Flooding, looking for a wedding dress, and a 300 student college seminar

This week was insane. like get ready to have your mind blown. k mebbe not but for reals. we were trippin out. 

first off. 
With surprise and joy Sister Jones and Sister Loo are pleased to announce the marriage of their investigators

Cherrycel Cunanan and Victor Certeza!!!!

you are cordially invited to their wedding ceremony THIS SATURDAY!!!!!! at 8 am.
hope you can make it, nbd it's just a few hours away...

Yep crazy. on Sunday a sister in the ward (Nora) announced a free wedding happening this sat. plenty of time to plan a wedding, right? totes. so we go to them sunday night and we're like oh hey why aren't you guys married yet? and they were like umm we don't have any money and brother doesn't have a birth certificate! and we were like welllll we don't know anything about weddings here but we are going to find a way!!!!!!!! and then we left. not having any idea how to make that work.

No worries, the Lord knows how to make everything work!!! so the next day the same sister, Nora, was like hey do you need the forms for that wedding or what? and we were like umm he doesn't have a birth certificate and it takes 10-15 days to get one daw sooo probs won't be ready for this wedding. we're gonna figure something else out. then nora sent the most exciting text message i have yet to receive in my young life. she said and i quote, "Kung may edad na cla di na kailangan ang birth certificate.. Kc sagot na ng citihall bsta 25 na edad pataas." !!!!! best thing ever!!!! 

Oh wait. we don't even know how old brother is!!!! dang it... good thing we randomly got their phone number a few days ago and we can just send em  lil texty text to find out!!!! answer: Victor: 36, Cherrycel: 29. dalawa sa kanilla may edad na daw!!!!!
(Translation: if they are middle aged they do not need a birth certificate. and middle aged officially means 25 or older daw.... aka they're both old enough!!!!!)
So of course!!! we want to tell them the good news in person. they can get married on saturday!!!! and be a complete family now!! and get baptized!!!! and then get sealed in the temple!!!!! so excited. unfortunately we have lots of other appointments and they won't be home till 6! we have to wait allll day!!! lame. 

6 o clock. we roll up in our trikey trike and the little girls were all waiting for us at the top. we go into the house and teach a lesson!!! it took all our strength and self-control but we contained our excitement and taught them about the family a proclamation to the world and how awesome it is. and then!!!!!! wa-bam! you can get married on sat!!!!!! brother was dazed, sister was crying, the kids are singing "you're gonna get married" it was a party. except sister was like i don't have a dress!!!! and we were like seriously!!!?? that's what you're crying about!??? we got this. so now we're on wedding dress/clothes hunt.... never thought i would be doing that on my mish.

Hopefully all our plans are not destroyed by the bucket loads of rain that haven't stopped falling for the past three days!!!!!
to be continued.........

second!!! 
so you know that super awesome less active (Relamie) that sister loo found right before i got here and has come to church every week since and invited all her friends to church and works with us every sat, which is her only day without school, and introduces us to a ton of awesome new investigators like weekly????
yeah she's legit. so obviously, we want to get her solid in the gospel. like involved in the church and sound in her testimony. so we're working on the new and returning member form for her and she needs an interview with bishop! so we sat her down after church to get her an interview.
she comes out and we're walking away (cuz she's gonna come work with us again cuz she's a champ) and she whispers to us, sister, i never had this happen (puts her hands on top of her head like in the confirmation) and we're like whaaaaaa? and she's like you know, when you go to the front after you're baptized and they put their hands on top of your head... yeah they never did that for me.......
she was never confirmed a member!!!!! kaya pala wala pang records niya sa ward natin!!!! ano ba yan!!! she's not a member.

cooooool. most random and unexpected news ever!!!!!! so sweet. we turn around and are like oh hey bishop.... she's not a member yet pala......
time to reteach the lessons!!!
so here's what happened. the missionaries taught her when she was in fifth grade, mga 12 years old. and she was suuuuuuper mahiya (shy) so she got baptized on sat but then she was sooooo terrified to go to the front of the congregation for her confirmation that she didn't go to church the next day.... or any day ever again!!! and she hid from the missionaries because she was so shy and scared they would make her go to the front.... so she was never confirmed a member....... crazinesssssssss. there goes all our member present numbers......
no worries we just got a progressing investigator with a baptism date that works with us weekly... instantly!! she's so funny. and she's still terrified to go to the front to be confirmed...... we have until sept 7th to work on that!!! and we told her she can get a blessing before :) she's a champ.

third!! 
Last thursday we got a phone call! (not unusual, the district leader calls every thursday for follow-up calls..) so we were both suuuuper tired. so we were lying in our beds in the dark holding the phone so we could just wake back up to the call, chat real quick like, then go straight to sleep. which was great! except the district leader never called. instead! the zone leaders called! so half asleep i answered. they were like hey, we need your help! (not a normal way to start a conversation at 10 on a thursday night... just so you know...) (also i was kinda already super out of it when they called so i still kinda thought it was the district leader.....) im like sweet what can we do for you? and they're like wellll the stake president just called us this morning and we're having a conference for 300 people (non-members) at the church TOMORROW at 8 am! and you need to bring alllll your Books of Mormon and all your lesson one pamphlets cuz we're gonna do work. 

crazy random! so im like uhh cge, goodnight! and i go straight back to sleep.... bad idea... i woke up and thought that phone call was a dream..... good thing it said it really happened on the phone! so we wake up and tell the sisters we have to be at the church in an hour.... lolz

Then pack alllll our two boxes of boms that we just got two days ago and all our lovely lesson 1 pamphlets annnnd hauled them to the church to the 300 new investigators... seriously we were so confused what was happening.....
We show up and it's a college seminar!!!! and they were like using the church grounds so they decided to let us tell them what the church actually was!!! so our bishop was like you have 20 mins to tell them about the church (the zone leaders... the rest of us were just pamphlet passer-outers....) and then they were like joke lang their first speaker hasn't shown up yet so take as long as you want! you have two hours!!!! crazzzzzy...

So we have here around 300 college students chilling in the church cultural hall that have given us their full (ish) attention. nbd.
so introductions were made and then the zone leaders taught.... the whole first lesson!!! which i thought would be weird. and long. but it was super awesome! they did a super great job!!! and were surprisingly funny! which was perfect for this group! so yep! that was probs a once in a mission/lifetime kinda dealio....... good times.

anyway. the rain is crazy, at maraming baha kahit saan ka papunta! but we're safe!! hope you all have a great week!
-sister jones

Typhoon time, story time and an egg

August 11, 2013 Typhoon time...

It's just a lil rain!! so either typhoons are totes overratted and nbd or it didn't pass over us and we just got a slightly harder than normal rain storm last night. no worries, it's all good :)

anyway! hilarious things happened this week.

1. we went to teach a recent convert and when we got there there were a ton of people gambling slash playing cards outside and we were just like oh hey. but then the rc (mark) was like can we have our lesson here? so we were just chillin outside with all the gamblers. so of course!!! this was a wonderful time to sing ridiculously loud and gather the attention of all these wonderful potential clerks for the church ( because they are so good with money and numbers, obviously.) so we belted "carry on." pretty much just me and sister loo cuz mark and our member working with us were both waaaaaay too embarrassed....... it was super hilarious imma be honest with you. then as we left i thanked them for listening and invited them all to sing with us the next day at church! none of them came this week.... maybe they didn't have enough money for the pamesahe from their gambling expenses.... next week. ;)

2. yesterday it rained way hard. but it was raining men! for reals though. it was ridiculous. dont' worry, i'll start at the beginning.
So we had stake conference yesterday! and it was in the morning so we had tons of time to work in the afternoon! (church is usually at one and it kills our day, but it's church so it's great, of course....) so we went out and taught our returning less-active that we're training to be the best member present around cuz she works with us every saturday and invites everyone and their mom to church and it's awesome.

2a. before that pala! we remembered that we forgot to buy an egg. it was tragic cuz we've started a new sunday dinner tradition for when we're all out of real food! we make.... wait for it....... pan de post-it!!!!! yes it is 5 million times more delicious than it sounds and if you're lucky i'll make it for you someday. moral of the story, we needed an egg. and we had none. and it was sunday. so we decided to borrow one from relamie! (our missionary in training less active) only problem... that was our first appointment. you can't exactly throw an egg in your bag all day and expect to use it come night.... so sister loo determined to carry it. all day. she's a champ. her only fear being that at the very end of the day when we are done with our appts and don't have anyone else we could borrow an egg from she would drop it or break it or whatevs at kawawa naman kami!!! (we would be bummed.... ish) so we successfully aquired an egg and we were off for the day... more on this egg later...

2b. back to raining men. so our first appt was to relamie, a girl. and i kid you not that was the last girl we seriously interacted with for the rest of the day. it was ridiculous. so we set a goal to OYM 26 people and guys are way easier to oym cuz they're the ones out on the street. the women are usually inside so we knock doors to talk to them. anyway we oymed two drunk old dudes on accident (those are the worst cuz they want to talk foreeeeever and you just want to peace out the second you know they're drunk cuz it's useless.) then we continued with 5 men fixing a car (one that told us a very detailed and VERY awkward account of why he doesn't like to go to catholic church cuz he gets distracted by girls sitting next to him wearing inappropriate attire.... totes awkward. he was old too.) but his buddy was legit! his dad was a mormon but he doesn't know anything about it cuz his mom and his grandma were suuuuper catholic daw so they kinda shut him down as far as being mormon goes. bummer. anyway we gave him a bom.

3. then! we had to catch a jeepney to head to our other area (cuz we had so much time we could go to two areas) so while we waited for the jeepney in the gentle rain this huuge group of teenage/young adults crosses the street over to our side to wait for a jeepney as well. and sister loo starts chattin one of them up! then they all got interested so they were gathered around and there was this kid that was asking all these questions about who Christ is to us and told us he doesn't have a religion right now cuz he is a seeker and he just wantsto know the truth!!! so we're throwing down. obviously. it was way fun!

4. but then!!! our jeep showed up! so we were like hey this is us! and they were like us too!!!! so they all hopped on this empty jeepney with us and we continued our conversation! it was legit! there were 9 of them!!! allllll dudes. craziness. so they got off and we were just laughing about how ridiculous that was and then two more dudes get on the jeep and they are confused why we're so happy so they start talking to us! and slowly the jeep fills up but we're still talking so we have an entire jeepney of people listening to us explain who we are and what we're doing here and why we can speak tagalog and we got off the jeepney and they all sent well wishes with us "god bless" "ingat" ganoon. (like that) it was a party.

5. we had two appts waaaay far into this area so we triked in and the trike took us to our second appt instead of our first and they were outside so we taught them first. basically it was 9 men and three boys. the mom was there technically but she wasn't involved in the lesson, she was just the gatherer in this house lolz. so this was a party. don't worry they all put on shirts for the lesson. and they were actually super legit! we're going back on sat. we're gonna double the priesthood in the ward. no bd. that's the plan anyway.

2a. balik tayo sa itlog namin! (we return to our egg!)
of course at this point it's getting late. and sister loo has been diligently holding our precious egg all night. but then. we step out of our halos puro lalaki appt and. the worst happened!!! sister loo pushed a hole in the top of our egg with her thumb!!! nooooo!!!! don't worry. it was just a lil thumb sized hole. we still have most of the egg. but we have one more appt, a trike ride, a jeepney ride, and a walk home before that egg is safely in our pan de post-it!!! curses. so we decided to ask two more men standing in front of a tindahan for a bag. one was drunk and offered us his protection as a security guard. yaaaaay. no thanks. but we got a bag!!! and our last appt punted us. no worries. it was late.

6. so to end our epic sunday adventures we took a shower in the rain on the way home (literally it was like showering) and sent in the wrong numbers to the district leader (i've only sent in those numbers 40 times, why should i know what numbers to send??) and made the most delicious pan de post-it ever!!!!!!

the end.

next week on nova project. do the 12 men come to church? Do we get flooded out due to "Typhoon Thor??" (remaned by sister loo in honor of the magic goat) and what exciting news does president tell us in zone conference??
get excited. this is real life in the phillipines ;)

-sister jones

ps. 7!!! our family home evening was amazing! couldn't have gone better.they all dressed up for it (so cute) and the dad got a new hair cut and they we're looking fresh. we taught an awesome lesson on the atonement where they all wrote down weaknesses or challenges or temptations or problems of theirs on a white towel and then we washed it out!! with the help of soap and bleach and time and sister loo's mad laundry skills lolz. then we taught them again on sat and set bap dates for that whole family!  and they came to stake conference all looking fresh again!! they're doing great!!! we're so excited for them!! all they have to do now is get married!!!! details. we're getting there. :)


(What is Pan de post-it):
it's amazingness in a sunday night dinner when we're all out of real food but also ridiculously hungry..... aka bread dipped in pancake batter and pan fried. best thing ever!

sister loo's family made something like it sooo we just adjusted it to our.... resources. and it's soo good. it's like the best pancake you'll ever have in your life. you guys should try it. :) or wait till i get home and then i'll be pro at it.

LOTS OF PICTURES:)

Makig-Angay family  

Caught in a rainstorm - Sarah and Sister Loo

Rain Enjoyment outside their apartment

climbing through a fence

Our work is going well. we got the whole cunanan family at church and they had a great!!!! experience. and pretty much every one in the ward came up to them and was super friendly, i was so proud of our ward! 
We had 25 new investigators this week!!! It is beginning to be a normal thing to have a bazillion new each week. we also drop like half of them the next week but that's just how that goes when we're looking for the prepared! we are tracting in the wealthier areas in our area (our area is actually pretty well off) and it's way interesting cuz you have to take a completely different approach. for example, sometimes we tract in english. weird. but we usually end up talking to the house help. the people that actually live slash own the house don't want to talk to us :/

But that's not always true! we found this way sweet girl last week. we knocked her house and it was raining and she was just looking at us like we were cray cray cuz we didn't have umbrellas and she was like uhhh come in and we taught her and she was way interested and had great questions!
then we came back a couple days later and had a great lesson! then she went back to the province... lame. but she'll be back soon. don't you worry.

Church was great! we finally had investigators at church!!!!!! 6!! the whole cunanan family came, which actually is just sister's name cuz we just found out they're not married.... but they all came! and we're having fhe with them tonight at a member's house, and the member's daughter who is less active is coming with her family. we planned a suuuuper awesome lesson on the atonement. we're so stoked!!!

Bernadette and all the neighborhood kids

Sisters in Pangarap

This spider was outside, where we do laundry :)

 ps the lil kids here buy/find spiders and then stick two spiders on a stick and have spider fights to the death. it's actually waaaaay awesome to see. and we saw a cock fight the other week.... also in pangarap... it was super cool!  [mom's note:  this is truly NOT awesome to see]

District outing to Ecco park

Ecco park

Touching the baka (cow)

Free-styling, learning to Hula and Standing out like an American Thumb:)

July 28, 2013

Sister loo and I have progressed from story time to free-styling it as we walk. it's a party to say the least. and, just in case you were getting worried, it totes helps us OYM people because we're just laughing and smiling all the time!!!!

Our zone leader told us today that every time he talks to us he just gets more confused because our english is hard to understand....... he's american.

anyway! cool story: sister loo and her comp before i got here tracted into a less active one day and she's come to church every week since they met her (5 weeks in a row now!)! don't worry the story continues. she is super mahiya (shy) and always brings random people to church with her so she doesn't have to go by herself (she's 18) so we have been trying to help her feel more comfortable at church and whatnot. anyway this week she came out and worked with us for a whole day! she was such a champ! cuz it was raining and none of us had umbrellas and she was with us from like 12:30-8:30 and walked allll over the place! it was awesome! and then on sunday she came to church all by herself even though it was raining! She's legit.

Cool story number two. yesterday we got done with church at like 5:30 and we still had to knock 4 doors to meet our nova project goals. so we took some time to knock a random street.
1st door chatted with us a bit and ultimately said she would never let us in because her dogs are scary.... lame.
2nd door didn't even bother to come outside just yelled through the screen that she's busy, next time na lang..... also lame.
door three!!! tao po this random house and the lady is like umm why are you here? and we're like for you! and she's like umm what do you want? and we're like umm to talk to you! how's life! and she was like umm im alive! and then they told us to come in! so we did! and when we got there we were pretty much forcing a conversation with one lady whilst errybody else was watching tv and the dad was at the comp in the adjoining room. then! we just kept talking to the dad and he was like oh hey i have your bible! and he pulls out a book of mormon (sweet) and leaves his comp to come talk to us. then slowly the family gathers... then the dad turns off the tv..... then we talk about everything!!! it was great. we were there for like an hour and set a return apt.

life is good! sister loo and i have way too much fun! she's teaching me how to hula and i'm teaching her how to juggle a soccer ball.... bummer for her cuz im not actually good at juggling... basta. good enough i guess.

we went on splits with the sister training leaders and i worked with sister nunez (filippina) and she was like umm doesn't it annoy you that everyone stares all the time??? and i was like i just thought that was normal..... sometimes we forget that we stand out like an..... american thumb.

that's life!
-sister jones