A real shower, soccer and making friends with the bread man...

This morning was like the best p-day of my life. woke up at the lovely hour of 6:30, stepped out into a perfectly cool morning and walked over to the neighborhood bread man. best thing ever. got some taho and some hot pandesal and headed over to the church to play.... soccer!!!! yay!! for a good hour and a half. with some elders that really play slash love soccer! it was way nice. except the super embarrassing part right at the beginning where i forgot how to play soccer on concrete and ate it..... but i scored a goal from it sooo whatevs :) then we walked home and got some fresh pineapple and made friends with the bread man so he gave us free pandesal!!! which brings us to now!!

Here's an update on the new apt:

there are 4 of us. it's a new apt, pretty nice. it has a working shower!!!! yeah it feels sooo good. cuz it's cold!!! sister loo showers twice a day... i might start that up sometime. ... we'll see  first time that's happened! but we still bucket the toilet to flush it... lolz. umm my kabahay (same house mate person) from my first area is with me again... sister villiaruel. this is her last transfer! and one other american...
 it's not a tall building, just two stories. the neighbor kids are way cute. yesterday we were eating breakfast and this little kid came and stood in front of our door and was like umm there are three kids here. just kids. all the old people left. we're all alone, all the old people left already..... im not really sure he should be offering that information so willingly buuuut it was still hilarious slash adorable. it's a gated little apt complex thing. it's nice!


This transfer is going to be ridiculously awesome. like for reals im so stoked. we're having way too much fun already. the nova zone before i got here was doing this thing called the nova project which is basically just a way to hold us accountable for things we should be doing all the time. it's way fun! basically we're supposed to OYM a million people (60) a week and give out 14 BOMs and visit 3 active members and use new and returning member forms in everything we do annnnd knock 20 doors. (tracting rich people). it's a lot!! but it's way cool cuz it's pushing us. and this week we OYMed.... 74 people!!!!! that's the most exciting number so we'll just stop there ;) but it is so much fun!

The bummer part is we don't really have any progressing investigators.... literally 0. and had 0 inv. at church..... we're building up :) it's cool though, we're getting really good at lesson one and dropping people soon when we know they're not gonna go anywhere even if they still like us to come teach.

The ward is great! they had me speak and we had a really good coordinating meeting after and there are a lot of sisters preparing for missions that work with us. it's awesome! only bummer, church is at 1 pm. which kinda kills our sunday work. but that's ok, cuz no one can give us lame excuses about not going to church cuz they were asleep...oh wait. that'll totes still happen. oh well!

Sister Loo is super awesome. it's way fun to follow up train too! cuz she's got a handle on the language ish and isn't scared of the philippines slash being crazy far away from home now. sooo all that's left is awesomeness! we're gonna have an awesome transfer or two or three or whatevs. im stoked. plus i love the city. it's so great. there are people everywhere!!!! hence. a bazillion oyms. it's a  party. we made new neighbor friends cuz we're jogging erry morning. they want to jog with us daw... we'll see if they really do tomorrow lolz

Well that's pretty much it for the day!
other fun facts. someone paid for our pamasahe [jeepney or trike] the other day (first time that's ever happened, it was really nice!) also, we oymed this dude in english in the grocery store (and by we i mean sister loo) and we decided he was an appointment kind of person so we set a very official appointment with him for this week! we're excited to teach in english.... we're gonna have to practice first.

peace out!
-sister jones

Transfers...new zone...Novaliches.

I be transferring! I'm off to novaliches (the zone next to mine now, super close)  I'm off to follow-up train sister chamberlain's mtc comp. she seems way cool, she's from st. george.   Her name is sister Loo and she used to play rugby!  Her comp is coming here to follow-up train sister chamberlain! we're just swapping :) should be fun! Nova is way city, like my first area, which I'm excited about. but i will most def miss it here. I've been here almost 6 months!

The people here are amazing. we had three goodbye dinners in the past two days lolz they're the best.

Aljon is great! We're teaching his lil bro now too (who is even tinier than him) and his name is aeron! they all went to church this week and the teacher wanted to get someone to volunteer so she asked who in the room is handsome? and lil aeron's hand shot straight up!! (he's 13) it was super funny. so now we just call him pogi. (handsome/hot)
Rose is doing great! she basically adopted these boys so jeff would have people to hang out with. he's an only child and i think rose was worried that he was lonely. they're soooo funny. we came over and they were playing a game kinda like checkers and then they played chess and before we had left they had also had a couple wrestling matches and played some shooting computer game. it was hilarious, jeff is so stoked to have them there!! anyway we're stoked to cuz they're all soooo legit!
that's a tough one to leave!

lolz the baptism was the other sisters. we just go to it to support the branch slash them! but yeah, it was good. it was a father, and he was the last person in his family to be baptized! now everyone in the family is a member! it was super cool. and it was a long time in the works!

love sister jones

HALF WAY!! Sarah's been out 9 months! What do you get when you cram 25 people in a Jeepney??

So this week was chill. we had temple tour and that went super well! we crammed 10 missionaries and 15 others in a jeepney and trecked on over to the temple. (jeepneys usually hold about 22.... smaller people....) but it was awesome! rose and her son jeff came and their new kid aljon!

So aljon is actually rose's nephew but they kinda just adopted him or something... he moved in with them. then that night we taught them all, sat he went to temple tour, sunday he went to church, and the'll be getting baptized on August 3rd :)    He's 13 and when jeff introduced him to us he was like this is brother aljon, he's 13, is he a teacher or a deacon? it was hilarious cuz aljon literally had no idea who the heck we were or what was happening... good times. :)

Other news..... i swear we teach people other than rose and her family.....
they're just the funniest slash most progressing. also hilarious. people have a really hard time understanding the concept of fasting. like a really hard time. we'll teach it and everything and they're like oh yeah sweet i've done that heminah heminah

But then! we were fasting and we go to their house and they're like did you go to your place and eat? and we're like no, we're fasting. and they're like ok. did you eat at the church? nooo we're fasting. ok. do you want something to eat? nooo we're fasting. ok. did you drink water?? nope. still fasting. ok. so you just can't eat hard foods, right? but you can eat soft foods (whatever that means....) and drink water and everything, right? nope. still fasting. no food, no water, 24 hours. that's what fasting means!!!!!!! oooooooh. wait, seriously? what if you get thirsty? umm you suck it up. seriously??? yeaaaaah cuz we're fasting :) good times.

follow-up conversation (5 mins later) i bet that's why those two missionaries died. they were walking all day everyday and they didn't drink any water. lolz so great. 

mmk. ummm a ton of missionaries are going home this transfer and it's gonna be crazy! this was the first batch that was actually called to this mission after it split. and the first batch that came in with President Sperry as the president... it's like all the zone leaders and aps and stuff... weird! (transfer day is next week, i'm not training again so pretty much anything could happen but i'll probs transfer....)

We're going on exchanges tomorrow with the other sisters in the branch and this is the first time i will be the senior comp on the exchanges, going into the other sisters' area. it's weird. but should be way fun. i'll be with sister miner who is super great but she's been having a really rough time. we spent a lot of time this week finding random ways to cheer her up :) it was super fun! and hopefully it helped. she seems to be doing better! it reminded me how much i want to hit up psychology when i get home... like a masters or whatevs :)

let's seeeeee. i used my credit card for the first time ever here earlier today and i handed it to the girl and she literally looked at it and was like "ano ba iyan??" which means like what the heck?? it was hilarious. she called over like 6 other workers and they had a lil meeting (which they assumed i didn't understand lolz, so fun to listen to...) before they decided that i actually could use it! and it was totally normal! yay!!! it caused quite the stir.


Happy birthday 'merica!!!!! so on the fourth of july here we did.... nothing!!!! but the next day! (when it was the fourth for all you kids) we had a baptism! so on the way back we bought anything that we could think of slash find that was american. aka chicken nuggets and pepperoni pizza (which could only be identified as pepperoni pizza by the label... but beggars can't be choosers, right? lolz) and the other sisters bought a cake that was sooooo good! and the cake people decorated it for us! so it said happy independence america!! twas presh. then we came home and sang american songs! aaaaand that was the end of our festivities. there goes my one and only fourth of july here!!! (weird.)

There's a storm a brewing up in hur and we didn't bring umbrellas! looks like we're in for a wet night! speaking of wet nights. i struggle at walking sometimes. specifically this week. i fell THREE times! (the ground gets really slippery when it's wet and my shoes don't have the best traction in the world slash any traction... details) all on the same foot.... it has a lovely abrasion/wound that kinda looks like a star/tattoo gone wrong on the top.... it's not my favorite thing in the world. but the first fall was absolutely hilarious.
we were walking from one appointment that we got punted from to our next appointment (which we also got punted at which made this oh so much better) and we decided to take the scenic short cut thing that goes past the river. (it's way pretty) so the last time we did that there was a lil river thing that we had to step over and one part of it was wider so we went to the narrower part but then the other side was steeper
(i feel like this isn't making any sense.... i would be using my hands a lot if i was telling this story in person... you'll figure it out.) so last time we took the steeper side cuz we didn't want to fall in the river... k it's more like a stream. anyway. last time it was a lil slippery but it worked just fine!
so this time i went first (bad idea) and i stepped over to the other side and immediately started falling slash slipping slowly back into the river! and i couldn't just step backwards blindly back to the other side so i lean down and grab onto two rocks. and im convinced that if i can step on these rocks it will get me far enough up the hill thing to get to the top.
long story short. that was an epic fail. i slipped right on back into the river.

ps this whole time some very concerned, hilarious, and slightly drunk neighbors were trying to direct me to safety. and sister chamberlain was cracking up. as was i. and we were in veeeeerry colorful matching dresses. oh we were a sight.

well that's all i can remember but that may or may not be because i just woke up from a nap.... some things never change. gotta love p-days. ;)
peace out!
-sister jones

Goodbye Pangarap

pictures of the last few days in Pangarap!!!

 Bernadette and the neighborhood kids!!

Jeff, Aljon, and Aeron :) 

 The whole family!!

a large ish spider hanging out by our laundry area....

me and my twinner! aka trainee :) 

Golden Family & her Pangarap mom:) New word: nakakainis...

We went to ecco park today and it was great!! but no grotto last week so pictures next week... sister chamberlain and i bought matching dresses, also pictures next week after we go to temple tour! (p-day is on wed next week, ps.) but everyone asked us alllll day 1. if we were twins. and 2. if those were new uniforms for us lolz

So our golden family, right? still golden. so the 14 year old son is like the most legit kid i've ever met.
he's not even a member yet but he's like going to seminary and yesterday they gave him a Duty to God book and after church he was like umm sister, what do i do with this? and i was like uhhh idk i never did it! jk then i looked at it and figured it out. it's all good :) i was like umm you do it! (k i explained more :) ) and he was like sweet! can i do the deacon part even though i'm a teacher? and i was like yeah sure if you want, or you can just do the teacher part and he was like i want to do it all! and he just like reads the Book of Mormon and asks super awesome slash crazy questions like what was god before he was god if we can become like god?? 

AND they're going to temple tour this week! which is good cuz someone at church told rose she can be sealed to her dead parents in the temple buuuuut they said it in english and sealed kiiinda sounds like see. so now she thinks she will see her dead parents in the temple..... i was really confused when she asked me that....we figured it out though, no worries :)

AND she taught us how to make pancit! and was really concerned that we weren't going home after church and had another meeting that night kinda far ish. so she packed us a dinner. she's our Pangarap mom. nbd. :)

This family though for reals brings a new investigator to every lesson and it's like having a member present. so legit. we taught on sunday and it was this crazzzzy long lesson and i was kinda bummed cuz we didn't have time to go to a couple other people but at the end this new dude (who is the cousin of the dad) was like so i learned something today! and we were like sweet, what was it! and he was just like i feel like this is the truth. this is what i want. and we were like sweet!!! and we talked about that for a bit and then he was like so when's the baptism! and i was like umm who's bap? theirs? or do you want to be baptized? and he thought for a sec and was like yeah i think i do! soooo legit. we're teaching him again thursday. :)

downside. not a single person from manggahan came to church. fully active/endowed member, mostly active, recent converts, less active, investigator, inv with a bap date. we have them all over there and not a single one came. i think it's an epidemic. actually we're kinda worried about them..... there's some sketch stuff going down in that neck of the woods....

Anyway! we had a suuuuper lame interaction with a random american dude here. made me suuuper grateful im not serving in the states. that would be so hard!!!!!! so props to statesiders. i feel like the only things that are hard about this mission are actually just kinda fun. like learning tagalog!!!!!! i learned a new word the other day (that happens a lot, don't worry, this one is just way fun to say ) it's "nakakainis" and it means..... annoying! yep. good times.

Today we went to ecco park which is way pretty! there was this girl there having a super intense photo shoot complete with a horse drawn carriage and at first everyone was like it's an artista!! (star) and then we asked and they were like umm this is ____ (i don't remember the name) it's just her 18th birthday so we're doing a photo shoot to have pictures for the party. it's fairy tale themed..... sounds like it'll be a pretty intense birthday party!

aight. im outie.
love you all!
-sister jones

ps. we saw the broadcast training thing last night! it was so good! and my friend from p-town was in it!!! sister campbell!!!! it was crazy to see so many white people. conference was the same way.... weird.