Updattteeee

WE can now email other fulltime missionaries so this is going to be short. I have some catching up to do:))

I love Talisay. I love my companion. And I love my mission. 

I had a nightmare the other night that i was serving a mission in Texas.

I have ten minutes left. 

Basically i'm having the time of my life and just loving the work and oh man, how I love the people. I'm obsessed with Filipinos:))

I am officially pinay. I get told all the time now!

We have some fun stuff coming up. We're having a missionary fireside and the whole ward is involoved and super excited. We have been getting tons of referrals and we have some exciting baptisms coming up. 

I love love love.love.love.lovelovelove. my msision.

I dont think you all got that.
BUt i do

Have a great week all!

here's an update...

i dont have a shift key or a v...well it works sometimes

so here goes

hello friends and lovely family

i am now in a city called Talisay. i'm a mom! my trainee is sister roos from san antonio texas. shes suuuper funny so i have like a total six pack from laughing so much. i'm whitewashing again and its soooo fun! sort of , of course its tough but its great because we hae awesome support from the ward! we have ward missionaries working with us eery single dayyyy. aweeesomeee. our priesthood leaders wear suits here which doesnt eer happen cause hello, we're in the philippines. but its so awesome to see them dressed up super nice for church. i saw a brother that was in my ward in my first area so that was cool. he's now married so he lives in my area now. we hae such strong relief socity members here. lots of temple marriages;)) i loooove the bishop here, he offered to work with us on friday!! woohooo. his wife is also sooo amazing. i want to be like them when i grown up;] we hae an area right by the ocean and we always go there right around time to watch the sunset. it blows me away how beautiful it is here. my companion was telling me about all the stuff ive been missing, like moies and music and stuff and i just thought how i'm not missing anything. you are all missing out on thissssss. hehee;] i love teaching and we hae a senior copule here and they rockk. 

we are living in a brand new house. eerything was brand new when we walked in so basically i am sooo spoiled in this area. we have a awesome ward missionary leader, awesome leadership and ward, house, area, and my companion. so pretty much i'm super spoiled and i'm so blessed to be in such a nice and established area. one of the pioneers here in the ward knows how to speak spanish. it was really funny cause i couldnt een speak anyyyy. ahh. like my cousin cory said, i'm not mexican anymore hehe. its coool cause een the filipinos tell me i am super pinay. yay score!

i reached my year mark so i started sleeping with my nametag;] i'm just going to enjoy the rest of the time i hae here and work work work. 

loe you alll

i have no shift buttons and the v button works only sometimes. i love this work. its great. you should all try it sometime.

palangga kamo namon

Heres an update for the homies

Mauri!

ITs SO HOT! I've been showering like 3 times a day hehee..

Anyway, our area is split and we're starting to get the hang of it. The problem is my area is a little sketchy and we're always left hanging. So we do a ton of finding and oym'ing. Its a ton of fun. There were elders here a few years ago and they seem to have visited everyone! Most of the people we find were previously taught so they already have a background on the church which is cool. We found a less active who was baptized when she was 9 and hasnt gone to church since and she was soooo happy to see us. She really wants to come to church. I thought that was pretty cool. Even how many years after she still remembers the good feelings and wants that again and she knows she can get it through the gospel. 

We had a really great service day with our whole zone. We went to an area called Punta Taytay. The beaches here in Bacolod are suuuuper nasty. The ocean is the peoples backyard so they just throw all of their rubbish and we dug through at least a foot of rubbish. We had so many garbage bags full! I wish I had taken a picture, and we only cleaned up a small area. SO crazy. So, just dont litter kay? :)

We had exchanges and I was with a sister Davis whos been here for like 3 weeks. Shes such a sweetheart and it was so funny seeing the reactions of the Filipinos to her blond hair and blue eyes. They were a little confused why if she's american and I am too, and why we look so different hehee. I had to speak mostly English and we did some practice teaching in English and it was so hard! Its so difficult to express myself and explain and give examples.  

We have a zone activity later on today which should be fun. The Sinemas are so great! I love senior couples. OUr Kiribati sisters taught us one of their traditional dances and its sooo fun but ahhh, sakit! it hurts to sit and the arm movements ay, my arms are sore;)) But its so fun. I'm so going to get into this stuff, its a workout and so fun. We're going to perform at our zone activity hehee.

Nothing much else going on in Magsungay. I'm so excited for Claudias wedding and so proud of ALe's graduation. My mom was called to be Relief Society President and Diego is bringing home medals everyday from swimming and art and math competitions. Show off;) 

My grandmother is pretty sick so any prayers for her would surly be appreciated. I was told she might not make it before the time I get back. Its so weird that such an important person might be gone when I get home. Cge lang, plan of happiness no? 

I love you all and miss you dear friends and family. 

Palangga ko kamo<3

::Update::

Yay for crazy mission changes!

We had two new sisters move into our apartment this week! 

Sister Teunaia is from Kiribati and Sister Billings is from New Mexico. Its been a ton of fun! But the catch is our area is splitting up! So I had to figure things out like the boundaries and the people the new sisters need to teach. I had to make a new area book for them and i've been going out with the S. T to show her the area, then coming home and exchanging and going to our area with my companion. It has been a little stressful! But i'm just so excited to do more work. Area B belongs to the new sisters and has more members and more work. I'm super excited for area A cause we need to find work to do since we dont really have people to teach. But I know the Lord will provide and we'll be guided to find some great people! Paula got baptized this sunday and we're so excited. She's been a wonderful example and now her brother wants to be baptized and her mom as well! Sister Ritchel has been a long time investigator and she accepted a baptismal date for April 27! AhHH! Sooo excited......

Other than that, our elders got switched around and transferred out so our zone is going to be so different on wednesday. It makes me sad! I get so attached to these people! BUt thats the mission. One of my mtc companions got transferred to our zone so i'm suuuper stoked for that! 

My companion and I have great goals for this transfer! I'm really happy that i'll be staying in Magsungay. Its really grreat and exciting to be a part of this new stuff going on! 

HuraahhH for Israel! 

:)

Itangirigo<3

Mayyong aga para sa akon kag gabi para sa inyo


I told my mission President about the miss Universe comments last week and this is what I got in response.

"I'm so proud to have Miss Universe in my mission!"

haha, President Lopez is super funny. We have a zone activity later on today which i'm super excited for. We're having it at the Sinema's, the couple that makes awesome mexican food. I'm excited to sit in aircon for a few hours and just have some fun. We have zone conference next week! I'm super excited. its always like missionary holiday. yay for warm showers!!! Its also my companions birthday next week so theres a ton going on!

We just received an email. the missionary handbook changed!
"Missionaries are to write to their families each week and are also authorized to communicate by email with friends, priesthood leaders, and new converts... "

So yay. I can actually respond to emails from my lovely friends:)) Instead of writing letters cause honestly, I have NO time!

Anyway.

The work is great. We're getting ready for our baptism on the 30th. We're soo excited! We've been meeting a ton of new people and getting lots of referrals. Its still hot, just in case you thought it might have changed, it hasnt:)
We did CSP at an investigators house last saturday and we had a blast! We were going to clean her house and help her prepare to rent it out. So we came in to work and she had already cleaned everything in preparation for our visit! Ay ahha. So she served us a super nice lunch and we cleaned up for like 30 minutes. But she still appreciated us coming in a willing to serve her. It felt good to do that. I hope we can find more service opportunities. We actually found a new family because of our visits to her and theyre so great. We're excited for the Plame family. Super receptive sila:)

Other than that, its going to be another busy and fun week. We have 27 new missionaries coming in at the end of the month and only 3 going home. Uhhh, crazyyyy. 10 of them are sisters! So cool!
We met an Elder last week who is from Cavite, Manila. He speaks PERFECT english and has a little ghetto to it cause he grew up in a "black community" Who knew!? Only in the Philippines. Its fun meeting all these great and interesting missionaries. Its cool to see all the different personalities coming together to serve the Lord. We're all so different but our purpose is the same.

Well, off to have some fun;) Love and miss you all!

Bula Vinaka!
Thats Fijian:)

So many languages! But its cool how the gospel is the SAME wherever you go.

I've been experimenting with food this week and my companion rocks! She eats everything I make and I never hear any kind of complaint! Its awesome!

Life is good. We found a new part member family and they have a baptismal date for March 30. The mom is super busy with work but amazingly has a change of schedule for the next month so she can be taught and be baptized:)) Ahh! GOLDEN:))

The Torres family's progression went down hill. We feel bad for their daughter but if her dad isnt coming to church, she doesnt come. Siyempre, shes 9! Brother Joseph just doesnt want to let go of his cigarettes. But we're giving him some space. He needs a change of heart. He needs to feel conversion. So I guess its not their time now. I was super bummed. I LOVE this family. We worked so hard to make sure theu were fellowshipped and just taken care of. But we all have our agency. Theyre just not ready yet.

We taught a new investigator who was a referral. She failed to mention that she speaks a different language! So we taught a whole lesson then come to find out she speaks Cebuano! Ayyy.

We had sister exchanges and it was soo fun! I went to another area and I learned a ton. We were able to apply a lot of what we learned to our area and its been pretty effective. We taught this man and he was sooo crazy funny and just so ...off. After the lesson we found out why, because he's always drunk! Haha. We laughed so much!

Other than that thanks for the letters from loved ones and friends. I will try to write back as soon as I get a chance:)

Its still hot, the church is still true. I was called Miss Universe twice this week so life is really great!

Love and miss you all!

Tiapo<3 Pronounced sapo:)

Update update update!

Mauri!!!

Mauri isnt Ilonggo though, I'm learning Kiribati language:)) 

Anyway. I had a fantastic week. I hit my 9 months! Whoop! And I still feel so new. Ay. I got to say farewell to my trainer. She went home last week:(( I miss her already!

We have an amazing senior couple in our area and they spoil us every once in a while with browines and mexican food;)) Seriously, we made flour tortillas!!! Ahhh! It was magical. We had green enchiladas, fajitas, frijoles charros and spanish rice. And they gave us leftovers and we made it last for a few days. Its all gone now so we need to visit again soon;)

We're having a ton of fun teaching the Torres family. Their 8 year old daughter is so excited to be baptized. She reads her Book of Mormon in between teaching appointments and offers to pray every visit;)) Her older brother Julie(Julie is a boy name here) is also really excited and we just love visiting and teaching them. The spirit is so great with them. We are in need of new investigators so we're having fun just talking to random people. I love my companions attitude. Even though she doesnt understand or speak the lanugage very well, she always shows her love to the people and she can make just about anyone laugh. Makes me feel ashamed of my discouragement and attitude when i was first trying to get it. I've been learning a ton about fishing from her cause in Kiribati all they do is fish and eat it. So Island life is interesting. I would like to try it;) I just hate the mosquitoes. I havent used bug spray since my first area and its been such a blessing that I haven't gotten dengue or something. 

Anyway, we're staying busy in this great work! I love it. I'm staying focused and just giving it my all every second that i'm out here. 

I love you all! 

Thanks for the love and support from friends and family:))

Tiabo!<3