Sunday, June 24, 2012

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

Sunday, June 10, 2012

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