Kumakaway kaway Paoay

This week has been really good! We have been working really hard and fasting and praying for people and we have seen some good progress in the area. Of course there is opposition in all things, but This week I was really thankful for the members of the branch. Last week we gave talks in church about fellowshipping people when they come to church and this week we had a lot of less-actives and a few investigators come to church and the members really stepped up and took charge of everything. I was really impressed. When we came in they all hugged our Less Actives and sat by them and same with our investigators. Then last night, while we were teaching one of our investigator youth, ALL of the young women came to invite her to an activity and to invite her to join in seminary. Carole Abucay and Athena Baroweden headed the project, but it was very well-organized and I was very impressed.
I hope that the members can really see the change that comes from the Christ like qualities that they are showing.

This week we were supposed to have an activity/fireside at the church and watch a movie and stuff, BUt not of the leadership came so I guess it's bawal to have a fireside without presiding authority, so instead, we just watched a good church movie and then everyone went home.... at least the movie was inspirational.

Still working hard. we all have weaknesses, I just hope that mine don't keep me from doing what I am supposed to be doing with the time that I have left on the mission and with my mission here on the earth.

Chicacorn

This weeks funny story is probably not all that funny to anyone not in the Philippines.... but it's kind of like those "everything is funnier at 3 o clock in the morning" things... bologna sandwich! 

Anyway we were teaching on of our progressing investigators.... of course we had a plan and everything and before we started teaching her, the nanay came and gave us a huge bag of chichacorn.... not the most delicious stuff and she poured us a huge bowl of it and made us eat it... it was kind of gross to tell you the truth. Anyways we taught the lesson and while we were teaching we were just thinking.... she is getting this way to easy.... wow she is so smart! After the lesson and the day were over we got home and realized that we had taught her that lesson just a few weeks ago. We were like, UGH!!! Why did we do that.... and we were tired so we thought that it would be a good idea to talk in a British accent.... so we are freaking out with accents and stuff and we just get super quite after asking why we did that. Then All of the sudden my companion (who is Mexican so that makes it ever better) Yells out, "It. was. the. CHICHACORN!" It was so funny we were laughing so hard! Now whenever something goes bad or wrong we always so... it was the chichacorn!!!   haha baloney sandwich!

We had retention and reactivation this week, where we go out and work with the memebrs to teach less actives and recent converts... have I ever told you that I love Paoay?.... cause I do! They are just so great! Maybe this will be my last area....

I had to give a talk in church yesterday ... I chose to do it in Ilakano.... it was hard.... but they all understood perfectly... I didn't.... but they did haha.

for anyone that is interested, I only have 114 days left... that's 16 weeks... see you all soon!

I'm alive

To start off with just so that everyone knows, I am fine, my area wasn't affected at all by the typhoon. We didn't even see a rain loud it was clear and beautiful here! I really love it here, and we are still praying that all of the other missionaries over in that area of the Philippines are okay and safe.

My new companion is Sister Rico and I love her! She is a little ball of energy!  Definitely miss sister Smith, but change is good and hey! I only have 2 transfers left after this so who can really complain!?!! 

I played with a monkey this week... he is my new best friend!

On Sunday we had no power at the church! It was a long hot day! And at the very end... yes right after the closing prayer, the power came back on... curse you Satan!!!

We were followed by a creepy man with a machete this week... don't worry we ran away and escaped, so it was all good! I'm just glad that my companions is good at running! That's definitely another plus about our companionship! We go running every other day! I am so happy!!!

Sister Rico fell off a tryce this week... she is for sure my companion now!!! Love you all! Have a great week!!!

Typhoon Yolanda

Thanks to all of you who have shown concern for Julie during the Typhoon that has hit the Philippines, we just received this e-mail from the mission -
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
#50 Buttong, Airport Avenue
Junction Tangid Road, Laoag City 2900
Ilocos Norte, Philippines

Please keep the missionaries and the people of the Philippines in your prayers. There was a lot of damage and thousands and thousands of people are displaced or homeless from the destruction caused by the storm.

Again, thank you all for your concern

Halloween and transfers

The news of the week is transfers.... we were all completely shocked! We thought for sure that I was going to be transferred and that Sister Smith was going to stay and train.... sister Smith is training alright, but I am the one staying and she is opening an area and training! I'm so proud of my little child, she's growing old so fast! Hahaha I will now be companions with Sister Rico, she was Sister Walkers (My second trainee) companion in the MTC. I'm excited she is soo nice.

This last week we got to go on splits and it was really great! I worked with one of the LA Sisters in the branch and Sister Smith went with one of our fellowshippers, it was really good and I think that it helped pump up Sister Smith's confidence even more in herself that she can totally do this training thing! We actually ended up teaching a ridiculous amount of lessons this week, but even at that our progressing investigators and investigators at church dropped significantly:(

We have a zillion dinners this week... seeing as how transfers were coming up... luckily we have a really great lesson to teach to members so it was relatively easy.... except that we had to eat a ton... so much for that diet.... I got so fat. Most of it too was this weird sticky rice thing.... we probably each had about 4 pounds of it, its a traditional treat for all saints day.

All saints day is crazy here.... and then mix that in with the crazy elections that we had and the ridiculously strong bagio/typhoon thing that we had this week and it all mixes in for a pretty interesting week.

There is an old convent here that is abandoned and all creepy and stuff and they did like a haunted house thing with it and people from EVERYWEHERE came to participate in it! It took us like two times as long to walk home as it usually does. Fun Stuff.

On Thursday after district meeting we had lunch as a district and they told us that we had to go straight home and just do studies for the rest of the day because there was a big bagio coming.... not really seeing it, so we all went to lunch and spent a REALLY long time at lunch, that was fun:) We all had empanadas and just talked forever!!! Returned to our area and were doing studies, when the house began to switch, the roof to hitch and suddenly... okay I clearly don't know the words to that song off of the wizard of oz... but if I did! that would be exactly what happened to us! The lights went out the wind was so strong and it poured rain!!! It was crazy! So we barely got through weekly planning before it was dark, then we read about leprosy in Jesus the Christ by candle light in a creepy voice... it was our way of celebrating Halloween and getting scared! It was really fun!! We had a ton of candy too.... and tim tam slams.... delicious!
Some stupid man named nelson called us about 50 times at 3:30 in the morning one day.... so we got a new number.... but we are definitely sleep deprived this week.
Our baptismal candidate didn't come to church yesterday, we even went to go and get her after sacrament meeting... she wasn't there... hopefully that means that she has a grood excuse! She better or I'm gonna be ticked!

We taught a big group of like 20 year olds.... sister smith and I just thought how weird it is that a group of 20 year olds would spend their night listening to the missionaries teaching about the plan of salvation on Halloween with no lights....

Bananas bananas everywhere

Gonna be a shorter one this week cause pictures took a long time to upload.
 

On the way home list week there was a little boy in a red shirt on the jeepney and his shirt was Yellowstone national park. Awww. So I gave him a licorice and then he jumped across the jeepney and gave me a kiss:) So cute.... a little against the rules, but what can you do, I had no warning.

The highlight of my week was seeing SISTER WOAHN!!! yeah! We had fingerprinting in Laoag on Tuesday and So I got to see EVERYONE!!! and by everyone I mostly mean Sister Woahn and Sister Tauti, But it was way fun and I was so happy to get to see them! I love those two!!!

We had a great FHE this week... we didn't find out till 10 seconds before that we were in charge of it, but it was still really fun, we played Simon says... in English cause you have to go to fast for it to work and I cant think that fast in Tagalog, but they loved it!!!

We did another service project! Picking bananas! It was way fun and I had to go across a river on one tiny piece of bamboo! Etcha sketch! But it was way fun.... now we have 500 bananas... actually 498.... I counted.

Evidently.... ants like to eat garments... so..... ours are extra "holy" now haha.

And last but definitely not least! We had a baptism! Part memebr, her name is Nekee. She is so cute! I love her! Enjoy the pics!