#1's Weekly Email: Week #44

So yup. The subject of this email basically sums up the whole experience that we had this week. 

Monday: P-DAY! honestly I don't know what I would do without p-days. I just might go craaaazy. Thank goodness for p-days. We had an FHE and that was super fun. We played a game and me and Sister M. lost and the punishment was that everyone got to throw baby powder in our faces. fun fun. But they were worried that it wouldn't show up on my face because I'm "so white" haha. good joke. 

Tuesday: Ok Tuesday was awesome and it also feels like it was a bazillion years ago. One of the new mission rules is that the Sister Training Leaders are in charge of the workshop every third Tuesday of the month. That means that me and Sister L. got to have some fun. Our workshop was on using time wisely. But we were soooooooooo tired of the cliche practice teaching that we felt like mixing things up. So we did a boot camp. And it was AWESOME. We split up the districts and then gave them a list of 10 things to do and told them that they had 20 minutes to do everything. The each zone leader was in charge of a district and they were like the drill sergeants and their job was to actually slow down the districts. So it was super fun. They all succeeded and they learned a lot in the process. The other requirement, not only did they have to do everything in 20 minutes but they had to be unified in everything. Needless to say, that was the awesomest workshop ever and I have no idea how we're gonna top that next month… 

But the work afterwards was a bit of a downer because the punted-ness all started up. We went and taught Sister Le. and then we walked and walked and walked and walked.... aaaaand walked. Because no one was home and because it was so hot, no one was outside. The other appointment we had that day was with Brother B. and that was a good lesson too. Patay. 

Wednesday: We went out and worked in the morning and taught C. who is a recent convert. He is a dancer and he's really good but because of that he can never go to church. So we'll see what happens with him. In the afternoon we switched up our normal plans to see what would work. We went and taught Sister P. first and that was fun. And then we went to visit Sister E. who we hadn't taught for a while. We taught her and extended a goal date to her and she accepted. Then we went and taught Sister Li. And then we taught Sister D. M. and the P. family. And we didn't ride in a tricycle at all. We just walked and walked. You know you've done a lot of walking when the members start saying that you've lost weight. Which they totally do here.

Thursday: Another punted day but that was mostly our fault. We decided we were gonna spend the whole day finding. We didn't plan on it being hotter than ever. But we did find a new less active. His name is N. and he's 20 years old. He was baptized back in 2007 and he became less active because all his friends went less active or moved away. So that's what happened. We're gonna try to get him to come back too. We also went and taught Sister Le. again and then went and taught Brother B. again.

Friday: We finally had a member come work with us. And we went and taught Brother T. He's the one that we don't know if he's a member or not. And that lesson was the funniest thing ever. We tried to teach him the Book of Mormon intro and he kept trying to translate everything we said into Ilokano bahaha super funny. The look on Brother A.'s face was hilarious. We went and got punted again and then went and taught Sister D. M. again. And then were just punted until the end of the night. Woohoo.

Saturday: We went and taught P. and M. again and told them to go to church. Then we went and crashed a birthday party. We didn't know anyone there. We just walked up to a group of 20 year olds and stood there awkwardly smiling at them (Elder C. style) and they told us to come in and sit down and eat some spaghetti. Ok sounds good. Can we teach you as well? Of course! Yes hahaha sounds good to me. We got 7 new investigators out of that one hour and it might have just been because I'm white but they did actually listen. And then after that lesson we went to 7/11 and got slurpees as a reward haha 

We then went and taught Sister F. and then went to the church and attended the baptism of Sister J. and Sister V.'s investigator. It was good. And then we had a meeting right after that and during the meeting, the rain started. And not just sprinking. Pouring. And we didn't have umbrellas. but that was ok. We just were stuck in the church until 9 and then we went straight home. That was it.

Sunday: We did everything we could to get investigators and less actives to church but! it wasn't enough. They didn't want to come. And so i've decided that Sundays are the most stressful days of the week. Missionaries have to worry about EVERYTHING on Sundays. The members, the investigators, the less actives, the stats, and sometimes to top it all off we have to give surprise talks or play the piano or be the chorister. Man. It's pretty exhausting. But that's ok. We worked after church and went to Sister Le.'s again and shared with her and then went and taught Sister D. M. And then we went to one appointment and got two new investigators, Sister P. and Sister Lei. They're awesome. And then ended the night at the Po.'s and they fed us pancit. It was a good day.

The whole week was fun and interesting but in the end we learned a lot. So yeah. But this next week is not gonna be like that. I refuse to be punted again... So yeah :)

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. 

Mahal ko kayo!

-Sister Hess

The Paranoid Parent of Teenagers

3:15, the dog wakes me up. What’s her deal? She pees all the time lately. She’s getting to be an old dog, I guess. Wow! That was fast!

I get up to let her out because that’s what I do. That’s why I exist…to her. I am the one who will respond and always have, so no one else has had to. No one else is in practice for this kind of work—just me.

Okay, so here’s the problem. It’s now 4:03am. Nearly an hour I’ve been laying here. First, I climb back into bed with complete hope that I will be able to just dose back off….Then my feet start to itch. I’m talking full on itchiness. I try to ignore them. Sometimes this works and the itchiness goes away. Well, it does…kind of. There are other times that I give in and scratch them, and I scratch them and I scratch them, and somehow, that satisfies things so I can go back to sleep.

No sleep. I realize that when I went down to let the dog out, just as my feet hit the bottom stair, that a
door downstairs banged against the door frame—as if someone had pushed against it. Uh oh! Is someone in the house? Add to that the fact that as I go to check it out, I see a light on under the door to the garage. Has someone gone in or out during the night?

And so it begins….The mom worries. Ugh! Totally FORGET sleep. I’m so done!

My brain starts creating possibilities….If I were a teenager, what would I do? If I were a teenager who really had no understanding of a parents worries, what would I try to get away with?

Seriously serious situations enter my brain. The door bangs again—3, 4, 5 times. Okay, that’s it! There is no pattern to the banging, and it really is just one bang and then nothing and then another bang a few minutes later. Is there a window open because someone’s gone out of it? Is someone paying someone a midnight visit? What is going on?

Well, let’s just say I’m grateful for the flashlight app I downloaded on my phone, but I’m cursing the creaking stairs. Ugh! Darned old house. A dead give away for sure. They’ll hear me coming and quickly act like they’re sleeping…..At least that’s what I would have done at their age.

Yup. I know it all. I was one once. Loved my parents dearly, but y’know, a kid’s gotta be a kid—but not on my watch. Why do I think it’ll be any different for me than it was for my parents? Well, that’s exactly it!.... I don’t.

That’s why I’m up.

Just for the record....Everyone was in bed. No windows or doors were open, but my imagination still was and the door continues to bang.

Happy 5:30!

#1's Weekly Email: Week #43

Just stare at the ground and keep walking. Or look up! that's an even better option. Just don't look straight ahead because it is Holy Week here in the Philippines...

---

This week was very very interesting. It was also very successful but yeah. Holy Week is an interesting thing here…  Monday: monday was my companion's birthday. So it was a lot of fun. We did our normal p-day thing. Partied it up, you know. At 5 we went out to work just like every p-day and we went to Brother C's house and taught him. He's an interesting kid. If you didn't know, filipinos are really really good at dancing. And Brother C is a recent convert who is on a dance team. And because of that, he doesn't have any time. After the lesson to Brother C, we went to a family home evening at the home of our recent convert, Le. It was a ton of fun. And then we got to eat a ton of food :) I love the Philippines. Tuesday: District meeting! That was a lot of fun. i like our zone. After district meeting we went and got Shawarma. Remember on the Avenger's at the end when Iron Man says that he saw a Shawarma sign and he thought they should go get some after the big battle was over? Well Shawarma is actually a filipino food and it's super yummy. It's kind of like a pita wrap but nevertheless, they are delicious. I ate two :) yummmm. After that we actually got the chance to meet up with the Cobb family. Brother (used to be Elder) Cobb was wearing weird normal clothes and his mom was super nice and gave us all hugs and we all took pictures with them. I'm sure you've all seen them by now. They're a very sweet group of people. Then we went home and took a 15 minute nap and went out and worked. We first went and visited Sister Li. We taught her about the plan of Salvation. I love teaching that to recent converts because it has so much more significance to them now. They know that it's true and that all they need to do now is endure to the end and then everything's gonna be ok. it's awesome. And then after that lesson we were super punted. Dangit. but that's ok. We just went around and talked to everyone but EVERYONE was BUSY. Patay. But we did get to teach Sister P's daughter and son. Her daughter's name is Pr and she's 21 and her son is M and he's 20 but honestly you'd think he was 16... he's super immature and loves joking around. But we taught them anyways and now they both have goal dates for baptisms. Woohoo! Wednesday: We went out in the morning and taught Brother J who is a die-hard Catholic. He's also a member of the Catholic church's choir. He's invited me to join them multiple times. Not gonna happen but thanks for the invite. Anyways, we taught him the word of wisdom and he was funny about it because he said he would live it. That's the weird thing about him. He knows all the stuff we teach him is true but he doesn't want to become Mormon because he's Catholic. Or that's what he says... Interesting.  After teaching him we went back home and ate lunch. And then went right back out into the heat.  We visited Brother T who is someone who contacted us on the street and said he was Mormon when he was a little kid. So we said we'd come back and visit him. And we finally did. We taught him Lesson 1 and he said he vaguely remembered it. He's kind of old and we're still trying to figure out if he's an actual member or not…  Then we went and visited Sister Le again and taught her. She fed us fish balls which are super duper yummy. Then she brought her neighbor, D over and we taught him. He's super nice and wants us to teach him. So we did. And he said when he knows that what we teach is true, he'll be baptized. ok sounds good to me :) We then went and taught Sister D M who is another recent convert. That lesson was interesting. After that we walked to the next appointment and taught the P family.  Thursday: If you're ever here in Bataan in Holy Week you will see decorations of huge crosses. You will also see people crawling around in the street with bandannas covering their heads, shirtless, and people hitting them with a rubber strap. You will also see more men walking around shirtless, with a bandanna on their head, tied to a cross. And last but not least, more men walking down the streets, shirtless, whipping themselves and getting blood on everything. But anyways, Thursday was another punted day. But we still got some lessons in. We found Sister M J who thinks that the only people who go to church are those that have sins. We also taught Sister Li again and Sister P and Brother M and then we went and visited Brother B.  Friday: Good Friday. Me and Sister L went to Balanga for a leadership meeting. Yes! And the meeting was really good. I learned a lot. Then we came back and worked and I've got to speed this up because we're almost out of time. We went and taught Sister Le's husband D and that was interesting because he was drunk haha but it was fun. And then we taught some other lessons Saturday: good good good Sunday: It was fun and we got to teach Le's daughter, J and she was good too. So yeah. Sorry. But this week was interesting and I'm so glad that I'm here. I love this work and I love the Filipino people when they're not doing crazy things to themselves. Yup. Thank you for everything. Mahal ko kayo! -Sister Hess

#1's Weekly Email: Week #42

Man oh man. Lets just say that sometimes transfers are a very very very good thing. I am now in a different city. And my new companion is Sister M, a Tongan from Alaska. I've got my first American companion! WOW! It's super fun but I've realized just how Filipino I've become. It's pretty weird. So my week in review... Monday:We had p-day and it was really fun. Last day with all four of us and so we went and had fun together. We did a family home evening and yup. Just had fun. Tuesday:This day was interesting because we were all really preoccupied with the idea of transfer calls. We went out and worked and both W and D worked with us. We visited some investigators and I honestly don't remember the whole day. But at the end of the day we ended up in Balintabog with those crazy kids. On the way there both W and D told me that they had the feeling that I was gonna be transferred. But I didn't feel anything so I just shrugged it off. And then Sister T kept texting us and freaking out because we hadn't got the text yet and I was freaking out every time she texted because I thought it was the ZLs. And then they finally did text. And I got transferred :) I wasn't sure how I would feel about it but the initial reaction was just a big YES! and then I sighed a big huge sigh of relief. I think if I had stayed there one more transfer I might have gone crazy... So we headed home and I started packing and didn't get to bed until 12:30 that night. Wednesday: We got up at 5:30 and headed to the victory bus station. We got on the bus and rode all the way to Olongapo. Then we got off that one and rode another bus. And then we got on a trike and went to Pizza Hut. Man oh man I miss American pizza. It was soooooo good. Then we went to the apartment. We went out and worked and taught Sister L who got baptized on Sunday. She's super sweet but all the people that we visited kept saying that they miss Sister Ma a lot. I don't blame them. She was here for a really long time. But the people here are really nice. This area is way different from my last ones because it's kind of like a city. But it's cool. Thursday: Went out exploring the new area again. I got to meet Brother H Z who is the son of L. He's really funny and he told me that I need to only speak Tagalog to him and he will only speak English to me so he can have practice. Ok sounds good to me :) His family is great too. We also taught G, one of our 17 year old boy investigators. He's super funny. The whole day, everyone was shocked by my Tagalog.  Friday: We went back to Sister L's house and visited some less-actives too. The less-actives here are really progressing which is weird but awesome and they're all gonna return next month :) yesss.  Saturday: First session and second session of General Conference. i looooove General Conference. I learn so much every single time.  Afterwards, we went and visited the B family who are less-actives too and are super funny. Brother B is a college professor and super smart. We talked about the different languages here in the Philippines for a while. Did you know there are more than 97 different languages in the Philippines? it's super awesome.  Sunday: General Conference again. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk and Elder Bednar's talk. Soooo good. After church we had L's baptism. She was super happy and so are we. And now I'm sitting here writing all of you. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ and I know that families can be together forever in this church. I love this work so much and I can see how much it has blessed my life.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. I love you all Mahal ko kayo! Ingat kayo palagi! -Sister Hess