Carissa's Address in the Philippines

Sister Carissa Leigh Jones

Philippines Tacloban Mission

511 Maharlika Hwy

Fatima Vlg, Tacloban City

6500 Leyte

Philippines

If you send packages you may need this phone #

Phone: 63-53-323-4063

April 5, 2010

Ive arrived in the Pilipinas‏

HI MOM!

Yes im here and doing good! I wrote a letter from the mission home and they should have already sent it. It has a letter from me, pics with President Malit and Sister Malit and my companion, Sister Taperla and also a map of all the areas in the mission. You will be able to track where i am exactly which is nice. My first area is Naval. There is a college here and is probably the biggest "city", if you can call it that, on Bilirian island... yep im on the little island! My area for the most part is cebauno but there is also Waray waray. I can tell when people are speaking waray waray cause it has a different sound and i dont understand a word! ha. My companion knows cebuano, tagalog and waray waray so she is awesome! The language barrier is very difficult but i just keep praying that little by little i can break down that barrier! Please keep me in your prayers!

So to answer all your questions... its SO different here but i really love it. Its very very hot and humid so we shower (cold bucket showers) 2-3 times a day! We sleep with lots of fans so sleeping is very nice and enjoyable. Today i bought a malong, which i like a tube sheet that you sleep in! Brother Morrey told us about them so i found a cool one. Grocery shopping on sat was so crazy. Its so jam packed and so many different things i dont know what they are! I want to try everything tho so that i can learn what Filipino food i like! Rice is huge of course and i have yet to eat a mango... but i will this week! Ive seen some crazy foods and unsure but everything ive actually eaten so far is really yummy.

Our first few days were just at the mission home doing meetings and getting to know President Malit. We got to our area on friday night. We spent most of the day on sat cleaning because out apartment was gross.. and honestly still is! There is just no way to clean it unless we gutted it and sprayed it down. And im not even sure if that would do the job... Just know you would die! haha. The place is actually really big... just a big dump. The lady next door is who owns it and has a ton of stuff stored in there. There are three rooms with a kitchen and another living area which we use to study. There are spider webs gallor! I tried to wipe them all down today and spiders kept dropping down on me... its trying my patience :) We definately dont live alone... Its me, S. Taperla, 4 billion ants, 1000 lizards, and 473 spiders. I sleep on the top bunk so the spiders and i are pretty tight. The lizards just runs across the walls, they dont even phase me anymore. Oh and i almost forgot the cockroaches! They are nice little surprises at night!! So have you ever heard the whole thing that you eat like 8 spiders a year in your sleep? or something like that?... Well im going to break the record for that... like 8 spiders a night... no worries... i got this! Yes its gross and i dont want to lie to you but im great. It is a great growing experience and im just glad that most of the time is spent out of the apartment.

I absolutely LOVE walking around town and seeing everything. You are always close to the water so its very pretty. We walked through a rice field the other day and taught this less active , Danny. His house is far off behind the field and is built on little trunks off the ground. The floor is just flat little sticks and we had to take our shoes off before climbing in. It was crazy... i will make sure to take pics when we go back and teach him again!

Im really glad that i didnt have you buy me shoes! i bought a pair of crocs today for 100 pesos which is like 2.50 in US dollars! I think my camera will be just fine as well. Yes its humid but everyone here has normal cameras and i think it will be fine! Stuff is really cheap compared to US but we only get like 7000 pesos a month (its plenty for what we need to buy here tho!) Im trying to save a little each month so i have money to buy gifts to bring home!

Oh i just wish you could experience it all first hand! The first day here with president he was telling us about the mission. First, Tacloban is the best mission in the world! And the word Tacloban means Fisher because it is a fishing city! What a better name for a mission! We are fishers of men! How cool is that!?

Im so glad you have been enjoying conference! Hopefully we will get to go to Ormok zone and watch the broadcast next weekend. We will see...

I love you SO MUCH mom! You are the best! Thank God for all your many blessings!! Im realizing how blessed we really are in the US. It doesnt mean we need to give up what we have and live poor like this at all! God has given us these wonderful accommodations and wants us to have them and use them... We just need to realize where it comes from and thank Him everyday!

Nasayud ko nga kini ebanghelyo mao any ebanghelyo si Jesukristo! Nagpasalamat ko sa pagalagad sa atong Manluluwas. Nag-ampo ko sa mga tawo sa Pilipinas aron makadawat sila nining ebanghelyo ug sa mensahe nga nagbaton mi. Nasayud ko nga mitubos si Jesukristo sa atong mga sala' ug matabang siya nato sa mga buhaton. Naghigugma ko kaayo nimo ug sa atong pamilya. Pagsaad ko nga mag-uban ta sa hangtud sa hangtud! Pasalamaton nimo ang imong gugma!

Gugma

Sister Carissa Jones... Your daughter who loves you TONS!!

Im Safe :)

No worries Dad... im here with all my belongs and im safe. Just remember if there is no news its good news! Thats actually what my mission president told us the first day. He said to not worry about our families and viceversa... cause if anything happens our families will contact him and he will immediately contact us and if anything happens to us he will immediately contact you. He is such an awesome president! President Malit and Sister Mailt are so kind and loving. I had a really good interview on thursday with him and we had a lot of conferences and meetings the first two days (wed night when we arrived and thursday). The mission home is very nice... our apartments are much different! On friday we traveled all day to drop all the sisters off (4 companionships). Both my comps from the MTC are with Americans and i am with a Filipina, Sister Taperla. She is crazy and known for being disobedient but she will be great. When we had transfer conference and they announced who would be my trainer she was shocked and slowly stood up. She had no idea she would be training me! She thought she was just getting transferred... not training. She isnt sure of herself but i keep telling her she is a great missionary and will be a great trainer. She has been out for 14 months and is from Mindanao Philippines. Her english is really good so the language barrier isnt bad but she is such a help to me. I have SO MUCH to learn in the language.

Today we were able to meet up with S. Blonquist and S. Lemmon (they are in our zone)... and they said that they ran into our 1st counselor of the branch presidency and he told them that i was homesick because i couldnt speak the language yesterday (at church). Im not... i guess he just thot not speaking the language means im homesick.

The area i am in is Naval. We wrote letters and a map of all the areas in the mission along with pics with the president and my companion. You should be getting those soon because the mission office sent them out this week. The Naval area is in Bilirian island which is the tiny island between the two main islands of the mission (Leyte and Samar). You will see when you get the map... and that will make it easier for you to track where i am whenever i get transferred. We are trying to work with the members to learn the area. Its kinda a big area and i get lost everytime we go out. The members are great but sacrament meeting attendance is very very low. Only 39 this week!!! Our meeting house is very small. One big room where we use plastic chairs and then 3 room to the side. One is for the branch presidents office and the other two we use for classes. I dont even think they have a primary cause i saw the kids just running around outside during sunday school. For RS and Priesthood we separate in the main room where sacrament meeting is. Its very very different but im excited to work and get attendance up. If they can keep it up for 6 months above 70 people we can build a real chapel! I bore my testimony because here it was fast and testimony meeting. We dont get conference till next week. And we should be able to go to another zone to watch the broadcast... we arent positive yet. Anyway... my testimony was short and i tried my best... i was very nervous and feel like i forgot everything that i learned in the MTC. My comp is very encouraging and some of the members are very nice to me. After church we had a really good MCM and the branch mission leader is really good!! He is getting everyone to help us. He was the branch president before. We had someone to go around with us everyday which is awesome! I cant wait to know the area better and the investigators that have already been taught. There havent been missionaries here for 3 weeks so we are pretty much starting from scratch. I want to find more investigators and just stay really really busy! The people here are so sweet... for the most part. Most of them stare at the white girl but i just smile and wave. The kids are funny and laugh when they see me... We ate at a members house last night and the little 3 year old was telling me that he wanted me to eat more! and kept hiding around the corner and then peeking at me. The mom told me that he found me guapa (beautiful). Haha.

Thank you for all your love and support. You are the great dad ever!! You are such a good teacher to us kids and i just love you sooooooo much!!!!! I hope you are reading your scriptures and praying daily! with mom too! Help eachother!

Love Your Favorite Daughter

CJ

I love you!‏

Hey there! Just wanted to drop in real fast and say that i love you and loved being able to talk to you on the phone!! Let me know when baseball rolls around! Im so excited for you to dominate!

You wouldnt even believe the crazy cold bucket showers that i take! Its so humid so we shower like 3 times a days (at least 2!) So pretty much you fill a big bucket with water (cold may i remind you) and then use another smaller bucket (looks like a plastic pot) and you just pour the water over your head. It shocks your body everytime! I dont think you can ever get used to them. Even when you are SO hot it still shocks your body! After the first couple buckets over your head its ok and you can pour it with ease! Its so crazy but a great experience. Oh and there is no like flusher to flush the toilet so you just pour a bucket of water in the toilet and it causes it to flush... its so weird! Im learning to go to the bathroom with minimal toilet paper since its so expensive. We get about 150 dollars a month... which is like 7000 pesos. I bought some new shoes today for 100 pesos and a bunch of other stuff. I will try to send pics next week through the email. The email shops here are different but i think i will be able to!

I love you sooo sooo much! Keep up your reading and praying! Let me know how its going!!

Gugma

Sister Jones!

Hello There!‏

How are you and your teeth doing little boy!? It was so good to talk to you this last week on the phone! I wish it wouldnt have been so late so you hadnt been so tired! I just loved hearing your cute little voice tho!

Things here are very different! Especially the food! I ate some squid the other day! It was different but good. We went grocery shopping on saturday and its so crowded and you wait in line forever! They have so many different types of food... i want to try them all!!! haha. You eat rice with every meal! i like it cause its always with something different or a different type of rice. And when you eat there are no knives... just forks and spoons and you eat off the spoon. You just use the fork to push the food onto the spoon. You hold the fork in your left hand and the spoon in your right. Im getting used to it but i know i look really silly when im trying to pull apart meat only using a spoon and fork! ha.

So with the rice you have to dry it after you cut it and before you take it to the mill. They dry the rice on the streets! They just lay out these nets and the rice is yellow. Ill take pics so you can see it. Its so cool!

The driving here is insane! There are no rules and you constantly pass people and drive on the left side of the road. So many times you feel like you are going to crash because you are going head on with someone while passing another. There are buses (like giant taxis) and they are called jeepnis... we usually ride the pot-pot which is a bike with a cart that two people can sit in attached to the side. It is usually 5 pesos a person to ride. Its either blazing hot or raining so i always carry around an umbrella!!! I love it and wish you could see all these crazy things!... dont worry... ill take lots of pics!

Keep up with your reading and praying! Let me know how things are going and what is new in life!!! I just love you sooooooooooooooo much!!!!!

Gugma

Sister Carissa Jones

Letter on February 17th

Guess what?! I am getting better at making decisions...yeah, crazy..I know! When we do our district weekly planning the elders aren't so good with input so I fill it in how I would think it would be best. I'm gettin' all grown up!!:) Ahh

Okay so I have to tell you about my best and saddest day of the mission yet. Well the other cebuano district left Monday and Tuesday. Monday we said our goodbyes @ 4:30 and got to actually shake hands for the first time(H1N1 issue). I was sad but excited that they got to go! As my heart is crying while walking into dinner I remember I want grilled cheese which I was planning on asking for it for about a week but would remember once I had another meal. Anyway, so there is a Filapino cook here that wears sweet lizard pants! As I walked towards the kitchen he came walking out..literally I think the heavens opened! I walked up to him and said, "Palihog puede ba ka nako sa grilled cheese?" (Please can you make me grilled cheese?) He smiled...we carried on a short convo. And after I told him it wasn't for dietary needs.. just a CRAVING! he agreed to make me and my companion one... on wheat bread! Let me tell you it was phenominal!

When you use your language God blesses you! "Ask and ye shall receive!" And that there was the saddest but most joyous day of my mission yet!

I love you...Sista Jones

Carissa's Email 4 Weeks in the MTC

Week Upat!

So here are a few of my adventures during week four of the MTC stay. If i had time i would write most of it in cebuano but i have 12 min so im sorry. I will tell more stories in the letters i write home later today that you can share with others! And ill write more personally in those!

1. Naghigugma ko ninyo! (I love you all!)
2. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are now just called food or meals... we dont decifer which is which cause its usually just a huge blur! We are content with that tho.
3. Im learning some cantonese... who woulda thought i would learn multiple languages here! SAWEET! I learned the most awesomest word yesterday... It the word for inactive member... I cant spell it but its increadibly long and i will record myself saying it and send it to you.
4. Our new sisters in the branch are wonderful! Very funny girls! They are all state side. There are 4 of them! But they will leave before we do...
5. I met janice kapp perry!!!! She spoke at relief society and sang this sunday. Then we got to meet her afterwards. I talked to her for a few min and it was awesome. It reminded me of when i was little listening and singing her songs with mom!! And at andrews baptism i think we sang one. So many sweet memories!
6. I get lots of exercise around the residency because we have a wheelchair that sits outside our room. My arms are getting BUFF! whoot whoot! ha... seriously, no joke!
7. Sis Phillips (who brings medicine) continues to amaze me... On sunday she brought us sisters camping toliet paper that i guess is really hard to find. She is going to stock us up for the Philippines. And her story to us last night was how she ran for bishop when they split her ward. SO FUNNY! She made posters and everything! What a hoot!
8. I learned how to be really effective at making study plans! Im really really excited about that! I feel like i can get so much more done and stay on task. What a blessing!
9. Tell mark and peggy i LOVED their dear elder! It made me laugh and feel so good. Im glad peggy was able to have fun learning about her graphing calculator! ha.
10. Tell grandma that her letter and story was so fun to get! I LOVE HER MORE!! Im glad you got to spend time with her mom. And its ok if you win cause as of now she is up on my by two!
11. Really cool scripture. 1 John 1:7. This explains how we can access the atonement. We must WALK by him. We do this through repenting. Look into it and read Alma 22. THat is one cool conversion story that i had our district read in book of mormon study yesterday!

I love you and am praying for you!
Love
Sister Carissa Jones

Carissa's Email 3 Weeks in the MTC

Well hey there everyone!

The weeks go by quickly and i forget just about everything i do so good thing i keep a journal!Where oh where to begin...

1. I get worse and worse at spelling in english every day.
2. I found out last night that wearing nylons is not a rule anymore. They just are coming out and saying it so there isnt a huge party over it. Yes, im not wearing nylons right now... whoot whoot.
3. i had the best and sadest day of my missing on monday!
4. i forgot my nametag one day and went 3 hours without knowing i didnt have it on... The moment i realize i felt increadibly naked!
5. Higugma ko sa ebanghelyo ni JesuKristo.

So if i havent told you...my mission script i think is mosiah 4:21... great scripture! My teacher Brother Morrey tells hilarious stories and this week told one about their pet rat splinter who sacraficed another rat for them (the missionaries).

This last week has been more of a struggled... i definitely have been tested. But i know that God is aware of me and my needs. I was called to give a 5 min talk on sunday on faith. Its literally on the spot in sacrament meeting. I needed to give it and God knew that. The church is true!

I love you all so very much!

Love Sister Jones

Letter on Feb. 3rd

MOM!

I was glad to hear from you on dear elder. Getting letters and packages is seriously like gold! My comp. Sister Blonquist gets so much everyday! All her friends write her on dear elder. She is from Chicago and such a fun girl. We already have sayings…sick. My other comp is Sister Farnsworth. She is from West Jordan. She is a hard worker and me and Blonquist are bringing her out of her shell a bit. Our entire district is great! Elder Nelson is from Bountiful and was called as our district leader. Elder Fisher is his comp and is from Hawaii. He is 25. Elders Teney from Arizona and Chastain from So. Cali are comps. Teney is a talkative, comical guy and Chastain is a convert of two years. He is very strong and knows a lot, I’m jealous. Then Elders Akina also from Hawaii and Straley are comps. Akina is the only one of his immediate family still a member. They got offended by something. But he has such a sweet heart but is way fun to joke with. Straley is quiet but quite the basketball player. He is from Murray, UT. He may be quiet but when he speaks you can feel his strong testimony. It is such a blessing to have a wonderful district where we all get along. Seriously from day two we were all like the closest family ever. Only by the help of God would that be possible.

I think about you every morning cause they have a special 6am workout class for sisters only. They are a lot like the classes we go to. Whenever I go I feel more energized for the LONG day. We stay very very busy. Breakfast at 7:30, class from 8-11:15. Lunch at 11:30, more class from 12:30-4:30. Dinner at 4:30 then more class till 9. One of the class periods is always for personal, companion, and language study without a teacher (1hr each thing). And then usually we have a couple hrs for MDT – which is when we get things done we don’t have time to do. We only have that a few times a week. We also get an hour for gym everyday except Sundays and Wed (P-Day). Our times for class, and study, gym and MDT are different everyday. The only thing the same are meal times. Which may I tell you, are way close together! Dinner is so early!

Somedays the food is good but others not so much. My fav has been the citrus salmon. I always get a wrap because they are fresh and its like Subway where you put whatever you want in it! That line is always the longest but its worth it and they have so many options! I miss being able to cook. Luckily I’ve learned to not be picky. At gym we run or play basketball with the elders from the other cebuano district. They are way nice to us and I think actually really enjoy us playing with them. The elders from our district never ask us to play with them and we like to give them crap.

I’m learning lots in our gospel classes. We are learning LOTS about loving the people you serve. I have insights and thoughts about concepts that I’ve never had before and I know its Heavenly Father speaking to me. I can already feel how being a disciple of Christ is changing me.

The language is hard but fun. And I’m really starting to understand it! In Tacloban we will learn waray waray when we get to the field. I guess its crazy! But much easier to pick up on if you know cebuano first. I’m so excited to learn this language. We worked on our testimonies yesterday and its amazing how we can already make these complex sentences in cebuano from what we’ve learned in a week. NO DOUBT the Lord is on our side!

Our Branch Presidency is awesome. Pres. Johnson and his counselors Bro Phillips and Bro Cole. Sis Phillips comes to our residence hall on Tues nights after devotional to bring us “medicine” which is not allowed and she tells us stories. She is such a crack up!

So check this awesome experience out! The day we got to the MTC, we were in class meeting our teacher and this guy walked by and we all looked at each other and was like ‘umm, was that Pres. Uchtdorf?!’ Its funny how we all felt it. Then later he walked by again and we saw his face and yep it was him. Then a swarm of elders were following him. Quite funny. Well I guess apostles never come to the MTC. This is the first in like 3 years. But what was even cooler was that he came into our welcoming meeting and welcomed us and gave his love. Oh, it was awesome mom!

This is some of her letter to me on Feb. 10^th

MOM! (inahan)

First off, I want you to know how much kalipay (joy) you brought by writing on dear elder. It’s the only letter I got this week so salamat (thank you)!

This week has been a good but crazy week. Lots of people left in our branch and the other cebuanos are leaving Monday! They have been so great to us.

This week our task is to make an appointment in cebuano then teach the restoration lesson in English. People come volunteer and act as investigators so there are no timeouts. It’s just like the real deal. And our teachers watch from a camera and give us feedback. We have a new task every week. Last week we didn’t do to init (hot) but it was sigi (okay). We were performing our cebuano task on Elder Huffman so I think it made us nervous since we know him. We are getting much better in the language. It seems like they talk all complicated when in reality we do and so it’s hard to simplify it down to translate to cebuano. They also take everything literally so sarcasm is wala (non-existent). That could be difficult. Our teacher Bro. Morrey gets funnier everyday. He reminds me of Andrew, which means he’s awesome! I’m learning tons about how to teach and use the espiritu (spirit). I’ve been reading in Alma and I gugma (love) the stories of those great missionaries! It gives me hope and faith. I know that the Lord is with me. Palihog (please) pray for my thoughts to be pure and uplifting.

Love, Carissa

Some highlights from a letter i got from CJ today:

Daddio!

I was glad to hear Grandpa is doing well. I've been praying for him. And a few days into the mission I said something about it to my companions so during companion prayer they prayed for him as well. I am in a trio companionship, which is extremely uncommon for our mission. And we are all serving in the same mission. We already have such a love for one another. Its great!

Our district has 9. 3 of the elders are going to the Cebu Mission and the rest of us are Tacloban. I love my district! All the elders are so strong but way fun at the same time. Its a blessing that we all get along so well. The other Philippine district in our branch/zone is way awesome as well. They have been here 7 weeks now. The two sisters in that district are going to Cebu but they are awesome and so good to us/ Their elders are so nice to us as well. At meals the elders stand up when we come to the table and the elders from the other district always take our trays.

We stay really really busy. Our two teachers are Sister Lilly White and Brother Morrey. Morrey is so funny! We love them both. Cebuano is going pretty well. I'm understanding the concepts, now I just need to work on words and putting it all together. I haven't gotten discouraged yet. Tomorrow we have to go practice with "investigators". We have to know how to get the know someone and testify in Cebuano. Then we teach the restoration lesson in English. Its gonna be crazy but I know that we can do it.

My two companions are Sister Farnsworth & Sister Blonquist. Farnsworth is from West Jordan, UT. Both her parents are deaf and she is a twin. She is so sweet. A little quiet at times but she is dedicated. Sister Blonquist is from Chicago! Its a town called Batavia, in the Naperville Stake. I thought that was cool! She is the senior comp. She is a silly jokester girl just like me. We both love "Baby Mama" so things are great! We all laugh tons together.

Sundays are the most relaxing, spiritual day. All the meetings are spaced out and its just much less stressful on the brain! This Sunday we had a musical devotional where everyone, well I should say anyone could get up and say their favorite hymn and why and then we sung it. It was very uplifting. And cool to see the music touch elders hearts. Our MTC President is awesome and very funny!

Last night (Tues) Richard G. Hinckley, Pres. Hinckley's son came and spoke to us. It was so wonderful, he sounds a bit like Pres. Hinckley, so it touched my heart. He is quite humorous. He told us how we can make our missions more meaningful... He said we should look back on our missions and say I'm glad I did and never, I wish I would have.

I am learning so much here and I can feel my Savior with me always. Its so different. I think of things before I do them, which things I would usually do without knowing. He is helping me to be more obedient. I am learning to love people as Christ does. I am blessed. I'm staying so busy and having so much fun that I don't have time to be homesick. I miss you guys but when I'm working hard and being obedient I feel close to you guys. I have a peace that things are being taken care of... I love you!