Letter!!!

     So our pday got changed to Monday last minute and it will be on Wednesday NEXT week. Because that’s our temple day. Anyway, I haven’t got the package yet L! But I’m thinking about it everyday and I think there is a good chance I will get it tomorrow because we have zone conference and we will be getting mail! Yahoo! I am so excited. Also I get to see Sister Nobleza again! I really miss her, we had so much fun the last two transfers. This transfer with Sister Saleem is going okay. If I thought Filipinos were different and didn’t understand me sometimes, it’s even more with a Pakistani. BUT I’m trying not to think about our million differences but just focus on what we have in common. She is really sweet and loves to talk so good thing I don’t mind listening. I totally feel like I am the senior in the companionship because I always have to help her focus on the work and I’m leading the area. But I am learning a lot from her. Even though her mission has been really hard, she’s stuck with it to the end and she’s completely fearless. Even though she is wrong a lot when she speaks tagalog, she never gets discouraged or lets it hold her back. She just goes, whatever, that’s how I say it or that’s my style! Haha, I’m like okay…I can’t argue with that. Lol.

But yesterday she said, “Oh Sister Garcia, I will never ever forget you” and I said, “huh? Why?” and she said, “because you are my only companion that I have no problems with!” hahaha. So I’m glad that hopefully her last transfer will be a good experience and she won’t think of her WHOLE mission as horrible and hard.

    Aw, it’s time to decorate for Christmas already!!! There are a few decorations here and the mall is decked out, but it just doesn’t feel like winter because it’s still like 100 degrees outside every day! It’s killing me, but I’m still way excited for Christmas. Sister Drio wanted me to buy all the thanksgiving stuff for thanksgiving, like ham and mashed potatoes and pie. I told her no way, I don’t have enough money and they don’t even know what thanksgiving is but I decided to splurge a little and make some chocolate pudding this Thursday-you know the Jell-o brand? It’s SO cheap in Americabut here it was 80 pesos! Oh my goodness I was shocked. Oh well, I deserve it. J

    Are you working with the missionaries any chance you get? I don’t know if they struggle as much as we do to find people to work with but it is always nice to have a member present in the discussions and it’s way good practice. Yesterday we had an SA work with us-18 years old, named Rejoice. She is so sweet and really wants to go on a mission after she finishes college. It was great because she befriended our investigators, learned a little about missionary work, we got a little break from sharing, and if I didn’t know a tagalog word, she did! Haha, I wish we could have that every day.

    Anyway, we have about 13 progressing investigators right now and we found 3 new less actives. The work is going really strong, but feels unbalanced. My struggle right now is finding balance in everything and knowing who to prioritize first. If only we had enough time to visit everyone! And visit them twice a week. But it’s impossible of course. It’s just so hard to choose people to cross off our list because I really want to visit all of them and sometimes whether we visit them or not is the deciding factor in if they come to church or not! Anyway, I am totally stressed. Sometimes I think I am so laid back, but then other days I realize I’m such a control freak. But at least all I have to worry about is this work and nothing else. I finally feel like I am in this 100% and even on pday i wish we could be working instead of buying groceries. Unfortunately we have to eat…lol. But like all missionaries say, I’ve really grown to love these people and this gospel, and especially realize the love that Heavenly Father has for them. No matter what happens in life, the church is still true.

I love you guys so much!

Love, Age.

Letter from Adrienne

How are you guys?! I heard the news about conference and the age change! That’s so crazy. I feel like the second coming is really close if they are trying to up the amount of missionaries! Exciting! I heard that it’s not really like a “you have to go when you’re 18” for boys, it’s just some boys are ready then, so now they can go if they want to. Is that true?

Thank you so much for sending the package! I can’t believe it’s all for me and I’m so excited to open it! I think that’s awesome that ya’ll are sending stuff for the kids. It is BADLY needed. I’m always a little depressed when I see the kids running around looking for trash to play with. I’m not even kidding. We were teaching this family and their kid was crying and the mom gave her a ripped piece of cardboard to play with. She has no toys but she also doesn’t know any different so she was perfectly content with the cardboard. It just makes you realize how even the really poor people in america have it really good.

So I’m doing pretty good.  Transfer day is not until November 1st but it feels close. I’m not ready for me and sister nobleza to split up yet! Especially cause who knows what my next companion will be like?! I have a feeling whoever she is it might be a challenge, just cause these last two transfers have been so nice. I had a funny dream the other night that I was in a lesson teaching this guy and my companion was an American with big 80’s hair. As we were teaching (in tagalog btw!) I was asking the guy about the priesthood and what he felt it meant. And before he could answer my companion starting laughing! Like super hard. I looked at her really shocked and embarrassed but the investigator acted like he didn’t hear and answered the question really seriously and it was a really good answer. And then my companion starting cracking up again. It was such a weird dream haha. But I think it might be a sign that my next companion is an American!

I had a cool experience yesterday! So it was fast Sunday for us and I fasted for a ton of things, but mostly that the Lord would help me have more faith. So we went to church and a TON of people came surprisingly. We had 16 less actives show up and 5 investigators! It was amazing. And one of the investigators we had only taught 3 times and she brought her neighbor who we had never taught. Haha I couldn’t believe it. So that was really exciting. And then every Sunday we go on splits with two of the members of our ward-they are single girls-32 and 30. They are super nice and always
willing to work with us. So  Ann, the 32 year old, RM, went with me and Ynna went with Sister Nobleza and we split up so we could cover more of our area than we usually could just us two.

So first, me and Ana went to Darrelyn, our for sure investigator who is 16 and super excited for her baptism on oct 20th. Which I am super excited for too! And then we tried to visit this lady that we taught just once before and we knocked on her door and said “tao po!” like a
million times (cause that’s what you say when you knock. It’s literally means “people!” haha. And nothing. So we thought maybe they were sleeping or no one was home. Then all of the sudden she turns the corner and comes running toward us, “here! I’m here!” hahaha. She goes, “ I had a feeling that you might be here so I thought I would come check”. It turns out that the place we had first met her was her sister in law’s home and where she worked. But her actual home was a couple of blocks away. So she led us to her actual house where all 4 of her kids were home. So me and ana met all of them-ages 16, 14, 12, and 7 and introduced ourselves and we all sat in a circle in their living room. The mom-her name is Malou-she said her husband is working abroad and they’re not sure when he’ll be able to come back but they are mostly really happy, she just wishes her kids had God in their
lives and helped out more around the house. But we asked her if she had any questions for us and she said that she wanted to know how mormonism started. I was like perfect! Segway into lesson 1.

So as I start teaching, this lady knocks on the door and she’s a friend of Malou-named Milet. So she comes in and we continue teaching. We ended up teaching the entire lesson one and I taught all of it
except for the apostasy part-which Ann taught and then I taught them how to pray and invited them to ask God if our message was true. Malou was teary eyed and said she felt so enlightened and we had answered a question that she’d had for a really long time-why there are so many
churches and different beliefs. And then when I asked her to give the closing prayer she starting crying so much she couldn’t speak. So I gave the closing prayer and then they said they will try to come to general conference. And Sister Milet told us that when she came over
she didn’t have a reason, she just felt like she should walk to Malou’s house. The spirit was so strong and I felt so grateful that I wasn’t nervous at all, I remembered everything and I said everything right in tagalog!! 

I know that the Lord was helping me and he led Malou and Milet to us through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Talk about answer to my fast. My faith was increased so much and I knew without a doubt that it wasn’t a coincidence. I’ve prayed how many times to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands and for the first time yesterday I felt like I really was. It’s the best feeling to know that somehow I am helping the Lord in his work and helping his children. I was so happy that for the first time on my mission I didn’t want to go to bed because I didn’t think I could go to sleep. And maybe the Lord is putting His trust in me that I can really do this!! Anyways, it was a cool experience and it made me realize that Heavenly Father really does answer all of our prayers. Sometimes we ask for
stuff and we just don’t open our eyes to see the answer. Why not get excited about the little miracles everyday? Missionary work-sharing the gospel should be the most exciting thing ever!- telling people the God still speaks to us and loves us and leads us through personal revelation and
a living prophet and has provided a way for us to return to him. It’s amazing and I feel totally humbled and honored to be a part of it. And somehow the Lord has qualified me for the work. It’s true what people say that missions are really hard and there are a ton of bad days. But it’s the good days, like yesterday, that make it all worth it.

So that’s my experience for the week. I hope you all are doing good and thank you for your emails and packages and prayers and love! I love you all so much!!!

Love, Age

Update!

This week has gone by super fast for me! Sundays are not a rest day haha. they are the busiest day for us! good thing pday is the next day. 
I am doing good, still healthy and happy and the work is going good! We had a temple tour last Saturday and I had to introduce the restoration movie and then share my testimony to all the visitors and investigators. I was nervous but a lot of missionaries came up to me afterwards and were like, wow! your tagalog was perfect! You are doing so good! That made me feel really good. i wish i wasn't such a perfectionist. i think that learning a language teaches you a lot of patience and the ability to just accept your best, because as soon as i get discouraged, everything else is affected, including my language. It's hard to be corrected constantly and this guy the other day interrupted me in the middle of my testimony and told sister nobleza to speak because i was obviously having a hard time. i almost cried because i knew everything i said was right but it was the way i was speaking that he didn't want to listen. Sometimes it feels hopeless like i'll never learn this language or people will never focus on the message because they're so busy listening to how i speak. but i know i can't think like that. i need to just be patient and keep doing my best.

Well this week was pretty much same ol same ol. we taught jerrill with her husband ponce for the first time both of them together. we showed them the together forever movie and they loved it. they are an awesome couple with two little girls. the dad is 62 and the mom is 28 so there is a huge age gap but he's super sweet to her. he's always doing the laundry, cooking, and taking care of the kids. he told us that he loves his wife so much and whatever she believes, he will believe also. she is super receptive and i love teaching them. we also taught christian again about getting answer to prayer and he totally understood. he is super talented in drawing but he doesn't have money for supplies so he just uses pen and he doesn't have money for school so he just looks up different techniques on a computer in a computer shop and tries to learn that. he really wants to work for dc comics or something or any comic place really but he has no money for school and he's having to look for a job to help support his mom and dad. he has a lot of faith though and you can tell he is really digesting everything we tell him. we also taught tatay billy and found out that his wife left him when he got a stroke and he never sees his kids. he lives alone in a tiny shack so that he can rent out his home and that's how he gets money. He is SUCH a sweet guy, and always so nice to us. i can't believe some people's situations here! It makes me wonder why i ever felt sorry for myself or like I NEEDED an Ipod or whatever else, while these people are just trying to survive day by day and are still so happy and offering us time to teach them. 
Anyway, I love it here and it's starting to feel more and more like home. The happier I get and the harder i work, the more I feel like satan is working on me and trying me and discouraging me. It is a constant battle! But I am learning so much and getting spiritually stronger. Well, I love you and miss you tons! 


Love, Age

Flooding in the Philippines

Wow I was looking forward to email ALL week and I got 17 emails so that was awesome! thank you so much! I have been thinking about Elena and Jamie and praying for them all week, I'm so happy that the pregnancy went well and Jamie looks SO cute!! I can't tell who she looks like more, but I wanna say she kinda has Ben's eyes. And I'm surprised she doesn't have more hair! But I'm just happy everyone is healthy and doing good. I can't believe Elena and Ben are parents, that's crazy but super exciting! 

The missionary work has been slow lately because there is a lot of flooding happening right now. yesterday we were told to stay inside all day because of the rain and it poured and thundered all day long. the streets were flooded, but only up to our ankles. but when the weather is like that, no one goes outside. so i took a nap, wrote some letters, watched some church movies, and wrote in my journal. It was exciting for about two hours and then in got boring. Today is Pday and they cancelled our district meeting and we still don't know if i'm
transferring or not!


I got your package with the shoes! Thank you so much! the hair pins were super cute too!  Even if just walk around the house, I was desperate for shoes! And don't worry about sending me food, i know it's expensive and most stuff i can find here. is there a substitute for heavy whipping cream? I couldn't find that anywhere?
I made fudge and sopapillas and everyone LOVED them! Especially the elders that live nearby. I felt like I was back home for a second it was really nice. Sopapillas are totally a great comfort food after walking all day in the cold rain too. 

Anyway, the other day was kinda scary cause we were just walking down the street and this drug addict
was walking in front of us. he wouldn't let us pass and starting yelling and throwing a papaya on the ground. we walked over to the side of the road to wait for him to pass, but instead he came over and asked me if i spake english or tagalog. i just ignored him and some kids came over and teased him and he chased after them and me and sister drio ran the other way. it was pretty scary and my heart was beating super fast. i was like, what am i going to do if he attacks me or something? i was just praying super hard that we wouldn't get hurt.
we had to change our plans a bit but at least we were safe. there are definitely some weirdos here.

Well, I am glad you are happy and successful, and staying busy! I'm so proud of you for everything you're doing and I love hearing that you are proud of me. I'm praying for ya'll and trying to really focus on my mission and put everything I have into it. I love you and miss you so much!!! Love, Age

Most Recent Letter

Hey Mom!


Thanks for the email! I can't believe its already been a week either, time is going by way fast! it's almost August!! thanks for answering all my questions and more. i'm floored by how successful your bakery is doing, you are so awesome! Sister Drio says she'll come work at your bakery if you want because she used to work at a bakery. hahaha, everyone thinks its so cool when i tell them my mom has a bakery :) i miss your cooking SOOOO MUCH! when i come home i'm just going to eat everything in sight and die. ok? ok. oh man i can't believe elena is so close to having her baby and i agree, an induction is probably better than completely natural! she's lucky in a way. wow i knew this day would come, but i can't believe it's actually like tomorrow or something! glad to hear you're still garage saleing! Your emails always make me laugh.

Yeah, laundry takes forever! The most frustrating thing is that sometimes it rains and the wind is really strong and my clean clothes fall on the dirty ground and i have to wash them all over again. I haven't received the other package yet, but maybe tomorrow. I'm planning on going to the store today and getting those ingredients to make some of the recipes you sent me. I can't wait! My roommates always act really nervous when i cook like they think i have no clue what i'm doing. When it comes to philipino food, that's usually true. but they have no idea that i used to cook ALL the time in college and when it comes to following a recipe i'm a pro! :) hahaha,. that's the problem, they all cook without recipes and i have no clue how to do that! 
You are so lucky you get to go to Oklahoma and see Nat! She said that Maddie says my name and knows that I'm on a mission in the philippines. That's so cute! 

I know I'm supposed to be here but its weird how time just goes on and things change while you're gone. Transfer day is August 9th! So i might be getting a new companion and a new area or everything could stay the same, no idea yet. But i'm excited to find out. Tagalog is getting a bit easier every day and i'm still studying it a lot but i don't feel so nervous when i speak anymore or like i have to think super hard about what i'm going to say. i know that the spirit is helping me a lot. thank you for all your prayers. 
The most exciting part of missionary work is when we find people that are ready to hear the gospel. or when someone you've been teaching forever FINALLY comes to sacrament meeting. but the most disappointing part is when they don't progress or we never follow up. a lot of times i want to go visit someone we met the other day who seemed really excited about our message but my comp. says no, they're not ready. Sometimes i want to be a trainer so i can reach my full potential as a missionary. I can see myself changing into someone who is more patient and sensitive. I'm trying not to change a lot but i can see the mission changing me. I know i still have so much further to go, especially with being more humble and submissive, but the only reason i want more power is so i can serve God better and be more effective. So i don't know if that's bad. 
I’m so grateful for the gospel and that we can repent and be better and better. i miss ya'll so much and love hearing from you! keep telling me everything!!


Love,

Age

Latest Letter from the Philippines

Hey Mom!


This kid the other day told me "pangit naman ang salita mo" which means, the way you talk is really ugly. haha that pretty much made me never want to speak tagalog again but i just laughed about it and now my comp reminds me about it every day. 


I can't believe Elena is going to have a baby! i think about it all the time. Yeah it rains every day here but no flooding yet. Last night there was the LOUDEST thunder storm! It seriously sounded like someone was blowing up our building and my bones were rattling. it was crazy and scary but also kinda fun! I love the rain cause it comes down super hard and cools everything off. It’s better than the blasting heat. Usually its hot all day and then rains sometime during the day super hard for like 2 or 3 hours. 


I totally know the scared to be successful feeling as you well know! it's scary to be doing so well cause you know that a trial is probably coming or something. but just enjoy it while it lasts! cause its true, a trial probably is coming haha and you're going to wish you were back to being successful again. is that pessimisstic or what? lol that's just how i look at missionary work cause its so up and down. its kinda scary when I’m super happy and feeling proud of myself cause i feel like any minute i'm going to mess up super bad in tagalog and be back to ground zero again.


Transfer day is in 2 and a half weeks-2nd week of august i think! I'm ready for a change but my comp requested to president sperry that we stay together one more transfer cause she’s loving it. I am fine with that but i think after one more transfer I really need an American companion haha! You can ask me more questions! Sometimes I'm not sure what to write, so much goes on in a week and i forget to tell you a lot of stuff.
anyway, love you so much! 


Love, Age

Cool Mission Experiences

Hey Mom!

How are things? I think the culture here is making me tougher. I don't see how I could ever get offended again with the things people have told me to my face like it's perfectly fine haha. I just have to smile and laugh or whatever and it's all good.

Also THANK YOU for the second package! I got it two days ago and desperately needed the face lotion and LOVED the candy and pictures! I've been showing our family picture to everyone we teach and the other missionaries and they all think you are my sister because you look so young! Also i think i ate two snickers and 1 fast break and 2 butterfingers in one sitting for dinner one night. I miss candy so much and never get sweet stuff! plus we didn't have any food..haha so thank you thank you!!!

Do you think when you have time you could email me some easy recipes that involve just a few ingredients and don't need an oven? We have a stove, so anything like that.

The work here is great! We actually had some awesome miracles lately! We we just waking down the street and i smiled at this lady pushing a stroller and she said, excuse me where is your church and when is the service? so we talked to her and found out that her brother joined the church in japan and she's been wanting to be a member for a long time. she's seen us around but has been too shy until now to say anything! it was so cool! so we set up a time to meet with her. then the next day we were walking down the street and this guy yells out, hey how can i be mormon? when can i be baptized? so we talked to him and he had all these questions and we set up a time to meet with him. THEN we were walking home and there is this family in the front of our neighborhood that we always say hi to and the dad is super nice and treated us to jollibee one time at the mall. and so we were just doing the normal routine and saying, good afternoon to them when the dad comes running out of the house and says sisters! we want to know about your religion! we're neighbors and we see you all the time, but we don't know what you do! will you please come in and tell us all about it?! we kinda hesitated because it's not technically our area and then he said, just for ten or 15 minutes!? please?! so by then we were like, ok we have to! i mean he's practically begging to be taught the gospel! so we went in and taught the first lesson to him and his 19 year old nephew and it went great! he received everything so well and had a TON of questions so we are going to keep teaching him. I can't believe how blessed we have been it is just miracle after miracle. i know that God is placing the people in our path that are ready to hear the gospel. i have a real testimony that being an example and being kind is a HUGE part of missionary work. if we didn't greet everyone and smile at everyone everywhere we went they wouldn't feel comfortable coming up to us or asking us about our religion. I know the church is true and the Lord's hand is in our work. I love you so much and miss you tons! Keep praying for me to learn tagalog!

Love, Age

More Pictures from The Philippines

Adrienne sent us a few more pictures from the Philippines. It looks so green there!

 The beautiful Philippines!

Elder Christensen (district leader in the MTC), Elder Corpuz (my friend that is leaving this week!), me, and sister Drio on transfer day. 

Some Pictures from Her Mission

1. Adobo pork-a really popular meal here with rice. pretty tasty!

2. Temple tour with some of the missionaries-including Sister Winger from the MTC

3. A beautiful shot of the lush, green Philippines

4. Some kids at the mall getting ready for a talent show-they were doing a dance. so cool!

3. Temple tour with our investigator Rona (the one with the baby by her feet) and a recently converted family

Learning to Trust in the Lord

For the first time i've felt like that starving missionary living on ramen. cause i really was! one day i had 2 ramen for breakfast and lunch haha. anyway, things are better now. this elder gave me some australian money cause his friend sent it to him and he was like, "it's no use to me here" but i exchanged it at the mall and it was worth 850 pesos! woohoo! i was so happy i bought sister Drio's dinner for her at pizza hut and we were so full! you should totally send me a video! oh my gosh i would love that!!

i have bug spray stuff i just always forget to put it on. the mosquitos really aren't bad but in certain areas they're HORRIBLE! it's like i'll go the whole day without a single bite and then we get to this one member's house and I'm swarmed. I don't know what it is that attracts them to certain places like that. Ya, there is a piano in our branch but we have a player, so I haven't played at all yet. and the girl that i was going to teach piano lessons to, her piano broke so that didn't work out either. oh well, i'm sure i'll get a chance in the future.

Hahaha its funny that you've seen so many snakes and i haven't seen a single one out here! i saw a huge cockroach and a 2 inch in diameter spider in our house! so gross! i just ignore them and then sister Drio eventually kills them haha. she's not afraid of bugs at all.

I saw a poster for Step Up 4 in the mall today! oh man, have you seen any good movies lately? Everything is good here, I'm still healthy and having fun. things with sister Drio are back to normal and we established that every time she's mad at me she'll ignore me for 2 days and then go back to normal and there is nothing i can do to change that. so even though i tried to explain to her that its better to work things out right away and not waste so much time, she wouldn't accept it and I've decided to just be super careful about everything i say and do so i don't offend her. cause 2 days without the spirit is basically a waste of the Lord's time.

One of the hardest things for me here has been having faith instead of fear. too often i let fear and doubt creep into my thoughts and eventually take over and i'm paralyzed. then i wonder why the Lord isn't helping me. But the times I completely put my trust in him after doing all I can do, I feel his presence so strong! It's amazing how much fear can get in the way of the Lord's work.

You told me to tell you when i got the gift of tongues, and i did the other day! i had studied so hard and was praying for the Lord to help me be confident and bless me with the gift of tongues and we went to our first meeting and the words just came out. I wasn't even sure if they were right but I felt like I just needed to say them and not question it. I didn't stumble, or pause or anything and the lady we were teaching understood everything I said! I was so happy and proud of myself and thanked Heavenly Father over and over. then the rest of the day went great because i was so pumped by that experience. Since then I haven't really felt that again, and I was kinda thinking that once you got the gift of tongues you had it the rest of your mission, but i think it comes more slowly and then when you really need it and are worthy of it it comes again. I still stumble a lot but I'm much more comfortable speaking and participating in the lessons without looking at my notes or sounding like I'm reading, ya know?

the work is good, we are focusing on less actives so we only have 2 investigators and don't really knock doors. a lot of people just sit on the side walk and people watch so we talk to them sometimes when we don't have anyone to visit. everyone is really nice but most aren't interested.

i miss the piano like crazy! there is a really good elder here, named Elder Orpiano and he is Amazing at the piano and never looks at the music!! I wish I could play like that. It's funny that his name is Orpiano huh? Anyway, I am totally working on my patience and other christ-like attributes. It's hard, but I'm trying to look at the big picture. That's all for this week, I miss you and still think about calling you and look for my cell phone sometimes. Can you believe that?! haha well, next week our pday is on wedenesday again because its transfer day (i'm not being transferred), so talk to you then. Love, Age

Latest Letter

Hey Everyone! Here is Adrienne's most recent letter. Sorry it's been a few weeks since I posted last. She is getting better at Tagalog and enjoying the rain. :)

Thanks for your emails! Yeah, learning a new language is tough. that's an understatement. I realized though that I've already been blessed with the interpretation of tongues I think because i can understand about 90% of tagalog. it's just speaking it and speaking it correctly that's hard. so i fasted that i would have the courage to speak and know what to say and how to say it when the time comes that i really need to use it, which is every day and every lesson haha. the answer i received was, keep doing your part. keep trying your best. don't forget to work hard. man, not the answer i wanted. but i know its true. that we have to seriously do ALL we can. like every single itty bitty thing and THEN the lord makes up the rest. And maybe I've been hoping for him to pick up a little bit more than his share. so I’m going to work harder than ever this week so that i see SOME kind of improvement. It's frustrating but I'm trying to have faith and be patient that it will come. thank you for all your support and understanding and prayers. Mondays are so rejuvenating when I hear that you are all rooting for me and thinking about me.

Yes, I'm constantly sweating. It's gross but we take a shower (pour water from a bucket over us haha) every night and every morning and the rainy season is starting so I think that will help. it's already been a tiny bit cooler. i actually love when it rains because it pours so hard and then it's cool and a little windy afterward. i am not looking forward to it flooding though! the weather here is totally like Texas weather except there's no ac. I don't miss it too much though because everyone has electric fans, like every family owns at least three haha. so it's not so bad.

I feel like they are telling the missionaries to trust in the spirit and rely on the lord and so missionaries feel like they don't have to prepare. but that's not it! Sister Drio is getting better at helping me prepare and the other day she actually told me she thinks I'll be ready to train in 9 weeks. HA! i don't think i will but it was nice to hear a compliment from her. Mom, I miss your cooking my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it! I've actually lost some weight since I've come here with all the walking we've done and we haven't really eaten any sweets.

Today we went to Eco park-this famous foresty park in La Mesa with our district. The park was gorgeous! there are so many different kinds of cool plants here and everything is so lush and colorful! i love it! maybe next week i'll send some pics!

The work is going good, we had a lot of less actives come to church on Sunday so that was exciting! A ton of the time we go to appointments and people aren't home or they say we can come back and then they text us saying they've changed their minds. That's tough but there is one guy that is really interested and yesterday he asked us if man could see God. I shared the first vision with him and he seemed enthralled. He's 24 and his name is Jerome. his aunt is a less active member. so hopefully something will happen with him. His first language is Ilocano and he is super shy and quiet so i have a hard time understanding him but i always feel the spirit when we teach him.

As far as the food…we only eat with the members once a week on Sunday. but yesterday we had this fish and they didn't take the skin or bones off at all and it still had its mouth and eyes and everything. then for dessert they served chicken head! OH my gosh. The fish was pretty good but I think I was supposed to eat more of it than i did cause the sister was like, are you done already? i was like yeah...(what am i supposed to do? eat the fat and the bones too?) and then she brought out the chicken head and the whole family and missionaries watched me eat it cause they knew it was my first time. The brain tasted sick and grainy and then the eyes were all squishy and cold. ugh. I can't believe i ate that. but i had no choice! as soon as we got home i had a tuna sandwich and ice cream. lol. they said next week they're making me chicken intestines and balut. greeeeaat....i told them i received a revelation i was going to be sick that day. they were like, oh you're a prophet?! haha. Usually we eat on our own and i make a sandwich or spaghetti or pancakes, but sometimes my companion Sister Drio cooks rice and okra or something like that and it's usually pretty good. So yeah, I'm pretty sure I’ll want to eat your home cooked meals when i get home hahaha. i'll be so sick of rice by then!

Well here is my actual address where I will get mail once every 3 weeks : Philippines Quezon City North Mission P.O. Box #1243 Quezon City Central Post Office Nia Road, Diliman 1100 Quezon City, Philippines. So send me pouches! you just send them like a regular letter with one stamp and write pouch on the front and i think it gets sent to me just fine. cause that’s what i do if i want to send a letter home.

Anyway, thanks for the language encouragement. It is slowly getting a tiny bit better each day but still pray for me! I talk to sister Drio in English mostly but i try to speak in tagalog when i know how to say it. the members i don't talk to much, but if i do its in tagalog. all the other missionaries I talk to in English. I love when we get together with our district cause I can talk to the American missionaries without having to think really hard about what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it. Sometimes Sister Drio's English is really bad and i have a hard time understanding her. like the other day she said, "oh man if he does that i'm gonna piss on him!" i gasped and started laughing and she was like, "what? is that bad?" so i explained to her what it meant and she was like, "oh i was trying to say i'm going to be mad!" haha it was so funny but i think she was really embarrassed. sometimes it makes me feel better though to know that english for her is kinda like tagalog for me. Like the other day i told this guy that joseph smith was a living prophet when i meant to say true prophet. and i say house instead of life all the time. cause house is bahay and life is buhay. so i'll be like, " in the premortal house, blah blah blah" lol. but we had a training meeting the other day and all the trainees were saying they are having trouble with the language so that made me feel a little better.

Lyn Harris!-How are you? How is work and Jaclyn!? Thanks for reading my blog, I am so happy to know that I have your support and love. I Miss your beautiful family! :)

Well, keep writing me and encouraging me and telling me everything-the good and the bad! I love you so much and think about ya'll all the time! the fact that you and dad went on a mission is such a comfort to me! I know I can do this with the Lord's help and your prayers! I know the church is true and Dad I'm sending you a fathers day letter but it might get there kinda late! I love you! Have a great week!

Love, Age