tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69267832016697714782024-03-05T14:55:59.014-08:00Sister Fort in the PhilippinesSister Fort has been called to serve in the Philippines Cauayan Mission, reporting to the Provo MTC August 4, 2010. Her mother, Barbara Fort, updates this blog according to Sister Fort's e-mails and letters.Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-76156073518717267512011-12-12T07:10:00.000-08:002011-12-12T07:23:09.214-08:00MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL I LOVE YOU<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdwyh4ND4jPKgAONpoX-589ldBhLRpLBLLh4ssxkqDc0VRW01uWLWJAk_86HwvJT6HwC7YGRCqSHpyEcM2ws7UsXsT7B03P9NbWjE12K27I4VItS9_pjOIi7xgIhDDSpCbbszJ_zCbSc/s1600/IMG_0551.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685261109395981106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdwyh4ND4jPKgAONpoX-589ldBhLRpLBLLh4ssxkqDc0VRW01uWLWJAk_86HwvJT6HwC7YGRCqSHpyEcM2ws7UsXsT7B03P9NbWjE12K27I4VItS9_pjOIi7xgIhDDSpCbbszJ_zCbSc/s320/IMG_0551.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrjhOtSpIkIi_0TDmUbUYbVSJrL8Xqs4-86zxIHtba06x1ZJIqnsaEeFrQfJnrNc4jeMG7E5PzvN_FpiBVziD2Co2BW9N4osgd3WZvTkyfXb4YOPM16P6Wi8SOaHoRW3hIVgbLQPXZVE/s1600/IMG_0545.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; 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height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685260044673258850" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibfVcqhbja3dYPfXnghzu0z1OeljHPLjXLXVAvWYXuAX8VHDxDKVvPP8-NqjhmyX81KqnND2A7WitWdNwvBYuCMGzXBhFyMnq3vDXombozBdNwbRyR71mRHyr1l21s-Iz7t_BdUwI91A/s320/IMG_0453.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAVwMABobpy6dOsiJvSrcoUy-n0mL5wAopPWt5D0w6_pwTbT6HkF5_FA63eXtp-cVXWw6aDi_2YWzbZ0lxO1jXvLdwYL3_nfvKymjjJ1tz18_ZXY1cPprjhnqPnGIMi4DnCvZc7l9wl9Y/s1600/IMG_0451.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685260039933723922" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAVwMABobpy6dOsiJvSrcoUy-n0mL5wAopPWt5D0w6_pwTbT6HkF5_FA63eXtp-cVXWw6aDi_2YWzbZ0lxO1jXvLdwYL3_nfvKymjjJ1tz18_ZXY1cPprjhnqPnGIMi4DnCvZc7l9wl9Y/s320/IMG_0451.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8avx6UXByQzFe6q5oDt9s1TEKBaKt-6xn4ao3AtVS1O4k9vfbe7WjIDde6Dy2mLwsb2NmnO-vp2S_1CXfM-ZskxVJa3AW8Fu_5srkmusz8uMVxduDcYZt8UbsNYoPToI3h9o2Z6S0K4/s1600/IMG_0444.JPG"><img style="width: 240px; height: 320px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685260034935428738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8avx6UXByQzFe6q5oDt9s1TEKBaKt-6xn4ao3AtVS1O4k9vfbe7WjIDde6Dy2mLwsb2NmnO-vp2S_1CXfM-ZskxVJa3AW8Fu_5srkmusz8uMVxduDcYZt8UbsNYoPToI3h9o2Z6S0K4/s320/IMG_0444.JPG" /></a><br /><div><br />MOMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!<br />We got your package this week!!!!<br />We told the zone leaders on Tuesday<br />before they went down to Cauayan the next day, that they should bring us back<br />any packages or mail. They texted me and Sister M Wednesday afternoon saying,<br />"Wooo...you guys owe us big. Sister Fort's got some lovin coming her way<br />from Texas." And we got really excited. We opened the package in our room<br />and pulled everything out with an OOO and AHH. Sis M loved her card and shirt<br />and stocking and everything! I put on my new dress and Sister M played Michael<br />Buble and we danced in our big downstairs. We emptied our stockings and wore<br />them on our feet as we read our beautiful cards (which are now on display in<br />our room) We've been snacking on sugar free turtles and nuts this whole week,<br />and we've also finished reading the book you sent. And we've been wearing our<br />Chuy's shirts! Oh its so good to have a little piece of home like that. And I<br />love my cardigans. I smelled them and they smelled like target. You probably<br />think that so weird, but I miss that smell SO MUCH. There is nothing like that<br />new clothes smell here. The capo works like magic! I was using one of the capos<br />here and it was so terrible and out of tune. Sister M and I are getting ready<br />to sing Silent Night at our upcoming Christmas Zone Conference on the 20th,<br />yayy! With my new capo. Thank you so so so so sos o sos os o sos so much momma.<br />I couldn't wait to open everything, as you can see... Thank you so much.<br />I'm going to send this now so I can<br />send more pictures.<br />Here are some pics of me and Sister<br />M planning. We went out one day this week and walked in the pouring rain. We<br />only have one umbrella between the two of us and its broken nyways, so we got<br />soaked. None of our investigators were home, and this is a little glimpse into<br />our planning that night. :)<br />OH MY GOODNESS MOM. Here is<br />something crazy that happened to us this week in Sister M's words:<br />"Sister Fort and i were<br />downtown in our area, we were trying to contact a referral we were given by<br />some other missionaries. As we were walking down the hustle and bustle of the<br />night street we turned down a road and as we were walking i started to look up<br />to the sky and then started to slow down my walk because my eyes caught<br />something in the night sky.......i didn't know what it was at first and turned<br />around to Sister Fort who was walking behind me and said "do you see<br />that!?" and she looked up and she stopped walking in shock. We turned to<br />people on the street and asked if they knew what it was but as we looked around<br />everyone’s heads were lifted up to the night sky in amazement and shock. Sister<br />Fort and i started running and we crossed the streets getting closer to where<br />they were coming from and we looked up and started watching what we saw in the<br />sky and realized we were watching UFO's. We probably saw close to 20 UFO's. I<br />am not joking, it was crazy, i felt like we were in a movie. I took some<br />videos, but they don't give justice to what we experienced. Most of the videos<br />are long but i took some short ones so i could send. Sorry you can't tell by<br />this video but you can on my other ones. IT was crazy!"<br />It was so creepy and weird and I<br />felt like I was on War of the Worlds or something. I will send pictures....<br />Anyways. We found the referral we<br />were given that night and taught them. The referral was actually two kids--a 9<br />and 10 year old. The mother is a member and the father is not. We asked the<br />father, Robert Zalun, to join in on our lesson and taught about prophets. He is<br />actually the only person in his family that isn't a member. He had so many<br />questions like--is there just one prophet on the earth at the same time and<br />where does the book of Mormon come from and why is it called the book of Mormon.<br />We shared our answers and the spirit was there. We expressed our desire to come<br />back and have him be in all of our lessons to his children, and he agreed. Me and<br />SisM are excited about this. They can be a forever family!<br />Sister M and I got to watch the 1st<br />Presidency Christmas devotional last night. It touched my heart so deeply. And<br />with our reading of Luke, I've been feeling a different Christmas spirit that I<br />hope to have in so many more of my Christmases to come. Christ is the Savior of<br />the World. He lives. He loves me and you and everyone. I am grateful to know<br />this and to share it with so many others.<br />LOVE YOU MOMMA, sos os os<br />sososososososo much. Love you my family and friends, See YOU soon !!!<br />Your,<br />Sister Fort</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-4966242215118183982011-11-19T06:57:00.000-08:002011-11-19T07:11:05.073-08:00Almost HOME !!!! :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHxH0pWPCRcWdfKAIDFm5vVpnN8mJ_yq520QEb0t9ZGUm9qDaEhYAAvyb8fmqlu5iVX1IUFfsq4uy0WLSTbdIJswxZizcEYYvjifiInb2WnJDaVbjhoRnw01B-LAh77Nh6SzO_2A4zcv8/s1600/P1130381.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676724360982529954" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHxH0pWPCRcWdfKAIDFm5vVpnN8mJ_yq520QEb0t9ZGUm9qDaEhYAAvyb8fmqlu5iVX1IUFfsq4uy0WLSTbdIJswxZizcEYYvjifiInb2WnJDaVbjhoRnw01B-LAh77Nh6SzO_2A4zcv8/s320/P1130381.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1Rnja3DDANQhPBIjmfCyCKdEY0BhavE6RGRVV4CDySHY9XAEM2PGOO4tB3XMnMNJekR1r0du0n_pnD_uyS8BaR91cUMUFKbnN7co7q3RrscNWKViOxrm_b89JABqp8NXOMa80zFqDkM/s1600/P1130378.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676724352156442866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL1Rnja3DDANQhPBIjmfCyCKdEY0BhavE6RGRVV4CDySHY9XAEM2PGOO4tB3XMnMNJekR1r0du0n_pnD_uyS8BaR91cUMUFKbnN7co7q3RrscNWKViOxrm_b89JABqp8NXOMa80zFqDkM/s320/P1130378.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5CPIR2F9LDWAw9WRCjPAZq6aflNoMsuELi9RBew205-Tr4dcAvtbofxmfQMALWPSnnfCkpixDfFxY4omlkibybzyHhEn8538inwDUzCEpMe8k1n06Etmq2vai2raLt_iUK-DboAMSsLI/s1600/P1130237.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676724341001581042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5CPIR2F9LDWAw9WRCjPAZq6aflNoMsuELi9RBew205-Tr4dcAvtbofxmfQMALWPSnnfCkpixDfFxY4omlkibybzyHhEn8538inwDUzCEpMe8k1n06Etmq2vai2raLt_iUK-DboAMSsLI/s320/P1130237.JPG" /></a><br /><div><br />Dearest Momma, Family, and Friends,<br />I am exhausted right now. We woke up<br />at 5:00am to go fishing this morning with our district. But like we guessed our<br />meeting time wasn't 6:00am at all, but turned out to be like 8am. We fished<br />with bamboo rods and didn't catch one thing, but it was so nice to see a river<br />and wade calf-deep in the water. Wearing pants is kinda weird. I will try to<br />attach pictures from Sis M's memory card. For some reason my memory card is<br />broken? You can't see my pictures on my camera or on the computer.<br />We found another investigator named<br />Gina. She is so wonderful, I just love love love her. She catches on so quick<br />to everything we teach her, and doesn't judge or contrast our religion with her<br />current one. She doesn't look at us like we're American, she looks at us like<br />we're missionaries. We found her tracting one night, looking for a referral<br />given to us. We taught her about prophets and told her that we have a living<br />prophet today. She kind of put her hand on her chest and said, "huh. Thats<br />the first time I've ever heard of that." We commited her to pray to know<br />if that is true, and she said she would. We will go back to teach the<br />restoration this week.<br />Sis M has been really sick this<br />week. It has been sooooooooooooooooo hot lately, and one night we had a black<br />out the entire night, which meant our fans didn't work of course. We think<br />thats whats caused her sickness. We are constantly sweating.<br />Even though she's been sick though,<br />she's pushed herself to work. One day we went out in the morning and got 5<br />lessons, so she could come back and rest for a good chunk of the day. Then she<br />forced herself out again that night.<br />We write down every day what we find<br />joy in and share them with each other every night in planning. Things like:<br />lizards doing funny things, seeing a kid sitting on a big stack of hoses,<br />riding in a tricycle with 12 school kids packed all around us, electric fans,<br />teaching people like Gina, etc.<br />I've been learning so many<br />weaknesses of mine since I've been with Sister M. Sighhhh. She calls this time<br />of my mission: Marriage and Family Prep 101, crash course. I hope we will still<br />be together for Christmas, dahhhhhhh. President keeps saying no promises. I<br />just want her to be my last compy. I’ve<br />learned so much on my mission about my responsibilities in a relationship, and<br />what I might need to change. Changes are<br />ongoing efforts, and I’m improving on realizations all the time. It really helps when you are so in tune with<br />the spirit and He directs you in all you need to accomplish. I pray that I will always remember this.<br />I love you all and I look forward to seeing you all on<br />JANUARY 30th, 2012. How<br />exciting!! Can’t wait to hug everyone<br />again and squeeze those little babies. I<br />get to be there for Nichelle and Jared’s fourth!!!! Yaayyyy!<br />Sister Fort :)</div></div></div>Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-37449458869645824222011-11-07T06:13:00.000-08:002011-11-07T06:44:33.131-08:00Thanks for the HOLIDAYS ;) MISSING YOU :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-m46nIWePLjr1zl3wVQdbzNiNFR4H8E-tflK2LCXAPDNbDyIWEouQgQNuvty1bpGktY5VZa4fdCSwm0AIn5CCo324Pe9WMlz0Q12J2nXQQZcITu1aZucvuy61xMXA_WSntwSy5jNZqf8/s1600/P1130091.JPG"><img style="width: 240px; height: 320px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672264086632305986" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-m46nIWePLjr1zl3wVQdbzNiNFR4H8E-tflK2LCXAPDNbDyIWEouQgQNuvty1bpGktY5VZa4fdCSwm0AIn5CCo324Pe9WMlz0Q12J2nXQQZcITu1aZucvuy61xMXA_WSntwSy5jNZqf8/s320/P1130091.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTYP_ThQDf7-7Xn9CdsBwu6sXJ6d8mprHB9a2j6Osw9hmbNw18LgGpWJ16okRGIHEze5krNlv_iOnrb9Y0zLysGjMEEycGUKx8PykLlkIbJu2JFgBCi__6wJkxO4A6ySSf93Q3t5l40s/s1600/P1130090.JPG"><img style="width: 240px; height: 320px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672264081584387650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzTYP_ThQDf7-7Xn9CdsBwu6sXJ6d8mprHB9a2j6Osw9hmbNw18LgGpWJ16okRGIHEze5krNlv_iOnrb9Y0zLysGjMEEycGUKx8PykLlkIbJu2JFgBCi__6wJkxO4A6ySSf93Q3t5l40s/s320/P1130090.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Uom_8_q-u-kbOrGQVXaI3MpXNR3x8nDbU8kdMOCuT2PTitZ5_H6taGv9CqRzpUyiaht0upl5G55Naez1FA85f55wqp-GeSJAmZHNx2BmdR_2PopcvGa_xUqxViuqEwkg7UcTJJ90VEE/s1600/P1130088.JPG"><img style="width: 240px; height: 320px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672264071699805346" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Uom_8_q-u-kbOrGQVXaI3MpXNR3x8nDbU8kdMOCuT2PTitZ5_H6taGv9CqRzpUyiaht0upl5G55Naez1FA85f55wqp-GeSJAmZHNx2BmdR_2PopcvGa_xUqxViuqEwkg7UcTJJ90VEE/s320/P1130088.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBm2eccK_nNXxUk5vY6xNVg90KdgeLxfplUi9Ws7gNEgymMwdfwvr6pNi5zCjp6aM-NrmCAG34CJSWONexilj_nGlB4maKpJXuvNKyRanq4jPgGkKqa2_Xw5P3JxA_CtzOOupgofmQ-uc/s1600/IMG_9536.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672264066925131730" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBm2eccK_nNXxUk5vY6xNVg90KdgeLxfplUi9Ws7gNEgymMwdfwvr6pNi5zCjp6aM-NrmCAG34CJSWONexilj_nGlB4maKpJXuvNKyRanq4jPgGkKqa2_Xw5P3JxA_CtzOOupgofmQ-uc/s320/IMG_9536.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx7GuNUtn5-dQtQELS98hI-DYuyh1UQOUkUvzgqY7HNcVwf1RMCrKB-Lmsz7iYRdmUaEYjg7ARX4kaeT5xwj1Z3LHfHUDLTn2kOm2YZLqpumL0AhGJZx6cR-TUji1IJyruXnDMJjzFgTo/s1600/IMG_9453.JPG"><img style="width: 320px; height: 240px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672257686776645634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx7GuNUtn5-dQtQELS98hI-DYuyh1UQOUkUvzgqY7HNcVwf1RMCrKB-Lmsz7iYRdmUaEYjg7ARX4kaeT5xwj1Z3LHfHUDLTn2kOm2YZLqpumL0AhGJZx6cR-TUji1IJyruXnDMJjzFgTo/s320/IMG_9453.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8SZquEWkWtUd-WUtpCm9VMAJ5zmhL6IaNRe4Zajd9cYAdbyNBo_DswSoW8tk4r4Bm7DBVi5iqmcwERAEOHRGwS4cWxPz8DGjpxGC23F7CfVErA0YoJ4D5Sn8IYWBuaii2L9e70VE0r0/s1600/IMG_9442.JPG"><img style="width: 240px; height: 320px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672257685259152802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8SZquEWkWtUd-WUtpCm9VMAJ5zmhL6IaNRe4Zajd9cYAdbyNBo_DswSoW8tk4r4Bm7DBVi5iqmcwERAEOHRGwS4cWxPz8DGjpxGC23F7CfVErA0YoJ4D5Sn8IYWBuaii2L9e70VE0r0/s320/IMG_9442.JPG" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_yfpcwTgwZIN7i3oRunM8dn3466tcgce_xnZvww62kvnFGwa4I2dDXvHYypzzjvmwmn6uXxTvTobjJD_IzvTkeg-oceQPJmRlN3PWsbJbBts-_c_nb2Gg3uOLvLnQXeyZ4B3NAOLiZE4/s1600/IMG_9442.JPG"></a><div><br />I found a huge nest of ants in my desk. We were coloring and<br />ants kept coming from somewhere. So I pulled my drawer out and found them<br />swarming. We did a deep clean, and I found a hole in the wood in the back of<br />one of the drawers that they were hiding in.<br />One morning this week, as we were exercising, a member, Sister De Guzman, came<br />by with three huge bags of fruit! Bananas, mandarin oranges, and mangoes. Cause<br />a few days ago we told her we loved fruit but didn't know where to find it. I<br />asked her how much for all of it, and she said nothing. We were almost in tears<br />we were so grateful.<br />My english is SO BAD. I don’t have an accent, but the other day as we were<br />looking for a place to sit in stake conference, I told SisM, "Hey look!<br />There's a white people." And she said, "Yeah they're sitters." (They’re<br />sitting) Ohhh goodness. But we understand each other, so it’s okay. English major…whaaaaat ;/ I pray that all of my previous abilities will<br />come back to me quickly.<br />So this weekend, we had Stake Conference, which explains why President and SIster<br />Carlos were in town. You will never believe what they did for me. So about 3<br />LTPs ago, I wrote President and told him about how I miss frozen yogurt and<br />cornbread and your hugs. Well, Sister Carlos, the minute she saw me, told me<br />she had a surprise for me. Then she brought us out to the car later and pulled<br />out a container filled with CORNBREAD and she bought me one of those little<br />bear containers filled with honey. Isn't that so sweet. The next day President<br />saw us and asked, "What'd you two eat for dinner last night?" we<br />smiled and answered, "Cornbread." Then he went on to say how he<br />didn't know Sister Carlos knew to make cornbread....A little bird told her or<br />something. I love Brother and Sister<br />Carlos very much.<br />The messages we heard at this stake conference were so amazing, that at times<br />it almost felt like I was home. (it was also all in English) Elder Teh, the<br />area President of the<br />Philippines came to speak. He spoke on martial<br />relationships...how they need to be our priority...how husbands need to love<br />their wives and wives here need to stay home with their children--as they so<br />often go abroad to make a living and leave their families behind. We took good<br />notes. They also focused a lot on tithing and temple attendance.<br /><br />This week we fasted for discernment<br />about our investigators. Who we should stop going to etc. We've received<br />inspiration that we need to focus on finding new investigators. This work is so<br />hard, but we will persevere as long as we are willing, we will be guided to<br />those who will have an open heart and know the truth when it enters in.<br /></div><div>Christmas is around the corner and we have already decorated here :) It is one of my favorite times of year. Thanksgiving too! All of the holidays that you are with family and close friends. I miss you all very much, but it won't be long now that I can hold a baby again and hug and kiss everyone that I so love. </div><div> </div><div>I have sent videos of me as grapes for Halloween and getting locked out of our apartment. I love you all!</div><div>Sister Fort<br /></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-85727348430680194822011-10-16T07:33:00.000-07:002011-10-18T12:15:13.600-07:00GENERAL CONFERENCE a Missionary Spiritual Vacation :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVz2i6k9na7XHouDGpNtf83QCLJuHRDDul_Kttrg-XDXHb4IfWJF3sCAbee0kZQkQqx1wUG1v_z_nWWB5kQI0K8teimgUqQC7f8cz4aO9bQ0ceP2Hho4InXki57pWWsJ6dLf8zjoO-uU/s1600/IMG_1500.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVz2i6k9na7XHouDGpNtf83QCLJuHRDDul_Kttrg-XDXHb4IfWJF3sCAbee0kZQkQqx1wUG1v_z_nWWB5kQI0K8teimgUqQC7f8cz4aO9bQ0ceP2Hho4InXki57pWWsJ6dLf8zjoO-uU/s320/IMG_1500.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664099985101775778" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDG266EcjZvBVTA39k_LB22wmsdfTpDBm8qL5oOPJBoj3GJqSxLdbxO4CpIfLSb577hI48qqWQKY-_XhdW9VEnXwxaUyL-fCIrRz_IjeTD06pC-LFGq5a3s1FNG5rohFqcg3TXO-cHZ94/s1600/IMG_1498.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDG266EcjZvBVTA39k_LB22wmsdfTpDBm8qL5oOPJBoj3GJqSxLdbxO4CpIfLSb577hI48qqWQKY-_XhdW9VEnXwxaUyL-fCIrRz_IjeTD06pC-LFGq5a3s1FNG5rohFqcg3TXO-cHZ94/s320/IMG_1498.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664099855308193426" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAC9gNwUqL77IGBeM0yamj9DK9sdSHuOaQY_urN4ALcv-_RWWDuStsmI33T8lBcKW9hmTw7x5kZnNqYBfVB7UlTGslg8iNikJgoxihCT5-ZlG7NODRQHfbu-ep6-_bOCtxUfVqNeLSda8/s1600/IMG_1494.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAC9gNwUqL77IGBeM0yamj9DK9sdSHuOaQY_urN4ALcv-_RWWDuStsmI33T8lBcKW9hmTw7x5kZnNqYBfVB7UlTGslg8iNikJgoxihCT5-ZlG7NODRQHfbu-ep6-_bOCtxUfVqNeLSda8/s320/IMG_1494.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664099854802320114" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmPInsAOTsji_qxJPI-Ssa9bter2UUbjPwpDw874x7uzwo0JG2EJAAHanVU-oVYK7tIWJMYn9WTfN7KkK2hIR9oP9Q9BSNXgltdYH5dCTUaSJizKBDn8hhK00CvvfHZ3c1eYtqdk7xz8/s1600/IMG_1463.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmPInsAOTsji_qxJPI-Ssa9bter2UUbjPwpDw874x7uzwo0JG2EJAAHanVU-oVYK7tIWJMYn9WTfN7KkK2hIR9oP9Q9BSNXgltdYH5dCTUaSJizKBDn8hhK00CvvfHZ3c1eYtqdk7xz8/s320/IMG_1463.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664099847436522402" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzYRW7L0T975i0eGfRWJwPuKnWerRriXdaqQLbKtpWDKyDkXiEkFFFoGkLq1L9-wwz24_qJe881VMgzml6mFPKwYGKJmn-tt23AJ-ujAA59wYJesdYu6ToW-I7Gsk5PwaFI_3AJ84ym2o/s1600/IMG_1433.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzYRW7L0T975i0eGfRWJwPuKnWerRriXdaqQLbKtpWDKyDkXiEkFFFoGkLq1L9-wwz24_qJe881VMgzml6mFPKwYGKJmn-tt23AJ-ujAA59wYJesdYu6ToW-I7Gsk5PwaFI_3AJ84ym2o/s320/IMG_1433.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664099844551884594" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHg_PhJsbXMt0EYAI9MqfXUIyoo9YZZ32o8s1EN0nPCZ5tFY8m7COUudASuCsN7ja-VjDXm0ShkHQFn3TbuWIDjlaELAjSCEoGRvR9g_-9mqVFn-W5_ysAyij9ZvH1rmtu9xQwT0rhC0/s1600/IMG_1425.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbHg_PhJsbXMt0EYAI9MqfXUIyoo9YZZ32o8s1EN0nPCZ5tFY8m7COUudASuCsN7ja-VjDXm0ShkHQFn3TbuWIDjlaELAjSCEoGRvR9g_-9mqVFn-W5_ysAyij9ZvH1rmtu9xQwT0rhC0/s320/IMG_1425.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664099846048413618" border="0" /></a><br />Dearest Momma!!!!!!!<br />And OMG! I am so oooo jealous you and poppa are going to a concert!!! Please take pictures and send them to me! I would totally have loved to go with you two.<br />They don’t celebrate Halloween here. There's maybe one store I saw with Halloween decorations, but they don’t go out and do trick-or-treating or anything. There are actually more Christmas decorations out now. And we're singing Christmas hymns in our meetings and lessons. It’s pretty crazy how early they get Christmas going here. But if you think about it...there's no Halloween or Thanksgiving, so why not?<br />General Conference was a missionary spiritual vacation. Sister Martinez and I have been talking about it, for the past two weeks, how excited we are for general conference. And now its come and gone. Nooooooo.<br />We watched GC at the chapel down the street on hard, wooden benches. I learned so much. And was touched in the most intimate ways. President Uchtdorf's talk basically blew my brain cells, and my mind was so opened to an eternal perspective (4 months left in my mission is nothing). I loved how he said that we are nothing compared to God, but to God, we are everything. We are why he's created these majestic and beautiful things. We are why there is a plan and a Savior. I just wish I could have the words of his talk burned into my brain and heart and spirit, for the times here in the mission that I feel like what I'm doing is useless. It's hard sometimes when you don’t see baptisms or people coming to church, to feel that you are doing something good as a missionary. You can be as obedient and as prepared as ever, but have no tangible or visible fruits from your labor. President tells me my calling is to bless lives. When I step back and think of how simple my calling is and how all I need to do is my best, I am comforted. But the challenge is stepping back every now and then.<br />I LOVED Elaine S. Dalton's talk. I cried about 3 times during it, and actually wanted to bawl, but withheld myself from doing so. Her talk was about how fathers should raise their daughters. By just loving their mother. Sigh. This is sooooo true. I hope that every father out there listened to that and will try to do that.<br />We had two investigators come to the first session of conference on Sunday. Kristian Laylay was one of them. It was amazing, Momma, to watch conference with his needs in mind. His questions and concerns were answered perfectly. After the session, he was beaming, and he said it was so good and inspiring. This was his first time to come to church. Can you imagine your first time coming to church and hearing prophets and apostles speak. We taught him after and he said he felt like all the things they said were true. We are really working on the Laylay family--helping iron out their concerns and answer their questions. They are such good, good people. And so Catholic. They ask me about your conversion a lot, and what blessings we've received from the gospel. I’m so glad that I get to share your story with so many, and it has such an effect on their understanding and thoughts about the gospel being true. At least it helps them want to find out for themselves.<br />As we were watching general conference, Sister Martinez turned to me and said, "There’s no way this church isn't true." It's so true. This general conference, I've felt my mind expanded and my mortal eyes peeled to catch just a small glimpse of who God is and what His plan is for us. I wish it could be general conference every day.<br />President told us we could ride on the ferris wheel here in Atulayan a few weeks ago. I've attached the pictures. I also took a picture of the feet of a cute lizard on our curtains.<br />We ate fresh crabs and prawns last Saturday at a member's in San Gabriel. But for lunch, Sis. M. and I eat a lot of tuna and bread. We still exercise every day. What else what else....<br />I LOVE seeing my family! Send me pictures!<br />Okay well. I love you so much. And know that I think of you often and love you so muchhchchchchchchcch sosoosoosososossoso much. We’ll get to talk in about 2 months! Yayyyy!<br />I have nothing else to say really. Tell people I love them and kiss them all for me. Especially all the babiessss, I can't wait to see them and squeeze them and play with them! I love you all and miss you very much!<br />Love,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-60208084284086536252011-10-09T02:32:00.000-07:002011-10-18T12:18:09.299-07:00GOOD TIMES, GOOD PEOPLE to share with :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhWWzizznXAREJF9HWcjXdQ8dcP-cNprMyuARwCKQORJH4_DFvNrggZrtH19HRZweorhzZGERVuNdq4fbvHYzJLufaaORfG0DTvJuHvDE3Anp8c5ek4UR5eHANBer7R_BlMfCiEQ75d0/s1600/IMG_1267.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhWWzizznXAREJF9HWcjXdQ8dcP-cNprMyuARwCKQORJH4_DFvNrggZrtH19HRZweorhzZGERVuNdq4fbvHYzJLufaaORfG0DTvJuHvDE3Anp8c5ek4UR5eHANBer7R_BlMfCiEQ75d0/s320/IMG_1267.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661424704976380002" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEeDUmUq7FekjvjLJqKDVMda8DHpNJwddrrzSGyb_guAWlGz96PBfQgI9JLgSwe5GhFqJeM4WJfWwK2SOCFGrroPqFFSXlOAStzOxfAu2Vemwq4sCG2PHVpKfwLwWM9gJ6GdM8mnhJIQ/s1600/IMG_1382.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; 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cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVtgjaYz4cgCZncem3XdHEL_EY8fNf3GTqKcpkbrTsSN_9QZyUZQ5ct8BLVf5P4jEioeQLek62nPHbE8MDSMTKU-6NdrQCqnMT0GHlRdpo4C3REaG4WvK6zKcwE6w0koLJ58NN9RVtIDE/s320/IMG_1284.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661424201016825266" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOWU4abuHqObgbYWAUwGKvwB42VyVvVDlpCo2X-85tpt8fz5n6X8lxW11jhUWSvamERgIC1W0yAubEptqpkZpm_Ojc_zs-fIxglBE3qL28hqXhUW5dYgOqDveYu-XmQfk_z7JDLVj-rc8/s1600/IMG_1281.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOWU4abuHqObgbYWAUwGKvwB42VyVvVDlpCo2X-85tpt8fz5n6X8lxW11jhUWSvamERgIC1W0yAubEptqpkZpm_Ojc_zs-fIxglBE3qL28hqXhUW5dYgOqDveYu-XmQfk_z7JDLVj-rc8/s320/IMG_1281.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661424196359990802" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8cfmpaRKrLaI6h-WST-ATpP2Jrf2HR_hWOWQ1QUDTGuuPLrTt0e_v3WqTRwAT9f4zJtxcjdHjQVe5rdpPf4vNabrmMOz3TO8LWybWCrYgZYTMccyx4-zxYvEtkxu6jtoqqxTUSbYk-A/s1600/IMG_1400.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8cfmpaRKrLaI6h-WST-ATpP2Jrf2HR_hWOWQ1QUDTGuuPLrTt0e_v3WqTRwAT9f4zJtxcjdHjQVe5rdpPf4vNabrmMOz3TO8LWybWCrYgZYTMccyx4-zxYvEtkxu6jtoqqxTUSbYk-A/s320/IMG_1400.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661424194846430850" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhYAddcJLBWqhMDEBD-lLgjT2BlGr4PLY6C47G-2gIdm6yIfj_3RDqG8TSmkfdjXEf5sqEVIdI1ZGu3XvVg6qypOTsP8RFFQ0tBRzKmXp8A4lj60dJVHeIeQr2lb659iiAx6wVoTsrKYM/s1600/IMG_1401.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhYAddcJLBWqhMDEBD-lLgjT2BlGr4PLY6C47G-2gIdm6yIfj_3RDqG8TSmkfdjXEf5sqEVIdI1ZGu3XvVg6qypOTsP8RFFQ0tBRzKmXp8A4lj60dJVHeIeQr2lb659iiAx6wVoTsrKYM/s320/IMG_1401.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661424192487713762" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvksN7dwmJ4GI8Rv1BSgZ-WLgI_9G6-cWk-AhLm8f9ykdHtYwIcxuyby-JAAlwOvB1CDd05kNTm_aKTX6UQq99fmT_MnG2hHNNRusPxKes6xFK0tO0e39mBfeZO4yi4H9L4GnscBwStPQ/s1600/IMG_1402.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvksN7dwmJ4GI8Rv1BSgZ-WLgI_9G6-cWk-AhLm8f9ykdHtYwIcxuyby-JAAlwOvB1CDd05kNTm_aKTX6UQq99fmT_MnG2hHNNRusPxKes6xFK0tO0e39mBfeZO4yi4H9L4GnscBwStPQ/s320/IMG_1402.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661424192384280498" border="0" /></a><br />Dearest momma, my sweet family, and dear friends :)<br />Its fiesta time here, and besides the big ferris wheel in Atulayan, the townspeople here have strung streamers made of old cellphone adds all over the streets. One night, OCT 1st at 4:00am, a woman on a loud speaker said repeated prayers in ybbanag and her voice sounded like the lady at the Disneyland haunted mansion ride. Yeeee it was creepy.<br />This week has been a fun one. We had our last district meeting of the short, weird, 3 week cycle and Elder Goobie was going home, so he gave me a huge box of mashed potato mix his mom sent him, and Sister Martinez a huge box of knorrs sidekicks pasta mixes.<br />On Wednesday, Sister Sajol left to go home. We did laundry in the back as she packed her things and she said goodbye to us in a rush. We hugged her all sweaty. Sister Martinez and I cleaned the entire apartment when they left (I’ve attached lots of picures). We found this old cabinet in some locked hidden room, dusted it off, and shuffled it into our room to put our clothes in. We mopped and rearranged our kitchen and cloroxed just bout everything. We tried to make waffles for dinner, but the waffle maker kept making the batter stick to it. Then we tried pancakes…same thing. We ate cereal instead.<br />Transfer day was supposed to be Thursday, but it was rescheduled due to storms and things. So Sister Dhikao came home with two other companions. Sister Adino and Sister Lumauag! When Sister Adino saw me she freaked out and hugged me about 20 times. She told me how much she missed me, that I got skinny, and she left me a note with stationary on my desk before she left in the morning. We ate dinner by candlelight at the Luis family home.<br />So our apartment got dirty again. Sis. M and I wanted it to be clean for our new housemate, so we did some touch up cleaning again :)<br />Our new apartment mate is Sister Galang! She is Filipina and has the sweetest, softest voice ever and wears turquoise skirts with polka dot shirts. I hear Sis Dhikao and her giggling at night in their room and the feel of our apartment is so peaceful and sweet.<br />Our sink was clogged for three days in a row. We tried plunging it with a plunger, pouring hot water down it, and using drain cleaner. Nothing worked so we called the super. He came and plugged it with his hand and started beating on it like he was doing cpr. Sis M and I gave each other crazy looks like…he thinks that’s going to work? He did it a few more times and then it started to drain! We laughed in amazement. Then we showed him something that was wrong with our doorknob upstairs (whenever we shut the door, we’d be trapped inside and opened the door by grabbing the lock with scissors and manually pushing it back into the door). <br />Jeanann Laylay is one of our investigators! Before one of our lessons this week, she told me that she messaged you on facebook and I was happy cause I knew you’d worry. Actually, the last typhoon that hit here last cycle was so much worse here than the two that went through this week—when we walked through flood waters to get to our investigators. We are so safe and I don’t feel in danger at all.<br />We had three investigators come to church on Sunday yayy! Cecilio was one of them. He’s about my age and lives with the patriarch and the patriarchs family here. He has been our investigator since May, but he’s struggling with cigarettes. We made him a calendar, where he sticks smiley faces on days where he’s decreased his intake. He actually got a few smilies now, and we are so so happy he came to church! It just means he has a desire to change. He wanted to leave after sacrament because he was shy about his t-shirt and jeans, but Sister M and I tracked him down, practically pulled him into the priesthood room, and he stayed all three hours. We went to his house later in the afternoon and shared about repentance. He listens so intently and is so sincere in his desire to change, I feel it.<br />We are still doing all we can to prepare our lessons well. We are now trying to be more specific and bold with our commitments to investigators. And our companionship studies are amazzzzinnnng. We quote prophets and scriptures and learn so much from one another.<br />I don’t know what else to say….I love you all and miss you all and thank you all for all that you do for me. Keep me in your prayers, you are all in mine. I love you Grandma!Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-8030491677222450612011-09-24T14:55:00.000-07:002011-09-24T15:01:56.095-07:00JUST SOME PICTURE ADDITIONS :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZRRQ0h6hatyabeUwty4-ciTPKrwv8ZEzjouFWBVL7bUmew1G7ICSazV2LTLRekm1ud1xc9aP-wQy34Ja4nq2HtPl5auslFz2sqFWAwCT-nT8bDk2gm_49quaUE4m1ewCecbciNa7PLg/s1600/IMG_0373.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZRRQ0h6hatyabeUwty4-ciTPKrwv8ZEzjouFWBVL7bUmew1G7ICSazV2LTLRekm1ud1xc9aP-wQy34Ja4nq2HtPl5auslFz2sqFWAwCT-nT8bDk2gm_49quaUE4m1ewCecbciNa7PLg/s320/IMG_0373.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656049409243280034" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3R5UnjSu-FXfxG863_CC61M4kCjO4pAnGAU0ctRrCr8I9q8-oNn__o2K4mi9rfUXS2MxP2CeDvfSPfbqGyLwHkj-0Pgs1yWLNMOMav2Etw8qs0DiEXAsn3n7KXt66nKyVV5WNzpJVuw8/s1600/IMG_0364.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3R5UnjSu-FXfxG863_CC61M4kCjO4pAnGAU0ctRrCr8I9q8-oNn__o2K4mi9rfUXS2MxP2CeDvfSPfbqGyLwHkj-0Pgs1yWLNMOMav2Etw8qs0DiEXAsn3n7KXt66nKyVV5WNzpJVuw8/s320/IMG_0364.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656049400834692466" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMxU691K55Pz66KEuthwDcfQuLNvTMLxS3wqno0K-22X5SX9lGPSBSOGqx4p7qvBsqG9Su9qfrNuJCbmAEaqsk1Cn7U1TGKOrkpL1jC_a4F6ZB-Thj-ym_F8pKgH409jdLao8dOLndPnI/s1600/IMG_0359.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMxU691K55Pz66KEuthwDcfQuLNvTMLxS3wqno0K-22X5SX9lGPSBSOGqx4p7qvBsqG9Su9qfrNuJCbmAEaqsk1Cn7U1TGKOrkpL1jC_a4F6ZB-Thj-ym_F8pKgH409jdLao8dOLndPnI/s320/IMG_0359.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656049395158225634" /></a><br /> With the crafts I made<br />2. With Sister Aquino (member who feeds us every sunday)<br />3. Today. Today is Sister Sajols birthday. Sister Adino and I woke up at 4 and made a note scavenger hunt around our house and a card for her from all of us. <br /><br />Also, every day, I hear a pig being slaughtered at 4:30am. The pigs scream so loudly. It is the most disturbing/revolting sound in the world.Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-78020525318929168912011-09-24T13:27:00.000-07:002011-10-17T19:36:01.753-07:00September 11th So Sorry I'm in a Hurrrrrrry ;)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipoVG10jIi7NsMPbnffki2BSfonOxF1IIgY8zvcrU5GMQi2ifKgVhoGce43F8xCs_v9BonUsEJI7n_ZwGlexmhMDtUnoZKb6lEvrdBjsemqeFmu8eIQ-WgSsC9zXsBXnbxox5fRERVz9Q/s1600/IMG_1235.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipoVG10jIi7NsMPbnffki2BSfonOxF1IIgY8zvcrU5GMQi2ifKgVhoGce43F8xCs_v9BonUsEJI7n_ZwGlexmhMDtUnoZKb6lEvrdBjsemqeFmu8eIQ-WgSsC9zXsBXnbxox5fRERVz9Q/s320/IMG_1235.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656029872291457698" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqoplTFC4tadScVX0_XTbe6itkLoStyxMNMyDm_n7qw97DSkYw4Ri653PCBkC9wASBe67bIC8q7Fga-aR_4BeFZy5HpBNEOVhSH2ub6iJKvyNB0MN9Mc2_C9i7RkI1o6-YqvbG58rspY/s1600/IMG_1205.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRqoplTFC4tadScVX0_XTbe6itkLoStyxMNMyDm_n7qw97DSkYw4Ri653PCBkC9wASBe67bIC8q7Fga-aR_4BeFZy5HpBNEOVhSH2ub6iJKvyNB0MN9Mc2_C9i7RkI1o6-YqvbG58rspY/s320/IMG_1205.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656029866322626674" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUPbGQoC1H_xVZacIbzeWNY3OqUeJO2M0tbCxj7j0MixiRiUSq81U352r5aIom8yoA5nedkEXZIFSq4UmntcQaghrekzv33Olz7Jg21WdpRZF2Sez4OnspLizFpuIlMy5_4dSojdEUcs/s1600/IMG_1178.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUPbGQoC1H_xVZacIbzeWNY3OqUeJO2M0tbCxj7j0MixiRiUSq81U352r5aIom8yoA5nedkEXZIFSq4UmntcQaghrekzv33Olz7Jg21WdpRZF2Sez4OnspLizFpuIlMy5_4dSojdEUcs/s320/IMG_1178.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656029858168246306" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvv7yclXn3xNpAj64aUBrEdlKMS3Q13H4qiI2KciW8dJCNbtnotfs5mW6jcJr1nOIV6zFs5orKvGrzWw2U47iPvKknpJs_3wWdUqZxthVQsbDCpC_TV20In0jdowgpXcCqzqosux50b60/s1600/IMG_1196.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvv7yclXn3xNpAj64aUBrEdlKMS3Q13H4qiI2KciW8dJCNbtnotfs5mW6jcJr1nOIV6zFs5orKvGrzWw2U47iPvKknpJs_3wWdUqZxthVQsbDCpC_TV20In0jdowgpXcCqzqosux50b60/s320/IMG_1196.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656029852628119090" /></a><br />Momma!!! My sweet Family and Friends :)<br />This week has been a good, good week. On Tuesday Sister Martinez and I went to the chapel to practice the song we would sing for our zone conference on Thursday. (We sang "Because I have Been Given Much" with an added verse written by Kenneth Cope about missionary work. We sang with the elders. Zone Conference was wonderful. We talked about what five things make a Preach My Gospel missionary: 1. They understand that they serve and represent Jesus Christ. 2. They are worthy. 3. They treasure up the words of eternal life. 4. They understand that the Holy Ghost is the ultimate teacher. and 5. They understand that teaching is much more than talking and telling. It was such a spirtual conference, full of spiritual promptings and musical numbers and love from President and Sister Carlos. I love them so much. They are such good people. Brother Pete made us scalloped potatoes and baked ziti for lunch. President and Sister Carlos sat down and ate with Sister Martinez and I at our table. President asked us how it was in our apartment with four girls. Then said...you know...I'm losing a lot of my sister missionaries (they're going home) so I'm going to have to do a lot of switching around of apartments and areas. He then told us that we will be moved TOGETHER to a different area to reopen! Cool huh?? I've never heard of a companionship being transferred together. But president just really feels we are good together.<br />And you know what? We are. We work so well with one another. We are so in sync. We have detailed companionship study every day, and we plan out lessons to a T. Sometimes we get out late because of all of the preparations, but our lessons are so wonderful. I read in D&C section 50 about how you can tell if the Spirit is with you--if both parties are edified. I've had moments this week in my teaching, where I've said things that I never thought of before, that just came out. We are doing all we can. I can honestly say that. To help our Savior and Heavenly Father in their work, and I know people are feeling it.<br />Lately in my personal study, aside from the Book of Mormon, I've been studying the teachings of the prophet Brigham Young. Oh my goodness. It has been so eye-opening for me. I more clearly see the nature of our Heavenly Father--that he is not some huge being everywhere, but he is a man with a body and dwells in a kingdom somewhere out there, and communicates to us through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost can actually enter into us, because it does not have a body, to communicate with us what our Heavenly Father would want us to hear. I've heard of these things before, but there’s something about the power and language of Brigham Young that has brought them so clearly into my understanding.<br />I love this: "We are under obligation to trust in our God; and this is the ground-work of all we can do ourselves." FAITH. Everything we do is based on faith. <br />We have an investigator named Cecilio who is having a tough time quitting his cigarettes. And we feel that because of that, his desire to come to church and commit to baptism has dwindled. He's lost hope. We made him a calendar that he can stick smiles on every day that he feels like he's worked hard or tried to reduce his intake. He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. He shared a beautiful, simple experience he had with the Book of Mormon at his school that testified to him it was true. He read from it in a spare moment he had, and the Spirit helped him to feel peace and warmth as he read. <br /><br />We are teaching the Laylay family. They said that one day they talked about a lesson we had shared to them, after we had left. Our lesson was on Saviors Earthly Ministry and Apostasy. When they talked about the lesson they said, "Why else would they be here (talking about us), so far from their families, working in storms and the heat, walking all day to far places, if what they were sharing wasn't true." They know the church is true. They know Joseph Smith was a prophet. They know everything we share with them is right and good. They are currently praying to know if they should be baptized. We are trying to help them realize they're received an answer. Satan is working hard on them too. Yesterday, they had said they would come to church, but they couldn't because the Jehovah’s Witness missionaries came to their home right at 8:30 and stayed late. (Church starts at 9) Can you believe it? Sighhh. Our opposition is so obvious and strong.<br />But we are doing all we can.<br /><br />I got your packages!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! The pictures from Kiliana made me cry. Gabriella is SO BEAUTIFUL. She's gorgeous. And Joshy is so tall! You all look wonderful and so skinny! And my brothers are so handsome. <br /><br />People tell me I am fluent, and I feel fluent. My words just come and they come fast. I thank Heavenly Father for this beautiful gift every day. Now that I can speak, I can actually teach and say what I want to say.<br />This week I thought I got a bot fly on my ankle. I took a picture. YUK !!! It was just a bad infection from an insect :(<br />I love you so much momma. I miss you. I really do. Thank you for your emails. They brighten my week. I miss all of you so very much.<br />Love, love, love, I LOVE you all. Thank you for everything.<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-11796346995085376742011-09-24T12:57:00.000-07:002011-10-18T12:21:06.671-07:00September 11 HAPPY to Write to YOU :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgcOy1u-yH3yU06X_RAr-s0YC63ZCiOR1R425-eoWQ-_-GOPOfTzOjsKdPLiYnv9fohE8ou-mU1rgfmhGuCvwTRHQGurBtuV8pCs_1fT_1X9D4hyU0FvyEJgSkHUY-MZZdFrLsXbxD6w/s1600/IMG_1175.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgcOy1u-yH3yU06X_RAr-s0YC63ZCiOR1R425-eoWQ-_-GOPOfTzOjsKdPLiYnv9fohE8ou-mU1rgfmhGuCvwTRHQGurBtuV8pCs_1fT_1X9D4hyU0FvyEJgSkHUY-MZZdFrLsXbxD6w/s320/IMG_1175.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656022242025592402" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1nBvvq4_bhd933AUxRF6zNXpgX4PzOPy7BmUlGWr_6EdXqVMvr4BjLwM0j42LIC-Lqi9GMR_vn1EK-9vp_zbSLvPnU_qhpZGBYF5dB7i5_PHwtX2BxJ0TD67hl9BhaIfDJAYA0UaHFI/s1600/IMG_1143.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1nBvvq4_bhd933AUxRF6zNXpgX4PzOPy7BmUlGWr_6EdXqVMvr4BjLwM0j42LIC-Lqi9GMR_vn1EK-9vp_zbSLvPnU_qhpZGBYF5dB7i5_PHwtX2BxJ0TD67hl9BhaIfDJAYA0UaHFI/s320/IMG_1143.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656022237942324226" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVYTYi19IQkYKtTsAkOBv0zb6FkwHwzTadqSFC4cIgMYWCZH2LLJ4GZ4SWkKkDXF6j8DHKj4zgSuo6a_WVduJ5xEn_7DHru34CWqRkgjUznBE6V0uF24XT4i8mu3V_JZzuBiHlN7mZ4c/s1600/IMG_1134.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVYTYi19IQkYKtTsAkOBv0zb6FkwHwzTadqSFC4cIgMYWCZH2LLJ4GZ4SWkKkDXF6j8DHKj4zgSuo6a_WVduJ5xEn_7DHru34CWqRkgjUznBE6V0uF24XT4i8mu3V_JZzuBiHlN7mZ4c/s320/IMG_1134.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656022238555792002" border="0" /></a><br />Hello my momma! Hello my sweet family and wonderful friends! Hello my sweet GRANDMA! I am excited to write you this week :)<br /><br />This past week were transfers so we spent a lot of our day on Wednesday going by members homes, taking a million pictures, and seeing Sister Adino cry at every home (on top of getting five lessons in). She was really having a hard time leaving. It was so neat though, the whole day, Sister Adino was hugging me and telling me she wished she had another cycle to start fresh and that she would miss me. Transfer meeting was so beautiful. An elder named Elder Naylor sang "His Hands" and I just sat there trying to hold back my tears throughout the entire song--I just kept thinking about how difficult that last cycle was that I had just been through, all of the beautiful things I had learned, and how close my Savior was there to help me the whole way. I grew to know Him better.<br /><br />The APs announced the transfer list, and my area was the first they announced. Sister Martinez is my new companion!! She's gorgeous. (More on that later)<br /><br />President does this thing every transfer meeting where he has someone play the piano for about two minutes and just lets us sit and allow the spirit to talk to us. The whole two minutes, as Sister Webre played "I feel my Saviors love" I just silently cried/forced myself to keep my tears in. And my heart pounded as I knew President would call on me to share my testimony. After the two minutes, I was called on.<br /><br />I said, "As I was sitting there listening to the prelude music, the Spirit told me that President would call on me to bear my testimony. :)" In between tears and long pauses, I told them I knew my Savior lives. I said that sometimes, through my struggles on my mission, I wonder where he is. But as I listened to Elder Naylor's song, I realized that through my struggles, he carries me. I told them I am grateful for the knowledge that He lives and loves me, and that is why I'm here. To share that knowledge with others. I will go wherever he wants me to go and be whoever he wants me to be. I think the last time I felt the Spirit like that as I bore my testimony was my 1st year at girl's camp.<br /><br />President took me into his office and said, "Don't worry about the members. Don't worry about making them laugh. They don’t need a clown. They need a missionary. And the Lord needs you, Sister Fort, just who you are and where you are. And with your new companion, she may be the one soul that you bring unto Christ. And that has great worth. You're wonderful and we just love you so much." I told him I loved him too and really wished I could've given him a fatherly hug. He says the most perfect things to me, always.<br /><br />Sister Martinez asked me if I knew we would be together and I smiled and nodded my head. We talked ALL THE WAY HOME on the bus--three hours. We have so much in common. She told me that the day before transfers President took her into his office and asked, "Sister Martinez, if you could have any sister missionary to be your companion, who would it be?" And she said she answered like, "I know that each companion is special for me at different times and I'll learn a lot from each one." And President asked, "But if you could choose. From all of them." And she said, "You know I would choose Sister Fort." And President said, "Oh good. Cause that's your new companion." President told her that I had received revelation that she would be my new companion also, and told her that he's been looking at our pictures from the beginning of the cycle, and saying to himself, "That’s a divine companionship." She said that President told her that he and Sister Carlos were so thrilled and excited for our new companionship.<br /><br />So every day, we've been language studying, and in our companionship study, I've been helping her role play and say things she wants in Tagalog. I've been helping her with verb conjugations and sentence structures and pronunciation, and she says its clicking for her in ways it has never before. Our preparation for the day--personal and comp study, language sudy, etc--takes a little while every day.<br /><br />Just yesterday we went to teach the Laylay family (their picture is attached) and we taught them the Book of Mormon. I taught about what the Book of Mormon is about, and she taught how it came about (how it started as gold plates, and how Joseph Smith found them and translated them). She taught how we had planned and wrote little notes to help her remember what to say. And Girlie Laylay said, "This was so clear how you guys taught this. I've never understood what the Book of Mormon was until now." They have been investigators for about 6 months now.<br /><br />She is such a sweetheart and I am so excited for all I will learn from her this cycle. And for all the growth we will see. I think the things I went through last cycle have stretched my patience, increased my awareness that my Heavenly Father and Savior are helping me, and strengthened my capacity to love and focus on strengths of people. I have been prepared for this cycle. I know we will be friends for a long, long time. :)<br /><br />I love you momma. I pray for you always. And I will do all I can to be by you when I have my beeebes. :)<br />Love<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-74077531555677741242011-09-24T12:46:00.001-07:002011-10-17T19:56:28.403-07:00Always do the BEST that WE can :) September 4<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpM5s_6840mZBTmDtPXD-P0l0gZCe-z3xzE5tlItW54LHLZdsA06s7SpIZG8QtRzjaCZeNQteUgpKBvB5cVh3Ny9nZ08VHNsJr7CC_zflDIqEBYgd0GivbkfFJFQQ-WsHfXz2qyePwlw/s1600/IMG_0350.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPpM5s_6840mZBTmDtPXD-P0l0gZCe-z3xzE5tlItW54LHLZdsA06s7SpIZG8QtRzjaCZeNQteUgpKBvB5cVh3Ny9nZ08VHNsJr7CC_zflDIqEBYgd0GivbkfFJFQQ-WsHfXz2qyePwlw/s320/IMG_0350.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656016782968365186" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQLtHLig4Yjc684tEn2RzJkFGbwlwrlrnfdyBk0Om5kcOmD7xAOpUzQBzjqie6J5fRCsAmjUlblt9TIIcvA-aRAvzNnrkY2iLV0aE4Cfi8SU_LvBYQqpmHq6EaQYOmInHyFe6LUx-SCtY/s1600/IMG_0356.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQLtHLig4Yjc684tEn2RzJkFGbwlwrlrnfdyBk0Om5kcOmD7xAOpUzQBzjqie6J5fRCsAmjUlblt9TIIcvA-aRAvzNnrkY2iLV0aE4Cfi8SU_LvBYQqpmHq6EaQYOmInHyFe6LUx-SCtY/s320/IMG_0356.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656016785231804546" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsmNjST6CiIQ1Y5zOCi7pi-hDD6ZbVn3GimCAb4KVIcJInYaKsHi_b9ZKtuZVoX8o25wbLvgZKV7Pa3SIvyNUdZVHwic7cMAOTG80P0JeTVSW775JH8FhUMzrOAqmPv3xJUmjnXq-0abs/s1600/IMG_0357.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsmNjST6CiIQ1Y5zOCi7pi-hDD6ZbVn3GimCAb4KVIcJInYaKsHi_b9ZKtuZVoX8o25wbLvgZKV7Pa3SIvyNUdZVHwic7cMAOTG80P0JeTVSW775JH8FhUMzrOAqmPv3xJUmjnXq-0abs/s320/IMG_0357.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656016779254111874" /></a><br />Hello My family and friends,<br /><br />Sister’s training was lovely and wonderful. Sister Carlos had me conduct the whole day, and I felt so much love from my fellow sisters—Sister Pence, Sister Carlos, Sister Roncal, Sister Martinez, Sister Shaner (she gave me a HUGE hug and kiss that reminded me so much of you haha), and Sister Russell. Sister Russell printed off directions on how to crochet a bag out of plastic bags and bought me a crochet needle. Sweeeet. We learned new object lessons to use in our teaching and FHE games and we did crafts. I cried when Sister Dhikao bore testimony of a scripture she read in D&C 100. She’s been struggling with her Tagalog and has had moments where she’s wanted to go home because of it. I could so closely relate to her heartbreak and struggle and remembered the times I also received comfort from my scripture reading. The scriptures speak directly to your heart and solve your problems and questions. I’ve seen it over and over. I receive so much comfort and light from them every day...I have been reading in D&C.<br /><br />Sister Martinez and I hung out a lot at the Sister’s training while my comp and her trainer got re-acquainted. We have so much in common! She also plays guitar and sings, is from California—close to LA—and before she left for her mission, she was an actress for indie movies. We like the same music too. I am excited for the time we might be able to spend together...I’m still not 100 percent sure what will happen.<br />We are teaching many families—teaching families is so hard because they are usually not all there at once. We extended a baptismal date to two members of the Laylay family…Christian and Girlie. But their sister and mother came to church on Sunday and they didn’t. The family is one of the most fun to teach, because they have so many questions. Last Saturday we watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they all had tear-filled eyes by the end. They told us they know our messages are true. <br />JR Addun knows the church is true, but he went to his parents to ask them for their consent and they told him to wait until he graduates college. He has about three years left. So we’ve been visiting him, sharing with him the importance of doing what you know is right, not procrastinating, etc. We told him to pray for his answer if he should be baptized or not, and in our last lesson with him, he said he knows he needs to be baptized and accepted September 24th as a goal date.<br />Members have been warming up to me. Nanay Addatu grabs my hands when she talks to me and Sister DeGuzman laughed at a joke I made. <br /><br />I know there are more people whose hearts I need to touch here. I love the quote of Joesph Smith to his wife Emma, "We do the best we can and move on." I am doing my best. I know that. I am so grateful for the senior missionaries here who offer me that little piece of home every now and again. <br />5 months is a short while. But huwag ka magbilang, ha? Ipapahaba niya ang oras. (but dont count, it will only make time longer) <br /><br />Find some hidden treasures in the scriptures today and tomorrow and the next day that are meant only for you. Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to be happy.He wants us all to be happy. We can be with Him in our lives every day and every night :) I love you are and miss you.<br />Your bebee, Sister, Aunt, and Friend,<br />Sis FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-76038613571239611912011-08-22T19:40:00.001-07:002011-10-17T19:59:33.194-07:00PRAYERS are ANSWERED I Love This GOSPEL<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_RSqm94B7kVdq-upj9hM1MtSTnkH0Uc3kCVRQOIfaOeyzCMYQ0KpI894MZW0OTXsVxNZfEpTVMpxkO-3VBvRisaflcti1_eqy6cBk8rrd74chRsYumBY0CzX1gOo2BNfgooa-Dkdi0g/s1600/IMG_0300.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_RSqm94B7kVdq-upj9hM1MtSTnkH0Uc3kCVRQOIfaOeyzCMYQ0KpI894MZW0OTXsVxNZfEpTVMpxkO-3VBvRisaflcti1_eqy6cBk8rrd74chRsYumBY0CzX1gOo2BNfgooa-Dkdi0g/s320/IMG_0300.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643876647532420914" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iUPnmdfJ3dk7B2I22Jk7XMb3N1gntW5sDaFGuNovq2HzJfFMU1_vGdzQrwZPwjbZOMb2TcVgUczrscsLhaLVdZQNiLF1BrVxzgYbaHtoKdBABoIjAmyDvqkWzNl_FF4MtSIyUijrb3M/s1600/IMG_0306.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iUPnmdfJ3dk7B2I22Jk7XMb3N1gntW5sDaFGuNovq2HzJfFMU1_vGdzQrwZPwjbZOMb2TcVgUczrscsLhaLVdZQNiLF1BrVxzgYbaHtoKdBABoIjAmyDvqkWzNl_FF4MtSIyUijrb3M/s320/IMG_0306.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643876644309561202" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxxg_N2QVR-8Jj4wTTi8GEb-xgc4_izQWUCdb6lWeweYIRutcx5aJntTTYPfss67yetezWqPMGxfDFNrFk_10RHCbgPmcCHRRE78cs6wVcLNfd9nlpscCCkzmKqml7eGX5bLig5e5wC74/s1600/IMG_0312.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxxg_N2QVR-8Jj4wTTi8GEb-xgc4_izQWUCdb6lWeweYIRutcx5aJntTTYPfss67yetezWqPMGxfDFNrFk_10RHCbgPmcCHRRE78cs6wVcLNfd9nlpscCCkzmKqml7eGX5bLig5e5wC74/s320/IMG_0312.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643876634298112018" /></a><br />Dearest Momma and My Sweet Family,<br /><br />One day everything was going so well, and the spirit reminded me of a talk I heard in the MTC that said, "You will be carried by the prayers of your families and friends." I feel as though this week, I have been floating on top of the prayers that have been offered by you, by my brothers and sister, by my friends, and by President and Sister Carlos. Thank you so much for all the prayers. I know that you have been praying for me, and I have felt them without a doubt. I love it when I have these confirmations.<br /><br />We had two baptisms this week--Sister Queenie Tamayao and Sister Ilominada De la Cruz. Sister Adino and I sang and I played guitar at both of them. We sang "Come unto Jesus" and "I Stand All Amazed." The baptisms were lovely, and even though I didn't play a big part in the conversion of these two sisters, I am grateful to be a witness of their pure and simple testimonies.<br /><br />We're working hard. 35+ lessons every week. The members work with us here.<br />There are these plants here that look like little hot air balloons. Inside are three black seeds with a white heart design on them. I collect them and put them in a plastic Easter egg.<br />There is a family here with 8 daughters and one son. Their 10 year old son died last week from a 5 month struggle with leukemia. It is beyond sad for this sweet family. Yesterday, when we went on splits with members, I taught the family about the spirit world and resurrection. I pray that they will embrace this gospel.<br /><br />Tatay Ben is 73 and a new convert. He has many sicknesses and a hole in his trechia, but comes to church every Sunday and bears his testimony every chance. When we go to his house to share, we share with his 66 year old wife. She is catholic and Tatay Ben tells her as were teaching her that she is hard headed. Nanay just stays quiet and smiles. She listens to everything we say, but can’t let go of her traditions.<br /><br />I met Sister Shaner! This is us at the baptism of Sisters Dhikao and Sajol. She is a sweetheart and grabbed me a hugged me the moment I saw her. I wanted to cry, but didn't. She said, "This is from your momma!" And "This is from Lindsay!" She told me about how she's paranoid about the water haha and I had flashbacks of my first day in Naguilian. Doctors in America really make you paranoid. She is such a sweetheart. I’m so glad to meet her.<br /><br />I'm trying to do my best. I have about 5 and a half months left and I can’t help from counting. I miss you all very much but I want to enjoy the work of the Lord. I am trying my best to develop good relationships with all the members. Sometimes it’s hard to translate the right words so that they can tell what I feel inside and not just words.<br />I’m sorry but, I am out of time. I love you all very much and appreciate all that you do for me. Please keep the prayers coming. I need all I can get and love knowing that they make a difference.<br />I love you all sososososososo much. I love you Grandma and I think of you often. Grandpa is with me on this journey, I feel him around me.<br />Love,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-9596976743838100412011-08-01T20:00:00.000-07:002011-10-17T20:06:37.435-07:00TUGUEGARAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwn8nyr7CzMNoSxXkZXfY_0eq2nyq433w-7fCMSmb-veD0h1Iwq3Q-xMb1x6UYDsNImRGoUuCMCiNQYsxDlwYvnVKC1uj9NqiyvMkKhK5XDhBB6d2l87RGLz9aoObGdHF8rpWUBXXQiK4/s1600/IMG_0218.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwn8nyr7CzMNoSxXkZXfY_0eq2nyq433w-7fCMSmb-veD0h1Iwq3Q-xMb1x6UYDsNImRGoUuCMCiNQYsxDlwYvnVKC1uj9NqiyvMkKhK5XDhBB6d2l87RGLz9aoObGdHF8rpWUBXXQiK4/s320/IMG_0218.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636092394957259234" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8v9UYYtfmIsb_rjcpRXHIJXOK6CUOgE3ksCGv3TrXFoyDQ8L-Q4FjGPpmzSDX2WX-4yBaNmRODrh_WcTBrs4gARe9rPKWLH5zrKFw4sXW72QXgg0Xzc6DmuHgb8YhKYrHxxiyW6Z9kKA/s1600/IMG_0222.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8v9UYYtfmIsb_rjcpRXHIJXOK6CUOgE3ksCGv3TrXFoyDQ8L-Q4FjGPpmzSDX2WX-4yBaNmRODrh_WcTBrs4gARe9rPKWLH5zrKFw4sXW72QXgg0Xzc6DmuHgb8YhKYrHxxiyW6Z9kKA/s320/IMG_0222.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636091077062244306" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETwkUdGXsXI0WsbH3DwXrWG-ggcVpKCjG12XZKhGXfl1VRV-AIL_uB-gidqlzw1lb4bd76xKxhL-HA0Hb7G9Ce6Kh9IjTAmKnYZo3D0NqOPKoEA_G7-II-_s8EgP1xBPbPakqIFT6snY/s1600/IMG_0315%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETwkUdGXsXI0WsbH3DwXrWG-ggcVpKCjG12XZKhGXfl1VRV-AIL_uB-gidqlzw1lb4bd76xKxhL-HA0Hb7G9Ce6Kh9IjTAmKnYZo3D0NqOPKoEA_G7-II-_s8EgP1xBPbPakqIFT6snY/s320/IMG_0315%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636091070173270978" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaPhTU3iLBwz37j0p3-CPizAMjFSl8rM4MrzrGp8kI8vaBaIWB7tUTBndG2epaOnVREMk3xIlpHbKr29YutzS_Ehmw2Q0ifcNOBIaB8je325cI6PVCFhz-HBNaMzfEJ6-5jFKbressrgs/s1600/IMG_0220.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaPhTU3iLBwz37j0p3-CPizAMjFSl8rM4MrzrGp8kI8vaBaIWB7tUTBndG2epaOnVREMk3xIlpHbKr29YutzS_Ehmw2Q0ifcNOBIaB8je325cI6PVCFhz-HBNaMzfEJ6-5jFKbressrgs/s320/IMG_0220.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636091067537361538" /></a><br />Dear momma, Pop, family and friends,<br />After saying goodbye to some of my favorite people in Solano—the Respicio’s, the Go’s, the Gutierrez’s, the Capalungans, the Pacua’s, the Peralta’s, the Augustine’s, the list goes on—Sister Roncal and I lugged my 2, 70+ pound bags to Cauayan City for transfer day. Sister Roncal cried during the meeting when President Carlos played a slideshow with the song, “You’re not alone.” I put my arm around her, and she smiled at me. I think she will do well with her new companion. She has a fresh start and new outlook, and new challenges to keep her mind off of things. Heavenly Father’s hand is in the transfer. Not just Presidents.<br />I have been transferred to Tuguegarao, Ward 1—or from what I’ve heard it called, “The Promised Land”? I thought Solano was the promised land, but apparently there are more than one Promised lands in Cauayan Mission. <br />My new companion, Sister Adino, and I, had lunch at Chowking, then rolled my bags to the bus stop. We got help from the elders. The wheel of one of my bags broke, and one of the Samoan elders carried it above his head. We rode the 2 and a half hour bus ride north from Cauayan—we passed through my first area, Naguilian, and I didn’t let myself fall asleep, so I could experience a rush of memories and good feelings pass through me from just seeing my old stomping grounds. <br />When we got to Tuguegarao, I didn’t see one of my bags. My black bag with all of my clothes inside—even garments, make-up, and all of my keepsake items that members and investigators have given me—was missing. We called zone leaders, district leaders, bus stations, then the AP’s. Still no sign, but they all promised they would look for me. Luckily I had a bag of dirty garments with me, and all of my journals. I didn’t panic and people were shocked that I could still smile. Hah. I just thought…well, many missionaries in Joseph Smith’s time went out to serve without shoes or coats or pants even, so I’m at least better off than they are. I knew I could make do without my things. I wanted the bracelet Sister Gutierrez gave to me and my make up more than anything. I prayed that Heavenly Father would teach me what I needed to learn from this little trial. <br />We went to our house and I unpacked my one bag in about 2 seconds. Our apartment is a mansion basically, off the main road. It is treated as a duplex though. Another family lives in the second half. It’s up and down and white tile runs all throughout. We sleep on the top floor where there is a balcony and long white curtains hang from where the doors are. Our windows and doors are always open to let air breeze through. It’s hot here, but it’s been cloudy since I’ve arrived, which is a lovely blessing. Our apartment is shared by four sisters, me included—Sister Sajol (old companion of Sis. De Fiesta), Sister Dhekao (from India and SO CUTE and sweet…she shares her crazy snacks with us that her parents sent to her), and Sister Adino and I. They are all so close from the last two cycles they've been together, but I am slowly inching my way into the cold waters, looking for ways to serve them and become a member of the family they've created. I've told them all about my family. <3<br />We went to a dinner appointment that night at a member’s home, and she lent me clean garments and something to sleep in.<br />Sister Sajol has a guitar and I played "love at home" at one of their baptisms, while they all sang along.<br />The next morning, we were called by the APs saying my bag was found in Tumuini, and they were on their way to deliver it to me. Yayyy. Sister Carlos texted and asked, "How does it feel to have clean garments?" I responded and told her it felt wonderful, etc. She responded, "We think this was a tender mercy for a very special sister missionary." Sweet.<br />Sister Adino is beautiful. I admire her so much already. She is only 2 cycles into the mission, and I am her “follow up trainer,” but honestly, I am learning much more from her than she could from me. Her work ethic and love and seriousness in which she takes the work reminds me of my sweet trainer, Sister De Fiesta. She teaches with such simplicity and gentleness, but is bold and inspired. I see my weaknesses, which is such a blessing. And I take strength from Ether 12:27. I think here, with my beautiful new companion, I will be able to make those weaknesses strengths. She wears pencil skirts, button-down shirts with baby doll sleeves, and pearl earrings. She reminds me of cute 1950’s actresses. <br />Our area runs along one street, but it is congested with homes that are so colorful. People basically live on top of each other. They don’t only use tricycles here to get around, but horse drawn carriages that cost just as much. It will take me a little while to get the area down…I’m turned around easily here.<br />We have dinner appointments every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We have lunch appointments every Tuesday and Sunday. The food is delicious here. I had nilaga with caribou meat yesterday—I think it’s my new favorite.<br />I gave a talk on Sunday about missionary work of course and shared the scriptures from John 21:15-17. If we love him, we will feed His sheep. I also shared about Laman and Lemuel and Nephi, how whatever the Lord commands us to do, he will give us power and strength to do it. The members support the missionaries so well here. We had combined priesthood and relief society and Bishop spoke about the importance of member missionaries and how a member prepares a referral for the missionaries. He is an RM, fairly young, and has a beautiful family.<br />We had so many people willing to work with us yesterday, that next week, we will be going on splits with the members.<br />We have 5 people we are preparing for baptism. They are all referrals from members and have strong foundations to be built on.<br />I am excited to be here in Tuguegarao. I am excited to develop a greater love for the members, our investigators, and my companion, and to fill this cycle with brand new memories that I will enjoy the rest of my life.<br />I love you momma. I hope things are going well. I love you my sweet family and friends. Tell Alainna Rosebud I love her and miss her. I can't wait to see her and squeeze her little cheeks--both kinds of cheeks. ;) I pray for you all always always. <br />LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU GRANDMA!!!!!<br />Sister Fort<br />I haven't received any packages yet...Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-5777610384237798872011-07-25T05:46:00.000-07:002011-07-25T06:08:02.352-07:00New Developments/Some SIGHs.....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU1-dayLOJbwxuEensbfpQM5sNWHXiAywIAtlx1Oxr_ESnQLsfsm7wSRoZSq4EusxSTelMKOlA-mp_XxpERCUubY7diYoTro5XaUvwm8fFkn8OBex2lM7XPJuIBq0D-mNXQ-JP2JOmsUY/s1600/IMG_0139.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU1-dayLOJbwxuEensbfpQM5sNWHXiAywIAtlx1Oxr_ESnQLsfsm7wSRoZSq4EusxSTelMKOlA-mp_XxpERCUubY7diYoTro5XaUvwm8fFkn8OBex2lM7XPJuIBq0D-mNXQ-JP2JOmsUY/s320/IMG_0139.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633275454572965778" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsgsn3bdKtNfFPiwqBH1qGKBFpEOHKxH2mY_uhnVljXopkjHNrK61ut44cwJTRv3-o_R9zFbRRFnFmO-8ciz6QxRwu_eZGuS2CZhvjdk8_NIdssCpI7hEDDhDnAZQIDOXUhcaDoaLgOl8/s1600/IMG_0142.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsgsn3bdKtNfFPiwqBH1qGKBFpEOHKxH2mY_uhnVljXopkjHNrK61ut44cwJTRv3-o_R9zFbRRFnFmO-8ciz6QxRwu_eZGuS2CZhvjdk8_NIdssCpI7hEDDhDnAZQIDOXUhcaDoaLgOl8/s320/IMG_0142.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633275443754620354" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2ehvVzwlV0EvStXUvvE8ryEuDh08HRqhPi4AdAPH3X_gw9A-wCM_hlDbE8CCrufWp6iiuXGg6ci_aAd3uKxFPUTHZcj2tor4RuNG2Q3rdKXidJaoDvLLxummCE0VS7XIDnSw2IEfg1c/s1600/IMG_0147.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2ehvVzwlV0EvStXUvvE8ryEuDh08HRqhPi4AdAPH3X_gw9A-wCM_hlDbE8CCrufWp6iiuXGg6ci_aAd3uKxFPUTHZcj2tor4RuNG2Q3rdKXidJaoDvLLxummCE0VS7XIDnSw2IEfg1c/s320/IMG_0147.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633275439487857362" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUakj8yTWZuSddw0JvNTwoEHCB9qtxejzSPH4dobsBEj4IUlsBn8Wc8hxSWhXWWpJQu_9Qj64H4hyphenhyphenSh_cIYBRE1dV6eQHwaAITBktdorY-0ibWiOSQwlKHKirhQhvAjKDoDMczCYHn6kQ/s1600/IMG_0162.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUakj8yTWZuSddw0JvNTwoEHCB9qtxejzSPH4dobsBEj4IUlsBn8Wc8hxSWhXWWpJQu_9Qj64H4hyphenhyphenSh_cIYBRE1dV6eQHwaAITBktdorY-0ibWiOSQwlKHKirhQhvAjKDoDMczCYHn6kQ/s320/IMG_0162.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633275434702469858" /></a><br /><br />Dear Momma, family and friends.<br />I wish this week could be erased for my sweet companion :(<br />Wednesday night Sister Roncal and I were lying in bed with the lights out, around 10:30ish, when I saw we got a text. I checked it. It as from a number our phone didn't recognize and it said,"President Malingcmot. pls tell sis.roncal to come home, her father is fast away." I was really confused for a few seconds, closed our cell phone to the front screen, then thought to reopen it. I realized when I re-read it, it said that Sister Roncal's father had died. I forwarded the text to President Carlos right away. Sister Roncal asked me who I was texting and I lied that I was texting an elder. President called about two seconds later, and told us we needed to come to Cauayan first thing in the morning--be there by 8am. So, I told Sister Roncal that I didn't know why, but President asked us to come to Cauayan. I set our alarm for 3am, and we left the house at 5 the next morning. <br />When we got to Cauayan, President had breakfast for us. We ate, then President escorted Sister Roncal into his office, and told her to call her family. I waited outside of the office with President and Sister Carlos. They asked me if she knew anything, and I told them she didn't. A few seconds later, we heard Sister Roncal sobbing so loudly. Sister Carlos and I ran in. I stroked Sister Roncals hair and Sister Carlos rubbed her back and shoulders as she shook and howled. She dropped the headset of the phone, and sobbed into her hands repeatedly saying, "I love my father, I love my father, my father is died." Sister Carlos offered beautiful words of comfort, and all I could do was listen and stroke Sister Roncal's hair. President came in and counseled her as well.<br />President told us we would stay at the mission home for a few days, until Sister Roncal was ready to leave. He made us leftover porkchops and mashed potatoes and gravy. I restrung all of the guitars in the mission home, while Sister Roncal read her pouch and letters. She had me write a letter to her stake president to read at her father's funeral--she didn't feel like writing, but she told me everything she wanted to say. It was a beautiful letter. We took a nap. I heard Sister Roncal silently crying to herself by my side. Sister Carlos invited us to make dinner with her later on. We made Thai shrimp and ate with President, Sister Carlos, and Sister and Elder Breese. Later that night we played Mexican train with them all and the APs.<br />We slept with air conditioning and took real showers.<br />The next morning, we sent the letter to Sister Roncals stake president that she wrote, and she called her family again. She's decided to stay in the mission field. <br />We ate pancakes for breakfast, and President let us watch a movie before we took the 4 hour busride home--4 hours, because our bus broke down. We watched The Ultimate Gift.<br />Work has been so difficult. Sister Roncal is having a hard time finding the will to work. She's been struggling to smile and be happy with very good reason. I wish I could be a better comfort to her. I keep thinking of what Sister Morgan might say. Maybe something like, "let her feel her pain for a little while." or "crying is good, get all that gunk out." And everytime she feels like forgetting and not thinking, I tell her to take a nap or watch a church dvd on our portable player. We looked forward to our baptism on Saturday with Sister Perlita. It was like the light at the end of our week of horror.<br />Well, Saturday came, and so did Perlita--she showed up at the church an hour before her baptism. Sister Roncal and I were so excited to see her there. We started the program with a hymn and talks. An 8 year old in the ward was baptized, then it was Perlita's turn. Elder Lien and Rocaberte taught brother Nelson how to baptize about 4 times before the program, so he was ready. Our district leader didn't come. <br />The first time she was dunked, her head didn't go under, the second time her foot, the third time, she dunked herself. She was dunked about 6 times. Between every dunking my heart just sank and sank and sank. Sister Perlita is 66 years old and afraid of water. She began to cry. I wanted to tell her to just keep her feet down and let Nelson take the lead and just relax, but I didn't know how to say any of those things in Tagalog. I was frustrated. She started to walk out of the water saying, "can we just reschedule?" Sister Roncal and I went to the back of the font to try to talk to her and remind her that her baptism needed to be done properly, and that this is the only true church--that she felt it herself. She said, "I've never had to be dunked so many times in other religions. I've been baptized before but never like this. Next time na lang."<br />Sister Roncal grabbed Sister Perlita's shoulders, looked her in the eye, and began to cry, saying, "Sister Perlita, I have been looking forward to your baptism for so long and I am here now to see it. I should be going home to see my dead father, but I am here because I wanted to see you be baptized." Sister Roncal began to sob, "My father died this week! I love him so much, but I am here. And you are what is supposed to make me happy. President told me to look forward to this and I did." Everyone who was in attendance at the baptism (not many of us...about 10), by this time was crowding around Perlita in the tiny hallway, and it was dead silent. No one knew why we were in Cauayan for the past two days, until this moment. Members began to sob also.<br />Sister Perlita turned and walked straight into the women's restroom, changed into her regular clothes, and sat back down in the room. We continued the program and Sister Roncal cried into her handkerchief. President spoke about the importance of being baptized by the proper authority. Sister Perlita stood up and said, "This is all I will say. I have never experienced being dunked in water like that at any other baptism of mine, and I will take this as a sign that I should stay true to my promise to my dead husband and remain in our church." <br />We had prepared a musical number for her. We stood up and sang "I Feel My Savior's Love." And I couldn't get through the song without choking. Sister Roncal still sobbed into her handkerchief. <br />Sister Perlita was not baptized.<br />I thought about maybe if we did something wrong. Or if maybe Heavenly Father was just protecting her from making a decision/covenant that she's not yet ready to make. I'm just not sure how to feel or what to think about it. I woke up the next morning, Sunday morning, with this feeling like I had had a nightmare. But then I realized, nope...that actually happened ;/<br />What a tough week :/ <br />We found out from President that there will be a transfer, despite the happenings of this week. I peeked at the transfer board and saw that I will be transfered to Tuguegarao--the hottest place in the entire Philippines. HAaaa ;/ An Elder I know who served there, Elder Bates, said that every day his face was dripping with sweat. I will be follow-up training. Things are still subject to change up until transfer day, this Thursday. But this is just what I saw. Oh well, it will be alright ;/<br />The members here put on a little going away party for me Friday night. They blindfolded me and made me touch parts of this girl's body and guess what it was--arm, hand, ear, hair--then they stuck my finger inside of a tomato. I wanted to scream. We got pictures. They went around and each member gave me a little message--we have it recorded on my camera--and they made me sing "Come come ye saints." We've been taking lots of goodbye pictures with members. The first picture I've attached is of Sister Pancho...she is really old, but sharp in her mind. She reminds me of Mulan's ancestors in the disney movie. The last picture is of us at our last coordination meeting. It was special. I will miss everyone here.<br />Anyways. I love you. Keep us in your prayers always. I pray for all of my family. Tell my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, GRANDMA, I miss them and love them. Kiss my little beebees for me. And kiss Dudley for me too ;)LOLSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-47813246960176364392011-07-23T14:16:00.000-07:002011-07-23T14:24:00.854-07:00HELLO MY DEAREST FRIENDS & FAMILY :) !!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aM8rrFJ5wJ7f4deKPQIwLb13iodkS5KtGlmz7pEbX2Db5bjVjfUW7vvTwHkpcT8vXDTBqQ7Jeixo4PLkwx0yWwqaNJAGU4Ri6ibU4H9J_HIMsHcbvRXyqbrdP32fawQB1x0eddASt1c/s1600/IMG_0122.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aM8rrFJ5wJ7f4deKPQIwLb13iodkS5KtGlmz7pEbX2Db5bjVjfUW7vvTwHkpcT8vXDTBqQ7Jeixo4PLkwx0yWwqaNJAGU4Ri6ibU4H9J_HIMsHcbvRXyqbrdP32fawQB1x0eddASt1c/s320/IMG_0122.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632661282751329650" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrpt1tjLuyVu9R6cc5U1ZLu_5lh3oxtP-7eutWq3QTYlHm2Tcs0SsGUyu5xRbs0HqxpyxfzJW0LsLvSysECMo6s1YghGNLWaJvGPFRBkpFuCit92kbSiALjMXs5WbGmKosD7RSn1PNAc/s1600/IMG_0120.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCrpt1tjLuyVu9R6cc5U1ZLu_5lh3oxtP-7eutWq3QTYlHm2Tcs0SsGUyu5xRbs0HqxpyxfzJW0LsLvSysECMo6s1YghGNLWaJvGPFRBkpFuCit92kbSiALjMXs5WbGmKosD7RSn1PNAc/s320/IMG_0120.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632661271291738354" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgtNpHodW7YM7Yl1CyCQGYQjJ_FHo2jgtUDZUdwFoMN4S1R7fb_HlhC4L6Ez0LARimCB9AF7YQ2U2CiKKJjEMzB0jULXwRWlj03_1qHpiYPHJcO_ROEvoLgG4raYMMwTBOUnzek5GOLk/s1600/IMG_0068.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFgtNpHodW7YM7Yl1CyCQGYQjJ_FHo2jgtUDZUdwFoMN4S1R7fb_HlhC4L6Ez0LARimCB9AF7YQ2U2CiKKJjEMzB0jULXwRWlj03_1qHpiYPHJcO_ROEvoLgG4raYMMwTBOUnzek5GOLk/s320/IMG_0068.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5632661266657686898" /></a><br />To my dearest momma! And to my sweet family and friends!<br />Thank you so much for your encouraging letters. They mean so much to me.<br />This last Wednesday was our zone meeting. President came into town and interviewed us one by one--our 6 month interviews. Sister Roncal went before me. When I went in and sat down, President asked me how I was. I said I was fine. He said, "Do you you know that you're my hero? You're Sister Carlos' hero. You're incredible. You've absolutely blossomed. You're amazing. You're wonderful." He went on and on and I couldn't help but cry. He knows that 80 percent of the time I dont feel these things about myself. He told me that I am so hard on myself, but that I need to know that God is 100 percent accepting of my service. He asked me what was in my mind and heart. I shared with him my memory of one of my first interviews with him. He told me a story about a girl who wanted to go home every day of her mission, but by the end of the mission, she said, "I did it!" Then I told him how I sometimes want to go home too, but I got a letter from YOU, momma, that said, "You're doing it!" And honestly, every time I've felt like I've wanted to go home this past little while, I just think, "You're doing it!" President told me about a time when he wanted to go home on his mission. He cried when he told it to me. It was a sweet, sweet moment/interview and I have been on a cloud since. I think because that interview helped me actually see so clearly what my mission has thus far done for me. I am so grateful to have had my eyes opened.<br />Sister Roncal came to know from President that I will be transferred this next cycle. I am heartbroken, but ready at the same time. We will see where I am going/who I will be with not this next email, but the one after. I will let you know as soon as possible. I am just praying at this point, to be in an area and with a companion that Heavenly Father knows will continue to shape and mold me into who he wants me to be. As difficult or as sweet or as whatever it may be, I am willing to take whatever Heavenly Father sees fit for me. <br />This Saturday, Sister Perlita Patajo will be baptized!!! I am sososososoossosososo excited for her. This has been a journey of patience and challenges and changes and shouting wrong Tagalog in her ears cause she's hard of hearing. I have seen so many changes in Perlita. She is happy. She is SO far into the Book of Mormon and has set a goal to be finished with it by her baptism. She will be baptized by...dun dundunnnnnnnn(triumph music)...Nelson Pasion! Our recent convert. As we were filling out Perlita's baptism papers, with names and things, we realized that the two of them are actually family. <br />Perlita has been struggling to get a distinct answer to her prayer about whether or not Joseph Smith is a true prophet. We know and feel that she has a testimony, but she has just been wanting a direct sign or dream or something. We felt impressed to have her watch the Joseph Smith Restoration movie--the 1 hour version. Sister Roncal was sent a copy from her friend in Cebu. We watched it with her and she cried through the whole thing. She told us afterwards that she received her answer. <br />This last week, we were really tight on money, right before our support was coming in. Sister Roncal and I couldn't afford a tricycle, so we walked from Lactawan, Sister Perlitas home, to our apartment on Yogad St. It took us an hour, and I calculated that it was probably a three mile walk? But the whole time I walked I just thought about the pioneers and about my savior (Mosiah 3:7--reciting that scripture in my head) and trudged forward in my rubber shoes. Our legs were tired and we slept well that night.<br />Today we went to Batad rice terraces. Which is just past Banaue. We left at 4:30am and got there around 8/9ish. We walked a bajillion steps down and up and climbed over rocks and at one point I thought I might die of fatigue. But we had plenty of water and food and that was just me being dramatic. Our jeepney driver was a hired member from Lagawe with one eye, and the roads were steep and rocky and...well...close to high cliffs and things. I prayed a lot on our journey, and was confident the Lord would let me finish out my mission. :) As I type this email now, my head is pounding. So I hope my thoughts are coherent and I say everything I want to!<br />What else...the branch is putting on a going away party for me on Saturday night. Sweet. :) They want me to make them ice cream.<br />We had a beautiful lesson with one of our investigators, Chris Peralta. After so many lessons with him that just haven't felt like they've been getting through, he sent us a text one night saying that he knows his heart is hard. Our next lesson we had planned to teach him about baptism and enduring to the end, but as we sat there and followed up on his prayer, we both felt differently. He told us he hadn't cried in so long, because he is a tough guy. Neither one of us knew what scripture we would share as we opened with our hymn and prayer, but during the prayer a scripture came to mind--1Nephi 2:16. We had him read it one line at a time, and when he read about crying to the Lord and having his heart softened, he looked shocked. This was his answer, coming straight from heaven. He came to church on Sunday for the second time in about 6 weeks!<br />Mommaaaaa I love you! And I am coming home in 6 months! Crazy huh??? It'll go by fast. The first picture I attached is of one of my fave families--Brother Anthony and Mila Fernandez. Brother Anthony is an investigator of ours and when I told him I would be leaving he was really sad. They want to come to my wedding. :) <br />That’s all I can think of??? Pray for me. I always pray for you. I sent grandma and Alainna letters last week. They should be getting them soon. <br />SO MUCH LOVE!!!!<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-67945107212219983542011-07-18T04:57:00.000-07:002011-07-18T05:09:20.407-07:00TOUGH, TOUGH, TOUGH! but I'm COMMITTED ;)Hello my Momma and my family and friends!!! I miss everyone every day!<br />Last Monday we went to Banaue with the other district--Elder Lien's district (For some reason my new district went last week without telling us??...meh.) We climbed a billion steps and our legs were sore until about Thursday. I miss my old districts.<br />Tuesday we taught Perla Cadabona about tithing. We shared scriptures about how all we have belongs to God and all he asks is 10 percent. She had a lot of questions and concerns. We did our best to resolve them. We had her kneel in prayer and ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was a prophet on the spot. She did and told us she felt warm all over. We testified that what she felt was the Spirit bearing witness.<br />On Thursday, we went back for our return appointment with her. We followed up on her scripture reading and prayer and Word of Wisdom. She hasn’t had a drop of coffee since and has been reading the Book of Mormon every night by a flashlight, on her stairway while her husband is asleep or drunk. We asked her if she had any questions about our last visit. She said, “Well, I am meaning to tell you that I don’t want to become Mormon anymore. And I’m not going to come to church on Sunday. And our Family Home Evening here on Monday night wont be happening either.” I felt my heart drop. We asked her what has changed her mind so suddenly. She said she spoke to her husband about tithing and fast offering—which she always does…she shares with her husband everything we’ve shared with her thus far—and he said something to the extent of, “Wow, those Mormons really ask a lot, no wonder they’re all rich.” I thought about people in church history, like John Tanner and John Rowe Moyle, who gave all they had to God—who will be rich in the eternities.<br />We asked her if we could share a message anyways. We shared the story about Abinadi, how he testified of the truth he felt until his death. We pointed out that she had felt the truthfulness of what we’ve taught her, and that both Sister Roncal and I have seen such beautiful changes in her since we’ve been teaching her. I shared with her that I know the truth, and I would share it to my death, like Abinadi. At the end of our message, I think Sister Roncal and I were both expecting a change of heart and mind, but she repeated again that she wont become Mormon and that she wont come to church. We left without a marienda and walked the long road from her house to the highway. (Remember how I said a while ago that we felt like coming to Perla was right, even though she was so far away, because there was always a tricycle to take us back to the city. That was a little sign? Well. This last time, there was no tricycle. We took this as another sign.)<br />She didn’t come to church on Sunday. <br />We are worried for Sister Perlita now, because she always asks in our teaching how Sister Perla is doing…dah. We are working to get a good fellowshipper for her, close to her age. Her baptism is on the 23rd and we are doing all we can to get her solid and ready. She did come to church yesterday, and sat next to our branch president's wife, who has agreed to work with us the next time we go to Perlita.<br />We found a man named Jimmy Valdez yesterday. He was an OYM of Sister Banks and I, forever ago. We went to his house—which is really far—about a week after we OYMed him, but only his wife was there. She said they were Iglesia ni Cristo and were not interested, so we never went back. Well, back when the Jubilee was going on, the elders gave us a referral…it was Jimmy Valdez…they had talked to him about the gospel and he wanted to hear. Well, Sister Roncal and I have gone back there about 4 or 5 times, but he hasn’t been home or he’s had friends over or something something. We went back yesterday agaaain and found him! He was home, and our lesson was so so so beautiful. He shared so much of himself and his hardships and testimony of God. It’s moments like that that I LIVE for here—I love when people are honest and pure and broken. We testified of Joseph Smith and before we could even ask him to pray about it he interrupted us saying, “Naniniwala ako, naniniwala ako.” (I believe, I believe) We committed him to pray anyways, and he was like, “I promise; I’ll pray and ask tonight.” We have a return appointment this week with his whole family.<br />Remember Sister Fernandez and her husband? Well, we’ve taught him a bunch and have invited him to church for about three weeks now. He comes every week, but refuses to come inside…he's really shy. Yesterday, during sacrament, he walked into the chapel in his jeans and flip flops and I smiled so big. That was such a big, big step for him! After all of our lessons he’s always like, “Thanks God. Nagpapasalamat ako na nakilala ko kayo.” (I’m so grateful that I’ve met you.) It’s toughhhhhh tough tough here. The other day Sister Roncal and I watched a video about Emma Smith. She was so beautiful and strong and courageous. I wish I could be at least half of who she was. <br />I have 6 months left of my mission August 4th. Can you believe it???<br />Anyways. Thats all I can think of to send. I love you so much. Tell Matty hi! I love you all my sweet family and friends! Kiss the babies for me and tell them I think of them very often and how big they must have grown. I love you grandma! NO Pic's this time, sorry.<br />Your beebee,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-80344123597021584882011-07-04T06:58:00.000-07:002011-07-04T07:02:11.752-07:00THE WORK GOES ON ;)Dear momma and Pop, family and friends,<br />We have just gotten back from Banaue and I have maybe ten or fifteen minutes to write. I can't send any pictures because I am in a computer shop that doesn't have a memory card reader...what’s new.<br /><br />I loved your emails. I am printing them off.<br /><br />I want to say so much but I have no time. So frustratinggggg.<br /><br />Its fourth of July! Woo. My fave holiday back home. I celebrated here by walking 109898827687262 stairs on the 8th wonder of the world and getting dizzy on the jeepney ride home. I am 11 months into the mission today. 7 months left, momma.<br /><br />This past week we had our first district meeting with Elder Arabia as our district leader. He's good. He taught about the importance of helping our investigators to come to church--which is a difficult topic, because people have their free agency...if they don't want to come to church cause its raining or because they don’t want to pay a tricycle ride, they wont. After we ended our meeting, he did some magic tricks and told some jokes, and I think this will be a good cycle with him as our leader.<br /><br />Wednesday we did a CSP in their area...we pulled weeds and grass for about 1 hour, then ate for about three. Don't ask how that works out. The member insisted we stay while she cooked everything from scratch. With the time that took and the time it took to get back to our area and shower, we got to work that day around 5pm! dah! But we managed to still fit in four lessons.<br /><br />Our lessons with Sister Perla and Perlita are SO FUN. In the tricycle ride home from teaching them both one day, I couldn't stop smiling...I realized I was smiling...then kind of stopped to asked myself why I was smiling so much. I realized that it was because of the amazing changes I've seen in these two people for the past three months. I can see why being a mother would be such a joy. Their baptisms are going to go through, I know it. They both know that what we've been sharing with them is true. They will both be baptized on the 23rd of this month, possibly my last baptism in this area--I'm due for a transfer.<br /><br />Saturday I made pancit for the first time, and Sister Roncal made rice coffee. Which is soooooooooooooooo good. I'm going to make it for you when I get home.<br /><br />We are doing an FHE tonight with the Ambrose family. <br /><br />Momma. I miss you so much. And thank you for sending those pictures! I thought about my little beebee nephews and nieces and how I haven’t seen them in so long and how different they must look. They are beautiful and gorgeous and everything lovely. I miss my brothers and sisters. I miss everyone.<br /><br />DAH, no time. iufhoighlskwoighowijroweifjolifjlskgjorieojgoijghoij I love you and miss you and miss you and miss you and miss you and miss you. I can’t wait to watch a movie at home in my spandex pants with a big bowl of salad with YOU! Love you everyone and miss you all! I love you Grandma, stay strong for me.<br />Love,<br />MESister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-41821492789556517812011-06-29T20:34:00.000-07:002011-10-17T20:22:02.509-07:00WHAT A GREAT BLESSING, How Lucky Am I :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2jZxfIYCMy_z-EWMwFvIRPcrfwYawtzzaXMIrDvk0U571kbflajmc59pD9SpzQvBml63wby8RPErkGYDOQc6WKWQkpSoQgIM2C0wnCsd8w3eGlTNF_GKRs-8ILoa2RB-SjzU67KUqY4/s1600/IMG_0002.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2jZxfIYCMy_z-EWMwFvIRPcrfwYawtzzaXMIrDvk0U571kbflajmc59pD9SpzQvBml63wby8RPErkGYDOQc6WKWQkpSoQgIM2C0wnCsd8w3eGlTNF_GKRs-8ILoa2RB-SjzU67KUqY4/s320/IMG_0002.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623852638604080642" /></a><br />Dear Momma and wonderful family and friends! What a week it has been. (The picture is of me and one of my fave elders. Elder Deriada. In Santiago)<br /><br />We went to Santiago on Tuesday for the mission tours. Elder Keith Edwards of the seventy came to train/speak with us. His presentation/talk/discussion, whatever you classify it as, reminded me of some of the lesson's/lectures I'd experienced at BYU-I. It was SO refreshing to dig deep into the Doctrine and Covenants and learn about the nature of Heavenly Father. He talked a lot about purification and bringing all we have to the alter. The spirit was thick and warm. I cried when I remembered my actual coming on a mission...how it took so much faith for me to actually make the jump and put my trust in Him. I have been putting myself on the alter since I have been out. He compared our putting it in the alter to Abraham's sacrifice. What trust he had in God. And he explained that before the blessings, we need to suffer and be chastened. I sat silently through the whole presentation and listened and soaked things in.<br />After the meeting, as we ate pork barbecue and actual green leafy salad (something I haven't had in about 10 months) President Carlos tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I wanted to be interviewed by Elder Edwards. I kind of experienced a small heart attack, and then slowly nodded my head. I asked, "Bakit po, President?" And he just smiled as he walked away.<br />Elder Edwards began our interview by kneeling in prayer. I don’t remember his prayer cause I was too busy praying myself. We sat facing one another and he asked me to tell him about myself. I never know what to say when people ask me to tell them about myself...so I asked what he wanted to know. I told him about my family, where I'm from, and basics. And he asked me how my missions going. I told him good. He asked me how my Tagalog was going. I told him, it’s been coming slowly, and sometimes I still feel like a small child when I speak. He told me there was nothing wrong with sounding like a small child. In fact, that was a good thing. Then he asked me what one thing I've learned is. I told him patience and longgggggggg suffering--to be patient with myself, to be patient with difficult situations, etc. Then he asked if he could do something for me. <br />I told him about how sometimes I just want to go home. I know this is the work of my Father in Heaven; I know this is the most important work, but sometimes I just want to give up. I told him that sometimes I'm not working because I want to, but I'm working because I feel like I was commanded to. I want to do this work because I love it and because I love my Savior and Heavenly Father, not because I've been commanded. He paused and smiled a closed smile. He looked me in the eyes and said, "There's nothing wrong with wanting to go home. That just means home is a good place." And he told me about how the Savior even asked for his cup to be removed from Him. He also told me about how doing something because it is a commandment is good enough. <br />Of course by this time I was in tears, and he said, "Can I give you a blessing?" And the moment he said that I thought of all of the priesthood blessings I've asked for from Pop, from my brothers, from missionaries, from President, and here, my Heavenly Father was wanting to speak to me. I felt the literal love of my Father in Heaven. The blessing was beautiful and promised so many beautiful things momma. After he called me by name and everything, the first thing he said was, "Heavenly Father knows your every tear." And right when he said that, a tear fell down my cheek. It talked about how I have to be chastened and tried first, before I receive the wonderful blessings in store for me. There are so many things promised to me. It’s just hard to see them when I'm trekking through the mud. I expressed thanks to Elder Edwards, and he pointed me to the direction of the bathroom, to find a tissue :) <br />President saw me after, patted me on the back and said, "Wasn’t that a special experience?" And it was, and I am so grateful to have been one of the chosen missionaries to be interviewed by him.<br />So many other amazing things happened this week! <br />We found a man named Tirso who speaks kind of like the Spanish guy in The Princess Bride--slow and gently, kind of? He told us about how he was in prison for 7 years and read the bible the whole time. He said he's met founders of religions--of Iglesia ni Cristo, Espirtista, etc., but he still has not found answers to his questions. He's been listening to us for about 2 weeks now, and welcomes us warmly every time. He comes with questions like, aren't there two types of the holy priesthood? And what are the three kingdoms I've read about in the bible? and why would God plant the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden if he knew it would separate us from him? Every time we teach him, we are so excited, because he just wants to know everything. Its amazing to think that even after meeting these high ranked ecclesiastical leaders, he is listening to a 24 year old girl from Texas speak 2-year old Tagalog and he believes. Sister Roncal and I can see the lights turn on in his head after every answer we give him. I am reminded of the scripture in Mosiah 23:10-11. I am weak, but in my weakness, I am an instrument of my Father in Heaven. It’s almost like I can literally see the truth pass from me to the hearts of those I teach. And maybe years from now they will never remember my name or my face, but I am so happy that I played a small part of bringing them the full truth.<br />A mission is hard. People say it all the time. It’s true. But I am given so many more blessings than I deserve for the small service I am rendering. And those blessings, I've been promised, will reach through eternity. <br />I love my Heavenly Father. He is my literal Father and I've never felt it so often and so real than I have here in His service. I love you momma. I know there's a plan for me. <br />Love you!<br />Tell grandma I love her and can’t wait to hug her again. Tell everyone that I love them and can’t wait to see and hug them too. I love you all.<br />Sister Fort<br />PS we also had District Conference this week and Elder Misalucha of the seventy came and spoke. So, this week I shook two general authorities' hands. Lucky :) :) :)!!!Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-1588504216460614242011-06-25T20:33:00.000-07:002011-06-25T20:46:02.683-07:00I LOVE MY MISSION!!!! So Happy to Serve :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJRmj6CqLk4O9a2u3j3OEK4cp8IC1VYlY4U39eLyKocfvZTyWgv-N2SXr5ceqBrcD8Xma6EMRFVThftwwcmkbJYePt8F02QfflZtDwkVoZBq9HoxglgB2Id_5cj4URrnGruL0PQsJZJ4/s1600/SAM_0001.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJRmj6CqLk4O9a2u3j3OEK4cp8IC1VYlY4U39eLyKocfvZTyWgv-N2SXr5ceqBrcD8Xma6EMRFVThftwwcmkbJYePt8F02QfflZtDwkVoZBq9HoxglgB2Id_5cj4URrnGruL0PQsJZJ4/s320/SAM_0001.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622367819478382946" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3CKGr8T5N38NIm_pZOOQZT0SV0DCzeiWUJkAYr44eIfTzpMzvnbRGt-e031Vuj7kK4xpL4ufHV3pMMRzpexAgfqe-x__9ofdMA27BuLZFFQsqlgEDxlAV4GuTW_DBKgWLjLk4kNToZWY/s1600/IMG_0536.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3CKGr8T5N38NIm_pZOOQZT0SV0DCzeiWUJkAYr44eIfTzpMzvnbRGt-e031Vuj7kK4xpL4ufHV3pMMRzpexAgfqe-x__9ofdMA27BuLZFFQsqlgEDxlAV4GuTW_DBKgWLjLk4kNToZWY/s320/IMG_0536.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622367822607765890" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWFEcap1gXLbaUsgJ39_PpmS0Qhu8BCctNdlKPn65N36T463_vmYk8FnO9I3ThucNdemVPDIifGDqDgdZxHoG7MIh2lLfoUIP5RoB0Bm81_HpvF6pY9brUV354FTQWDKce4nOB3fZWW5E/s1600/IMG_0530.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWFEcap1gXLbaUsgJ39_PpmS0Qhu8BCctNdlKPn65N36T463_vmYk8FnO9I3ThucNdemVPDIifGDqDgdZxHoG7MIh2lLfoUIP5RoB0Bm81_HpvF6pY9brUV354FTQWDKce4nOB3fZWW5E/s320/IMG_0530.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622367814323178594" /></a><br />Our work has been really great this week. Sister Perla is golden. She is the woman who lives the absolute farthest of all of our investigators and has a son on a mission in Davao. When we showed up to our last appointment with her, we asked her how her word of wisdom was going. She's quit coffee and tea and has switched to hot chocolate. We taught her about the law of chastity, and she was open to follow everything. Before we closed we asked her if she had any questions or things she wanted to add. She pulled out her book of mormon and had a list of questions scribbled down on some lined paper, and started asking us about the chapters she read in 1Nephi, which we hadn't assigned to her. She told us that before she goes to sleep she hides on their stairway and reads by a flashlight--so her husband can't see and wont tell her to stop (he is always drunk). She asked us questions like, "Why was Jerusalem going to be destroyed?" and "Who is Laban?" It was so cute. As we explained, her face was so engaged and she reminded me of a small child. We asked her if she would come to church and instead of her past answers like, "we'll see..." or "I'll try" she said "I'm going." She showed up to church and stayed the whole three hours. Sister Roncal and I were talking about her the other day. She is the farthest of all of our investigators, but she is amazing. We used to work in other far areas where none of our investigators were progressing, and every time we'd be done with a lesson, we'd have such a hard time finding a tricycle on the way back and our time would just be wasted walking forever. But with Perla, even though she is so far, we have never had a problem finding a tricycle. There is always one that just comes by by chance. But I know that is the design of our Heavenly Father--he sends us tricycles, because its right that we are there.<br />Yesterday we taught a man named Danny. He's about 60 and after our message, talked about how Christ told people to let their light so shine. He said, "You are the light to us." I felt the spirit so strongly as he spoke and almost cried. I heard the spirit say something to me like, "See daughter? You're a light."<br />I really love this work. I am excited to wake up and just get out and teach people. The other day Sister Roncal and I got 7 lessons in one day. I think that may be the most I've ever gotten in a day. And every single one was beautiful. I slept really well that night.Heres a picture of nelson's daughter that wears a wig to look like me. Cute!<br />Also, The other day in companionship inventory, Sister Roncal compared me to the Book of Mormon, and said that I dont realize it, but I change people just by being around them. It was really sweet. I just love Sister Roncal and I'm so happy to serve with her. She is an inspiration to me as well :)<br /><br />Anyways, times up. You prob wont have much to post on the blog. Sorry.<br />I love you so much momma. I love You ALL my sweet family. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to everyone who just had one, babies, parents, siblings, etc. HAPPY Father's Day Pop, I love YOU! Thank you all for being such a great support to me, I couldn't do this without you.<br />Love, <br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-39179765725942964372011-06-05T06:02:00.000-07:002011-06-05T06:06:48.163-07:00MISSION POSSIBLE! :) 5/29This past week we had Zone Meeting. Sister Roncal and I were invited to teach about OYMs and what we do in our OYMing, because right now we are leading our zone in OYMs. No one was paying attention to us. We asked a question and didn't get any response and one of the elders was like, "They're not listening." and I was like, "Yeah, I know." I was a little frustrated, because Sister Roncal and I had prepared the night before and talked about how nervous Sis. Roncal was. Elder Miller and Lien showed up late because they were in Cauayan. Elder Lein was having some kind of health problem. The moment I saw them, my day brightened. I love them so much.<br /><br />On Thursday we went to Santiago, about an hour and a half away, to attend Mission Possible--an activity that the couple missionaries put on for us, about preparedness and health and budgeting. It was fun. Before the activity though, I had the most culturally exotic experiences I have ever had in my life. Elder Bates had been to Santiago before and knew of an Indian temple that fed people for free. So we all decided to go. A fat Indian man greeted us as the front and we asked him in Tagalog if we could eat. He told us that if we came in and did everything he told us to do, we could eat for free. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, at this point I was kind of like...is this okay? But Elder Bates was like...it's fine we've done this before a million times. Well, we went inside and they had us take our shoes off and wear yellow handkerchiefs on our heads. We went up some stairs to this room where we washed our feet, then he led us into this other room with a long blue carpet and a long red one side by side. At the end of the blue carpet there was a shrine/gazebo type thing surrounded with fake brightly colored flowers and behind an alter was a long-bearded Indian man, singing from a book. The escort got on his knees and bowed and prayed and all of us missionaries just stood there awkwardly like...uhhh, what do we doooo....and of course, being your daughter I was like, "if we dont pray, are they going to cut our heads off?" But then I remembered that I am a servant of the Lord. The man got up from his prayer and we asked him, "Anong gagawin namin?" He didn't answer and just walked away to grab a plastic bag from the other side of the room and from the bag, handed each of us a mango. Um, I secretly couldn't stop laughing, because we were SO STUPID for going in there and we looked really stupid too. All for free food. Anyway, the man told us we didn't need to do anything, that we could just go downstairs and eat. The room was tiled in marble and we sat on a long red carpet, criss-crossed and side by side. ( I sat by Elder Miller and we laughed so much about what had just happened. :) ) We ate off of metal trays--eggplant/curry/potato stuff that we put on these corn bread tortilla things, some kind of runny sour cream, and rice pudding. And of course our holy mangoes. It was delicious, actually. I will send pictures next time. Then we went to Mission Possible. <br /><br />What else what else. There's so much. Uhhh, we had a one-day mission on Saturday. A lot of youth came and Sister Roncal and I went on splits to go teach less-active members in the ward. There were about 21 companioships and we reached a lot of less-active members. <br /><br />Our investigator, Perla Cadabona, came to church AGAIN this week--dressed in a lovely floral dress. She lives so far and I beam with smiles whenever I see her walking up the cobblestone walkway of the church. She has a baptismal date now for July 2. <br /><br /><br />Anyway, Momma. I'm out of time. But I love you so much. Thank you for your beautiful letter. I love you all. I LOVE YOU GRANDMA! Thank you all for being such a great support to me and my mission. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PoPpA!! I Love you!<br /><br />Your beebee,<br />AlySister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-9550924209442029072011-05-23T05:47:00.000-07:002011-10-17T20:31:34.490-07:00Ulan, LICE and Sixth Sense!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXP7hOW887JtkgV-T710THVposveJzhkHtQ31M8AYMQf3kRlGiPNURt5kV3KwE3Rjws0aEQTqDbTL4OUkqLmHGl_gq2oHAAP7V_aPS7QwlNfE-rnRR1OnswL2yjCcYS_wNdU5J1ZlR__I/s1600/IMG_0426.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXP7hOW887JtkgV-T710THVposveJzhkHtQ31M8AYMQf3kRlGiPNURt5kV3KwE3Rjws0aEQTqDbTL4OUkqLmHGl_gq2oHAAP7V_aPS7QwlNfE-rnRR1OnswL2yjCcYS_wNdU5J1ZlR__I/s320/IMG_0426.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609893535476409170" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCpW3l19L0bW2BfU2Q3UnzjMULtg19YY6Lo4JZg4qt2ixeOgKkQAUDI7D-D8B3aln7lcg3IAgT03AzcgDkHBiDmk0Tk6615qVLDAdPy6jv2kFYM0XzPRT4LSDjo88U1TzrdqRO-MinWg/s1600/IMG_0443.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCpW3l19L0bW2BfU2Q3UnzjMULtg19YY6Lo4JZg4qt2ixeOgKkQAUDI7D-D8B3aln7lcg3IAgT03AzcgDkHBiDmk0Tk6615qVLDAdPy6jv2kFYM0XzPRT4LSDjo88U1TzrdqRO-MinWg/s320/IMG_0443.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609893530801125874" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-1GHFI-FlR5ncXNNGGoGra21haiRwzqMaOXwHaRsrPiqm5I79dh3Mc8v2JEIZUFYKp9tDJSCG-8AmerEI8TvQQVNf8V90VV8RiIDu3TO1H797HGMmp9-UjdIz0uYl29nyZpKbx3Qz0o/s1600/IMG_0427.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-1GHFI-FlR5ncXNNGGoGra21haiRwzqMaOXwHaRsrPiqm5I79dh3Mc8v2JEIZUFYKp9tDJSCG-8AmerEI8TvQQVNf8V90VV8RiIDu3TO1H797HGMmp9-UjdIz0uYl29nyZpKbx3Qz0o/s320/IMG_0427.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609893524587131298" /></a><br />Momma, Thank you for your email. It was beautiful. The weather here has been crazy. Scorching hot from about 8am to 4pm and pouring rain and thunder from 5pm to 10pm. We still walk in the rain and in the heat and in the mud and on the hot pavement. Either my rubber shoes feel like they’re melting into my feet or they’re soup-full of water. We press forward still, every day, even when all of our appointments fall through--they're sleeping or hiding or out or “next time na lang” which is polite for "don’t come back."<br />The other day, I found out that Sister Roncal had lice. I noticed little white things attached to her hair folicals as we were waiting for one of our investigators to answer our knock. We immediately went home and I shampooed her hair with R.I.D. (good thing you sent those mom! You may send a few more, just incase. I told the mission nurse that I had a RID kit and she said, “That is some mom you have.” It's true. I am so blessed.) <br />We had to wash ALL of our clothes and bedding with boiling water (because there is no hot tap water of course). We have a stove that only fits two small pans. We boiled water and as we were in the middle of everything, ran out of gas. We had a new gas tank delivered, and shortly after, our electricity turned off and our water supply was cut. We continued and pumped our water from a pump out front. Our mission nurse called. I told her what was going on, and up until that point I was just silent, thinking...k, this is hard, but it has to be done. Sister Roncal voiced how hard it was. When I told our mission nurse, it sounded like she was almost crying on the other end saying, "Oh no you poor thingssss" And then I sobbed quietly. <br />We were out of work for two days because of our laundry and slept without pillows. I just kept thinking...this could be worse. I could have three babies with lice and carpet to clean. This mission is like mommy prep. <br />The next day, I picked nits out for 4 hours with my Revlon tweezers and Sister Roncal thanked me and cried. I shared the story about you and Pop, and she told me a similar story about her parents. It’s weird. There are people on the other side of the world experiencing the same things in a different culture and different language. Her dad is also 73 and her mom around 60. I think the lice thing was a way for us to grow a little closer together.<br />I had my first encounter with a sixth sense this week. Sister Roncal and I were teaching Brother Nelson in preparation for his baptism. We usually teach him at a members house, but the member was in the hospital having her baby, so we taught him at his antique home—which he is always saying that he doesn’t want to do. When we first entered, there were people gambling in the front, and the feeling was heavy. We taught him in the back room of the house—just us three—and in the middle of our lesson, I heard something like a screen squeaking on the outside of the back door. Like there was wind outside, but that night was perfectly calm. Nelson said, “Go away, we don’t want any visitors.” And I was kind of like….Huh? (confused face) and we kept teaching. The sound got louder and louder, and we ended with a prayer. Right when the prayer ended, the lights were turned off in the room, but in all of the other parts of the house the lights stayed on. As we left, Brother Nelson told us about a lot of his experiences in the home and said there was a bad spirit there. I got spooked on the way home and grabbed onto Sister Roncal, when a frog jumped out into the street in front of my stride.<br />Elder Miller went to Cauayan this past week. I told him there may be a package waiting for me and he said he’d bring it back to Solano. He texted me while they were there and said how HUGE the package was and “did he have to?” I thought maybe he was exaggerating and said that I’ve been waiting for this package my whole life and if he would bring it, I would have dinner ready for them all when they came back into town. He agreed.<br />Well, he wasn’t exaggerating. Hahah. It was HUGE. I felt really bad that I made him take it on the bus--which he said broke down and they had to all get off and wait for another bus. But I made them sopas and they were happy. <br />The package was from Michelle. THANK YOU SO MUCH MICHEELLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I LOVE YOU!!!! I am going to write her a letter this week. I love everything. <br />Nelsons baptism was this past Saturday. There was a huge storm during the whole thing and right after his actual baptism, there was a brown out. I was conducting the intermediate hymns and right when the lights went out, the singing stopped also. We all just sat in the dark, waiting for the lights to come back on. It must’ve been a challenge for the baptized to re-dress. <br />Sunday we woke up at 530am to stop by some of our investigators homes to remind them to come to church. Of the four people we went to, none came to church. Sitting in Sunday school, I thought to myself...0 at church, again. Then the door opened and in came Perla Cadaboda. She lives the absolute farthest of all of our investigators--even members. She has a son who joined the church while away at school and is now serving a mission. We thought for sure she wouldn't come to church this week, but she showed up and attended all four meetings. In sacrament, she leaned to me and whispered, "my son is going to be so proud of me that I am going to church." :)<br />President emailed us this week about a storm coming to our mission. He sent us a lot of emergency preparedness things that we need to do and I am not worried one bit. I know the lord watches over his mssionaries. Just pray.<br />I love you so much and I hope you are all well. Happy birthday to my beautiful Sister and handsome Brothers. I love them all. Thank you again Michelle, Gordon, and Alainna for all the wonderful things I really needed them, THANK YOU!!!!!<br />I love you GRANDMA! I LOVE you ALL!!<br />Your nit picker,<br />Sis Fort<br />P.S. CONGRATULATIONS to Ivor and Natalie. They are getting married this 27th. Ivor wrote me such a beautifully written letter that made me cry. Please tell Sister Morgan that she is a beautiful force of a woman and has changed more lives than she probably believes. I love her.Sister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-19239215574117771172011-05-23T05:29:00.000-07:002011-05-23T05:43:42.833-07:00HELLO My FAMILY and FRIENDS!! :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXOzfUtIYVkvqHCW2DTazjot7Ga76iLZgIv9e-nnORny44FnUYNj9qAqhzlq-9ra1icbZgT9lj5_XDKxUfRITFilZIqxSoBK18mSSgJN7Wk05uOV1L9Dl3Vu1sbplYB2_11Hio-HrySc/s1600/IMG_0417.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXOzfUtIYVkvqHCW2DTazjot7Ga76iLZgIv9e-nnORny44FnUYNj9qAqhzlq-9ra1icbZgT9lj5_XDKxUfRITFilZIqxSoBK18mSSgJN7Wk05uOV1L9Dl3Vu1sbplYB2_11Hio-HrySc/s320/IMG_0417.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609890799305428514" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7oUExylVdyUFCLVBaUlXuxrca9h-foBFB_H_hufV4Z9NfsP0BTL9GA26rQy-fg_5AuSyD-QJXRWRjqdv8FrS5uJ_2sIulbaqLo3NlAOZ5bSQq82gdIR0XaTv5eN3lMXugnavWkmN4_0/s1600/IMG_0405%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7oUExylVdyUFCLVBaUlXuxrca9h-foBFB_H_hufV4Z9NfsP0BTL9GA26rQy-fg_5AuSyD-QJXRWRjqdv8FrS5uJ_2sIulbaqLo3NlAOZ5bSQq82gdIR0XaTv5eN3lMXugnavWkmN4_0/s320/IMG_0405%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609890798833092530" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFDyw0tuO0_jIrSp1IMzzqNHs5_juoiOtYFT9KpG2Ebsbs8xGJpv-zYPTmE71ru05_RNRBKRbZ-jlJ9WNDaYNN4Q9UsqIkeuMUAL4DwscN7MyjwN7uOnhrIEIhZb_M4lfi_nfUcIQS8w/s1600/IMG_0386%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFDyw0tuO0_jIrSp1IMzzqNHs5_juoiOtYFT9KpG2Ebsbs8xGJpv-zYPTmE71ru05_RNRBKRbZ-jlJ9WNDaYNN4Q9UsqIkeuMUAL4DwscN7MyjwN7uOnhrIEIhZb_M4lfi_nfUcIQS8w/s320/IMG_0386%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609890792223559618" /></a><br />Hello Momma friends and FAMILY. <br />This week was a crazy week. Lots of ups and downs.<br />Tuesday we had our first district meeting with our new district. It was sad to not be with the same elders as the last two cycles, but Sister Roncal and I learned a lot about making and setting goals and being accountable for them. There was little laughter. :/ After district meeting, we practiced with all of the elders in the zone for the jubilee celebration at the Bayombong capitol on Saturday. They asked us to sing Called to Serve.<br />In my journal this week, I wrote down all of the things I miss. I miss painting to music and playing my guitar for the few seconds I'm waiting for you before we leave the house. I miss falling asleep to a movie. I miss grocery shopping with you. I miss turkey sandwiches. It’s O.K. though, it’s good to miss everything from time to time. I’m fine ;)<br />Saturday we sang at the captiol. I've included pictures from it. This is our whole Zone minus the Zone leaders--they had their own jubilee celebration to attend. It was such a beautiful presentation---full of singing old Ilokano and Ifugao folk songs and lots of dancing. The Filipino culture is really a beautiful one, and I am so honored to have been blessed with such a colorful mission, however challenging it may be for me.<br />Yesterday we had a lot of members work with us--something weve been struggling with for a little while. We worked in Bonfal and a lot of our investigators decided to hide or were not home. So we tracted into this one old lady. We taught her about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, but she started talking about how she is a healer and heals herself and all of these creepythings., But in the middle of the lesson, a man cme around from out of nowhere and asked if he could join. He stayed silent for most of the time as we bore testimony to this old lady healer. Until I asked him if he would pray to know if what we were teaching was true. He said he would and that he's seen us go to the San Mateo's house for a while and has been wanting to join our church. We told him things he needs to do--listen to our message, come to church, read, pray, etc. And scheduled an appointment with him. <br />There is so much more to say and share and I'm sorry that I don’t have more time. I miss sometimes the guidance and comfort that comes from talking to my friends and family--especially you momma. <br />I haven't received any mail yet. :/ For about a month now. <br />I love you all so much and of course I pray for you always. I love you Grandma and hope that you are well. Stay healthy for me. <br />Love,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-42462419715309220812011-05-08T07:46:00.000-07:002011-05-08T08:02:41.955-07:00HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimW2BSvGIwNWJ64NtKog2XJMygRdx6T85i9kIjMOU7LLV8XEQZi_UKthh2dN7v3-evWUfYL0xb7-yLP2UpGEfiYve4cjqW_5W7FNfNue6ek-3ACPpYmZL3KUOAbztPbhOX4I3YjxDVErU/s1600/IMG_0251%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimW2BSvGIwNWJ64NtKog2XJMygRdx6T85i9kIjMOU7LLV8XEQZi_UKthh2dN7v3-evWUfYL0xb7-yLP2UpGEfiYve4cjqW_5W7FNfNue6ek-3ACPpYmZL3KUOAbztPbhOX4I3YjxDVErU/s320/IMG_0251%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604360435180994962" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-6hVIRrinTbh-yqzkB2lpB7aSAJRYewn9dWDS7GH3hdxesC-YFu_hIG0Y8AbYzIlYzpamM0csD5iPvVQXLUlhoy0UO9_gN6ezn1eWVhRPi0PB8DJxbAjuHH3Xk2AUZTMKsZ-b64QYLE/s1600/IMG_0241%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-6hVIRrinTbh-yqzkB2lpB7aSAJRYewn9dWDS7GH3hdxesC-YFu_hIG0Y8AbYzIlYzpamM0csD5iPvVQXLUlhoy0UO9_gN6ezn1eWVhRPi0PB8DJxbAjuHH3Xk2AUZTMKsZ-b64QYLE/s320/IMG_0241%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604360430809679266" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqf_Sy72f9O_HKbJ1ZLYz3ecC2Qsa_zBSIfiFkWJgggoQqlkWF4lNx48CAfoqZ6gB2qRMUxeMYZfEKxqJUdwDDDySWj73uI28NUn-QLFNiHsL3A6ITkhGnfkJ96bdVkj4J3cYj3K1lyI/s1600/IMG_0334%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqf_Sy72f9O_HKbJ1ZLYz3ecC2Qsa_zBSIfiFkWJgggoQqlkWF4lNx48CAfoqZ6gB2qRMUxeMYZfEKxqJUdwDDDySWj73uI28NUn-QLFNiHsL3A6ITkhGnfkJ96bdVkj4J3cYj3K1lyI/s320/IMG_0334%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604360030519721490" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZOc0-HtwGoVhvrwwgCptcfJRKVY7nkFxjtsHewLyQvoWcr7avo_Ztib2Kf44rlKGSCSFyLzKbLfh-sxO3zs7rGuYY9PiJpqghdhdTNRdniodkUrQ0eBKZ9crI9tjCNIo0slND84-CBE/s1600/IMG_0333%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ZOc0-HtwGoVhvrwwgCptcfJRKVY7nkFxjtsHewLyQvoWcr7avo_Ztib2Kf44rlKGSCSFyLzKbLfh-sxO3zs7rGuYY9PiJpqghdhdTNRdniodkUrQ0eBKZ9crI9tjCNIo0slND84-CBE/s320/IMG_0333%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604360029652847154" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh550lNeTvgyLaX0ZtzF2DytiUtikBc12TXx0sRHncacLX46g2iNJ7Ev3Z4sRya0olxgibSi1iFKCOG5ZV-BsomOC8iAIRdV4mwAv2k0fziRjFlZcx1tyfk-h0vspfY6LHPzC1goUpmRDk/s1600/IMG_0353%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh550lNeTvgyLaX0ZtzF2DytiUtikBc12TXx0sRHncacLX46g2iNJ7Ev3Z4sRya0olxgibSi1iFKCOG5ZV-BsomOC8iAIRdV4mwAv2k0fziRjFlZcx1tyfk-h0vspfY6LHPzC1goUpmRDk/s320/IMG_0353%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604359574074061746" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEA4VuOxZFyJy2OWkOp1ZGHPAfJW2XzEc1MSEVaJ_MlU1oB9mkQZcj9Qu_6YlO3tYjcTB2yqqB_Ky71WgnL-NZgeaHZRDK4MgQ030kV7YHFAtbEQo09xSkTBXZ93F3BcMRbVuFOoQpRM/s1600/IMG_0341%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJEA4VuOxZFyJy2OWkOp1ZGHPAfJW2XzEc1MSEVaJ_MlU1oB9mkQZcj9Qu_6YlO3tYjcTB2yqqB_Ky71WgnL-NZgeaHZRDK4MgQ030kV7YHFAtbEQo09xSkTBXZ93F3BcMRbVuFOoQpRM/s320/IMG_0341%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604359570362219122" /></a><br />Hello mommaaaaaaa, My Poppa, My Sisters and Brothers and Friends :)<br />We are in an internet shop that is playing country music really loud. Andddddd its reminding me of those times Alainna and I would sing Sarah Evans at the tops of our lungs or the times V Burnham and I would hop around in my room at Tuscany with Taylor Swift playing so loud. I'm trying not to listen? But its impossible. <br />People call me Taylor Swift here.<br />Wednesday we had a community service project in our area...one of the farthest places in our area--P.D. Galima. All of the elders met at our apartment around 6am. I made them eggs with potatoes, toast, rice, and cut up some apples. Monday night, I baked a cake at Sister Analyn's house and there was a lot left over that Sister Analyn gave us. We fed the cake to the elders. :) Our service project was to clean around a neighborhood sign and paint it bright orange. Sister Levi knew that I was an artist and she gave me the assignment of painting--even though painting something like a neighborhood sign is pretty much a piece of cake for anyone to do, I was nevertheless flattered by the trust she put in me. She is the neighborhood captain type person and a member. Some of the elders worked on a small garden that is owned by the purok captain. They made us pancit and grape juice and we all sat in platic chairs and ate underneath a collection of trees in the heat. It has been SO HOT LATELY. But President says this is the coolest part of the mission. So I am grateful to be here. <br />Later that day, after our service project, the sister trainers came into town and did splits with Sister Roncal and I. They got here kind of late and hadn't eaten, so I made them some lipton soup with veggies and egg and they ate first. We did a companionship study and planning session with them and I was paired with Sister Stewart. She's American and is actually going home this week. It was a treat to work with someone I can communicate so freely with. I look up to Sister Stewart a lot. We were able to talk and relate to each other about how we sometimes feel as trainers and I got a lot off of my chest. We got about 3 hours work in, which is really not a lot of time, but we were able to catch one person at their home and teach a lesson. We showed up to one of the homes where our investigator had a baptismal date for May 14 ...we've been teaching him for a while, he's 13. And the people there were like, "Oh hes not here anymore. He went to get circumsized and wont be back for two weeks" ?!?!?!?! They were really naunchalaunt about it...And I think they may have seen from my face that I was a little shocked. I dont know...excuses like that just dont come up every day. We will go back after two weeks. Anyway, Sister Stewart shared a little something with me that made me so happy. She said that they have an investigator now in Cauayan that said knew me. She said one day Sister Jose and I talked to her and she felt something really special when I spoke. The thing is...I worked with Sister Jose once in Cauyan--we were on splits for a day--and that was my first area, so my Tagalog was probably still 2 year old style. It just helped me see, that even when I think what I am doing is for naught...its really...not. Even the smallest thing, like an OYM in 2-year-old Tagalog, can bring someone to listen to the missionaries 6 months later. <br />OH! San Mateo family! So...remember how I said brother had to go to Santiago to meet with president? Well, Sister Roncal and I fast for them to be able to be baptized as a couple. Right after our fast that day, Elder Miller texted us and said that President said he woudln't have to anyway...that his faith was sufficient because he was ready to make the trip. What a blessing! We texted the San Mateo family the news and they responded in all caps and exclamation marks that they were so happy. They were baptized on Saturday as a couple and bore the most beautiful testimonies about how much their lives have changed since they've been learning about the gospel. They cried as they spoke. Brother gave the closing prayer, and it was so personal, thanking Heavenly Father that he was baptized. I am SO HAPPY FOR THEM. I love them.<br />Saturday night and Sunday morning we watched the jubilee celebration. The church has been in the Philippines for 50 years. They honored the first set of missionaries here, and it was cool to think that I am a tiny tiny part of that growth. You know...how the work of the Lord will go forth with or without your help? Well...I'm so glad I'm helping. I'm so grateful--however difficult it gets sometimes--that I was blessed with this time to serve my Savior and Redeemer. To help him bring lost sheep into his fold.<br /><br />(The San Mateo family are the two holding the babies)<br />ALSO!!!!! <br />I get to talk to you all this weekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkYAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY1!!! You can call me Sunday morning and Sunday night. Like you did around Christmas. This is my number: 0639274982114. Type that exactly into your phone.<br /><br />Also Sister Breese wants me to tell you that she is from Houston! Shes adorable. I love herrrrrr. She reminds of you. :) I will have to visit her when I get home. She and Elder Breese work in the office with other couple missionaries. <br /><br />Also I haven't received any mail since the last time I told you. No one from Cauayan has come here since. But this Tuesday theyre coming and I should have the package from Michelle. <br /><br />I love you so much. This week, the 4th, I'm HALFWAY!!!! Can you believe it? <br /><br />Our struggles sound like the sisters. We find lots of people who are willing to listen, but they dont make the effort to come to church. Take pictures of them! I wanna see them! Tell them I say hi. I dont know what else to sayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy<br />Oh we have transfers this week. I'm not sure what will happen, but I'll let you know when you call. <br /><br />Tell poppa I loved his letter. I sent you all a letter to Sister Manzone to give to her for me. I love you all so much, hug and kiss everyone for me, and extra hugs and kisses to all our little babies that I miss seeing grow. PICTURES would be so WONDERFUL! Thank you all for being such a great support to me in every way. I feel your prayers and need them. Thank YOU! Tell Jillian I love her too, and thanks for her letters.<br /><br />Momma, I get to speak to you on Saturday your time Sunday my time!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!! I can hardly wait to hear your voice and Pop and whoever else might just be around. I love YOU, Momma, you are the best Momma ever :) and I miss you too!<br />Love you!<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-4843793407287801862011-05-01T18:35:00.000-07:002011-05-01T18:56:25.097-07:00HELLO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS :)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0E_r2CvgT2iNphrSGrmNYf0PmdVkV7ia6IYFPBRKeD2Z-U124Uw0FB4Qj42k6P7aVx0KRdZ2LaCf4rKaySL-Uv7BsPUW6oVlil5tAw0xetEV-CyzPVNOLFbgPazSCeJBNQtOYIv6WO4E/s1600/IMG_0307%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0E_r2CvgT2iNphrSGrmNYf0PmdVkV7ia6IYFPBRKeD2Z-U124Uw0FB4Qj42k6P7aVx0KRdZ2LaCf4rKaySL-Uv7BsPUW6oVlil5tAw0xetEV-CyzPVNOLFbgPazSCeJBNQtOYIv6WO4E/s320/IMG_0307%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601930112379993682" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9MgSuSkFr4ZtBhv_5KD_z4gMcAwxW2k2b5eofdzit12MoMghW4J177oV2tBCGhUslkDZZCXH1rNy63rR_mp0fvgL6yy1iSsqCzfRy3gJMjeykfzeAXVhTfeGSak1UTnz8-kK03oOfDdc/s1600/IMG_0273%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9MgSuSkFr4ZtBhv_5KD_z4gMcAwxW2k2b5eofdzit12MoMghW4J177oV2tBCGhUslkDZZCXH1rNy63rR_mp0fvgL6yy1iSsqCzfRy3gJMjeykfzeAXVhTfeGSak1UTnz8-kK03oOfDdc/s320/IMG_0273%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601930106140756434" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkgiJBOikMVv10f7mH5A2GOduG_qfn0kRd8pVMJCQdxO2an19HVRw21hRUQEgFfVNeGYDaNMBDLPhoLYtu1iFeyPxo3x9kHJxxE05gV0iRuMIo_O7EWawiNvx3NF4qyBEep1VYCXrcnY/s1600/IMG_0265%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkgiJBOikMVv10f7mH5A2GOduG_qfn0kRd8pVMJCQdxO2an19HVRw21hRUQEgFfVNeGYDaNMBDLPhoLYtu1iFeyPxo3x9kHJxxE05gV0iRuMIo_O7EWawiNvx3NF4qyBEep1VYCXrcnY/s320/IMG_0265%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601928540364959858" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHJC9VykjN5k8Q2dQhchMvcZNjGrjT4T9PniRdj_YN1D_jHpDKP91U7AGHjGOEoMXZh5EffZWyT1LediumP08GMAThFuiih6tmF_8ATc8F6pym-nDgTEZvj77u5UdNWFXKiYGn0gsvI2w/s1600/IMG_0326%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHJC9VykjN5k8Q2dQhchMvcZNjGrjT4T9PniRdj_YN1D_jHpDKP91U7AGHjGOEoMXZh5EffZWyT1LediumP08GMAThFuiih6tmF_8ATc8F6pym-nDgTEZvj77u5UdNWFXKiYGn0gsvI2w/s320/IMG_0326%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601928535146027266" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtx7-aSHvU61heuHrl7pj36O8oIMlznnEl9gk6sah8j6AqpWVEpozazH_kOo_s_EN_aQJqgu3LeBxxJ1zBpIMA-Egg0A0F2v80ivGQha7dnIt0XbW0_KM7sErlZcbhFSBprv6a6p3bc3Y/s1600/IMG_0154%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtx7-aSHvU61heuHrl7pj36O8oIMlznnEl9gk6sah8j6AqpWVEpozazH_kOo_s_EN_aQJqgu3LeBxxJ1zBpIMA-Egg0A0F2v80ivGQha7dnIt0XbW0_KM7sErlZcbhFSBprv6a6p3bc3Y/s320/IMG_0154%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601928531920307506" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1mv4XWi8JLSjCZmxYWLAK8PZYVDaTX5MmRUnm6gkZKb2BXvHKf8t3lb9Enc9UJ0PHmR2CJjwldo2yN0jUIonQtQLRRzAJZ7ijqAqpxvnj4kjlhCcus0ELdeHtClsfpGSgX1H3iXSvsvI/s1600/IMG_0315%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1mv4XWi8JLSjCZmxYWLAK8PZYVDaTX5MmRUnm6gkZKb2BXvHKf8t3lb9Enc9UJ0PHmR2CJjwldo2yN0jUIonQtQLRRzAJZ7ijqAqpxvnj4kjlhCcus0ELdeHtClsfpGSgX1H3iXSvsvI/s320/IMG_0315%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601928526009776994" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N6EUkr2PTgnOpICJL2ZFf5_YAoLUvivCa21DBzzMaFcDCQvWZqfT0TkVuquuoE_eSCS7OWZYjoAvxRNUGuPC0wGBkfn68cQ3GYOcNgUqw8ZaDDNPP0Zwh9_fUf_DQKyMXv-dV_rgVfU/s1600/IMG_0193%255B1%255D.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N6EUkr2PTgnOpICJL2ZFf5_YAoLUvivCa21DBzzMaFcDCQvWZqfT0TkVuquuoE_eSCS7OWZYjoAvxRNUGuPC0wGBkfn68cQ3GYOcNgUqw8ZaDDNPP0Zwh9_fUf_DQKyMXv-dV_rgVfU/s320/IMG_0193%255B1%255D.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601928517923312738" /></a><br />Dear momma and all of My Family and Friends, <br /><br />I sent you pictures of a CSP we did last week. We harvested rice for<br />an investigator in Bayombong. I took my sandals off, squished my feet<br />in the mud, and used a machete to cut the bundles of rice. We were<br />there from 7 to about 10, then ate monggo beans and ampalaya that the<br />investigator cooked by their charcoal stove.<br /><br />This last Wednesday, President and Sister Carlos came into town for<br />our Nueva Vizcaya zone meeting. The meeting was on small and simple<br />things—how if we focus on the little things as missionaries, like<br />study and prayer and obedience, the outcome is great. Elder Miller and<br />I prepared to sing, “I know Heavenly Father Loves Me”..the primary<br />song. Elder Miller “doesn’t sing,” but I roped him into it. No one in<br />our zone plays the piano, so it was acapella. It was so simple, but it<br />turned out not too bad. Sister Carlos cried. She shared with how we<br />need to talk to everyone and told us about a mission that strives to<br />do 30 oyms in a day—which is kindddddaaaaaa a lot. The highest Sister<br />Roncal and I have gotten is 23. But we are always striving to improve.<br /><br />President Carlos shared a clip from an address Elder Holland gave to<br />the MTC this past January about a dialogue between Peter and Christ.<br />Christ asked Peter three times if he loved Him and Christ told him to<br />feed his sheep. The address was powerful and brought me to silent<br />tears. President interviewed every one of us and I told him that I am<br />so hard on myself sometimes. He said, “I know you are Sister Fort.<br />Stop it.” And he gave me some beautiful counsel. He asked if there was<br />anything he could do for me, and I asked for a blessing. The blessing<br />said that I am here in this mission, in this area, training Sister<br />Roncal for a reason that will be revealed to me at another time. It<br />said that my service is accepted by my Heavenly Father, and that there<br />are people waiting just for me. It said for me to continue in my<br />service, and my teaching will become “masterful.” It also said that I<br />have always been guided by the spirit and will continue to be guided<br />by the spirit.<br /><br />It made me think of Elder Bednar’s talk…about how we sometimes don’t<br />even realize when we are being guided by the spirit. I LOVED that<br />talk.<br /><br />After my interview with President, he said, “find a new apartment<br />Sister Fort.” So, after we ate meatball sandwiches provided by Brother<br />Pete—who finds amazing pearls and caribou bone belts—and chocolate<br />cookies in the foyer of the church, Sister Roncal and I got to work.<br />We talked to so many people about the gospel in our search for an<br />apartment, and I think President’s guidance was inspired—even if he<br />didn’t exactly mean for us to look for an apartment THAT DAY. We<br />taught one lesson to a woman about forever families, and she told us<br />her hair on her whole body stood up when we bore testimony. We found<br />another family with two children who participated—both the husband and<br />the wife (Which is so rare. Men here can be so hardheaded.)—And<br />prayed. We also found a man who fixes electric fans for a living, and<br />who welcomed us into his home. We taught him about prophets. We also<br />found an apartment—Yayyy! It has tile and running water, is private,<br />and quiet, and lovely in every way, also, affordable to the mission.<br /><br />This last Friday was Good Friday and here, when its Good Friday, no<br />one goes out of their houses—needless to say we were challenged to<br />find work. They also do that thing at night where they crucify<br />themselves in the streets and beat themselves with whips. I am lucky<br />that I saw none of that. So, so lucky.<br /><br />Saturday we had a baptism! Brother Jershon Hore. He’s 12. I sent a<br />picture. He bore his simple testimony and closed “and this is my<br />prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” Cute. His father has been a<br />member for a long time and served a mission even, but there have been<br />complications with the child’s baptism until now. He is so happy to<br />finally be baptized, and to officially be a part of the Young Men’s<br />organization.<br /><br />We have another baptism coming up this next Saturday. The San Mateo<br />family—a young couple who have two young children (ages 2 and 6<br />months). Sister Roncal and I have been fasting and praying for them.<br />They are experiencing a lot of challenges this week…their faith is<br />definitely being tried. But I remember this Sister when I first was<br />transferred here…she refused to pray. And Brother was confused about<br />his answer, but they have been struggling through, and Sister actually<br />smiles and jokes with us when we show up. They come to church every<br />Sunday, and the changes that have happened in their lives are SO CLEAR<br />to see. It is amazing what the gospel can do for people.<br /><br />Brother has to travel to Santiago for an interview with President this<br />week before their baptism, which is far for them and costs money that<br />they don’t have. When we first told him this was necessary, he<br />expressed that it would be difficult and that he would just wait for<br />when President comes to town (which is not for a long time). We shared<br />with him about Enos, and how this was a trial of his faith. We also had<br />him watch a beautiful DVD about John Tanner--a man in the time of<br />Joseph Smith who basically gave ALL he had for the gospel. By the end<br />of the lesson, he committed to go to Santiago. Sister Roncal and I are<br />fasting for them today.<br /><br />I have been reading Jesus the Christ in my personal study. President<br />shared once a story about a boy named Gordon who felt distanced from<br />the spirit and the Savior, but the answer that came to Gordon was that<br />he needed to learn more of the Savior and that the spirit he wanted<br />would come gradually. I have been focusing on my Savior in my personal<br />study, and it has been so refreshing. Everything else that is tangled<br />in my mind—my lack of faith, the things I’m doing right and wrong as a<br />trainer, the struggles of our investigators—it all irons out around<br />the atonement. If I just focus on that one simple thing—my closeness<br />to my savior—great things come to pass. If you haven’t read the book,<br />I suggest you do. It’s beautiful.<br />Thank you momma for your packages. I did give a lot of candy away to<br />Elder Miller and his companion cause I adore them so much. They were<br />grateful. I gave the coloring kit to some screaming kids on our street<br />and they were so excited to go home and do it. We just have no time to<br />even breathe.<br /><br />I had a dream last night that I taught two lessons and really thought<br />about asking our district leader if we could count the lessons in our<br />KIs for the week. But then I woke up for realz. Sister Roncal said she<br />heard me talking in my sleep.<br /><br />I feel my Tagalog getting better. I really do. Sometimes after a<br />lesson, I think, “Ummm…I was never able to do that before my<br />mission….at least I’ve learned something!” And in our language study,<br />I write a letter or something in Tagalong and Sis. Roncal will correct<br />it. And she writes in English and I correct it. She could only find<br />spelling errors. Yayyyyy.<br /><br />I love you so much momma. Thank you for all you do for me. I think I<br />just want pictures from my family? That’s what I want most. I have<br />nothing to show anyone. Can you develop real pictures? I miss seeing<br />everyone. Also any kind of healthy snack. OH! Matt sent me a ton of<br />CDs and I listened and listened to them and guess what. My player<br />quit. It’s dead. I think because of the moisture here. :( I am so<br />upset, because music is such a relief for me here.<br />Yesterday I craved tortalini’s. Wah.<br /><br />I love you and everyone so much! Tell poppa I love him, and tell everyone in the family how much I love and miss them too, and tell Matt I am using his sticky notes. I Love you my GRANDMA :) <br />Your beebee,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-37962820082478420412011-04-22T19:49:00.001-07:002011-10-17T20:42:51.723-07:00HAPPY EASTER WEEK TO ALL MY FAMILY & FRIENDS! ! :)Hello my momma! Hello my Family and my Friends!<br />Wow, today has been a crazy day. We went to Banaue again because there<br />are new people in our district who haven't been. Its a three hour trip<br />there and back. We woke up at 4 and the elders were supposed to show<br />up at 5, but we ended up leaving around 6:00.<br /><br />We just got back about an hour ago. Well, right when we got off the<br />jeepney it started pouring. We rushed to the nearest internet shop and<br />right when we got there, told the woman we needed two computers, and<br />turned on the power. Immediately the power turned off and it started<br />hailing. We decided to shop first and wait for the power to come back<br />on. Now we are internetting obviously...and my computer has been<br />experiencing some difficulties. Welcome to the Philippines. Anyways,<br />know that I am totally rushed in writing this.<br /><br />Earlier today we climbed to a tall part of the rice terraces. You have<br />to climb down many stairs to get to the other part of the terraces<br />where you climb up. I fanned Sister Roncal while she threw up at the<br />top. She wanted to keep going. We made it finally to some beautiful<br />falls, and took lots of pictures (that I can't attach cause I dont<br />have a memory card reader). Last time I went I was totally afraid of<br />heights, but this time it wasn't a big deal to me. I bought a hand<br />woven scripture case for 80 pesos and we ate halo-halo the Chowking at<br />the bottom of the mountain.<br /><br />Tuesday at district meeting, after our accounting, I got teased by the<br />elders about how many packages I had waiting for me in the foyer. I<br />got four packages and two letters! :) <br />I didn’t receive Michelle’s package yet. <br />Maybe it will come next week. Tell them all thank<br />you so so much for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. <br />I absolutely loved everything and was thrilled to be thought of so nicely. <br />Thank you all so very much!!! I felt so special :)<br /><br />Wednesday, I asked for a blessing from e.Miller. Sometimes I just dont<br />know if what I'm doing is okay to the Lord. Sometimes I feel a little<br />distanced from Him, even here. Sometimes I feel like I'm going psycho<br />trying to know if my work is accepted or is he's listening to my<br />prayers or what I need to do next. I miss my blessings from Poppa and<br />Nathan. Elder Miller, in his blessing, said that I promised the Lord<br />before I came here that I would serve a mission and he blessed me to<br />fulfill the things I promised Him I would do--dah!!! What did I<br />promise?? He also said that I need to draw closer to the Savior. In my<br />personal study this week, I discovered something that I have been<br />doing wrong in my personal study. I haven't been focusing enough on<br />the life of the Savior and on his atoning sacrifice. When we learn<br />more of the Savior and come to know him more, we have the Spirit with<br />us more...we have his guidance and we feel his love for others. I<br />remember in my patriarchal blessing it says that I will bring people<br />into the gospel net through expressing my love for the Savior.<br /><br />Sometimes the answers are so clear, but I am blinded by myself somehow.<br /><br />Where is Mal's mission? Texas? What mission? Spanish speaking? I wrote<br />Alainna a while ago? I love you Alainna!!! I love you Michelle!!! I love you all!!!<br /><br />What else happened this week? We got three new doorknobs in our house,<br />and our back faucet works, and our drain is draining again in the<br />bathroom. Were still looking for an apartment.<br /><br />We have a baptism this week--Jershon Nephi Hore. He is 12 and his dad<br />is a member.<br /><br />I got to talk to Sister De Fiesta on the phone!!! Sister Analyn called<br />her while I was over. It was so lovely to hear her voice. I love her<br />so much. She is working at a resort in Puerto Vallerta.<br /><br />I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on missionary work. A member came<br />up to me afterwards and said, "You can speak Tagalog afterall, I<br />thought you couldn't for some reason." And I felt like my tongue was<br />loosed the whole day. That feeling comes and goes.<br /><br />Momma, pray for me that I will do the right things? I'm trying hard to<br />be obedient and do what I think is right. I am my worst critic :(<br />We have Zone meeting this week. President will be interviewing us. I<br />will be singing with Elder Miller, "A Child's Prayer." We have FHE<br />tonight at Analyns. She’s making dinner, I'm baking a cake, and we're<br />watching Joseph Smith History videos with our investigators.<br /><br />I love you so much. Tell all my family that I pray for them always, and miss everyone very much. I love you all and thank you for everything and all your prayers. I do need them and I do feel them. Thank you! Kiss and hug everyone for me. I wish I had some pictures of everyone. Whenever you all get a chance, please send some to me. <br />THANK YOU SO MUCH for the packages, Momma. I did give a lot away to Elder<br />Miller and his companion Elder Deriada, cause they do so much for us. That’s all for now. HAPPY EASTERRR EVERYONE!! :) I love you Pop! I love you Grandma!<br />Love,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-9211944956590280022011-04-06T20:09:00.000-07:002011-04-06T20:20:44.144-07:00EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeK!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hello mommaaaaaa!!!!!!Hello My FAMILY and FRIENDS!!!!!!! :)<br />I totally love Sister Roncal. She has such a desire to be good and we<br />are on the same page with everything--and when we aren’t, it'll take us<br />about 5 minutes to figure out what the other person is trying to say<br />in Tagalog or in English, and everything's fine. She is quick moving,<br />clean, helpful, and so humble and willing to learn. I am learning so<br />much from her that way. She served as a part time missionary before,<br />so the training part of my time this cycle really is more of an<br />internal struggle than anything--figuring out what she could possibly<br />learn from me. President told me that she just needs someone to help<br />her teach by the spirit--so I am doing my best to keep our<br />companionship a divine one, and listen to my own promptings, and<br />discernments. Sister Roncal came basically pre-trained and full of<br />fire. We ended the week with 11 investigators who have accepted<br />baptismal dates.<br />One day was full of just talking to people in a neighborhood here<br />called Osmena. And it turned out to be "less-active finding day." We<br />had BBQ chicken at LEAH's, and a skinny woman with hair down to her<br />back asked us if we were Mormon. When we said yes, she told us that<br />she was also a member. Something I've noticed here is that even though<br />people stop coming to church, there's still a sense of pride found in<br />being a member--enough to say, "Hey, I'm a member." We took down her<br />information, and scheduled to share with her next Sunday when she is<br />available.<br />Later in the day we went back to contact a previous OYM of ours, Mina.<br />When we sat down with her, we started talking about Joseph Smith and<br />she mentioned casually that she was baptized about 12 years ago when<br />she was really young--she didn't remember anything about the church.<br />We sat outside of their old, wooden two-story as we shared, and I kept<br />hearing something up above us to the left--like faint stomping and<br />thumping on the wood paneling. I thought maybe it was the people<br />inside, until I heard a squeak from a gaping hole in the ceiling. I<br />secretly glanced over once to see what it was, but there was nothing.<br />A few minutes later, in the middle of my testimony, I heard a loud<br />thump and slap and looked over and saw a RAT, THE SIZE OF A SMALL DOG<br />flop onto the pavement and run into the house. EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I was<br />speechless for about 2 seconds, I think I also maybe gasped quietly,<br />but really wanted to scream and throw up...<br />Another woman we taught that day said that her husband was a<br />less-active member.<br />What else...what else...<br />There is a young returned missionary couple here, the Go's, who gave<br />Sister Roncal and I a referral--Jonathan Passion. We spent 1/2 of a<br />morning just asking people if they knew a Jonathan Passion and where<br />he lived, but no one knew. Finally, after asking and asking, we<br />discovered his name was Nelson and what he did for a living and where<br />he lived and what time he'd be home. We returned at the time we were<br />told, and he came out to see us. He told us he wanted to know how to<br />become a member, and we taught him his first lesson that night in the<br />Go family home. He shared so much with us about his life, we gave him<br />a brief-spirit-directed overview of the Restoration, and he accepted a<br />baptismal date before we could even get the question out. He came to<br />church two days later.<br />There are people here who are ready.<br />We've been looking for a new apartment to live in, because the one we<br />are in is SO LOUD in the mornings and all throughout the night. There<br />are about 15 dogs in our surrounding premises and every night and<br />morning and daytime and mealtime and shower time and study time and<br />washing the dishes time and whenever, they bark. One misfires, and the<br />rest go off. On top of the dogs, there are drunk men next door every<br />night, a bombay who lives in the back of our compound whose kinda<br />creepy, and motors. This morning I woke up to dogs, motors, and<br />someone playing a xylophone? It was 6:00am. The elders found us an<br />apartment, and Sister Roncal and I went to look at it...well...lets<br />just say...I was reminded of the time Pop found that house on<br />Amarillo? The roof was tin, and there were gaps between the roof and<br />cement cinderblocks, so any critters or bird or mosquitos could come<br />in. The downstairs was tiled nice, but the upstairs was all wood and I<br />could see where the mice had chewed their little holes. ek! Also,<br />there were black and white photos of some old Filipino man everywhere<br />and Sister Roncal and I held on to each other and squealed as we<br />talked about there being a potential ghost...we're still looking for<br />an apartment...<br />I got a package from Sarah Roughton!!!! Sweetheart! She sent me<br />fruit snacks and thin mints (I made cookies and ice cream for the<br />elders and stuck some thin mints in it for them. I learned how to make<br />ice cream from Elder Apin. :) ) and a cd that she burned. The cd has beautiful songs. Please tell her that I am so sosososo grateful!<br />Also! I got a letter from Mallorie Lamb. Remember her?! She is waiting<br />for her call right now...maybe she even has it by now? When you find<br />out via facebook or something, will you let me know?! I am so happy<br />for her and excited!!!<br />OMG MOM. Please squeeze Alainna SO HARD for me when you see her and<br />kiss her face and head and pinch her bum. She is so sososososososososoos loved by me!!! TellMichelle I love her, and think of her often. Thank her for all her support and prayers. Give her a big kiss and hug for me.<br />You know, you can attach pictures to your email to me? I don’t have ANY <br />pictures of my family here. Sad:( Pictures PLEASE, if you all get a chance ;)<br />My english is getting so terrible, momma. Every time I see the older<br />Sisters and Elders from America that only speak English, I get<br />confused about what words to use. I hope that I won’t be too weird when I get<br />home:/ <br />Today, is my 8 month anniversary!!!!! Of being on my mission. Next<br />month, I am half-way. Can you believe it? For my anniversary, Sister<br />Roncal and I are teaching a lesson, OYMing, and putting on an FHE. Hah.<br />How are things going with Pop? Tell him I love him.<br />We get to see General Conference this upcoming weekend.<br />I can't attach pictures cause there is no memory card reader at this shop. Blah.<br />Anyways, thats all I can think of. And I am out of time. We are working hard.<br />I love you all soooo much! All my FAMILY and FRIENDS :) Thank you all for helping me and being such a great support to me on my mission. I feel your prayers and love you all for thinking of me and giving me the strength I need. I love you my GRANDMA, kisses and hugs sent to you!! Give all my little babies and Brother's and Sister's hugs and kisses from me.<br />Love you so much my Momma and Pop!!!!<br />Your bebe,<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926783201669771478.post-56134828894578657292011-03-30T19:50:00.001-07:002011-03-30T19:57:36.643-07:00MOVING ON IN THE GOSPEL and FAITH :)Hello momma and Pop and FAMILY!! It's me again:)<br /> <br />Transfers were last week. The night before, I cleaned our apartment while Sister Banks packed, and Sister Carlos called to talk to me. She said that President wanted to speak with me before the transfer meeting.<br /> <br />The jeepney we rented was late to pick all of us Elders and Sisters up from our apartments. Elder Apin brought a mini music box, MP3 player and played music from a Korean film called "The Classic." It was nice to hear the deep sounds of a cello as we rode through the mountain pass to Cauayan...I haven't heard a cello in so long. (I am so tired of my two Mormon Tabernacle Choir CDs) We were late to the meeting and all of the Elders and Sisters were sitting down in the church pews. Sister Carlos came to me as I walked in and told me to go to the stand to speak breifly with President before the meeting started. He whispered that he thought I was ready to train, and could help this new sister teach by the Spirit. I couldn't help but smile so big :) I was so excited. He said, "You can do this." And sent me to sit down by Sister Banks.<br /> <br />So, my new companion is Sister Roncal. She is Filipino, 5 feet tall, 25, and from Ilongopo, Philippines. She was the only sister in the batch, and I can't even believe that out of every wonderful beautiful perfect sister in the mission, Heavenly Father chose me to be her trainer. All of the elders teased me about being a "nanay" already--or mom. Sis. Roncal expressed to me that 'she has been sick since she's left the MTC--kidney stone. So on the ride back to Solano, I let her sleep on my shoulder. As she slept, I mouthed to Elder Miller--who is also training again--that I was scared, and he said, "You must be doing something right." That gave me comfort.<br /> <br />I feel such a huge sense of responsibility. My trainer was such a wonderful example to me of everything I should be as a missionary and more. And now it's my turn to be that. I am afraid to mess up or to seem weak or to not give back to my trainee what my trainer gave to me. I've had nights--umm..and days--where I've asked Heavenly Father why me--my Tagalog is still so weak, and she is so much better at teaching and OYMing than I am. But I fasted and prayed this time about my companion--that I would be able to love her, and we would be able to be obedient together and work in unity. And I know that this is an answer to my prayers.<br /> <br />At transfer meeting I remembered one thing that Sister De Fiesta told me when we were first assigned together. She said before we were together, she had a dream. In the dream, she heard a voice that said, "Take care of her. She is a mother in Zion." Or nanay in the mission field? I also remembered my setting apart blessing that said I would be a leader on my mission. I know this is all part of God's plan.<br /> <br />But...leader, ALREADY?! AHHHHHHHHHHH! Believe me I'm not boasting ;/<br /> <br />When we got home to the apartment our first night, we sat down and had a small companionship study before we went out. I read to Sister Roncal from President's last letter to us about being a 100% missionary, and being exact in obedience. I expressed to her that this was important to me...to always be obedient and unified. We set goals for the cycle, and went to Sister Analyn's to teach and have dinner. <br /> <br />You know what a perfectionist I can be. I want to be the best example to my trainee, but there are things I still can't do well because of my lack of Tagalog...or maybe it's lack of faith. <br /> <br />Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to be humble, and patient, and to trust in Him. And I realized today, as I read from 1 Nephi 7-12, how stubborn I am being. I am acting a little more like Laman and Lemuel and Sariah than I am like Nephi, and that scared me. But like you said, it's so much easier to believe in miracles after they are completed--so much easier to trust after seeing. Sometimes I don't know how I'm supposed to trust? I'm studying, I'm praying, I'm speaking the language, I'm trying to listen to the Spirit, I'm striving to be as obedient as I can, I'm out working, but I still have moments where I am confounded in a lesson, and can't figure out how to say a word or when someone tells me my tagalog is terrible, and won’t look me in the eyes when they speak cause they don’t think I can understand. It makes me wonder if I am even doing anything to help these people.<br /> <br />Anyways, I love you so so much and miss your hugs. Still no packages from Matts or Michelle. President is coming here tomorrow, and will probably bring mail with him to the church. Maybe they will come tomorrow. I will let you know.<br /> <br />OH! And you won’t believe what happened. Sister Banks and I had planned to pay our electric bill the Saturday after transfer week, because we had no time to go otherwise. Well, the second night with Sister Roncal, our electricity was turned off. HAaaaaaaa. We went to pay the bill on Saturday and saw that the place is only open Monday through Friday. Sooooooooo we've been without electricity for about four days now. Sister Roncal has been stressing out, but I'm like, "ehh, no biggie. I've lived with no electricity for two months." HAha. I'm reminding myself of Pop. Oh no. <br /><br />Tell everyone that I miss them, and love them all so very much! Squeeze all those babies for me ;) Thank you all again and again for your support in all ways. I love YOU GRANDMA! Keep your prayers coming everyone :) Thank you,<br /> <br />SO MUCH LOVE<br />Sister FortSister Forthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00938614499667701030noreply@blogger.com1