The Philippines is better than Costa Rica!!!              

Hey everyone! 

   This week was very, very sad. But it also had some happy parts too. 

The sad is that we had transfers.  My companion left me and my nanay left me.  It’s especially hard because my nanay is obviously Filipina and so that means when I go home she will be far, far away and we can’t visit and stuff.  But I guess its ok.  Like the scripture in D&C that says you’ll be friends in heaven. But that’s kind of far away.  That’s the sad part of missions.  I have to admit that I cried because she was like my closest companion.  But now I’m old in the mission and all the people I was first friends with are 'dying.'  Sad, sad life.  But we drowned our sorrows in American food.  There is a place called ARMYNAVY which is the best thing I’ve ever been to.  They have legit American food but its super expensive.  I got a burrito and fries and it was 270 pesos.  But it was heaven. They had salsa and everything.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Gosh it was amazing.  Unfortunately we aren’t rich and can’t eat there all the time haha. 

     But the happiest part of the week was I got my new companion.  She is really nice. She is 6 months in the mission so she is fun to work with.  She still has that new energy for the work so it is kind of rubbing off on my again. Our area right now is struggling with progressing investigators and its getting a little old to show up to the houses of less actives and find them drinking.  So this transfer we’re going to kick it in gear and see what we can get done.

   We have a family that we absolutely love.  The dad is still a little unsure and doesn’t make any commitments but the mom and the kids are awesome.  Well the dad is awesome too haha. But they are the ones I’m really hoping will progress.  I love that we have a family that we are teaching.  Teaching families is such a challenge because everyone has their own different concerns. But in the end it will be all worth it. 

     We had zone meeting this week.  That was fun.  Except for everyone was running on not much sleep because they had been up late the last night packing. Transfer week is always an adventure.

Well I’m sorry I don’t have much else to say this week.  

    This week we did find a really cool part of our area. We saw it from a ways away and I wanted to go there and so did my companion so we just said let’s go!  And we explored and found a way there.  It was down through this valley thing and across a river and up a hill.  haha over the river and through the woods....to the investigators house we go!  Being a missionary in the province is a whole different experience!

   That’s all I’ve got for this week though. Love you all and I hope you are enjoying your month of love haha. Happy late Valentine’s day!  Talk to you next week!

--Sister Van Tassell 

I'm trying to be like Jesus

magandang pday sa inyo lahat!  I’m not really sure how 6 weeks has already passed but its transfer day again!  This time I’m staying but my companion is leaving me already.  They told me that my new companion is also Filipina so that should be good. But it’s a little exhausting to have another transfer so quickly. I guess its ok though.  4 more transfers left.  That is a little bit crazy ;) but who is counting. 

 This week was awesome because we had a baptism!  Very, very exciting. There were a lot of people that attended and us missionaries sang I am a child of God.  In English, Tagalog, and Samoan. So that was cool.  It’s been a while since we’ve had a baptism so it was a nice change! 

    Also this week we went to visit our recent convert who just had her baby.  We heard about it and we couldn’t resist.  It was an interesting experience though. Because she was in a 'ward' which is like one room with a lot of people in it.  There were a ton of beds and three moms and their babies to one bed.  So it was really crowded and hot and there were a lot of babies!  But they were all sooooooo cute! and had so much hair!  We just went around and talked to people and looked at their babies.  One girl was 16 and had no husband, only her best friend there with her.  So that was sad.  I wish things like that didn’t have to happen. But at least her friend was there.  And her baby was so darn cute.  

   Let’s see what else happened.  Oh remember last week how I told you about the refried beans.  Well this week I made burritos for my kabahays and they were so delicious!  They were only simple ones with just beans and cheese but I forgot how amazing something that simple can taste hah. We didn’t have ketchup to dip them in so we used tomato sauce. But it worked and it was yummy.

   Kanina we went and played sports as a district for our morning exercise. That was super fun because we found a football and so me and the Samoan elder in the district threw the football.  He is teaching me how to throw it rugby style too. Its legit.  It’s fun to have someone else in the district that likes sports.  It gets a little old playing just for fun haha.  You know how I am! 

      As for a spiritual experience this week. We went to teach one of our investigators and she wasn’t there. So we stopped by the house of one of our old OYMs to see if we could teach her.  Of course she wasn’t there either but her asawa and his friends were.  So we were chatting with them and then one of the friends says that he knows some Mormons that live 'over there.'  We were able to get a general idea of where they lived and we went to find them. We circled a few times but actually ended up finding their house and they were there!  It was a family that was all members except for the son who hasn’t been baptized yet.  They have been sealed in the temple and everything but they moved and now they are less active and busy.  So that was a spiritual experience in itself!  It’s amazing to find new people to teach and to help.  But the real part that hit me was yesterday on Sunday we told them we would come pick them up for church so they don’t have to be shy to go alone and they said ok and they were perfectly happy about it and we didn’t see any difficulties.  So then Sunday we went and took a tricycle to their house...and let’s just say it wasn’t super cheap and on top of that we were running a little bit late so we were stressed.  And then we got to the house and out of the tricycle and they come out the door and say ehh sisters were not ready and we forgot and were busy.  Next week na lang.  So there was nothing else to do but just turn around and go wait for the jeepney to take us back to the city and we knew we were going to be late and we didn’t have anything to show for it and so I got a little bit mad.  I’ll be honest. I was so frustrated and I was just about to start telling my companion how ridiculous it was but right at that minute I just started humming the song that said I’m trying to be like Jesus.  It just came from nowhere and it made me stop and think how if we are really trying to be like Jesus we shouldn’t say things like that because we don’t know peoples situations.  Now I’m for sure not perfect and sometimes I complain a lot.  But I love the fact that when we are really trying to improve our actions...we have help.  Even something as little as a primary song coming into our minds when we struggle.  The little things mean the most!

    That’s all I’ve got for this week! Thank you all for your prayers and your love and I love you all so much!

XOXO

Sister Van Tassell

A Week of Service

My day is amazing thanks to Brock and Natalie.  So now I have energy to write a nice letter.  So you can thank them.

     This week was the bomb.  We had a lot of things happen.

1) I went on exchanges with my nanay here in the mission.  She is going home in February so it’s very sad. But at least we got to be companions again before she left.  She’s the best and I freaking love her.  It was cool to be able to be companions because you could see the difference from when I was a newbie to now. I’ve come from not understanding a single thing and probably not being understood to being able to teach a full lesson. Starting and being able to talk to the investigators and so much more.  Of course there are always times when I get down on myself but I guess you just have to remember where you were when you started and that’s when you really appreciate where you are now.

2) We had a zone service project of candle making!  We all went and helped through the whole process.  They had huge bags of wax of all different colors that they had collected from who knows where. Then they just dumped them out and we had to sort it by color so they could recycle the used wax.  It took forever.  And it wasn’t even close to all the way done.  Me and some other American elders just sat and talked and sorted the wax for literally like 3 hours.  It killed my back but it was a good time to be able to just chat.  Then there was other missionaries who dipped the candles in the wax and hung them and stuff.  At the end we got to make our own candles.  They had some candle molds and we made them but the one I made  was  pretty pangit and it wasn’t all the way cool and it couldn’t stand up by its self so I just gave it away.  But it was a good time. 

3) We went to the house of one of our less actives to teach but turns out some one in their family had just got in a motorcycle crash so they were at the hospital. But one of the members was there.  And we found out that there was laundry out back that really needed done so we just had an on the spot service project.  It went really fast cause we had 3 people washing and so we finished in an hour.  Afterwards I saw on her shelf some cans of refried beans.  I was super excited cause you can’t really find those here. So I asked about them.  She gave them to me and one can of apple sauce as well cause they didn’t like them and didn’t know how to cook them.  The apple sauce they tried to make into juice and they had no idea what the beans were for.  So they just threw them out to the dog.  And even the dog wouldn’t eat them. Haha it was funny and I was fine with it because it meant she gave them to me for free! :)

Well the elders are standing behind us telling us to hurry so that’s all I’ve got for this week.  Love you all!  Don’t forget to see the blessings in your life.  Remember that the things we sometimes take for granted are the things that are luxuries for others.  You are all the best! Keep on keeping on! :)

   XOXO

-Sister Van Tassell