February is GONE!

Hello fans

hehe! jk

 

Its a good thing I've already had the chicken pox because that is spreading around here like wildfire! It is crazy! Everybodys got the chicken pox.

Don't they have immunizations for that now in america?

Lice is spread around here its more common than the cold. I bet we pass maybe two or three people or more a day just chilling outside their house and someone is pulling lice from their scalp.

It's not really a big deal here for people, but if I get that again I won't be a very happy camper.

The other thing that has taken some getting used to is that mothers breast feed and they don't try to hide it. No shame. Anytime, anywhere, in front of anyone, especially during lessons when their baby is fussing. It doesn't really bother me, but I can only imagine how awkward it is for the elders.

 

Did I tell you that for birthdays they dont do the gift thing??

If it is your birthday you throw your own party and you make a whole bunch of food and invite everyone over and they eat your food. Thats pretty much it. I think its GREAT! It puts a whole new spin on it.

 

I was talking to sister carlos this week and come to find out she is a really amazing and accomplished lady. She wrote some famous cookbooks and owned and wrote in a magazine. You could probably google her name-Brenda Carlos--  She's done a lot of other stuff too, and she is a convert to the church.

She wanted to go to BYU because she once saw the Young Ambassadors perform and she wanted to be one really bad. So she wasnt a member but she applied to BYU and they rejected her because she had taken the SAT and they needed ACT. (or maybe the other way around) Any way she wrote them back and told them she declined their rejection and she was coming to their school. I think they went back and forth a few time and finally they said OK just COME! So she did. Then eventually she took the discussions and joined the church and then all of these other incredible opportunities came to her. Her life just sounds like a bunch of big dreams that actually happened.  I love her!

 

If anyone wants to know what career they would enjoy the most and would best match their talents, buy this book. --strengths finder 2.0--- Sister Carlos said it is awesome.

 

So I'm going to start reading Jesus the Christ if anyone wants to start with me. I'm pretty excited about it, though its gonna be tricky to fit it into my schedule! I dare you to fit it into yours!

 

Okay, so here are some of the things that are not my favorite about the philippines

The heat

how dirty and disorganized/messy the streets are especially in the more city-like parts.

They often burn their trash, so there will be big piles collecting in certain places and then they just burn it all. its really smokey when they do that and sometimes smelly!

The traffic has never bothered me as much as I thought it would. Its more amusing than anything. They just barely got their first stop light put in a few weeks ago in Cauayan City but its funny because there are no cameras, they would just set it for like 2 minutes and everyone would be waiting FOREVER on one side and the traffic would be long passed on the other.

Anyway, other than that, I don't know how they never have accidents because there are seriously NO stop signs at intersections or anything. It is crazy. People have to be really good drivers actually because they have to be really aware of their surroundings and just watch each other.

 

I love so much about the culture and everything here

I love the bakeries on every corner, you can get delicious treats for dirt cheap

You can also get fresh and delicious fruits and vegetable for very cheap (expecially veggies)

I love the market when it is not too crowded and its also fun to barter with the filipinos

I love how suprised people are when I speak to them for the first time in tagalog

I love all the little unique things they make and that you can find here--the people are really so talented and they still do a lot of things the old fashioned way. There are two places right by our apartment where people make wood furniture and they carve it all by hand. It is way cool.

Some of the boutiques they have remind me of all the booths they have at peach days, but they have them here all over the place and they keep them up all year.

The landscape for the most part is incredibly beautiful and green! They have such a wide variety of flowers and trees, it is definitely my heaven!

 

 

What do I miss?

Not much. Mostly people. Like you.

I miss hot showers

I miss fresh milk and dairy products.

I miss being able to find everything I need/want at one grocery store

 

Our investigators are doing good, I'll tell you more about them next week.

Gotta go grocery shopping now!

Have a fantastic week and never stop fighting satan!

 

Sister Webre

 

P.S. 

-the picture with all the filipinos--the oldest one is Vilma, she is a way awesome member that feeds us a lot and works with us sometimes. All the little girls are her neices.

-the picture with the couple in the red are the Uy family (pronounced like wii) He is our new branch president in the branch we serve in. They are awesome!! I love them! This was at his birthday party. They cooked SOOO much food.

-That random guy with that huge lizard alligator thing is just a random guy ha! and they were getting ready to coook that and eat it. I'm still not sure what it was but it was gross/awesome.

-That sweet ride that you see me in is the car of a member here. They give us rides in it sometimes and I always feel really rad.

Another week in the Philips

This week was cool. We went jogging saturday morning and it was really funny. Like as if we didn't already attract enough attention, lets go jogging! Nobody jogs here! Hahaha.  It felt SOOO good though!
God made our bodies to need exercise!

Guess what, my new zone leader is Elder Hale. You know that thing we went to with all the missionaries parents and President Carlos right before I went to the MTC?
Yeah, that was at the Hale's house. Elder Hale was my district leader for my 2nd cycle and now he is my zone leader and I am SO HAPPY!
I hope you can meet him someday because he is the happiest person I have ever met in my life. Super positive, Super humble, super awesome. He is one of those people that make you happy just because they are SO happy. Anyway, it was cool to make that connection back to having that party at his house.

Oh my goodness. I am always glad for chances I get to play the piano, but it seems like at least once every transfer meeting or zone conference or something, someone hands some sheet music to me about 5 minutes before the meeting starts and asks if I can play for them. I can't say no, but in some cases I wonder if no accompaniment would be better than some of the things I have produced with zero practice. I've never been a genius sight reader like you mom. It is silly. I just laugh and when I mess stuff up really bad, I apologize after but don't get too embarrassed because hey, its not my fault.

Valentines day was fun. We made some rice krispies and typed up a little valentine at the mission home with a scripture. We used 2Nephi 26:24. We were able to take them to 4 families.
I also sang the "wont you be my valentine" song to my companions and they really liked that. ;) I thought it was absurd that they had never heard it before. I'm sure you missed me singing it to you this year.

I realized I should probably say more about my investigators but I don't know what. What do you want me to put in these e-mails?
Sister Deguzman might be my favorite right now.
She has come to church twice now and she is the first investigator I have ever had that is honestly seeking for the truth. Like the first time we met her she asked us all these questions and she agreed with everything we said, even about tithing and stuff. She reads everything we give her, including the book of mormon (yay!) and she just knows its all true. She was even drinking coffee and stuff and when she read the W of W pamphlet she was like "that is so true! our body is a temple. I shouldn't drink coffee any more, even my doctor told me to stop". She is definitely praying about everything we teach her and she told us she has had a couple dreams about it. She described one dream she had the other night where there were a bunch of people that were all dressed in white and they were all standing in water up to their chest. I was like....um....I think I can translate that one for you!  That means you need to get baptized! We've tried to give her a baptismal date like 3 times now and she always says no, but its just because she wants to be like 100% sure and she wants to know EVERYTHING about the gospel before she commits to join. I guess I understand that but I'd really like to see her get baptized before I get transferred!
I guess I'll go now, I don't really know what else to say. E-mail time is always really weird for me. I always feel like I never say very much, but hopefully you get enough to just know that things are great and I love being a missionary.
Keep on being my awesome family and doing whats right and I'll see you all real soon!

Fight Satan!
Love, Sister Webre

For God so loved the world

Well transfers came and went and I have a new companion AGAIN! But the good news is my old one decided to hang around. So yeah, I'm in another threesome. Pretty sweet. Actually it has been great so far. I waited so long to get an american companion and now I have two! Sister Martinez is from California and she is super adorable. I'm pretty sure the three of us will get along just fine except for the fact that the attention we attract has never been greater or more unwelcome! Ha!  Well we just laugh about it. Sister Martinez has only been in the philippines for about a month (one cycle) so of course she is really struggling with the language.

 

It's weird that I'm not that person anymore. I'm still not fluent and somedays are better than others but I really can get along just fine now as far as the language goes. I'm not really sure when it happened, because it was so hard to detect any sort of consistent progression while I was going through those first months. All I know is that somewhere a long the line I stopped pulling my hair out, crying my eyes red, and making my knees sore because I couldn't speak the language. 

 

Anyway, I'm excited to start having consistent language study again, because I still have a ton to learn. Language study time often gets the shaft because we have so much else we want to do.

Technically, Sister Stewart and I are follow up training Sister Martinez so thats kind of cool! I still feel pretty new in the mission and yet like I have been here forever.

 

Happy Valentines day and happy birthday to Jill! I never liked Valentines day very much, but I figured the mission might be my favorite place to celebrate it. I decided to make my own scripture chain on the topic of love just for fun in my personal study today. I wish I had brought the references... Anyway I was thinking about how I have really never felt love before like I have felt it here on the mission. Since I have this time to dedicate all my time and energies to serving others, I have really been able to develop a special love for people, especially those we teach, for the people I serve with and the leaders who serve me. Its interesting to see how the byproduct of service is always love. Whether you are the recipient or the instigator, love is felt on both parts.  I don't think there is any kind of love that is more real or more pure than the love I feel for those investigators except for the love Jesus demonstrated in His life and atonement.

 

It makes sense that our Lord Jesus Christ has a love that is unmeasurable, because the service and sacrifice that he made for others was greater and deeper than any other person who ever lived or will live. And we have yet to feel the greatest measure of that love. But as we learn of Him and His atonement, and follow in His footsteps, and as we strive to develop His attributes we can feel and understand more and more that love because we will understand who He really is and what He really did for us.

1 Nephi 19:9 " And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him and he suffereth it; and they smite him and he suffereth it, because of his kindness and his long-suffereing towards the children of men"

 

Just like the song, I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.

I only hope I can be more selfless and less selfish as I serve in this calling so that I can be a better mirror of His love.

We watched the testaments at the church for an activity and I realized I haven't seen that movie forever. Probably not since I watched it the first time on temple square. Anyway, it is amazing of course and totally powerful. Jesus is real! Too bad none of our investigators came. We'll have to do it again.

 

Our baptism on saturday went well! Many of our other investigators are progressing and it is so fun to see them realize the blessing in their lives as they learn the gospel and make changes in their lives. Its not easy for them, but as they do it, they know it is true!

Basically I love most everything about the Philippines and don't miss much about home except you all. (just a little bit ;)

More next time.

 

Love you still

Fight Satan!

 

-Sister Webre

 

 

Jenny's Latest

Hello!

We have a baptism this coming Saturday. A mom and her two kids. Jane, Jemari, and Francisco Palma. I always feel way sad when only part of the family gets baptized, but I guess it's better than none. The dad has some addictions and does some things that he doesn't want to give up yet.
We are excited for their baptism and we are teaching a lot of people right now!

We found the cutest family last week and they are super active in their church (seventh day adventist) If you don't know much about that church you should check it out on wikipedia or something, its really interesting. Anyway, even though they are really active in their church, I can totally see them converting because they are super prepared. They are already pretty much living the gospel, they just don't  have the whole truth yet! And that's where we come in!
Seriously, we stopped by their house last night and they had a bunch of questions about the plan of salvation and said they couldn't find the answers they wanted in the bible. The dad said it was like the bible was "kulang" which means like missing something or lacking. We were like YEAH! Yeah, that's because it is kulang! That's why we have the Book of Mormon!

We have 4 others with baptismal dates for March 12. (happy birthday to me!) Two of them are kids in a part member family, one is an older lady who was a referral and she is way awesome. She reads the book of mormon and the assignments we give her (That is rare!) and she has been to church 3 times already. Its fun to teach her because we always see things clicking and lightbulbs going on and she just knows everything is true!

I am reading in Jacob in The Book of Mormon and I just have to say I really like chapter 5. I don't think I ever really gave it a fair chance before, and I never really understood it and I just thought it was boring. But it's totally awesome! v 65 and 66 talk about the good branches overcoming the good, but not all at once. It will happen gradually until the good has completely overcome the bad. I was just thinking about how sometimes I get discouraged because of my fallen/natural state. Sometimes all the changes I want to make seem so overwhelming and it just feels like I'll never be perfect like Heavenly Father. But it's not something that will happen all at once. We can't expect that.
We were listening to a sweet conference talk this morning and Elder Scott said that strong character is built by consistent correct choices or something like that. I was like, yeah, that is so true. We just keep working at it, we just keep trying to be good and do right and eventually the good branches of our tree overcome the bad until the bad are no more. We will become as He is.

Welp, thats all for now. Sure love you all with every fiber of my being ;)
Thanks for your prayers and everything else. (like letters!)

Fight Satan!\
Sister Webre

Pictures:
Thats all of us crammed in a tricycle. There are still two more on that tricycle sitting behind the driver you cant see, and the elder taking the picture stood on the side. We had to get out and walk up some of the hills during the ride because we were so heavy. Ha ha! I know you are so jealous! I am going to miss tricylces SOO much when I get back to the states.

Life is Good

I got sick last wednesday. I had a fever of about 102. It was sweet though, because thursday is the day we usually do splits and I go with sister fort but instead we just stayed at the apartment, I was way behind on my journal and i had the wholeday to catch up. I really think it was actually an answer to prayer. I'm still not really back to normal yet, but when your a missionary you just go to work. So Friday it was back to routine. I'm hoping my weakness of body will leave soon!

 

K, I'll try to say something spiritual and uplifting now...

Actually on wednesday when I was starting to feel sick we hadn't left our apartment yet and I reallly didn't want to work. But we had some really important appointments and so I just said a little prayer that Heavenly Father would help me feel better, help me make it through the day and be happy.  And you know what, He did. My body was doing the hot/cold thing and my head really hurt, but we were still able to teach 5 lessons and they turned out really well.

I was thinking though, you know, often we pray and ask God to take away our problems and sometimes he does, but He often doesn't. Why? Because we would not learn and we would not gain knowledge and experience if He took all our problems and hurt away everytime we asked.

But He does give us strength. He does help us overcome every trial and He always makes us strong enough to beat it when we ask Him.
I know that is true and I'm grateful for a God with perfect wisdom who lets me experience trial and hardship so that I can develop my character and become like Him.

 

Have a good week.

Be good.

FIGHT SATAN!

 

Love, Sister Webre

 

p.s. sorry no pictures again, this computer is being weird.