Now That I Know What It Is Like To Be The Prettiest Girl In The Room, I Hate It.

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

So basically now that it is just me and another Americana, we get a lot of attention from the men here. Not my fave. Maraming wolf whistles and "hey sexy" and "you are so pretty" yelled at us. I mean, the ego boost is nice, since I mostly feel and look like a sweaty horse all the time, but now we are just super self conscious about weather people want to listen to us because we are American, or because of what we have to teach them. Its a tough balance to strike. Ill keep you posted.

So this week we taught Darryl, the good friend of Melchor Santiago our RC, and they were two power-house lessons. In the first, it was two hours long and the poor nanays who were fellowshipping with us left and went to sit in the air con car for a second. It probs didnt help that the lesson was in English, but you know, you roll with what works. So he is just questioning if he still wants to get baptized, so we went though all the baptismal interview questions with him and he answered them all beautifully and we testified and he testified and we all felt the Spirit, but at the end of the lesson he still said he was not sure. So we went back and we couldnt teach him because there was no woman present and that broke my heart. Then we went back again and taught him about faith and asked him to pray to know if the gospel and the church are true with us and we knelt down and he prayed and the Spirit was so strong that he said after he was done that he felt as though someone was rubbing his back. OH MY GOSH. The Spirit guys, the Spirit. But even after that experience he is still hesitant to turn his back on the Catholic church even though he comes to the LDS church every Sunday and reads the Book of Mormon for comfort in times of trial. Glory on high! This man is so prepared and I think that Satan is just trying to hold him back because he knows how much Darryl could do for this Branch. Blerg. Stop it Satan. Just stop.

So Jovan is still learning slowly. He still does not know how to read. But we taught him when his mom was just in the other room, not in the lesson with us and he focused so much more because she was not there to hide behind or to feed him all the answers. I think we got through a little bit about what repentance is, so that is good. But literally, every time we ask him a question he pauses and says "si Jesus Christ" and we are like, "...Yeah, thats great, but what is repentance?" by the end of the lesson his answer was "magsorry, magembrace and si Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ" Not totally the whole point, but I will take it! We will get there si Jesus Christ, slowly, but surely, we will get that child ready for baptism!

Cool story, have I told you about Jojo Real? He is the investigator who talks like a preacher who was not progressing at all? Yeah, Sis Abelhouzen and I went to go visit him after getting punted about four times in Cabaroan, we just kept walking by his house and I was like "not yet. Not yet" but then we kept walking by and I kept thinking about him and I was like "alright Spirit, please bless my companion as we try and rock this" So we go in and start to do the follow ups, we pray and before Jojo can get his groove on I ask "what do you think our purpose is, coming to teach you?" and he answered that it was just to talk about Christ, because he likes to talk about Christ and I was like "Yeah, but our main purpose is to get you prepared for baptism so that you can become a member of this church. We testify of Christ, but our main purpose is to help you start on the path that can lead you to live with Heavenly Father again and that starts with baptism." BOOM, what the what? It just like, poured out of my mouth and it shut him up for a little bit, which was a small miracle. He started to ask some more questions and we just kind of flowed into the Restoration and Jojo is so similar to Joseph Smith, we told him that and his story and challenged him to really pray to know about this message and he said he would. I am just happy that he knows what our real purpose is now. We will see what happens.

Mahal Kita!

Sis Bet

Oh You Know Ma English Is Going Out Tha Doo When I Write Attackted

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

So that wasn't me who said that, but Sister Keith did and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. She wrote it on a Teaching Record and it was just hilarious. So enjoy.

And guess who is trinatraining an Americana for real this transfer?! Yup. Me. And Sister Keith. So in all of Vigan--we have 12 missionaries--there are only two Filipinos. No joke. And ten of us have been out for six months or less. And all of us are training except the companionships with Filipinos. We may be having some struggs in the near future. But my new companion Sister Abelhouzen is a gem. Seriously I love this girl. When I opened my letter with the name of my companion I was like "well she is American" then I met her and I was like, "eh, we can do this" So now I am leading in all things, and it is a little scary, but I already feel the Lord helping me. It was like I all of a sudden understood Tagalog and am able to speak it pretty well too. I really have no other explanation other than the power of the Spirit. This work is real. rul rul.

So this week was really strange because we went up to Laoag for most of the week, then have had shorter proselyting days because of travel, weekly plainning--I survived--and Sunday. But before we went up to Laoag Sister Keith and I worked in each other's areas for the day and in Sister Keith's area we met the creepiest old Jo. His name is Roger and oh my gosh. When we met him I could feel the Spirit leave. So he is this middle aged guy from NY who, by the sounds of it, is just living off his family's money and is in the Philippines to trap some poor, yet attractive, Filipino into marriage. He has lived here for five years and does not speak a drop of Tagalog--his phrasing. He had these creepy blue eyes that popped out of his head, a fanny pack and the littlest twelve year old feet. I really cant even tell you how gross he was, but he was gross.

In other news, thing really are just quite spectacular in Vigan, I dont have any crazy stories to tell this week other than creepy Roger. I speak a lot of Tagalog now...I am leading lessons and planning and life...I have not even felt the effects of Typhoon Yolanda...my new apartment is infested with ants...but I do have a flush toilet now and a shower, but I think I really prefer a bucket shower. Look at me, going native.

Mahal Kita!

Sis Bet

TYPHOON HAIYAN

On Friday NOV 8, 2013 one of the largest storms EVER recorded came ashore in the central Philippines. Locally they are calling the storm Yolanda. Internationally it is being called Tyhoon Haiyan. You've all read and seen the reports of incredible destruction and despair. Here is a link Ryan sent me to a Deseret News/KSL story about some sister missionaries in the area hardest hit:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865590735/Surviving-the-typhoon-A-story-of-fear-faith-and-what-it-means-to-be-prepared.html?pg=1

Early the next day, NOV 9, I received this email:

Greetings,

We would like to let you know that the typhoon Haiyan(locally known as Yolanda) did not affect any of the areas in the Philippines Laoag Mission.

All the missionaries here are safe. Thank you for your love and support.

Sincerely,

Philippines Laoag Mission

Fortunately, Megan was well out of harm's way! Here is what she had to say about it on NOV 10, 2013:
Oh man, like all of my emails today are about the Typhoon. Yeah, we did not even experience a drop of rain or anything. But there are a lot of people who are effected by the storm, but I think I probably know less than you do because we can't watch the news or read newspapers. So yeah. But I have definitely felt the love.

Look Out World! I'm Trinatraining!

Sunday, NOV 3, 2013

Yup, my 12 week training is done and now I get to have my very own trainee. Heaven help that poor sister. Joke lang. We will do just fine. I just hate not knowing who she is, not knowing where she is from and most importantly NOT KNOWING IF SHE SPEAKS TAGALOG. Yeah, that would be my biggest worry. I am okay in the language, like I can manage, and on exchanges the other day my Sister Training Leader said that I should be fluent by the end of November--lets all hope for that--but I dont feel 100% sure of myself if I have to do the bulk of the language-ing. Ya know? We will just Tim Gunn it and make it work.

This week feels a little bit like a dream because everything was so crazy because of transfers and we had to be locked in on Thursday because of another storm, then on Saturday we moved apartments and on Tuesday we were at the hospital with Sister Sese's distant relatives and everything just was crazy this week.

So Tuesday, we went to the hospital, again. Sister Sese's brother in law's cousin was in the hospital there (we all know I know how random family relations work) and he asked Sis Sese and I to drop by and arrange for the cousin to have a priesthood blessing and Elder Crandal and Elder Mabunga showed up, but forgot oil, so they had to go back to their apt and look for some, could not find any, so they had to go to the store, buy, consecrate then come back and give the blessing. The whole process took about an hour and Sis Se and I just sat in the creepy hospital with the poor old nanay who had staples in her neck and sang Christmas songs. It sounds like a strange day, but really, it is kind of just how things go here in Vigan.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Sister Jarmillios and she is just a delight. And a great boost to my confidence level as far as speaking and teaching go. She also had some great insights on how to handle Jojo--preachy guy who gives us bananas--because he is just NOT progressing. He does not remember anything we have taught him and I think he just sees our visits as an opportunity for him to preach to us about Jesus and show how much he knows. Not really the point. So I will be going back with my fresh new companion and see what happens. I think we are going to really ask what he thinks our purpose is and hit him hard with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and emphasize baptism.

Saturday we had to move. It was a monkey show. I hate moving and I hate waking up in the morning, thinking it is going to be a normal day, then realizing that, no, you have to pack up all your crap, clean an apartment, move your stuff into that smaller apartment that you just cleaned, organize, clean some more, make food, then wake up at 6:30 the next day. Luckily the Elders helped and things went as well as could be expected. I just hate hate hate moving. Did I mention that I hate it?

Church was sweet, everyone was saying goodbye to Sister Sese and Kenfield and taking pictures and it is cute to see how loved they are. I am just so scattered right now with everything happening and training and moving, but next week I will have a new companion to tell you about. Lets all hope she is a Filipina. Kay? Thanks.

Mahal Kita!

Sis Bet