New house sister and a strange superstition

This week was pretty chill. sister garcia and i got our matching shirts with random tagalog phrases on them that we found out after don't mean what we thought they meant lolz. alas, now it's just an inside joke :) 
We went to transfer meeting cuz we were a threesome for a day cuz sister drio died and it was pretty exciting. they're expanding our mission hardcore. right now we have 30 sisters, they're upping that to 50 and we have 170 total and that's going up to 210. so pretty much everyone will train. a lot. which is awesome! 

They're hitting hard on obedience alllll the time cuz they need to be able to trust us to train the newbies or else our mission will just expand in disobedience slash be super ineffective even though it will get bigger. so we're kinda feeling the pressure from president but its all good!

This transfer is 7 weeks instead of six to adjust for the changes in the mtc stay so everyone got 6 days added to their mission. which means 13 weeks with sister garcia!! lolz we're having way too much fun, it's awesome. and we're both sooo excited for this month! we have 5 baptisms set for February and they're all looking good. like they're totally gonna happen! its way excitng!

Apparently we worked our ward mission leader too hard, he called us yesterday to inform us he is "resigning" slash asking bishop to be released. I didn't know you could resign from callings. anyway that just means that we are totes on our own for planning baptisms and stuff, which isn't a huge difference. now we just have to print the programs ourselves. and there is a member baptism this week for a family we've been working with so we're pretty much in charge of that too. and we get to speak!! yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy! joke lang, we're excited. 

Temple tour is this saturday! we're taking our recent convert, a couple investigators, and some of their member friends, it should be awesome. and then that night is the member baptism and then there is a huge birthday party for a lola in the ward, aka, we get free dinner :) and friday is follow up training with president sperry and all my batch mates! it should be a really great week! this week we had all five of our feb bap date investigators at church so we're super stoked. and a less active we randomly visited on sat night that sister garcia has never seen at church (she's been here like 5 months) came to church!! sister b__g. im pretty sure she doesn't come cuz her name is cray cray. joke lang, we were sooo surprised to see her there!! 

Story time. this happened forever ago but i always forget to tell you kids about it. like my first sat here, we went to visit a sister (who is getting baptized this month) and her sister was there with her lil baby and sister garcia at the beginning was like oohhh your baby is so cute!! you know, the usual interaction with babies that are wicked cute but we can't hold. nbd. then we taught the lesson, didn't think anything of it. then as we were getting ready to leave the sister was like umm you can't leave. and we were like umm ok bye!! and she was like no for reals. you can't leave cuz you told my baby it was cute. so now you have to spit on its tummy or else it will get sick. sister garcia was like ummmmmm what?? and i had absolutely no idea what was going on cuz it was my third day and i didn't know the word for saliva (i know i know, what was i doing in the mtc that i didn't learn the word for saliva??) anyway they wouldn't let us leave so sister garcia goes over and sticks her finger in her mouth to get some spitty spit and rubs it on the baby's chen (tummy) and she's like uhh aight peace. and they're like nope, sister jones too. and im like whaa i didn't even talk to your baby, you want me to do whaat? so i still don't know what im supposed to be doing so i just kissed my finger and touched the baby's chen and peaced outta there. 

so most random superstition ever. we talked to some members about it and they were like umm that's weird. lolz. then!! we were at a member's house and sister garcia told the neighbor's baby it was cute!!! and the next day we get a text from the member at sabi niya sisters, you need to come over to our house right now. its an emergency. we were like uhh its almost curfew and we're all the way across town! what's wrong! and sabi niya, the baby you talked to yesterday won't stop crying, you need to come spit on its chen. right now. that's the only way it will stop crying. we were like are you serious?? sabi niya, yes. come now. but we were in a lesson then so we couldn't go! when we got done with our lesson we had another text from them, joke lang the baby is all better now!! lolz cool. 

PS - The new Sister is Samoan!  She's way nice!
PS Yesterday we made pancakes for dinner with mango and nutella.  So good.  
Im outie, peace!

Sister Jones with her Mission President & Wife and First Companion

We received a letter from Sarah's mission President and his wife, with this great picture.  She had just arrived in the Philippines after a verrrrrry long flight!  They included a picture of her trainer, Sister Garcia.

100% Pinay na be (100% Fillipina now baby!)

                                                                    Their Baptism!!!


So, Sarah did it...she tried the balut this week!  Here's  how she tells it:


Sooo this week was prettttty eventful. first. 10 days between p-days is a long time. imma be honest with you, yesterday was long. second. i tried balut this week. imma keep being honest with you, it's not delicious. but now i can say i've tried it or whatevs.

 third. i had taho this morning, it is delicious. kinda like oatmeal in a cup but a completely different texture..... smoother.... idk how else to describe it... tastey :) that's pretty much it.

So this week we were teaching this little teenage girl that we like weren't super stoked about cuz her parents don't want her to go to church soooo she's a lil bit stuck. anyway everyone that we usually teach with her was gone so we were thinking about just calling it and teaching her next week with everyone else but we decided to just teach her by herself and it was super cool. she told us how much she and her life has changed since she started listening to us (we've taught her like three times) and how her family has even asked her what has gotten into her cuz she's super nice now and she told them its from listening to us! and her mom was like wow what are those sisters teaching you? and all this stuff and she told us how she's praying everyday and she told us like a ton of different experiences where her prayers have been answered and she has felt the Holy Ghost and all this super cool stuff. we were pretty much floored. she credits it all to listening to us! it was pretty amazing. that actually happened a few times this week with different people and it was really cool cuz sometimes we feel like we're not having any affect on people, but there it is!

This was also the week for people to make fun of my language. lolz. one investigator at the end of a lesson we were like soo do you have any questions for us before we peace out? and she was like um yes. and we were like sweet! shoot. and she was like is it hard for you guys to speak Tagalog? cuz it sounds like it is. lolz then she talked to Sister Garcia about that for a few and then she turned to me and was like umm your voice is really beautiful but it sounds like really unnatural for you to be speaking Tagalog. i just said thank you and moved on lolz but seriously, every word is like super long with a bazillion vowels and i've been here a month. of course it sounds unnatural! alas, life goes on. and if that's the worst thing she has to say about my language, im ok with that.

Also! we went to visit a less active family and i understood like the entire conversation quick enough to contribute to the conversation. it was pretty much the most exciting thing ever. we were talking about 3 Nephi 12 and how its suuuper hard to forgive your enemies. which was weird to hear from this family cuz i can't really imagine them having any enemies! they're so nice!

We have a mom and daughter that are both investigating and they started meeting with missionaries in like august. when i first got here they were about to get dropped. but they are finally getting there! they're coming to church and they're getting baptized next month! we're super stoked!!! it just shows that some people need more time but they always kept their reading commitments and they really were trying to know for themselves and to learn and that is the most important part.

A really big problem here is people having strokes. it happens way too much. its awful. the son of T __R__ that we are teaching was like i just want to go to church with my dad, and he was so excited to come to church this week with his dad cuz last week his dad left without him lolz. but this week his dad had a stroke!!!! so he shows up to church all by himself and we're like where is t__!!! and he told us he had a stroke but he knew he still needed to come to church even though it was by himself. (this guy is way legit, we're super excited about him)
Anyway that family is doing great!! its really encouraging to see them progress!! i think this week we saw over and over again that we as missionaries are really such a tiny part of the process. Heavenly Father is doing everything. all the people need to do is show a tiny bit of faith, just act. and then Heavenly Father takes them all the way. That's the biggest difference between our two dads that we're teaching. one has everything going for him with his family support, but he isn't acting at all. he isn't trying to change for himself, he just kinda wants us to change him. not gonna work. and then the other one has work every day but sunday, and gets home late, but he did his reading, he prayed, and he went to church, and he stayed all three hours and commented in priesthood the bishop told us, and he's gonna get baptized next month. none of that is because of us. it is all coming from his own actions to experiment on the word and the work of the Holy Ghost in his life.

Anyway we set a bap date for the son in our next lesson. he is getting baptized almost one year to the day after his dad was baptized. so cool. his dad is the only member, but he is such a good example to his family. i really really really hope T___ gets better so he can be at his son's baptism and they can go to church together. it was just a mild stroke, so he should recover ok. he's only 73 or something.

Conversion is such a personal thing. we have another dad (the one who works late that we got our curfew extended for) that has his entire family that goes to church and wants him to progress and is there to support him but he is just not progressing. he has his nine year old daughter (who is soooo cute) there like feeding him all the answers to the simplest questions and he still can't tell us who Joseph Smith is. we've taught him the 1st lesson twice. cuz when we went back the second time he didn't remember anything. and still. nothing. he just isn't doing anything on his own!!! so we're starting over with him. i think we just made assumptions about his level of readiness that we need to re-work. frustrating. but that's ok. they can't all be ready to jump in the water, right? :)

We have a family that was super inactive but they've been the last three weeks and we visited them again this week and they were like we're getting ready to go to the temple as a family!!! so that's way exciting, their goal date is the beginning of march. so cool. kinda bewildering cuz three weeks ago they were like nooo way, we're not ready to go to the temple, and this week they were like we're there! we're gonna do it! we have family prayer led by the dad every night and sometimes in the mornings too! (crazy cuz they have to wake up at like 4 for the daughter to get to school at like 5:30... seminary never looked so good in hindsight)


"When we obey Satan, we give him power. When we obey God, He gives us power."

this is a good quote from my Mission President  this week

Love you all,
Sister Jones

more Balut pictures :)

 a picture is worth a thousand words.... 

One Month in the Philippines

the baptism happened!!! we took a ton of pictures buuuut i forgot my camera today so you kids will have to wait a week to see how adorable we all are in our matching clothes lolz yeah that happened. E---n was baptized on sat, confirmed on sunday, which was Sister G---'s birthday!!!, and they also gave him the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday... as a priest. do they usually do that so quickly?? we were kinda confused by that but E---n is suuuuper legit so it's all good. He just got a job (before he was pretty much just playing guitar and basketball all day) which is awesome cuz he's working to better his life but now he's super busy so it's way harder to meet with him. good thing we don't have to meet with him like every day now!! just once a week. anyway the baptism was good, a bunch of the ward came to support him and it started mad late which was rough cuz we had a meeting right after and his cousin baptized him (who is 19 and preparing for a mission as well) and he had to be baptized three times cuz it was his cousin's first time baptizing someone but it was great! then E---n came to the area leadership training meeting... not really sure why, but it was really good! they talked about all our area goals and so many of them are directly applicable to E---n that is was good that he got to see and understand what his role is now. 

That's sweet that you get to hear from Elder___________ and Elder __________. That should be really awesome. a lot of people here aren't super familiar with the leadership of the church, obviously the investigators have no idea who they are, but even the members sometimes. i guess that's the same everywhere. but it was interesting to introduce them to E----n because i kinda take for granted sometimes that i've grown up hearing these names and seeing them speak, but to investigators they're kinda random. 

anyway we thought no one could possibly be more prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel than E---n but then! yesterday we went back to that dad we taught a couple weeks ago and i was kinda not as stoked about it cuz he didn't come to church and last week he was sleeping. but! we taught him and he is awesome! he said he went over to his dad's place an hour before church starts but his dad had already left him! his dad is super enthusiastic about church and stuff :) anyway at the end of the lesson we challenged him to pray about everything and he said he would (actually he told us that later tonight he needs to pray with a sincere heart about whether this is Christ's church and if God restored his truth through Joseph Smith, it was pretty awesome) and we were like ok (super excited on the inside and trying not to scare him with our apparent enthusiasm) so what do you need to do when you receive an answer to your prayers? and he was like i need to read, and go to church, and be baptized. bam. committed him to be baptized when he receives an answer. oh my ready. it was awesome. and we had a member girl working with us and she was awesome and got way pumped about missionary work (except she's totes gonna get married and not serve a mish but its to a super legit member rm here so its all good) (ps that's in my opinion the best way to involve members. get them to work with you with specific people so that they love them as well, they are excited by their progress, by their church attendance, and they notice when the investigators aren't there because they want them to progress, but i've only been here a month sooo whatevs) 

yesterday was my one month mark!!!! and sister g---'s birthday!!! and E---'s confirmation!!! pretty much just a party all day. we went to a member's house for dinner and they are kinda rolling, they actually have an oven. so they made us a roticery (spell?) chicken and a cake. sister g--- said that's the first oven she's seen in someone's house since she's been here. it was pretty exciting.

people stare at us because we are American's and they stare at me cuz i look american. then they ask sister g---a why she doesn't look like me. lolz she tells them its cuz she's half mexican. there is a lil 9 year old boy that we visit cuz his grandma is suuuper inactive (which is lame cuz she has gone through the temple!) but he sits in on our lessons and he always runs up to me and says "so cute your eyes." and "so cute your face" its pretty much adorable. this week he figured out that i can speak tagalog (he's not super attentive when we teach and im not super good at the chatting before the lesson when he is paying attention and all i do is nod and smile) and it was hilarious.  he's not a member cuz his parents and grandma are inactive so we're trying to get his grandma to come to church and bring him! cuz he should be a memeber. he wants to but doesn't have anyone to go to church with. i thought he was just hanging out with us cuz we're americans but we were walking back to his house with his grandma and i was asking him questions about the scripture stories and he proceeded to tell me allll about the first vision and joseph smith and everything that happened with the restoration of the church. it was impressive. and i was like do you believe that? and he was like yeah totally! (aight he didn't say totally, but you understand) so now we're gonna start actually teaching him, cuz he's paying more attention than we give him credit for. 

aight, peace out.

love you, 

sister jones

Sweet is the Work!

Sunday's are looong days. and fasting was rough. but it was great! we taught some good lessons and had a ton of people at church and the testimonies were really good! so that was awesome. ericson gets baptized on sat! we're so stoked. he's pretty much more solid than half the members already. we had some of the young men teach him with us and they were supposed to explain the Priesthood to him and it was a struggle lolz. but we got there in the end and now we are all a lil more informed and know that no you did not in fact receive the Priesthood when you were 8 right after you were baptized. 

The other day a member told us that i look like im from the year 1823 and my comp looks chinese. sweet. two very specific observations. lolz.

We got our curfew extended for two nights a week till 9 to teach a super awesome investigator that doesn't get off work till 8. Pres. Sperry is super awesome we were like heeeey what do you want us to do here and he just looked at us and was like do whatever you need to do to teach him. just make sure you're safe. that's our number one priority. and we were like saweeet. we're totes safe, don't even worry about it! mostly we just didn't want to pass him off to the elders cuz we already started teaching him and are really excited cuz his wife is a member and his kids are all super legit and they all come to church every week and he's ready!! he knows its time! 

Tatay rosete wasn't at church this week and we were like whaaaaaaaa the world is ending. where is tatay?!!? so we went to visit him and he was like in a ton of pain, it was awful, he said he feels like there is still air in his side? like under his right arm ish? idk what that means but i felt so bad for him.and he was still so sweet and setting out the chairs for us and everything. we were bummed though cuz that meant his son didn't come to church either. lame. 

Transfer day isn't till jan 23 or 24th or something and i'll stay here with sister garcia cuz the training is two transfers and then i'll have a follow up trainer come here, so i'll be in valenzuela for at least 3 transfers! which is good,  cuz the work is going great. im in the malanday ward ps in case you want to like find that on your lil mappy map :) 

 i'll get one new house mate cuz one sister is going home so that's probs good cuz she's mad trunky. the other week we helped a nanay do her laundry with the pretense that i needed to learn how to do it (mostly true) and it was super hilarious. cuz we we're in pros clothes and everything. she is the one that does the laundry for all the elders but we don't give her ours cuz she is so busy! and we can do it ourselves. its actually super cool, its kinda relaxing. it just takes forever. i did all my laundry on wed and it took like two hours. but its not bad at all, my hands are fine, no need for gloves or anything.

I  don't even know what the temperature is here cuz even if they told me it would be in C and mean nothing to me. its pretty warm. most def not winter here. which is fine by me! im not missin provo winter right now that's for sure.

The elders are still so fascinated that my nose is tall and the other day one of the elders was like hey have you seen the hobbit poster at 7-11? (yes we have 7-11) and i was like uhhh no? and sabi niya oh well you have the same nose as everyone in the poster except the main hobbit. soooo now i have a hobbit nose? basta. 

aight peace out! im good, im alive, "it's more fun in the philippines!" (that's like their tourist slogan or whatevs lolz)
loves, sister jonesy

1-1-2013 Great start to the new year!

Hello family,

things are going great here! Christmas was kinda just like any other day and no one did very much for it but apparently new years is the biggest thing in the world cuz everyone went crazy. like fireworks alllll day and allll night and then at midnight our two philippina house sister mates came in making crazy amounts of noise and yelling and made us all watch the fireworks for like an hour. and then prayed for another hour. and gave us gifts. it was insane. im still not convinced it wasn't all a dream cuz i stayed decidedly in my bed the whole time. lolz it was fun though and then for new years day everyone and their mom fed us a huge feast. we were like rolling out of the jeepney, it was pretty much thanksgiving every two hours. cray cray.

We have been so stoked this week! last week we got chewed out about not having a relationship with the members so they don't fellowship our investigators and so we worked really hard on that and i swear we had at least one meal a day with members, snack/dessert at every appt and members coming with us to lessons allll week. it was awesome! and we have a baptism next week! and he is so ready!! and we found a family yesterday! we were teaching tatay rosete and his son/neighbor just came over and was like oh hey i went to your church once it was great. so we taught him and he was like i need this in my life! i need to be baptized! and we were like ummm yep that's why we're here!! and then we went to his house and taught his whole family!! that was tight. and there is a sister who is super strong in the ward but her husband has never been interested but i guess like a month ago he just came to church randomly and was like super interested so we taught him and he is soooo great! so prepared by the Lord. there are so many people like that its ridiculous. and such a huge blessing. 

This morning we got to go to the temple! we woke up at 3 to catch a bus at 4 to make the 6 am session.... except we got there at 5 and they told us that the schedule changed cuz its a new year and the first session wasn't till 7. yaaaaay. so we took naps in the waiting room. but it was a beautiful day and a great temple visit! we're taking ericson (our jan 12th baptism investigator) to the temple on sat for a tour cuz he wants to serve a mission so we're involving the temple in our lessons a lot just to make sure he knows that baptism is only the first step! in one year he can go to the temple and go on a mission!! i would still be on my mission and that would pretty much be the coolest thing ever. just saying. 

hmmm what else happened this week....... it was the bishop's birthday so he fed the whole ward lunch after church and we had three investigators there and they were stoked. we had to explain that doesn't happen every week lolz (our bishop is kinda loaded) 

We taught a family that lives like out on a farm and they were super legit. they're "inactive" cuz their daughter had a stroke so they take turns coming to church so one of them can stay and take care of here but they are both endowed and super legit. the daughter and their other son both aren't members but just recently they have both become interested in the church so once the daughter is strong enough to come to church she will get baptized and then they can all get sealed in the temple!! super exciting for their family, they have been waiting a long time.

 

Fun story: sister garcia and i were waiting at jollibee (spell? its a fast food joint) for our member to meet us to go teach and we were just chilling and like 6 little kids came and lined up against the glass and just stared at us for like 10 mins..... we felt like goldfish... or zoo animals... then we were at a part member family's house and they fed us so we were just chilling, eating some food, and we hear like a bunch of giggles from above and there is a hole in the wall that connects their house and there neighbors house and there were a bunch of like teenagers poking their heads through the hole just like watching us eat.... then they started playing music and i felt like i was in a movie... it was great lolz i was cracking up and sister garcia was like what is going on?? lolz happens all the time. usually i have stare offs with babies in the jeepney.... they always win...alas. one day. 

Well life is good. only a couple cockroaches around our apt, no worries there, we close the window at night so they don't come in, which is really hot, but its better than bugs :) im healthy and happy and the work is great!

love you all

-sister jones

Christmas Call - seen but not heard:0

Sarah emailed Christmas eve to tell us she would Skype with us on Christmas night-(9am her time the day after Christmas.)  The Christmas Skype was tricky because we could see her, but not hear her, so we tried various arrangements  and finally ended up typing back and forth.  It was great to get to see her though.  We all gathered around Nick's computer, and he did most of the typing (he's fast!)
Here are some of the  Christmas Phone call notes:
She says she's really doing fine!  She never had jet lag, and she only has about 10 mosquito bites on each leg...She's healthy and happy!
       There are 2 areas in her ward, and even though her area is small in geographical area, it is very time consuming to get from one appointment to another. It doesn't sound like they do much tracting, but mostly teaching.  They have 9 investigators with a baptismal date.  (Wow!)  However, she says most of them won't be baptized on their scheduled dates, because they aren't keeping their commitments.  They have to come to church for 4 Sundays in a row in order to be baptized,  and only one of the investigators has met that requirement.

"super legit investigator (Ericson) playing the guitar and  his little sister Lola"

He looks young to me, but Sarah says he is around 20.

The people are so nice to the missionaries.  She says church is happy and really noisy! The children are so cute.  Last Sunday one of the little girls came over to sit by Sarah, and was talking to her, it was during the Sacrament and she watched Sarah reading and pondering her scriptures.  Sarah gave her the scriptures, and she spent the rest of the meeting looking at the scriptures just as Sarah had.  

     Sarah said she made "nobake" cookies for their ward Christmas party,  which is about the only option considering they do not have ovens.  They do have a rice cooker and a hot plate...

     Sarah and her companion go running in the mornings during exercise time. The other 2 sisters in their apartment are Filipina and just think they are so weird for going running. When Sarah and Sister  Garcia come back to the apartment they do sit ups and push ups and the other sisters laugh at them:)  

     The sisters take turns cooking for each other. The filipina sisters make "weird" stuff for breakfast, like corned beef.  Sarah makes toast and jam for breakfast, and the other sisters aren't too crazy about that apparently.  

Sarah at the mall - pretty modern mall considering the living conditions!

Pictured here is their main mode of transportation, I think:

Sarah loves the kids!!  She says they're soooo cute!

We were surprised that Sarah's schedule is that they have language study, scripture study, and companion study, and leave their apartment about 11, because she is going through the in field training program.  They have to be back in their apartment by 6 pm, unless they have an appointment, in which case they can stay out until 7 pm.  They can't be out after dark because of safety concerns.  Even though their proselyting time is limited, they seem to do a lot of teaching.  She says the living conditions are not as big a concern as she expected.  It sounds like the transition to life in the Philippines is easier than she expected, even though she is dealing with lots of insects, no shower, and limited hygiene resources.
It was so wonderful to see and "talk" to Sarah!!