Confession, reflexology and 11 new investigators!

This week was really quite hilarious because!!! we're working with a less active member and we went to her house the other day and she was like sisters. i have a confession. i have a sin i need to tell you about. and we were thinking aight she probs didn't read her assignment. which would be unusual for her buuuut not the end of the world.

Anyway she goes on to tell us this crazy story about how she got in a fight and gave some lady a black eye! this is a grown woman with kids! we kinda laughed a lot. but then she got all serious on us and was like im not worthy to go to church cuz im a terrible person and im gonna ruin the name of the church if people see me going to church that know that i got in this fight! so we got real with her too and talked to her about repentance and how this isn't a church of perfect people, it's a church of sinners trying to be better. and how that is the only thing that is important, she is trying to be better than she was yesterday! it was a great lesson and we really felt like she understood what she needed to do and how important it was to come closer to Christ now more than ever! she committed to come to church and it was all great!
Then we went to teach her sister, our investigator and heard the same story from her perspective, which was ps, 30 times funnier because she didn't punch her so she didn't feel bad about it.....

Update: our less-active didn't go to church. and neither did her investigator sister. actually that whole area was absent. we think there was an epidemic...... it's a work in progress.... a long work in progress.

Then yesterday we went to our golden family and taught 10 commandments so she would stop taking the Lord's name in vain when she shares stories at church... always awkward. anyway it was great! and we got impromptu head and shoulder reflexology done on us! which imma huge pansy about and it hurt like the dickens. but whatevs, it was a party.

This week is sister chamberlain's birthday!! so we're celebrating today by buying matching dresses at the palangke that are ridiculously colorful and bright. get excited.

The work is doing great! unless you're our branch mission leader who decided to comment on our completely full progress record that the work in our area is rather dull and nothing has really changed there. thanks bro. good thing you're getting released next week or i might have more in common with our less-active that we thought! joke lang. ish.

But for reals. we found 11 new investigators this week and i could literally tell you a miracle story about finding every single one of them. it's so amazing to see how the Lord guides us to people and guides people to us!! 

I gave a talk in sacrament yesterday, that was exciting. so we teach slash interact with like half the branch on a regular basis but for some reason when i stood up in front of all of them to talk about missionary work, what we do all day erry day, i got super nervous! buti na lang, Elder Christoffersen  gave a talk in April conference that was exactly what i wanted to talk about! so i just used lots of quotes :)

Life is good, this transfer is going way too fast and i have no idea what is going to happen next transfer cuz i'll probs go to a new area and the possibilities are endless!!!!!

ngumiting baril! (smile gun) pew pew! 

with love from the Philippines

-sister jones

Golden investigators pay tithing before joining:) & jackfruit...

Hello!

So this week was gooooood. just doing our missionary thing ya know.... 

Our golden family of investigators is doing great! we're super excited about them. They pay tithing every week... we haven't taught them tithing yet... that's how golden they are. and this week they gave us a referral! so she's been to the last two lessons and she's super great too! her brother passed away unexpectedly not that long ago so we got to talk about the temples and how once we do the work for ourselves, we get to do it for all of our loved ones! it was a really cool conversation. also i think a member told sister rose that you can be sealed to your family in the temple but they said it in english and she thought they said see.... so she was like hey is it true that i'll see my dead family in the temple? and i was like eh?? where did you hear that! anyway we talked it out. it was good. we're mostly on the same page again....

ano pa...... 

we have had suuuuper amazing timing with the rain. aka the Lord loves us. and we'll be like getting ready to leave the apt and it'll be raining crazy hard and then right before we leave... it'll stop!!! or the same thing while we're teaching so we didn't even get super wet this week!

Sister Rose made us some way good fruit/coconut dish yesterday.... it had jackfruit in it and she and her friend Elma couldn't remember what it was called in english and they just kept saying it's fruit and then finally remembered the jack part and thought it was the funniest thing ever. they were like all that was missing was the jack!! i just kept saying fruit and all i needed was to add jack! jack was hiding from me!!! hahaha jack was hiding!!! lolz i think people repeat themselves a lot.... but it's cuz when they don't believe us that we actually speak tagalog they say everything in tagalog and then try to translate it into english and tell us the same story again... which is wicked helpful when you first get here and have no idea what's going on but once you understand tagalog life is a lil redundant..... but always hilarious. :)

We had a bunch of meetings this week! follow-up training for sister chamberlain and then a meeting with half the mission (the other half was on wed) where President Sperry told us that backpacks are bawal.... and a bunch of other stuff too but that was the main affect it had on me... time to buy a side bag!

anyway life is good!

peace out!

-sister jones

P-day outing to the Quarry and a short, but inspiring Story. [8 months out!]

Sisters in Sarah's district went on an outing to a quarry for their P-day.

Companions on the bridge 

one of those last ones of the dude standing in the river btw was of a construction company getting water for the construction site. the one dude just stood in the water and they threw a bucket back and forth until the truck was all filled up!

Sarah at the "quarry"

Fishing 

Smilin' and hikin'

The people here are amazing! and soo hilarious. i love them all!! we're teaching this one lady (rose) and last night she was telling us her life story. it was crazy. her mom is muslim and her dad is... not. (i don't remember what she said her dad is...) but they are from mindanao (the super scary sketch part of the philippines) and by the time she was like 7 both her parents died so she went to live with her mom's sister and then like within a year she died as well. and her mom's sister's husband was like abusive and stuff so she peaced out and was on her own!!! as a lil girl! then she tried to get a job at a factory but they wouldn't hire her because she was too young. so she worked cleaning the streets. but she was so small she couldn't sweep with one hand like everyone else. she had to use two hands! which makes it was harder apparently.... and she would get so tired she would just cry. while she was cleaning the streets. 

And then she was like but even though i grew up with no parents, look at me now! she's educated and has a profession and a family and she's a great person! it was really impressive. pretty much tripled the already tons of respect i have for her. she said she still get sad though that she doesn't have family close by and that her parents are dead. then she looks at her son and she's happy again! (she's hilarious, i kid you not) it was so precious though. cuz that's way true. she is sooo loving!!

Little Update June 3, 2013

So here's a lil update by request ;) 

So this week was great! my cold went away, we baptized some munchkins, got lost in the rain, when on an adventure in a quarry (this morning), found a new sweet family to teach (also they told us all their problems/concerns in like the first five mins, it was kinda hilarious).....

What else..... no more transfer meetings... that was the big news of the week.... 

We were fasting and literally every appointment we went to tried to feed us.... hardest thing ever. they had donuts. all laid out nicely on a plate and smelling delicious with the fan blowing their scrumptious aroma towards us... i don't even like donuts but those looked so good! and the member telling us to just close our fast right now and eat! (don't worry, we withstood and the blessings were totes worth it, especially since she sent some donuts home with us!) 

Soo yeah! i forgot my cordy-cord so pictures will have to wait till next week, get excited. we took a bazillion. 

we're still breathin' and still preachin'!

peace out!

-sister jones