother's Day to all and a special shout out to my URS! AND to: Katie, Kiera, Kerry, and Marilee: the best mom's ever!

It was great to talk to you finally yesterday. So sorry it was frustrating for an hour and then we got cut off literally 10 times. A bit ridiculous, but hopefully by Christmas we will get all the kinks worked out. It was so great to hear everyone's voice and hear the little kids. I miss you all! It made me think of the awesome family reunion you have planned for this summer. That is going to be so much fun! Take pics and eat lots in my honor palihog!

Well, today we find out about transfers. I hope hope hope sister lemmon and I stay together in our little Balaquid Area. I love her and I love Balaquid! I guess you will find out in a few weeks when i can come back to the internet. It is kinda a bummer I can't email each week, but kinda fun; doing things old school over here! :)

Well, yesterday was pday (we got permission to email today everyone, no worries!) and we were pretty much under a type of house arrest...it was the huge election yesterday and so president malit requested that all missionaries only leave apartments to get food in the morning if necessary and then to be in the apt no later than 3pm and stay there. SO, sister lemmon and i had an epic time trying to talk to our families which took pretty much all of our morning. Then we cleaned our house and got some food for lunch and then we were in our house for the rest of the day doing productive things like writing letters, studying, laughing a lot, and updating our area book. IT was weird to not being able to go out, but it was okay. It was sad though b/c nanay helen invited us to learn how to make there magical banana cake yesterday night, but we couldn't go out :(. So we were a bit bummed about that, so we made banana shakes. yum.

WEll this past week has been great.
I am really excited about a few of our investigators. Jessa Mora, Jay Ann, Raymond, Lamoste, Lodylynn Lan, Elvin Cabia, Josephine Corpin.
The spirit has been really strong in our lessons this week and I can see in their eyes when they understand a concept or they are shocked by the truth. Its pretty neat. Lodylynn prayed after our MR lesson and thanked Heavenly Father for sending us to her to help her change her life. Well, that was neat! The Corpin family all listened and have been reading the book of mormon. Josephine was a bit shocked that everything she learned about baptism in the catholic faith wasn't how Jesus taught...so we are praying for her to get a confirmation from the spirit that what we taught her was truth. Elvin Cabia was a random person at the corpin home that we taught and he participated the most in the lessons and prayed too. He was awesome! Raymond still is working on sunday and hasn't been to church in quite a while. :( He is awesome though and we had some really incredible lessons with him this week. All of these investigators are awesome and I love teaching them. WE had a video showing (joseph smith story) on friday and Jay Ann came with her little baby! She came with her friend Jane who is a less active member. IT was so good that they came! Jessa is 17 years old and has a baby. We realized that she is not married to pj and can't be until she is 18 (august) so that means she can't get baptized until then. She was disappointed when we had to tell her that.

The Philippines has a lot of tough situations with living together. They consider themselves married, but almost always they are not legally married b/c it is a pretty tough thing to do here and often no one has their birth certificate , etc.

Anyways, we have to go to our transfer meeting now; sorry this was quick!

OKay, i tried to tell this story on the phone yesterday: my comp and were sitting in our kitchen during lunch and my plastic chair completely collapsed and i went down fast! You would think the plastic chair breaking situation wouldn't be a big deal; except part of it became a sword and went right into my bum! REal mature, chair. So, my skirt has a hole in it and my bum has a welt and bruise. umm, ouch.

well, this is all for now.
love,
sister b.

Tori's 5th letter

Kamusta mo!

Hello family and friends. I can't believe its May now!

This week has been eventful. Monday we were in Tacloban and had a great time. Have I mentioned that my district always makes me pray b/c seriously when I pray for others we literally see the answers almost immediately. This also happened on the way home from Tacloban...I had prayed for safety, but then I just felt likeI needed to pray again specifically that we wouldn't hit anything as we were zooming around the mountain and it was raining. RIGHT when I opened my eyes and finished my prayer a huge Caribou jumped out and we barely missed hitting it! Crazy... anyways , there are a lot of examples of the Lord answering prayers...but he seems to be allowing me to develop patience concerning my own personal prayers.....

Anyway, Monday night we stayed in Naval..actually we literally were waiting on the porch for two hours waiting for the sisters to come home...turns out they were inside the whole time, sleeping. They went to bed early cause they had had a rough day...awesome. Well, Tuesday we had interviews with President Malit and health check ups with Sister Malit! Love those people. I had a great time talking to president. He asked how my language was and if i wanted him to do the interview in bisayan (bahaha we both started laughing at that...). Seriously it was a great interview and we just laughed the whole time and I just really appreciate and love him so much.

So, remember how I told you all that I sang at Zone conference with my companion? Well, he brought that up again and thanked me for that and said, "I would like to request that you sing at every Zone conference..." ummmmmmmm, well, clearly I can't say no... so, I guess I'll be doing that. I thinkFilipinos are just impressed that I can sing soprano (sort of) cause they sing everything pretty low. WE also talked about the gift of tongues, how my district makes me pray for everything, and we also discussed positive attitude, and more. I told him i reallllllllly didn't want Sister Lemmon to be transferred, and he said," Oh! looks like you should pray for it!" bahah. HE said he couldn't promise it cause it was all up to the Lord. I know, I know, but really, it would be sweet if she stayed with me until she went home.

Health wise my blood pressure was good and I've lost 6 pounds... AND that was after spending a lot of time and money eating in Tacloban the day before--awesome!

Well, on our way home in the mountains the traffic was stopped and we realized it was because a massive tree had fallen and was blocking the entire road. So us four missionaries got out to see what could be done. Nothing, clearly, cause the tree was humongous. So hundredds of people were gathering and then all these motorcycles wanted to go over the tree so people began helping the motorcycles over. Elder Webb (my district leader) started helping too, and I wanted to , butFilipinos won't let Americans, let alone American girls, do anything here....BUT, I was successful ONE time and helped lift a motorcycleover..everyone was pointing and laughing..I'm so cool. Anyway! Finally , after much waiting, a man with a chainsaw came and was able to cut the tree lots and we were on our way.

This week we taught some great lessons! We have some new investigators that I am so excited about! The spirit was so strong when we were teaching and they were so receptive. Lessons like that keep you going for sure! But then when they punt you the next day or don't show up to church is when it gets a bit difficult....

But! Jessa is married to a very less active, but nice guy and they have a little girl. She really loved the lesson and related well to the JS story about prayer. We even got her husband to pray at the end of the lesson, so that was awesome.

Then one day we decided to go up the hill in town and find people to teach. We taught another awesome lesson to a lady there name Jay Ann. Turns out her friend is a member, but doesn't go to church b/c she is scared of her born again sister in law. Anyway, those lessons were really exciting and awesome.

We taught a lesson in English , which turns out, was really difficult. Teaching in English now is hard. The lady was super nice, but didn't want to accept any commitments. Sister Lemmon said that was the first time she has gotten completely shut down. bahaha, but we keep trucking along.

WE tried to visit some recent converts on Saturday, but the tide had come in so much there was no way to get to their house! it was all flooded. WE yelled for them and they opened the door and he said, " dagat!" (which means ocean!) yeahh... we apologized and said see you at church, right?! he said yes! ...but then, they didn't come.... weird.

Our awesome investigator Raymond turned 17 and we gave him a card and peanut butter! He couldn't believe it!

Unfortunately, he didn't come to church............:(

We taught a lot of great lessons this week, but we also got punted hard core all day long on Sunday. We walked all around our area and it was unbelievably hot. People were just sleeping or laying around b/c there is nothing you can do when its sooo hot! We were drenched in sweat , but seriously determined to get to our appointments, which, of course, were nowhere near each other, and literally up the mountain....AND, no one was home, anywhere. It was a strange Sunday. We got a work out though. We decided if we got punted for our last lesson we would go to nanay Helen's house--she is kinda like our mom here--and we got punted, so we headed to her house. WE shared a quick lesson and talked to her and she gave us chocolate cake! REAL, legit, chocolate cake! It was amazing!!!!!!!! She then gave us two large pieces to take home to eat the next day--yeahhhhhhhh, right, we went home and ate both of them immediately. :) Sometimes you just have to do that when days are rough.

OH yes, Saturday night (we got punted) so we went to our Branch President's house and we were able to really connect with him and his wife and their little boy. It was nice b/c Sister Lemmon has said its been a bit difficult to develop a great relationship, but we are making a breakthrough and I really think he likes us. I just laugh at everything that he says and everything his little boy does. I think they are awesome.

Well, my week has been great. I'm reading in 3 Nephi now and really enjoying all that I am learning. OH! Sister Lemmon and I also decided that we want to focus helping the members here understand how important it is to get their kids on missions so we taught lessons this week to members about missionary work. It was so fun and we shared our mission call experiences. One family, just had their dad return home from Manila after working there since January. IT was so great to be there and have their family be complete. You could tell how happy everyone was. He said that he is done going to Manila from now on.

Also, in primary we are teaching the kids a song to sing in sacrament forMother’s day! How cute. love them.

Well, I guess President Malit talked to our DL and said that he doesn't really want us all traveling to Naval every pday. Naval is where we get bread, groceries, and email..... So, I guess that means that we can come to Naval for support monthly and maybe in a few weeks for some supplies....but , if you don't hear from me next Monday, don' t worry I'm sure I'll still be alive, but just couldn't email.

BUT, I get to talk to you all on Mother’s day! How exciting!

Well, the church is true and life is wonderful here! Thanks for all of your prayers. I need every single one.

Much love,

Sister B

namingaw ko sa imo ( i miss you!)

nahigugma ako sa imo ( i love you)