kumusta everyone!  So Saturday was my two month mark of my mission!  Can you believe that it has gone by that fast?!  I sure can’t.  This week has flown by.  Thank goodness I got over that flu and I’m better now.  This whole adjusting thing is getting old fast though.  I’m excited for it to get over and for me to be able to not worry about anything hah.  So my wonderful roommates didn’t pay the water or electricity bill last month.  So our bill is huge!!  I really hope they don’t expect me to help pay it!  But I suppose if they do then I will and I won’t complain too much.  Water and power is more important to me than money. I’ll just live off of ramon noodles or something haha. So funny story of the week. We were walking to an appointment and a less active came up and shook my hand and completely ignored my kasama....cause I’m white.  Anyway we kept walking and he went over to the basketball court.  They were just about to start a game so there was a whole ton of people there and he yelled SISTER THIS IS FOR YOU!!!! and took a long shot.  I was praying that it wouldn't go in but it swished.  The entire crowd was cheering and it was sobrang embarrassing but super funny at the same time and we just busted out laughing.  

Funny stories happen everywhere. So the kids are adorable here right?  Anyway they can also be very ummm naughty.  well it is super hot here and so a lot of the time there is not very much clothing being worn.  So we were teaching a lesson the other day and right in the middle just when I was teaching about Joseph Smith the little boy just starts peeing right in the middle of the floor!  And the best is the mom didn’t even freak out.  She just put a shirt over it and kept listening to us!  wow. 

  We rode a "trolley" this week.  A trolley is a little wooden cart that two kids put on the railroad tracks and for five pesos you can ride it and they push you to where you want to go.  It is fairly slow because you have to keep getting off if a cart is coming the other way or if a train comes.   There are children playing around the tracks with trains flying by all the time.  It is pretty scary.  

  So we ate dinner with the second counselor in the Stake Presidency.  Apparently he called president Tye after I gave my talk and told him how good my Tagalog is!   ahhh that is not a good sign haha cause now I have to live up to his word...and my Tagalog really isn’t that good! That means more dedicated language study. 

Oh my gosh so we had a dinner appointment and we were eating and it was super super good but all of a sudden I just got a huge chunk of fat.  And it turns out that the entire dish was full of chunks of fat!  I picked them out cause I couldn’t stand to eat it but everyone else just ate it no problem.  All I could think about was dad and how he would hurt just looking at it haha.  Remember that mini ice cream I sent a picture of last week.  Well that is called dirty ice cream.  I think it is just because it is sold on the street but still haha it kinda freaked me out when I heard the name.  

  We did a service project.  It was cleaning up trash outside of a cock fight arena hahah.  There is so much trash here. Cause people just throw it on the ground instead of in a garbage can so it kind of layers up.  We used sticks to push it into piles because it was too gross to touch.  There were two people with their roosters practice fighting.  It was crazy.  We also had this little soybean snack after.  Kinda different.  The little girls play a game here called Chinese girdle.  It is hard to explain but it is kind of like jump rope. It’s a lot of fun.  

My kasama told me a funny theory that we have here on the mission.  She told me that your 6th companion will have the characteristics of your future husband.  I thought it was pretty funny but I’m a little curious to find out if it works.

Bad news. My camera broke. Well it turns on and everything it just looks like you are covering the lens with your finger because the picture is black.  I’m not sure what is wrong with it cause I didn’t drop it or get it wet or anything.  It happened after I took a selfie haha so maybe I just look so bad I broke the camera.....could be true.  If anyone has any advice on what I could maybe do to fix it I would love to hear from you. Not taking pictures is making me sad. 

 I finished the Book of Mormon this week!   It was super awesome and I loved it.  There is just something special you get when you read it all the way through.  Especially this time where I read it fast.  It just strengthened my testimony that the church is true and the Book of Mormon is true.  Everything comes back to the Book of Mormon and if you have a testimony of that then you can’t fail.  I just hope every day that I can help people learn of the amazing power the Book of Mormon has and discover the peace and answers they can find if they really read and ponder the scriptures.  I learned at the MTC that if you study with the spirit you will learn something you will need that very day.  And it happened to me this week.  I was working hard to make my study more effective.  I tried to read thinking about my investigators and read with the spirit.  I ended up studying about pondering.  Later that day in a lesson I talked about the importance of pondering in receiving answers to our questions.  I had forgot about the promise until after the lesson was over.  It was really cool too see a promise fulfilled and to be able to have studied what I needed in order to help my investigators. I know the church is true and that is why I’m here.  There is nothing else that could keep me out here working hard like I am.  There is nothing else that could keep all of us 19 year old kids going every single day or that could keep us focused on what our purpose is.  I know that the Lord is with me every day.  And he really is my strength.  I promise that if you take the time to see Him in your lives you will be more blessed and be able to make it through all the little hard times.  Thank you all so much for all your emails and your prayers and especially mom and dad and whoever fasted for me.  It really means a lot.  I love you all!  You’re the best!  MAHAL KITA!!!

First off thank you all so much for your love and support and your prayers.  Whenever I get down I just remember all the support I have and just keep pushing forward. You are all the best and I love you so much.  I can’t believe it’s already P-day again!

So this week has been interesting for sure.  I got the flu! YAY.  I've had it for three days now so I’m hoping it gets better soon because I’m not sure how much more I can take.  Achy body plus walking all day to appointments doesn't really work well together but hey its P-day so I get a little bit of a break :)  And of course yesterday we had two dinner appointments and I was too sick to eat anything.  One of the ladies gave us two jars of peanut butter!! I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.  Peanut butter is super expensive here.  Everything is super expensive haha especially when you are on a missionary budget.  We still manage to eat a lot though.  And I think the humidity makes me crave sugar because I always want candy!! The best part is that one of our OYM strategies is by going to a store and buying something small and then talking to them and leaving a pamphlet.  So we get to share the gospel and eat a snack hahah.  Best of both worlds!!   

I had to give a talk on Sunday!!! Like a legit talk.  It was only like 5 to 7 min but still pretty scary.  I wrote it in English and then translated it with a little bit of help from my companion.  When I was giving it she told me that people were asking her if she wrote it for me.  And they said it sounded like I've been out for like 2 months and not just 2 weeks.  So I’m going to take that as a good sign.    So everyone here knows Idaho as land of potatoes.  Super funny.  So I was walking down the street here and I was looking at all the fish vendors and then I noticed that the fish was still breathing!!! They kept splashing water on it so that they could keep it alive.  Whatever works.  My companion bought some fish and they took them and ripped their throats out right there.  It was interesting to say the least haha.    

Oh my goodness so on the jeepney the other day a little boy got on and passed out envelopes for us to give him money and then he went and sat down and sang his little heart out and only one person gave him money.  That is the saddest thing here.  Is that I can’t give money to people.  I saw an old lady selling hot pads on the side of the road and I just wanted to go buy them all so she could go home.  And we were waiting for our other sisters to come and these little boys were coming over asking for food or money and none of them were wearing shoes.  And one picked up a pizza box off the ground and scraped it to get some of the sauce.  Ahh it made me so sad.  They were the sweetest kids too.  They sat and talked to us and I gave them each a candy and they were just so adorable.  

So we have a girl we are teaching and she’s doing so awesome like reading the Book of Mormon and everything and then the other day she came up and asked if she could not get baptized.  We were so sad and we had no idea what the problem was so we planned a super awesome lesson and we tried to go to teach her twice and she wasn't there either time but her mom was so we taught her and then asked her if she knew what the problem was.  And it turns out that she was just scared of the water.  WOW!  We were thinking maybe her dad wouldn't let her or her friends were making fun of her or something but nope.  Thankfully it is not anything that bad!

Also we were teaching a family and they were reading out of the pamphlet and there was a picture of Jesus with the blanket thing over his head you know.  And the little boy was like um is it true that Jesus is Muslim?  haha cause he thought that he was wearing Muslim clothes!  oh good times.

  Also the bumps that I thought were bed bugs turned out to be a reaction to the laundry soap I was using.  Thank goodness hahah cause that’s a lot easier to cure than bed bugs.
As for my homesickness it’s getting a lot better.  I didn't cry every day this week!  So that is better than nothing!  Saturday is my 2 month mark!  crazy huh!  I can’t believe it’s already been that long.  It’s going to fly by.  I do kind of like it here.  Like it’s still so hard but it gets better every day.  I’m super grateful for my companion because we get along really well and she’s great.  Anyway id better wrap it up for now.  I love you all so much and I miss you! Keep on keeping on!  

XOXOXO from the Philippines

- Sister Van Tassell

ps someone needs to tell president Stevenson that he doesn't have to worry.  I’m waking up by myself :)

Alrighty well prepare yourself cause a long email is coming.  Kumusta from the Philippines.  I’m sure you’re anxious to hear all about it so I’ll try my best.  Um let’s see it has been the hardest week of my life.  I kid you not.  I am going to straight up say I’ve cried every day and I feel like crying the rest of the time.  Let’s see.  It all started with saying goodbye at the MTC.  It wasn’t that big of a deal because everyone I really cared about was coming with me.  Anyway we were up at 4:45 the next morning and off to the airport.  Our flights weren’t too bad.  Ok scratch that.  The first flight wasn’t too bad.  I gave away two pass along cards!!  Ask my parents for that info because it’s too long of a story.  Anyway the 10 hour flight I didn’t sleep at all.  Me and sister Bergeson and elder Edwards were awake the whole time.  And ate food and colored with my crayons cause were children at heart.  The rest of the group took some hardcore sleeping pills so they were all zombies.  We were zombies too just awake ones haha.  Um it was super long but you know how those flights go.  It’s just whatever.  The landing was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.  We had to circle before we landed and I was so sick it was ridiculous.  But then we were in Japan so it didn’t matter and we had fun and took lots of pictures.   Then we were off to the Philippines.  That flight I slept, more like died for five hours.   Except the lady behind me was blasting the ac so I froze my butt off.  Finally we were there and I looked like death and we still had to go through customs and all that jazz.  Thankfully we didn’t have to meet our mission president.  We just spent the night in a hotel in Manila and they took us to the mission home in the morning.  Not bad.  The shower sucked but at least there was one.  We went to bed about 1 o clock after like 30 hours of travel.  And then we woke up at 6 to go to Cavite.  Elder Edwards and elder Bryson left at 4:30 and we didn’t get to say bye and it was the saddest thing ever.  I miss my MTC group so much it’s crazy.  It’s just not the same without them.  So after that we had orientation and met our new companions.  Mine is Sister Lizada and she is Filipino.  Thank goodness.  And she’s fluent in English.  Thank goodness again.  Anyway I was so sad to leave my old companions.  Argh it was so hard.  And then we were off.  I’m in an area called Muntin Lupa.  It is part of Las Pinas.  It is a pretty big area considering the size of our mission.  It has a lot of "squatter" houses.  Which can also be known as dirt poor houses.  Culture shock to the max.  TO THE MAX!!  Like the first house we went in I though oh wow this is crazy.  And now that house is looking pretty darn nice.  Half of our lessons are taught sitting on the floor and the other half we sit on couches with torn up cushions or just stools.  I can’t even explain it.  The houses are tiny and usually have quite a few people in them.  But the people are always so nice.  And there are kids everywhere!!! And the cutest kids I’ve ever seen in my life.  I try and talk to them and some talk to me but some just laugh.  And a lot of them just stare and stare.  Everyone stares at me.  I’m the only white person here.  They call me baby and beautiful and I have to just ignore them.  It’s so awkward.  They think that the lighter your skin is the more beautiful you are no matter what your face looks like haha. One of the girls in my apartment actually uses bleaching soap!  And they always give you a celebrity look alike and mine is Emma Watson!  I’ll take it haha.  Um we’ve had two dinner appointments.  One we just got pizza from Shakeys which was the bomb because it was familiar and the other we had a pasta thing which wasn’t bad either.  They also have Jollibee which is a fast food place similar to KFC and its super good.  Um let’s see.  The first day I rode a jeepney and a tricycle.  There are always little lizards crawling everywhere.  Inside and outside of houses.  And when we were teaching I looked up in the rafters and saw a mouse running across one of the boards.  Gotta love it!  There are cats and dogs everywhere but they are all gross so it’s not hard not to touch them.  Oh so it’s possible that I have bed bugs.  I have these weird red bumps all over my hands and feet.  I don’t know what to do about it.

  Teaching has been interesting.  I actually understand quite a bit of gospel stuff.  Like if we just stick to the lessons then I’m ok but if they ask questions or if were just chatting I don’t understand like anything.  My kasama is super encouraging though and she says my Tagalog is really good.  I don’t know whether to believe her or not but I just keep working hard.  She makes me teach a lot too which is hard cause I can’t always say what I want or know if what I’m saying really ties into the lesson but I try and I try and say what the spirit tells me too and I know that it will be ok.  It’s hard cause I am having to learn about all our investigators in such a short time but it is ok. It is coming along.  I love our investigators. They are all super nice.  We found a lady on the street and went to her house to teach her and she was a strong catholic but when we asked her what she knew about Jesus Christ she went into this huge story about how her daughter fell out of a window and they took her to church and prayed and she knew Jesus saved her and that every time she has trials she gets answers through prayer and yeah.  It was like wow!!  And I can’t wait to go back.  Probably my best day was yesterday cause I got to go to church.  The church building is super nice and air conditioned and I loved it because it is familiar.  Like a lot of it is in English and plus you just know the church is the same everywhere.

Um the driving is crazy here but it’s fun.  We have to take our shoes off before going inside.  It’s to respect the house. I washed my clothes in a bucket!!  We had FHE with a family last night and it was the funniest thing ever.  Filipinos love to laugh and joke and to build trust they have to know that you are joking and having fun and not just there to preach so we do a lot of laughing.  It’s a good time. Like I said I’m culture shocked to the max but I’m praying a lot and reading my scriptures and fasting and it’s getting better.  Especially when I’m out teaching.  I do like it here,  I can’t say love yet cause I’m still super stressed and have a lot of anxiety about how things will turn out but I have really gained a testimony of receiving answers through the scriptures.  God loves you and he answers every question you have.  I know it’s true.  The Book of Mormon is so amazing.  I love it and I love this gospel. I love all of you so much! You’re the best!!!!!!!  Keep me posted!! I’ll send pics too if i have time.  Gosh just enjoy America for me!!  

So this week has kind of flown.  It has been crazy but good.  We did a trial run packing and i was like 10 pounds over weight in each bag so that has been a little bit of a stresser but I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly when the final packing has to go down.  I did send home my huge bottle of shampoo and conditioner so i guess you can say I'm really going to rough it ;)  Other than that I'm doing good!  We had service again  this week and guess what.   i had to clean toilets!  gross!  actually not too bad.  But we jinxed ourselves by saying we hadn't had to clean toilets ever...bad idea. 

  Today we had our last class with our teachers.  :( sad day. They showed us pictures of the Philippines and told stories and it got us all way excited.  I really cant wait.  Its like sad and happy all at the same time!  I'm feeling more confident at the language so that is always good!  Our teachers told us that we are the best Tagalog speakers they have ever taught and that we have the best attitude towards learning and the best work ethic.  Who knows if they say that to everyone but it is kinda nice to hear it haha.  Just in time for us to get a little bit of a big head and then go get it squished when we don't know anything!  Oh well it will be good.  Um i love all of you that have emailed and sent letters.  its super fun to hear from all of you. 

      Wednesday was a crazy day.  We got to host and we also were asked to help out with A How to Begin Teaching thing for the brand new missionaries.  Basically we just went in and started a lesson with an investigator and then they took over but it was super scary cause i know that when i came we thought those missionaries that demonstrated for us were so amazing and knew everything,  and now that we are at this point we realized how little we know.  Thank goodness it was in english!  Sister eddington accidently slipped a Tagalog word in haha.

   Thursday we had in field training.  It was all day long!  so kinda crazy but it was good.  and im glad its over.

    We emailed Sister Bergeson's sister and had her send in some Mountain Dews and Root Beers for a going away present for the elders.  It was super fun and they liked it i think.  But its so hard to tell because they never tell their emotions haha.  Oh another weird thing.  Elder Ritter told me that i was just like a girl he knew back home and went on to tell me about her and it was weird because it was basically like he was telling me about my own life.  Super interesting. 

    Anyways got to go.  Next time you hear from me ill be on the other side of the world!! woo hoo!  and ill be getting there in the hottest part of the year!  Baptism by fire haha.  Well mahal kita!  Keep me updated!  you are the best!

-Sister Van Tassell  

Kumusta 

    How goes the real world? Im super jealous of all of the things you get to do.  Like go to family dinner and wear pants every day.  Ahhh the little things in life haha.  Well this week has been really good.  Hard days but wouldnt change it. We are teaching three investigators and they are starting to get harder but its really good for us because we are able to figure out how wed handle different situations.  Its probably comical how we try and work out these problems in the little Tagalog we know.  But practice makes perfect.  Im in the final week!!!!  Supposedly the one youre supposed to learn the most in.  Which means even more dedicated study and less time to write.  I really am sorry.  Ill try harder hah.  So in our classroom i have the best seat ever.  It is by the heater vent thing so there is a shelf for all the books and pens and what not.  And i cant really see out the window so i dont get so distracted and im right in front of the teacher and yeah its the best thing ever.  Well the wonderful elders in our district have taken it upon themselves to move ALL of our stuff to different seats so that they can have the "good" seat.  I know you all know how i am with change.  Very very very bad.  And weve sat in the very same seats for 5 weeks.  Im really trying not to react and convince myself that it is only one week but it is very very hard.  I know they just want a reaction so i have to try and not give them that.  This is when all the times of me not reacting to Brock's love taps are coming into effect.  So thanks for that.

     So funny/ awkward story.  On sundays we have temple walks.  We just hang out up there and take pictures and enjoy the sun and whatnot.  Anyway so this Sunday we went to get a picture with an elder that we are friends with and after we got the picture another totally random elder came up and asked me for my email.  It was sooo awkward and everyone was looking and i wasnt able to think on my feet fast enough to give him a fake email so i just gave it to him.  After that i was freaking out cause i totally didnt want him emailing me cause thats weird!  So Elder Edwards told me that he would take care of it.  He went up to the Elder and said hey um did  you happen to get that sisters email?  Cause weve acctually had to talk to her quite a few times about flirting and as her district leader i just want the best for her.  So i would really appreciate it if you didnt email her.  I was dying laughing but thankfully i was out of earshot.  He crossed my email out though!!! YAYY!  i gave Elder Edwards half my shrimp at dinner for saving me from that hah.  I guess Elders are good for something.  

   We had fast sunday this week.  Well i guess you all did.  But anyway hah it was an amazing Sunday.  Our district is so small (only 12 people)  so we all had the chance to bear our testimony.  Probably the best testimony meeting ive ever sat through.  We also had mission conference.  Which is like Stake conference.  It is two hours long and all the MTC presidency talks.  It was super amazing though.  President Nally had his two grandaughters tell a missionary story they had and it was so cute!   We love seeing kids.  We wave to them and say hi and they probably think were super weird but i dont even care.  I miss kids so much!!!!!!

       Its weird how small our district is though.  When we leave there is only going to be 5!!  I hope for their sake that they get new Elders and Sisters on Wednesday.  We got to host on last Wednesday and it was wayyy fun!  I hosted a girl who is the Goalie on the Preston soccer team.  That was cool.  It was a little sad thinking about the times that i got dropped off but not bad because you know its going to be ok.  That is all i wanted to tell all the crying elders and sisters and their parent.  That it was going to be ok and that this is the best place you could be!

    I listened to the Jenny Phillips daughter of a king song in Tagalog and it was amazing cause i could acctually understand parts of it.  AHH its so cool!!!  Alright well this is all i have time for.  Mahal kita!! have a great week!  make it count! 

----Sister Van Tassell