Week 20 - 6/17/2013

Hala!!!! Craziness this week! So you know how I got a new companion? I have another one! Yeah. Sister Cornillez still needed to process her passport and visa and realized she wouldn't have much time if she finished the 6 week cycle, so I have Sister Pedong! Also preparing for a mission, waiting for her call, native waray-waray speaker and from UEP oh 19, turning 20 in July while we will be companions , one ward over the other direction. By the end of the week, Sister Cornillez and I had just gotten our routine down and teaching styles then enter Sister Pedong, but I'm really grateful because I'll have even more training for when I train! And it's nice having a practice run on natives because being a missionary is hard enough when you don't need to help them with homesickness and freaking about the language, food and culture gihapon. Also, it helped prepare for whatever personality because they couldn't be more opposite! But it's great! She's very well-adjusted and sometimes I feel like she's training me! haha 

So I know I said we would basically have no work last week because Tacloban and moving... turns out it was a big lie! They texted us we weren't going because there would be too many people and Sister Robinson, Nelson and I were SO SAD. Seriously, could not focus because we were looking forward to it so much! Then our landlord told us to move tomorrow instead. So we worked all week and it was really great! We decided to start asking for referrals (we always needed too, we were just horrible at remembering) and we got so many! Like super prepared people too! And here's a miracle- in March, we started visiting a less-active couple who needed to get married. They have been less active 8 years and really had a desire to return, but it was really hard because they felt because they weren't married, they would be judged... or something like that. So we have been visiting them for 3 months! And They bought their marriage license now and preparing to get married! Woohoo! Not only that, when we visited we had an awesome lesson about how reading the book of mormon has helped them (because through our visits we have helped them establish a habit of reading every night as a family and praying together) and they both bore strong testimonies of how awesome reading the Book of Mormon is and how it helps them keep there life in perspective. After, we asked for a referral, and she said, oh yeah, I have a friend that has been asking to go to church with me when I go! I'll go introduce you! And we set up an appointment for her to be with us while we teach her friend. Then on sunday, GUESS WHO WAS AT CHURCH?!?! Abel and Weng AND their friend who we will start teaching this week. It was the greatest sight ever. Not only have we worked with them for 3 months, other missionaries before us have been working with them for at least a year and FINALLY it is all coming together. So great. 

In other news, the Catarman 1 elders had a baptism and none of the speakers showed up so they asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost with like zero preparation and guess what? tanan waray-waray! Marks the exact 3 month mark from the Ordonez Baptism when they asked me to talk, but I was too sick/ didn't know a single word of waray-waray. Wow, I've come a long way! And I gave I talk in church the next day- all warary-waray too! It feels so great. I still have some ways to go, especially with conversational, but it's so cool to see how fast I have progressed and through me, our whole ward is able to see how truly powerful the gift of tongues is. Seriously! From what I'm told, this never happens. Everyone asks if this is my second area. I know I could not have done this on my own. 

And this week, we really are going to Tacloban with all the Sisters! Yay! So excited. And we are moving tomorrow, so for real not very much work this week. Today, we had a zone activity at the beach and it was so awesome! I can't believe I live in paradise. We rode a jeepnye and then a habul-habul (motorcycles with an extended so 5 can fit) and it was so fun! We rode the habul-habul through the jungle and along the coast, just gorgeous. Then we went to the beach and climbed a bunch of these huge rocks and ate and just had fun, played games. It was the best. I'll include some pictures, for sure. And I think that's about it! I'm doing so great! I love you all! I don't miss America! but really... Thank you so much for your support!

Sister Pike

Zone Activity on the Beach

If you look REALLY close you can see a person in a red shirt.. and that's me!

Ninja Destruction at the Beach

My new companion! Sister Pedong

Week 19 - 6/9/2013

So... no one emailed me! (from the family) Fail. Luckily I got some pictures from other missionaries serving around the world. So, so much has changed this past week I can't even believe it. Number 1, Sister Somera got transferred all the way to... Catarman 1st ward. That's right, we are in the same apartment hahaha I loved telling everyone in ward that, they just laugh and it's soooo weird that we still live together but aren't companions. And my new companion.... Branch Missionary!! AKA she is from Bobon(in the same stake) and she will just be serving for this 6 weeks in preparation for her mission in Canada in August. Really, it could not have worked any more perfectly. I get to learn from a native Waray-waray speaker (which is basically impossible because this is the only mission that speaks it) and I get to train her how to be a missionary and teach her English for her mission! It's so great! Not to mention, she was a very active ward missionary in her ward so she basically knows everything anyway. So I guess I am training in a way, but this is awesome preparation because I can train without having to worry about the language and understanding everyone. Oh, Her name is Sister Cornillez and she is not under the same restrictions as regular missionaries so she can get on facebook. 

Also, We got elders in our ward!!! This is exciting because we split our area so we can visit more people and help our ward grow and get the members excited about missionary work. And our elders are pretty great and hard working so I think we will see great things happen. Also, they are our new district and we've gotten more missionaries in the zone so I'm excited to get to know everyone. 

This coming week is SO exciting because we are going to Tacloban for a meeting for ALL sisters and trainers and missionaries under 6 months, so I get to see everyone I know in the whole mission! I am so excited! MTC reunion. especially since they just changed the ways transfers work, instead of everyone going to the same place, there are 3 different transfer points so the likelihood of seeing each other is very slim. Also, we are moving into a new apartment! And it is 50x better. We will actually have running water everyday! And a shower! (though I honestly don't know if I'll use it, we'll see) and aircon! and it's just really nice. So that means Sister Somera and I will have lived in 3 different houses together in the same area. I'm pretty sure that never happens. And I'm pretty sure this is the last.

And, I almost forgot, I got my hair rebounded! AKA permanently straight. It's so crazy, I didn't even recognize myself! It's pretty nice, but I found out that you aren't supposed to put it up or do anything with it for at least 3 days, preferably ever or else it won't last long. As in, no buns, ponytails, braids, basically how I wore my hair for the past 3 months. It is so hot!!! We'll see how long that lasts, I survived the 3 days but probably not much longer. I still can't believe the difference, it is so smooth and straight! And can last up to 6 months! hala! I'm surprised I've never heard of it before! I'll send some pictures. 

And that's about it. We've had some good lessons this week, especially about the restoration and one of our investigators Liezel (17), shared her testimony about how the Book of Mormon has changed her life. Yesterday, Sister Cornillez said before we met her, she said she was a drug addict. We've been teaching her 2 months ish and we didn't know it, but looking back, there really has been a huge change. We are getting the youth involved in inviting her to church and hopefully she will be able to get baptized in a monthish. Last time we checked, her Nanay was against her getting baptized, not because she doesn't like us or the church, just because she believes in only getting baptized once. We've been praying, we'll see. And we taught Regina the Book of Mormon. She still hasn't come to church so we need help with that. She expressed that she has faith, it is just really hard for her to act. I really want to get her friend (the member who referred her) involved to help her make the necessary changes. 

And that's all! The weeks fly by SO fast, but I am really enjoying it all. Last night I was so tired, I just fell into bed backwards (with my pillow at my feet) and just didn't wake up until my alarm went off. It's tiring, but it's very rewarding. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here and I'm grateful for Sister Cornillez, I think we make an awesome team. Until next week! 

Love, Sister Pike

Last P-day adventure with Sister Somera- she deleted all of her pictures from her memory card. They were recovered, but we had to change the name, one by one. all 1230 of them. We were in the computer place for 2 extra hours! Good-bye P-day!

Oh and I'm wearing make up for the first time EVER here becuase Sister Somera wanted to see my hair straightened with make-up and contacts once before she left haha psych! But it was soooo weird! I hardly recognized myself!

We had zone lunch and the Elders bought us ice cream because we beat them in basketball! Yeah!

Our last night, we had a birthday party for the Ordonez twins and we treated them to cake and ice cream.

Our companionship shirt - aka the coolest shirt anyone has ever seen. We made it for like under $5 and I designed it. It's a comic strip of one of our adventures. And literally everyone (missionaries) that sees it is so jealous. haha I'm pretty proud of it. It's so awesome.

All the languages we use. An Anklat ni Mormon - tagalog (what the investigators read from), An Libro ni Mormon - Waray (what we speak) and then of course English! (what we read from during lessons!)

Getting my hair rebonded.

Rebonded hair!

Sister Somera and Sister Ariola yesterday - haha Missionary work is tiring.

I almost forgot to take a picture of my new hair and companion! So I just took these. It doesn't look very good right now because I'm really sweaty, but this is how it dries without my doing anything! It's kinda crazy!

Me and Sister Cornillez

Week 18 - 6/3/2013

This week brings LOTS of changes which is so exciting and scary at the same time. New companion, new "roommates" maybe even a new area/language though it's very unlikely. This week we have spent visiting all the members and learning where everyone lives so that when everything gets mixed up, someone will know. We dropped a few of our investigators this week because we've been teaching them for the whole 3 months and not really progressing. It's such a weird concept because they love being visited and would continue forever but we've basically taught them everything they need know, they just need to do it know. So we just say, sempre (of course) continue doing what we have taught and we just won't be visiting on a regular basis until they start going to church or working toward getting married. They know, now they just have to do which is always the hard part.

I want to share a cool experience, a week or two ago we decided to focus our efforts on finding because we have many non-progressing investigators so we went through the potential investigator list from a few years ago( missionaries wrote down referrals/contacts that might be interested and we have no idea how they turned out). And I went through pages and pages of names and picked like 20 to follow-up on and ask about. We had the barangay (neighborhood) where they lived and we just need to ask around. So when we didn't have any appointments and we were in Abad Santos, I just picked one of the names and we started asking people. We asked about 5 people and no one knew so we figured she just moved or something and that was that. This week, we decided to focus on visiting the members and asking for referrals so we planned to teach a family in the bishopric the restoration then ask. The day we planned to visit them, we had district meeting and our training was? Visiting with the members, teaching the restoration, and asking for referrals. We felt pretty awesome for being ahead. Anyway we taught them later that night and asked. They said they didn't but they said they would love to work with us and show us the houses of all the less-actives. So the next day we walked all over Catarman and contacted 8 new less-active families! It was SO tiring, but really great. At the end when we were in Abad Santos and Sister Magalang (the member) said she wanted to show us the house of her coworker for a referral. She wasn't home but she told us her name. Later that night while we were working, They texted us and said, "sisters, contact that referral immediately, she is very interested in your message. Regina" Every missionary's dream! And earlier that name didn't sound familiar but when I read the text, I said, "Sister, we know her!" huh? no we don't... Then it clicked, SHE was the name we had tried to find just the week before. We taught her with her 8 year old daughter the Restoration and it was pretty great. She was very open and honestly seeking the truth. There is no doubt in my mind that we were lead to her through not one, but two different ways! I have no idea what will become of us teaching her, but I know we were lead by God to find her and I'm pretty excited.  

This morning we played basketball and I was pretty excited. Sister Robinson loves to play and I think she's staying too! I have 4 T-shirts that we made, it's so fun and they are so cheap! And they are great souvenirs. And I've just been enjoying my last week with Sister Somera, speculating about what's going to happen. It's gonna be so weird being in the Philippines without her! It's been so long, but it's gone by so fast! In two transfers, I will have 1 year left. that's crazy. It's going to go by so fast! But I love it here, and I'm excited for the changes too to spice things up, as if it needs it haha I love you! 

Love, Sister Pike

From zone/district lunch the past two weeks.

There's this Korean song with a dance that EVERYONE listens to, so we learned the dance and now we do all the signs in the pictures!

And my apartment has matching-ish t-shirts!

Us on our "couch"

They are adorable - Sister Ariola and Karagdag

The Magalang Family in our ward (one of them, their whole extended family is in our ward)

Youth in our ward!

Today we were cleaning, we were standing in front of the window/door to cool off and so we were talking to the elders through the window.. haha

Sister Robinson and Nelson with the t-shirts we made!

We made melon (cantaloupe) shake, it was SO good! Who would've guessed? Definitely making it when I get home.

We went to a member's house and they had a rabbit! Wild really, but sister Somera was SO excited. It was kinda hilarious. 

I carved a coconut! It was kinda difficult in a skirt but I enjoyed it. 

I made a legit Filipino dish! Macaroni soup, probably my favorite so far.

At a member's house, they had a ton of fish!

Week 17 - 5/26/2013

Hello family! 

I'm so excited I got to see you and talk to you!! Mom, if you sent me headphones, I'm pretty sure it still wouldn't have worked. I was pretty convinced that the universe was conspiring against me talking to my family. Especially what happened when I was trying to call from the airport on the way here...grabi! Craziness. But it really does feel like a dream! haha It was great. I loved how you were playing charades and I will never forget David dancing on the couch in the background. This week so adventurous! I'm actually really happy I got to talk to you on that specific day so I could tell you the crazy story about eating shark and being locked out. We were finally able to return to our apartment thursday night (we were locked out tuesday morning) and we were so happy! On Thursday I also showered in the rain. As in I literally stood out on the roof (UEP Sisters apartment) and they gave me shampoo and I washed my hair in the rain. It was raining hard enough that it got wet, but to rinse, I had to let a bucket fill up. All the while Sister Nelson and Sister Robinson were just watching from the door laughing and Sister Somera was cooking like "oh it's no big deal" haha Friday was unique because we stayed inside until 6 and did nothing but clean. I don't know how often this happens, but it's not very often. We even bought floor wax and waxed the floor.

Saturday, we went on exchanges! And Sister Karagdag was my companion! I know her really well so it was pretty great. She's so funny. I told her it was my goal to learn Tagalog as soon as I knew Waray-waray and she said, "You can start now! You know waray-waray!" haha that's funny. Cause I don't. I am able to understand a lot but there are still sometimes that I just stare at them blankly and wait for Sister Somera to explain it to me. She explains it Waray-waray gihapon but for some reason I'm able to understand her and not them... anyway, we taught a ton of lessons together and it was a really great day of work! And we had lunch with a member in Catarman 1st ward. That night, there was a brownout (no power) from 6 to 10!! It was so hot!!! You'd think it'd be okay since it's at night so it cools down, our apartment was so stuffy and we ate and planned via lantern. My catch phrase for my mission I've decided is, "It's like we're camping!" haha I seriously say it so much! It's hilarious.

Sunday was a really good day even though like zero of our investigators came... I played the piano in sacrament, it's truly amazing how it isn't even a big deal to me any more! Two of the songs I didn't know at all but I'm okay with playing with just one hand. I have come SO FAR. And then we were invited to a birthday party of a little girl who's dad is inactive and we just met them yesterday so they had tons of delicious food. Always a bonus and they LOVE missionaries. Then we went to a lesson of an investigator, we invited two ward missionaries to join, when we showed up, there were 5! It was a little crazy with so many people but after we were able to sent half of them to visit someone who needed them and then we went with the others to another investigator and they invited her to a Singles Ward Retreat! It was like every missionary's dream come true! Then we went to visit the Ordonez Family to find out why they weren't at church, Sister Somera's so worried they are going inactive, but they've just visited relatives the last two weeks. We taught them a lesson then at the very end, Nay walked in with a Sting ray and we asked if we could try it so we joined them for dinner too, it was so fun! I love playing with their kids. And this week I ate shark and stingray. "It's more fun in the Philippines" haha And that's about it! Me and Sister Somera have one weekish left as companions which is crazy! But nice because usually you don't know, but since we do, we are able to make every second count. We are going to spend this time getting to know all the members so that we will be able to work with them with my new companion. And I also realize that I better start figuring out what I'm gonna cook. I'm going to try to figure out how to make French Toast this week for them and thinking of what other American things I can make for them without an oven, cheese, and all the other little things that you don't even realize. And that's my week! I hope to hear from you all! Mark, you should tell me about your experience in the temple! and use this time to email me before you are as busy as I am in the mission! And I love you all! 

Gugma, 

Sister Pike

During the brown out:

Eating outside during a brownout in UEP

Showering in the rain - I have shampoo, but it wasn't as sudsy as I had hoped. And it's pouring rain, though you can't really tell. 

At an eating appointment this week

Eating during the brownout

At a birthday party

 Hanging out with the Ordonez Family and a sting ray:

Me and Sister Somera with the Sting Ray