It's a beautiful Day! -- Mission Birthday and random answers

Sister Cestona and Sarah

Sarah and Sister Mower

Sarah and Sister Mower - they made matching shirts

September 29, 2013  It’s a beautiful Day!

it's a beautiful day! lookin for something fun to do, hey baby, i think i'll turn 22!!! 
yeah that song plays a lot here...... also! mimi the dog died.... it was her time to go.... like a year ago. 

anyway back to beautiful days! my birthday was one of those. the sisters went out early and got 22 pieces of pan de sal and taho!!!! malinamnam for sure. (that is a real word ps and it means delicious. my life became complete the day i learned that.) then we opened my package!!! it was very pink!! lolz

then we studied. and did weekly planning. and got punted from a few appts. taught some munchkin RC/LAs, actually, told them they were lame and we'll come back when they stop being lame. came home and went to bed! 

Me on my birthday with my stuffz

Birthday poster from my comps

All four of us (companion and house mates)

juuuust kidding! well, all of that is very true. before we left for work the zone leader called (he was in the office for some unknown reason) and they all sang happy birthday to me! it was very sweet! then i came home and the other sisters had made a beautiful spaghetti dinner and we played games and ate spaghetti and had a party :) and they gave me all sorts of fun stuff. like! a jeepney shirt that glows in the dark. awesome. and headbands and earrings that have a face on them of some famous dude here... and a coin purse... lots of fun stuff! best part was most def the super hero birthday poster :) it was a lovely day

other things that happened this week........ our stove died and was started a perpetual shocking fund for us every time we cooked..... we got a new one this morning :)

also...... this week was family week! go philippines, they have a whole week to celebrate the family. astig. so! we had a family day celebration at the church for our ward and the other ward that meets there... we were supposed to get there in time for lunch and to hand out family proclamations to the world to errybody... but we lucked out and caught like two hours of instruction on how to prepare for natural disasters and whatnot. that was cool too i guess. good for people to know cuz we get floods every few years... or weeks :)

Making-Angay family

Response to Lindsay's dear elder! random things!!! 

first off. every day i feel like i'm living the Truman show. for reals. cuz everything just happens the same way every time!!! it used to be we walk out of the house and someone would comment on how mimi needs to die... but then she died.... we're gonna have to find new out of door conversations..... 

People wake up crazy early here! and every morning without fail you will see some crazy old grandma sweeping up leaves on the road... leaves are obviously the absolute worst thing you could have on the road in front of your house and an absolute disgrace. the dog poop, (hopefully it's dog....) however, can stay. 

Karaoke is all day erry day. like for reals. and usually involves drinking.... luckily, however, because people wake up so dang early, it usually doesn't go super late and we can all sleep peacefully. until it starts again in the wee hours of the morning! 

Every morning people walk around selling things that they carry with them till they sell them. sometimes this makes sense and is actually quite genius. like when they are selling delicious things, like taho. other times however, it just seems exhausting! like when they are selling something quite large, like a couch.  

Everyone yells at us, after we walk by. not when we smile and say hi buuuut like two mins later when we're way far away they yell at our backs, "hey! wash your name!!!" or another favorite "where you going!" which could be interchanged with "Where you from!" in tagalog these greeting make much more sense and are frequently used..... these are children by the way, people speak english quite well, once they've gone to school. my favorite thing ever though is still when my companion tells me about our living frophet..... so great :)

Well that's all folks! 

good morning!     and in case i don't see ya,    good afternoon,     good evening,    and good night!

-sister jones

Bowling as a zone

Ants for breakfast (warning: not to be read by the faint of heart or stomach) & "Finding" Stories

September 17, 2013

Story time. 

So there are a ton of ants here. like a ton. mostly we just ignore them. sometimes they get annoying and we kill them. but most of them are so tiny, you can literally blow them away. but if you leave food out for five mins, when you return, there will be ants. they have mad skills. 

Anyway i bought some cereal the other week and i hadn't opened it yet so i left it in the cupboard. then i mixed up my powdered milk (yes mom, i drink powdered milk now.... you can die of shock later lolz) and then poured my cereal straight into the milk, after having JUST opened it. mistake. 

Apparently it had a hole somewhere in the bag cuz there were lots of little ants swimming around in my cereal that morning..... back to the not germaphobic part....... i just had a lil extra protein in my breakfast that morning..... and then next few morning till that cereal was all gone.... i guess that's a "you know you've lived in the Philippines a while when......." thing. 

[Mom's note:   Blaaaaaaahhhh]

This week was... interesting. a lot of meetings. so not a ton of work. i've found that not teaching puts you (aight, me) in a slump. it's rough to get going again, even though all the meetings motivate and inspire you... it's really the good lessons that keep me going. when you really connect with the person you're teaching and you can just feel the words the Lord wants them to hear filling your mouth and soul. those are the best. for reals. 

Sister Sperry challenged us to give Books of Mormon to the members and have them give them to friends and then follow up on those people as new investigators. so that was cool. plus i randomly felt the need to change up our area. hard core. like stop our schedule. break it. get rid of it. start anew. keep the few gems and scratch the rest. ibig sabihin!!!! we spent a good amount of time the last few days pounding the pavement. we hit the CMIS hard. found less-actives i didn't even know existed and found members i had no idea lived in our area. 

We had a lot of cool experiences come from it. including!!!!

1. the realization that i love finding people here. maybe anywhere. but especially here. cuz it just seems so impossible and then you just ask. you ask the most random people and they just magically know! and then you find them! even though there are no street signs and no phone numbers and madalas, we dont even have house numbers! but you find them because they are not lost to the Lord. i love it. 

2. we have an entire family of super active people that are almost all endowed that lives on the outskirts of our area... only problem is, they are active in a different ward! (this was by far the most random find everrrrrr)

we were walking to the barangay hall to see if they had an address for one family of less-actives, but the barangay hall turned out to be wicked far away. we still walked the whole way there.... and back.... sorry companions..... (we had relamie with us and it was raining all hard... she's a lil trooper) anyway as we were walking i looked up randomly and saw the street sign! it said...... susano street! and remembered writing down an address from our CMIS on susano st! (i had never seen slash walked this street before and thought it was on the opposite side of our area....) 

So after majorly failing at the barangay hall we decided to find this family! so we are asking all the lil tindahans what there address is and we get to where it should be and stick our heads under the tarp and out of the rain and ask what the address there is and it was the right one so we asked it the ...... ___ family lives there! (i can't remember the name now...) and they were like why? are they not going to church???? and we were like wooooaaaaah calm down there kid. we don't even know who they are! and they were like oh. well they need to be going to church, imma call em later and ask. 

long story short, they're a super legit family that works at the temple weekly, and should be in our ward and they gave us two referrals! 

3. One day we got punted alllll day. literally. that doesn't happen to me a whole lot. it was lame. but it had a purpose! so finally at the end of a very long day of walking, we go to visit a semi-active family to do the BOM challenge with them. we walk up to their house only to see a "for rent" sign on the gate and absolutely nothing and no one inside. laaaaaaame. they moved. so im like well, that's a bummer. and im ready to go to our next apt. sister cestona was like nope. not happening. so she starts asking allll the neighbors where they are. on the third try we discovered that they moved two doors down!!!!!! so close! so we went and taught them and they gave us a referral too! of their new house help :) stoked. 

4. Then! we went to our returning less-active's house, way later than usual and halfway through the lesson on the 10 commandments, her husband who is not a member and a bit hostile most of the time walks in!! i didn't really know how to treat him but i was sitting on the floor in the way of him getting to the rest of the house so i kinda leaned forward so he could pass if he wanted to but instead! he just sat right with us! in our lil circle! coooooool. still a lil confused at his intent. so we slowly worked him into the discussion so as not to scare him away and it was great! he talked about how the gospel has blessed his family so much and how he used to read or pray or go to church or whatever and it was good and he knows it was good and that he needs to do it again and all this awesome stuff. it was super cool. definitely needed to be there then. and we totes wouldn't have been were we not punted alllll day.  

those were just a few, with i am sure, many more to come. 

The Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts, they're better. always. Trust Him. even with your life. 

have a great week!

-sister jones

lil tidbit of my email to president :

Our amazing golden family didn't come to church this week because they don't have any money or jobs. It's so sad to see them so close to great changes in their lives but held back by such small things. Like pamasahe. In our lesson last week we were talking about the Holy Ghost and we asked the 19 year old boy if he's felt the Holy Ghost and he told us as he read the Book of Mormon he just felt that it was true. He just felt it so strongly like someone was telling it to him. Then the father told us that as they pray as a family, he just feels that what they're doing is good. That he is teaching his children how to be good people. 

The Sister was a bit quiet, but at the end of the lesson she shared an amazing experience with us. Background, her father hung himself last December and she had and is having a really hard time with his passing. She frequently has dreams of her father that he is unhappy now in the after life and it troubles her greatly. The night before our lesson she had another dream, but this one was different. Her father came to her in her dream. He was so happy. He told her how happy he was that she was accepting the gospel and joining this church. He was finally at peace and able to progress in his state. Sister woke up and told her husband how true the church is. We had taken them to temple tour a couple weeks before that and as she was sharing this dream, the kids and the nephew are all teaching about baptisms and other ordinances for the dead. 

All the kids and the nephew want to serve a mission. This family is amazing. They will get to church!!!!!

Mini MTC, District Boodle Fight, and a Baptism!!

this week was chill.

On sat we taught at a "mini mtc" for the youth preparing to go on missions! we thought it would be like 18-19 year olds that have everything ready except their call..... nope. definitely all the young men ages 12-18! it was still really cool though. and the little ones were way legit! they're gonna be ridiculously ready by the time they're 18.

Sister Cestona and Sarah Teaching at the Mini MTC

 Then we had a .... wait for it..... boodle fight!!!!! yes i was just as mislead as you are by the name. i thought we were gonna have a food fight with banana leaves as our only defense..... whatevs. i guess this was cool too ;)

District before the Boodle Fight

Our district and the Boodle fight

joke lang, it was totes awesome. so they just put a bunch of food on banana leaves (rice and ulam) and then it's a race to see who can eat their section the fastest with their hands..... except we weren't very intense about it so mostly it was just all of u eating with our hands off of banana leaves..... still cool.

 Then we went to two baptisms!!! the first one was for our darling relamie!! she got baptized!!!! and two lil 8 year olds that were tiny!!!!
We went to a baptism for a kid that sister mower oym-ed on the bus!!! and he's awesome!!!! so we went to support him cuz he has no family support and sister mower and i sang a lil something for him. it was good.
and sister cestona spoke, sister chamberlain prayed, and i was the chorister.... there were also four elders there whose baptism it actually was.....

Sis Mae

Two random little 8 year olds

This week is our meeting with elder echo hawk. that'll be exciting. we all get to prepare a lil talky talk and then he's gonna call on randoms to speak. keepin us on our toes :)  (Sarah is also singing in the choir for that)

The Certeza family is amazing. everyone that meets them is like "that right there is a golden family" or sometimes, "you got yourselves a golden family right there!" these are direct ish quotes btw.... and it's true they're so amazing.
 and the only thing that is keeping them from everything is they're not married!!! but no worries, we got some solid info on how to fix that. sana this week. and it will only cost like 400 peso. that's like.... 10 dollars. they have been waiting for over 12 years to get married because of a lack of 10 dollars.
yep. that's gonna change.

church is true.
hayaan mo, lahat ay magiging makatarungan sa wakas.

-sister jones

September! Short update and pictures! New companion...

Three Generations!  Daughter, Mom and Grandma:)
Sisters Chamerlain, Jones and Garcia
August 2013

Elders at the temple - August 2013

Certeza Family - Jeepney

Certeza Family (minus Brother) at the temple tour
 Saturday August 2013

Soo this week was cool...

Got a new companion! sister cestona!! she's awesome!! great missionary! and connects with people super well! it was her first week in this ward and she was already hugging and giving cheek kisses to all the ward missionaries... the girls at least ;) so that's cool. maybe they'll actually work with us if she's buddy-buddy with all of them!

Ano pa.... we went to temple tour! it was great! we took the certeza family! except brother couldn't make it... but that's because he got a job!!! yay!!! they can go to church again!!!!!!

 ummmm my favorite breakfast in the world is taho and pan de sal.... imma work on getting the recipe so i can bring it to the states.... but it's kinda like a trade secret..... we have connections. i'll get back to you.

 (taho is like soy bean based..... that's all i know really.. it has a syrup on it... it kinda tastes like oatmeal.... and pan de sal is a kinda sweet bread roll thing. they're both waaaaay good!)
Elder EchoHawk is our new area authority and temple tour is next week and they put a choir together for it and im singing alto and it's actually really fun to sing alto again cuz it's been foreeeever. We're singing Hark all Ye Nations, and it's way fun.

yeah this week way pretty chill.                 iyon lang! peace out!

Sister Jones with Housemates
Sister Chamberlain and Sister Mower
August 2013

From Last week:  August 28, 2013

this week was super weird.

announcements:

a. the wedding did not go through. lame. oh well, it'll happen soon :)

b. we did not starve to death. we were only grounded for like two days. apparently some missionaries in manilla got electrocuted walking through a puddle.... details. anyway, we were grounded. it was a party. 

c. transfers are here!!! sister loo is leaving me. lame. my new companion is sister cestona! (not quite sure on the spelling...) she's great! Filippina!! we were in the same district in SJDM. she'll be awesome to work with. she's still kinda new in the mish... (batch ni sister chamberlain/loo) speaking of sister chamberlain! she got transfered here! we're gonna be house mates! super stoked. also speaking of old comps, this is sister garcia's last transfer!!!! what the fast! 

d. the long anticipated pan de post-it is for dinner tonight.... get excited. we didn't have an egg on sunday.... 

e. Relamie has a bap date and is still working with us weekly.... if not more.... but is not a member present and it's super hilarious to introduce her in lessons... as an investigator.... basta. she's awesome. and wants to go on a mission! 

f.  We threw a totes awesome farewell surprise party for sis villaruel. had a winnie the poo cake and everything! (she's obsessed with winnie the poo.....) that was cool....

g. i'm out of things to say...... this week was kinda boring.... barely any work cuz of the rain... oh when we finally got un-grounded we went to the church to cheer up all the munchkins/familys that were stuck there cuz their houses were suuuuper flooded! we made them a noah's ark puzzle/scavenger hunt and played games and told scripture stories! it was cool. 

iyon lang. peace out!

ps. it's raining again. surprise!

-sister jones

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)