Missionary group pix

McDonalds, Hiking and Family Home Evening

The Best McDonalds I ever had!!

View from our hike

Our combined FHE (Family Home Evening) 

We lost in the FHE games and got our faces painted...just something they do!!!

Letter 11-25-13

This week really flew by, but mostly cause we were never in our area! We just took jeepneys all week because we had so many meetings. 

I had my first ever zone meeting which was really interesting to say the least. It was really such a waste of time and was driving me crazy, so I definitely learned patience! Because President Revillo is new, he has implemented new rules, so there is a big confusion on the rules and on top of it, we have a new zone leader who is from Tacloban mission, and he wanted to include some of his rules and got them approved for our zone, one of them being wearing our socks during personal study hahaha. When president found out about that one he just laughed haha. But the new zone leader is really motivated for us to do our best so I am excited. It was just difficult with so many personalities saying what they think and I'm just over here with a former AP and he is going home in a month, and just whispering to me funny stuff about. Basically, we are missionaries and can use our best judgement, at least that is my opinion, but there really are missionaries who need exact rules, so I just need to do my best and follow them with a good attitude and be respectful and patient in meetings.

We got to teach a family this week that is a referral from a really awesome family in our branch. The branch that we are in is just awesome, and what is really cool is Elder Ardurn (Not sure on that spelling) from the seventy is coming on Sunday to dedicate our renovated church building! He is the area General Authority, so that is going to be just awesome. But anyway, the family we taught is really cool. We arrived and the husband wasn't there, who Elder Masula taught on exchanges last week, but luckily we had a member with us and could teach the rest of the family. The family is the mom, and 3 boys, ages 14, 12, 6, and a toddler. The 14 yr old is really tall, he's 5'10 haha. That's just huge here, and I guess it is pretty tall, especially for 14 yrs old, and he loves basketball. He came into the lesson late, and am so glad he did. We were just teaching the mom and the 12 yr old, the younger ones were playing, and they were really shy to answer questions and wasn't really going well. But then Patrick walks in, sits down and picks up the pamphlet and starts reading and then answers the questions and was just awesome! Then the other two started to participate, and Patrick was just sitting on the edge of his seat and was just super interested! We challenged them to be baptized and usually people say sure, after we repeat what we say, but Patrick just said, OPO! (Yes) right away, it was awesome. Then the mom and brother said yes too. This lesson was really great for me, not only did it remind me of how great it is to share the gospel with people, especially when they accept it and you can see their desire, but because I don't know how, but I was able to understand the general overview of what everyone was saying, and when Elder Masula would tell me in english sometimes, it was what I already thought, and all week I was able to understand. Speaking is a lot different haha. 

We attended a zone conference where 4 zones met and had some workshops and things like that, and president Revillo talked about converting ourselves, and in my personal study I read a lot about that in the conference talks. 

I just loved what Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson said about conversion. Conversion is not an event, it is a process. That was taken from True To The Faith but she talks about how we need to live the principles in order to be converted. It is possible to have a testimony of them, but not live them, and we need to be converted. We cannot gain a testimony of commandments if we don't live them first, and a lot of the times that is what we think. We may not want to live the law of tithing until we know it is true, but praying to know if it is true without living it won't get us anywhere. "The Lord expects us to exercise our Faith" and after we have a trial of our faith, or exercise it, we gain a witness or testimony. 

Elder Maynes talk goes hand in hand with it, and that is to endure. We need to be converted if we want to endure, and the only way to endure is by getting in spiritual shape. Just like we cannot watch a basketball game on tv and become fit and in shape to play, we cannot just watch conference and be in shape. We need to apply the principles, and like basketball, it takes dedication, perseverance, and self discipline. When we live the principles, it helps us do those 3 things, become converted, and able to endure in righteousness, that is the key, IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

I love what he says too, that the quality of our eternal future is proportional to our ability to endure in righteousness.

And the ability to endure in righteousness will be in direct proportion to the strength of our testimony and the depth of our conversion.

Sister Oscarson goes on to say that when we are truly converted we will have no problem sharing the gospel naturally. 

The theme of the conference was definitely hastening the work, and Elder Ballard's talk is really great on that topic, I encourage you to all read it, as well as all of the talks.They have so much awesome stuff in them, and I look forward to each day so I can read them, Im going to be sad when I finish soon. 

Just some points from Elder Ballard's talk:

When we act in faith to fulfill his work, The Lord is going to help us do it, and we need to PRAY for opportunities and then LOOK for those opportunities he will give you. that is a promise, he will give them to you, 

And then too haha, Elder Packer talks about the key to spiritual protection, and part of that is through regular scripture reading, and he just says, "Test it for yourself" 

What benefit are the leaders of the church getting when we read our scriptures? None. So obviously this is for our benefit, and is going to help us.

Those are just a very small portion of the things I have learned and am just loving learning and teaching people and wish they would just read The Book of Mormon. Just test it. I just want to shake them haha, All we ask is to read it honestly and pray about it, and ask if it is true. That's it. If they want to know why there are so many churches and which one is true, they can pray, and they will find out. I just think it's funny how our only tool in helping people is to read and ask if it is true. We cannot do it for them, nor do we force, but we know how much it will bless their lives and when they start to keep the commandments and test them out. 

To end, a funny story:

On Sundays the members have choir after church, and bring food to eat right after church and then go to choir. It's rice and meat, and they give us missionaries some. They had this dessert looking thing later after choir, and looked like fruit salad haha, boy was I wrong. So I was all excited to eat this american dish, and get a good amount, and then a lady says elder have more, so I say, sure! and she piles it on, so I have this big bowl. Well, I take the first bite, and it wasn't yogurt or whipped cream haha it was mayonaisse. AND, it wan't only fruit, there were apples, cherries, and then macaroni noodles, very thin slices of ham, and some other mysteries ha, so I finished it, and it was a big bowl, and the other 3 missionaries were just laughing and the members just asked if I liked it and I said yeah it's just different than america and they smiled and kept eating haha. Good Times!

Hope you all have a great Week!!

-Elder Rock

The Place to Party

Nathan thought this was great!!

Letter Nov 18, 2013

This week has been great, but frustrating at the same time! I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and got to have a real shower, What a treat that was:) Even if it was cold. And talk to some american elders, they really motivated me to push through because of how much they loved what they were doing. 

The people here are so kind and loving, almost to the point of making me angry because they let you in and let you teach them and say they like what we are teaching, but don't let us follow up with them. But we were giving agency so as long as me and my companion are working hard, it is okay, even though it is sad.

This week in our district meeting I loved what someone said. "Christ came to this earth to serve, not be served" And that is what my mindset should be on a mission, but everyones too. The true character of Christ was serving others even when Im sure he wanted to have people serve him and do what he wanted. 

Me and Elder Masula get along really well, we both love ping pong and our chapel has a table, and I was beating him and he said "Tonight we need some companionship inventory" haha. He is a great teacher. I love working with him.

I have been focusing on listening to the spirit more, I just want to share the gospel and speak the language so I can teach them clearly. A talk in the MTC we heard was by Carlos Godoy and when He was being taught the missionaries told him that this was the same church as when Christ was on the earth, it was back. He was so excited and made so much sense he just ran home and told his parents and they blew him off and he literally shook them and yelled "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, IT WAS GONE AND NOW IT IS BACK, THIS IS THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME ONE, ITS BACK!" That's the kind of enthusiasm I feel I have and am so disappointed when people don't understand the authority and need of organization. 

I've been reading a lot of conference talks and love what they say, and encourage you to read Elder Gifford Nielsons, he was funny to listen to. But he gives 3 steps to how members can be missionaries. And L. Tom Perry said in the mission conference "This is the most exciting era the church has ever seen. It is up there with the first vision and book of mormon" That is so awesome. In D&C 6:3 it says the field is white and ready to harvest. It wasn't gray, or dark, it was white and ready. It is really white and we all need to get to work! 

And remember that opposition is the indispensable element of mortality, and strengthens us and refines us. Christ's healing begins with faith. (See elder timothy j. dyches talk)

I love you all and hope you have a great week. All the Tacloban missionaries are safe, and 16 of them will be joining The quezon city mission!

Love,

Elder Rock

Desert News Photos from Typhoon

Even though Nathan's area wasn't affected, I wanted to post this story because of the blessings that came to all 204 missionaries serving there.

Deseret News Report on the Typhoon

MANILA, Philippines — The water was rising fast.

In the darkness of early morning, Amanda Smith moved away from the window to shield her face from the slashing rain. She had shut it just moments before to ward off the raging storm whipping through the palm trees outside.

But now the wind had ripped it open, and the wooden shutters were slamming violently against the wall again and again. Sister Smith, an LDS missionary from Elk Ridge, Utah, couldn’t see anything outside, but she could smell the sea, which seemed to be getting closer and closer. They had to get out of here.

She had heard about the storm three days before, from a driver of a pedicab. It was typhoon season, and tropical storms were common in the Philippines. Still, the last storm warning had produced nothing but blue skies. Some of the missionaries wondered if this time would be any different.

There were nine missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with her in the house, a two-story structure made of cement blocks. They were young women from Utah and Alaska and the Philippines, all about her own age, 19. They had done what they could to prepare, hastily assembling 72-hour kits, and had even bought candles and rope, just like their mission president had asked, even though no one in the house thought either would be necessary.

Now, as water roared down the streets toward them, Sister Smith realized no preparations were too small. The worst storm in generations had just hit landfall.

Bracing for the worst

More than 300 miles to the north, in an apartment in the capital of Manila, Elder Ian S. Ardern sat watching CNN. A former mission president with salt and pepper hair and an easy smile, he couldn’t help but feel a looming sense of dread about what was unfolding. On the screen, the typhoon churned, a monster on a path no one could stop. Winds would eventually reach 200 miles per hour.

As first counselor in the Philippine Area Presidency, Elder Ardern worried directly about the 675,000 LDS Church members living in the Philippines, particularly the thousands living in the eye of the storm in and around a city of 235,000 called Tacloban, as well as the entire population.

A native of New Zealand, he had seen his fair share of typhoons, and knew firsthand their destructive power. He hoped the members, and the young missionaries, had heeded the call to prepare.

Days before the storm hit, his office had been sending out warnings to the 21 mission presidents in the Philippines, with maps regularly updating and charting the course of the typhoon. Prepare emergency kits, they had advised. And get to a safe place, which for many members meant a chapel.

The area presidency had asked each of the mission presidents to call in when the storm subsided to report damages and the status of their missionaries. Elder Ardern watched the news as the sun began to rise over the Philippines and waited for the first phone call to come in. He braced for the worst.

Rising panic

Sister Smith had always wanted to be a missionary, ever since she was a little girl growing up in Minnesota, toting her scriptures to Primary, learning to play hymns like “I am a Child of God” on the piano. She’d put in her mission papers as soon as she turned 19.

She had been excited to go to the Philippines. But in some ways, she seemed too delicate for this place, with her long, willowy build and fine porcelain skin. The Philippines wasn’t exactly clean, and some things had taken getting used to — rice for every meal, the choking smell of exhaust on the clogged streets, cold showers from a bucket. But she had also fallen in love with the place — the sweet smell of mangos, the effervescence of the people, the way the language of Waray-Waray had started to roll off the tongue.

One day she sat down on a stool to teach a lesson in a dirt-floor shack and out of nowhere three fuzzy chicks materialized and walked around her legs, the way birds landed on Cinderella’s shoulder, and she thought: What is this magical place?

She had been out five months, her latest area called San Jose, where some of Tacloban’s richest and poorest residents live, some in nice apartments, others in shacks of bamboo and cardboard, a tarp stained by the smoke of cooking fires the only thing passing for a roof, roosters and stray dogs running at their feet.

San Jose sits right on the sea, and so a few days before the storm, just to be safe, the mission president’s assistants (two young men, elders who help the president) asked her and her companion to come farther inland, which is where she was now, with nine other sister missionaries, in a house quickly filling with a black, mucky water.

As the storm worsened, she could feel the house shaking, metal poles outside snapping, animals howling and squealing.

At first, the sisters had all gathered in one central room on the second floor, thinking it the safest place in the house. But the water was now rising to their knees. Metal bars covered every window, preventing an escape outside. With no other choice they would have to go to the first floor, where the water nearly reached the ceiling, and try to open the front door to get out.

They knew the current could pull them out into the ocean, but if they stayed where they were now, they would drown in what had essentially become a box of cement walls.

One by one the sisters slipped into the freezing water on the first floor. A few couldn’t swim; they held tight to their companions. Some of the women started to cry.

Sister Smith was scared too, but she was determined not to let it show. She wanted to stay calm for the others.

The front door was locked with a metal latch on the bottom and the top. One of the sisters dived under the water and unlocked the bottom latch; another reached the top and did the same. But when they tried to open the door it wouldn’t budge. The water pressing from the outside and inside had sealed it shut.

What had been ebbing as a low level panic reached hysteria for some of the sisters, who began weeping and sobbing. Sister Smith could feel the panic rising in her chest too, but she had to stay calm. With a few of the other sisters who had become leaders of the group, she started to sing hymns, their voices muted by the stinky water rising to their chins. They quoted scripture. They prayed. Sister Smith put on a brave face, not daring to say aloud what she was thinking:

“I never thought this is where my life would end.”

Finding survivors

As the storm subsided, the phone in Elder Ardern’s office started to ring. One by one, the presidents of the 21 missions in the Philippines called in, reporting that all their missionaries were safe and accounted for. Except for one. The president from the Tacloban mission never called.

As Elder Ardern waited, the phone rang. Parents from Idaho and Texas called in, frantic for news of their children. The wives of the area presidency took most of the calls, assuring parents that as soon as they had word they’d let them know the status of their missionary children.

More than 24 hours passed and the area presidency still hadn’t heard any word on the status of the 204 Tacloban missionaries. Elder Ardern was pacing when an email finally came in from the mission president. The 38 missionaries in the city of Tacloban were safe. He had negotiated with local government officials to send an email on the only functioning Internet portal in town. As soon as he found the rest of his missionaries he’d be in touch, he promised

Cell service was still impossible, and would be for days, if not weeks. Elder Ardern was relieved, but also worried about the rest of the mission.

The area presidency dispatched every church employee in Cebu and Manila — security and building maintenance and church welfare and others — to go to Tacloban to search for members. They would travel the six hours from Cebu to Tacloban to count survivors, return to Cebu to find a working phone or Internet connection to make a report to church headquarters in Manila, and then head back out in to the wreckage to find more survivors and help.

In one Mormon congregation alone, 95 percent of the members saw their homes destroyed. Scores had lost family members, many carried out to sea with the current, never to return.

Praying for a miracle

The sister missionaries worked together. Sister Schaap punched a hole through an opening in a flimsy wall, and the group of 10 swam through the murky water that would soon carry their journals and clothes and pots and pans out to sea. Those who couldn’t swim clung tightly to their companions.

The sisters used the rope to reach a nearby roof. Sister Smith stood on the rain gutter, the other nine sister missionaries shivering beside her, the rain still coming down in sheets. Hours had passed since the beginning of the storm, and yet the sky above Tacloban was still gray, shrouded by fog.

Sister Smith said thoughts of dying left her mind. But some of the sisters appeared pale and their bodies were shaking. The water was still rising and they feared it would engulf them.

One of the sisters suggested they pray. They huddled closely together, bowed their heads, and with the rain dripping down their chins, asked God to make the water stop. And then, in what Sister Smith could only describe as the greatest miracle of her life, the sea stopped rising.

Rescue

By the time Elder Ardern arrived in Tacloban four days after the storm, the water had receded, leaving a putrid scene of destruction in its wake. Bloated bodies lay exposed on the sides of the road, some covered by a blanket, or rusty corrugated roofing, others by a moldy piece of cardboard. The stench was sickening.

At one point, the city had tried to conduct a mass burial for 200, but had turned its trucks around when they heard gunfire.

The city had descended into chaos and lawlessness. Survivors of the typhoon had broken into stores that hadn’t been flattened to steal televisions and toys, food, even light fixtures, despite the fact that there was no electricity.

Hours after the storm, the president’s two assistants had made the walk from the mission home to the house where the sisters had been staying. The house was destroyed but they had to kick through the door to get inside. When they found no one, they feared the worse, a sense that only heightened when a neighbor told them they’d seen four sisters leaving for a nearby elementary school.

“There were supposed to be 10,” one of the elders said.

They found all 10 at a nearby elementary school, and soon learned the story of the escape from the house and the hours spent on the roof, praying for someone to find them.

With the sisters now accounted for, the assistants and other missionaries assigned to the mission office fanned out through the city, trying to find the rest of their mission force. A dense cloud cover prevented even satellite phones from working, meaning the missionaries had no way to communicate with missionaries serving in outlying areas.

But these missionaries, they said guided by the spirit and survival instincts, made their way to the mission home. Some walked for four hours. Others hitched a ride on a motorcycle, relying on the kindness of strangers unsure how to feed their own children. One group of missionaries cobbled together more than a thousand dollars and made their way to Tacloban by boat. All 204 missionaries were now accounted for.

The two assistants to the president, one from Dallas and the other from Fiji, stayed with the 10 sisters and others at the mission home, supporting each other, especially at night when gunshots rang out.

With their own food running low, the assistants, under the direction of their mission president, decided they had to make their way to the airport. So before dawn, four days after the storm but again in pouring rain, they headed out with their flashlights pointing the way through the darkness.

“It was the hardest thing,” said one of the assistants. “People had gotten so hungry they had begun to attack each other. The worst part was the smell, the stench of death.”

Some sisters, their feet blistered, could barely walk. The looting had become more severe, and the missionaries had heard rumors that prisoners at the jail, which had lost its electricity and its guards, had simply walked out. The assistants stood at the front and back of the long line of missionaries — dozens and dozens — as they made the long march to the airport.

As they walked, Elder Ardern tried to arrange a flight out. He had booked flights in Manila, but thousands of other survivors had mobbed the Tacloban airport. The ticket agent told him if he wanted a flight out, he’d have to pay more to get his 204 missionaries to safety.

As Elder Ardern tried other options, the missionaries milled about what was left of the airport terminal, its walls blasted out by the gale force winds of the storm. And then, a final miracle.

An Army sergeant with a C-130 airplane, assigned by the U.S. government to fly Americans out of the disaster area, said he had a feeling he should walk through the terminal one more time. As he did, he saw out of the corner of his eye what looked like the nametag of a Mormon missionary. The sergeant, a Mormon himself, asked if the missionary was American. When he said he was, the sergeant told him he could arrange flights out for all the Americans and foreigners in his C-130.

Before the day had ended, many of the missionaries Elder Ardern had come for were flying out of Tacloban. By week’s end, all of the missionaries in the area would be evacuated to Manila, where they would await a new assignment in other missions in the Philippines.

The Road Ahead

It’s a Saturday afternoon in Manila, a week after the storm, the air hot and sticky. Sister Amanda Smith and the nine other survivors are sitting on a bench on the well-manicured grounds of the Philippine Missionary Training Center, talking to a television crew from New York. Their story of survival and resistance will inspire millions, they are told.

Still, it is hard for most of them to talk about their experience, and the things they saw. They said night terrors awake them. And so, just as they did during the storm, they sing hymns and say quiet prayers, hoping for peace, and an ability to leave behind the terror of what they witnessed.

And yet, there is a part of them that wishes they could go back, to help those members and non-members alike, who are still stuck. They are comforted to know that the church has never stopped searching for those that are lost, and that in the coming weeks church officials, from Salt Lake and throughout the Philippines, will continue to push food and medical supplies, blankets and tents, into the areas most affected by the typhoon, to provide relief to Filipinos, whether they are Mormons or not, part of a rescue operation that includes dozens of non-governmental organziations (NGO's), faith groups and governments from around the world.

When the interview with the TV crew is over, Sister Smith and the other sisters hurry to a parking lot, where the missionaries evacuated from Tacloban are boarding vans that will take them to their new area. They hug and cry, bonded by a tragedy they never saw coming, but one they were surprisingly prepared for.

For many, their missions are just beginning.

“It was such a terrible thing we witnessed,” Sister Smith said. “But I learned so much about how people will come together to help others, expecting nothing in return. I saw that from other missionaries, and I saw that from the Philippine people. It’s a lesson I hope I never forget.”

My first week in the Philippines

View from my Apt

Good times with my new Trainer

My trainer is great and super funny!  We really hit it off!

I love the people I am teaching

Another view... Everything is so green!

Eating lots of rice!

Letter Nov 11, 2013

Hi Everyone!

Well, the language that they speak here is not what they speak in the MTC that's for sure. The plane ride over here was really long, and once we arrived it took a long time to finally get our bags and find who was picking us up. I just kept thinking of the movie "Taken" with different people coming up to us and telling us where to wait. We finally got to the Hotel and got a good 3 hours of sleep before having to go to the mission home, and there we had an orientation and then got to go tour the memorial/ cemetery of soldiers who had died Im pretty sure in WW2. After all of that we got to find out who our Trainer was going to be, and everyone loves my name, Elder Rock. So they called me up and said my companion was on the rock (Mindoro). So we knew that 3 of us were going to go to mindoro and we would have to take a plane the next day and our trainers were there waiting for us. So They said my trainer was there so I would be going there, and it is a pretty desirable place to go, so everyone was all excited, and then the AP's said, just kidding, your trainer WAS on the rock, Elder Masula is your trainer! He's native!

I didn't really care because I want to go to mindoro when I know Tagalog really well so I can enjoy it haha. But Elder Masula is awesome, He is native and speaks really good english. He is also the district leader so he is obedient. The mission president's wife kept saying that missionaries would make fun of us if we were obedient and stuff. It was really weird, she spent like 2 hours telling us to make sure we do this this and this, and to call her if our trainers didn't. But then she would say the trainers were the best missionaries in the mission haha. 

So, we were driven to a church and got picked up by a senior couple from canada who are awesome, the Jensen's, and they took us to our apartment. My area is Bingagonan, I think. It's really hard to understand names because they talk so fast and mumble it, so when we talk to people and ask their name, they say zinny. "WHat"? 'zinny' and we ask them to spell it, and they say Jenny. Oh so Jenny. So I have no idea who anyone is haha. 

The Philippines is really different, I understand why they call it culture shock now. We are in a province area, so not near the city, so there is a lot more green, but so so so so dirty. It's so hard to explain. The pictures I have are really beautiful, but it smells bad, and the houses are so tiny and I don't know how to explain it. Everyone sells things too. So they have random items hanging from the outside of their house with a cage in front so no one steals it, and things cost like 10 P. (43Pesos is a dollar right now) 

It is pretty humid, all of my books are getting warped just from the moisture, and we walk everywhere. I kind of wish I went on more back packing trips hahahaha. A Tricycle is our number one way of transportation, its like a 70 cc motorcylce with a side car, and they just jam as many people as they can haha, its super funny. 

All of the kids love me, because I am this super tall white guy, and talk to me. Everyone stares too, but Im getting over that. They try to talk english, because I guess it means that you are intelligent or something, just they all want to speak english, and they say "YO, wassup man" and then laugh when I speak tagalog back haha.

 Even though it is so crazy here, the church is still the same. The members are the same and the doctrine is the same. The really sad thing that I heard was that there are 700,000 plus members here, but only 200,000 are active. How sad. The number one reason is people getting offended, which is really hard, And it is over stupid things. But at church we had a few less actives come and that was really good. I have noticed that you can find the same people, like people come in late, there are the people on their phones, the snacks for the children, the funny dads, and so on. They are all here haha. 

I've been really discouraged because I cannot understand anything anyone says, and it is just so frustrating, I just want to teach people but can't in the way I want to. And I miss home A LOT. At the MTC I didn't really, but here I just want to take a shower that isn't out of a bucket, but there must be opposition in all things, and Im pretty sure it was Gordon B Hinckley's dad that said "forget yourself and get to work" So That's my motto. ANd to be happy. It is so hard to be happy sometimes because I just get waves of sadness, but we choose if we are happy, and that makes my attitude change. 

In the MTC we heard thousands of stories about how people are humbled on their mission and rely on the Lord. I wish people wouldn't tell those stories because it takes how meaningful they are. What I mean is that there isn't really a way to express how desperate you are for help, I just feel lonely sometimes, and just have been learning to pray and remember why I am here. 

I sure love everyone, and miss you, but will see you in 2 years that fly by I have been told:)

-Elder Rock

PS: The Philippines is indescribable haha, its like the mexico of Asia where I am at. I wish Rachel could come clean our apartment and fix it up, its so beaten down. Our kitchen sink doesn't have running water, and in the bathroom it barely comes out haha. We have a shower but it doesn't work, so we use a bucket outside, and we don't have a washer or dryer, so we have to hand wash everything. I miss food. Ive been living off of peanut butter and toast the past 5 days for breakfast, and have eaten more rice than I have in my entire life haha.  I want to share the gospel with everyone I meet, but I don't know how to speak. My trainer, Elder Masula, is a really good missionary, and we laugh a lot, but it's just hard- you know? I felt sooo alone at church yesterday even though the people are so nice, I just have no idea what anyone says.

I am truly learning how to rely on the Lord, and am trying to follow the spirit and have the spirit way more in my life and follow it, so we will see how it goes. It's only my first week so I need to stop being so hard on myself, but I just want to help and teach and get families to the temple!

The storm was in Tacloban, so nothing happened to me, on friday they had us go in our apartment, but it just rained.

Good friends at the MTC

Always good for Elders to tease the Sisters-haha!

I met Sister Richmond working at the San Diego Temple before I left to the MTC.  It was fun to run in to her again!

I DEFINITELY won't miss the Utah snow!

Goodbye MTC!!