You’re Awesome

Hello everyone!   I decided to take a page out of Dayton’s book and title my email like this.  It’s always good to get a pick-me-up.  So there yah go everyone!  YOU’RE AWESOME :)

  Soo now I will start by singing a quick version of happy 8 months to mee!   Is that insane to anyone else?  I for one don’t feel like I haven’t seen you all for 8 months.  But I guess that is because you guys are amazing at keeping me updated with letters and pictures...so I feel like I still get to keep up with your life :) So that makes me happy.  I found a girl that reminds me so much of Macie this last week.  I sent a picture.  I don’t know.  She is really cute.  Hopefully you can see the resemblance and I’m not just going crazy from the heat hah.

    This week FLEW by.  Like I can’t believe it’s over.  We were super spoiled and had dinner appointments every night. Hallelujah ;)  I love dinner appointments.  Seriously we don’t even have to go shopping this week cause we hardly ate any of our food....which is a good thing cause we are currently super low on funds.  Thank goodness support comes on Wednesday!

   So this week we had Zone conference.  It lasted from 9 am to 5 pm!  Super long but super good.  Jenna said that her mission president is the best but don’t listen to her...because the truth is that President Tye is the best. It was really a spiritual high.  We got a lot of talks about giving our all to the work and then expecting the blessings that will come when we do.  One of the Elders told a story about the dad that bought his daughter a fake pearl necklace and then she had to give it up before he could give her the real pearl necklace.  Anyway of course it was told with a lot more detail but it was so cute and it made me cry.  Which sucks because I cry a lot more now that I’m here on the mission.  Plus it was a mean story to tell cause it’s about dads and we all miss our dads here haha.  But no it was really inspirational. It really makes you sit back and think about the things you want to accomplish while on the mission and then you have to think about what you have to do in order to accomplish them.  Yeah we even got to play jeopardy at our zone conference.  It is crazy how competitive we get when we get to play a game.  That is what comes from having no competition anywhere else.  It was a lot of fun.  We won too....or we did until they did one of those lame questions where it was whoever gets the next question right wins everything.  I was mad.  Because we kicked butt and then we still lost.  But whatever.  It’s not the end of the world haha. It was super-duper exciting to see everyone and talk to the people in my last district.  And the APs took us there and then back home.  And they even stopped by Macdo.  Love it.

   This week we had the chance to go to a chapel open house.  It was for our stake and the missionaries put it on.  It was at a different chapel but we got permission to take one of our investigators there.  It was really good because there were members and missionaries and investigators everywhere.  There was always someone to answer questions and to explain more.  It was really really good.  I loved it.  Plus they had a little mini concert at night....we didn’t get to go to that.  But I thought it was a good idea for getting people educated about what really happens at church and getting them to realize that we have a good time and we are real people.  It reminded me of the Salmon dinner we always have at home.  I don’t think I realized how big of a difference that makes until I came on the mission.  The more fellow shippers the better!  So that’s the challenge of the week.  Don’t be shy to welcome someone at church.  Try to see what they need and help them out.  The missionaries will love you and you’ll feel awesome because you just made a new friend.  Even if it’s a little bit out of your way. It’s totally worth it.  

   Well that’s all I have time for.  I’m off to our district activity.  We’re going to be playing volleyball and hopefully some Filipino games.  I’m super excited.  Actually getting to play a sport is the best feeling ever!  Alrighty!! Have an amazing week.  You are all awesome.  And I love you all.  Keep on keepin on!
XOXO from Molino!

--Sister Van Tassell

Whenever I feel the rain on my face……. Our Typhoon SongJ

Hello Again.  This week was super weird.  It flew by but yet it feels like I’ve been here for about 3 weeks already.  So not sure how that happens but yeah.  Anyways email days are weird for me.  I just go read everyone’s email and laugh at all the good things going on at home and I just go to tell my companion about all of it but then I realize she will probably never understand why I care that beet harvest is going strong or about Aidan’s football games. So I have no one to tell it to.  But it’s ok.  I love hearing about all the little things. 

  This week has been amazing.  My new area is SUPER small.  Like crazy small.  But it’s good.  The members are really nice and we have ward missionaries working with us. We are in the same zone with the APs and the STLs and the Office Elders.  That means it’s a lot of fun.  Our area has the mission office in it.  It’s always hard for me to not stop by...because they have air con!  But we get to have our district meetings there..in the soft office chairs and air con.  It’s kind of like heaven :)  Our area is just a bunch of subdivisions squished together but we have found a couple of "Golden" investigators. Moving to a new area is hard because you have to adjust, but it’s the best because you get to start fresh. We have done a lot of finding this week because we don’t have too many progressing investigators.  Ok I’ll tell you a little bit about the three best investigators this week.

  So last Monday we had a lesson with the girlfriend of one of the members.  Camille.  She is super amazing and has a ton of questions for us.  She’s really excited to learn and seriously just is so open to the lessons.  It’s a lot of fun teaching her because she is 19 and so it’s just kind of like us getting to talk to a friend about the gospel.  The bummer deal is that she doesn’t live in our area X( we asked President Tye about it and he said we probably ought to hand her over to the missionaries that are in her area.  It’s super sad because we can’t teach her anymore.  But I know the elders will take good care of her...or at least they better haha. 

   Then we contacted a referral.  Her name is Marnila.  She is also basically amazing. She has a member boyfriend also and so she is looking into the church because of him.  She is catholic and doesn’t want her parents to know that she is taking the lessons. She lives in our area but the address she gave us to teach at was wayyy out of our area.  We didn’t know what to do but our district leader gave us permission to go find her because she was already waiting for us.  That was probably the hardest house I’ve had to find.  There was no one that knew where it was and we took two wrong jeepneys and walked around forever.  We were just about to give up but we tried once more and finally we found the area that she lived.  We taught her all of lesson one.  The Restoration.  She also had a ton of questions and was super open for all the things that we taught.  The spirit was so strong there.  I taught the first vision and by the end she was crying.  It was the best feeling ever.  Afterwards she gave us dinner and was just telling us about the feeling she had and how good it was.  Gosh she is the nicest person ever. She wasn’t able to come to church today because she had work but hopefully she will come next week.  

  The last two we found were an OYM on the street.  They were salesmen and sitting outside a tindahan chatting and smoking.  We oymed and he invited us to his house on Sunday.  So we went on Sunday and he had a ton of questions saying he had asked several preachers these questions and they haven’t been able to answer....so the pressure is on haha.  We didn’t teach much...it was mostly BRT.  But you could really tell that they wanted to learn. And I’m super excited to go back.  

  Of course there have been the crazy lessons and the ones that don’t care to listen.  We have had several of those as well.  It’s super hard for me sometimes to hear all of the excuses...It’s like ahhhhhhrrrggghhhh.  But we just try to testify and have love for each one. And then if they still don’t want to listen then we have done our part and we don’t have to worry.  But it’s just a lot nicer to focus on the good parts of the week. 

   We had a typhoon pass over northern Luzon this last week.  It didn’t hit us.  We just had a TON of rain.  But not enough to stop us.  We went out and walked and walked in the rain.  It was a little bit not fun haha because we were soaking wet and freezing. But we just tried to keep going until the end.  We were at the very last few hours and we had no idea where to go because we had got punted from like every appointment.  And the ones that weren’t punted were straight up hard lessons.  So we just didn’t know where to go. But then Sister Sevia said well let’s just pray.  She was joking around about it but we actually did it.  In a corner on the side of the street we just closed our eyes and said quick prayers in our hearts.  And then started to work again.  I just felt like we should go right and so we did.  We walked and walked and tried to contact people and wala.  But then we just said ok one more OYM and then well go home.  So we tried to contact a previous OYM of Sister Sevia.  Turns out there was a whole family there and we got to teach them!  Just the fact that we had a lesson and the spirit was there was a good enough miracle for us that day.

  So more about the typhoon...it rained hard all day.  So ibig sibihin...maraming mga baha! soo many floods everywhere.  The other Sisters couldn’t even work because the floods were so high.  Our area didn’t really have much flooding.  There was one area that did though.  The water was coming from the river so there was fish in it!  Everyone was catching fish from the flood!  Just little baby ones but they will grow them bigger and then eat them...Ew.  Also they caught an eel!  

  Ok I’ve written a long long email this time.  It’s because I wrote it before I chatted with everyone.  So sorry if I bored you all :)  It’s just been a really good week for me.  Me and Sister Sevia are getting along well.  She’s Samoan so that means loud and energetic :)  So that’s always an interesting time.  But it’s good.  It’s different to live with so many sisters...but not bad.  Basically I love my area and I’m excited to see what happens here.   That’s all I’ve got time for :)  I love you all and I’m so glad that I have all your support and your love.  I miss you!  You’re the best.  Keep on keepin on!

Love

Sister Van Tassell

ps...Several people have complimented me on my Tagalog....maybe I’m progressing!!! I sure hope so.

The time has come....transfers

Magandand Umaga sa Lahat!  So the big news of this week.....I received a package!  And it was amazing.  But I have no room for anything anymore.  I realized just how much stuff I have when I had to pack everything up again.  I got emergency transferred to Molino 2B.  One sister had to go home for medical reasons and so I was called to fill in her place.  So I’m not in heaven anymore...joke its heaven everywhere on the mission.  But I no longer have to wear a jacket and drink hot chocolate. I’m back to sleeping with a fan and using my umbrella for sun rather than rain.    President Tye called me Saturday morning during studies and told me that I would be transferred on Monday morning.  He just said that he should have done it a long time ago but he hadn’t received an answer until that morning.  So I was to get packed and meet the APs on Monday.  Those words were like death.  Not transfer...but PACKING.  I hate packing with a burning passion.  You all probably know that.  But it’s even worse on the mission.  Cause it isn’t just an overnight thing.  It’s everything you have and everything you have collected and it all has to fit in your suitcases.  And let me tell you...I have a LOT of stuff.  But it fit and now I’m here in Molino.  It was embarrassing to have so much stuff but thank goodness for elders that help us carry our things.  What would life be like without the elders...very hard that’s for sure.  It’s sad to transfer after only 3 weeks but its good because I’m on to experience new things.  I miss my companions already though.  They were the best!  My new companion is Sister Sevia.  She is Samoan.  I don’t know much else about her cause we’ve only been together for about two hours.  But I’ll let you know more when I find out.  We are right by the mission office so that will be fun.  There are a lot of fun missionaries in our zone.  I’m excited but super nervous to start all over again.  Wish me luck!  Our apartment is huge but I share with 5 other sisters.  Our room is TINY!  Like beds and closets and that’s it.  There’s not even room to put my suitcases down to unpack.  so we’ll see how that goes.  So I’m back on the north end of the mission!   

   So crazy story of the week.  Sister Ortile had a really, really hard time sleeping but she never told us.  For the past few weeks she would always wake up at like 2 am and hear things and was super scared and could never go back to sleep.  Finally one night it was really bad and she woke us up.  She kept getting sick and did not want to even go back to the house.  So we decided to have the elders come bless our house. They did and then we felt a lot better. The one that said the prayer said that it was really hard for him to focus and there was something like yelling in his ear the whole time.  But after that we really felt a lot safer. It’s scary some of things that happen around here with ghosts and stuff.  But you’ve always just got to remember to have faith and we will be protected.    

         But the good news is that we had a baptism before I left!  A little 9 yr. old boy named Jun.  He’s the cutest thing ever.  He was soooo excited for his baptism.  It was supposed to be on Saturday but when we came to the church there was no water.  :(  he had been there 3 hours early because he was so excited but there was nothing we could do.  We decided to push it to the next day.  He almost cried cause he was so sad.  But the next day everything turned out so cute.  We filled up the fount but the water was sooooo cold.  But he was still so excited.  And after he got baptized he just came up smiling sooo big.  And just looking at all of us through the window.  Just smiling so big.  It was absolutely adorable. So good things can happen even if we have only been in the area for a few weeks.  I  just loved  his smile.  I can’t get over it.  I gave him the tie I got in my package.  It just makes me happy to think about him and I really really hope that he can grow up strong in the gospel. I am more and more thankful every day for a family that is strong in the gospel.  There are more blessings than we realize and more than we can even count.  Stay strong and remember that if you are struggling you can always turn to our Heavenly Father.  He has a plan for you and he loves you so much.  I love you all so much and I love hearing from you every week.  Keep on Keeping on.  You’re all the best!

XOXOXO from Molino

--SISTER VAN TASSELL

Is there a record for the longest videokie session? Cause I think our neighbors just broke it!

Ok, so I left this email to the last again.  I really need to stop doing that.  It’s a bad habit.  Ok I’ll try and get in as much as I can. I have 20 minutes to do this one and President Tye’s email.  Argh procrastination will be the death of me.  So this rainy Monday morning marks my second week here in good old Silang. It is already September.  I’m not really sure how.  Not only is it September but it is almost halfway through September.  Time flies when you’re having fun but it flies even faster when you only have one and a half hours on email every week. So I’ll make it fast. 

   So this week we went to Tagaytay! If you don’t know what it is then google it.  You will not be disappointed.  It is on the very edge of our mission so going there is kind of a treat.  Because it is not hot at all.  The weather is perfect.  There isn’t much to do. Just hang out and take pictures which we did a lot of.  We could see so far from up there.  I could see Las Pinas and my old area so that was fun. It was a long ride and of course we had to buy souvenirs so it kind of burned up the money pretty fast.  But it was fun.

   This area I’m in is super big so it uses up a lot of money getting from place to place.  I’m going to have to get back my budgeting skills.  My last area kind of wrecked it.  We ate at macdo so much. Now I have to get back my thrifty shopping skills haha.  We have been doing a lot more cooking here in the apartment. I cooked mashed potatoes and gravy for my companions and they LOVED it.  I’ll have to admit it was really good.  Especially as a break from rice! 

  We cleaned the apartment this morning and it was really gross.  It was an Elder’s apartment before we moved in and you can tell.  Gross gross gross.  And there are a lot of ants.  And I think there is mice in the ceiling. But we did some deep cleaning so it looks a little better.  Still a ways to go but it’s looking better.

   We went on splits again yesterday.  Three way splits.  Talk about getting some serious numbers.  Hahha not really, we got punted a lot.  But it’s kind of cool that we can divide and conquer.  It’s really fun to see the faith of the ward missionaries too.  I love especially when they teach cause it takes the pressure off of you.  Cause they know Tagalog perfectly but my Tagalog is getting better so that’s good.

    Well that’s all for this week. Time to get off now.  I love you all and thanks so much for your support!  More next week!

XOXO from Silang

-SISTER VAN TASSELL