February 21, 2011

This week was amazingly fun and crazy!

I got to go back to my old area and work and see a baptism of 4 people that i started teaching! I met a really cool guy on a bus and taught him as we rode and gave him the elders number where he lives. He text them the next day and told the elders that he met us and wants to join our faith! WOW cool!! On the ride back to Tacloban i stopped and held the bus cause i had to get off and go to the bathroom! I was praying SO hard cause i had to go SO bad! The bus came to a stop so i immediately asked to get off and pee... I ran to a random house and paid him 5 pisos to use his CR (bathroom). It was a little creepy cause it was a dark alley thingy and my comp was still on the bus but both of our prayers kept us safe! hehe. We gave a few trainings at zone conference and i was drugged on benadryl for one! I didnt realize that it made you sleepy when Sister Schneider gave it to me that morning!! I literally fell asleep as i was talking as Sister Blonquist and I were preparing for the training! All we could do was laugh about the situation! Please pray for us to find an apartment cause we still havent. We are just continuing in faith. That is faith... taking a few steps in the dark, showing Heavenly Father that you trust Him... then after those few steps of faith He will take your hand and guide you!

Scripture of the week... Alma 30. Read it this morning and remembered how much i love it! All things denote there is a God and we all have always known that there is a God!

Love you!

Gugma Hinduru
Sister Jones

Valentine's Day 2011

Well hello and i send my love to you all on this very happy valentines day! On the way walking to the internet shop a little ADORABLE girl was walking too and said quietly but sincerely, "You are very beautiful." It was SO cute so i of course told her she was too cause she was! and gave her a little heart balloon from Shakeys Pizza restaurant we had just ate at and told her happy valentines day. I just love people in the Philippines! Sometimes they are very blunt and its not too nice but times like this, its nice... haha.

This week was another week of crazy travel! But OH SO FUN! We worked in 3 different areas. Tanauan (which is where we live currently), Sogod, and last Hilongos. All the sisters were super awesome! I had amazing, spiritual experiences in each companion exchange. I feel like the most blessed sister missionary ever! By the end of the travels we were very exhausted. Luckily the Elder Assistants were in the same zone we were on saturday so we were able to ride in a nice air con car on the way home to Tacloban. Not that i enjoyed the air con myself.. i curled up in my malong but Sister Blonquist was excited so we were both happy. We hit a dog on the ride home... Elder Cabrera really tried not to hit it but it ran right into us. He got up and ran to the side with his leg up and about 5 dogs ran up to him. It was like they were saying, "Dude! you ok man? That was insane!... you just got hit!"

Upon arriving home i found that my leg was starting to swell and hurt pretty bad. We attended a baptism in our ward from the elders (there are 8 missionaries in our ward). And by the end of the baptism my leg was throbbing and and i could hardly walk! The office elders drove us home thankfully and i soaked it in hot water... it felt like boiling lava hot but im sure it was pretty normal to you all. My skin just isnt use to it anymore. On Sunday i could hardly walk but i managed and i can walk today. Its still really swollen... as in like nasty cankle going on but hopefully its not permanent... haha. Another ridiculous thing that happened in the category of swelling is this morning i wake up at 330 to do my laba (washing) and the left side of my top lip is swollen! After discussing it with Sister Blonquist we decided that it was a tiki kiss (which is like these little lizards that run around everywhere!) This same swelling lip thing happened to Sister Christianson two weeks ago and almost every night i wake up in crazy itch attacks! But then i have no bug bites. So the conclusion is that the mga tiki just crawl on me and then one decided to kiss me last night. Its pretty legit... i mean it is Valentines day!

Ok so we are on a great search for an apartment so PLEASE pray that we can find one in Tacloban for us sisters cause we dont want to transfer! This week we had so many brownouts! Last week we had one for 48 hours (sat thru mon) and then on sunday we had one in Tacloban so church was fun. The generator kept the lights on but no air con... oh i was in heaven with just the open windows but the other missionaries werent so much happy! haha. Im turning into such a filipina and i LOVE IT! I take that as such a compliment when people tell me that.

Last night was a fun experience... We were out of support and literally didnt have enough to get home from our apartment. We were short about 15 pisos. So... we are searching in all the corners of our bags to find extra changes. This is why we should always have 1000 pisos on us as a reserve fund... oops. But not really oops casue because a tender mercy of the Lord i remembered that last week i had put 1000 pisos in my journal which was in my bag. Oh what a blessing!

So on the spiritual side. I had some amazing experiences this week. The first one is a monumental moment of my mission for sure. As we were teaching this returning member family the Spirit was so strong. I asked them inspired questions, guided by the Spirit so that they were actually able to teach themselves and the Spirit was able to witness to them. The room was full of tears and as Sis. Schneider (my comp at the time) was talking i received the strongest witness from the Lord that this is true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth and i am a true representative of Jesus Christ Himself! This is something i could never deny. I love Heavenly Father and the love that He has for me and all His children!

Another experience was helping a investigator realize that she is more than ready for baptism! She doesnt need to wait anymore and she now knows that in her heart! I used the Book of Mormon. She bore her strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and how she knows that if she has a question she can read that book and find all answers!! It was stronger than most member testimonies of the Book of Mormon!! She was kinda looking for a sign to know she was ready... As i ask questions and taught from the Book of Mormon it gave her the opportunity to bear her testimony which then, thru the Spirit, i was able to know that the answer that Heavenly Father had given her was the Book of Mormon! I was able to tell her that and then everything made sense to her. The light in her eyes was the best and the witness i personally gained was unforgettable!

Well the scripture of the week would have to be Mosiah 4:27. With the craziness of our assignment right now i have to remind myself of this simple truth! Remembering that as long as i have the Spirit and am diligent i will accomplish all that the Lord wants done, even if i may think that i didnt get done everything i thot needed to get done. This is His work... not mine.

I love you all so much and pray for you daily!

Gugma Gad,

Sister Carissa Jones

The wonderful life of a missionary! Feb. 7th 2011

Musta!

Every week is so busy, i dont even know where to begin! Bottom line... life is great and i love being a missionary!

Sister Blonquist and I continue to enjoy being in the office... especially S. Blonquist with the air con.. hehe. The elders arent tired of us yet... probably because we try to keep them fat with yummy snacks. This week we successfully made rice crispy treats! what an achievement! whoot whoot!! We werent in the office too much because we did lots of traveling to work with the sisters in other areas.

First we working in Dagami, which is close to Tacloban. We worked with Sister Brinton and Sister Dustin. Both are amazing missionaries and we had SO much fun. Sister Blonquist has been companions with them both and Dagami was her old area.

Next destination was to Mondragon, which is at the top of Samar! WOW! What a great experience. This is the only sister area in Samar and just recently got opened. We didnt think we would ever be able to be in Samar but look how the Lord blesses us! It was a long ride but it was fun. We rode with the Assistants (Elder Cabrera and Elder Hawkes). And also had one other elder, Elder Bowman, part of the way. We bought lots of snacks for the trip! We had a few set backs so we didnt get out until late and we finally arrived in Mondragon at 11:30 p.m. The sisters up there were amazing. Both filipinas, Sister Ponte and Sister Escanan. It rained the entire day we were there and i gave my umbrella to Sister Blonquist cause at least i had a rain coat... Well thats what i thot! Turns out that if you are in heavy rain for a long time the wettness starts to leak thru and your clothes get drenched! Oh well... sacrifice is where its at! The waray ive been learning is different from the waray there so it was fun to learn a new waray for a couple days! It was so beautiful up there and we were like right on the ocean! The waves were going every direction... a really interesting but cool sight to see.

We road back with President Malit, which was so amazing! We had 5 hours to be with our mission president and ask him anything... of course the first thing we ask was, "what's your favorite food?" hehe. It turned into a great spiritual experience and i gained some answers and assurances that i had been looking for.

On saturday we had a baptism! Two little girls. Their father is a member who isnt active. Their grandma is active and has been bringing them to church for years but the parents wouldnt allow them to be baptized until just recently. We were blessed to be able to teach them and be apart of their special day! They were so cute and gave the sweetest, pure testimonies. We visited them on Sunday and they said they felt so good at the baptism that they wanted to be baptized every week (you can thru the sacrament... how cool is that!) They also said that they wanted us to visit every day! Oh how we wish we could but we will be all over Leyte this week!

So today we were practicing teaching (Sis. Blonquist and I) and we didnt feel like talking to the wall so we pulled out a picture of you Andrew and we taught you... it was a pretty saweet lesson... im pretty sure you loved it and wanted to be baptized.. hehe.

I just love how much i am growing. I learn so much every week i wish i could convey it all to you. Ill try to organize my thots better so i can make my emails more spiritual. I cant even explain how different i am spiritually. It has changed me for the better and i thank Heavenly Father daily for it! I LOVE being a missionary!

Scripture of the week... So i was reading today and just really liked this scripture. My favorite Christlike attribute on my mission has been hope... so with that... I was reading in Alma about when Aaron teaches the king (Lamoni's father).. great story!... ok so the scripture of the week is Alma 22:15-16. Let us ask ourselves as well... Are we willing to give up everything to receive this eternal joy? Are we willing to give up temporal things to have eternal things? Then are we willing to have faith=act so that we can gain the hope=assurity that we will receive the promised blessings.

Cge. Do you all know how much i love you!!? Its a lot!!

Gugma gad!
Sister Carissa Jones

February 3, 2011

Just want to apologize for being such a slacker at keeping this blog up to date. I have a goal to be better. We had a great Wedding (Andrew and Stacey) December 21st and then Mark and I went on an amazing cruise to the Caribbean last month. I am now back to reality and the cold weather. We love hearing from Carissa and as you will read she is having an amazing time and does not want to come home but will in July sometime. YEA for us!

Love, Lynette

January 31, 2011

BOOM number two... Jan 31

What a week! Not even sure where to being... kinda cause i forgot what i said last week. Well the assignment in the office is great but its a little hectic. love it tho!

Ok so originally we were going to build the area up around the mission home/office/church and invite the sisters to work in our area and that is how we would train them. I cant believe my Savior trusts me to train all the sister missionaries here... what an opportunity and privilege. I will grow more than ever! We were unable to obtain the apartment that we were hoping for so the office elders are on a desperate search for an awesome apartment for us. As for now, we live in Tanauan with Sister Christianson and Sister Schneider. We love them so much!! Since we are unable to really work much because travel is one hour in the morning... about 2 hours at night from Tanauan, for the month of february we will be travelling the whole mission to help the sisters in their areas! Sadly we wont be able to drive (driving is crazy here and we are all like the daughters of President and Sister Malit). This will be an insane month but Sister Blonquist and i are so willing and ready! We both feel that Heavenly Father has a lot for us to learn and we really need to be in tune at all times to be guided as we fullfill this assignment!

The ward here is amazing! Except for the fact that they all speak tagalog... so President challenged us to learn tagalog and waray waray! oo po! Sister Blonquist has been in waray waray before so she helps me a lot. Im picking it up pretty well! Just little things are weird getting used to like really everyday phrases that just come out in cebuano. i love waray tho, its interesting. Tagalog i can understand what they are talking about but speaking it would be impossible at this point. I love having the confidence to learn a language. As i trust God i truly know that i can do anything! i love that ive learned to rely on my Heavenly Father in all aspects of life. At times i look at myself and am amazed at how much i have changed for the better. i love it!

We have been able to a little work in the area. And the little work is great!! We have a baptism of two little girls this coming saturday. Also, a 21 year old male that was baptized by the elder on dec 18th, hadnt been coming to church since his baptism. So we caught him at his house twice this week and guess what!? He came to church and we able to finally get confirmed after a month had past from the time of his baptism! The Elders were so happy and so were we!! And during the lesson with him on friday he had an earring in and so we reminded him of the law of chastity and he took it out immediately! It was so saweet!! i love missionary work!!

This week we will being travelling. First in Dagami (which is next to Tacloban) and then to Catarman, Mondragon area (you can look on the map i sent home). That is the furthest north you can go in the mission! We are excited. Luckily the Assistant Elders (Hawkes and Cabrera) will be driving so we wont have to take public transportation. Hopefully next week i will have some fun exciting stories!

BTW... im freezing in the office! The air con is not my friend!... how will i ever live in America again!? yikes!

Scripture of the week... Alma 16. This is Alma going to the Lord in prayer to ask if what they plan to do is according to His will. Anything we do, or any decision we make we should finalize it with God. This will help give us courage to push through the task when it gets hard because you will look back and remember that God approved. If He approves, there is a way to accomplish the task. No need to fear. So if you have a question, go to Heavenly Father.

Gugma Gad,
Sister Carissa Jones

January 24, 2011

BOOM!

Where to begin... I feel like there is so much to say but im not even sure how...

Ok... lets go back to Albuera and finish there. It continued to rain and we continued to get nice and muddy. Also, when it rains a lot we lose water pressure so yep... no water... which means no showers... eww! And also a lot of dirty dishes... hehe. We managed ok tho.

On tuesday and wednesday i was assigned to do a companionship exchange. I traveled to Palompon and Sister Yao traveled to Albuera and worked with Sister Larsen. I worked with Sister Christianson. We had great experiences and i learned so much. The gospel is so true. I didnt know those people really well but as i was able to listen to the Spirit, he guided me in what to say and discern what their needs were. It was such an awesome experience! I felt the Spirit so strong and Sister Christianson told me that we were able to make some break throughs with those people that they had been struggling with. I was so happy to see that the Lord was working through me to help bless His children. On Wed we took a hike to the bukid... literally about 45 min till we got to the house. The mud was ridiculous! I feel kept sticking to the mud... like the craziest noises were created as i treded through the swamp... not to mention the barb wire fence that we were using for balance... umm that could have been dangerous. Luckily the lesson was amazing! On the way home tho of course it began to rain... guess who didnt bring her umbrella? Yep me... oops, again. I was drenched by the time that we got back to the road but oh well. I slipped out of my foot once and then when we arrived back to the apartment in Palompon i discovered a nice cut in my foot which was filled with dirt grains and a little pebble... OUCH! i got it cleaned out tho and all is well... i still have a working foot. This little adventure set us back a bit so we missed the last van ride to Ormoc so i could return to my area in Albuera... So then we discovered that we could travel and hour to Isabel and then catch a later van to ormoc. We decided to go for it and prayed that there actually would be a ride to Ormoc cause if not we would have been stranded! Our prayers were answered and we got back to Albuera eventually. The 4 of us sisters just stayed in Albuera that night.

Transfers were announced that night and Sister Christianson and I both were transferring, along with some other elders in the zone! I had been praying for more experiences so that i could grow and i got my answer. I guess i didnt realize how hard that would be tho. Saying goodbye to the people in Albuera was the hardest thing ever! I will be missing Joselyn's baptism next week which is really hard. She cried when she found out i was transferring which of course made me cry! Thursday was a day of tears... saying goodbye to the family i have gained in Albuera. I cant even describe how much i love those people!!

So... then comes Friday... transfer meeting. The ride was fun and we all made our guesses. I really didnt know where i would go. Everyone kept guessing but i wasnt sure. One elder said... "you are going here... or if not, youll be the new AP (assistant to President). I laughed and said, that will be the day when there are actually sister assistants, cause that never happens!
All the sisters from my batch were being transferred (Blonquist and Farnworth). It was great to see them and Sister Barroca was training again so i got to see her too! The training was so great and then came the letters... drum roll.....................................

It read that i would be serving in Tacloban City, area V&G. I am companions with Sister Blonquist!! and we have a special assignment... Elder Shelley made a comment that we were like the new APs... haha... we laughed... We were told that we would have an interview with President so he could tell us our assignment...

In that interview we were told that we would be secretaries/assistants for him... BOOM! We are leading the sisters pretty much. We are in charge of organizing companionship exchanges. And then also we are to build up our area in Tacloban and then we invited sisters to come work with us and we train them! And we also travel to their areas to help them in their areas! Yes... im not kidding! This is intense. The last couple days have been crazy but we are SO pumped! Sister Blonquist and i are loving being companions again and all the office elders call us the AP's... its funny. They all have us saved in our phone as 'AP Jonequist'... haha. We dont have an apartment yet so we are staying with other sisters about 45 min away... its a bit stressful. President drove us home last night which was super nice! And they fed us hot choc and sandwiches and spaghetti! They are so nice! We have our little office space and are working on getting all the plans organized... not to mention trying to build an area. The elders have us 3 investigators to start with... this is going to be challenging but Sister Blonquist and I are so excited!! I cant even believe how much i have learned in the last few weeks. I see that Heavenly Father has really been preparing me cause the last few days have been totally full on inspiration as we are depending on the Lord for a lot of guidance! I feel so blessed to have the trust of my mission president, President Malit, and the trust of my Savior to be called to this special assignment.

Im out of time but i will tell more next week cause there is tons more! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Gugma,
Sister Jones

Scripture of the week... Mosiah 5:5-6

January 17, 2011

So... what is new in the Philippines...

It continues to rain and we continue to come home with the muddiest feet ever! My toe nails are permi painted mud... no joke! Sister Larsen continues to give me foot massages tho. She says it helps her relieve stress and i have no objections of course. She is such a great companion... and not JUST because she gives me foot massages. She is a great example and pushes me to be better. With her, ive been able to see my weaknesses and now, being on the mission, i am much more humble to accept my weaknesses and desire to change. Going on a mission is definitely what i needed in my life... Hopefully ill be recognizably better when i get home.

Ive been having nightmares about coming home! In all the dreams i am suppose to come home but it doesnt feel right and i have no idea what to do! I cant even imagine coming home even tho it is approaching much quicker than i expected. I sure miss all your faces but after doing what ive been doing its hard to think of leaving these people that have become my family and friends too. Everyone begs me to come back after the mission and i hope i will be able to do so! You all can come with... ROAD TRIP!!! ... umm... across the ocean...

So this week was full of great lessons and great learnings. I wish i had better organization of all the great things that i learn... there is just so much! Before my mission i kind of thought that i need to learn it all on the mission but now ive realized that there is always more so i dont need to stress so much. I just need to focus on the people here and i have years igo to continue learning for myself.

We also had interviews this week. It was so great to talk with President. I think i might have taken the longest time... oops. We just talk about everything! I feel so much love and support from him. He always makes me feel capable and desire to keep going. He "hinted" that i might be transferring. I will be happy to gain new experiences in a new area but i will miss Albuera like crazy! I have lived here for 7 months! I have gotten so attached to the ward members and just the people in town. We walk down the street and people call across the street to me by name. And the workers at the water and electric place and market and other little shops know me by name. I just feel that Albuera is my home! It will be different to leave and very difficult to say goodbye to the people. Its really hard to think that it could be the last time i see these people here in Albuera. I love them so much... i cant even explain to you what the love is like that i have for them.

We had the funniest lesson last night with our cute little family. Sister is the one getting ready for baptism next week. (her husband is already a member). They have the two cutest little kids. We find that when one of us is talking that the other has to entertain the kids so that the couple can pay attention. So we really never know exactly what the other teaches but the lessons always turn out great! The Spirit is definitely guiding us! haha. Last night the two kids managed to take EVERYTHING out of my backpack... Every little knik knak... haha... It was funny to find everything scattered on the floor at the end of the lesson. Also, little Yan2x (1yr old girl) saw a picture in the Strength of Youth pamphlet and was SURE it was me! haha... she kept saying, "Look Look!.."... "Sistr jos! Sistr Jos!" while i was trying to read a scripture. She kept putting the pic right in my face so i couldnt see the scripture to read... we all just kept laughing. Then at the end she did a little dance for us. It was similar to a 'head, shoulders, knees, and toes' song/dance. SO CUTE!! I get so excited every time we go to visit this family!

Scripture of the week... Alma 9:26. I love when i read about Christlike attributes and how perfect He is. Just reading a description of Him makes me smile... And then to think i can obtain all those attributes if i ask for them and develop them. We all can be like our big brother one day. What a great reason to never give up! I know it will be worth it. No matter what the struggles we face, it will all be worth it in the end.

Naghigugma gud ko sa inyoha! Ayaw kabalaka mahitungod nako kay ok ra kaayo! Naggiya ang Balaang Espiritu Santo kanunay sa akoa. Buhi si JesuKristo ug naa siya permi alang kanato pinaagi sa atong mga pagsulay. Nasayud ko nga kaya nato! Padayon lang gud ug kit kits sa unom ka bulan. Amping!