Feliz Navidad

[After talking about her Christmas phone call home...]

 

I was going to send you the picture of the GIANT rice cooker they have at the mission home but I didn't bring my hookup. Next time.

 

I forgot to tell you that I made some fresh mango salsa on christmas eve and it was SUPER DELICIOUS. Seriously, I have been in heaven for a few days eating it. I couldn't get any tortia chips though so Ive been eating it with taco doritos. It works though. I decided that Cilantro is one of my favorite smells/tastes.

 

This morning we deep cleaned our apartment. It was a mission wide thing. Our walls were filthy! I spent forever on those things and trying to get rid of cobwebs! Sister Carlos is so cute. She has prizes for everyone who completes the "checklist".  One of the prizes is a gourmet dinner at the mission home. (each zone will be entered in a drawing for the dinner)

And she pretty much told me that my companion will be transferred Thursday so I'll have a new companion pretty soon!

 

I wish I could send you a picture of our beautiful new converts in their baptismal whites but alas, my camera broke the day before their baptism! I have to get the pics from my zone leaders later. Remigia and Fe, and they are both super cool! The baptism was great and Sister Rivera made "grey ham" which consists of graham crackers, cream, and mangos. It took me a while to figure out why she was calling it "Grey ham" and it finally donned on me-- the "gra-ham" crackers. It makes me giggle now every time anyone mentions the delicious "grey ham".

 

Well, sure love you all and hope you have a happy new year!

Theres a rumor going around that all the missionaries in cauayan Zone get to go to the mission home for new years and have a sleep over there. I hope its true!!!

 

Yours- Sister Webre

Merry Christmas

For  unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Conuselor, The mighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.(2 Nephi 19:6) I love this scripture and song SO MUCH don't you??
It's Christmas! My first one away from home, but lucky for me, we celebrate the birth of our Savior all around the world!
 I am so grateful for His birth and His perfect life. I can turn to His example when ever I wonder what I should do, I can lean on His mercy and grace when all I can do is still not enough. His love helps me find courage when the evils and temptations of the world threaten me and make me feel little.

The baptisms are still on for Christmas! What a beautiful and perfect way to celebrate the birth of Christ, with the birth of two wonderful women who are starting a new life in the path that leads back home to our Father.

Love You

It has been a great week. In fact, Saturday was the best day of my life.

 It started out with a service project to one of our new investigators. There was a TON of garbage, a whole wardrobes worth of old dirty wet clothes and stuff all around their house that were attracting alot of mosquitos. So we removed all or at least most of that!

Then we helped a member set up her computers for her new internet cafe business at her house. That was fun. Mostly because we were with the AP's, DL's and ZL's. And they figured out how to take pictures of all our faces and set them as desktop backgrounds on all of her computers. It was so awesome!

Then she fed us lunch, we taught a couple lessons and went to the mission home to practice for the devotional. I sang a solo by the way for the District Christmas Devotional. It was fun. And sister fort and I did a duet "Away in a Manger" with her on the guitar and the rest of our zone joining in on the third verse. It was way pretty! We get to sing it for zone conference too! So I'll get a video later.

Oh wait, I almost forgot the best part! After practicing my solo, I walked into the kitchen and the most delicious smell filled my nose, I almost died and went to heaven. I kid you not, the night before (after finishing off some fresh MANGO salsa from Sister Carlos (which by the way is so good that it rivals Grandpa norms salsa)  I had mentioned how I missed mexican food the very most and what do I get the very next day? Angels cooking tacos in the kitchen and REAL CHEESE!! It was my first since I came to the philippines. I can't describe my brand of happiness to you. David Archuleta singing Joy to the World in the background had a lot to do with it I think. :)

President and Sister Carlos spoke about the gifts we can give Jesus for Christmas-- Our Faith, Gratitude, and Service to others. After the devotional we were getting ready to go home and President carlos comes walking out of his office with a wad of pisos. He says "who wants icecream" and we all go wild of course.

So he sent two elders to go get Icecream to end the night. It was just the icing on the cake!

Also, got to watch the First Presidency devotional  yesterday. Wasn't that wonderful? Of course I cried like a baby when they sang "What Shall We Give". We brought one of our investigators and It was a neat experience to be able to show her our Prophet and let her hear and feel of his sweet message and love. When the title came up "Thomas S. Monson, President, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" I felt this strong feeling in my heart that he really is called of God! And how incredible it really is that we have a living prophet. And here it was, her first time to hear his voice and see his face. So neat.

When you said you ate at Beijing Buffet, the first memory I had was of Hunter (after much painstaking pep talk to get him to be happy about eating there) walking in and saying loudly and with great excitement "You didn't tell me they had "THIS"!! Pointing at the fountain/decor in the front. Oh what a funny kid!! I miss him.

Well thats all for now. After friday night it finally feels like Christmas even though the mosquitos are still more prevalent than ever! The things I will miss most are watching "Its a wonderful Life" and singing with the fam. Oh yeah and the Willard Bay LIghts. I will probably miss those the most.

Love you so so much! All of you! Thanks for your prayers. I need them always!

Love, Sister Webre

p.s. What do you mean when you say "trimming the tree" I forgot to ask last week, I don't know what that means.

Remi

Kamooooosta!

Happy late Thanksgiving.

My Thanksgiving was pretty....well, non-existent actually.

Well, I take that back, sister Rivera and I had an early celebration and feasted on some delicious balut. I attached a picture for your viewing pleasure.

Okay, so I didn't really eat the chicken. I just drank a little of the juice and ate some non-chickeny parts. Apparently the chicks/chickens were a little old in the ones we got. Maybe we'll try again on another day. Or not.

So that was Wednesday, and then for some reason Thursday totally passed me by and I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving. So, yeah, no celebration mom not even in our district. I thought maybe Sister and Pres Carlos would have us over for dinner or something but Pres Carlos was gone on Thanksgiving so that didn't happen.

The funny part is that I totally thought it was Thanksgiving on Friday. I celebrated by cooking up the chocolate chip cookie mix that Jill sent me (Ive been saving it for a special occasion) in our litle toaster oven and Sister Rivera and I feasted upon those delicious morsels.

It wasn't until thenext day that I realized "oh, yesterday was friday....I totally missed Thanksgiving!" Haha it was pretty funny. Sometimes you wonder where your brain is.

 

We have an awesome investigator her name is Remidia Hernandez. She is in her 60's and she wears these red ball earrings. I've never seen her without those things in her ears. Basically she's the hope of our White Christmas. She quit smoking and drinking Coffee in less than a week and she's come to church straight now for three weeks. Stinkin AWESOME right!? Her faith is already WAY strong and we are so excited for her baptism!

 

Something new I'm trying to do is truly account to the Lord each night. Give Him an honest report and evaluation of my goals, my efforts, and recommit to go and do where I fell short. That is something I have not been doing so well. Obviously he already knows what/how I did, but I need that evaluation! It's so true that a goal or committment with no follow up or  most generally will not be accomplished!  I have already seen a difference in my progress so I am excited to continue!

 

Well, thats all for now.

The church is true!

I love you all SOO mmuch.

Be good and remember your baptismal covenants this week.

 

Love, Sister Webre

 

Operation White Christmas

Well its the moment you have all been waiting for! Sister Webre's e-mail!

I have a lot of exciting news this week.

On tuesday night we got a text with all of the names of those who would be transferred to a new area. We were a little confused to see that both of our names were there. We asked if it was a pull-out and they said yes. So now there are Elders in Mallig. I have really been praying for Mallig branch. I know this is an answer to my prayers. I think it will be kindof like a fresh start for them with brand new missionaries that can develop new relationships without the carried over opinions and stereotypes.

My only baptism in Mallig--angelica, I missed by two days because of the transfer. Bummer! But she did get baptized so hooray for that!

My new area is............Cauayan! Yep, thats right I live just less than ten minutes walking distance from the mission home. Its pretty sweet. There are many many perks to this new arrangement. I get mail a lot sooner for one. The AP's are part of our branch and we get to see them all the time. They give us rides in the mision vehicle and they come to dinner appointments with us. So that is fun. They are both american.

My new apartment is nice. Still no shower but I quite prefer the scooper now. Our toilet does flush though, thats new!

My new companion is filipino and she is super awesome! She is everything I could ever want in a companion! Mom you are going to be so jealous, she studied and worked in massage therapy before the mission. Ive already benefited from that perk! She is very willing to give massages whenever. Also she is an amazing cook and really enjoys it. So that has been sweeeet! ONly problem there is that I'm going to get even fatter. Ah well.

She is really loud and outgoing unlike my first two companions so I am really loving that. Seriously, this transfer is going to just be tons of fun. And we have a lot of potentials to be baptized!

 

So this operation white christmas is our mission thing. Obviously the philippines have never seen snow, but we're really pushing for lots of baptism on dec 25 (conveniently happnes to be a saturday!) So we can have a white christmas! So I'm really dreaming of a white christmas! Lets alll pray!

 

Love you all so much

have a splendid week

 

sister Webre

 

Quick descriptions of the pictures:

 

We had to walk on that skinny log to get to our investigators house! haha!

When we cut the rice in the fields in order to harvest it, its called "gapas" We did this for a recent convert.

The pictures with the other sister missionaries were at sisters training. All of the sister missionaries in the whole mission got to gather at the mission home for good food, talks and a presentation from sister carlos. It was awesome!!

The picture of me and the little girl is angelica. She got baptized two days after I got transferred. She wrote this note me during sacrament meeting because she saw that I was crying. So cute!

 

 The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints is truth!

 

Happy November!

Hey fam

I'm pretty jealous I missed BEHS phantom of the opera. IT was all the talk in your e-mails.
Transfers are thursday. They will announce tomorrow who will be transferred. I've been praying that it will be me. If I don't get transferred thursday, I will be left in this area until at least February. That is a long time to be in an area like this. But whatever happens, I trust the revelation of President Carlos and I will keep trying to be the best missionary I can be here in Mallig.
Angelicas baptism is still on for Saturday! Woo hoo! My companion is making the program as we speak.

I was counting earlier this morning and I figured an average of 20 prayers that I am participant in daily. That's a lot of prayers! Prayer is pretty important you know. If I can pray 20 times a day, you can all at least pray morning and night! (I'm sure you all already do)

Well the most frequently visited scripture in lessons this week was 3 Nephi 13:31-33. Take no thought saying what shall we eat or drink or wear.--The Lord knows our needs and if we seek first His kingdom, all our temporal needs will be met. (paraphrasing)
Most of our investigators, recent converts and less active members work in the rice fields every day or don't have enough money to pay for transportation in order to come to church. I know that if they truly have faith in Jesus Christ and if they "seek first the kingdom of God" he will prepare a way for them to be able to come to church AND see that their temporal needs are met. I know that, but they don't. So the trick is helping them to gain a testimony of this principle!
So true for all of us though. Maybe we don't have a problem making it to church, but some other aspects of the spiritual part of our life are left out or put last because the temporal matters seem so much more pressing.

I was sitting in our humble meeting house yesterday during the sacrament ordinance. There is something special about that short few minutes in sacrament meeting that we have to think about the Savior and ponder our covenants with Him. We can take a moment to think about the savior any time, any day of the week, but it is somehow different in sacrament meeting, during that sacred ordinance. As I pondered His great atoning sacrifice for me, I realized that I have never known with more certainty than I know now that he is the only sure rock upon which we must build our lives. It is a scary world and Satan is ever present but surely if we are doing things daily that help us build our foundation in Christ, we will be strong and He can truly have no power over us. My love for Him grows daily as I understand more fully how much I truly depend on Him.

Time to go now! It's true! The gospel is true, it's all true!
Take care, all of you and don't forget to remember!

-Your Sister Webre

Happy times, Sad times

Its that time again! The shortest hour of the week!
How are you all doing?

Well sorry for the drought in pictures. I have been trying, but I'm having problems with the memory chip that has all my pics on it. Hopefully I can get it figured out soon. I have some pretty awesome pictures!

So it actually got kind of cold this week. They said their was another typhoon, but not wind, just continuous rain. Some of the houses closer to the river flooded. Luckily we are on higher ground. A lot of our investigators tell us they think it is the end of the world. We had fun walking through the mud this weekend!
I thought that it was going to stay cold through January but it got hot again and has stayed since Saturday. They say it does get cooler for a few months though.

Word is we will have power and water later tonight! Woohoo! There is still no water or power in a lot of places, but they've finally got it fixed in our area. We had power and water for one day last week but then it was gone the next day so we'll see if it stays!
We have been eating oatmeal, french toast (no complaints there!) , rice and canned tuna and a lot of junk snack foods. We'll be happy to have our frig back! (by the way mom, yes I have stayed pretty healthy so far! But the word is if I want to lose the pounds I put on, I need to get sick. So I'm searching for something I can catch that wont be too bad.  Ha! Just kidding!)

Sadly I don't think we will be able to teach the Gahelonia family because the father for some reason hates mormons. At least he is totally against us teaching the wife and daughter and wants to burn the Book of Mormon we gave them. So that was a sad day for me. The mother and daughter are the first investigators I have had that I know truly have a desire to become members of the church. I am getting used to disappointments.
But I roll with the punches and trust that in the end Heavenly Father will make everything right.

Actually I forgot to tell you about Benjamin Adorio! He is a new investigator and I'm pretty sure he's gonna be baptized. I've been wrong before, but he has come to chruch 3 weeks in a row so that is pretty much a miracle. He is probably in his 40s and he is a bank gaurd. The awesome thing is that he came to church before we even started teaching him. We met him saturday, gave him a pamphlet and invited him to church and there he was the next day. What a champ!! During the lesson he said it had been a long time since he had been to church and it felt good to be back. He was really emotional, I think the lord has been preparing him to recieve the gospel.
And the other good news is that Angelica, the 9-year old of the part member family can be baptized now. We recieved a no answer from the zone leader because her parents are inactive, but I asked president in my interview last week if she could be baptized because her 19 yr old sister brings her to church EVERY week. And he sad YES. So yay! Nov 20 is her date.

Still loving mission life and learning lots.
Thanks for all your tender loving care in various forms.
Sure do love you all.

All my love from the philippine islands-

Sister Webre

Good News!

Happy day of the dead to all!
So their Halloween here is actually on November first. (today) But they don't do the costume trick or treat thing. My companion said that everyone gets together at the cemetery and they put flowers and things on the graves. (maybe like memorial day)
Sadly we wont be hanging out at the cemetary tonight. We have a 6pm curfew now that there is no power. Still no word of power or water for a while. Its pretty sad seeing the power poles and lines all over the place, hanging low to the ground, totally destroyed some places. I don't think we will be getting power for a while!

Sorry I left you hanging for so long! I'm happy to report that the lice have departed, I haven't seen them around for weeks now, thank goodness and they are certainly never welcome back!

Well I have some GOOD NEWS. I think we may have found that golden family. I was REALLY excited last week when we taught them and I could tell they genuinely wanted to listen and learn more. The mother was saying how she had far away relatives that were LDS and she had attented church with them once when she visited them. She said she loved it and she loves the "mormon" people. She kept saying how happy she was that we came to her house. SHE asked if she could come to church with us. So pretty awesome huh?!!
The bad news is, we waited for them at church and they never showed. We will visit them tomorrow and see what happened. The last name is Gahelonia. You can pray for them.

We're still having a hard time with our church attendance. Especially with the storm, people are busy fixing stuff and the number one excuse is no money for their travel fair. A lot of the neighborhoods are really far from the chruch so it's hard. But we've been trying new methods!
Sister Vacalares often will give our tricycle drivers a pamphlet and ask if we can come and share the gospel with their family. Pretty good Idea don't you think? If we convert a tricycle driver in each neighborhood, they can give investigators and members rides. Well I thought it was pretty smart.

A random fact that I keep meaning to include is that everyone calls each other brother and sister here and its not weird or anything. It's just like sir or ma'am. It is so awesome. It makes me so happy.

Have I mentioned that I love the Philippines? I love the country, the culture, the customs, the food, and most of all the people. How hard they work,m how humble they are, how difficult most of their circumstances. Last month, we stopped at a house to talk to some ladies that were sitting outside. They were sitting on a few logs of long, skinny, bamboo. ONe of them was extremely thin, she told us she has six children. She looked very young. Her mother was there also, and another neighbor. As we talked to them, more and more people started to gather around us- many o them children. I tend to attract the crowds :) We asked if w could share the message with them. One lady apologized- they didn't have any chairs for us to sit. But she hurried away to a small hut house nearby and came back with a simple wood bench. They were all sitting on the bamboo on the ground and we- on the bench, facing them. What a beautiful sight they were. Bare feet and various humble attire--the childrens eager faces, beautiful brown eyes and dark hair all looking at me. As I looked around at each of them I was filled with an overwhelming love. Tears came into my eyes and I could feel how precious each one of them were to Heavenly Father. In a very real sense I think He was filling me with His love for them.
Oh, if they could only feel that love! If they could come to know that their lives could be filled with great peace and joy by accepting and living the teachings of Jesus Christ!

This is my work, the work of the Father. This is the desire of my heart each day as I walk among the precious children of God, my brothers and sisters. I thank Him every day for this opportunity to serve him in this way and at this place and time.

I love and miss all of you.
Have a wonderful week and listen to a session of general conference!

Every monday when we do laundry and clean the house I listen to a session of conference. I am so inspired by the words of the prophets and priesthood leaders of our church.
How blessed we are!

Do good and loving you always,
Sister Webre

Slugs!

Hello Family, it's monday again!

This week we did not teach any lessons.  We only did service. It was fun, but I miss teaching! Thats where all the good stuff happens!
I ask any who read this to please pray for Mallig branch. We are struggling. The whole branch is disorganized and the President isn't doing a lot to help. It is a very difficult situation and puts a lot more responsibility on us missionaries. He expects us to teach the young women and sunday school classes etc.
Thanks

I'm super hot and tired so I don't think I will write much more.
But I love you and the church is true!!
Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I'm really awake. I'm really here, in the PHilippines, being a missionary. Ive waited my whole life to do what I am doing right now. I'm finally living the dream! Being a missionary is so great. It's a privelege and a blessing to work so closely with the Lord!
May he bless you all and keep you happy and safe

Sister Webre

p.s. I just realized I didn't explain my subject.
Wish I could send the picture, we had slugs the other day. It was awesome. We got them out of the river ourselves, boiled them for a few minutes and had to suck them out of the shells! Sweet! I know you're jealous

Typhoon

I'm ALIVE!!
Hello there family, it's me, your missionary!

As you've heard, there's been quite an excitement around here. On friday we got a text from our zone leaders telling us that a super typhoon was headed our way. They said to prepare food and water for a three day lock down. So we went to the sisters house in our neighboring area on saturday night and waited for the storm. We waited until monday morning when the winds started to pick up. It lasted most of monday. It didn't seem all that powerful to me but it was hard to tell inside the house.  There were some occasional loud bangs and someone else's roof came and landed on ours. It punched a whole in the ceiling but that's about all the damage that came to us. I don't know if it was because the winds were extremely strong or just because the houses aren't terribly sturdy here. Probably both.

Anyway, when we were able to go out and assess the damage it was a lot worse than I thought it would be. There are a lot less trees standing and many roofs and other things displaced. Everything looks pretty messy. We were a little bit worried about our house, but when we got home it was perfectly fine. Just a little bit of water in two spots. I thought that a typhoon meant lots and lots of water, but I think it was mostly wind. Needless to say, we were watched over!

The exciting news is that they say we will have no water or power for 3 months! WooHoo! So that means no fridge, no electric fans (bummer!) and I was thinking we would have no music, cell phone, flashlight, camera or be able to iron our clothes but GUESS WHAT!? Our neighbors have sweet hook ups. They call it a generator! And last night they hooked us up from 6-10 pm. So we are able to charge all of our battery things and all of that. Still no fridge though. It doesn't really work to refrigerate things for just four hours every night.
I'm not sure why we don't have water because our neighbors do. So they let us fill our buckets from their spicket every morning to use for the day. We are counting our blessings.

So everything is A-okay here. Thanks for your prayers. Sorry for the scare mom!
Hopefully we can do some sweet missionary work through service projects and stuff.

note: My companion likes beef jerky and they don't have that here. Just in case anyone is sending a package in the near future.

Well I do believe its time to go now. Have a great week! Count your blessings every day and walk with a grateful heart always! Wasn't President Monson's talk on gratitude just great?

Helaman 5:7. Be good. Do good. That simple. :)

-Sister Webre

Cheerfully Do all Things that Lie in Our Power

Hello beautiful family (and friends)

I'm still laughing over dad's closing line to me-- "you are beautiful,
head lice or not" Haha, love you dad.

Well the big news is that my trainer got transferred on Thursday. It
was quite unexpected and I am totally unprepared. She left me here in
this area and my new companion is sister Vacalares. I'm not sure how
old she is, but she said she is much older than sister Valdoz who is
24. She is super cute and super nice. I'm sure we will get along
nicely. (Another filipina) Her parents are not members and they don't
write her. Way SAD! So I am extremely grateful for such an
overwhelmingly supportive family. I can't imagine. We are so blessed!

I'm not sure why, but I was kinda expecting/hoping for an american
companion. Oh well, Heavenly Father knows best.
So it's been an interesting few days. I don't remember how to find
most of the houses, but luckily we have the fellowshippers who know
the names and addresses of the people we are teaching.
It's been a struggle for me, but it's in our trials that we grow the most right?
All of our baptisms fell through (we had three lined up for the 16th)
even little Angelica. She can't be baptized because her parents are
inactive. So we will try our best to reactivate that family. The
others aren't coming to church.

The good news is that i got to listen to conferencE! WOOHOO! One of my
favorite lines "simplicity is teh ultimate sophistication". I love
Elder Uchtdorfs talk about mastering the fundamentals. The gospel is
so beautifully simple. We often get caught up in little unimportant
things and we just need to go back to the basics--Prayer! Scripture
study! Etc.

How is the language coming? Well, honestly the language is my biggest
struggle. It has been from the beginning. I love you all, but i'm not
homesick, I don't have a problem following mission rules, but the
language is what gets me.  Is it getting easier? Yes and no. I can
understand almost all of the conversation in lessons but still feel
that i can speak little more than I could when I left the MTC. So, I'm
just trying to be patient.  Many of the wonderful teaching skills and
ideas in PMG I want to use, but it is hard when I cannot speak the
language. I often get discouraged when i cannot fully express what is
in my heart and ask the questions and have the conversations I want
to. I often do not feel like a PMG missionary. So that is hard for me.
It is easy to look at all the things I cannot yet do and say because
of the language barrier. But I know that there is so much that I CAN
do. So I will not focus on all that I cannot. But I know as I focus on
and keep doing those things that I am able, eventually this weakness
will become strong.

My scripture for the week is D and C 123:17. "Let us cheerfully do all
things that lie in our power and then we may stand still, with the
utmost assurance to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be
revealed" The key is cheerfully!!

How often do I eat with members? Probably once a week or maybe twice.
It's funny though, usually they don't ask us, we ask them. But its
just the culture here. Its not rude to ask them to feed us. They offer
sometimes too.
I love UBE.

Thanks for EVERYTHING, especially your prayers.
LOve you forever
Sister Webre

There is a baptism at the end of the tunnel!

Well hello again!

 

Hows life in the US? Life in the philippines is still awesome.

Yes, we will get to listen to conference. SO EXCITED!! But only the sunday sessions. And it will be this coming week, since we are a day ahead and conference hadn't happened yet. Cool, another temple for the Philippines!! I miss the temple.

 

ON p-days..... We do laundry, companion and personal study (1 hr each) and clean our whole apartment. (This takes usually 2 ish hours) Then we ride 20 minutes over to roxas to email, buy groceries and do any other shopping or errands we need to. When we get back to our apartment its usually close to 5 and we make a quick dinner and head out to proselyte at 6 for the rest of the night. Pretty exciting I know! Pretty stinkin short too.

 

On normal days we just get up, exercise (I jump rope for 15 minutes usually. Wish I could run!) shower and eat, then study for 3 hours (personal, companion, language) then we eat lunch and proselyte/teach for the rest of the day. WE usually get home around 8 ish, (Everyone goes to bed at 8 I think. Its because they get up so stinkin early!)  review the day, plan for 30 or 40 minutes for the next day, then eat a snack, journal and hit the sack! 

 

 

 

We usually have plenty of teaching appointments to fill the day, but when people aren't home we do some finding and contacting.

 

Ideas for packages:

Any chocolate

granola

tapioca

ticonderoga pencils

cookie mix

pictures (you can also e-mail me some pics of the happenings!)

Also, we don't have a deseret book or anything here. I had some different little pics of jesus and my comp asked if she could have them. The members also love stuff like that, so anything you can send like that would be awesome.

My companion is crazy about the color violet

anything healthy to snack

fruit leather

Credit union pens (the ones everyone likes)

Letters are the best.

I want some new music for christmas. more details later.

 

So I wish I had time to tell you about the pictures. I think almost all of the filipinos in the pics are members. The woman with the coconut is so awesome. She works with us usually 3 days a week! What a fellowshipper!

I tried to send a pic of the tricycle and jeepni. Sorry they aren't very good pics. those are our mains sources of transportation. The other bus in the picture is what I rode from Manilla to Cauayan.  

 

The orange box is some soap I bought. It cracks me up how the people here all want to be white and everyone in america wants to be brown. They have lots of "skin whitening" products. 

 

They do have something that resembles a grocery store. We shop there as well as in the pelenke for  fruits  and veggies. There are lots of different veggies here. They are super cheap which makes us missionaries very happy. The pink spiky one with the white filling and black dots is a fruit. Its apparently very expensive, but our neighbors gave us for free!

 

 

Okay! Once again I have no time to tell you about the work. I'm going to copy my journal and send snail.

Just know that no one comes to church still, but Heavenly Father sent us Angelica. She is nine and she is so stinkin adorable. Way super smart. She will be baptized on the 16 of this month! WooHOO! She has been super fun to teach.

 

Time to go.

Be good.

Eat your vegetables.

Don't forget to brush!

The church is true!

I love you!

 

Forever Sister Webre

 

Lice

I feel like my e-mail time goes by in two seconds.
The good news is that I got your package mom, And I got lots of mail. There was quite the drought there for a while.I think I was too spoiled in the MTc getting mail every day and packages everyweek. I got letters from Jill, Elder Jarvie, S. Tillmann, mandy, mom, grandma and dad. Thanks to all! I only get my mail every Tuesday at district meeting. I haven't yet actually recieved my package, the Zone Leaders have it.
they just informed me that they had the package on the floor and the ants attacked t. So I'm not sure what is in there, but I'm sure it's delicious. Those sugar ants are topnotch scouts!

One of my favorite momets this week: A lady walks by and says to me "You are soo byootiful!" (gotta imagine the accent) Then sister valdoz (after the lady was out of ear shot) says "Yes, but she has LICE!"
I don't know why, It was just funny. People say that to me every day (that i am beautiful) and I'm sure Sister. Valdoz gets tired of it.
Actually I do have lice. Discoverd it saturday. Tried to get rid of it sat night but it really likes me head alot. So It's quite the nuisance really because i have to wash everything, in hot water but there is no hot water, so I have to boil a pan of water at a time and then wash by hand. It is great. And hopefully eventually we can get it all out of my hair. Pray for me.

My wardrobe has been suffering but the good new s is that I had some dresses made for me for 10 $ each and I'm going to pick them up now. HOpefully they turned out! Pretty sweet how cheap it is to get stuff tailor made here.

Love you all
Love being a missionary
More about the work next time

Love Sister Webre

Galing Sa Pusa

Kamusta PO!

Another week gone!
Time never stops or slows down, does it? And what we do with that time is up to us! I know that it has been a struggle for me my whole life to live in the moment. Especially when the moments aren't super hunky dory. But I am really striving to make the most of every minute of every day and not waste a minute. Time is so precious.

There is nothing worse than taking a look at your life and realizing that you are only living for yourself or, that you are at a standstill, that you are no better today than yesterday or even last month or year.

I'm trying to have more regular self-evalutations to make sure that I don't look back on life and find that I haven't become what God intended me to be, that I haven't become what I really want to be--that is--to be like Jesus Christ, my Savior.

Each day I can do something different, something better, because of the things I learned yesterday. 2 Ne 28:30 Line upon line is the Lords way of teaching us. Here a little, and there a little--but constant and consistent changes-- until our conversion is complete and we are as He is.
So, as for your questions mom, I am always hot, yes. I don't think I can say I am used to it, but you just learn to live with it and smile. My only real complaint is that It makes me super tired. I think it is because I am dehydrated. I know I should probably drink more, but as dad would say "it all comes out in the end". We are away from our apartment for 7 hours and who knows what kind of bathrooms will be available? But I guess its part of the adventure right. Okay I'll drink more. And report my adventures next week! It rains. It comes on quickly, rains hard, and leaves just as quickly usually. ONce we were caught in the rain for an hour though. It is glorious. I don't know if it is appropriate for me to accidently get soaked in the rain? My companion thinks I'm crazy, I only use my umbrella for the sun. The nights cool off a little, but not a whole lot. Church is fun. We usually have about 60 attend. The building is really small. I will send pictures next week.

We got to work in the bukid this week. It was a service project for an investigator. We said that we would help them in the bukid saturday so that they would be able to attend church sunday. (work is their excuse for not attending chuch) Well, they still didn't come. Oh well, no effort is wasted. I want this family to accept the gospel so badly! They have 4 boys, age19, 21, 23, 25. They are so cute! And super nice. But they aren't keeping any of their commitments so far. : ( Why does no one keep their commitments?!? I'll keep you posted.

One funny moment: Puso is heart. Pusa is cat. I was talking about prayer and I meant to say: "The most important thing is that it comes from the heart" but i said "galing sa pusa" instead of "galing sa puso". As soon as it came out of my mouth I knew it was wrong and I quickly corrected it, but everyone got a pretty good laugh out of it. Coming from cat. tee hee.

The mission so far has been a challenge, certainly. It has been difficult, no doubt. I have felt very inadequate and underqualified to be the Lords servant in this way. I have felt like giving up at times. But each time I re-commit myself because I know who I am, and I know God's plan. And as I press on He gives me strength. If we bring our all to the table, if we are willing to make sacrifices, the Lord always comes through with His promised blessings. I know that.

I am so grateful for these experiences. Sometimes I feel like I am recieving much more than I am giving. The Lord is teaching me so much. I am also teaching, but it sure seems like I am learning heaps more than others are learning from me.

Well, time to go now.

Be good this week.

Ask yourself what you can do different today because of what you learned yesterday in order to become as He is!

LOVE YOU FOREVER!

Sister WEbre

I Feel Sorry for Anyone Who Is NOT Me Right Now

HELLO!

This week was a great one. We met and taught lots of awesome people.

I am not in Cauayan City. We are about an hour bus ride away from Cauayan City. So pretty close. We have gone there every week so far, for transfers, zone conference, and a trainer/trainee meeting this past week. The mission home is really nice.

Most people are very poor. A lot of dirt floors and hut like houses. There quite a few concrete floors as well. It is very green, I just eat it up! Sooo beautiful, especially when we walk out into some of the more rural areas. Lots of rice fields (green) and palm trees. and bamboo trees. I will send some pics. They are not as pretty as the real picture.

I Have a lot to say and no time to say it.

It is pretty rural, depends on which part of our area we are in. There is dirty city along some parts of the main highway road.

We don't actually walk a whole lot. We ride to the barrangay that we teach in for the day and we only have to walk around to the different houses. There are some interesting modes of transportation here. I will send more pictures next time. This picture attached is something a member has, they were giving us a ride home. We usually ride in a tricycle. Its the motorcycle with a small car on the side that fits two people, or they cram three in and they sit two on the motorcycle behind the driver. its funny. I love it.

We usually don't eat dinner because we are out working, but we cook our own breakfast and lunch. Sometimes members feed us. I usually just eat cereal or cookies at night when we get home. Yay, cereal!!

Well thank for your prayers. Sorry i didn't say anything much about anything. I enjoyed reading your letters fam. Keep up the good work.

Oh yeah, I bought some speakers and a charger all for about 45 american dollars. Hallelujah! So no worries there.

Love you!

-Sister Webre

kamusta ang kilikili mo?

Hello there!

The truth is, family, that I miss you all so much it hurts. But I am trying to be strong. I know it will take time.

Shout out to Heather and Mom, who write faithfully every week.

I have more e-mail time now, but snail mail is still preferred. I can also print, but of course it costs.

Actually I just found out that the rule is, I can only receive e-mail from family. So most of you have to snail mail anyway. The definition of family is clearly stated Mom, Dad, and siblings. That's it.

The computer I'm using today doesn't have virus protection so I decided not to plug in my card reader. NO pictures today. Sorry.

My radio alarm clock is destroyed. Sorry dad. Nobody warned me and the plug was just normal, I didn't need an adapter, so I just plugged her right in and it worked for about 15 seconds than just turned off. There was no smoke or fire, it just stopped working. I didn't even realized what happened until I talked to sister Carlos at Zone Conference. But talk about depressing. I haven't been able to listen to my music AT ALL yet. Not in the MTC and now not here. I miss it heaps. I need Mo TAb. The good news is that the Lord blessed me. My I-pod still works!! It is only dead and has no speakers with which to play it on. So....I think I can buy a speakers/charger here for a little less than 100$. I don't know what to do, but I am really hungry for some good tunes.

We are teaching a lot of people. We go to a different area of our area almost every day and teach about 4 people there. We go to two areas twice. So maybe 16 ish. But we only have 4 progressing investigators (people who are keeping commitments) and three of those we just started teaching Sunday. I am able to bear testimony in each lesson, yes. I can teach most principles in the first and second lesson very simply. The difficult part is that I want to ask questions, I want to get to know them and teach to their true needs but I cannot. I can't ask questions because I don't understand their answers. The Lord is really blessing me with patience.

The people are very kind here. It is not hard to find people to teach. Almost everyone will listen. The problem is getting them to keep commitments. Namely coming to church. I tried so hard this week to get people to come to church. I leaned a bunch of things I could say about the blessings of church and to testify of its purpose and importance. We had one investigator come to church. (Out of the 16 we invited) Also, the 3 that came with friends and siblings that became our new investigators.

So It is hard. Our investigators need to come to church for a month before they can be baptized. That is the standard here. So pray for my investigators if you can.

So a lot of things that would not be funny in the US are hilarious here. For instance "kamusta ang kilikili mo?"

In the MTC, one of the teachers in the TE would always say that to us and we couldn't figure out what it meant. Finally our teacher told us it is "How is your armpit?" So I said that to Sister Valdoz the other day and she thought that was just really funny. She encouraged me to ask our district leader and some of the young men in our ward that come teach with us. They all think it is hilarious. They laugh and laugh. I never thought I could be so funny.

They have cold cereal! The milk really isn't that bad. I actually like it. And it is not too expensive. The only good cereal they have that I have found is cookie crisp. So I ate cookie crisp last week. Masarap! It made me so happy.

So, this week in sacrament meeting, we sang this hymn (266) (did you know we sing the hymns in English here? It's really nice) And these words really stood out to me.

"Be fixed in your purpose for Satan will try you, the weight of your calling he perfectly knows. Your path my be thorny but Jesus is nigh you, His arm is sufficient though demons oppose" I know that this is true. I know that His arm is sufficient for all of us, no matter what our trials may be.

Our Zone Conference was magnificent this week, but I don't have time to share now.

Maybe next week!!

Love you so much

Thank you for your prayers. Don't stop. :)

Be good.

-Sister Webre

dito sa pilipinas

Hello my family,


I feel like a celebrity here. Everyone stares at me and tries to talk to me in English. "Hi", "Hello", "How are you?". Everyone comes to me like I'm a magnet when we stop in the street to talk to someone. People honk at me when they drive by. Everyone says I am beautiful. It is funny. I wish I could talk to them.

Well, the Journey was long. The bus ride did not feel as long as it was. I was able to sleep pretty well. (Thanks to a sweet filipino sister missionary who insisted I use her shoulder) But I am still drowning in jet lag. I don't know what it is, but I am extremely tired ALL of the time. Especially around 7 or 8 O clock, my body just shuts down and since I don't say very much in the lessons and I don't understand very much and its just SO hot, I start to doze. It is not good. Hopefully I will adjust quickly to the time zone and heat.

We went to the MTC in Manilla when we first arrived. We picked up 9 missionaries there who rode to Cauayan with us. They told us we could go to the temple because we had about 4 hours before we had to leave. I WAS SO STOKED. But they didn't mean we could do a session. They just meant we could go over and walk around the grounds. I was so sad. Maybe on the way back.

It is a beautiful country here. There are lots of rice fields in my area. Everything is beautiful and green. Some houses are nicer than others. Ours is actually a lot better than I was expecting. I will include some pics for you. We have a porcelain toilet but it doesn't flush. Actually it does, I just have to pour a big bucket of water in it and it flushes it. Weird. Also, there is no shower. My first shower was rather humbling. We have these scoopers (like a big plastic bowl with a handle). I fill a bigger bucket with water and just scoop water out of there onto myself. Pretty fun stuff. The water is cold but not very and it feels good after the initial scoop because I'm so hot.
I'm continuously sticky. my face, my neck, everywhere. I'm already getting used to it.

My companion is so sweet. She is Filipino. She has been 11 months in the field. Sher is 24. Her name is Sister Valdoz. She speaks English very well, so I am grateful for that, and she is very patient with me. She is a hard worker and she likes to sing too! She cooks for me and cleans my dishes and lets me take naps after lunch! But I'm starting to recover so I am trying to do my share now.

It took us nearly 3 hours to do laundry this morning. That is a LOT! I didn't even realize it until i had finished. It didn't feel that long. And I didn't even wash a full weeks worth of laundry! My hands got really tired though. I have to scrub and wring everything out three times because I rinse, wash, then rinse again. But it's still better than doing laundry at the MTC. :)

I have been able to play the piano TONS since I have arrived. I played for transfer meeting, for church, at a youth activity, (which no one showed up to, so we waited for an hour and I played piano the whole time) for choir practice, and for our district to sing in zone conference on Wednesday. The pianos are pretty decent too. One was a nice digital, the other just reg and old, but in tune pretty well. I have been blessed.

We have been eating rice. Rice and egg, rice and sausage, rice and "meat loaf". There was no food at the apartment when I arrived so we've just been scrimping until we could shop today. Hopefully we can get some fruits and vegetables, that's what i want! But I really like rice too. It's such a great food, it goes with everything so nicely.

I got some bites on my legs, quite a few. I'm not sure what they are, maybe mosquitos? And there are little ants everywhere. One day I came home for the night and they were all over my desk and crawling up the wall. It was weird. It doesn't bother me, It's just annoying. All part of the adventure :)

And there is a pack of dogs outside our house that get set off every once in a while and they bark like mad for about 10 seconds. (while we are sleeping)

Our neighbors slaughtered their pig this morning while we were doing laundry. It was the most horrifying thing I have ever heard. I'm glad I couldn't see it.

It has been a very difficult adjustment. The first two days with my companion were very hard for me. I don't understand much and I can speak less. But I know if I am patient and work hard that it will come. I have the mantle. The lord has called and he will qualify me.
Well I think it is time to go. Thank you for your prayers. keep praying and writing.

I love you and miss you.

Much love, Sister Webre

Note from Heather

Attention, Friends of Jenny!

I have finally added pictures to the blog (about two on every post) so check 'em out!

Also, in order that you might keep supporting my lovely sister, her new address has been updated on the sidebar >>>

Thanks for the love and support! You guys are the best!

Ingat MTC!

Kamusta!

Hey, we probably wont have enough time to pack as it is, so we're not going to use all of our e-mail time today.

But have no fear because I get to call you at the airport tonight!

I will eat my 175th and last meal at the MTC tonight and report to the travel office at 6:30!!! I can't believe I'm really going to the Philippines!

We had a testimony meeting last night, just our district, and it was the sweetest ever! So many memories have been made in such a short amount of time. So many tight relationships, so much love. Each person in that district was there for a reason and I consider each one a gift! I will love them forever and wait to give them hugs, darn it!!

We each got blessings this morning from a few of our Elders. It was the first blessing they ever gave, for each of them and I was so happy to give them the opportunity. They were all so nervous, it was so cute! But they did a beautiful job. I will miss them so.

If you start sending me snail mail now, I might get it in a few weeks! Heavenly father blesses those who write letters to missionaries. It's true.

I'm going to an unfamiliar country, with unfamiliar people and an unfamiliar language. I'm pumped! But I think it will be a very big adjustment and I'll probably feel really alone for a little while. I'm just preparing for that. I think its going to be a big change not to get any mail on top of that.

But we're never alone, because the savior is always by our side and I KNOW THAT. I am here because of my love for him and his love for me.

Thank you for your prayers, your love and support.

Sis Webre
 

maraming nakakatawang mga bagay!

This week was pretty awesome,
A lot of funny stuff happened.

So we have a prayer, hymn, and spiritual thought every time we start class each day. These are written on little papers that rotate around from missionary to missionary as well as the teacher. (Each of our names are written on a pouch on the wall) So I said last week I said "we should keep putting the prayer slip into the teacher pouch every time we start class with the teacher and see if they notice". Well of course the Elders loved that idea, so even though I was half joking and would have never gone through with it, they ran with the idea. That tends to happen a lot. I need to be more careful about what I say!

So anyway, it's been a funny joke this week and I think Brother Slade finally caught on saturday but I couldn't tell for sure. He didn't say anything.

Then Elder Heninger (District leader) messed up the computer in our classroom somehow and it wouln't work at all. He was getting a lot of crap for it and then the next day there was a note on his desk. It said he should report immediately to A101 to recieve counseling on the misuse of computers. It was signed by "Cameron Johnston, IT manager, MTC campus" He thought it was a joke, but the teacher told him he had better go. Well he was getting really nervous because (he later told us this) he had e-mailed someone that wasn't a member of his family the week before and thought somehow maybe they found out and he was gonna get sent home or something.

Turns out someone in my district wrote the note to be funny and the people in the IT office didn't think it was. Pranks are really discouraged here. But we all still got a good laugh out of it. Probably mostly because it happened to Elder Heninger.

I guess Elder Heninger was feeling like it was his duty to spread the prank love because he got the sisters and I pretty good that night. Morgan, our progressive investigator totally stood us up at our appointment that day. We hadn't heard anything from him, but that night there was a note on the board that said "Morgan had something come up today. Pray that he will be prepared for baptism and prepare to teach him at your next appointment. Try harder to keep the spirit in your lessons though." We were really concerned about the last part in particular because the spirit is particularly strong whenever we teach Morgan. After a couple minutes of distress, All the Elders bust out laughing and tell us that they added that last line onto the note. It was not cool. After they said that I could tell that the handwriting was different though. Those stinkers!

So that night I felt that the Elders only deserved a little something in return. Something simple and harmless of course. I came up with the idea to rush into the room and tell them we had just seen a general authority. So we went into the room and there were only 4 elders in there. Elder Heninger was among them. Perfect! I say in the most urgent and serious tone I can muster, "We just saw Elder Nelson, just outside of 1M, I bet you can catch him if you go now!" You should have seen their faces. It was priceless! Elder Heninger just bolts and Elder Andrews follows. We didn't let them get too far before we broke the news. We said NO more pranks though.

Elder Burton is the funniest EVER. He's the one who looks really young. Last week we got to host the new missionaries and it was super fun. I think it was during lunch, Elder burton flipped his tag over (so it is just blank and black) and he has the red dork dot stored there as well. He goes up to some new missionaries and says "How did you get your name on your badge" the responding elder is confused--"...I don't know it just came like this...." Then Elder Burton voices deep concerns about his blank name badge. Funny stuff.

Gotta go! love ya tons!!!!!

More in my snail mail!

I got my flight plans!!

SISTER WEBRE :)

Mahal Ko Kayo

First I just want to say I love you. (mahal ko kayo)

You are the best.

Second, we are learning some games that I can't wait to bring to FHE!!! So be excited.

Heather is really really good at writing me and telling me all of the sweet sweet happenings in brigham city. It sounds like everybody decided to throw seven parties every day and all of my friends are now home from their missions and hanging out with my sister! Thanks for the updates sis.

Just kidding Heather, I really appreciate your letters. And I missed you more than ever this week.

We got the packages! I didn't get mine until tuesday and I didn't know about the other girls until monday night, so sorry I couldn't tell you they got here alright.

Thank you SO MUCH for giving me lots and lots of junk food and making sure i get really fat. I hope someday I can repay the favor. I would ask you to send me something healthy to snack on, but by the time it gets here, I'll only have a week and a half left!! How crazy is that?

The bad news is that none of those shirts fit me because I'm too fat. Actually the baggy pink one fits. That's all. I'm sorry for all your dilligent shopping efforts in vain. Pero mahal ko kayo and salamat.

Maybe they will have some sweet blouses in the philippines and I will be so glad that I didn't bring so many lame american ones.

But seriously, sister Jackson and Vaipulu were really grateful to get your packages, and Sister Viapulu just barely heard from her family. (after three weeeks) They expressed how awesome you are and I said "I know she is. She is my favorite." And my companions always say "Probably Aunt Betty", whenever I get a package slip! It's funny. Aunt Betty you are going to heaven!

Just a little side note: On dear elder, there is a place you can choose to have the letter e-mailed to ME and there is a place you can have it e-mailed to YOU, for confirmation. I think some people might be a little confused about that. Dear Elder doesn't work on weekends, so there's always a small famine for letters on those days.

We did initiatories this morning and one of the names, Sophia Rauer, was born in 1680! I was so happy that after 320 years her temple work was finally being done. That is a long time to wait. I love to read the names and think of the celebrations that are going on the other side of the veil for these special people. My testimony is strengthened that we are all the family of God and I have such great love for these women that I don't even know.

Temples are so amazing! Gods plan for us is brilliant beyond understanding.

I saw the picture renduring of the BC temple. It looks way sweet!

I love you all. I'm so happy to be a missionary. I miss you and pray for you.

Remember "fear makes moutnains out of molehills but faith makes molehills out of mountains". Try an experiment and you'll see this is true!

I have gained so much here at the MTC and not just pounds either!

-Sister WEbre

Be Committed

So, I came up with two little motto's or slogans that I want to use for the rest of my mission and life.

They are: Be commited and Be contagious.

I decided that I've had a problem my whole life because I usually know what I should do but often don't do it and the real issue is just committment! I just need to make that honest inner committment to do the things that I know I should do and then do them! Might sound like a no-brainer probably because it is. But I needed to come to that realization. Someone said this week about how our happiness and light should be so tangible to people that it is contagious. I am COMMITTED to be a better example of Jesus Christ in all that I do, think, and say. Then I won't even have to teach people about the gospel for them to want what I have and know who I represent.

This week Elder Shultz was teaching us and he told us that the wicked Jesus killed for us. I hope I don't say anything like that in the field! All it takes is switching the word order and there is disaster!

My favorite teacher. Sister Fotu is leaving our class. There are too many new teachers and she has to go team up with one of them for a new district coming in. I am still sad about it, but I know she will bless their lives SO much, so I feel okay about it.

Saturday night we had a scavenger hunt thing for class and for one of the tasks we had to look up certain scriptures and write down the fourth or third word etc. in the verses. Well we didn't realize we were supposed to use the tagalog scriptures so we went to Mos 2:29 in english which reads "And moreover, I say unto you that I have caused that ye should assemble yourselves together, that i might declare unto you that i can no longer be you teacher". We were wondering if it was some kind of sad joke that she picked that scripture. She came in to check on us and we were all depressed like. She noticed that we were using english scriptures and told us it was in tagalog. Then we told her the verse she had picked (she didn't realize what the verse was) and how confused we were. She just laughed so hard and we all laughed together at the irony. Funny to me, probably not so funny to you. sorry.

So I was reading my patriarchal blessing and I just noticed again how many times it mentions service in there. like every other sentence. It is cool. It reminded me again that it's not about me! Ever! Well, it is, but not like I think it is. Anyway it says "you will be able to retain and use the information which you gain in the service of others". I thought that was a WAY sweet promise that I never really understood before. If I study and work for myself, I wont learn as much or be able to retain and use the things I gain. BUT, if the work and study I do is in the service of others, that is when I will truly be able to retain and use those things forever.

I have a new goal to read my PB at least once every week.

Will you all read your PB's at least once every week? I know that if you do this, your purpose in life will be renewed to you and you will have a greater ability to follow the covenants which you have made and recieve the promised blessings. We humans forget things very quickly and we must have constant reminders and repitition!!

There are SIX new sisters coming into the zone on wednesday! Hooray! Then we will have 11 sisters in the zone! That gives me a LOT more responsibility but I don't mind. It will be a good opportunity for me. Two of them are coming to my mission so that's pretty cool.

I have memorized the first vision in tagalog. Its pretty sweeeet. I'm going to share it in our teaching appointment this thursday. I'm so excited, you have no idea!

I got cinnamon rolls from Aunt Betty on Wednesday and Donuts from Kristen on thursday. Probably the best donuts I have ever had in my life!

The Helquists are on a roll! Thank you all SO much!!

If you haven't checked out Mormon.org you should go there. Watch the video clips on peoples profiles they are really cool.

Remember! Never let your faith be difficult to detect.

I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers and your love.

_Sister Webre