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