Proverbs 28:25-this is why the good missionaries gain weight

Hello everyone!  I can’t believe that it has already been another week.  The days are long but the weeks are short is like the truest statement ever.  I’m getting slowly into the rut of not knowing what to write. The struggle is real. But don’t worry.  I will overcome it and push through and find some good bits of my week to write about.  Let’s seeeeee...

  Ok well I guess the best place to start is from the baptism.  Which is always a highlight.  We baptized Willy this week.  We really really wanted to get his wife and daughter baptized with him but his wife wanted him to go first and his daughter isn’t finished with the lessons yet.  So hopefully this month he will be able to baptize them both.  That’s our goal.  The baptism went good.  No crazy water shortage or having to run to the next town.  It was a normal baptism.  So that was good.

   This week we had the opportunity/assignment of going to the two girls that turned 8 years old this month and talking to them about baptism and helping them feel ready for their interview with bishop. We loved doing it cause we got food at both houses. And it was good food too.  And I also enjoyed it because it’s fun to talk to kids cause kids are the best.  It just reminded me of how shy I used to be though. One of the girls was super-duper shy and did not want to talk to us.  And so we kept trying and trying and she finally just broke down and was sobbing so hard and just really stressing out.  But that’s when sisters can do their magic.  So we got her calmed down and to a point where we could talk and finally she warmed up to us and we got her to answer some questions too.  They are both adorable and I’m super glad we got to work with them both. Their baptism is next Saturday so were going to attend.  Which I’m super excited about.  Except for the fact that I have to play piano there.

  Speaking of piano.  I’m not sure if I’ve said this before but I’m not positive that Bishop is forcing me to share my talents.  I told him that no matter what I’ll say yes if he asks me to do it but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be good.  Unfortunately he just said if you try your best that’s all that matters.  This Sunday I played for sacrament meeting again and he let me choose the songs which was legit!  But halfway through the meeting the girl that is called as pianist comes in and marches right up to the piano and sits down and motions to me that she can play the rest.  I was sooooooo mad! Because the one time that I got to choose the songs and I got to play songs I actually know, she comes and tries to take over.  Haha I’ll bet you’re all thinking I’m crazy because I was stressed that I had to play and then mad when she took over.  There’s no winning.  There’s only charity and patience.  And all those wonderful Christlike attributes that im struggling to build up over here. I’ve really noticed that whenever I pray for an experience to build my Christlike attributes I really really see the struggles and challenges coming in that work on that attribute.  Like I prayed for hope the week of the typhoon.  And I prayed for faith this last week when I really needed to have it.  It’s like someone in the mtc said one time.  She told us that she loves when hard times come because she has such strong faith in the promise that there is never a trial that we cannot overcome if we lean on Christ.  And she said that when trials come she knows it just makes us stronger and we’ll be able to easier deal with the next trial that comes.  It’s true.  Even though trials are never fun.  Each experience helps us get stronger and stronger.

    In our district meeting we were talking about the enabling power of the atonement and one of the elders commented that before the mission he had to do a fundraiser and go around door to door and sell stuff.  He told how he hated it so much and after about 30mins he gave up. But then we related it to our missionary work.  We go out all day and talk to everyone and a lot of times people don’t really want what were "selling."  And it’s super hard to keep going throughout all the hard times.  And there is no way that we could do this on our own. But Christ gives us that extra strength.  In personal study this morning i found a verse that said something about being renewed every day.  And I know that in our lives we really have to have that faith in Christ so that he can renew us every day and give us the strength we need to get through.  Not an over flow of huge blessings.  But if we keep our eyes open we can see his miracles and his tender mercies every day.  I love that I can build my faith on the testimonies and stories of others.  I love hearing about all of your stories from home and seeing the blessings that come from relying on the lord and on the gospel.  I love you all!  Keep on keepin on and I will too.  Make every day count :) 

XOXOXOXOXOX from Muntinlupa!

Sister Van Tassell

PS: I AM AT MY 6 MONTH MARK.  <----(caps means I’m excited) hahah :)

Hello everyone! How goes the battle? How goes life on the dry side of the world.  I would offer to share my rain with you but rain is the only thing that cools us down over here so I think I’ll keep it.  Especially when a typhoon knocks out your power!  

So I’m sure you’re all wondering how it feels to live through a typhoon.  Not bad not bad.  It hit us at night so I didn’t sleep much.  We were up worrying about it and talking so I didn’t get to bed till super late haha.  And then our power went out at 4, so we woke up then cause our fans weren’t blowing on us so it was killer hot.  And that’s about all the sleep I got.  Cause it was so stinking hot so I couldn’t take a nap.  I tried to fan myself and sleep at the same time but that didn’t work either.  Our house held up ok.  Half the roof off of our laundry room got ripped off and all my laundry got wet and dirty again so that sucked.  But we were ok.  Since we didn’t have electricity our fridge obviously wouldn’t work.  And that was awful.  Everything went bad and smelled bad.  We lost our electricity Tuesday night and we didn’t get it back till Sunday morning.  We did everything with candles and the few flashlights we had.  It wasn’t too bad really. It got a little old after a while though but we were fine.  We ate a lot of bread cause we couldn’t really cook much cause our stove is still patay.  We ran out of bread and so did all the stores haha.  So I’ll be happy when that gets restocked. We were stuck in our houses the whole day but the storm stopped at about noon so we spent most of our day outside.  We cleaned up all the tree branches and leaves and trash on our porch and we cleaned the neighbor’s porch too for service and because we were bored haha.  Then we played with the neighbor kids.  And we went to the court and played basketball.  And we went and visited the elders and played chess with them.  A lot of just doing nothing.  Our phone was dead and there was no power to charge it haha.  It was really cool because even though it was a big storm...as soon as it was over, everyone came out of their houses and started cleaning up.  No one just left it sitting there.  Within an hour it was all clean and good as new.  In our area at least.  Some of the other areas aren’t as lucky.  One of our investigators houses is like severely slanted right now.  They’ll have to tear it down and rebuild it.  And tons of people lost their roofs.  There were houses that had fallen down and it was crazy.  Kind of like we were watching TV but we were actually there living it. The crazy thing was that we didn’t get any information cause all the power was out and no one knew anything.  The kids got a whole week off of school. It was a good experience.  Anyway I’m sorry this is a short one.  And the internet is killer slow so I don’t think I’m going to get any pictures sent.  So sorry about that.  But I love you all.  Next email will be better.  Thanks to everyone that wrote me letters. I love them!  They make my day!  Keep sending them.  I’ll talk to you all next week!  Miss you lots!

Love Sister Van Tassell

Friends romans countrymen lend me your ears...ok I don’t know why Julius Caesar came to my mind but it did so don’t question it.  At least I can remember something from English class cause I sure can’t remember any grammar.  My English grammar is super pangit right now. I’m not sure why it’s getting so bad but that’s life. 

So this week was super exciting.  We worked really hard and hit standard of excellence in almost every category!  Which is cool cause our mission is kinda struggling in that right now. But we went on splits in order to do that.  I do not like splits and I would not agree to go but finally I sucked it up and agreed and it wasn’t that bad.  It was hard cause my kasama that I got was shy so I had to teach the whole entire thing and it was kind of hard. But I did it so that is cool.

Also our water problem is not going away.  So that sucks.  We don’t know when it will be fixed.  So the bucket showers continue.  You know you’ve been without water for quite a while when you turn on the water faucet and you think it is super super cool.  Also our gas has a leak so our senior couples told us not to cook on it as much as possible so we took advantage of it and made the elders cook us spaghetti.  They agreed and it was amazing because food always tastes better when you don’t have to cook it.  Except for they used all of our hot dogs so were living on bread and whatever we can find in a can haha.  It’s sad but its life.  I oymed a lady and we got free corn on the cob and that was super yummy.

Haha really nothing else happened this week. I almost bought some baby shoes cause they were so darn cute but then my kasama just made fun of me for being so trunky.  I’m not really trunky...the shoes were just cute. 

The best thing here is when Philippinos talk about us in Tagalog cause they think we can’t understand. The other day we heard a lady saying that I have cat eyes.  I’ve never heard that one before.  People also tell me I have transparent eyes.  They can’t seem to understand that blue eyes is actually a color.  They just think it’s clear.  It’s good though.

Sister Sefeti saw a lice crawling in my hair!! I freaked out and made them check my hair but they couldn’t find anything so I think I’m safe!  It’s kind of gross but at least I’m safe for now.

Everyone just got transfer calls.  I’m not transferring. I’m staying here in good old Muntinlupa for 6 more weeks.  I’m glad because I like it here. But I hope I get to see something else besides just city on my mission. Everyone jokes and says that I’m just going to be in Muntinlupa my whole mission. It’s funny.  But the people here are so good so it’s not bad.  I was kind of bummed when I didn’t get a call to train...not that I really want to train but just because sometimes you get the feeling like oh I’m not good enough to train and stuff like that.  But then I got thinking that it doesn’t really matter and we get the kasamas we get for a reason.  I think my reason is to convince foreigners that American’s aren’t that bad haha. joke but really both of my companions didn’t want American companions but then they both got me and agree that I’m the best American! It’s pretty funny. I didn’t think American’s were that bad.

Anyway so this is super short and I’m sorry but nothing much happened this week haha.  Just a lot of work.  I can’t believe that July is halfway over already.  Time flies sooo fast it’s crazy.  Along with that and along with the rest of my letter I just want to add how I know that sometimes things are hard.  I know that sometimes we get trials that we don’t think we can make it through. But then we always have to remember 1 Nephi 3:7, don’t think of it as a scripture everyone knows.  Think of it as a pep talk.  There is always someone that knows you and knows what you’re going through. He gives you trials, not to break you, but to stretch you.  So accept them.  Push through it.  Rely on prayer and on the scriptures and on the people he has given to help you through.  There is nothing you can’t do if you rely on him.  I know without a doubt that that is true.  Have confidence and put on a smile and make it a good day!  It’s all your choice!  I love you all and I love to hear from you!  Keep writing and keep praying!  KEEP ON KEEPIN ON!

XOXOXOX from Muntinlupa

SISTER VAN TASSELL

Hello everyone!!  Sorry I didn’t get an email off yesterday but we were in the police station allllllll day!!!  Don’t worry it wasn’t us hahah I’ll explain the whole thing in a second.  But let’s just say I’m exhausted.  We had a full week! And no water during the day.  This makes 2 weeks and there’s no end in sight.  Basically were getting experienced on the fine art of bucket showers!

   So I bet your all dying to know what happened.  Well here in good old Muntinlupa there have been several accounts of things being stolen.  Not just little things either.  Big expensive things like iPods, cameras, lots of money etc.  Anywayyy so leaving your things unattended is a big no no.  But my kasama is new and she didn’t really believe me that it wasn’t good to leave your bag around.  So in sacrament meeting, which was testimony meeting and it was awesome. I had to play the piano again...PATAY!!  But I bore my testimony and two of our less actives and two of our recent converts did to and it was just such a strong spirit there. The one recent convert...she’s 11..she just got up and cried and it reminded me of me when I was little and so when she came down I just hugged her so hard haha cause she’s adorable.  And she made me bear my testimony before she would do hers.  Ahh the sacrifices we make on a mission lol.  But it’s really cool how excited we were to see those that we teach up there bearing their testimonies. It’s just amazing and wow. I can’t even explain it.  But anyway after the meeting was over we jumped up to go talk to investigators/less actives, etc.  Anyway but sister Seleue left her bag unattended on the bench.  Before you know it bishops wife is yelling at me to stop that girl cause she has her bag.  Anyway a lot of commotion happened and the good news is we got the bag and nothing was stolen.  The bad news is the cops had to be called and we all had to go to the baranguay to do our statements but we had our ward mission leader with us the whole time so that made it nice.  (our ward mission leader is the coolest!)  And they had to call president Tye and the zone leaders and yeah.  It was crazy.  And we were there allllll night.  Well until 7 and then the members took us to the church and fed us really fast and then we had to go back until 9.  And then the next morning at 8 we had to go back and file our case and all that and so we were there until like 3 in the afternoon.  We even had an attorney there and were all official.  The best part was he fed us free lunch :)  Lots of drama and lots of running around and the worst part was that we had a mission activity in Dasma at 1!

 We didn’t think that we were going to be able to make it but we really wanted to see everyone and just have a good time so we called president Tye and he told us to come so we hopped in the jeepney and ran to Dasma.  We spent a lot of money on transportation but it didn’t matter cause we got to see everyone. We didn’t get there until it was over so we missed the games and food and everything  but we were just so excited to see people that we didn’t even care.  It made our day just to be there.  I saw sister Lizada again and we just screamed and jumped around and everyone looked at us really weird but it doesn’t matter haha.  And the funny thing was when we got there the story of us being in the court had already spread except for of course it got changed and so everyone thought we were in jail.  It was a really good time haha.

 This week we had exchanges again. I usually hate exchanges but this time I really enjoyed them. I got to go to Binan and teach in their area which was good because it was a new view.  But usually I have a hard time because I’m teaching people that I don’t really know and that I’ll probably never teach again so I have a hard time getting that love there.  But this time I really prayed for help with that because I wanted to have good lessons.  And it was really cool because even though I didn’t really know them I still had that love for them and I was able to have some really good lessons and really feel the spirit and learn from our STL. So I guess the lesson we can get out of that is it doesn’t matter who you are talking to.  It doesn’t matter if you are best friends or if you have never met the person before in your life.  You are still all alike because we are all children of god.  And if we can get that love there then we don’t need to be afraid to share the gospel because they know that were doing it because we love them and not just because we want to force our religion on them.  So share the gospel :) hahah 

 I love you and I’m so thankful for all your love and support.  We’ve been crazy busy and all that but it’s been really good.  Were safe and were happy.  Transfers are coming up soon so well have to see what is going to happen.  I’m sorry I don’t have much more time to talk about the rest of my week but we have a zone meeting to go to.  But talk to you all next week!  Oh and a shout out to Brooks on his baptism!  That’s really awesome and I can’t wait to see pictures :)  Till next week then! keep on keepin on!

XOXOXOX from muntinlupa!!!

-Sister Van Tassell (or Sister Van as everyone likes to call me here)

Don’t you love the title of this email.  It’s testing my Christ like attributes soooo much right now haha.

Talofa oa mai oi. In case you wondered I transferred to the Samoa mission haha.  My companion is teaching me all sorts of Samoan words.  I probably need to be focusing on Tagalog words for now but there is so many Samoans here on the mission so it’s fun to learn some.  That’s the cool thing about this mission.  There are soooo many people from different places and different languages here.  Mostly islanders.  So there is always Samoan Tongan bisaya etc being spoken.  So we are always picking up little phrases from different languages. The other day I wrote a text to show my kasama and it had English Tagalog and Samoan in it.  It was pretty cool.

Wow tomorrow is July!! How did that happen? Yesterday was my 5 month mark. It doesn’t sound that super impressive but next month I have been out for 1/3 of my mission.  Don’t worry I’m not trunky. I just like counting. I count like everything. It is just crazy how fast time flies.

So I’m not sure if my talents are being forced to be shared or what but ever since

I played the piano for the baptism last week bishop has taken advantage of me.  EVERY SINGLE MEETING he calls on me to play.  I walked into sacrament meeting and one of his councilors came up to me and asked if I would play for sacrament meeting. I almost just died right there.  But thanks to you dad I couldn’t say no.  I told them I could only play the top hand and they said ok, so I sat down and did it.  I’m just super thankful that I can do at least top hand. And I guess I’ll just keep doing it whenever they need me.  And when they get tired of how bad it is they might stop calling on me haha.  It’s super stressful though.  Darn talents.  

  So these past few weeks our numbers have really been struggling and it’s really hard but we just keep trying to work harder.  The coolest thing happened the other day though.  We got punted from like 3 appointments so we were just walking around OYMing and trying to find people to talk to.  We didn’t really know where we were going, we were just wandering and we saw some really cool flower things on a tree. Anyway the coolest thing about being a foreigner is you can basically ask anyone anything and they’ll be happy to talk to you.  So we asked what the things on the trees were and I just was talking about how we don’t have those in America.  Anyway they gave us some and they are actually used as a dye.  For food coloring or ya just for dying anything. But then the coolest thing happened. The guy next door started talking to me and it wasn’t even a very good OYM.  I was struggling but they invited us in and just kept talking and asked us all the questions that are answered in the first lesson.  It was pretty exciting.  So we just taught and he said he’s going to invite his friends for us to teach. Were a little bit scared because sometimes we are not the best at answering all the questions.  But it’s exciting to have that opportunity.  We’re going to them tonight I think so I’ll let you know how that goes next week.  

We had zone conference this week so that was fun. It was long and there was a LOT of new rules that got established but hopefully it will help us out in our work.  I love gathering in a group of missionaries because you can have so much fun but then go and still feel the spirit super strong.  I don’t know how mission presidents do it cause that’s a lot of teenagers to deal with but President and Sister Tye are awesome.  They are probably the best out of all the missions.  Cause they are fairly young I feel like. And they are just fun. 

 On the way back we were riding on a jeepney and one of the elders was just messing around telling me to OYM the lady next to me..so I did just for fun.  And I did it by myself!  And I got all the information we needed by myself.  In Tagalog. haha don’t mind the bragging right now but I felt pretty darn cool that I could do it by myself!  Maybe my Tagalog isn’t that bad....joke.  It is.  But it’s getting better at least :)

We had a baptism this Saturday.  Well my old area did.  It was one of our old investigators and it was the cutest baptism ever.  His whole less active family was there.  I just was so happy it was crazy.  His mom gave me the biggest hug and was holding my hand the whole time.  It was great!  I still kind of feel like it was our baptism even though it wasn’t.

Also one more funny story. On Sunday we watched a little video clip about a jar of nothing.  I’m not sure if you’ve seen it but it’s pretty good.  Anyway it kinda made me cry which was no big deal but then bishops daughter turned to me (shes 7) and very loudly was like aw naiyak na si Sister! (Sister is crying)  And everyyonnneee looked at me so that was a little embarrassing haha. But all in all this has been a good week.  A long and exhausting week. But fun as always.  The main thing I’ve learned this week is how nice it is to have such a supportive ward.  My ward now helps out so much with missionary work.  Well they try.  And it’s really cool. That’s the way things get done. Because no matter how good missionaries are they can’t do everything.  They need people to fellowship and find referrals and work along side of them.  It really helps to have someone who will go out of their way to sit down next to our investigator or less active and just really strive to make them feel comfortable.  It makes all the difference.  So don’t be shy about it.  Just share that love and friendship.  It’ll be good. I promise! I love you all!  Keep on keepin on.  Enjoy your summer!

XOXOXOXOXO

Sister Van Tassell