Mission Call

Mission Call

Dropping CJ off at the MTC!

Monday, April 19, 2010

April 12, 2010

HI MOM!!

First off I love and miss you!

Oh you know you love dad's silly dancing and singing! I would be joining right on in if i was there! And im so glad you finally are getting dishes and thank yous back to people! They were so awesome to help and i hope they know how thankful i am for their generousity!! Andrew always gives you crap about my stuff being everywhere and making the house a mess... sorry! :) And man... i really had 9 MORE bins! Man.... im never getting married huh!?

Well i dont know if this week will be exciting as last week sorry... The pics should be fun tho!

We are learning the areas much better now! The little kids love me cause im white.. haha. They always run up to me and say "SITER JONE-ES!" and "UP HERES!!" to give me high 5's.... they love giving high fives! The really young ones run around with no pants on and a lot of the little boys have little ruffly girl shirts... its so funny, i love it! They are so cute... i wish i could bring them all home with me!!

Im trying to keep Sister Taperla busy so we dont have to sit at home! The other night we went out and contacted on the streets... we met lots of cool people and gave them the restoration pamphlet with our number to contact if they have questions. We met this adorable older couple sitting outside their little house. I got to touch a nanay's hand to my head for the first time! It is a great sign of respect to the elderly... you do it instead of just shaking their hand. I think we will go back to their house and teach them.

I had another really cool experience while walking around. As we were walking by a bakery i saw this girl and was quietly prompted to go share our message with her. Sister Taperla kept telling me to "follow the Spirit, follow the Spirit" as we first went out. Sadly, i hesitated at this prompting and we kept on walking and began talking to some other people. It was eating at me that i didnt go talk to her and i kept thinking to interrupt my companion and tell her we should go back but i didnt... Then... the power in the city went out!! The only light was from the motorcycles on the streets. We began to head back to our apartment and would be walking by the bakery! The girl wasnt sitting at the counter anymore... i really was feeling terrible that i didnt listen to the Spirit and felt this would be on my head... Then i spotted her! Even tho i had only seen her for a split second earlier i totally recognized her. She was sitting on her bike on the street. I told S. Taperla we needed to turn around and go talk to her so we did! We shared our message and i felt a great peace. She was very nice and im still not sure if she needed us at that moment or i needed to learn a lesson but im just so thankful for the love of God and Him continually giving us chances to prove ourselves! Im so glad that this test is a LIFE LONG TEST... and we are able to fix and correct things over and over... unlike a test at school. We are truly blessed!

I finally had my first mango!!! SO GOOD! It has like 5 flavors at different times! And then Sister Taperla made this dessert called mango float! Oh i just love it.

The bananas taste different and are much much smaller! I ate a cooked banana too at a less active members house this week. It wasnt my favorite but they werent ripe so i was told the riper ones are sweeter and softer when they are cooked.

This same lady served us fresh fish. Like they literally had just caught them (they live on the shore) and cooked them... Head, bones, skin and all. I really liked it! Its still weird eating fish like that but im getting better at it.

We had some fish on friday too as a zone at our reactivation meeting in Almeria and it took everything i had to put it down... the fish's eyeballs were just staring at me! And the flavor wasnt as good as the one we had on saturday at that ladys house on the shore.

So this is random but we go by this coconut factory place where they make oil, and all that stuff you can make with coconuts and so the smell is SO strong... And i finally realized the smell of my shampoo is a nice mixture of coffee, caramel and COCONUT! I got excited while riding on the pot-pot so i thought i would share that with you... hehe...

Well my scripture of the week is Mormon 9:21... It has been a great strength to me! How awesome is it that all we have to do is have faith and ASK and it will be given us!

Remember to read your scriptures and prayer daily! I love you SO VERY MUCH! You are the greatest mom in the whole wide world... and ive traveled half the world now!!

Gugma

Carissa

P.S. The time difference is 14 hours. Im 14 ahead of you! I always just add two hours to my time and switch the time of day (morning or night) to know when it is there! haha... Just think... Im praying for you and watching over you while you are sleeping! And im preparing the day... if i have a good successful day, that same day for you will be blessed for you! Hmm cool thot huh!?

Dearest Father.... I mean FASHA! (Yes of course you can still call me CJ!) I miss your dancing. I was actually thinking about it the other day! I was wondering since i never get to dance out here will i lose my touch?? I hope not! hehe. You just keep dancing no matter how the family looks at you! casue you know i would be right there dancing with you!

So we watched conference at church on sunday BUT it was in cebuano! Turns out I didnt understand much!! haha. I will just have to wait till it comes out in the magazines and we get those! I was so excited to be able to watch it! We didnt know it would be in cebuano!! OOPS! It was actually the first time my companion had seen it in cebuano so it was weird for her too.

Thats so sweet you were able to see the Smiths and Logan! They were so nice to send me that little pack of sweet rolls while i was in the MTC! I cant believe our ward to so small now. After we moved i guess people realized it wasnt worth staying anymore.. haha.. jk jk!

I wish i could have heard you sing at church! The music here is much different. They sing everything in english so thats one thing im good at!! ha. But its funny to hear how they pronounce things and their beat is always slightly off and their pitch is always off. But what i LOVE is how they just sing their little hearts out no matter what. They are truly singing to their God and that is the most important thing. I love listening to them even when they arent on tune!!

We are struggling with the branch a bit. The members are great but they still could be better. We only have ONE family that is endowed! That is the Jamin family. Brother is the branch mission leader and Sister served her mission here in Tacloban so is wonderful help! We are going to try to teach the members about the importance of the temple ordinances! We have a couple new investigators which im excited about! I feel the spirit when we teach them and they seem to really be listening and accepting. PLUS they both have great LDS friends that will be amazing fellowshippers for them!! YEAH!! Having a fellowshipper is SO important!

I love you beyond measure!

Gugma CJ!

BUZZ!

You seem so busy thats awesome! Im trying to stay as busy as possible... it makes it all much easier when we are busy! We have a few new investigators which i am excited about! Im not able to speak very much with my lack of language skills but i try. The members very nice and patient with me. Everyone stares at me cause im like the only white girl theyve seen in a long time... i just wave and smile. Sometimes they say things to me that im sure they are making fun of me or saying something silly cause i dont understand but soon i will understand and be able to talk to them. I need your prayers to learn this language cause its really difficult.

Im so excited for you to go to DC! I wish we could have done something cool like that. You are lucky!

Sounds like snowboarding was fun too! I cant even picture snow because its so hot here. haha. Sorry about the sun burn but thats totally sweet you got knocked out! If you would have been seriously hurt i would be sad but when you come out of something like that ok its totally rad! And always a good story to share with others! Who is it that you went with again?

Also i bet you are stoked for only 7 more weeks! You will all still probably getting together and hang out during the summer tho... playing night games and watching movies im sure! I miss being your age and just having so much fun with my friends!!

You are going to be so buff from all that shoveling! i wish i could go out and go running but all i can do are exercises with my little rubberband thing and sit ups. I hate not having time to work out... that always helped me relieve stress.

I sure hope i am blessing the people out here and im making this time away from you worth it! I need help and guidance and strongly rely on Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost!!

Ok so i love you is "Naghigugma ko sa imo" and i will punch you is "Magsumbag ko nimo"

I love you SOOOOOOOO MUCH! Keep the family in line and remember who you are and dont do anything i wouldnt do! (haha)

Gugma

Sista Jones

Oh hello my little one!

Easter sounded very fun! Wish i could have been there to see it!! Mom told me that she beat dad in finding the eggs... haha. Its so hot here today! I cant even believe it... im sweating buckets. I carry a little rag around with me to wipe the sweat off my face! People are nice tho when we go to teach because if they have a fan they turn it on for us :) And yes, most of the people are shorter than me... even the men. Not EVERYONE but they are just smaller people here. My mission president is about my same height!

Well i just love you loads and tons and miss you oodles and noodles!!

Keep reading your scriptures and praying everyday! I want you to tell me how family prayer is going and are you getting it done kada gabii (every night)?

Love Your BIG Sis!... hehe

HAHA you are so silly. I cant believe mom hadnt found my charger until now... hmm. The money here is pesos. For every US dollar it equals 45 pesos! When we go out to eat its only around 50 pesos so just barely over $1 in America! CHEAP!!

Love you!

SIS

1 comment:

  1. Hi - I am Sister Black from Sacramento, CA I have a son serving in )i think) the same area! I will be honest - he is SO not big on details of daily life...I hope you wont mind if I follow Sister Jones...I appreciate candor and daily life info about what our kids are facing!

    Thanks!

    Lynnette Black

    ReplyDelete