Kassi's officially in the Philippines!

Kamusta Ka!

Hello there friends and family! Greetings from the Philippines! I have been assigned to Sagay. It is a small city, no beach or mountains but still very beautiful. I am working on learning Hiligaynon and its pretty dang tough. My trainer is Sister Rondina and she is a native. She is soo sweet and very patient. I do miss my old companions. Luckily I still get to live with Sister Bushman(one of my MTC companions) so I see her everyday and get to chat with her when we're not dying of exhaustion. I MISS THE MTC! There, I said it. I made it to P-Day! Yay! I have been bathing out of a bucket of water for a few days now and honestly its not too bad. The cold water feels so good becuasue its SOOO hot. I washed my clothes by hand and it only took me like two hours:) I learned how to eat without a fork or spoon. Its great, the food really does taste different! The people are so dang nice here. They call me gwapa which is pretty funny. And a ton of people have told me I have an attractive nose which is so weird because I have NEVER heard that in my life until now.

Well, this has definitely been the hardest things I have ever done. Prayers will be much appreciated:) Anyone that wants to see pictures of my first few days at the mission home can add my mission president on FB, Marlo Olivares Lopez.

Kita Kits<3

Remember, Kassi can't see this blog, so if you want to talk to her, you'll need to email her!

Update from Sister Martinez:

Last Day in the US!

 

AghhHH!HHH!H!!! So, I'm freaking out a little, but our Branch President said we could. SO...AhHH!

 

Anyway, I am soo excited to leave the MTC and out to the real world. It's so scary to think that I'll be teaching people in a country I don't know well, in a language I know even less. But I am pretty excited to see the miracles H.F. has in store for the time I'm on my mish. I am so excited to meet the people and eat the food and just immerse myself in the culuture. I am not excited at all about the traveling but I'm with a really great group so it should be a blast. I havent cried because it hasnt really hit me yet, but I did tear up a little when an Elder held out his hand to play rock, paper, sissors with me for the last time. We played all the time and funny enough I beat him every single time. There should be three new districts coming in this week which is about 30 missionaries and I am so jealous cause I want to meet them! There are so many missionaries coming in weekly. It strengthens me knowing that so many people are willing to come out and serve and be a part of this work. Missionary work is growing so much, it blows my mind! Thank you all for your letters and great words of encouragement. I have a hymn stuck in my head, Onward Christian Soldiers. So here I go! Marching as to war:) I'm off to help gather His sheep.

 

The next time I send out an update I'll be in the Philippines!

 

Mahal ko kayo!

 

-Sister Martinez

You can now email her directly at cassandra.martinez@myldsmail.net

Hi guys,
I got another email from Kassi. She'll be leaving to the Philippines this Monday, the 16th. From now on, she'll only be sending e-mails since letters will take way too long to arrive.
If you would like to write to her you can send emails to this address and she should be able to respond every week.
cassandra.martinez@myldsmail.net
She doesn't have everyone's email addresses so if you would like to hear from her, you'll have to email her first.

In her email she said "Can't wait to hear from you:) Letters are GOLD here hahaa. Seriously, if you don't get a letter, you want to die from depression ahaha"

So remember, it's really challenging for her to be away from family for so long.



She's going to need extra support coming up in the next couple of weeks since the change of environment is going to be so big so remember to keep writing to her and sending love!

Thanks,
Cory