One Month in the Philippines

the baptism happened!!! we took a ton of pictures buuuut i forgot my camera today so you kids will have to wait a week to see how adorable we all are in our matching clothes lolz yeah that happened. E---n was baptized on sat, confirmed on sunday, which was Sister G---'s birthday!!!, and they also gave him the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday... as a priest. do they usually do that so quickly?? we were kinda confused by that but E---n is suuuuper legit so it's all good. He just got a job (before he was pretty much just playing guitar and basketball all day) which is awesome cuz he's working to better his life but now he's super busy so it's way harder to meet with him. good thing we don't have to meet with him like every day now!! just once a week. anyway the baptism was good, a bunch of the ward came to support him and it started mad late which was rough cuz we had a meeting right after and his cousin baptized him (who is 19 and preparing for a mission as well) and he had to be baptized three times cuz it was his cousin's first time baptizing someone but it was great! then E---n came to the area leadership training meeting... not really sure why, but it was really good! they talked about all our area goals and so many of them are directly applicable to E---n that is was good that he got to see and understand what his role is now. 

That's sweet that you get to hear from Elder___________ and Elder __________. That should be really awesome. a lot of people here aren't super familiar with the leadership of the church, obviously the investigators have no idea who they are, but even the members sometimes. i guess that's the same everywhere. but it was interesting to introduce them to E----n because i kinda take for granted sometimes that i've grown up hearing these names and seeing them speak, but to investigators they're kinda random. 

anyway we thought no one could possibly be more prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel than E---n but then! yesterday we went back to that dad we taught a couple weeks ago and i was kinda not as stoked about it cuz he didn't come to church and last week he was sleeping. but! we taught him and he is awesome! he said he went over to his dad's place an hour before church starts but his dad had already left him! his dad is super enthusiastic about church and stuff :) anyway at the end of the lesson we challenged him to pray about everything and he said he would (actually he told us that later tonight he needs to pray with a sincere heart about whether this is Christ's church and if God restored his truth through Joseph Smith, it was pretty awesome) and we were like ok (super excited on the inside and trying not to scare him with our apparent enthusiasm) so what do you need to do when you receive an answer to your prayers? and he was like i need to read, and go to church, and be baptized. bam. committed him to be baptized when he receives an answer. oh my ready. it was awesome. and we had a member girl working with us and she was awesome and got way pumped about missionary work (except she's totes gonna get married and not serve a mish but its to a super legit member rm here so its all good) (ps that's in my opinion the best way to involve members. get them to work with you with specific people so that they love them as well, they are excited by their progress, by their church attendance, and they notice when the investigators aren't there because they want them to progress, but i've only been here a month sooo whatevs) 

yesterday was my one month mark!!!! and sister g---'s birthday!!! and E---'s confirmation!!! pretty much just a party all day. we went to a member's house for dinner and they are kinda rolling, they actually have an oven. so they made us a roticery (spell?) chicken and a cake. sister g--- said that's the first oven she's seen in someone's house since she's been here. it was pretty exciting.

people stare at us because we are American's and they stare at me cuz i look american. then they ask sister g---a why she doesn't look like me. lolz she tells them its cuz she's half mexican. there is a lil 9 year old boy that we visit cuz his grandma is suuuper inactive (which is lame cuz she has gone through the temple!) but he sits in on our lessons and he always runs up to me and says "so cute your eyes." and "so cute your face" its pretty much adorable. this week he figured out that i can speak tagalog (he's not super attentive when we teach and im not super good at the chatting before the lesson when he is paying attention and all i do is nod and smile) and it was hilarious.  he's not a member cuz his parents and grandma are inactive so we're trying to get his grandma to come to church and bring him! cuz he should be a memeber. he wants to but doesn't have anyone to go to church with. i thought he was just hanging out with us cuz we're americans but we were walking back to his house with his grandma and i was asking him questions about the scripture stories and he proceeded to tell me allll about the first vision and joseph smith and everything that happened with the restoration of the church. it was impressive. and i was like do you believe that? and he was like yeah totally! (aight he didn't say totally, but you understand) so now we're gonna start actually teaching him, cuz he's paying more attention than we give him credit for. 

aight, peace out.

love you, 

sister jones

Sweet is the Work!

Sunday's are looong days. and fasting was rough. but it was great! we taught some good lessons and had a ton of people at church and the testimonies were really good! so that was awesome. ericson gets baptized on sat! we're so stoked. he's pretty much more solid than half the members already. we had some of the young men teach him with us and they were supposed to explain the Priesthood to him and it was a struggle lolz. but we got there in the end and now we are all a lil more informed and know that no you did not in fact receive the Priesthood when you were 8 right after you were baptized. 

The other day a member told us that i look like im from the year 1823 and my comp looks chinese. sweet. two very specific observations. lolz.

We got our curfew extended for two nights a week till 9 to teach a super awesome investigator that doesn't get off work till 8. Pres. Sperry is super awesome we were like heeeey what do you want us to do here and he just looked at us and was like do whatever you need to do to teach him. just make sure you're safe. that's our number one priority. and we were like saweeet. we're totes safe, don't even worry about it! mostly we just didn't want to pass him off to the elders cuz we already started teaching him and are really excited cuz his wife is a member and his kids are all super legit and they all come to church every week and he's ready!! he knows its time! 

Tatay rosete wasn't at church this week and we were like whaaaaaaaa the world is ending. where is tatay?!!? so we went to visit him and he was like in a ton of pain, it was awful, he said he feels like there is still air in his side? like under his right arm ish? idk what that means but i felt so bad for him.and he was still so sweet and setting out the chairs for us and everything. we were bummed though cuz that meant his son didn't come to church either. lame. 

Transfer day isn't till jan 23 or 24th or something and i'll stay here with sister garcia cuz the training is two transfers and then i'll have a follow up trainer come here, so i'll be in valenzuela for at least 3 transfers! which is good,  cuz the work is going great. im in the malanday ward ps in case you want to like find that on your lil mappy map :) 

 i'll get one new house mate cuz one sister is going home so that's probs good cuz she's mad trunky. the other week we helped a nanay do her laundry with the pretense that i needed to learn how to do it (mostly true) and it was super hilarious. cuz we we're in pros clothes and everything. she is the one that does the laundry for all the elders but we don't give her ours cuz she is so busy! and we can do it ourselves. its actually super cool, its kinda relaxing. it just takes forever. i did all my laundry on wed and it took like two hours. but its not bad at all, my hands are fine, no need for gloves or anything.

I  don't even know what the temperature is here cuz even if they told me it would be in C and mean nothing to me. its pretty warm. most def not winter here. which is fine by me! im not missin provo winter right now that's for sure.

The elders are still so fascinated that my nose is tall and the other day one of the elders was like hey have you seen the hobbit poster at 7-11? (yes we have 7-11) and i was like uhhh no? and sabi niya oh well you have the same nose as everyone in the poster except the main hobbit. soooo now i have a hobbit nose? basta. 

aight peace out! im good, im alive, "it's more fun in the philippines!" (that's like their tourist slogan or whatevs lolz)
loves, sister jonesy

1-1-2013 Great start to the new year!

Hello family,

things are going great here! Christmas was kinda just like any other day and no one did very much for it but apparently new years is the biggest thing in the world cuz everyone went crazy. like fireworks alllll day and allll night and then at midnight our two philippina house sister mates came in making crazy amounts of noise and yelling and made us all watch the fireworks for like an hour. and then prayed for another hour. and gave us gifts. it was insane. im still not convinced it wasn't all a dream cuz i stayed decidedly in my bed the whole time. lolz it was fun though and then for new years day everyone and their mom fed us a huge feast. we were like rolling out of the jeepney, it was pretty much thanksgiving every two hours. cray cray.

We have been so stoked this week! last week we got chewed out about not having a relationship with the members so they don't fellowship our investigators and so we worked really hard on that and i swear we had at least one meal a day with members, snack/dessert at every appt and members coming with us to lessons allll week. it was awesome! and we have a baptism next week! and he is so ready!! and we found a family yesterday! we were teaching tatay rosete and his son/neighbor just came over and was like oh hey i went to your church once it was great. so we taught him and he was like i need this in my life! i need to be baptized! and we were like ummm yep that's why we're here!! and then we went to his house and taught his whole family!! that was tight. and there is a sister who is super strong in the ward but her husband has never been interested but i guess like a month ago he just came to church randomly and was like super interested so we taught him and he is soooo great! so prepared by the Lord. there are so many people like that its ridiculous. and such a huge blessing. 

This morning we got to go to the temple! we woke up at 3 to catch a bus at 4 to make the 6 am session.... except we got there at 5 and they told us that the schedule changed cuz its a new year and the first session wasn't till 7. yaaaaay. so we took naps in the waiting room. but it was a beautiful day and a great temple visit! we're taking ericson (our jan 12th baptism investigator) to the temple on sat for a tour cuz he wants to serve a mission so we're involving the temple in our lessons a lot just to make sure he knows that baptism is only the first step! in one year he can go to the temple and go on a mission!! i would still be on my mission and that would pretty much be the coolest thing ever. just saying. 

hmmm what else happened this week....... it was the bishop's birthday so he fed the whole ward lunch after church and we had three investigators there and they were stoked. we had to explain that doesn't happen every week lolz (our bishop is kinda loaded) 

We taught a family that lives like out on a farm and they were super legit. they're "inactive" cuz their daughter had a stroke so they take turns coming to church so one of them can stay and take care of here but they are both endowed and super legit. the daughter and their other son both aren't members but just recently they have both become interested in the church so once the daughter is strong enough to come to church she will get baptized and then they can all get sealed in the temple!! super exciting for their family, they have been waiting a long time.

 

Fun story: sister garcia and i were waiting at jollibee (spell? its a fast food joint) for our member to meet us to go teach and we were just chilling and like 6 little kids came and lined up against the glass and just stared at us for like 10 mins..... we felt like goldfish... or zoo animals... then we were at a part member family's house and they fed us so we were just chilling, eating some food, and we hear like a bunch of giggles from above and there is a hole in the wall that connects their house and there neighbors house and there were a bunch of like teenagers poking their heads through the hole just like watching us eat.... then they started playing music and i felt like i was in a movie... it was great lolz i was cracking up and sister garcia was like what is going on?? lolz happens all the time. usually i have stare offs with babies in the jeepney.... they always win...alas. one day. 

Well life is good. only a couple cockroaches around our apt, no worries there, we close the window at night so they don't come in, which is really hot, but its better than bugs :) im healthy and happy and the work is great!

love you all

-sister jones

Christmas Call - seen but not heard:0

Sarah emailed Christmas eve to tell us she would Skype with us on Christmas night-(9am her time the day after Christmas.)  The Christmas Skype was tricky because we could see her, but not hear her, so we tried various arrangements  and finally ended up typing back and forth.  It was great to get to see her though.  We all gathered around Nick's computer, and he did most of the typing (he's fast!)
Here are some of the  Christmas Phone call notes:
She says she's really doing fine!  She never had jet lag, and she only has about 10 mosquito bites on each leg...She's healthy and happy!
       There are 2 areas in her ward, and even though her area is small in geographical area, it is very time consuming to get from one appointment to another. It doesn't sound like they do much tracting, but mostly teaching.  They have 9 investigators with a baptismal date.  (Wow!)  However, she says most of them won't be baptized on their scheduled dates, because they aren't keeping their commitments.  They have to come to church for 4 Sundays in a row in order to be baptized,  and only one of the investigators has met that requirement.

"super legit investigator (Ericson) playing the guitar and  his little sister Lola"

He looks young to me, but Sarah says he is around 20.

The people are so nice to the missionaries.  She says church is happy and really noisy! The children are so cute.  Last Sunday one of the little girls came over to sit by Sarah, and was talking to her, it was during the Sacrament and she watched Sarah reading and pondering her scriptures.  Sarah gave her the scriptures, and she spent the rest of the meeting looking at the scriptures just as Sarah had.  

     Sarah said she made "nobake" cookies for their ward Christmas party,  which is about the only option considering they do not have ovens.  They do have a rice cooker and a hot plate...

     Sarah and her companion go running in the mornings during exercise time. The other 2 sisters in their apartment are Filipina and just think they are so weird for going running. When Sarah and Sister  Garcia come back to the apartment they do sit ups and push ups and the other sisters laugh at them:)  

     The sisters take turns cooking for each other. The filipina sisters make "weird" stuff for breakfast, like corned beef.  Sarah makes toast and jam for breakfast, and the other sisters aren't too crazy about that apparently.  

Sarah at the mall - pretty modern mall considering the living conditions!

Pictured here is their main mode of transportation, I think:

Sarah loves the kids!!  She says they're soooo cute!

We were surprised that Sarah's schedule is that they have language study, scripture study, and companion study, and leave their apartment about 11, because she is going through the in field training program.  They have to be back in their apartment by 6 pm, unless they have an appointment, in which case they can stay out until 7 pm.  They can't be out after dark because of safety concerns.  Even though their proselyting time is limited, they seem to do a lot of teaching.  She says the living conditions are not as big a concern as she expected.  It sounds like the transition to life in the Philippines is easier than she expected, even though she is dealing with lots of insects, no shower, and limited hygiene resources.
It was so wonderful to see and "talk" to Sarah!!

Christmas temple tour!

me and my comp :)

 nativity pic for mahjah

First Philippines Post - She's there!

hey fam bam! 

Sorry i didn't call in Hong Kong! we were literally escorted to the next flight cuz we didn't have any time and we had to go all over the place and it was crazy. but! we made it! and then this random dude drove us to the mission home like two hours away and we arrived all gross and out of it and then they took our pictures yessssss. lolz so you'll probs get that picture. there is one of my and my trainer, sister garcia, and one of me and the mission president and his wife. then we ate dinner and had a training meeting and had interviews with president sperry and then were on our way! my trainer is american, she is from texas, but she's super cool lolz jk texas is great. i am in the philippines.... i don't actually know the name of my area, its like venuzuela or something, idk, i just follow my trainer around :) the area is considered city so its pretty crazy and we spend a lot of time sitting in a jeepney/tricycle every day to get to our appointments but its suuuper fun. we live with two other sisters who are in our same ward, but different areas. they are both filippina and both super nice. one is my trainer's trainer! and in our ward is her trainer! so we have four generations here its pretty cool, we'll take a picture sometime. our apartment is chill its two story with a living room/kitchen area on the bottom and bathroom and then two bedrooms up top. we have fans in every room so its not too hot. i still sleep with earplugs cuz its pretty loud but we live in a nice/safe area. we went jogging this morning in our neighborhood, its a cute place! our neighbors are all super nice and friendly, but pretty much everyone is here so thats no surprise.

My first night we were taking the other new elders to their area and didn't have the key so while we waiting we went streeting and i placed a book of mormon! that was tight. i could understand a lil of what they said and they must have understood me cuz they took the book and my trainer didn't have to change anything i said lolz that was encouraging! the days all kinda blend together so sorry if this is scattered (who am i kidding with that if, sorry this is scattered!) anyway before all of our lessons sister garcia asks me what part i want to teach, or i just have to bear my testimony, its super chill, she does all the hard work :) yesterday though we went to church and i was so surprised they speak sooo much english! but the bishop asked me to speak and then in our investigators class they had me give the spiritual thought, and then in relief society they asked me to share how our family does food storage.... quite the spread of vocabulary!!! it was fun though and everyone is suuuper nice and smiles and nods at me for encouragement when im struggling with a word or anything. its not nearly as bad as i thought it would be, i can understand the flow of the lessons cuz if i don't know what the investigator/less active/recent convert said, i can always understand my companion. the other day we were teaching a girl and she was like sooo whats the priesthood and why don't girls have it? and my comp looked at me and was like you want to take this one? and i was like i don't even know how to answer that in english! but i had understood the question so i was stoked so i answered it. i thought i did pretty well with that lesson but at the end the girl was like umm next time sister jones can teach in english if she wants, i'll understand it just fine lolz i told her if i teach in english i'll never learn tagalog!!

I got my first "hey joe" my very first morning waiting for a jeepney, that was funny. people say that to us all the time cuz we're americans. and the little kids follow us around and try to speak to us in english. they are sooooo cute! so we just chat with them and ask if they're joining us. like 5 people a day comment on my nose.... that's new. never has my nose been a topic of conversation but people say stuff all the time its way funny and my eyes cuz no one has blue eyes, even my trainer has brown eyes so they just stare me down and i make faces at them and they say something that i don't understand and my trainer laughs and i say salamat po. :) its a good system. 

Oh yesterday we totally had a flood!! it was so tight!! we were walking over to the church to meet our members that were coming to teach with us (ps our ward is so legit!!! every single one of our investigators came with a member that was able to stay with them and show them were to go and we have a few rm sisters that come teach with us and they're awesome!) anyway we were walking over and it was like sprinkling  then we had to wait at the church for like an hour cuz our members were late and while we were there it started pouring and by the time we left the streets were soooo flooded!! then we took a tricycle across town and it was crazy! the water was like up to our knees and all up in the bike and it died a couple times and we were just chilling in the water and then we finally made it to the appointment and we were soaking wet! and it had stopped raining really hard so we kinda just looked crazy. it was great. we taught about eternal marriage to a recent convert who is like a 16 year old girl and it was super fun. then they fed us soup and it was delish and i've had fish twice so far and i didn't die either time!!! i have liked everything i have had! but i have yet to try belut... i told my trainer i will try anything once so that's coming....im not gonna bring it up though cuz she said it tastes just like a hard boiled egg.... which i don't like..... yay!!! 

Anyway the work is great, we focus a lot on reactivation because there are so many less active. our mission motto/theme is twice in white, cuz we are working on getting our less actives to the temples which i love! tomorrow we are taking a bunch of less actives slash recent converts on a temple tour and i am sooo excited!! its gonna be way fun! and then thursday (or maybe friday i can't remember) is our christmas conference allll day so that'll be way cool too! our mission president is so nice! and so is his wife all all the senior couples! we only talked with them for a bit but then the aps were telling us about them when they took us home and they said he has magic scriptures cuz they always open up to exactly what scripture he says lolz he seems really awesome, im excited to get to know both of them better. 

hmm what else do you want to know..... we cook for ourselves a lot (every lunch and dinner and we do breakfast by ourselves) today we're going to the palanke so i can get lots of fruit :) whenever we make american food the other sisters are like ewwww its so heavy lolz its way funny. they're super funny, we have a good time. sister garcia is way awesome and patient and she never gets mad at me lolz she has only been out eight months and i am her first american companion and she was praying for one so she is stoked and im stoked cuz she's a great trainer! sometimes i use weird words i picked up at the mtc and afterwards she is like umm what're you saying, its way funny. like musmos! it means little ones but i like to use it like i would use the work munchkins in english and its super deep (old school) tagalog cuz i found it in the scriptures (3 nephi 27) so the people don't speak like that but they understand it lolz.

I am sleeping well and healthy, except a cold thing i brought with me from the mtc! we have a catholic church somewhere close so we get to wake up and go to sleep to them having mass lolz its a party. we have a pretty view from our window and im on the top bunk so i love looking out in the mornings when i wake up. we have a super early curfew cuz it gets dark early so everyday we head out of the apt around 12 after all our studies and then we have to be home by 7 which is rough cuz people work till late so we pretty much have set appointments everyweek cuz they are only available the one day.

I only have like ten bug bites, totes nbd, but kinda annoying. i don't even know when i got them... they just appeared magically one day.... sneaky mosquitoes... they should be called ninja mosques. we have a fridge and a stove top thing and a toaster oven so im having to adjust my cooking a bit and that's an adventure, but i made stirfry the other day and it was actually pretty dec! we have rice every day for lunch and dinner, its suppper yummy and then usually some stuff on top of it. my comp got a huuuuuge package from home the day i came (i got your package but no letters yet, we get them every two weeks and they apparently weren't there before i got there) with a bunch of american stuff so we have been super spoiled of late with like salsa and oreos :) we have a bucket shower!!!!! its fun, it wakes ya up in the morning! but after we work out it feels way good! im still getting used to the baby bucket as toilet paper thing... i've been using the one role of toilet paper we have.... imma have to get used to that soon so that one day when we run out i don't die..... i didn't even have jet lag when i got here! i asked my comp about calling with the phone you gave me for christmas and she said thats probs chill, just ask president sperry first. or we can skype at the bishops house... i would rather call. maybe we can skype for a second to say hi and then call while my comp skypes so it doesn't take forever at the bishops house... what do you think? idk what time it will be, we haven't gotten that far yet... my watch has two time settings on it and one is still on utah time, so i can't tell you your time no prob.

The flight was suuuuper long but i just slept most of the time. it was lame cuz the senior couple was sitting right diagonally in front of us and apparently they get to watch movies. so we were dying. but thats ok! i colored a lot. thanks for those! congrats to suzanna! that'll be great!! when does she report? is she speaking english? crazy things are happening at the mtc, let me tell ya. she'll be in for an adventure. congrats to jessie!! nick is already home for christmas? dang son. sorry, i didn't send my card, you already know that though. ummmm what else....

My feet are still kinda swollen from the plane (they were really bad until today when i shoved them in running shoes and now they're barely swollen!! apparently they just needed some tough love) other than that im good to go! its not even that hot here lolz cuz im in a skirt, win, and i don't wear any makeup, double win, and we carry handkerchiefs around all the time and wipe our faces off whenever we get sweaty (all day erryday) soooo weather, nbd. lolz a bunch of people here wear towels down their back so they don't get pasma, its great :) we say a man selling taho.... (can't remember if thats what it is called, but its the drink bro langer told us about) but my comp didn't know what it was so we didnt get any yet... next time! and we could hear a bunch of little kids singing the Christmas songs at the catholic church bro langer taught us! i was like oh hey i know this song!! (it was the jewish sounding one) and my comp was like ummm random. what are they saying? and i was like uhh idk. i sent the lyrics home! lame. oh well. little kids came to our door caroling, but the other sisters sent them away cuz we can't give them any money or whatevs. 

aight. that should be enough to stop mom from getting a hernia this week. im outie. 

im doing great, the church is true, the philippines is prettttty much straight up awesome. and an adventure all the time. love it!

peace out american scout

love sister jones! 

Sarah's on her way to the Philippines!

Sarah called me from the SLC airport tonight.  It was great to hear her voice. She said her time in the MTC was really a great experience.  She is now on her way to the Philippines via Los Angeles then Hong Kong.  I'm hoping to get a phone call from each airport.  Here is today's email:

so im leaving today. sweet. last night i slept in a random room so i wouldn't be alone in my room (cuz that's bawal) (forbidden) anywho my room was preeeeetty deppressing with mga kasama ko gone. but its all good. im almost all packed! so i get to go to the temple once more this morning and finish up packing and then kick it till 4:30!!!! (ps the random sisters i stayed with last night were so sweet! they made my bed for me and are totes adorable) also i have a bunch of pictures buuut no way to send them to you (its super weird at the MTC how you have to send them and my only way to send them was through Sister Hayden, who is now flying to Hong Kong as we speak sooo you're out of luck. 

 Sister's in Sarah's district and her teacher.

Sarah's district

Last night we had class and it was me, two elders, and my teacher bro langer. super weird. but so fun!! he taught us a bunch of Filippino Christmas Carols that the musmos sing door to door for monies (the little ones sing for money) they were way cool. they sounded kinda hebrew and they had a dance and clap with one of them that was tooootally hebrew sounding/looking. it was way fun. then we just chatted in Taglish for a couple hours about his mission and our mtc time and what to expect. i finally told him how terrified i was when he first started teaching and he was super surprised. it was cool. i got myself a lil solo sticker for today so people aren't freaked out when im walking around without my seeesters! but i don't really need it cuz im with sister breck for most of the day...... 

talk to you tonight!

-sister jones