Week of the Intestine

That title is much more interesting than anything that happened, but I did eat chicken intestine this week. Some things I forgot to put in my picture letter:

Sis. Paningbatan and I gave the district meeting workshop. It was about repentance. Also, one funny thing. A lola (grandma) in my ward was talking to me. She used to live in Ontario. I told her I was from Utah, and she said "I've been there!" She was so excited. She said, "I went to Joseph Smith's home there. I was there all day. Then later at the night I went to the Palmyra Pageant. Have you gone to that?" I just said, "not yet." I didn't have time to try to explain the difference between Palmyra and Utah. 

Sister Shaw is gone! So now I'm the only American sister in my zone. Lucky me ;) 

This week was hard but I know with all of your prayers no matter how hard it gets, it will be okay.

Thank you all for your support. Maraming salamat. Mahal ko kayo lahat. Huwag ninyo ako kalilimutan ;) (Thank you. I love you all. Do not forget me.)

--

Sister Smith

Weekly Update 4/18-4/19

Hello everyone. I love you all. Today we had a zone activity. Dagupan is real hot. I heard it's the 2nd hottest city in the Philippines. Enjoy the update. Keep praying! Love you all. -- Sister Smith

More from her letter to us:

Hi mommy and daddy,

My first transfer ends this week. 1 down 11 to go. It's crazy. It's been pretty fast. but really hard. 

Thank you for both your emails. I'm sorry I'm always so bad at emailing you both and remembering to reply to everything. I feel like an hour is not long enough and i wish I could write you letters but I don't like that because you wouldn't get it for too long.

1. my one regret, and thing I want most is the mini scriptures like we got the boys for christmas. I wish I would have been smarter. with my scriptures falling apart, and being so heavy, I really think I would like little scriptures for proselyting that it wouldn't matter if they got wet. don't rush, but I would like them if you send me a package. I feel bad because i feel like it's so expensive to get things, so I'm sorry. I hope I'm worth it :) I can't think of anything else I'm dying to have right now. Most things I've been able to find here are great. 

2. I got one letter from grandma on wednesday. they were supposed to bring my package but alas. no just a letter. it was the second one she sent to the philippines. Idk why I'm not getting any. it's really weird. there's not a better address. I think part of it is just that mail is weird here.I think I'm getting my allergy medicine package today. 

3. My toe still sucks but I can wear shoes now again so I'll just keep taking care of it I guess. I'm really annoyed by it but what else can I do. My allergies were okay until yesterday, so it's a good thing I"m getting the package today. I don't know if i'll take them every day. we'll see. 

dear elders are okay but I actually don't think they are much faster than if you just wrote me a letter. Normal letters take 2 weeks so I've heard. the dear elder I got from you today was written when you talked about talking with toni about choosing to be happy.

Thank you for fasting for me too. I hope it helps. I read about Alma the Younger's father praying for him and how his faith allowed the angel to come to alma or whatever. It just reminded me that other people having faith in me is important too.

I had a really good exchange with sis. Mclain this week that helped me a lot. we had a really good discussing about becoming, and what perfection really is. 

I've been praying to have good experiences, and trying to really notice the Lord's hand in my life. I'm trying to have faith that it is there.

My tagalog really improved this week. I had to give a last minute talk at our baptism and I did it all tagalog and everyone was surprised. it was nice. haha.

this morning I used a deodorant melissa sent me in the mtc. and it actually kindof smelled like dad. that was funny. I liked it. 

I fell in an alley and broke my other umbrella. good thing sis. shaw is leaving so for now I'll just use hers then I'll buy a new one when I find one I like. 

We went to a fish pond for our zone activity today. we were supposed to fish but they dind't really have poles. so we just looked around. It was kindof fun I guess. that's why I'm emailijng so late.

I saw a barangay today called Coop's Ville. I couldn't take a picture fast enough for Cooper. 

My first baptism was great. Servillano is so funny. He is so old and forgetful. and the first time they tried to baptize him I thought he was going to hurt the guy baptizing him. he freaked out. haha. then they had to do it two more times. he is very clean now. 

I really liked where we ate last monday. It's called Mang Inasal. It was yummy. we also ate at a member's house this week. I had adobo. IT was good. Either this week or next week I will try chicken intestine from a stand we always pass. I have been promising i would try it. Pray for me. haha. 

Well, I love you a lot. I have to email a lot of people so I will stop here. I hope you all are doing well. Keep praying for me. Oh and Mom, if you send another package or even a letter that will arrive here before this next transfer is over (6 weeks) send a letter for sis. Paningbatan. she gets ZERO emails or letters from her family. In fact, even if it won't be in 6 weeks, send one and I'll get it to her. 

Bye!

Sister Princess Petunia Arby Lisanne

Keep studying PMG. I think a cool thing you could do is do it for family night every week. take a chapter or a lesson and do it togheter. at the end of the chapters there are study and meeting ideas you could use. our house can be an mtc because all of you are future and current missionaries. 

Here's Your Letter!

A little more info from her letter to us:

I don't know why the mail isn't coming to me. I know mom's package came last wednesday but they haven't gotten it to me yet which is really frustrating. I lost my umbrella. So I have to buy one today. I also have to try to find bigger shoes apparently. and so I might spend some money. I took some out last week, so i should be fine. (Side note from mom: She has broken her alarm clock, watch, lost her umbrella, and her scriptures have broken... things have to go up from here, right? ;)

Conference was so good. I feel like it was for me. every talk hit home and answered some of the questions I wrote down beforehand. I am so grateful for our prophets and apostles. I'm sure you can probably guess which talks I really appreicated the most. 

I'm learning that being happy and having a testimony are a choice in most ways so Im trying to choose that. I studied ch 4 in pmg this week and realized I need to change my prayers. 

I got some dear elders today but they were written like march 8. so the mail is really messed up. I think things get mixed up and so hopefully my letters will come to me. 

Our investigator had his baptismal interview yesterday! and passed! I'm so excited for my first baptism on saturday. we didn't start teaching him, but we finished. so thats fun. 

I am going to send my sd card home with a sister whos leaving next week. so you will get it in a few weeks. then you can just send it in a package later because I have an extra sd card so no hurry. later i can try to send pics home on the email because I made it so my camera is taking smaller pics now. 

I had a good insight this week when I read about jesus telling simon that he pryaed for him. and how when you all are praying for me in his name, he is praying for me, and I have a lot of prayers coming for me. and i need to honor those by having faith in them. you all want me to succeed. 

Cooper- have a good birthday! I can't believe you are 14. I want you to try to say your prayers every morning and night. Also start studying preach my gospel every day. I love you!!!

Tyler- I feel like you need to focus as much as you can on a mission. Do anything you can right now to be a missionary. I wish I would have done more.

I love you all so much. I miss you every day. But I'll see you in a while. Love you.

--

Sister Smith

This Week in the Philippines

Aubrey hasn't had much time, so she has asked me to just post info from the letter to me and Brandon for everyone. :) She also sent pictures of letters she wrote (don't ask me why she can't send pictures of her and her mission. ;) I'll type them up.

Hello you both. I forgot my notebook so I don't have my list of things to tell you. I'm doing okay today. 

Some good things happened this week. My roommate had some popcorn but we don't have a microwave. I tried dumping the bag into a pan on the stove and it worked so that was good. 

We had zone conference on wednesday. That was pretty good. My mission president based his talk after a talk called Becoming a Consecrated Missionary. I had read it earlier in the week so it wasn't very new. But it was still good reminders. Sis. Monahan talked about repentance. It was good. We had a good workshop about humility and ate some really good food. 

On Saturday we got to watch the womens session. I liked How Firm a Foundation.  I posted it on facebook soon before I left for my mission because I like those last verses.  I liked the whole session. It was very good and direct.  

I have 2 investigators to tell you about. Servillano is 69. He's so excited to be baptized. He comes to every baptism and comes to church hours early. He's funny. Myrna is a nice older lady. Yesterday we went to her house and begged her to go to church. She finally said she would come for one hour and she ended up staying the whole time, and she was talking to everyone and it was good. Its really hard to get investigators to go to church here.

I'm feeling better in a lot of ways. I'm trying to just be happy. I know that sometimes you have to just wait for things to get better. I loved the article in the ensign this month too, about weakness vs sin. It helped me in some ways. I can't believe it's april. I have been on a mission longer than I was at Jacob Lake. I can't believe that. 

I love you so much!

--

Sister Smith

Dear Family,

I have no time on PDay. we have to travel and do so many things so I might not finish this better today. I miss the MTC. I didn't have to do shopping. And it was air conditioned. And I got mail. I miss mail. But apparently people have sent it so hopefully I get some, and if not, oh well, I'm being weaned. Actually it was like cold turkey. But yeah. 

Hope you are all doing well. I wish I had all day to email you because an hour isn't enough. :) I'm sad we don't get to chat anymore but I guess it makes me tell you more important things. I don't like letters as much because by the time you get it it will be old news. Oh well. 

I hope all of you are doing well. I don't feel like I know anything happening in your lives. I've missed you all a lot. But I guess that's life. I'll tell you some things about my life:

Companion:

-I recently realized she has fake teeth.

-She is from San Pablo mission.

-She is pretty good at cooking.

-Her father died in 2009?

-She is trying to learn English.

-She's about Cooper's size.

-She loves weird food. Her favorite-blood. But she won't try balut.

-She is a good missionary. Always striving to be bolder and less shy.

Foods:

-ate gross red eggs. I don't know why the shell is red, but they weren't good.

-I like rice, thankfully.

-I also like ramen, thankfully.

-there's lots of saltine-like crackers here.

-Pangasinan is famous for milk fish. It's good, I guess.

-Most of the food I've had is bland.

-Bananas are good. And they have peanut butter here.

Investigators:

-Serullano. 69 yo. 

-Rolando 71 yo. 

-Myrna 55? She's nice, but has a hard time understanding our message. Very sincere though.

-Jingle 17, cute girl

I'm not sure what to write. I'm trying to think of really general things to say, but it's hard. Here are some questions:

-Has any new technology come out?

-What's the weather like?

-How's the oil field?

-What are you doing this summer?

-Do you miss me?

We have weekly planning today. Our schedule is usually like this

6:30 wake up, exercise

7:00 Get ready, breakfast

8:00 Personal Study

9:00 Comp Study (2 hours because I am new)

11:00 Language Study

12:00 Make lunch, eat, prepare

1:30 Out the door. 

Some days it's different and we have district mtg. or planning or Church or something. We have to be home at night at 9:00. We do daily planning then dinner. Then 10:30 bed. It really isn't very hard. It seems really easy to me sometimes. I'm really fast at showering, getting ready, etc. so I usually have free time to read conference talks or something. I'm always exhausted at the end of the day, but it's ok.

Have you been doing family history work? Temple? Reading the Book of Mormon? Talking to your friends about the church? If not, you should.

Coop- I see frogs and lizards a lot. Little lizards in my room all the time. You would love them. I wear your bracelet every day.

Ty- You would be really big here. Haha. I always hit my head or body on things because I forget how big I am. And you're even bigger. :) I miss you both!

          -Sissy

Dear Mom and Dad,

Here are some good things:

Clouds, trike rides, I have learned to wash laundry by hand. I ate foods at a nonmember's house and I didn't know what they were and I didn't get sick. We have lots of LIahonas I can read. I don't have Denghe fever. It's not as hot as I thought it would be. Keeping my toothbrush in the fridge is kind of fun. 

I can't believe tomorrow is another PDay. Time goes by so slow and so fast. I have been reading some good talks lately.

One I've liked since high school is Trial of Your Faith by Neil L. Andersen. Others: Converted Unto the Lord- Bednar. Where Is the Pavilion -Eyring. Another one I liked in HS: The Transforming Power of Faith and Character -Scott. Faith- The Choice is Yours -Edgley. Like a Broken Vessel -Holland, Basically I have found tons. The only problem is I am really good at LIKING and COMPREHENDING information, but bad at applying it.

Church was alright today. They speak part Tagalog and part English. So I understand bits and pieces. Our apartment is nice. It is spacious. It has tile, an orange gate in front, 2 bathrooms. I stayed in one when I first got to Urdaneta that was bad.

I am really grateful for you both. I am almost constantly reminded of you which I hate but it's good because it is usually good things. I also have dumb dreams like about our house in Rigby. Anyway, I am grateful for the way you raised me.

Being here has made me see priorities in my life better. I have been able to observe needs instead of wants. 

Another interesting thing. Many people here speak more than one language. There are 3 here. Tagalog, Pangasinan, Ilokano. And then some English. Lots of the older people just speak mostly Pangasinan so that's rough. They somewhat understand/speak Tagalog, but it's hard. Pangasinan is so different from Tagalog. My area doesn't have many JUST Ilokano speakers, so that's good.

Well, maybe I'll add some to this in the morning before I send it. 

Love, Sister Smith

I love you all more than ANYTHING.

Happy Birthday Coop

Be happy :)

A Bit of a Rough Week

Aubrey didn't send a group email this week, but wrote us a short email:

This week has been rough. But I am growing. 

Last week I got my watch back put on, but it fell off again so I'm excited to get a new one. It must have just bent a little or something, because they were able to put it on, but I dropped it a couple feet and it just plopped right off. I will not drop the new watch ever. 

My scripture binding fell off on the front. So they will have to hang in there for a while. :) It's okay though. 

The other day a sister stayed at our apartment and she looked kind of familiar. All of a sudden I realized I went to elementary school with her. It was Shannon McClain from Rigby. She's good friends with Josh Jenkins. She and Josh are both going home next week. It was fun to talk to her. I didn't even know she was on a mission. She's a cool person.

I have been having dreams about Rigby and Grandma's house and family.

We get to watch the womens session of conference on saturday then the rest of conference next weekend. I'm really excited. We also have zone conference on wednesday. So it should be a good week. 

Well, I hope to hear from you all soon. I love you a lot. Thanks for being my parents and supporting me. 

--

Sister Smith

And some photos from the Mission Blog: