Day 53 Carigara, Philippines the work continues;)

Maupay nga kulop! (good afternoon)

Has is really been a week??? Sorry last week I didn't get to write everything i wanted. So much had happened that I completely spaced on writing details and about CHRISTIAN!!! So I briefly saw him for the first time at the terminal in Carigara because I was traveling with his new companion. I didn't see him come up to us, so when i turned around he was right there! We just kinda looked at each other and then I wanted to hug him so bad but Sister Andaya had told me I couldnt since we're wearing our missionary nametags. So we just awkwardly shook hands. And then we didn't even get to talk because we both needed to get going. BUT I've seen him a lot since: at our zone activity, district meeting, and zone interviews. It's super nice to just talk with him and catch up. :) It's nice that he already knows my companion, the area, and everything so I can ask whatever i want. I"m sad he'll only be here til October.

My companion Sister Clark used to live in Manila going to school for neuroscience. she's super smart and wants to go to BYU after. She speaks Tagalog but her English is really good. I'm living in the city of Carigara, but my area includes some rural areas. However, by the end of August I'll probably be switching areas with the elders in my ward to a safer area so we can stay out later.

I usually email at an internet cafe. we usually go there at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, my time. The internet connection is pretty slow, but not too bad. 

it's nice to be busy and I feel like I'm progressing. However, I feel like at times that I'm not helping very much or that I don't know how to contribute since I can't speak Waray very well. The people are shy sometimes so it makes it hard to connect to them when i teach lessons, but i'm learning to do what i can with the little language I do know. I'm really grateful for music because it helps me feel needed and less of a burden. I play piano for Sacrament meetings. zone meetings, ward choir, and Christian asked me to put together a musical number for our zone interviews with President Andaya. Lots of people want to learn how to play piano and they love it when I sing. We start off each of our lessons with a song, so I usually start off the song (in the Philippines, to start off a song a cappella you sing the first line of the song and say; andam? canta!--ready? sing!). Music is the one thing I know how to do here, haha.

I've met so many people here! But I still can't remember how to get to their houses. Most people are receptive to us or at least want someone to talk to. There's one lady who's making things difficult for us though. She's an apostate RM who is fighting against the church because of some things in her past. She employs two of our investigators and she canceled our appointments with them! Also, her brother in law is our new ward mission leader so we're worried about her influence on him. In the meantime, we are trying to give her to the elders, but she wants to just argue the whole time.

I went finding a lot this week. my companion had me do them all by myself, and then she would fill in if I couldn't understand. It's hard because i speak really slowly and I feel like the people here can't understand me yet. Also, they are intimidated by foreigners sometimes. BUT i found two investigators who invited us in and we taught them a short message and set up another appointment. We'll see how that goes. For the most part, we are focusing on less actives.

I went on splits with a sister in the Primary presidency in my ward on saturday for my ward's half day mission. she hardly spoke a word of English and I had no idea what was going on because we hadn't planned for a half day mission (and i have no idea what it is). my companion told me the sister knew where to go and what to do, but she was just as clueless as i was, haha. We did end up teaching two lessons, though. It was fun and helpful, even though it was stressful at the time because it forced me to communicate only in Waray and try to teach and conduct the lessons by myself.

There was this birthday lunch that I went to yesterday. So cool. There was this giant pig they cooked called lechon. And the food was soooo good! since there were so many people there, we ate with our hands, haha. Filipino style. :) I also tried a bunch of Filipino delicacies: suman, puto, moran, and maha. AND AND AND i was offered ido. aka: DOG. No i did not eat it. we all just stared at it. Only my bishop ate it, haha. Apparently they also eat rat here.(I've seen enough rats here to last a lifetime. they're HUGE) You know what else is actually really good? Avocado shakes. Weird ingredients, but good (it has cheese and sugar in it.)

The first three people i invited to be baptized said yes, but only one of them came to church yesterday. The nanay has no one to watch her shop for her so she can't leave it unattended. we're trying to find someone from the relief society to fellowship her. It's amazing to see how loving and accepting these people are. They really love their families and would do anything for them.

I had a cool experience as we were teaching a sister attending college to be a school teacher. She was crying because she couldn't attend church for several months because her classes were only on the weekends. Sister Clark asked me to share an experience where I was willing to do something and really wanted to do it, but wasn't able to do so. i shared what i was going through right now: I really want to learn the language and teach well, but right now I can't. I bore my testimony to her that as she continued to pray, read the Book of Mormon and live the standards of the church, God would provide a way for to be comforted and uplifted each week until she could go to church again.

Sorry to anyone I haven't been able to respond to yet. I really appreciate all the mail-- it helps me so much! 

I love all the news from home! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Sister Amanda Smith

Doing laundry

My room

Dear Brother & Sister Smith,

Sister Smith has arrived safely in the Philippines Tacloban Mission. We have enclosed a copy of a photograph of her with Sister Andaya, me and her trainer. Your greatest contribution to your missionary’s success can be made by:

1. Praying for, and remembering her in your monthly fast.
2. Writing to your missionary weekly. Any letters or packages should be sent to the following address:

                                       Sister Amanda Marie Smith

                                       Philippines Tacloban Mission          

511 Maharlika Hwy. Fatima Vlg.

Tacloban City

6500 Leyte, Philippines

3. Writing encouraging letters and leaving out discouraging things.
4. Not visiting or telephoning your missionary without the mission president’s approval. Christmas and Mother’s Day will be approved times for your missionary to have a visit with your family by telephone. This call is to be paid by your family and not out of the Missionary Support money given to your missionary.
5. Contacting me in an emergency using your international calling code at:

09175364836 (President Andaya’s number)or 2012855@ldschurch.org (email).

6.      Please do NOT send money through the mail. If your missionary has a personal debit card, there should be a minimum of $100 or 1,000 Php in it for emergency purposes. You may add funds to this account for any personal items such as medical co-payments, pre-existing medical expenses, and pictures. These personal expenses should be kept to a minimum. If your missionary does not have a personal debit card, you can send money through approved money transfer services i.e. LBC, Western Union, etc.

Please encourage your missionary to only use www.myldsmail.net and not other websites such as Facebook. We know that through obedience to this, your missionary will receive a greater portion of the Spirit and will become more effective in bringing more souls unto Christ.

Thank you for preparing your missionary. She will make an important contribution to the work of the Lord in our Mission.  It is a great blessing to have her in our Mission.

Sincerely,

  

Jose V. Andaya

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Day 46 I'm in the PHILIPPINES!!!!

Kamusta pamilya?!

Can you believe I'm in the Philippines???? I feel like I've been here forever already. So much has happened!

Well, for starters, you'll be happy to know that all my luggage was exactly the weight limits, haha so I didn't have to pay extra. Also, they never weighed my carry on for any of my four flights. :) Traveling here was really tiring. It was so weird to be on a flight for 9 hours and have it be perfectly bright outside the entire time. When it was nighttime in Utah, I would keep checking outside the airplane window to see if the sun was setting yet, but it was still so bright! My poor body and mind was so confused those first two days of traveling--especially when we had dinner 3 times in one day, haha. All my flights went really well and we had the perfect amount of layover time between each so things could go smoothly. The Narita, Japan airport is really nice!! Except for we all forget that they use bidets and squatter holes in the restrooms. . . fun stuff, lol. Our flight to Manila was during a lightning storm so the plane had to circle around for a while before we could land. It was so cool to see all the fisherboats in the ocean. I was glued to the window the entire time we were traveling :)

Sorry I didn't get to call home again in Manila---things were crazy going through customs, immigration, etc and finding our drivers to take us to our hotel. So our hotel is not what I expected at all. I was expecting a small, humble motel with lizards on the walls and stuff. Nope. We stayed in this crazy fancy hotel with chandeliers and waterfalls!!! We were all shocked out of our minds; we thought the driver had taken us to the wrong place.

After staying the night in Manila, we flew out of this tiny airport to Tacloban. In the airport, we met all the Filipino missionaries going to Tacloban! I became good friends with all the Filipinas--they're so friendly! We stayed in the mission office the first day to be interviewed by President Andaya and check our health. We were are really antsy just waiting inside the mission office all day, but we got to talk to some Filipino kids. :) The next day was orientation. The office missionaries and the APs taught us about our budget, etc and we took pictures at the General McArthur Memorial. And the next day we met our trainers and found out where we would be serving.

Drumroll. . . .

I'm serving in Carigara---the same zone where Christian is a zone leader!!! (for those who don't know, Christian is Amanda's cousin - this is what he said in his letter home : Also i got to see Sister Smith! it turns out that she is in my zone!! We went to pick her up from the bus terminal and it was really weird... im sure it was awkward for her cuz it was really awkward for me... I had no idea what to do! I thought, hey, she is family so maybe i can give her a hug... then i thought...well we are both missionaries so maybe not.... i had no idea what to do! So i did what came natural. I shook her hand. Its really nice to have her here. She is going to be a great missionary. She will have a great time here.)

AND I have a Filipina companion named Sister Clark. I love her to death already: she works really hard, pushes me to learn the language quickly, and is very outgoing and energetic in talking with everyone. I seriously could not have asked for a better companion. Carigara is only a 1 hour bus ride away from Tacloban, so I was blessed to not have to travel all day. I was really looking forward to unpacking and finally settling somewhere for a little while. My apartment is adorable! All the walls are pink and we have pink flower curtains. :) I also am blessed to have one of the nicer apartments. We have a living room, dining room, kitchen, CR (comfort room=bathroom), and a shower room downstairs, and upstairs we have two bedrooms and a study room. It'll be nice to start out in a nicer area so I can ease into the culture and living condions. I've only seen one cockroach in my apartment (they're HUGE here!!), but no rats or spiders yet. :) My apartment is close a Catholic church which plays the same song at 5am every morning and plays it all day on Sundays. .. . haha. We live with two other sisters, one American and one Filipina. It's really nice to have another American here. I ask her a ton of questions cuz the Filipinas don't really know the difference with a lot of things.

Surprisingly, I don't really have jetlag. It only took like a day or two to adjust to the time and climate here. Also, it's not as hot here as I expected. Most of the day is actually pretty cool. Last night I was even cold! My companion laughs at me because I love the fan in our room.

I wish you could hear and smell everything here--well, maybe not smell. . . But pictures can't do this place justice. It's seriously an adventure everyday here. In the city, the houses are built close together so you have to duck down and walk through the alleys between to get places. After a really hard rainstorm one day we had to jump from rock to rock, cross logs, and hop on tires that made the pathway to a member's house. It was crazy! It's so humbling to see how people live here. That family lived in a stilt house with bamboo floors. Their house was practically empty and they wear the same thing everyday. Then, we see them at church! It's incredible to see how these destitute families sacrifice to come to church. If you came to my ward, you'd see well-groomed people and you'd never guess how they live. Despite their circumstances, the people here live cleanly and do everything they can to look nice and presentable.

We usually walk or ride pedicabs or "tricycles," which only cost P5 or P10. I'm starting to get the hang of how expensive things are here using pesos. My area is partly city and partly rural. I only see the ocean when I go the market.The landscape here is so pretty---especially with the rice patty fields and palm trees.

I've met so many members already! Luckily, many of them have English first names so I'm able to remember them. My companion thinks I'm catching onto Waray fast so she tells everyone I speak Waray, but I can never understand when they talk so fast! I'm getting really good at their way of showing confusion: opening your mouth big. It looks really funny, especially if you don't know what if means, lol. They have a lot of different gestures here: pointing with their lips, saying yes with their eyebrows, etc.

Moo, you would love it here! There's so many animals everywhere! So far I've seen kittens, puppies, chicks, roosters (I hate them in the mornings, haha), pigs, goats, and caribao. :) It's surreal to be teaching a lesson in someone's house and then have a cute little chick walk right by your feet!

The food here is awesome. I've already found my two favorite places to eat: the Julis bakery (they also have a little cart that goes around every morning playing the same song) and the Raq Farm. I love their lumpia, mango shakes, and curry dishes. MmmmmMmmm. :) I've also tried siapao, palabok, chicken bread, jackfruit, and pili nuts. And the bananas here are definitely better---I eat them for breakfast with a cup of hot Milo (hot chocolate with oatmeal and vitamins).

Saturday night I gave the spiritual thought for a family's FHE. Luckily they knew a lot of English so I didn't have to only use Waray. We played a lot of games and they fed us spaghetti.:) Also on Saturday we met with Bishop Rolando Ragsag and the two Elders also over our ward. I was clueless the whole meeting because our bishop only speaks Waray, but his body langauge and tone of voice is easy to understand. He's really sarcastic and funny, and he has high expectations of us as missionaries. When I met him the first night at his house, he asked me to help with the choir for ward conference, and of course he wants me to always be prepared to speak if needed. I gave my first talk this Sunday! I prepared a few sentences in Waray to say to introduce myself before mixing in English, but I ended up accidentally meshing the sentences together, so I was speaking nonsense, lol.

Funny story: as I was walking along a path to meet one of our recent converts, I saw a little boy ahead. I greeted him in Waray and kept walking when I heard my companion call out to me. I turned and around and realized I had just walked past the very person we were going to teach, haha. I think my companion forgets sometimes that I don't know anyone or where anything is yet, haha.

I'm really enjoying my study time in the mornings--especially personal study. I haven't really had a normal schedule yet, though, so sometimes we don't get back til late .

Anyhoo, I'm out of time, so in the meantime, take care and I love you all!
Sister Amanda Smith

Travel Companion - Sis Stoehr

With my companion and President and Sister Andaya.

This is Elder Origines --- He knows Gloria!!!!! He came and found me and asked me if I lived in Minnesota. He said Gloria told him to watch for me. :)
(Gloria is a Filipino friend from our ward in MN)

Day 37 Last few days in the MTC

Well I leaving on Monday!!! I took a picture of my travel plans so you have exactly what I have. :) Except, on my plans, it doesn't even have Tacloban on there! We fly from Salt Lake City, to Seattle to Tokyo to Manila. Then it says 6 weeks later we fly to Hong Kong. Soooo I'm assuming the airport for Tacloban is super small so it's not on our travel plans. The travel office here assured us that we won't be staying 6 weeks in Manila; we all had a panic attack here when rumors were flying that we would be staying in the Philippines MTC. So I have no idea when I'll be in the mission field. Probably sometime on Wednesday. :)

One of my companions, after several hospital trips, is getting surgery for her gall-bladder today! I really happy that they found out what was wrong with her; she's been really sick for the past year. The sad part is that she won't be flying with us to Tacloban. :( :( :( We're all super sad, but all the sisters in my district are going to the hospital with her today while she has her gall-bladder removed. Please pray for her that she may be calm and have a speedy recovery!!

Going to the hospital with her is really weird. I forget that the MTC is in Provo, or even in Utah. We seriously live in a bubble. Last week at the hospital I brought a bunch of study materials while my companion was in her appointment. I was studying one of my Cebuano language guidebooks along side my Cebuano PMG. The thought dawned on me how unusual and remarkable the things missionaries do. We are learning crazy foreign languages, dedicating a portion of our lives completely to this work, and spending our time teaching others in a country we've never been to before. I also realized how strong the Spirit is in the MTC. Everyone is focused on the work and everything around us is uplifting and clean.

This past week has been really weird. I've been treasuring every shower, laundry machine, etc. It's still so strange to think that I haven't even gotten to the Philippines yet! By this time next week, I'll be on the other side of the world. Craaaaaazy!

If you were wondering what we did for the 4th of July, our devotional turned out to be awesome! We sang a bunch of patriotic songs, a speaker briefly addressed us, and then we watched 17 Miracles! Since there are many international missionaries here, they focused more on the Restoration of the gospel and how America was the only country at that time with sufficient religious freedom. It was the coolest Independence Day I've ever had! After the movie, the MTC gave us ice cream and let us stand outside by the fences to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. They even let us stay up til 11, haha. I got the package the day after, but now I'll have a shirt for next year, haha! Thanks soooo much!

This week, my district played volleyball against another Cebuano district during our gym time. We weren't keeping score, but. . . I'm pretty sure my time won, haha---no thanks to me, though. Gym time here is everyone's favorite part of the day, no matter how athletic or fit you are. It's so nice to have a change of scenery up at the sand volleyball courts. I'm going to miss all the gyms, equipment and facilities they have here. I played bocce ball (i think that's how you spell it) with Sister Tueller and thought of you all! During gym time, we try to speak only Cebuano. It's really helped me learn words not related to the gospel.

So my companionship hadn't taught anyone for like a week and a half until finally this last Saturday, when we taught 5 lessons in one day, haha. We had the opportunity to teach our teacher Brother Young as a district. Our lesson ended up being almost two hours because we all wanted to keep going. By the end, we were all emotional and in tears. The Spirit was so strong! It was cool to see how the Spirit worked through us to tell us exactly what our teacher needed to hear.

It's going to be really strange/nice to go from a trio to just one companion. No matter who my companion is, I know that the experiences I've had here with my companions has prepared me for just about anything. I'm really excited to have a trainer! I've learned sooooooo much from my companions here. I've learned that I need to be prepared for anything that could happen. I've become very self-motivated here, as there is no one making me do anything. This MTC experience has really stretched me and I'm so grateful for it---hard as it was.

I've met several people of the Philippines here! I even met an Elder Abuyog from Tacloban!!! He showed us where he lived on Google Earth where he lived. It's really cool talking to him, except when he doesn't understand certain phrases/words we've learned here, which makes me nervous.

Last Sunday, I watched a recorded talk by Elder David A. Bednar from an MTC Christmas Devotional called: Character of Christ. If you can find it, it's definitely worth the watch! He talked about how Christ's character is the reach outward towards others, when we would feel selfish, victimized, and self-pity. I bought a pocket size BOM and started marking it specifically for how to "put off the natural man and become a saint." So far, I've really enjoyed studying the BOM by topic. It really helps me see my life in a different perspective, and I'm constantly thinking about how to apply it in different aspects of my life.

So, Dad, I've been bragging about you to my district and I showed them pictures of your new hawk!! :) :) We have some suggestions for you for names: Horus, Amen-Rah, Peter, and Commando. Yeah.

I love you all and thanks for everything!!! :D

I'll email again as soon as I get to the mission field, woot!

Kasingkasing,
Sister Amanda Smith :)

These are friends I saw on my temple walk :)  Sister Leishman, Sister White, Sister Hulet,and Elder Wittwer.  Salamat kaayo!!!

Sister Malietoa's Birthday

Day 30 MTC - Happy 4th of July!!! :D

First off, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!! Instead of TRC this week, there's an MTC wide devotional (so no one goes outside to listen to the music from the stadium) and then we get to watch the fireworks! :D

Second, can we just say how CRAZY it is that I leave in less than a week and a half??? My departure date moved up again to July 15! And I get my travel plans tomorrow. Craziness. I cannot even believe how fast the time is going.

Also, THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!!! :D Especially the homemade bread and letters. :) Totally made my day--no--- week.

This week we had the opportunity to teach each other (in our district) as ourselves. It was a good experience to see how meaningful and deeply we can talk just in Cebuano. We get to make up an investigator, based on someone we know. It really helps to see the perspective of an investigator to know what terms are confusing and how to create a spiritual experience.

So this Sunday I accompanied two missionaries singing a duet in our zone Sacrament Meeting. We had been practicing all week and that morning in our "spare time" (haha, there's no such thing as spare time here). I had prepared my weekly talk that morning, but I figured they wouldn't choose me to speak since I was already playing the piano for the musical number. I told myself I wouldn't get called on. Haha. Famous last words. Yeah, I got called on. President Capik announced that "Sister Smith will be speaking first." There are two Sister Smiths in my zone, so I automatically assumed it would be the Catanese Sister. Nope, it was me. Surprisingly, I wasn't that nervous; I think I was too shocked to really think much about it. I spoke on faith. I brought up only a bullet list of topics I could focus on, but the Spirit told me everything I needed to say. I actually really liked speaking because I learned as I bore my testimony. This experience gave me confidence that the Lord will always help me out if I prepare. It was a lesson to me that I always need to be prepared, even when I am busy and overwhelmed with so many other things.

The devotionals and talks here at the MTC seriously feel like General Conference because they're so awesome. We have the coolest speakers! Our latest speaker was Matthew O. Richardson--I think he's the 2nd counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency. He talked about how we need to find out for ourselves what it means to be a "real missionary" and what our part is. He advised us to learn and relearn our part as a missionary, member, leader, etc. all throughout our lives. "What e'er thou art, act well thy part." :)

This week we tried an English fast for 6 hours. We usually try to speak as much Cebuano as we can, but during this period of time we spoke Cebuano exclusively. I thought it was going to be really difficult, frustrating, and exhausting, but it was actually really fun! By forcing myself to speak no English, I had to look up words and figure out the grammar. I learned so much Cebuano that morning!

Last week we got two new Hiligaynon districts, so now we have 8 districts in our zone! (2 Catanese and 4 Cebuano, plus the two new Hiligaynon districts). That's probably about 60-70 people in our zone; most of my friends here only have 3-5 districts in their zone.

I never realized how little I really knew about what it means to be a missionary until I came here. I've learned so much about what my purpose is and how important sacred this work is. I am a representative of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. My appearance reflects not just me, but the entire church and how others will respond to the members they meet.

I found one of my new favorite scriptures: Romans 8:35, 37-39. It talks about how NOTHING shall be able to separate us from the love of the Lord---no trial, sorrow, challenge, or persecution. "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." In the footnotes for "conquerors," it says: abundantly victorious. Nothing external (no circumstance, association, etc.) will prevent God's love from coming to us. Only WE remove ourselves from feeling His love, although it is always present.

Thanks for the pictures from the boating trip! (Alex, your hair looked crazy!! haha ;)) I'm so glad Dad found a nest! Finally! :)

You should go watch this video on the lds website: Need Answers? Go to the Source. It's a sort of modern retelling of the Joseph Smith story. Watch it. :)

Start sending letters to the mission home! It'll take forever for them to get there.

Love you all! Ayo ayo! (Bye!)
Sister Amanda Smith

Me with Sister Stoehr (the Mildenhall's friend)

All the peeps going to Tacloban (outside by the temple)

My district in front of the map