Day 306 Allen, Philippines Transfer week after all. . .

Guess what? There were transfers after all! Sister Sprouse transferred all the way to Biliran Island. L We were both very shocked and sad for her to go. This was her first area that she was able to return to after the typhoon, so she spent 3 transfers in this area. My new comp is Filipina: Sister Mier. It's been an adjustment to switch back to a native companion, but we get along well. She is 28 and the oldest of nine kids and she's from Bicol (the island just a ferry ride away!!). She's the only member and she was converted 3 years ago in Hong Kong! So she knows Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. She's got a cute accent when she speaks English. She just came from a Cebuano area so she's struggling to switch back to whatever language we speak here. She's a little weirded out to hear some of her old dialect, Bicolano here. Basically, I kinda have to translate for her because not many people understand Cebuano, haha.
Except now I lost my voice, and i can barely whisper. And no Dayquil here. . .

HAAAAAAPPPPY BIIIIIIRTHDAAAAAAAAAY ALEX! I promise something is on its way to you! (there's like a hundred stamps on it, haha)

Well not much happened this week so my letter is pretty short. We spent 3 days doing practically nothing because we were told to go to Catarman and wait in the chapel all day long for our companions to arrive. So we played some Monopoly, wrote letters, found Barq's Root beer and Cheddar Cheese Ruffles!!!! Yay America.

Oh funny, Sister Simkins' new companion is Sister Baylon, my second comp/nanay! It's funny to catch up with her and see how she got along with Margo Brockbank. :)

Did I tell you I got a recipe for homemade peanut butter? totally making it when i get back.

Also, Tacloban, Ormoc, and Carigara zones are open now. :) That was quick!

One of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is Mosiah 27. Alma explains how much effort goes into the repentance process. Repentance is more than just prayer. It requires effort, again and again. He talks about "repenting nigh unto death" before the Lord redeemed him from the "gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity." How much effort are we putting into the repentance process? Are we actually repenting everyday? Are we giving the Lord an account of our efforts to repent in prayer in day? Are we pleading for the God's help each morning as we start the day? I know that the more effort we put into consciously repenting, the more meaningful our sacrament will be.

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Day 299 Allen, Philippines Oh caribao. . .

Well, this week is supposed to be transfer week if this was a normal mission, but as we all know my mission has been far from normal. New missionaries are supposed to be coming sometime. . . but we have no idea. Basically we don't know what's up; we just do missionary work until someone tells us to move, haha. But the work is really progressing here in Allen! We now have six investigators working towards their baptismal date!

We had a funny experience yesterday. After a long motorcycle ride to the bukid, one of our farther areas, we went to a house our elders had told us about (the elders in our ward usually work in this area). Apparently kono daw there was an inactive member at this house, but it turns out she had passed away three years ago. But the parents there were really receptive and invited us in anyway. We ended up flowing naturally into a discussion about religion and stuff. The man, his name is Toni, told us it bothered him how so many pastors debate the Bible and none of them can agree. He recognized that the Bible is kulang (lacking)! He said he thinks the Bible needs a guide or some help or something. Of course, we bring out the BOOK OF MORMON and he was like "whoah." He had awesome questions, but he tends to overanalyze everything. . . at least he knows some English so we can understand his deepness, but he has true intent. We just have to go slow and be very clear. :) We then road home in the rain and got SOAKED on the motorcycle, but it was totally worth it.

I got MAIL this week. Yes, real mail. And I received some from OCTOBER!!!!!! And I got the Bonny family's Christmas card, haha. :) I think the mail finally caught up now, so we'll see if mail comes more regularly in the future.

I'm working on learning the 1st Vision in my THIRD language: Tagalog. :) My brain is so halo-halo (mixed up). . . .

Well. It was bound to happen. I had one of those classic mix-ups in the language during a lesson. I was talking about how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. In Cebuano, translate is "hubad," but in Tagalog that means to get naked. Whoops. Fortunately, my comp covered for me, hahaha. The people's eyes got really big, haha! But then in another lesson, my comp accidentally said we have to be "taba" (fat) instead of "tapat" (worthy) to enter the kingdom of God. Oh, good times. . . :)

Oh. We almost got trampled by a caribao! We paused to look at this poor skinny cow on the side of the path in this bukid area, when we hear a giant caribao come up behind us! It was white and had giant horns! It had broken loose from the rope so it was just wandering around. We slowly hid behind some bushes and ran back up into the village until it went away.

I was reading in Moses 7 this morning and was touched by the conversation between Enoch and God. Enoch was asking God the Father why He was weeping. If God is perfect and has all power and sooooooo many creations, why would He cry? God responds that He is weeping for the wickedness of His children. He has perfect compassion for them and understands perfectly the consequences of their sins. God has a greater capacity to feel and empathize with us than we can ever understand. His love is real and passes beyond all understanding. He is a real Being with emotions and feelings, but He has complete control over Himself. I know we can become like Him and gain self-mastery through living the principles of His gospel. :)

LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLLLL!!

Apparently caribao is really carabao and it means water buffalo.

Day 292 Allen, Philippines Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sooooooooo I pretty much love this zone. Cuz we go to the beach every
week for p-day! Catarman is the prettiest zone. :) Sorry there were no
pictures last week. The internet goes crazy sometimes here so we go to
a different internet shop each week. This is a really good place this
week! yeah!

As far as health wise, I'm doing great. (except, i think i've
developed an addiction to homemade peanut butter. . . but I'm staying
healthy when everyone else in my apartment has been sick like twice
already.) I think I've stayed about the same weight my whole mission,
but maybe dropped a kilo or two. Ambot (not sure).

Yeah i got to go to a Relieft Society thingy tooo! We all wore aprons
made by a lady in our ward and each ward performed dances and then we
played games and stuff after the program. What did you all do in Utah?

I miss scones.

Tell Ari I say hi!!! ;) :) :)

Soooooo, Mom, don't worry buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I love motorcycles!!! We
rode hubble-hubble (that's what they call it here) to our zone
activity last week (Cabacungan beach-----we call it Caba-kwankwan). We
fit 5 people on one motorcyle; it's an oversized motorcyle so there's
room. :) That beach was gorgeous; tons of coral, shells, white sand,
and giant volcanic rocks to climb on. And then today, we went to Life
of Spice Beach which is also super gorgeous. I found some starfish and
a flatworm. . . Then we played volleyball and badminton on the beach.
:)

This past Sunday was our ward conference and then we attended a
funeral of an elderly man who lives in the bukid. I arranged a little
something for the ward choir and a lot of people actually
participated! I love our ward. One of the members feeds us white
sliced bread and ice cream because "that's what white people eat."
hahahahaha! But for reals, I love this ward. Actually, I met an elder
in the MTC who is from this town! And I'm teaching his sister in law!
He is currently serving in Ogden, Utah. We basically switched places.

Also, President Andaya is trying something new: for the wards with
more than one set of missionaries, there are no area boundaries! So
basically we can go to their area and they can come to theirs and we
can focus on the women of the ward more easily. It's working out
really well so far. Our investigators have hit some road blocks since
we just found out their marriage wasn't legal, so we're trying to work
that out, but the people are generally receptive here. We've had a lot
of success, especially with returning less-actives. :)

Hey, are you all doing personal study everyday? I know you already do
family scripture study, but it's amazing how much you can learn just
on your own. That's how we're able to gain personal revelation and
strength. Since on my mission, I've been particularly interested in
the Plan of Salvation, especially the pre-existence. Why were we
placed in the circumstances we are in now? How did people become noble
and great? What is the election of grace? The more I've found answers
to my studies, the more I realize who I really am, who our Father in
Heaven is, and what a miracle it is that it is even possible to become
like Him!

I know we all carried over our spiritual and divine capacities into
this life depending on our righteousness before this life. But that
doesn't mean that we don't have the same opportunity to act. We have
been given equal opportunity to use our agency based on the knowledge
we have obtained in this life.

I love you all and pray for you all like crazy! :)

Lots of love,
Sister Amanda Smith

Day 285 Allen, Philippines Halfway already????

Happy Hump Day to me! I'm HALFWAY!! It's really bittersweet, actually.

Time goes by way too quick. I think missions are life on the

fast-forward. So many life-changing experiences crammed into just a

few months.

Well, I have little time too, so I'm doing like Ashley and giving you

bullet points:

-We have four new investigators committed to date! Two of them are

hopefully this month. With Maria, we had invited her before, but we

felt like we needed to move up the date because she's super prego (we

have this funny inside joke: I ask her "Kamusta?" (how are you) she

replies "Mabuti" (tagalog for good) and then I tell her "Diri,

maBUNTIS!" (No, you're pregnant!) She practically died laughing the

first time and now whenever I ask her how she is, she always says

she's pregnant, hahaaha.) When we asked her how she felt about moving

up the date, we were super nervous, but she said she was excited!

-There are soooo many religions in this town! The past places have

been mostly Catholic, but so far I've taught Born Again, Protestant,

Iglesia ni Cristo, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. I like to teach other

religions because it shows they are actually searching for the truth

instead of just going with whatever their parents believe, usually.

-My headlice is gone!!! But so is my hair. . . but I think it's

stopped falling quite as much. Probably just because there isn't much

left, haha. ( I think I've lost about half. luckily, you can't tell too bad

just by looking if you didn't know me before, but it's a lot.)

-We were walking along the street one day and we hear this pedicab

driver yell, "BEEEEEEEEEEEP!" pretending he is a car! (pedicab drivers

ride bikes with a side thingy attached to hold passengers) Then he

died laughing at our faces and yelled, "Jokelang!" (just a joke!)

-On my happy hump day, I think God was like "Well, it's Sister Smith's

halfway mark, so let's give a bajillion people to teach to see what

she's learned." We taught the most lessons I've ever taught in one day

and they were all incredible, Spirit-filled lessons! (eight, if you

wanted to know). Best day of teaching ever.

-On the above mentioned best day ever, we met an old excommunicated

member and his live-in partner (she's a non-member). We were moved

upon by the Spirit to commit them to be married and come to church.

Two days later, we go back and the wife says hey we're coming to

church and we're getting married at the Mormon church! WHAT??!!

Boldness is the key I guess. And Sunday, they really did come! They

were just beaming with joy to be there. And the lesson was on marriage

and eternal families. What?

-One word: nakakapagkabagabag. Yes, it's a real word apparently. I

think it means unsettling.

-Almost finished my journal! Now I have nooooooo idea where to buy

another big nice one. . . Help? Are there ones on store.lds.org? I

couldn't find any for the Philippines location.

-I broke through the bottom of a pedicab. . ."Fat Americans!" The

metal was really old and rusted thin, but the pedicab driver still

wasn't too happy. . . Don't worry I paid him extra. The funny part was

he had painted over it so the thinness wouldn't show and the paint was

still fresh so I got silver paint all up my leg, haha.

-I am working on finding a post office to send something for Alex and

a letter for all of you, so we'll see what happens. . .

Love you all!

Sister Amanda Smith :)

Day 278 Allen, Philippines Monkeys, cats, and halo-halo

Yeah. I touched a monkey. One of the members has a pet monkey in their backyard. . . oh wait, their backyard is the OCEAN. During a lesson with them, I was like what is that sound?? And I realized they live RIGHT next to the ocean! haha! Also, we have a pet cat that likes to climb in through our sort of window ventilation things and dig through our garbage. . . but the landlord put nets over the windows now so it's all good. Um, the language here is still pretty crazy. It's what we call halo-halo, which is also a type of dessert with ice cream, leche flan, jelly things, corn and beans. I can't get past the beans yet. . Also random, guess what? I filled up 16 GB of pictures and videos already! Don't worry, I still have my 32 GB left. :) :) pictures galore!

I managed to scrape together a few words at an FHE as I gave the lesson about obedience and keeping all the commandments. Fortunately, the members are really nice when I nosebleed (have a hard time speaking the language). They fill in words for me, or just smile really big because they can't understand anything I'm saying. haha.

I had a really cool study about Abraham in Romans 4:18-24. Just read it. I don't have time to elaborate, haha.

Also, in Jacob 2:23, the people begin to wax in sin because they do not understand the scriptures. Then, they seek to excuse themselves from their sins. We too, no matter how often we read the scriptures, if we don't apply our hearts unto understanding Satan creeps in.

Well, that's all i have time for. Bye! Love you all!

Sister Smith

hair lice shampoo

pet monkey!!!! yeah