week 14

Week 14 (Labbingapat) 

Good week ulit (again) don't be fooled by these few words of Tagalog I throw in these emails I really don't know the language all that well but line by line right? I lost my American trainer this week she left to Bang Bang to go train so it's just been my Filipino companion and I. The biggest difference with this change is I take a larger portion of the lesson - this is good and bad. Good for me because more practice with the language. Bad for our investigators because they literally don't understand me..... no they do for the most part- but they'll look to my companion for confirmation minsan (sometimes). Update on the week:

Monday: I bought a HOLY dress. Fun play on words cause I'm a missionary that wears a dress. But I bought a dress with a lot of Holes in it. And it was initially 300 pesos and then I went to try it on and the lady said its 200 Pesos because these 2 holes and I was thinking no big deal because it's fun to sew and 2 holes I can handle -especially since the pattern of the dress made me so happy. I buy it and take it home to find like 8 more holes hahaha. I wore it Tuesday and found that I missed a hole. All good things. 

Tuesday: I ate pig ear on a stick and really is as good as it sounds. The outer ear was hard rubbery almost with a fatty inside -yikes. I wouldn't recommend it ......but a good experience. 

Thursday: I tried Alakart Chicken intestine with cheese in it. My Filipino comp was talking this up like it's the best thing ever. And well I'd eat it again but it definitely wasn't my favorite. We got punted (canceled)  this day so we looked for people to teach and I saw an old lady sitting by herself some ways off so we went up to her and asked if we could teach. She let us in and we started the lesson with a song as always and since my comp is sick it was really my voice carrying us and I began to laugh  (I don't know why) but I couldn't stop and mid song the the old lady, my comp, and I were all just cracking up. That was probably my favorite lesson we taught this week because the spirit was still so strong there and it was my first time sharing more of the lesson and it went well.

Friday: We went to the hospital because of 2 infections on my leg. That was the most eventful thing that day so I'll leave it at that. 

LAST WEEK (quickly) First time for me to experience 3 baptisms! It was pretty awesome I'm not sure if I've shared this but the boy who's dad was an inactive member told us that he wants to serve a mission and he doesn't care where he goes as long as he's sharing the Lord's gospel. Pretty cool. 

Spiritual thought: because last week was Thanksgiving I thought a lot about being thankful. And since being on the mission I've had times of life at home just come to mind that make me really Happy. They're really obscure random moments too but I write them down in the back of my journal entitled "A few of my favorite things" haha. It's cheesy but this page makes me so happy to look at espeically when I'm having a rough go at things here. My leg was a doosy maybe pictures will be included -I'll leave that one up to my mom but like the poem I'll share after this-- I'm grateful for the wound on my leg for it means I have legs. (mom could you please include it actually) I'm running out of time but I encourage you all to enjoy and be grateful for the things you have because theres a LOT to be grateful for. And we should appreciate all we can while we can. It shouldn't take ice bucket showers to develop an 'attitude of gratitude.'

Hope everyone is well..... love and miss you all

                                                          Infection......Boil

                                           Comp assist on clean up

                                                2nd.......Boil

         Tori mentioned sending a poem, however she forgot to include it in her letter. 

week labbindalawa (12)

Banal ng mga usoke (holy smokes) where to begin? 

Tuesday: I recently finished reading the Ricarddi letter - I felt like we should pray to know what to do or where to go. So my comps and I prayed and we felt like we needed to go straight across the street.  We found a nice elderly lady who wanted to hear our message and invited us to return. We returned later in the week and met her son (she wasn't there) and he was interested in our message. 

We also visited the videoke and prayer lady. She's so cute and her house reminds me of Narnia because from the outside it looks like a cute little house. Then you walk in and the first room is a treasure untold (little mermaid)  no but really so many trinkets and what not. The second room a nice old kareoke machine and then outside a backyard with so many flowers and a cute little gazebo and at the end of the lesson she showed us her part of the house where she has a shrine. Come to find out she has a Book of Mormon and has been taught by the missionaries before and she said "I know you don't believe in this (shrines) but I do" it was a tender moment.

Wednesday: It's been four weeks of training - we woke up at 4:30 to travel 3 hours to our meeting in Cauayan city. Everyone fell asleep just about but I was so entranced by the scenery outside so I stayed up .......then regretted that later when we took a Van instead of a bus home. The difference between the bus/ van is space, ac, and speed. I passed out for the first bit of it then woke up with a heat stroke just kidding but woke up because a boy threw up. It was rough and to top it off my comp lost her bag with her money in it. But all is well we've recovered.

We taught Deejay and A LIZARD PEED ON ME what? 

Thursday: We went on splits with the stl's first time I was just one on one with a missionary little intimidating. But it went well she was really nice and I've discovered the language is coming I just need to trust myself more. 

Saturday: Baptism interviews: Chris, Deejay, and Jomer and that night we found out Jomer's dad was mormon! What? That's crazy because I told my comps when we met them we need to find Jomer's parents because there's something different about him. Never did I guess it was that his dad was mormon. 

Sunday: Stake conference! It was about ministering and how all members can be missionaries.  I want to testify of the truthfulness of this. I didn't realize how much we can do to help move the work forward as members but we make the difference. And that leads me to my spiritual thought: 

FEAR NO MAN - read the ricardi letter and you'll get the reference. But really fear no man. Share the gospel with everyone because God loves everyone so open your mouth and share what you know is true........what you know is TRUE.  This gospel is true, The Book of Mormon (Alma 31:5)  is the word of God and brings people happiness, peace, and a desire to be better, families can be together forever, and we have a prophet on earth today.  These are truths and as you share them with others then you can feel the power of the truth of these things. Brother Chris texted us missionaries "How can we know or get closer to God" and as I gave my answer I got fired up sharing my thoughts because IT'S TRUE!  And that's so cool and powerful-we have no reason to fear sharing these things because ITS TRUE D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. 

Love and miss you all 

Sister Crawford 

Jomer is 14 and wants to serve a mission some day

missed a nap entranced by scenery

bus...Space, AC, & Speed

comps I've come to love

P-day off to the Caves

Entrance to the Caves

Ready...OK

Strike a pose...good day

Sister Tovia

Sister Carbanara

week 10 & 11

Week 10 (Sampu) 

Tuesday Wednsday Thursday: rather normal we had two dinner appointments with families that I LOVE. Both weekly appointments. The Maymen family and the Calagay family. The parents/family almost never eat with us so we just talk with the mom or parents while we eat but they're very kind. I'm really pretty lost in the language so I'm not sure whats being said but I laugh when others laugh and I can pick up on the basics so thats good. 

Thursday: Sister Maymen is a patient member who's accompanied us to all the members houses so we could know our area a little better since it's new.   She got us these pasteries filled with cocunut something and every members house we went to fed us merrienda (snacks) YUM  Everyone is so sweet and generous.

Friday: We met a cute lady Sister Vilma. We've visted her everyday she's receptive to our message. She has really loud children always around her but it's kind of fun for example: this one boy (hilarious) runs around and is just in his own world. Then one day a cocroach ran across the floor and the kid says "Ipis" (cockraoch) and he chases after it and trys to stomp on it BARE FOOT misses though and the roach got away but it was HILARIOUS to me Idk why 

Saturday: News of the baggio (storm) Typhoon.  We were at Dj's house and they were playing this fun game so we joined them for a while and then taught them a lesson and then having gotten news of the storm went back to our apartment to prepare for the storm.   

Tomorrow the storm will hit and so we'll have to stay indoors but life is good and exciting. I know the church is true.  I read things in the Book of Mormon that testify to me of it's truthfulness.   I encourage everyone to continue reading STUDYING the book of mormon so that you can feel and know it's true. Theres a scripture about praying for comfort and He'll give it and I know thats true. I also know that if we abide in him he'll abide in us and so many other profound things are promised in the scriptures so make sure to read.  

Love and miss everyone 

Week 11 (Labingissa) on the mission

Another good week! Started with the baggyio (storm) and thankfully my area wasn't affected very much. We still spent the day stuck in doors it felt like a snow day at home really. I spent the day sewing and a sister had the movie Johnny Linggo - it's on Lds.org so it was allowed and if you haven't seen it I reccommend watching it (very good). The storm was the loudest at night with heavy rain and wind.  The next day was mild so we were able to teach around 4. 

We contacted two elderly women and one of them asked me what dialect I was speaking because she couldn't understand ... I was speaking tagalog---YEP.   Sister Cabaraban asked whats the key to old age she said "praying and videoke" Which is espeically funny if you know how much Filipinos love videoke. I hear it everyday all day long. 

Wednesday: We got severely punted which means all of our lesson plans fell through. Idk why but it was still a really good day. I whistled with a piece of grass like my dad taught me and then my comp said "quiet dignity" partly joking to which I replied "we should preach with a voice like a trump" and then trumped the grass haha. We also walked past a group of people playing basketball (looked like mormon dads) and I think I've seen too many movies because I said we should make a deal that if we make a basketball shot we can teach them ... and well it went as cringy as it sounds haha

It was "All Saints Day" and a little girl was telling me about her grandma that died but I didn't know that All saints day was a holiday so I was telling her sorry and then I asked kahapon? as in yesterday and all the kids cracked up because she had passed away in April 

Nothing super eventful the other days Deejay has now invited two more of his brothers to our discussion and we have a total of 8 baptism dates planned. These group of kids are really awesome one named Jomer has read up to Jacob 4. We hope to get their parents in on our discussions.

Spiritual thought: This week I was reading in Alma 24 the story of Anit-Nephi-Lehi's who would rather die than sin. And their example made me wonder do we allow the fact that we are imperfect  keep us from doing everything in our power to not sin? I read Alma 13:12 which talks of looking upon sin with disgust and I know that it's important for us to do everything in our power to avoid sin and not justify sin for others because I know that when we justify sin it makes it that much easier for us to commit the same sin. Kaya Mo En (I spelt that wrong) but You can do it 

Love and miss you all Sister Crawford