Using the Rain as a tool... The rainy season has officially started!

That's super cool that you're getting into family history! [Greg told Sarah about his forays into Family History]  

Are you taking the names to the temple too!? that's the best part!  [yes he is!!]

[We asked Sarah if she is getting used to the humidity...]   I  totes love the humidity here. and the heat doesn't even really bother me unless it's an especially hot day.... which isn't that often. My hair is getting way curly cuz of the humidity, and sister chamberlain taught me how to curl it just by like scrunching it so imma try that to add a lil variety to my hairstyles! ps my hair is suuuper long now! [yeah! I (Lori)  was hoping she wouldn't cut it!!! ]

 The people here are suuuper humble and thoughtful and serviceable people.  not in a degrading way or self-degrading way, they are just really very thoughtful!

 We have our new investigator, Rose, who has become our mother here. i was a lil bit under the weather this week when we taught her on thursday and then on Sunday i sit down and she immediately hands me a pack of tissues and was like here dear you had a cold last time i saw you. It was so sweet!!! because!! i really did have a ridiculously runny nose and i had used all my hankies and went to three tindahans (lil stores in the neighborhoods) on sat night to try to find tissues and no one had any!! and we didn't have any water! so i couldn't wash my hankies..... i was like well. i guess im bringing a hand towel! and had just resigned to having a fairly miserable three hours of church blowing my nose every five seconds on a not super soft towel.... and then she handed me tissues!!! made my day for sure. people are really very thoughtful here. as im sure people are everywhere in the world, we probs just see more of it bilang missionaries. :)

Today we woke up to a BEAUTIFUL sunrise. im talking gorgeous. it was absolutely perfect and the weather outside was perfect! it was a great way to start our temple day!!!! downside. we really were up before the sun. sunrises are always bitter sweet. they're really pretty, but you have to be awake waaaay too early to see them. i much prefer sunsets. 

anyway the temple was great! and we timed our trip and it was less than 90 mins so we get to keep going!! which is great. i love the temple!  [This makes me so happy:)]

The rainy season has officially started daw! which means we come home wet a lot! but it's also not as hot! sister chamberlain and i both love the rain so it's awesome! the other day we totes got lost in the pouring rain and i fell haaaard on a rocky/muddy path..... but then we got un-lost and dried off and i got a really sweet bruise out of it! anyway the rain is a great tool for us because we just wander around looking like drowned rats (but secretly loving it cuz it feels great) and then everyone feels bad for us and lets us in! even grumpy less-actives that only like us half the time! yay!!!! true story. it's great. you just have to look a lil sad and errybody lets you in if it's raining. downside. people love to sleep when it's raining. letsbehonest. so do i. can't really hate them for that one cuz that's the story of my life! 

Dexter and Lorriane are getting baptized on sat!! they're soooo cute. Lorriane wants to go on a mission (she's 8) and in his interview Dexter (he's 10) was like umm i'll probs end up going on a mission. cuz lorraine will probs go and then i'll get jealous so i'll go. lolz they're so funny. ps because i was filling out the baptisimal record for Dexter i found out tatay is a year younger than you! (Dad!) it blew my mind. your lives have been soooo different. it was super weird to think about. plus they have two great-grandkids!!! 

The work is going well! this week was a lil crazy and next week is transfer meeting!! (sister chamberlain and i are 99% for sure staying together here cuz we still have one more transfer of training for her!!) but that means i won't be emailing again till tuesday (here)... i think ..... anyway! have a great week!

-Sister Jones

Cat Burglar and a sport fest...plus pictures of CTR kids

This week was great! 

Sister Jones with the CTR kids

.... we taught ten lessons in one day on thursday. it was intense. (before that our high was like 7 yata) we found this new less active who's name is kenneth. when we got there he was asleep and his mom woke him up and he sat there on the couch not looking at us holding a pillow for the entire lesson. we thought he was super mad at us for being the reason he had to wake up buuuut we soon discovered he was just angry at the church or something. anyway we kept teaching him and he softened up a lil bit by the end and gave the closing prayer, committed to read, and said we could come back! so we're leaving thinking ok this is a decent start, maybe in a few weeks we can get him to come back to church. then on sunday, he was there!!!! still looking kinda grumpy but we've just decided that might just be how his face looks :) we we're stoked. it was like more exciting than having a new investigator at church!

Sister Chamberlain's first time on a jeepney

Sister Jones and Sister  Chamberlain (Sarah is her trainer)

ok we went to the store. and there was this table outside with a Book of Mormon sitting on it face down so i was staring it down cuz i was really confused why there was a BOM there.... and the owner came over and was thinking i was interested in the product on the table and i was like nah i don't care about housing. but whose book is that! and he was like it's mine! and i was like are you here in it (there was a marker in Helaman!!!) and he was like yep! and i was like are you a member? and he was like nope! and i was like do you want to be? and he was like sana! and i was like are the missionaries meeting with you right now? and he was like nope! i was like aiiiight what's your name and where do you live and we'll fix that right now :) it was way sweet. 

let's seeee ano pa.... 

we met this lady named rose. we taught her and her son once and then that sunday they both came to church and she brought her husband too! it was sweet. they're all going to get baptized. mostly because she's like "accept Jesus!" to her husband lolz. she's hilarious though, we're having a lot of fun teaching her but our lessons are soooo long cuz she loves to chicka chicka and our member present who is her friend also loves to chicka chicka.... it gets intense. we taught them after church on sunday and somehow we got on the tanget of like her delivering babies... she's a reflexologist? so she's kinda hippie ish but also super awesome and hilarious. she made us banana chips. they're delicious. we're friends now ;)

k so we live in a jail. not really but it's like reallllly locked up cuz one time it got broken into so now it's pretty much fort knox. that being said, someone broke into our apt!!!!! ok it was something not someone. and all they did was rip a whole in our table cloth, knock over a chair and poop all over the kitchen floor. soooooo weird to wake up to. im sending pictures. it was the weirdest morning ever!! so we decided it was a cat. then last night sister chamberlain and i were chilling on the couch doing our nightly planning and this cat come waltzing down the stairs like he owns the place!!! we were like ano ba iyan!!! how did you get in here?!!! so we went and investigated upstairs and the windows were open but nothing was disturbed and outside the windows is a really far jump even for a cat.... we were impressed. and not stoked. anyway we're now trying to figure out ways to cat proof our house..... still working on that one....

today we had sports fest for a zone activity and played the philippines version of kick the can and ping pong and patay (the hackeysack game kill except we played with a soccer ball) annnnd we had a ping pong tournament! it was a good time. but also why we're emailing wicked late... sorry bout that one. 

aight that's suuuuper long. and there are pictures to go with it!

peace out kids

-sister jones

May 12, Mother's day Skype:) !!!

We got to Skype with Sister Jones today!  It was wonderful to see her and chat in real time!!  Just a few notes from the call...

[This post is written by Lori- so no fun Sarahese -- sorry!!!]

**No curfew!  They can now stay out until 9pm if they have a specific purpose-like teaching.  Otherwise they are to be in before 7pm.  It gets dark around 6:30, so they must use caution and prayer to determine when they must be home.  This means they can have dinner appointments more often too:)

**She explained more about the temple tours they give.  They rent out a jeepney, and invite tons of people, and serve as tour guides.  They work together with the other missionaries, and set up stations around the temple grounds to explain baptism,  modern day prophets and other doctrines.  They also watch a video -- an account in Tagalog of a family and the sacrifices they made to attend the temple.  Sister Jones said it is awesome!  The video is also great because it is in a room with A/C...

**She shared the back story to a miracle they witnessed in finding one of their converts.  I loved hearing Sarah's voice and feeling the Spirit as she shared the series of unlikely events that led to their finding this convert.  

This also led to them finding a Returned missionary Sister who had struggled with the transition back to life after mission, and needed help.  They have involved her and now she is teaching the  Gospel Principles class and teaching with Sister Jones and Companion.

**Sarah told us about the neighborhood in their new apartment, (from her new area)...There is a neighbor who keeps watching them and is kind of creeping her out. So she made rules for him:

#1--no smoking!

#2--read the pamphlets we give you!

#3--bring your spouse!

Way to Go Sarah--you tell him!!  

Here's a run down of their day:

6am - wake up and pray

go running/have breakfast

8-9am - personal study

9-11am companion study

11-12 am language study

12 - lunch

1-7pm work-teach-find-serve

7-9pm discretionary teaching time

9-10:30pm - plan, update area book

bedtime!!

**stuff they eat:  Curry, Adobo, Mango floats, mangos, mangos, and mangos!!  Also watermelon and she just tried papaya for the first time.. Also lemons and bananas.  and RICE... lots of fried stuff like whole fish...

**this area doesn't have traffic problems like their last area, so they are able to teach  even more!  She says they have plenty of teaching opportunities, and they rarely "tract".

**Another miracle--Sister Jones told us about the faith and healing of an investigator.  They went to visit her, and she was super sick and weak.  They asked if she would like a priesthood blessing.  She said yes.  They went up the road to a member's home (a new convert of a few years).  They asked if he would give a blessing. He had oil and had exercised the Priesthood previously for the blessing of the sick. (Sarah was super proud of him for being prepared!!)

He changed his clothes and accompanied them to the home of the investigator (NOTE:  Her husband is an inactive member)...

As the brother blessed her, she opened her eyes and was alert.  Sarah said the difference was remarkable.  She said "SISTER!  do you see the difference?  You were healed!"  The brother then testified of the healing power of the Lord.  The sister investigator later prayed at the lesson (She hadn't prayed at the lessons before the healing), and expressed her gratitude for the Lord healing her).   Sarah said she was so STOKED!

Another result of this, is now they are teaching the owner of the home too!  He is a remarkable and unlikely contact too -- another story for another time though...

I loved this part the best -- Sarah shared stories and accounts of their finding people and the series of miracles that led to them finding people who they would never have found without the Lord's hand.

IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!

We've got water and Pictures too

  Our baptisms were great! there were two really great speakers and the youth put together a musical number and it rained and it was lovely! they both gave really sweet testimonies at the end (at least what i could hear was sweet... they both talk suuuuper quietly!!!) it was altogether a success. and we only started like 30 mins late! lolz. that's good btw.

other than that this week has been pretty regular! we are trying to figure out how to continue ctr kids now that the ewells are gone but it'll work out just fine. 

We met a new investigator this week. totes awesome. she is a referral we got when we first got here but she lives wicked far away so she kinda got lost. but last sat we set time to go meet her and see what's up. so we teach her and her granddaughter and great-grandson (a baby) and it was so great!! she kept telling us she has listened to and attended all sorts of different churches but she is looking for "the best" church. and once she finds it she wants her whole family to all go there together, to all have one religion that is "the best" and lots of fun stuff like that. it was so cool just to be able to testify to her that this is "the best" not only that but it is the truth and the correct too!! we just taught her a really simple lesson but at the end she was like this makes the most sense out of anything i've heard! your message is the best. and we taught her to pray and she prayed and we asked her how she felt and she just paused and was like i just feel the Holy Spirit all over me! and she said she had goosebumps and she just felt so happy and felt the Spirit so strongly! it was suuuuuuper cool.

We also have a long term investigator that is super legit but can't get baptized till she marries her less-active husband.... this has been their dilemma for quite some time now.... but she is so awesome! it is not keeping her from getting involved in the church. this Sunday she came to church again by herself with two of her three little kids and was like heeey can i have my baby blessed today? and we were like totally!! even though her husband wasn't there and she isn't even a member yet! she just knows the truth and how important it is for her and her family! we also had her pick out the opening song in our last lesson and she picked "faith of our fathers" which is not the normal inv or even member pick. it was so cool to know that she really is living and loving the gospel as much as she can at this point!! she'll get baptized. just wait :D

Also! i went on splits with sister garcia this week!!!! she's so awesome!!!! it was great cuz i was leading all the lessons (which is the norm now of course, but it's different from when we were companions) and show off my improved language skills lolz, which was not much but whatevs :) we have way too much fun teaching together, it's awesome.

So we were wandering around, trying to find this referral and we finally found them but they weren't there. sooo we had more time than anticipated and i was like ooook we'll go to this member that lives right here that i sometimes may or may not avoid cuz she's..... a wonderful child of God that i am so happy is active and supportive of the missionaries!!! ;) 

anyway we taught her and it was a good lesson! and then she was like where are you going? and we were like umm home! it's curfew time! and she was like oh bummer, i wanted to introduce you to my friend! and we were like ooooh we always have time for that! let's go! so she returned the chair to her neighbor, but i thought that was the friend we were supposed to meet, so we chatted with her and set a return apt. sweet. then she was like ok let's go meet my friend!
and i was like ooooh there's another one! sweet! so we went to the real referral and we met this lady who was smoking when we got there (details, that'll change soon enough) but we just starting talking to her and i swear she was like reading from one of our pamphlets. she was like i just want to know which of all the churches is true! and i don't know how to find that out for myself!! beautiful. i love questions like that. so we got to bear testimony to her and leave her with an assignment to read and we're headed back bukas! 

good times.

Sooo this week we have a bazillion people to teach and no time!!!! cuz we also have a bazillion meetings!!!! but that's ok cuz the meetings are way good. and they will make us better missionaries for when we are teaching! yaaaaay meetings!!! lolz for reals though.

we have water again!!!!!! no more camping in our own apt!!! and i finally gave in and got a labendera. cuz this lady in the ward reaaaaally wanted to do our laundry. so what the heck. more nap time for me :)

sister chamberlain is still doing great! trying everything new in sight!! she actually really liked balut! so this week we're taking her to the mrc to get her checked out..... joke lang! she's a champ and we're doing work!

it's been real. 

-sister jones

Sister Abanggan and Sister Jones