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.