Christmas temple tour!

me and my comp :)

 nativity pic for mahjah

First Philippines Post - She's there!

hey fam bam! 

Sorry i didn't call in Hong Kong! we were literally escorted to the next flight cuz we didn't have any time and we had to go all over the place and it was crazy. but! we made it! and then this random dude drove us to the mission home like two hours away and we arrived all gross and out of it and then they took our pictures yessssss. lolz so you'll probs get that picture. there is one of my and my trainer, sister garcia, and one of me and the mission president and his wife. then we ate dinner and had a training meeting and had interviews with president sperry and then were on our way! my trainer is american, she is from texas, but she's super cool lolz jk texas is great. i am in the philippines.... i don't actually know the name of my area, its like venuzuela or something, idk, i just follow my trainer around :) the area is considered city so its pretty crazy and we spend a lot of time sitting in a jeepney/tricycle every day to get to our appointments but its suuuper fun. we live with two other sisters who are in our same ward, but different areas. they are both filippina and both super nice. one is my trainer's trainer! and in our ward is her trainer! so we have four generations here its pretty cool, we'll take a picture sometime. our apartment is chill its two story with a living room/kitchen area on the bottom and bathroom and then two bedrooms up top. we have fans in every room so its not too hot. i still sleep with earplugs cuz its pretty loud but we live in a nice/safe area. we went jogging this morning in our neighborhood, its a cute place! our neighbors are all super nice and friendly, but pretty much everyone is here so thats no surprise.

My first night we were taking the other new elders to their area and didn't have the key so while we waiting we went streeting and i placed a book of mormon! that was tight. i could understand a lil of what they said and they must have understood me cuz they took the book and my trainer didn't have to change anything i said lolz that was encouraging! the days all kinda blend together so sorry if this is scattered (who am i kidding with that if, sorry this is scattered!) anyway before all of our lessons sister garcia asks me what part i want to teach, or i just have to bear my testimony, its super chill, she does all the hard work :) yesterday though we went to church and i was so surprised they speak sooo much english! but the bishop asked me to speak and then in our investigators class they had me give the spiritual thought, and then in relief society they asked me to share how our family does food storage.... quite the spread of vocabulary!!! it was fun though and everyone is suuuper nice and smiles and nods at me for encouragement when im struggling with a word or anything. its not nearly as bad as i thought it would be, i can understand the flow of the lessons cuz if i don't know what the investigator/less active/recent convert said, i can always understand my companion. the other day we were teaching a girl and she was like sooo whats the priesthood and why don't girls have it? and my comp looked at me and was like you want to take this one? and i was like i don't even know how to answer that in english! but i had understood the question so i was stoked so i answered it. i thought i did pretty well with that lesson but at the end the girl was like umm next time sister jones can teach in english if she wants, i'll understand it just fine lolz i told her if i teach in english i'll never learn tagalog!!

I got my first "hey joe" my very first morning waiting for a jeepney, that was funny. people say that to us all the time cuz we're americans. and the little kids follow us around and try to speak to us in english. they are sooooo cute! so we just chat with them and ask if they're joining us. like 5 people a day comment on my nose.... that's new. never has my nose been a topic of conversation but people say stuff all the time its way funny and my eyes cuz no one has blue eyes, even my trainer has brown eyes so they just stare me down and i make faces at them and they say something that i don't understand and my trainer laughs and i say salamat po. :) its a good system. 

Oh yesterday we totally had a flood!! it was so tight!! we were walking over to the church to meet our members that were coming to teach with us (ps our ward is so legit!!! every single one of our investigators came with a member that was able to stay with them and show them were to go and we have a few rm sisters that come teach with us and they're awesome!) anyway we were walking over and it was like sprinkling  then we had to wait at the church for like an hour cuz our members were late and while we were there it started pouring and by the time we left the streets were soooo flooded!! then we took a tricycle across town and it was crazy! the water was like up to our knees and all up in the bike and it died a couple times and we were just chilling in the water and then we finally made it to the appointment and we were soaking wet! and it had stopped raining really hard so we kinda just looked crazy. it was great. we taught about eternal marriage to a recent convert who is like a 16 year old girl and it was super fun. then they fed us soup and it was delish and i've had fish twice so far and i didn't die either time!!! i have liked everything i have had! but i have yet to try belut... i told my trainer i will try anything once so that's coming....im not gonna bring it up though cuz she said it tastes just like a hard boiled egg.... which i don't like..... yay!!! 

Anyway the work is great, we focus a lot on reactivation because there are so many less active. our mission motto/theme is twice in white, cuz we are working on getting our less actives to the temples which i love! tomorrow we are taking a bunch of less actives slash recent converts on a temple tour and i am sooo excited!! its gonna be way fun! and then thursday (or maybe friday i can't remember) is our christmas conference allll day so that'll be way cool too! our mission president is so nice! and so is his wife all all the senior couples! we only talked with them for a bit but then the aps were telling us about them when they took us home and they said he has magic scriptures cuz they always open up to exactly what scripture he says lolz he seems really awesome, im excited to get to know both of them better. 

hmm what else do you want to know..... we cook for ourselves a lot (every lunch and dinner and we do breakfast by ourselves) today we're going to the palanke so i can get lots of fruit :) whenever we make american food the other sisters are like ewwww its so heavy lolz its way funny. they're super funny, we have a good time. sister garcia is way awesome and patient and she never gets mad at me lolz she has only been out eight months and i am her first american companion and she was praying for one so she is stoked and im stoked cuz she's a great trainer! sometimes i use weird words i picked up at the mtc and afterwards she is like umm what're you saying, its way funny. like musmos! it means little ones but i like to use it like i would use the work munchkins in english and its super deep (old school) tagalog cuz i found it in the scriptures (3 nephi 27) so the people don't speak like that but they understand it lolz.

I am sleeping well and healthy, except a cold thing i brought with me from the mtc! we have a catholic church somewhere close so we get to wake up and go to sleep to them having mass lolz its a party. we have a pretty view from our window and im on the top bunk so i love looking out in the mornings when i wake up. we have a super early curfew cuz it gets dark early so everyday we head out of the apt around 12 after all our studies and then we have to be home by 7 which is rough cuz people work till late so we pretty much have set appointments everyweek cuz they are only available the one day.

I only have like ten bug bites, totes nbd, but kinda annoying. i don't even know when i got them... they just appeared magically one day.... sneaky mosquitoes... they should be called ninja mosques. we have a fridge and a stove top thing and a toaster oven so im having to adjust my cooking a bit and that's an adventure, but i made stirfry the other day and it was actually pretty dec! we have rice every day for lunch and dinner, its suppper yummy and then usually some stuff on top of it. my comp got a huuuuuge package from home the day i came (i got your package but no letters yet, we get them every two weeks and they apparently weren't there before i got there) with a bunch of american stuff so we have been super spoiled of late with like salsa and oreos :) we have a bucket shower!!!!! its fun, it wakes ya up in the morning! but after we work out it feels way good! im still getting used to the baby bucket as toilet paper thing... i've been using the one role of toilet paper we have.... imma have to get used to that soon so that one day when we run out i don't die..... i didn't even have jet lag when i got here! i asked my comp about calling with the phone you gave me for christmas and she said thats probs chill, just ask president sperry first. or we can skype at the bishops house... i would rather call. maybe we can skype for a second to say hi and then call while my comp skypes so it doesn't take forever at the bishops house... what do you think? idk what time it will be, we haven't gotten that far yet... my watch has two time settings on it and one is still on utah time, so i can't tell you your time no prob.

The flight was suuuuper long but i just slept most of the time. it was lame cuz the senior couple was sitting right diagonally in front of us and apparently they get to watch movies. so we were dying. but thats ok! i colored a lot. thanks for those! congrats to suzanna! that'll be great!! when does she report? is she speaking english? crazy things are happening at the mtc, let me tell ya. she'll be in for an adventure. congrats to jessie!! nick is already home for christmas? dang son. sorry, i didn't send my card, you already know that though. ummmm what else....

My feet are still kinda swollen from the plane (they were really bad until today when i shoved them in running shoes and now they're barely swollen!! apparently they just needed some tough love) other than that im good to go! its not even that hot here lolz cuz im in a skirt, win, and i don't wear any makeup, double win, and we carry handkerchiefs around all the time and wipe our faces off whenever we get sweaty (all day erryday) soooo weather, nbd. lolz a bunch of people here wear towels down their back so they don't get pasma, its great :) we say a man selling taho.... (can't remember if thats what it is called, but its the drink bro langer told us about) but my comp didn't know what it was so we didnt get any yet... next time! and we could hear a bunch of little kids singing the Christmas songs at the catholic church bro langer taught us! i was like oh hey i know this song!! (it was the jewish sounding one) and my comp was like ummm random. what are they saying? and i was like uhh idk. i sent the lyrics home! lame. oh well. little kids came to our door caroling, but the other sisters sent them away cuz we can't give them any money or whatevs. 

aight. that should be enough to stop mom from getting a hernia this week. im outie. 

im doing great, the church is true, the philippines is prettttty much straight up awesome. and an adventure all the time. love it!

peace out american scout

love sister jones! 

Sarah's on her way to the Philippines!

Sarah called me from the SLC airport tonight.  It was great to hear her voice. She said her time in the MTC was really a great experience.  She is now on her way to the Philippines via Los Angeles then Hong Kong.  I'm hoping to get a phone call from each airport.  Here is today's email:

so im leaving today. sweet. last night i slept in a random room so i wouldn't be alone in my room (cuz that's bawal) (forbidden) anywho my room was preeeeetty deppressing with mga kasama ko gone. but its all good. im almost all packed! so i get to go to the temple once more this morning and finish up packing and then kick it till 4:30!!!! (ps the random sisters i stayed with last night were so sweet! they made my bed for me and are totes adorable) also i have a bunch of pictures buuut no way to send them to you (its super weird at the MTC how you have to send them and my only way to send them was through Sister Hayden, who is now flying to Hong Kong as we speak sooo you're out of luck. 

 Sister's in Sarah's district and her teacher.

Sarah's district

Last night we had class and it was me, two elders, and my teacher bro langer. super weird. but so fun!! he taught us a bunch of Filippino Christmas Carols that the musmos sing door to door for monies (the little ones sing for money) they were way cool. they sounded kinda hebrew and they had a dance and clap with one of them that was tooootally hebrew sounding/looking. it was way fun. then we just chatted in Taglish for a couple hours about his mission and our mtc time and what to expect. i finally told him how terrified i was when he first started teaching and he was super surprised. it was cool. i got myself a lil solo sticker for today so people aren't freaked out when im walking around without my seeesters! but i don't really need it cuz im with sister breck for most of the day...... 

talk to you tonight!

-sister jones

Sarah Leaves the MTC in ONE WEEK!

ta-da! we're all stoked. everyday we have a last something (yesterday was our last morning service, today is everyone's last P-day except mine cuz i pretty much have all of tuesday next week to kick it without them.) its sobra exciting! all of our investigators are getting baptized so life is good! lolz we taught our investigator's "husband" the other day cuz he was subbing our class and after we were all like aight. that was ok. not bad. not great. you know just feeling kinda mediocre about it and then we had weekly planning and our sub teacher came in and was like umm how do you feel about your lesson today? and we told him and he was like umm you're all crazy. that lesson was one of the best i've had in the mtc. i had to keep reminding myself that i was not actually a 65 year old man in the Philippines cuz i just felt so strongly that that is how you saw me, that is who you were teaching. and then he asked us to come in and motivate the new-bies about teaching "investigators" in the mtc. i thought the whole thing was suuuper ironicly hilarious because i came into the mtc absolutely hating role-playing. i was not stoked for that at all. and then as we got started we just focused so much on the needs of our fake investigator that they became real. we pray for our investigators, we rejoice with them when they progress, we are disheartened when they don't understand us/the doctrine and we strive with all our hearts to go back and try again until they do understand. this feeling of reality has made all the difference in our role-playing. even when we role-play amongst ourselves! we assume a character of someone real. someone we really know with real problems and real concerns and real heartache and then we teach them and react as we think they react. this kinda seems trivial but! the Spirit is able to work through us as we assume these roles and involve ourselves in the eternal progression and salvation of people we know and love, even though it's from afar. so that's been a cool experience. and now i don't hate role playing! huzzah! lolz. k next. how was dad's birthday!!? did you do anything exciting? did you get my card? i crack myself up. i spent like three trips to the bookstore picking out that card and laughed allll day about it but no one else in my class thought it was that funny sooo i hope you did :) 

hey guess what, i get to talk to you in a week! sooo im done. also emails take forever soooo yeah. :)

love you!

ps we got to watch the first presidency christmas devotional for our fireside on sunday and it was great! (of course) oh! and i sat next to this random elder kid who was like oh hey i moved to ventura three weeks before i came into the mtc! suuuper random. did a hall family move into the stake? parents names Nathan and Victoria? three kids, he's the oldest? or maybe 4 kids letsbehonest i don't remember.... anyway! small world! (they lived in Newbury park right before that for a lil but they were in washington mostly)

mmk now im for reals done.

love sister jones