Chelsea - August 3, 2015

Teaching the Restoration to a group of children

CSP with the district.  We weeded our investigators house.  She is getting baptized in less than 2 weeks!
And yes those are machetes.

KUMUSTA!!  

 

FOOD!

Haha okay so my favorite fruit here are the bananas. OMG they are so much better here than in America. They are way sweeter and just so good! I finally tried chicken adobo and it is definitely in one of my top favorites here! Haha I tried squid head this week. NAST! Chewing the tentacles and the head was not really that pleasant haha. I also tried okra dipped in soy sauce. also nast.  My favorite food here is lomi and pancit. Pancit is just like noodles and vegetables and meat. Lomi is soup with noodles. Oh and I also tried cheese ice cream this week. It's not actually that bad but I still didn't like it. I definitely feel like I'm getting used to this food! 

 

LESSONS!

Haha super weird, but we were having dinner at a members house and one of the guys in the house reminded me exactly of Uncle Mike. He was like Mike except from Saudi Arabia. Even his hair! haha. but Sister Mariano has taught him before and all he does is debate. He's such a jokester and apparently we are teaching him on Friday. I am kinda scared because last time the missionaries taught him, they stormed out haha. So pray for us! haha.

 

So one of our investigators is Bryan Cardenas. He is 15 years old and he is just a cutie! Last lesson was super great because I finally felt like I could be myself and just joke but also the lesson was super powerful. He is preparing to be baptized but he still feels like he needs to repent. So we are working on that . haha but I threatened him that if he didn't come to church I would cry. So guess what?! He came! Haha I was so happy!

 

Haha super creepy lesson. So we have this investigator who is like super old and her name is Maxima. She lives with her grandson. So we were teaching about the restoration and then all the lights went out and it was pitch black outside. haha so she lit a candle and it was the creepiest thing ever. There are like pictures on her walls of people that have died and it felt like we were in a seance or something. SO CREEPY. But the good thing is that our new investigator is her grandson!

 

So we finally went to go to the drunk guy that I mentioned earlier and it was such a good lesson! Sister Mariano and I both felt like we should go off our lesson plan and just talk about making good choices and about how Jesus Christ knows how we feel and how hard life is. It was so good! I definitely felt like I wasn't speaking. The spirit was so strong! And so I hope he gets back on the right path!

 

So we have another investigator named Rodel. He is 16. We just found out he has a five month old son. And whats sad is that the mother lives in the same small town as he does but he hasn't even seen them yet. So sad. Her parents don't want them to get married so ya... So we have been teaching him about the  restoration and I did principle 6 and 8 by myself! Literally, I felt so good about it. It definitely wasn't perfect and sometimes he couldn't understand me but I felt like he got the message and it was able to touch his heart. It's so sad because he's definitely going through withdrawal symptoms from his alcohol addiction. He hasn't drank in 2 weeks though! But his arms and hands just shake uncontrollably. Super sad.

 

Haha so we taught a lesson to about 10 kids this week! It was so awesome! Sister Mariano just sat right in front of them and went through the Restoration packet. They were hanging on to her every word! It was so cute! I will send you the picture! 

 

SPLITS

So this week we went on splits! Ahh so scary! But guess what, I got to be with an American!!! She is our sister training leader, Sister Hamblin. She is from Utah and she has about 6 months left! I absolutely love her! OMG and the people just love her. Haha she is just so loud, but she is totally herself with the people. So she definitely has made me be more relaxed with the people and just go with the flow. So literally, I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds that day. Everyone we went to teach gave us snacks. And its always with coke! I swear, I am getting addicted to caffeine here haha. Also, we went to a home and taught this couple about the temple. Oh ya so, so sad. So the mom has kids and she wasn't married before but her boyfriend was married before. Sooo... they can't be married in the temple. Its so sad.. Because there is no divorce, you have to wait for the wife to die if he wants to get married to his girlfriend. So it was so sad talking to them about the temple because the spirit was so strong in the lesson as we bore testimony of the temple and you could just feel their desire for it. It will be okay in the end, pero, really sad right now. There are so many lesbians here oh my goodness. So in that same house, the lady has a daughter. She used to be married to this guy. He found out that she coudnt have kids, so he left her. Next thing you know, she became lesbian. Except the gays here try their hardest to look gay. So when I first met her, I thought she was a boy haha. But its so sad. 

 

RANDOM STUFF

So its been so hot here. OMG. When I first got here, it wasnt that bad, but now. Oh my goodness it is so horrible. haha. And yesterday was so hard because we fasted for 24 hours and we probably walked the most we have ever walked! HAHA. We were so dead. We are also so tired all the time. Funniest thing. So we were saying companionship prayers before we went to bed and Sister Mariano was saying it. In the middle of her sentence, she literally fell asleep. Haha I was laughing so hard. Oh man this mission life though!

 

Oh so really creepy. In Sister Mariano's first area, they taught this less active guy. And he really liked Sister Mariano and told her that he loved her and all these innappropriate and weird texts. So guess what, we totally saw him in Maria Clara which is so random! Like what the heck! He came up to us and was like, I have been here for a month and I have been watching you. Ya.... so we called President Rahlf and hopefully he will take care of it. It was so sketch! 

 

HA..  I did my first contact by myself! Except he was drunk! but I definitely still count that! I invited him to church, and he was like come to my house first. And I was like ehhhhh and then he was like I'll be at church if you're there.. haha super creepy

 

Haha so funny. So yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, this old grandma gets up and she starts yelling at everyone and saying that if she wasn't a member of this church she would chop us all up with knives. I was laughing so hard oh man. Sister Mariano says she just gets really annoyed easily at people.  In her testimony she was like, people steal my food, I do all the housework by myself, no one cleans up their mess, I try to be nice and everyone else is horrible. I have no idea! 

 

Ya there is a lot of ilecauno spoken here. Sometimes people will mix it together with Tagalog and it can get really confusing. After I get Tagalog down, I will probably start studying Ilecauno. I definitely feel like I am having a better understanding of this language. It’s still really hard to speak, but I’m getting it haha. 

 

Everyone read Truly Good and Without Guile by Elder Michael T. Ringwood from April General Conference. So good! 

 

Okay, so sorry this letter was so long! It was definitely a really good week this week cause I was super focused on the work and not on things back home.  A positive attitude gives me such a love for this work! I love you all! 

 

Sister Dunn

Haha we drink out of bags here!  Super weird!

Typical missionary picture! We gave this little girl a pamphlet of the restoration and she sat right down and started reading it! So Sister Mariano went up to her and started talking to her. So sweet.