Sister Jones vs the dogs & lessons learned:)

Well hey there. this week was fun. we spent the whole week telling everyone about how important Jesus Christ is and how we can go to church every week to remember Him, not just on Easter and teaching what Easter is actually about. Then on Easter we had.... wait for iiiiit..... one investigator there. out of 7 with a baptismal date... we've had better attended weeks. but that's ok! we had a bunch of less actives there that we've been working with and the investigator that did come is awesome!
also we're giving one other investigator the benefit of the doubt that she probs went to her mother-in-law's branch across the way... which is ok i guess if she wants to like spend time with her mormon family in law on easter or whatevs ;)

We had temple tour on friday! sister abanggan and i were tour guides for the baptisms for the dead station... it was sweet. i got wicked sunburned. but! huge plus of having four sisters in one branch, we sent all our investigators with the other sisters so we got to take a ton of people even though we were tour guides! (usually you don't take anyone cuz you have to be there the whooole time instead of just one tour) it was really great!

so lately i've been learning lots of lessons (surprise surprise) here's one.

where there's a will, there's a way, where there's an excuse, there's a problem. (this sounded better in tagalog slash my head, but that'll do for now.)

im serious. people tell us all the time all their million excuses why they can't do ____ (fill in any commitment we try to give them but usually go to church.) and sometimes their excuses are actually legit and i almost tell them that's ok, i understand, your life is hard, maybe next time. but you can't do that! cuz you can't excuse sin. that's just what's up. so then we look a lil deeper. oh, you can't go to church cuz its too expensive aaaaaand you have a word of wisdom problem! kaya pala! there's always some other reason/problem that is really keeping them from progressing. so guess what we get to do!! just keep teaching the doctrine. when they really understand the gospel, the excuses slip away and they find a way because they actually want to find a way. its crazy how that works eh?

So for us, what commandments do we always find excuses not to do? attend church? fast once a month? pay fast offerings? pay tithing? fulfill our callings? could be anything really. and what's the real reason we don't want to do it? this reason also could be anything but im willing to bet it comes down to feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness which comes from a lack of understanding about repentance and the atonement. obviously i do not have a perfect understanding of anything but i do know that God wants us to be happy so these feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness are from God only to the point of repentance. (because repentance makes us happy!!!) after that they are discouragement from Satan.

maybe in a month or so i'll come up with a new theory. but that's the lesson i learned this week and im stickin with it :)

Lesson two. dogs are all bark and no bite. except sometimes when they really do bite lolz

we were working with a couple members to try and find everyone's house. like all old investigators, less-actives, and even active members. cuz our area is a beautiful green maze and i love it lolz

anyway we were on our way out and they were like oh hey there's a member family that lives on the way out! and we were like sweet, show us the way! so they took us to this random house that was actually really nice. like they had a car. so we were like this is really a member's house? are they active? do they have callings? the answers were sounding more and more like less-active, but that's ok! we still wanted to meet them 

one problem. we are standing in the entrance to the driveway and there are like 7 dogs in the driveway. so we call out and a teenage ish girl and a lil boy stick their heads out the window and im like hey can we come in? and they then proceed to run away. (seriously looking like in actives at this point lolz)

anyway we're standing their outside this open gate with 7 dogs barking at us and blocking our way to the door whilst the lil boy keeps poking his head out the window and then when he sees we're still there, hiding again. sooo that's lame. so i have yet to get bit by a dog here, no matter how loud they are barking at first, when we get near, they're usually more scared than we are and run away with their tail between their legs, or we just ignore them and they keep barking but nothing happens and life goes on. 

so i decided to trust in that. so my companion and the two members are standing in the gate and i walk on up to a lil window that has a bench right beneath it. i kneel on the bench and stick my head in the window (it's a big window) and inside are two lil boys looking as surprised as can be! (meanwhile the dogs are still just barkin at my feet, whatevs.) the look on the boys faces was just like how did she make it past the dogs???? turns out you need a lock to keep the missionaries out! or at least a closed gate.... lolz so great. anyway they won't answer any questions and finally i leave them with a simple, k please tell your parents the missionaries dropped by (quite literally) and peace out.

oh yeah one dog like bite my shoe, but it was the pansiest bite known to man, i barely felt it and just like shoed him away like a fly (literally, i used my shoe lolz)

So fun story, right? gets better. after that we were chatting with our branch president at church and we mentioned we found this less-active family and we were wondering if he knows any thing else about them. he kindly informs us that that particular family moved away some time ago, our CMIS is old and out of date, and the family that lives there now is so beyond in active because they are not and never have been members. kaya pala. those kids were soooo confused. anyway i guess now we'll just have to go back and convert them since we're friends with their dogs now!

also. people are just like dogs, all bark, no bite. they always yell at us and are very "confident" from afar and then we turn around and walk up to them and speak tagalog and tell them what's up and they get very quiet and very respectful very fast. lolz, also hilarious. 

k isa pa. 

we had a bunch of cool experiences that brought us to a family in mountain heights (one of our subdivisions that when we got here they were like umm you have one less-active in that whole area. no one else. so we were not spending a ton of time there) anyway we found this family. the mom was baptized like 20 years ago with 4 of her five kids, they were in the church for a few years, then they moved away and didn't know where the church was here sooo they became inactive and eventually went back to their catholic roots. sweet.

anyway we went to teach them. we show up and the mom is like ah heck its the mormons! (always a great way to start out a visit to a less-active) and then all her friends ran away. (i have mad skills now at clearing a room, no joke.) anyway she was then surprisingly friendly! and super nice, and her apo was there and wanted to know who we were and it was great! so we start teaching them and it's going really well, she is really receptive, she just doesn't remember anything. we can work with that.

then her neighbor showed up and was like oh hey i was taught by some mormons back in the day! they used to come to us every saturday at 10! and we were like sweet, why did they stop? (Always a fun question to ask) and she was like we moved! (i bet you anything they didn't tell the missionaries anything about them moving and the missionaries were super bummed about it) anyway we were like sweet! well, let's get that going again! and she was totes down.

then the mom's daughter comes! (she was baptized when she was like in middle school) and she's like mormons??? sweet, i still don't drink coffee because of that! and she sits down and joins us. 

then that brought up the word of wisdom and they were soooo curious lolz so we set a return apt and peaced out. (we like to leave them curious, it's a party)

moral of the story. we found like 3 new investigators that were there, not to mention the families of all those less-actives! just from one OYM to a tricycle driver while waiting for a member to come work with us. (that was all sister abanggan btw, she's a champ. in everything. but especially in OYMs)

sooo sweet! This is the Lord's work, and He knows His people.

oook one more. people like crucify themselves here for Easter so they can pay for their own sins slash the sins of others... or they scourge themselves with a whip..... it's cray cray. but we didn't see any of that.. we were kinda bummed we didn't immabehonestwithyou. cuz it happens more in the province daw. alas, i still have another Easter here to witness the craziess! other than that its pretty much just a holiday weekend and traffic was crazy cuz everyone goes to church or something (i didn't actually see a lot of people going to church, i just saw the traffic) and on palm sunday everyone bought these palms with flowers and then took them to their church to have the priest bless them and then they put them on their doors so the angel of death will pass over their house. good stuff.

k im outie. 

life is good, sister abanggan is preparing me to train, which i think is harder for her than it is for me cuz she is used to being in charge... lolz but it's all good.

love,

sister jones

Getting to know the area -- Palm Sunday

March 24, 2013
hey folks
Life is good. we're hiking though our area and its going really well. yesterday we finally had church in the branch and all three new missionaries spoke and the sister in the senior couple here as well. that was a party. umm what else. last night we had some great rain. for reals it was awesome. luckily it was just started as we left our last appt so we didn't have to stay wet all day. but we walked home. so great. i love the rain. we also found a new running route which is beautiful, of course. so that's fun....

what else.... our branch president is super gung ho. our branch/district is apparently on probation to become a ward/stake aka we have to keep our numbers up for a year before we can be a ward so that's exciting! the whole area is working really hard towards that goal. our branch president is making us a map of where all the active members live so we can find them and then ask them where the less actives are.

there are a million less actives here, it's rough. like we were waiting at a waiting shed of sorts for a member to meet up with us and my comp started talking to all the tricycle drivers and one of them was like oh hey i was a mormon once! but it's been like 25 years. crazy.

let's seeeee. im excited to see the easter celebrations here. word on the street is they're not as crazy as they used to be/are in more rural areas which is chill cuz people like crucify themselves over thur daw. cray cray talaga. but yesterday everyone had palms and flowers for palm sunday that they took to their church and then their priest would bless them and they put them on their door for passover so they wouldn't die or something. good times a comin!

umm yep that's pretty much it. we teach all day erry day which is sweet. our area is not too provincey so people still live way close to each other which is nice as far as time goes cuz you don't have to spend an hour in transient between lessons!
sooo ingat eh!

   -sister jones

New companion - New area!

We had temple day today so i've been up since three and its wicked hot right now. in other news im in a beautiful area!!!!!! like for reals. gorgeous. my new comp is sister abanggan and she is from cebu. (philippines) she is suuuper legit. and this is her last transfer! im killing her off! but she's awesome and not trunky at all. which is impressive. we are opening up an area so that's exciting. but the good thing is its just an area that just got split and one of the sisters that was here last transfer is still here! so the first couple days she just showed us around our area (cuz there are very few street names and even fewer house numbers) (and our area is like a forest jungle maze, get excited.) but for reals. we are lucky that she's still around. 

Apparently last transfer was just crazaaay. errybody and their mom (literally) got pulled out or transferred unexpectedly or whatevs. President got up and was just like soo the result of this transfer was unexpected to me too. i don't know why you are all where you are. but i know you are there for a reason. i changed and changed the transfer board again and again and i am finally at peace with it so thats whats up. ok not exactly in those words but you get the idea. 

We have a very small area book right now but it's rapidly expanding! oh yeah, im in san jose del monte zone, pangarap 2 area. in pangarap branch, san jose del monte district. so we're in a branch but it has about 185 active members daw. 5 of the 6 branches qualify to become wards so they are expecting to become a stake very soon daw. i have no idea how all that works but its legit. i haven't been to church in our branch yet cuz sunday was stake conference and it was the general broadcast thing. 

That was awesome! we heard from elder Holland and elder Hales and some other people that were also awesome! and there was a great turnout! mostly because they told everyone (including us) that it started at 9.... but it actually started at 10.... in theory that's a good idea cuz like everyone gets their late so they would actually be on time even if they were an hour late buuuuuut actually not legit. President Sperry was kinda mad. but whatevs we met an investigator in our area there and she is great! 

lets see ano pa...... life is good. im healthy, haven't been sick at all, if you know what i mean ;) ..... my comp is super nice and a really hard worker. she talks reaaaaally fast. but my language is doing decently. everyone says i speak well and my comprehension is probs about 80% yata. 

our district slash zone is huge! which is fun. there are six sisters all close by (four in our apt) which is way fun. the sisters are all way awesome and chill which is a party all the time. im glad the majority of sisters here do not fit the scary stereotypes i always heard about slash imagined. umm what else..... we were like do trail runs the other day basically cuz we were late to something, i don't remember what, and we were like in the middle of nowhere of our area. it was great! for reals, i loved it. 

oh!!!! something cool! we do this thing every saturday that's called CTR kids. the senior missionary couple here started it (they are in our branch too which is sweet cuz they give us rides all the time lolz) so they just go to a little dirt patch thing (this is harder to describe than i thought it would be) and they have primary! basically. ok so they start with a song and prayer and they taught all the kids how to pray, then they have singing time, then all the missionaries (the six sisters and sometimes elders too!) split the kids into little groups and teach a lesson (aka story time out of the book of mormon aka my favorite thing ever) and then we have a closing prayer and song and they all color a picture that relates to the lesson!!! 

imma be honest with you, i went back and forth on this activity. i was like wow that's awesome! but then i was like oh dang! that's all we are ever going to have time to do on sat!!!! (we do have like 3 hours to work other than that but that's hardly anything! especially for a saturday!!) and i was like umm is this worth it? we're teaching like 80 kids. whose parents are still at their houses.........................................

but then!!! sister abanggan and i tracted the area we do one of the ctr kids events in. coolest thing ever. alllll the kids know us. we have a huge list of people's names from the event that the senior missionary couple collected somehow (idk how they got these names imma be honest with you) anyway! we just walk down the street (hiking trail/ road/ alley/ whatevs) and the kids all come out and talk to us and we're like hey do you know this person? and they're like oh yeah that's my mom/dad/aunt/grandma/whatevs and we're like sweet where's your house? is your mom/dad/aunt/grandma/whatevs home? can we teach them right now? and they're like yeah!!! (cuz they're kids and they're awesome and they love us) and then we're like hey!! soooo we're the people teaching your kids how to pray and sing and stuff on saturday! and then we teach the fam. it's sweet. ok so we've only been back to that area once, but that's what happened! we like couldn't even make it to the end of the street/ hiking trail/ road/ alley/ whatevs cuz we just taught/met and set a future appt with every single person on the street. so tight. so now im stoked on it again. plus, letsbehonest. who doesn't love a good storytelling sesh? :)

aight peace out, the church is true. don't drink and drive. (cuz you'll probs spill water all over yourself) and don't drink alak at all. (cuz it's dumb. that's all there is to that.)

love, 

sister jones

Ch ch ch changes....

So this week was sister garcia's last week here in malanday after being here for 7 and a half months!!! so we had to say goodbye to errybody which was intense. but other than that we had a great week! our two baptisms on saturday were great!!! best baptism we've had. we were sick of getting there early only to wait for two hours for the actual event to start so this time we just showed up on time and low and behold, everyone was already there and ready!!!!!!! it was a miracle. literally. the primary put together a special musical number of andrew's favorite primary song and sang it. the two talks were both great and bishop's welcome was the best i've heard yet! and both andrew and james bore really great testimonies!! we were so pumped!!! 

then we went home and made brownies in the toaster oven to celebrate. best thing ever. ok the brownies we're that great but it was fun to get to bake again. 

sad story. we were working with a family in the ward, the sister is a member and has a baby with the guy (not married) and we started teaching the guy. he was doing so great and we set a baptism date and a marriage date for them and they were so cute and excited to be a family for reals and their little boy is so cute!! then we went back for our next appt. sister looked like she had lost weight so we were like sister! why are you so skinny?? and she just said brother left. he just up and left! after our last lesson!! they got in a fight over money and he just peaced out. we were shocked. and devastated. she has no job. she lives with her mom and her sister and between the three of them they have the occasional laundry business of the mom. she can't work because she has a weak heart aka she faints all the time if she works too hard. her sister had medical struggles too. the dad got shot by a stray bullet a while ago and last october the brother came home from his mission early really sick and died. 

nothing has gone right for this family for the past year. sister attempted to explain her heartbreak as tears slipped down her face unacknowledged. this is the fourth time this guy has left and she doesn't want him back. she gave him one last chance to start anew. to be a family. to work through life together. and when things got reals he couldn't handle it. again. sister garcia and i had to switch off teaching every min so that whoever was talking could stop and control themselves so as not to weep. little cyrex is sick and they don't have any money for him to go to a doctor. i asked if she wanted us to arrange for cyrex to get a blessing. she said she was scared. that was the last thing i expected her to say so i asked why. she said her brother got a blessing and then he died. that's the only experience she has with blessings. she associates them with death and therefore doesn't want that for her little baby boy. it broke my heart. 

we really do rejoice and mourn with people. the mourning is just a lot harder than the rejoicing. 

we've been so excited about our area and sister garcia has been preparing me and everyone else for her departure this week. telling everyone she's probs leaving but i will still be here with a new companion. everything will continue as planned. maricon can get baptized next month because she is officially done with coffee. her husband even stopped drinking it to support her. they stopped buying it at all. she's doing so great!! cCindy believes the church is true. we've taught her maybe three lessons and haven't even talked about Joseph Smith but she read the pamphlet, she knows its true. She's ready to change. mariz and malou still sit by us in every meeting at church because they don't know anyone there. james is so excited to be an active member of the church, he takes notes at church and asks us about anything he didn't understand during our lessons every sunday afternoon. we just met bobit's family and they prayed about the church and they know it's true! his wife said she can't wait to read the Book of Mormon!! we have ward missionaries working with us every day of the week and meals with members. we have things rolling!! we are going to andrew's house to teach his sister and help his in active dad return. the fransisco's have an interview with bishop next week to go the temple. our area is booming!!!!! we have the highest numbers in the zone. they just lowered the standard of excellence for the mission but in the workshop told sister garcia and i that the old standards were too easy for us, we need to stretch ourselves and set our own standard. 

and they're pulling us out. 

yep. that's right. not only is sister garcia transfering tomorrow, so am i! surprise!!!!!!!!  

today is a little bit crazy to say the least. we spent all morning writing a verrrry detailed schedule for this week. day by day appt by appt so that the new missionaries don't miss a beat. because if they do miss a beat, we will be devastated!!!! they can not drop the ball with our area. that is not acceptable.  we have six recent converts that still need fellow shipping and reteaching! we have drawn directions to all the random places we visit that don't really have addresses. 

moral of the story. this is the Lord's work, these are His sheep, He knows them better than we do. He won't let them get lost again. all we can do know is pray that the next missionaries pay attention. and get to work in our new areas. 

ps sister garcia is opening an area and training. she's a champ. 

this is an exciting work to say the least!!!!!!

Love,
Sister Jones

Storming the Castle

Lolz that's a great phrase. (Greg wrote to Sarah about Storming the Castle --ala Princess Bride, and recently used by Meredith on FB...) and totes what we do everyday!!! we have way too much fun storming the castle i think.... oh well! 
sooo Filipinos are just like americans in that they are allll different. (Greg also asked Sarah about the Filipino people...)   so i can't really give you stereotypical statements. that being said! i have noticed general trends in the people we meet.  

1. everyone has faith in God. which is awesome because we're like hey will you pray to God? and they're like yeah totes i do that everyday. and we're like sweet, now pray like this and ask questions and listen for answers!!!! but its can also be frustrating at times because they aren't super eager to change their ways because they already have this faith so why do they need more or other faith. along the same lines a lot of people will be like hey come teach us, we want to hear the word of God. as if just listening to us will bring them salvation. like a loooot of people are like that actually. its a little bit frustrating because we teach them, of course, but they don't do anything when we're not there. but then we come back and they're like yaaaay come back teach us the word of God again! and we're like did you read? and they're like yeaaaah totally! it was great! all the words of God are great! all religions are the same because they're all the word of God and there is only one God so yeah! and we're like ok but no. 

2. only rich people care about time. like for reals. everyone shows up late to everything always. its rough. if we go on time to our appts they aren't there. we have to go late. like an hour late. which gives us a big cushion if we want to stop and oym some folks or change our plans buuuut almost everyday we get punted by our first couple appts because they aren't home or they are asleep. at 12. which is a bummer. then everyone wants us to teach them at the same time in the aft/evening. lame. 

(anyone know what oym means??)

3. everyone is suuuuuper nice and friendly. mostly because we're americans that are trying (and usually succeeding) to speak their language. but for reals when we are walking down the street if at least 5 people don't say hi to us on every street, its an off day. so that's cool because it's really easy to talk to people and ask them questions and start talking with them and everything buuut it's hard to tell if they're actually interested until we come back three more times because they will just listen to us to be nice for a couple times and then punt us. slash hide. those are awkward. lolz but we really do have some great investigators. and alll the less actives we visit are super nice. except one family that hates us but we go every week anyway... but they're a work in progress. 

4. The kids are super trusting and the parents usually are too. like all the kids will just run up to us and hug us and we're like heeeey who are you?? and then they laugh and run away or try to talk to us in english or whatevs. but none of them are like stranger danger!! they all love us right away. sometimes they run up and bless us which is hilarious cuz we try to shake their hand and they insist on blessing us. i love talking to the kids cuz they tell you whats really up. we'll be like hey is your dad home? and they're like he doesn't want to talk to you daw. and we're like sweet. good to know! its so much easier that way. or they will be like what the heck are you saying??? if my tagalog is rough and im like ah heck. i need to learn how to say that! they are very honest. which is also cool cuz when they compliment you, you know its the truth! cuz if they think you're ugly or fat or bad at tagalog, they'll tell you what's up. lolz

that's all i can think of right now.... we did have a baptism this week! sister malou! the mom of sister mariz! and her husband and son came to her baptism! which was sweet cuz they haven't shown any interest really before that! so that went well!

this saturday james is getting baptized!!! he's kept the wow for a month! no problems! he's legit. he comes to church and takes notes in the classes. its awesome/hilarious. and lil andrew is getting baptized too!! he's pretty much perfect. he does all his reading and praying and he's so sincere and honest and accepting. he's ten and his mom and dad are members but they were inactive for a while and his dad has a wow problem. his mom bore her testimony on sunday about how now andrew is the one that strengthens her and always encourages them to go to church and all that stuff. it was so sweet! 

also! we have another investigator, maricon. she is way legit, and hilarious. her husband is waaaay less active and they have two super cute lil kids. its kinda awkward cuz we teach her the commandments and stuff and she's just like wow my husband is so disobedient! and we're like uhhhhh yeah but that's why we have repentance! it was so cute, we were talking about the temple and she was like do you think one day we can be married in the temple?? it was like a secret desire. and she honestly didn't think it was possible because right after she asked she was like joke!! and tried to laugh it off and we were like no seriously. you can! you can all go to the temple and be sealed together! and the lil baby that you had that died can be sealed to you forever!! it was a really sweet experience to be able to talk to her about how amazing and beautiful her potential is as an individual and as a family. 

she also works nights every other week and because of that drinks coffee like water daw. so last week sister garcia taught her when we were on splits and the member was like hey do you have any vices? (that's why its beautiful to work with members, they're not afraid of straight up asking people things like that, whereas we're a lil hesitant cuz we don't really understand what would offend them and what's ok) anyway maricon was like umm just coffee. and the member was like you should stop. just don't. you can do it :) (we hadn't even taught her wow yet!) so we taught her again yesterday and she was like soo i went from drinking 3 cups of coffee a day to one. and im ready to stop completely. she was like yeah no prob, i'll just drink hot chocolate instead or something! it was so amazing! we were way impressed. she has such great faith! 

yesterday we had our ward mission fireside where President and Sister Sperry came. we were a lil bit nervous because we were not in charge of it at all so had no idea what to expect. and President and Sister came to our ward for church before the fireside. and it was fast sunday. and the meeting was right after church. so it turned out pretty well i guess but a lot of things happened that made us reaaaaaally nervous before it was over. for example. starting late, what a surprise. also President had a meeting at 12:30 so we had to finish before then. we started at like 11:30 and then our ward mission leader talked foreeevvvveeeeerr. like until 12:10. we and then there was supposed to be a 15 min break and a musical number and then Pres and Sis were both supposed to speak?? so we cut out the break and did the musical number as the closing hymn. and our ward mission leader did greaaaaat things like made all the leaders stand and told them if they weren't doing their home and visiting teaching they were wicked and they needed to repent.

that is legitimately a big problem here. buuuut for reals? and that would have been fine if he was speaking tagalog and President couldn't understand. buuut nope. he did the whole thing in English. sweeeeet. anyway President and Sister are so amazing. they got up with the 20 mins they had left and gave awesome talks that were so loving and scripturally based that everyone pretty much forgot about the other stuff! hopefully.... they were great though for reals. 

then they had us all sing the efy medley as sisters in zion/armies of helaman.  aka all 4 sister missionaries and all the youth slash single adults. there were quite a few of us! but apparently no one knows that medley here.... sister garcia and i sang reaaaaallly loud lolz. ps. there are a lot of people here that are tone deaf. just sayin. like more than a couple. i can probs count the number of Filipinos that are not tone deaf on one hand. maybe two on a good day lolz. it was a party. and we had two lolas become self proclaimed choristers whilst we sang! sweeeeet. lolz good times. 

anyway the day turned out really well. we're doing great! not excited for sister garcia to leave me next week but we're living life one day at a time like we're both gonna be here forever!!!!!! 

the church is true. pray always. 

love, 

sister jones