I’m not jealous of the SNOW ***

So what’s up everyone!  Christmas is over and the New Year is in 2 days! Hope you all have your new year’s resolutions made.  Mine is to work hard in my new area!  I guess that’s not really a New Year’s resolution haha. But it is a goal that I will start on the New Year.  I wasn’t worried about transfers because I was almost positive that I would be staying for at least one more transfer but that plan failed and I’m going to Trece tomorrow.  Actually both me and my companion are getting pulled out of our area and its being given to the Elders.  It’s because there are too many areas and not enough missionaries so they are putting areas together.  But I always worry a little when I have to give my investigators to Elders.  But I guess Elders are ok and they can probably handle it. 

  This week was good.  We had Christmas and we all opened lots of presets.  It was so fun even though we were far away from home.  Then we skyped!!!!!!!!!!  and then just wandered around to different members houses and got left over dinners.  Because here the big thing is Christmas Eve.  So they all have their big dinners then and so on Christmas its nothing special.  But it was a good day.

   This week Marnela came to church again because she is awesome.  And I’ve been asking her for a long time to check my blood type. So she did.  She used the smallest needle she could so that it wouldn’t hurt.  She was really good at it.  I was impressed. I’m excited to find out the results.  It’s going to be great. 

  So sorry this letter is short. I have packing to do!  I’m excited but I’m so sad to leave Sister Raterta.  She is basically the best. It’s sad because you all don’t get to meet them and know all the stories.  You just have to hear it from me.  So I hope I’m doing a good enough job :)  Love you all.  Have fun staying up late and partying.  I’ll be in bed by 10:30 hah.  Oh the good life of a missionary.  Ok love you all! 

--Sister Van Tassell

Short and Sweet!

Merry Christmas everyone!  This week was kind of a rough one.  But there were a few good parts.

We had our Christmas party this week.  We all went to Dasma and partied.  Each zone had a skit and so that was fun. Some of them were kind of awkward but we just kind of laughed at everything so that was good.  Our skit was the life of president and sister Tye. I was sister Tye and so that was fun.  It was really funny…maybe only to us but that’s ok.  As long as we think it went well.  We did the part of their proposal so the Elder that was President Tye ‘proposed’ to me which was funny.  And then everyone gave me crap but it was still fun.    

And then some amazing people from over there in America had sent gifts for all of the missionaries.  So we all got presents.  That was super fun. If you know who did it or if you did it…it was awesome and we all loved it.  Thanks for thinking of us.

We also had a nativity in scripture and song. Which was really cool and really different.  That was the spiritual part.

We also had a ward Christmas party on Saturday which was fun but was supposed to start at 6 and didn’t start until 730.  Gotta love Filipino time! It’s better that Van Tassell time haha.  But here in the Philippines you perform at the parties. So the missionaries had to perform. We sang a Tagalog Christmas song and then the song from Alvin and the chipmunks.

The bummer part of this week was I got food poisoning/the flu.  So that was an awful, awful day.  And I don’t have that much else to report.  So I guess will just see what happens this week. 

Have a great week and a merry Christmas.  Enjoy it and enjoy being at home. Love you all and can’t wait to see you all again.  Remember the reason of the season J He Is the Gift.

XOXO Sister Van Tassell

I SURVIVED TYPHOON RUBY!!!:) And there are now 10 days till Christmas

Well everyone I survived.  Sad to say...or maybe happy for you guys but we didn’t feel much of the storm at all.  It was crazy and super-duper slow and changed direction about every 5 minutes.  But we just got a bit of rain and that’s about it. We stayed in all day long and made snowflakes and played games.  We played scum and slaps and ate sooo much food because when you’re a missionary there is nothing to do inside the house except eat.  I’ll send some pictures later so that you call all see how bored we were.  Our neighbors looked like they were ready for world war 3 because you couldn’t even tell anyone lived there.  They took down all their Christmas decorations and plants and brought them inside. haha I don’t think we saw them for 2 days which is funny because they’re always really loud.  We just stored water in a garbage can and filled our 72 hour kits with snacks haha it’s probably a good thing that nothing too bad happened to us.  You all prayed too hard haha.  joke lang.  Thank you all for being concerned about us over here.  

     But these last two weeks have of course flown by. Crazy crazy fast. We are feeling the Christmas now. I love it.  We didn’t have a tree in our apartment and so we didn’t really feel it but I wasn’t going to let Christmas pass without a tree so I got a little creative.  I took one of the boxes from my package and broke it down and then formed it into kind of a triangle cylinder thing and duct taped it together with my purple duct tape that I brought from home! (I knew there had to be a reason to bring duct tape on the mission and there was Yay Idaho! ) haha anyway then we took some of the green pine stuff that you usually wrap around the banister and we just wrapped it around the boxes.  It is really small and short and fat but it’s really cute and it made it all seem so much more like Christmas.  Then we found some lights in a closet and only half of them work but we put them up too and we play Christmas music once in a while and it’s just the best.  We have our mission Christmas party and ward Christmas party this week. I’m so excited!  But unfortunately here in the Philippines you have to perform at the parties. So the missionaries are signed up to perform at the ward party and were doing a skit at the mission party.  I have no idea what we are going to perform. I’m trying to get our ward missionary to teach me a Christmas song on the guitar and then everyone else will sing.  That’s the plan as of now. I’ll let you know how it goes hah. 

     As far as the work goes...this week has been amazing. Our numbers are low but so what.  We have found some amazing people and we have had some super spiritual lessons. I figure it doesn’t matter that we have a huge list of investigators that don’t progress.  It’s more important to help the ones that are really progressing now.  I think I’ve been saying this the whole time I’ve been here in Molino.  We don’t have a lot of investigators but the ones we do have are amazing and it is so great to be able to teach them and help them.  And that’s why it’s so hard when they don’t progress or aren’t able to continue...because we see so much good in each one of them.  But we’re keeping up the hope that we’ll have a baptism before I transfer.  I have to tell you one story about what happened this week.

   So before I tell the story I just have to say that my companion is amazing and really is great at listening and following the spirit.  She’s the best.  Ok so one day we were walking and it was finding time.  Were just walking and trying to figure out where to go.  And then Sister Raterta says that we need to go visit one of the members. I’ll be honest I thought she was a little bit crazy because she’s a member and we were supposed to be finding at that time but there are some nonmembers that live at her house so I decided to give it a try.  So we go there and she was showering so we had to wait outside for a bit.  And while we were there we saw a lady across the street that we both felt like we should talk to.  So we did. And we just chatted for a minute before the member came out of her house and came over to us.  Turns out that that lady was her friend and she had been wanting to refer her to us for several weeks but she didn’t think that she was ready yet. We invited her to listen and we went and taught her at the member’s house.  It was a really good lessons and she has so many questions.  Of course were not sure what is going to happen and were hoping for the best but it was an amazing experience.  The member just told us how she has been praying for her for so long that she will be willing to listen to the missionaries.  And I think that just is a huge testimony builder that God answers prayers. But even more than that I think we need to look at those of our friends and acquaintances that we are 'preparing' for the missionaries and notice that they might be ready now.  Trust the missionaries! :) Were pretty good people if I do say so myself haha and we LOVE referrals.  And when a member gives us a good referral we love you even more. MISSIONARIES ARE TRUE TEACHERS BUT MEMBERS ARE TRUE FINDERS!   I love that quote.  

   Some other missionary work highlights.  One of our less actives is now no longer less active!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is better than a baptism for me.  He’s great and now were really working on getting him to go on a mission. But I love teaching him and their family because you can see the difference from when we started teaching and now that they’re coming to church.  I promise that the church and the gospel brings light into people’s lives like nothing else can.   Also a highlight.. one of my very favorite investigators just overcame her concern of telling her family that she was listening to the missionaries.  And now this week we get to go to her house and teach her!!!! Before this we were just teaching her at the mission office.  I am soo excited and I’m just hoping so much that her family will be willing to listen to us as well.

    So that’s a quick rundown of what has happened these last two weeks. That’s the news for you all.  You’re all great and I miss you all.  Have an awesome week!  It’s almost Christmas!

Xoxo from Molino

--Sister Van Tassell

8 December 2014

Dear Brother and Sister Van Tassell ,

  

I am happy to report that Typhoon Ruby turned west before she impacted our area directly and basically has moved out of the Philippines.  We did not get nearly as much rain or wind as we thought we would get.  All of our missionaries are safe and healthy.  We had prepared for something much worse and were blessed with a mild storm.

 There was some very minor water in some of the apartments in a few areas of our mission.  When leasing the apartments, we carefully selected those in safe locations,  and none of our apartments experienced any major flooding.  None of our Missionaries lost cell phone coverage, water or electrical service due to the storm. In summary, we have witnessed a miracle in the fact that the forecast of Typhoon Hagupit were winds and rain of a much heavier and severe degree. Many prayers and fasting of many faithful members and Missionaries have brought the storms fury to a minimum as our Missionaries are all safe and accounted for and are back to work building the kingdom of God in the Cavite area of the Philippines. Your sons and daughters are wonderful faithful dedicated Missionaries, whom the Lord has placed a watchful caring eye upon as this typhoon passed us by. Thank you for preparing your missionary to serve the Lord here in the best Mission in the world. Merry Christmas, Sincerely,

Douglas C. Tye

Mission President

Philippines Cavite Mission

You are all probably wondering about Taylar and the Typhoon.  Well she got to email us tonight and they are prepared.  Here is a letter her Mission President sent.

Yesterday, Friday December 5, President Tye sent an email to every missionary's parent and Stake or Branch President about Typhoon Ruby and our preparation for it. As of this morning, we are finding out that the emails have not been received by the parents, and are most likely floating through an internet "black hole" somewhere. Below is the contents of the letter that was sent and hopefully all will receive the email soon. We wanted you to know that we are preparing and praying. I also have added a few pictures for you to see the information we are receiving of the typhoons path and hardest hit areas.

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Dear Philippines Cavite Mission Missionary Family and Leaders,

I am writing to inform you of the situation in our Mission relating to your Missionary and the pending impact of Typhoon Ruby.  The Church and our Mission have been observing this storm for days and have made numerous preparations for its arrival.  The track of the storm should be south of our mission, but we will have some wind and rain as the margins of typhoon will be felt here.  It is also possible that the path could go further north and we would be impacted directly.  If that happens, we are lucky because we are located far enough north and west that much of the energy of the storm will be expended by the time it reaches us.

In any event we are preparing for a significant storm. All of our missionaries have been instructed to review our Mission emergency preparedness procedure including personal safety procedures, storing adequate water supplies for their use and enough food to see them through. These supplies would be in addition to their 72 hour kits that each missionary owns within our Mission.  They have also been instructed to keep their cell phones charged.  We have a calling tree in place for rapid communication if needed across the mission.  Each missionary has been instructed to have 1000 Pesos in small bills ready for an emergency.

If the safety of the Missionaries is at all in question, we will be keeping the missionaries safely inside their apartments.  It is the plan to be very cautious and if we error administratively, it will be our intent to error to the side of safety.

If the storm compromises our electrical or Internet infrastructure, this will affect your ability to communicate with your Missionary. If this happens, you will receive your normal weekly email late next week from your missionary.  I, as the Mission President of your Missionary, and the Church will report again when the storm is finished regarding the safety of your missionary.

Please pray for those who will be impacted by this typhoon including all residents of the Philippines, the Missionary force here and all members of the Church.

Thank you for your support and for your love and concern for your Missionary. Sister Tye and I love them as our own, and pray for their safety and well being during this upcoming storm.

Sincerely,

Douglas C. Tye

Mission President

Philippines Cavite Mission

THE CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!!! (25 days left)

So hello everyone.  It is December!  We are now started on the Christmas countdown!  And I’m happy to announce that it is getting cooler outside.  It is so funny to see us all wrapped up in our blankets and not wanting to lie on the floor because it is so cold. It’s just because it has been raining the last few days.  So that is always nice.  But during the day it gets plenty hot.  So you are all probably jealous because I’ve heard how the weather is treating you over there.

Thank you all for your updates on the turkey trot and all that is going on there. I was totally going to get up and run on thanksgiving but you know how that goes.  I just decided that I would wait until next year haha. 

Also I am very proud of all of you who have completed your Christmas preparations.  Way to be diligent! Haha  also thank you for telling me what things you are making….if anyone wants to know what present they are getting you can go ahead and email me…cause I probably know. But really though I appreciate it and you are all so creative.  Our family could probably put Pinterest out of business J.

But as far as the work is….its going.  Our whole house was sick this week so that was a bit of a struggle.  No one felt too much like working but you have to.  Just buy some vitamin Cs and take ibuprofen all day long haha. It’s not too bad.  Even the long days go pretty fast once you just get out and get working.

The past time of the kids here is spider fighting.  It is soooo creepy but super interesting as well.  They all catch these massive spiders and they fight them. They keep them in little matchboxes.  Inside the matchbox there are several rooms so that they can keep like 10 at a time. And these are little matchboxes. But the spiders kind of just curl up and sleep when they get put in there. But they are super big and the kids just hold them and play with them like no big deal. They all bring their spiders and then they have a little stick and they put a spider at each end of the stick and they just go towards each other and fight. It’s really cool. I’ll probably hold a spider before I come home. Just because if they can all do it then I can to.  Sister Raterta isn’t scared of them so she will hold them too. But I just watch.

We had an amazing Sunday yesterday.   It was the primary program. I almost died because it was so cute.  I promise it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  They were all in matching clothes. Little white dresses with pink jackets and flowers in their hair. And they all had a little make up on.  And the little boys all had blue boy ties.  And they do all their parts and singing in English.  I’ll tell you what.  The primary program probably brings the best spirit out of all the sacrament meetings.   I know you all know (Dang for some reason Taylar’s email didn’t send the rest of her letter.)