Happy Easter from the Philippines!

hello po!

well with not writing last week i have lots to fill you in on. Ill try to be fast but thorough...

Sister Blonquist went to Sogod! It is in the south part of the island. We have divided to conquer! She is with Sister Schneider, which is totally awesome! I cant even begin to describe how much i love her! We lived with her in Tanauan forever so yeah...

I had to say goodbye to Sister Barroca which was very hard. I love her so much! Cant believe she isnt in the mission anymore. Going to the airport to say bye got me really scared to come home... cause it will come so fast! Later today i was thinking as i walked and looked up at the beautiful sky over the green mountains.... the thought came into my brain... "Im prepared to meet my Maker!" For the first time in my life i can honestly say that i am prepared to meet my Maker. It was a really cool moment! The mission has changed me for the better. Im still Carissa or CJ or whatever... im just a better version with lots more knowledge and direction!

Sister Quimson is my companion... filipina! I love her! She speaks lots of tagalog which makes my brain hurt cause im trying to sort like 4 languages in my head but im learning so its good. We only speak waray waray or tagalog so its good. My english will just get worse now :) but thats ok. Sister Quimson is from Calamba, Laguna on Luzon.(close to Manila)

We have been really busy with the work! Trying to find and teach and find and teach some more so we can have baptisms!

We have awesome investigators right now. Many i feel i knew before this life. Brother Junie is one of my best friends... very stubborn but man do i love him! We have many others but one is Michelle! She is receiving baptism on Saturday! She is always studying and understands everything so well! She told us the other day that she wants to go on a mission! She is the best! And so is the Maglana family (which is where we teach Michelle). They always feed us and just are awesome!

We are making progress with some returning member families. I was able to share my mission decision story with a family and also hear their tesimonies. They have really grown since we began visiting. I love them! One of the girls bore her testimony about scripture study... at first she didnt like to read cause she said that she could never understand. a few visits ago i told her to pray before she reads so that the Spirit can help her. She said she was trying to study for the assignment that we gave her on scripture study... she still wasnt understanding and then she remembered what i told her... so she prayed. She then understood as she read and she was excited! She decided to start over her Book of Mormon reading just last week and now is already in Alma. She was explaining the stories perfectly.. i just wanted to cry i was so happy!

We had a birthday party at their house with last week and man was it a party! Tons of delicious food cooked by Sister Maglana! She made this upside down pineapple cake with may have been the most delicious thing ive ever tasted in my entire life (other than Grandma's rolls, of course!)

We had our National day of Service here in the Philippines on Saturday so we cleaned the nearby elementary school. It was fun... i mainly just carried around a trash bag for people to dump the leaves in and then took lots of pictures! We had a really good turn out! Our recent converts and a few investigators came! YAY!!

This last week was Holy Week... Many people are busy or out in the bukid. It kinda stunted our work but that didnt stop us. On Friday (Holy/Black Friday) we were allowed to stay in our apartments because not much transportation (everyone rests because its the day Christ was crucified). We were able to work in the afternoon cause our appointments were close!

So Happy Easter! No bunnies here in the Philippines but i was able to really focus on my Savior and all that He has done for me. I love Him and i know He loves each and every one of us! The songs in sacrament were so great and i felt so close to my Savior, Jesukristo. Many of the catholics here focus so much on His death (even reenacting it every year) but i glory in that He lives! I know that He lives!

Scripture of the week... Mosiah Ch.4. I have always said that this is my favorite chapter... in a lesson with a less active family we read it and i actually realized just how much i love it and really for the first time totally understood why i love it! Hope you enjoy it as much as i do!

i love being a missionary!! Whoot whoot!!

Gugma gad,
Sister Carissa Jones