Letter 16: For the Love of Missionary Work

Dearest Panimalay and Mga Abyan,

Happy Late Valentines Day! PALANGGA KO KAMO GID! (I REALLY love you (plural))

It's been a Wonderful (read this as "Stressful") Week!

Where to start? Well, first of all, we learned from the Zone Leaders at District Meeting last week that there are NO STUDIES on Tuesdays or Sundays (because district meeting and church count as study time?) Which stressed Sister Massé and I out a bit because we had Three hours of planed study time that were not unplanned proselyting hours! But we followed orders and went out! We were thinking. "Wow, we have no plans, no one to teach. But we're gonna try! We probably won't have anything to write in our journals tonight."

You know how Heavenly Father loves to prove you wrong?? Yeah. That day was CRAZY. We saw Gregorio, who is the deaf man we've run into three times before. Basically, I don't remember so much Sign Language that I didn't realize he asked us if we wanted to "Visit" (what he was signing) his family. Well. . . We shared a message!

Oh man. It was so STRESSFUL. Sister Massé just turned to me and pretty much said, "Go for it." I learned some new signs, Like "Holy" (they're really helpful. I would spell something and they would teach me the sign) I may have accidentally said "Friends can be together Forever," instead of 'Families." But hey, I tried my best, (and corrected that sentence.) and the Gift of Tongues is amazing! And we'll now be officially visiting them. . Well, Looks like I'm going to be Praying REALLY hard.

We then tracked and found a couple willing to listen to us (the man was also slightly drunk. Yeah. Those are also some fun lessons.)

We taught one of our investigators that we NEVER teach without a member. Yeah, that was a bad idea. More and more stress.

Then we went to the granddaughter of a Less Active we've been teaching. She's willing to listen to us, but has lost most of her interest. But her Grandmother sat down and taught with us, and Grab-i, that woman has such a STRONG Testimony. We were so grateful to her, and I think our investigator realized that even though her grandmother is less active, this church is VERY important to her. (also. The Grandmother came to church this week. :D We were so happy to see her!)

Basically, it was a great/stressful day with no studies. We deserved every bit of chocolate we ate.

Then Wednesday was Zone Conference! It was great! It was spiritual! I learned a lot about how to be a better missionary, how to better plan and help our investigators and members.

And then we found out we would be going on splits. . .Oh, So President decided that since elders are able to have splits with the Traveling APs, that Sisters should be able to have the opportunity too!

That was a bit stressful too! Because we hadn't been given any warning (that seems to happen a bit to us) And we were happy that we had more set appointments (sometimes it's we say, "We're coming back Wednesday" and out of the 5 investigators in that area, only 2 are home or aren't busy. It's our system, and it works, but sometimes you just get punted.) Which meant we wouldn't get punted too much with Elder Kehler. But it all worked out well! (even with a second day of NO studies. ugh. Sister Massé and I were feeling a bit spiritually starved.)

With two days of major stress, we were just a bit (a lot) tired Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday. But hey, it doesn't matter that you're tired. The work moves onward!

And I've got to say. I loved this week. Despite it's stress, the craziness. I love this work, and wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

And of course, Valentines day was great! We gave out some Valentines to some of our investigators (those ones we used to make! the Knitted hearts! And Mosiah 18:21 is the PERFECT Scripture to give with them.)

hmmm... I still have time to write. . So I'm going to talk about the things I can now cook! (Filipina style!) Because all the housemates cook once a week. So I'm learning!

1. Picadillio: Carrots, Sayote, Corn, Ground Pork, all covered in spaghetti some hot sauce. My favorite, but it takes forever to dice all the Carrots. (and I make it wrong anyway. There's supposed to be more meat than veggies, but I prefer the veggies. And it's supposed to be potatoes instead of sayote. But sayote is cheaper, and I like Sayote.)
2. Mock Omelets: Something Sister Massé came up with. Basically scrambled eggs with ham and tomatoes and whatever you want to put in it.
3. Sinagon: Radishes, Carrots, Ocra, squash, Leeks, a meat of you choice, and Sinagon powder (available at any grocery store)
4. Pansit: Cornstarch noodles with cabbage and carrots (they really like carrots here.) with soy sauce.
5. Adobo Sitaw: Strings beans, Sayote, Ocra, Corn. Soy sauce.

and it's all eaten over rice, of course. Except for Pansit, which is a party food and therefore isn't supposed to be eaten with rice, but missionaries do anyway because they can. And I once tried to make eggplant omelets. . but they dint' turn out very well. I'll try again. . one day.

This week I'll be learning how to make some Mongo beans!

Umbrella Shade

One must always carry an umbrella (not a towel. haha) in case of dogs, plants, rain, or sun. For me, it tends to be Sun.

Sister Smith is a Clutz

I may or may not have run into the end of a bamboo shoot yesterday. Luckily I carry alcohol with me where ever I go, and was able to clean out the wound. Sister Massé was more worried about my leg, while I was just upset that there's now a hole in my skirt that I have to sew up today. But at least I can sew. I think now that I'm comfortable in my area, I'm becoming more of a clutz again.

Anyway. I LOVE YOU ALL
The Gospel's true!

Until Next week!

-Sister Smith