Safe and Sound and the work goes on! Shoe thief & Pictures too...

Thank you for all of your prayers and concern!!!! we are completely safe here. send your prayers down to Tacloban!!! they have been hit crazy hard. but they're way down south (completely different islands). we had a lil rain, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Cutting down bamboo with a butcher knife --after the typhoon

72 hour kits in their apartment - ready for the typhoon

Anyways this week was great! but first, stuff i forgot to tell you about last week....

we were playing wiffle ball (idk how to spell that...) and the gate was open to the church and this super crazy lady came in and was like waving a straw around like a wand and mumbling stuff.... but she wouldn't talk to us so we were just like uhhhh aight let her do her thing then she went inside the church and came out with a hymn book. sorry lady, can't have that! so then she just gala-galaed around waving her straw and mumbling at us.. so this continued for some time then! i go up to her to try to usher her gently out and she's like all smiles and just rubbing my arm and squeezing my arm.... not actually that unusual of an occurrence .... anyway i just waked her over to the gate and led her a lil ways away and she wanted me to kiss her on the check... not sure if that completed the spell but it's all good :) 

Next! the neighborhood dog has a fetish for my shoes.... not legit! 

So we left for three days last week and when we came back, one of my shoes was missing! so i finally replaced my beloved and now holey shoes.... so i got some new ones. then that night he took one of those!!! lame. now we obviously keep our shoes inside at night..... just took a lil too long to learn that lesson... 

Sarah's "holey" shoes and socks

So i should be at the point by now that i don't mix up simple words in tagalog, right? wrong. alas. that never ends apparently. just like english. anyway! we're teaching this lady about...... abinadi! and noah. so i wanted to ask who king noah was more scared of, God or the priests... except i said God or the sayote!!! (that's a vegetable......) it was awkward. but super funny. should be saserdote..... close enough! 

hmmmm also! this is sister noriega's last p-day!!! so that's crazy. we get to go fix up a sister's fight this week... yay!!! exchanges ulit! and sister noriega's ert! so just a couple days here in our area :/ 

Sarah and Sister Noriega

The work is going great! we have two baptisms on Saturday. both part members. the cool thing is we're getting the parents back at church because of the baptism. that's always good to see. and we should have two more next saturday. 

10 year old Cyrel going to be baptized Saturday

Last night we got dropped by an investigator because her husband's whole family is of another religion and they can't take the pressure of being different. and we can't teach them there daw because his siblings live close by and they'll walk by and see us teaching there. officially lame. i just let sister noriega talk there cuz what i really wanted to say would have been a lil harsh... .... anyway! 

Then! we went to teach a girl who is super awesome and legit. much much better experience. she is just so ready! she asks all the right questions and really is thinking and praying about what we're teaching her! she's gonna get baptized on dec 7th which is the stake baptism thing so that'll be great! 

Then we went to dinner at a member's house. they have a missionary out in the field right now and would like to take this opportunity to apologize to errybody that comes to our house right now..... parents just get soooo excited about what's happening to their kids...... mom. reign it in please. ;)  [note from me:  I don't do this do I????]

have a great week! we're all safe and sound and the work continues! 

-sister jones

candles in a heart from the Novaliches sisters - going away surprise

signs from Novaliches sisters - going away surprise

CSP!
we're supposed to do community service projects every week... doesn't always happen. but we always love them when we have them!!! this week we cleaned the church! and brought cyrel along so she could get a taste of service before her baptism.....

Cyrel didn't like our lizard as much as i did...... or Molnar did for that matter! 

Traveling, training and a fresh mango shake.

So we survived last week! that was fun. lots of traveling. Malolos has the same tree in front of the apt that we have in front of our house.... which i discovered by pulling a leaf off and watching the white sap seep out like a tear..... anyway, back to missionary work.....

We taught this crazy lady and I got my bible bash on... my bad. and by crazy lady i mean wonderful daughter of God..... if there was ever a winner in bible bashing, i totes would have won that... but there never is. lame. basta, that was day one in Malolos. 

Day TWO. got to work with a fresh from the mtc american again, i forgot how little tagalog we know when we first get here.... it is super entertaining. She was a champ though. there we also taught a crazy lady. but she wasn't just intense like the first lady, she was legit cray cray. like half the time she was talking to someone that wasn't there..... still a wonderful daughter of God though. 

And then! we went down the road a lil bit and taught this lady who is bedridden cuz she has cancer and one of her legs is like... not there ish? not really sure. anyway! we were supposed to give her a baptism date daw so i was all excited to get some pump up faith lesson on. and it was! until the end. She wouldn't pray. all we want her to do is pray. not even about anything specific in that prayer. just pray. she wouldn't do it. told us we came to pray for her, like all the missionaries that come to her always do and we can't expect her to pray in front of us because it's never going to happen. literally said i will never pray in front of you, that's what you're here to do, pray for me. 

URG. i'm frustrated just writing this. moral of the story, of everything that is happening in her life, that is the only thing that will keep her from progressing. and because of everything that is happening in her life she needs prayer so much!!!!!! anyway. my plea to you is just to pray. seriously though. Just Pray.

Don't worry though. then we decided to tract. first house. a brother and sister let us in (22 and 26) we started teaching and their mom and sister get home (of course ridiculously surprised that two americans are sitting in their house) anyway long story short turns out to be a great lesson and even though we completely surprised them the sister that just got there was like im so sorry i can't stay and join you but im super late!!!! (she was literally running around getting ready for where ever she had to go) and the mom was the same way but stopped long enough to figure out who we were and give us a snack! and they were all stoked for us to come back and the brother was asking way awesome questions and ready his assignment before we even left. can we say led by the Lord to the prepared??? why yes. yes, we can. 

Day 3! Baliwag na! started out the day with a great wake up a less active lesson, turns out his wife isn't another less-active, but in fact a Catholic.... some things that would be great to know before the lesson but all the more exciting to learn during! anyway then we got lost for a good hour.... another fresh from the mtc comp. but we got to see some awesome day of the dead festivities!!! the cemeteries here ps are way different cuz the coffins are all above the ground.... and if someone else in the family dies, they just stack their coffin on top of the other family members! that was interesting to see. And then we found some way awesome people! like a new investigator that used to be in the church of the devil aka INC

Total tangent. word on the street is that INC is having it's 100th year anniversary this year or next year and at such time they will stop all baptizing and missionary work and everything........ because time is up daw and everyone else is just damned to hell...... interesting..... we'll see if that's true and pray that it is! cuz the church will die out like the shakers. (not entirely sure im thinking of the right church back in the day in america buuuut you get the picture.) 

Anyway this girl was way legit. so that day turned out great too! then sister noriega and i got to finally teach together again and it was soooo great! we're super used to each other now so teaching is just like bam. doesn't matter who is talking, cuz we would be saying the same thing if the other one was talking. party.  

This week we're in beautiful meycauayan allll week!!!! except friday for mlc.... so stoked! today we had a zone activity for sister noriega!! and we played soccer and ate at "doc Jones" twas a party. 25 piso fresh mango shake for the win. now imma lil bit sunburned..... next week we're gonna ride a kalabaw. get excited!! 

peace out. 

pray always.

-sista jones

Language mishap, crashing parties and an escaped rat...

October 27. 2013

gabay na bakla!! lolz a missionary said that once.... should be gabay na bakal.... one means metal... one means gay...  and no, it wasn't me :)

This week in meycauayan!!! we caught a rat. but it got away!!!! curses. it left hair and blood in the trap... we'll get him this week.  

Nothing else that happened is nearly as exciting as that... jk jk. 

We're teaching this man named nick!! he's super old. he's been taught off and on by the missionaries since... 2005? yata. he reads the BOM, knows the church is true, was married to a member (who was alive when he started being taught, but has now passed away) anyway he's super legit. but he smokes. a lot. and he doesn't think he can ever quit. challenge accepted. it's time nick. 

We crashed a bridal shower party!!! jk we were invited. we just went and ate dinner and peaced out. it was fun though, the bride to be just got home from a mission not too long ago, the whole family works with us a ton (especially the grandma!!!! she's a champ) 

And we crashed a birthday party!!!!! jk we were invited to that one too. but we didn't know it was a party, we thought we were just teaching a normal lesson to our lil munchkins that are getting baptized nov 16th! that was kinda awkward... didn't even know it was the uncle's birthday.... oh well, got one new inv, one new referral, one new less active, and one new dinner. ftw. 

This week's gonna be cray cray. i might die a lil bit. but that's ok. as long as i don't die a lot a bit. 

Oh yeah. i was doing my laundry the other night (by hand. that's whats up) and got to listen to a lil bible study chat kwan going down in the neighbor's house. sooo weird to be on the other side of that. they sang some great songs though, it was very entertaining. 

that's all folks!

-sista honez

Baliwag, awesome investigator, and speaking in the new ward and a FUN FACT

October  20 email

We had another beautiful week in Meycauayan!! and we got to go to Bustos!! which was also beautiful! it's in Baliwag which is infamous for being a beautiful area among the missionaries so it was fun to go see it. 

One super cool thing that happened in  Bustos.  We were teaching an investigator that is doing really well and is getting ready for baptism and everything. he has also had a stroke so he has a lot of trouble walking. but he still walks to church. super legit. 

anyway we started just by asking if he had any questions from his readings and he was like yeah. what's the Priesthood? does it have a name in Tagalog?? and we were like of course!!! Pagkasaserdote! kaya.... Priesthood na lang! we taught him all about it and then he was like, Can i get the Priesthood?? or am i over age??

awesomeness. he recognized that all the youth that pass the sacrament have the Priesthood so he thought you could only get it while you're young. then we told him he could receive it and all that that entails and he was so excited. and overwhelmed. he said he wouldn't know how to use it properly and that it sounds like a very holy calling. awesomeness. yes it is. and that, brother, is why you can receive it. you know how holy and important it is!!!!

That was cool. also sister alingog made these amazingly delicious and spicy.... thing. idk what it's called. anyway, we're adding that to the menu :) it's a green pepper with cheese (ish) in the middle wrapped in a wonton thing and pan fried. malinamnam. sister alingog is still absolutely hilarious btw (we were in the same house in pangarap for three transfers) i hope we're comps one of these days! 

Back in meycauayan (i have to practice writing that cuz it's wicked hard to spell.....) we finally met the ward! all three new missionaries spoke in sacrament meeting. that was exciting. 

the first elder is still fairly new and from china!!! so he doesn't really speak tagalog... or english..... he's such a champ. and he just like introduced himself and told an experience of how they got dropped by an investigator, but then got let back in cuz he speaks japanese and the husband is japanese!!! at least i think that's what it was about.... 

then i went up and talked about some stuff, more like a short talk than introduction cuz they're all gonna ask the same 3 questions anyway when we meet them for reals :) 

then the new zone leader went up and called them all to action/repentance. lolz so great. 

seems like a really great ward though!! 

anyway! life is great! exchanges was a learning experience and the work goes on! 

have a great week!

-sister jones

  

 We asked Sarah  why they use Spanish for money and telling time instead of Tagalog...

She gave us a FUN FACT:

Before the spanish came in and colonized the Philippines some more, they didn't have a system for money or time cuz it wasn't really important to them.

Then the Spaniards came in and were like money and time is important!!!! so they taught them about it. which is why it's counted in Spanish!

The Province! Fresh air, and riding in a Pedi-cab

fresh air!!! the province is for reals great. so green and beautiful!!! we ride lil pedi-cabs (side car) around, it's like being in a parade.... always!! lolz

PS:   a pedi-cab is a bike with a lil side thing attached to it where we sit.... so this dude on a bike with no gears pulls us around the rocky roads :) and then we talk to them while they're struggling up a hill about their families and where  they live and if they like their job and then we give them a mormon.org card while they're out of breath and can't say no!! muahaha! joke lang ish. 

other news! mlc was cool, conference was awesome, annnnnnd yep! 

Sister Noriega is ps hilarious. she's like the energizer bunny... that also happens to be a really great missionary. it's the first time in...... 4 transfers my comp has been older than me in the mish, it's super fun! teaching is soooo nice. idk how to explain it besides saying that it's easy. things just go where we want to take them. unity kaagad. it's tight. 

She also asks me random english questions like what dope means. (She's way good at english, it's just random slang that throws her, which makes all her questions hilarious)

Soooo this week was very fast and i don't have anything exciting to tell you...... 

We taught a family last night. there were three men and the mom. usually, the families here have struggles from the men. this family, however, was the complete opposite. it was so weird! but also way cool to see these strong Priesthood holders. The 24 year old recent covert shared his experience that while he was watching general conference he got a text from work asking him to come in, and he was like no, i'm watching general conference! and they kept texting him but he just didn't respond until they were like aight we found a replacement for you! he was like blessing! (ok i don't remember what he said, but he was recognizing the Lord's hand in helping him not have to work on Sunday) that was cool.

We also taught this suuuuuper sweet lady named nora. she's 83 ish and is taking care of her bed-ridden sibling. we taught about repentance and she thanked us for coming to awaken her from her slumber of sin (aight i don't remember what her exact words were either...) because she hasn't been reading her scriptures daily. it was so cool to see her understanding of repentance that it isn't mean, or sad, or scary. it's an invitation to further receive blessings!! and she was so happy! we also talked to her about getting the sacrament brought to her and she was soooo happy! it was a really precious moment. 

Next week on meycauayan: zone training meeting, exchanges in other areas wed and thurs, more planning, and speaking in church sun! should be a party!

Have a great week! 

-sister jones

What in the world is STL??? and why does it now include MLC???

Oh mormons with their abbreviations.... what in the world is STL??? and why does it now include MLC????

This week was fun. we found out sister cestona and sister chamberlain are training!!! and a bazillion other people cuz we're getting like 30 new missionaries! exciting! sad news, sister garcia goes home. today. and i'm here, stranded till ..... later?

STL: stranded till later. 

Found out im transferring out of novaliches!! Peace out nova it's been real, it's been fun. occasionally it has even been real fun!! for reals though, imma miss nove, it's a great place. but sister cestona is gonna have a great place to train her new lil comp!! welcome to nova sister walker!!! i also found out that the only thing i will probs be remembered for here is.... being really good at tagalog. im cool with that. kasi, siempre, tagalog lagi......

STL: siempre tagalog lagi. (of course, always tagalog.)

STL: stoked to leave? nah not true. i love nova

last night a family had a birthday party and invited us slash made it a going away party. it was super nice of them, also the first time i had met quite a few of them. but they really wanted to say goodbye! lolz the food way way good and included.... snail!!! yeah, who knew i was secretly serving in france. snail, totes loob. 

STL: snail totes loob. (snail totally inside) (i ate a snail. it was super nasty. don't let anyone tell you otherwise....)

STL: still totally lost. who knew the people in that family were related. good thing they're in the other sisters' area.....

cool story: we have been looking for a family on our listy list for a bit now but the only address we have for them is: Green fields III. in case that sounds specific in any way, it's very much not. cuz green fields III is quite large.... anyway! this week we had four babies blessed in church! all four from families in our area! and one of them was.... a Navalle baby!!! (that's the family we're looking for) so of course, after sacrament we went lookin for that baby (and his dad) but they peaced out mad fast. good news, he didn't bless his own baby, an older man in the ward did that we see every week...... they're related pala! so we got their address. can't hide anymore!!!

STL: stealthy tracker lady..... aight these aren't very good. 

STL: sister training leader...... that one's for real. 

imma stl now! yaaaaaay. which is kinda like a district leader but for sisters. it's chill. we have 14 sisters in our area and we go on exchanges with all of them every transfer. then we go to MLC (mission leadership council, we're gettin fancy now) and represent those sisters. should be tight. im actually really excited for this opportunity for three simple reasons:

1. i'll get to see all the sister's areas (we go out to all the beautiful provincey areas (farms)) 

2. get to practice my counseling skills ...........to break up sister fights! lolz party

3. im going to Meycauayan! which is in Valenzuela stake! so for general conference this weekend i will get to see people from my first area!!! if they're still active enough to go to general conference!! sana. 

ps. update on past people. 

right before i left my first area i told you about a girl who had a lil baby and her man just up and left them. flash forward to now, she got a new man, he investigated the church, they got married, he got baptized, they're now all active and preparing to enter the temple. stoked. 

in pangarap, we had brother allin, struggling with a few things that kept getting his bap date pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. but he was so amazing and it was so sad that he wasn't progressing like he should have been! turns out! he didn't believe that there was a devil. once that got cleared up he was able to resist temptation because he was able to recognize it as temptation. he got baptized mga sept 21! stoked. 

that's all folks! I'm excited to watch general conference this weekend!!!! and the relief society broadcast!!

pps my new comp is sister noriega and i will be killin her off! she's possibly the most excited person i've ever met. should be a party ;)

-sister jones