picture snagged from FB

Sarah and Elder Hicken Dec 2013

Baptism pictures!!!!!! The stake baptism happened! complete with five baptisms from our ward, four of which were from our area! have a few pictures :)

the cutest four going on eight year old around!!!

 much thanks to the support from the ward!!!

Crazy how much goes into these people being baptized. and we happened to be here at the right time to see the baptism!! these have been in the works since before elder carr's time here in Meycauayan!! 

Golden investigator, neighborhood Christmas party, &...immigration paperwork??

This week was exciting!!! 

Let's start with Monday. aight nothing really exciting happened on monday, 

Let's move to Tuesday. 

Tuesday we went to teach tatay nick!! (the one who has had a really hard time quitting smoking.) and we had a great lesson!!!! we gave him a calendar plan thing of what he needs to do to stop smoking on Christmas!!!!! and he was so excited about it! he was like, i can do this! and we were like that's good cuz you're going to. :) and we had lola asuro with us who was a friend of his wife's! so they talked about back in the day when both of their spouses were still alive and how great they were. and he was just talking about how much he loves his wife and how long he took care of her and one day she looked at him and was like nick, when i get better, if you ever get sick, i'll take care of you. and he was like siempre!! asawa kita!!! lolz (of course!! i'm your husband!!) and then he just laughed and laughed. it was super cute. he looks like the old man in up... at least his face does :) 

Then! we went to teach our golden investigator, ruby. who, even though we came a day earlier than she expected, was all ready and had read her assignment and taken notes and everything. she's literally amazing. and we found out that her mom used to be an investigator!!! and is also friends with lola asuro :) 

ps. we had lola with us for a solid couple of hours and it was awesome. she walks super slow but she knows EVERYONE and we looks waaaay more approachable with her with us so people straight up came up to us asking for pamphlets and for us to come teach them. awesomeeeeeee. totes going back. 

problem. we're trying really hard to find future leaders for the ward but more often than not..... they are turning out to be kinda creepy old dudes... instead of future leaders..... like just wanting to text/call us all the time... but not wanting to be taught. laaaaaame. dropped. 

Also! the madaldal english speaking kinda rude dude invited us over for christmas day... "as people, not as missionaries" lolz. nope. we're always missionaries, sorry bro. so i wrote him a letter. thanking him for his invitation but explaining that we would be spending Christmas as we spend every other day, as missionaries. inviting people to come unto Christ. Remembering the true meaning of Christmas. immabehonest with you... it was way fun to write. and i told him we're not coming back till he's ready to listen with an open heart. the punk. hopefully he does!!! cuz he said he read the whole Book of Mormon... 

Where we at now... wed! we had zone interviews over in valenzuela! during which we received many a distressed call/text from our lovely sisters..... so we went to malolos again that night!!!! got our trust circle on again.. these ones wouldn't even look at each other. that was fun. so we made them look each other in the eye and say things they're grateful for about the other person lolz so painful. but it worked! they're doing good now. The power of gratitude

Thursday! exchanges... and the eve of the storm for the mother of all colds.....

friday!! exchanges again! after sleeping for the second night on a lil couch mattress with no fan.... i died a lil bit. actually a lot a bit. good news, this sister doesn't know me very well, and therefore saw no difference!!! cuz she didn't know what to expect..... she said when i speak it's very... malambing. lolz (affectionate) pretty sure that was from my cold/lack of sleep but hopefully she felt the love ;) 

saturday! i got to sleep in my own bed!!! i love my bed!!! and meycauayan!!! we went to the ward christmas party and taught a bunch of our investigators there :) like ruby! who had been there since like noon setting up and cutting snowflakes for decorations. she's not even a member yet!! what a champ. also, our ward is great. they love the missionaries so much! we left the party for a few mins to teach someone else and they like chased us down cuz they though we were going home before we ate!! lolz don't worry, we ate before we left :)

sunday!! needed sooo badly to go on splits cuz we've been in our area like one full day all week. too bad allll the members were like next week na lang!! lame. whatevs, we got one sister to work with us :) and we went to this dude's neighborhood Christmas party thing that he put on for all the munchkins that live there. it was soooo cute. i swear none of them had seen a white person before, and here were two!! in the prayer they thanked God for the " magagandang dalaga na dumalo sa amin" the beautiful single ladies that came to visit us) so great. hard to keep a straight face in that prayer. 

AND they all dressed up and preformed dances for us that they had rehearsed! and took a bazillion of awkward pictures of/with us... lolz. and we told them all to remember the true spirit of Christmas and wash the dishes before their parents ask them lolz and met a former investigator that wants us to come back! ftw. 

then! we got to watch the first presidency Christmas devotional!!!!! better late than never! so stoked. we found out they were broadcasting it like a few hours before it happened. totes worth two hours in a jeepney while fasting. :)

Don't worry the fun has just begun! this week we're having testimony meetings with all our mabibinyagan (people getting baptized) and their fellowshipper families! super excited about that. and we have two days of exchanges again in baliwag!! and christmas conference with half the mission!!! and the stake baptism!!! and then it's sunday and then it's Christmas!!! time flies when you're...... man. i got nothing. sorry, next time na lang! ;)

have a wonderful Christmas!!!! we're gonna try caroling as a tracting.... thing .... lolz in our spare time this week :) we'll let you know how it goes. 

love, sister jones

ps. i was just informed that tomorrow i have to go to the mission office to fill out some immigration paperwork.... so i can go home on time in may!!!! weird. 

One year in the Philippines, exchanges and drama...letsbehonest

This coming week i will hit my one year mark in the field. crazy how time flies! a year ago i was in the mtc getting suuuuper excited to come to the philippines! and now i have less than five months left on my mission!! crazy. 

Anyway this week we had some crazy things happen. 

1. our investigator, nick, came to church!! best thing ever!!!! then we went to teach him on tuesday and for the first time ever he told us he thinks he can stop smoking. 

this man has been investigating the church on and off for over TEN years. and he has always been held back by smoking. he has never believed that he can change. so missionary after missionary has dropped him even though he knows the church is true, he knows the book of mormon is true, he believes everything, he just doesn't know how to bring it home. but he went to church!!! and then he just didn't feel the need to smoke! he said he's usually like searching for a cigarette after however long passes but this time he wasn't!!! so great. 

so we made a fun lil chart/calander thing of how many cigarettes he can smoke every day until it's down to 0!!! which is christmas day... so we're giving that to him on tuesday :) so he can get baptized jan 25th!! that's the goal.. we'll see what he says :) 

2. went on exchanges in baliwag!! i worked with a sister that is only one transfer behind me.... it was super weird. we've had such different missions even though we've been in the same mission for almost the same amount of time! she's a recent convert and had some really rough things happening back home while she's been on her mission so it was amazing to see how far she's come. 

on the other hand. her teaching of the lessons was reading the pamphlets. suuuuuper boring. sooo we worked on that. cuz letsbehoest. that's not a party. if i was her investigator, i would punt her. 

also had some fun experiences of just not teaching people who want to fight. we went to this recent convert who had an operation and is now pretty much vegetative. his wife is a catholic and his son is on a mission right now. you would think the wife would be nice... not even a lil bit... .suuuuper awkward. refused to even tell me her name. i told her mine and she was like oh i'm sister jone too. i was like aight homes, if you're gonna be like that, at least get my name right. it's not even hard to say. anyway she was clearly just gonna turn into a spiritless headache of a lesson so after she said some crazy opening prayer i was just like welllll you're not gonna listen to us so we're not gonna waste our time with you. thanks, bye. 

totes caught her off guard. so great. anyway then we left. headache averted. no point in fighting people that don't want to listen! 

3. apparently the whole companionship inventory thing that needs to go down in weekly planning is bringing out some major issues in their companionship. so as we're ending up our weekly planning we get some serious texts of distress and then two phone calls from president sperry that our sisters were having some problems... yay!! so we went on exchanges the next day and got to work on our therapy skills..... they need some work but they were enough cuz the sisters are not going to be emergency transferred and are happy and friends now :) ooooh sisters. so much drama. 

anyway! our four amazing investigators here in meycauayan are still doing amazing and on track for their baptisms on dec 21st!! so we're super excited for that :) they all have really great member support so we're gonna set up testimony meetings for each of them the week before their baptism (next week) with their member friends/family :) should be awesome! 

life is good! go to church. 

-sister jones

Thanksgiving, exchanges, Four baptisms and a talent show...

So this week i had my first, and quite possibly last, thanksgiving outside of the u.s. so of course! we had to make it awesome. we were on exchanges in malolos and there just so happens to be two other american sisters there, one filipina, and one pakistani! so we had quite the racial spread. 

started out our philippines thanksgiving with a lil balut!!! of course for all those that hadn't experienced it yet. aka 4 out of the six of us, including the filipina and the pakistani!!! so that was super entertaining to watch and not repeat for myself again. been there, done that. 

Then,  we got our american food on. mashed potatoes, fried chicken, corn on the cob, rolls (pan de sal) ..... and shanghai lumpia!! aight, it was just a baby celebration but beggars can't be choosers ;) and it was super fun! 

As was exchanges! beside the whole making my comp for the day cry.... don't worry about it. it's all good now... but let's just say exchanges is always a huge reminder of how lucky i have been on the mission!!! with companions and the language and my areas and everything. for reals. 

Umm other news.... we're having four baptisms on the 21st!! they moved the stake baptism to the 21st so we decided to just have them all sabay so the ward can really get behind them and support them. three of them had their interviews on sunday! which was great! except that only two of them are done being taught..... yeaaaaaah that was fun. she still passed though, she's that awesome. they are all suuuper amazing. and getting involved with the ward and it's so great to see! they were all referrals btw sooo introduce your friends to the missionaries... it's the way to go. 

Picture sent from Sister Noriega today:)

We're having a talent show for christmas conference! our district leader, elder qaqa (pronounced gangga, of course) is from fiji and is crazy funny and wants to be remembered always by everyone. so of course, he's planning a super awesome samoan slap dance routine thing for our zone.... we'll see if that ends of happening, but it will be sweet if it does! 

Tatay nick came to church!!!!! and we sat him next to a super madaldal recently returned missionary.... best thing ever. and he already has friends from when he used to come to church/when his wife who is a member was still living. so that was great! he's got this. and we met his apo and she was asking great questions about lots of stuff.... then went on for a lil bit about witchcraft.... we just kinda ignored that part and went back to the great questions about the gospel :)

ps. ruby, one of the people getting baptized on the 21st, is already reading from the Book of Mormon more than a lot of the members (lame on the members part) but she made herself a lil book mark and it has a quote on it from elder holland! "doubt your doubt before you doubt your faith" (that was elder holland, right?) so great! she made it herself! she's legit. we're stoked. she's working on getting a new job right now... no worries, it's at a bank that is closed on sundays!!! best thing ever!!! stoked. 

have a great week! don't let ruby put you to shame in your reading! ;)

-sister jones

Stories, Batman, Navy Doctor, and more

So this week was crazy. but also super fun! i'll tell you a couple stories, hopefully you can get a taste for it. 

We went to teach this sweet young mother that we had just started teaching a few weeks ago. we started teaching her because she asked for a Priesthood blessing. and she had a really great experience there. but she's catholic. so we're teaching her about keys and one true church and all this great stuff and she understands. and at the end she was like yeah, imma stay catholic. and i literally asked her, even though you know it's wrong, and this is the right church? and she looked me straight in the eye and said yes. she would rather stay with the traditions of her family even though she knows it's not the truth. lame.

Then we taught this dude named greg! (yep, now we have a nick and a greg)

he's referral from a member. he has been taught a ton, but never by sisters so the member was like why not! let's try again! maybe sisters can get through to him! 

anyway we're teaching and the whole time i can't tell if he's crazy or messing with us or possessed by a devil. he pretty much thinks his calling in life is to be batman. but his friend is really sincere so we are giving it our best. then on sunday he comes to church!! i have never been so nervous to have an investigator at church before in my life. the whole time i was just on edge wondering what he was gonna say..... but it was great! he even made some really good comments! then we got a text on mondayfrom the member friend that was like come teach greg right now!! he's gotten answers that he can't explain and God held his tongue at church so he wouldn't speak non sense!! but we couldn't teach him! cuz we were completely booked (sister noriega's last day) so we set an appt for friday. friday, we go to his house, he's not there. he got a new job! so we set another appt. 

then yesterday he came to church again! and this time he made several really great comments and was really happy to be there and brought his long time less-active sister as well! so great!

sooo we'll keep you updated on the batman. 

Then! we got a referral for a retired u.s. navy doctor. that's exciting. he only speaks in english cuz he lived in the states for 21 years. so we go to meet him and he's suuuuper madaldal (way chatty) so we set up a return and we're like ready with a plan of how to get him to stop talking every once in a while so we can actually teach him. he has read a bunch from the Book of Mormon, he's been to the LA temple, he's known a ton of mormons and he's got some really great stories and knows a ton about a ton buuut we're there to teach him the gospel, not exchange stories about america. 

So we go back. it's a rough start, kinda repeating the first interaction. but we finally get him to stop and "listen" for a lil bit. nope. that didn't last long. he only waited till he heard something he could "teach" us about till he interrupted us again. for reals. so im like aight this is a waste of time, he's not listening to anything we're saying, im getting ready to go, my comp doesn't get the hint, is still trying to force something in the gospel into him. and he's like oohhh sister jones is no longer happy with me and im like yeah dude, you're wasting our time. you don't want to listen so we're gonna go teach someone that does. and he's like umm how old are you? 22. well im 68 and i've traveled around the world so you can't tell me anything i don't already know blah blah blah.(ps earlier in the evening he stopped my comp and said, i don't mean to be rude, but, did you go to college? what was your course? obviously doubting her educational status. ps she's a neuroscience major....)  i literally stopped him, put my hand on the Book of Mormon and said, brother i have been called by a prophet of God to share this message with the world. guess what, he didn't listen to that either. 

whatevs, we left. he just brought to life sooooo many scriptures. cool. 

let's end on a great note! 

we got a referral at church from an active rm in the ward (sister) for a girl that she brought to church with her! (best thing ever) and then we taught her on wednesday. so we had just had a meeting about giving the bap invitation in the first lesson so im like aight. it's happening. so we go through the usual stuff and we can already tell she's super awesome. she has a book of mormon already that rose (her friend) have her with her testimony in it, and she has already started reading it!!! so we're talking and im like so as you continue to listen to us and act on our invitations, you will gain the desire to follow Christ's example and be baptized...... and she was just like nodding happily so i was like .... do you have a desire to be baptized now? and she was like yep! and we were like sweet! and gave her a bapt date and everything and she wants to go on a mission and get married in the temple and she came to church again this week and she's 24 and awesome and we're so excited about her!!!! 

ps we taught her again on sat and asked her why she is so ready to accept and live the gospel and she told us after she went to church on sunday she was thinking about it a lot and then on tuesday she had a dream where david archuletta (spell?) (her idol and the face of the church in her mind) like led her through the mist and handed her a book that was blank at first but then as she opened it and tried to read it the words started showing up that this was where she needed to be and it was the truth and she needs to stay here. crazy, eh? 

she's awesome. 

anyway, that's all folks! have a great week! 

-sister jones