Merry Christmas--HERE'S A TONGAN!

I believe I recall Brooke saying that on her mission she had a Tongan companion who she thought was super awesome.  Maybe Larsens and Tongans just get along well... SURPRISE!  TRANSFERS!  Sister Cooper and I were 100% certain she was staying this transfer... as in, she set up a hair apartment and sent out her laundry.  Then she got transferred... surprise!! And I get Sister Taufa.  Sister Taufa is awesome, upbeat, funny, and a great missionary.  This is definitely going to be my most fun transfer thus far on my mission, I can already tell - but we're working hard to stay focused as well on our purpose.

Sister Taufa is from Tonga, and was baptized once when she was 8... but then later they couldn't find the record of it.  So she was baptized again.  Later... they couldn't find the record AGAIN.  So she was baptized again.  Baptized 3 times - she said it was good, since she probably needed it.  Haha, char, joke.

I got a package from Brooke.  Thanks, sister!  You're the best.  I'll make sure to share the love with our kabahays (Sisters who live with us.)  We had a lot of Christmas parties, etc. this week.  We had our missionary Christmas party in the main chapel that's about a 1.5 hour ride from our area.  It was awesome, and I had found this amazing dress at a second hand clothes store here... sparkly, green, gnarly, and festive.  Grandma chic.  I really wanted to wear it, but when we got there (I wore something more conservative on the way to the party) I found out the zipper was broken... I wasn't too fat for it, but it like, wouldn't zip up whether the dress was on or off.  I REALLY wanted to wear it.  Sister Taufa said, "Don't worry, we'll fix it!"  So we quickly ran and bought pins and then Sister Taufa took about 15 mins wrestling with it to pin it together.  I said, "It's okay, I wanted to wear it but I can wear the other clothes I came in," and she said, "Nah it's fine, I want my companion to look pretty!"  So, she fixed it all up for me and did me some major service.  How could you not love a companion like that?  She's really teaching me how to serve others with a full heart.

For our Zone skit in front of all the missionaries in Manila, we did this story about a missionary's journey through leaving from home, going to the mtc, his experiences in the field, etc.  We only practiced it once.  It was... okay, haha.  SOOOOO many rules of theater were broken.  It kind of hurt my heart a little how much people turned their back to the audience and weren't projecting.  My part... which I chose, in part because of my dress was to stand with my hands pointed above my head during the part where the missionary was "opening his mouth" talking to people.  He walked up and started talking to me and then his companion said, "Nah man, that's a Christmas tree."  Maybe the most unexpected part of our skit, haha.

Yeah, that's it.  LOVE YOU! NO TIME NOW.  MALIGAYANG PASKO AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Smile!  Remember Christ always and how his birth changed the whole world and our lives individually.  Let us celebrate the real reason for the season, and receive the Holy Ghost in our hearts always.

Love,

Sister Larsen

Yeah.  We do Christmas right here.  Christmas Chicken Nuggets!  

Traditional Dance!  The girl in the front is one of our recent converts.  She's awesome and they did this dance at the ward Christmas party.  That's the traditional Filipino costumes as well.

Funny Quotes and BAPTISM!

Dear friends and family,

Really not a whole lot of supreme excitement happened this week.  For one, one of our previous less active members who we then activated again carried the boy to church this week who had been run over by a motorcycle, because his mom said she's too old to do it again.  So... their whole family was able to go to church because of the service of a member. This member served a mission many years ago, but then married a non-member and stopped going to church.  Eventually his wife left him with three young kids 17 and younger.  He's now a single father but is an amazing example of faith and kindness and has given us many referrals and is always willing and looking for ways to help with missionary work. That member who carried the boy is the father of the 17 year old who we baptized this Saturday.  She is amazing and we love her and her family so much.  We hope that her 14 year old sister will be the next to be baptized.  They are amazing and a huge inspiration to me and... SO many of the people in the Philippines are just so amazing and such great examples to me.

So here's where I start some of the funny things that have been said this week.  

Last week for church, I dressed up more than normal and wore contacts (this was the first time this ward has seen me in them, I think.)  Later on, one of the members said to me in Tagalog, "Sister Larsen, I heard one of the single young adult girls say on Sunday that she wished she was pregnant and her baby had your face."  That is the strangest compliment I have ever received.  However, when I wore contacts and one of the members said, "Wow, your eyes are like a cat (green)" that one made me pretty happy.

One day, when we were reading from our missionary handbook, I was reading a part that said, "Serve with all your heart, might, mind, and strength" but instead I read it accidentally as "SURVIVE with all your heart, might, mind, and strength."  Haha.  Sometimes, so true.

My other favorite was the member who talked on Sunday and said, "For all you single sisters here... I'm happy for those of you going on missions now (someone had just gotten her mission call that day.)  BUT.. kung pwede mag-asawa, MAG-ASAWA KA NA."  (If you can get married... GET MARRIED NOW.)  Our Bishop looked at me and Sister Cooper and was laughing so hard.  Some members said to me, "Sister Larsen... dapat mag-asawa ka na!  Get married already!"  Hahaha.  People tease us so much.

Yep.  Things are good. ALMOST PASKO!  ALMOST CHRISTMAS! Love you all!  

ENJOY to the end!

-Sister Larsen

They gutted the piano cuz they're redoing the entire church now, and were spray painting it black.  It's awesome.

This next photo is called "Childhood Dream Realized."  Yeah.  'Nuff said.  

Proof That I'm in Asia; Great Faith

Only some of you will recognize what I'm holding in the picture I sent with this.  Probably only my very closest friends, and maybe even some of those close friends won't.  "My Neighbor Totoro" has always been and will always been one of my favorite mini movies of all time.  Very Japanese, very kid friendly, and my favorite.  When I saw this in an open market area, I knew it was meant for me.  It's hard for me not to smile when I see Totoro sitting on my desk.  There's a lot of Japanese/Asian influence here.  I would describe the Philippines as kind of feeling like Asian-American-Islander-Mexican.  Yeah.  But it's none of those things, it's better - The Philippines.

I don't really have much to say about this week, not that it wasn't good, but not much stands out a lot.  One of my favorite things was that when we talked in one of our meetings about "finding people to teach," one suggestion that an Elder offered was, "find trapped people."  He meant find people on jeepneys, or waiting in lines, etc. that are are just hanging around and don't have anywhere to go or anything to do.  Somehow though, "find trapped people" is super hilarious to me.

This week, we saw a miracle of faith.  Before I came to the area, Sister Cooper and her last companion had been teaching a son of a less active member.  The boy (10 years old) progressed quickly, he and his mom went to church many times, and then he was going to be baptized the next week.  However, the week before his baptism... he was run over by a motorcycle and one of his legs and his pelvic area were smashed.  He was then put in a half-body cast for two months and couldn't walk or move.  It was very difficult.

Last week, his cast was removed.  He still couldn't walk on that foot or leg at all, and crutches are difficult to come by here. He clearly had a good deal of pain from it still. Then, the next Sunday... up walked his mother with her niece (9 years old - baptized three months ago) her other son (2 years old) and... her 10 year old son who had been hit two months before.  She was CARRYING him.  She carried him about a mile to church.  We have no idea how long it took them to get to church, but that's the kind of faith the people have here.  They know what's important, and they prioritize it.  When I see things like that... it feels like my heart can hardly contain my feelings.  So many of these people are such great inspirations of faith and dedication.

I hope everyone has a great week and looks for spiritual experiences of your own.  There should never be a week where you don't feel like you've really progressed to become more like Christ in some way.

Love you all!

Sister Larsen

Merry Christmas!  We got Domino's pizza.  They put a bow on it and errything.  I literally have never been so happy to have pizza in my life.

  [I asked Marinda about last week's photos.  Here is that conversation.]

Allison: "In one photo you sent last week, everyone was making strange signs with their hands.  What was that about?  In another, y'all looked as if you had paint on you.  What was going on there?" 

Marinda: "hahahaha.  The strange signs... that's like, a cultural thing.  It means "pogi" or "handsome."  We played a game where if you lose, you get baby powder put on your face.  So there's a good explanation." 

"Family Reunion" and a Fever

Dear Friends and Family,

This week's been crazy.  We ate spicy sting-ray (it was delicious), went to the temple, listened to a member of the area presidency (Elder Echo Hawk if you're curious... he used to be over Indian Affairs for President Obama a few years ago), and I took a pillow to our baptism.  Let me explain.

First off, there's two things that people always say to me on my mission... first, "Sister, did you know you look just like Taylor Swift?"  and second, "Do you know the senior missionaries named "Larsen" at the Manila temple?"  Both of those questions have continued in this area.  I think I've heard the Taylor Swift comment (or people singing her songs to me in the streets) like 20 more times since I've been here in Manila.  And when we went to the temple... I finally got to meet the Larsen senior missionaries!  When they saw my last name was Larsen too, they said, "Sister Larsen, you're famous!  Everyone asks us if we're related to you!"  I told them everyone said that to me about them.  We don't *think* we're related, at least not through the Fullmer line and their family is not from Idaho.  But Elder Larsen looks  like dad... dunno, haha.  Anyway, that was a cool experience, and a little mini "family reunion" with long lost family that I may or may not be related to.  Going to the temple again was, of course, supremely amazing as always.

Now, the second thing that was making this week crazy is that on Friday, we always plan for the whole next week for 3 hours.  So we were planning... and Thursday night I had felt really weird.  Friday morning, still felt weird.  Halfway through planning, I felt really, really cold.  It's the Philippines.  It never gets below 70 degrees.  By the end of planning, I had wrapped three jackets around me and two sheets and was violently shivering.  My fever spiked up and up... until it was at 102.4.  I slept most of the day... BUT.  We had a baptism that night!  There was NO WAY I was gonna miss that baptism of the dear Bautista family and their 4 sweet children.  So, I told Sister Cooper to catch me if I started to pass out, and we went to the baptism.  I took a pillow with me, because I knew the chances of me making it through the whole baptism were really low.  Sure enough, I had to fall asleep and pass out every now and then during the baptism, but somehow I made it through.  It was beautiful and so worth being there, though. Note that in the picture, I probably had a very high fever at the time and had to sit down right before and right after we took it, haha.  I'm still on the mend right now, but I'm getting better for sure.  We went out and worked the very next day... there's no way if I wasn't on my mission right now that would have been possible at all. Definitely help from the Lord. 

 

My favorite part of this week... on Sunday, the 4 Bautista kids (two of who are twins and are 8, so they're considered "children of record") were given the Koloob ng Espiritu Santo, or Gift of the Holy Ghost.  That's the right to have the Holy Ghost with us to guide and direct us always when we live worthy of it.  Then, their smallest child received his baby blessing (although he's about 5 now.)  For all the boys, they were given the blessing that they would one day become missionaries as well.  That... is probably one of the most joyous things I could have ever heard as a missionary right now.  Their mom hadn't come to church for 10+ years and now all of her kids are truly on the right track to happiness.  They're a beautiful family and we love them so much and their wonderful faith and joy in the gospel.

That's what's up right now.  Things are great, we're super happy, and the Lord is helping us every step of the way.  Missions are amazing.

Much love,

Sister Larsen

 Below is one of the member's houses... they do the passports for all the foreign missionaries in the Philippines.  They're way nice and their daughter who's about to go on a mission works with us all the time.  They fed us cake and delicious stuff for their daughter's bday, hahah.

Feelin' "Hangry," but no Turkey

Mahal kong friends and family,                                      Nov. 25, 2013

Yung.  So para simula... to start, my English skills are quickly deteriorating.  Odd, since I have an American companion this transfer. Here's some of my language adventures this week though:

-"Taglish" is the language of Manila, in reality.  The more middle class people are, the more English they're likely to speak.  People understand English, but they don't speak it that often, for the most part.  Our Bishop is pretty good at English, but Tagalog is his first language.  As far as gospel terms, people tend to use English words a lot.  Anyway... once at an FHE where we had invited Bishop, he was talking to the family we were teaching and used the english word "act."  He paused, because the family we were teaching didn't understand English that well.  He turned to the room full of people and asked, "What's the Tagalog word for 'act?'"  There was a three second pause and I responded, "kilos."  Out of a room with about 12 Filipinos who speak good English and Tagalog, I was the one who gave him the word.  Hahahaha.

-This week, at a district meeting, I was speaking in front of our district about a spiritual experience we had last week.  In Tagalog, there's not words for "he" or "she."  Only the unisex "siya."  So...when I was sharing my experience, I was talking about one of our investigators and her brother.  I said, "Yeah, so, she was sharing with us.  Then her brother, she also shared..." I paused, and realized that in true Filipino form, I had just mixed up the noun markers.  Most Filipinos do the same thing when they speak English, interchanging "she" and "he" since it's not part of their language.  I'm not going to be able to speak English normally when I get back; it is actually starting to be somewhat difficult to speak straight English and not Taglish.  By the end of a year and a half I can only imagine what my English will sound like, haha.  This week marked 6 months in the mission for me.

-One of our members saw us walking around and saw that I had some tinapay, or bakery bread.  It was late and we were headed home, and he said, in English, "You have bread so you won't get hangry!"  Sister Cooper and I decided that "hangry" is a great cross between hungry and angry that happens when missionaries don't have dinner appointments with members.  Haha, joke.  

Unfortunately though, there's not Thanksgiving here in the Philippines.  I'll get over it, though.  We have mission tour with the area Presidency on Thursday, so hopefully we'll maybe get fed turkey at that meeting :D

I have a story about "not procrastinating the day of your repentance."  We have one Elder in our district now who was sent here to Manila from Tacloban mission, because the typhoon destroyed the entire mission.  He said that the week before the storm hit, some missionaries had people who were planning to be baptized that weekend but then had relatives come so they said, "Let's push the baptisms back to next week."  They did... and now missionaries are pulled out of that mission for who knows how long, and those people will have to potentially wait a long time to be baptized if they're even still there at all.  There's definitely some lessons to be learned there about not just waiting to do important, eternal things just for the sake of waiting.

Speaking of eternal important things... TODAY'S OUR TEMPLE DAY!!! I haven't been to the temple in 5 months (no temple on Palawan) and I'm so excited!  That's why our Pday is on Tuesday this week.  Like... today's the best day ever.  I'm so excited and happy right now.

I love you all and I hope that patuloy kayo na umunlad and tumatanggap marami mga biyaya.  I hope you continue to progress and receive many blessings.  

Stay strong always!

-Sister Larsen

Service and Singing

Dear Friends and Family,

So this week we had the opportunity to help package food for victims of the huge typhoon that hit in Tacloban.  Our mission has also recieved some missionaries from Tacloban mission and they'll now be serving in Manila.  That's really difficult for them because they learned Cebuano and Waray-waray in the MTC and now they're in a place that speaks Tagalog... however, people understand English pretty well here which is useful.  For the service project we went for maybe 4 hours and put 6 cans of calimari (squid) in with bags of rice.  There was SO MUCH FOOD there.  It was amazing.  We were very happy to help.  That's me and my companion Sister Cooper in the picture.  I'm so thankful for Sister Cooper, she's an amazing companion!

One of our members served his mission in 1991 and served with a companion named "Larsen."  He asked me one day if that was a relative of mine, and asked if it was my dad.  That would have been crazy, since we're helping his kids progress towards baptism within the next couple of months.  I said no, it wasn't my dad, but possibly a relative... Dad, know any of your relatives who served in the Philippines in 1991?

Our ward here is awesome too.  Bishop likes to play ping pong and volleyball, and is in his early 30's.  He does a great job coordinating with the missionaries and so does our ward mission leader.  I'm a big fan of this ward.  

So... we were "booked" to sing in church on Sunday, since we sang at the Elder's baptism on Saturday.  Sister Cooper has a cold and literally no voice, and so a ward missionary came up with us and it was me, Sister Cooper (who wasn't able to sing), the two Elders, a ward missionary, and the ward mission leader who sang in sacrament meeting.  After we sang at the baptism the night before, Bishop asked if I would be willing to sing a solo in church sometime while he would play the piano (he's really good at playing.)  So.................... we'll see when that happens.  I'll let you all know.  A member asked me after we sang how long I'd been a member of Mo tab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir), kidding around with me.  I don't think my voice is THAT awesome, but I'm happy if I can help bring the Spirit through music.

I also finished reading the New Testament this week.  I will tell you... I absolutely love that set of scriptures.  I've learned SO much from reading it.  This was the first time I really read it all the way through... and there's so many important doctrines there which are supported and upheld by the Book of Mormon.  Let me tell you... scriptures are amazing.  We are so blessed to have them, and we should always take the time to learn from them and grow in wisdom spiritually.  The time and effort that prophets of old took to write them was for us, now.  I hope we all remember to take the time to read with real intent the scriptures, and gain the knowledge that will make us happy at all times in our lives.  The Savior's actions and teachings in the NT are some of the most beautiful things ever written by mankind.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Love you all!

-Sister Larsen

Two "Nosebleeding" Americans; Bucket Showers

Dear friends and family,

First off... I AM SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY.  Yeah, it's dirty and crowded in the city.  Doesn't even matter.  We're doing awesome work here, through the help of the Lord.  One day we taught 12 lessons (10 of them with a member present), and found 5 new investigators.  In my old area, we'd be lucky to teach 4 or 5 lessons in a day and find 2 new investigators.  This is awesome.  We are really able to fulfill our purpose as missionaries.

I don't have any good pictures yet of the area, but I'm sure those will follow.  Here's the fun part - Sister Cooper, my new companion, just barely finished her training which means she's "3 months old" on her mission in the field.  I'm only one transfer ahead of her.  So... we're definitely getting a full dosage of the gift of tongues, because we super need it.  Before this was less evident to me in lessons because I had always had  a Filipina companion to help me out before when I was "nosebleeding," which means unable to understand the language or speak it. Now, it's just us.  And honestly... I don't know what it is.  I think that the people here in the city are legitimately easier to understand because they do sometimes use limited Taglish (Tagalog mixed with English) but I also just have realized that when I'm feeling the Spirit, the language comes SO much easier.  It's actually amazing.  I wouldn't have ever though I'd be here at this point, but they do say at about 6 months in the field here we should be able to function pretty well in the language.  I'm at about 4.5 months now being in the field, so it's coming along.  The members and people we've taught lessons to have said that my Tagalog is quite good, so I'm happy about that.  It has up and down moments, but really... the stronger the Spirit is in a lesson, the more fluent I am.  I am 100% positive that correlation is direct and evident.  Sister Cooper is an awesome missionary and companion, and she and her trainer did a great job with this area so it's been well prepared and we hope to continue with that high standard of work.

Here's the funny part.  You'd think that living on Palawan would have been a more ghetto living situation than here.  But that's not really the case - there we had a super nice apartment and heated showers.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like our apartment here and it's pretty nice.  But, the shower doesn't really work so we just fill up buckets with water, take a dipper cup and pour water on ourselves for our "shower."  I like long showers.  That's just the truth.  So I quickly realized in an apartment of 4 Sisters it wasn't gonna work out for us to all move through the bathroom fast enough.  So, I banished myself to showering in the laundry room with a different bucket and a bowl to dip water with.  That's how we do in my new ward, hahahahah.  I don't mind, it's just a good mission story to tell :)

I'm reaching that part in my mission where Preparation day (when we email, wash clothes, write letters, clean the apartment, etc.) just feels like an annoyance.  I mean, I love you all, but we are SO BUSY teaching and finding people throughout the whole week here I don't have time to breathe let alone think much about home.  It's awesome.  I love it.  This is a very, very happy part of my mission.  I'm excited for everything that's going to be happening in the next few weeks.  SABIK NA SABIK AKO.   I'm SUPER DUPER EXCITED!

Much love from afar,

Sister Larsen

P.S.  On Friday we were told to be at home by 3 because of the storm that went through the Philippines.  It didn't really end up hitting us hard at all, but from what I understand it hit Palawan (where I was) and Coron (a small island near Palawan where we have Elders) pretty hard, but all the missionaries and members are okay.  That's definitely a tender mercy of the Lord. 

"Boulder fights"; Lessons From Cats; Goals From Age 10

Yep, it's that time... the time of transfers.  I'm getting transferred back to Manila!  Actually most of the Palawan Zone is staying the same, but I'm okay with getting transferred.  I could feel it was my time to go, and I'm excited for the differences in missionary work that I'll discover over in Manila - I know in some ways it will be easier, and in some ways harder.  

This week, because the chances of it being my last week on Palawan were super high, Sister Jennic and Sister Jacquiline said, "Gagawin kami boulder fights para sa inyo bago aalis ka."  "We'll do boulder fights for you before you leave."  I had no idea what that meant.  Turns out it means the traditional eating setting in the Philippines; laying out several banana leaves (in this case, on a bamboo bed they had made), laying the food on top of the banana leaves, then everyone eats with their hands.  I actually really like it a lot, and it's fun.  I still don't know what the actual word is to describe this, but it sure sounds like "boulder fights" to me, hahaha.  I was seriously hoping I'd get to see fighting boulders.  

On the same note, yesterday the Lola (grandma) of Sister Jennic, who when Sister Ordiz and I first were visiting the family was super irate and wouldn't talk to us, declared that she sees we're people of God.  Her heart really has been softened; she was die hard Catholic and mad we were visiting at first but now she really likes us.  She then said, "Because you're leaving I'm going to sing you a song."  It was in Cuyunin, the Palawan dialect, so I didn't really understand it.  It was probably a 5 or 8 minute song, sung by this 80 year old woman and I didn't know if I was tearing up because it was so funny or because I am in many ways sad to leave here.  She had a good voice actually for her age but it was just SO hilarious how soulful and fun she was with it.  Then she started singing about me being on an "aeroplane" going to "Manila" and wishing me luck in Tagalog.  That was sweet, I really appreciated it coming from her especially.

Throughout this entire transfer, we've had a family of cats that lives beneath our window right where we study every day.  Now, I have no idea how this originally happened, because it's fenced off by a very high bamboo fence.  Every day, the momma cat jumps this great distance up to the fence, and claws her way over it to get to her babies which are next to our window.  It's not in any way an easy thing, so I'm not sure how she originally did that when she was pregnant, since there's no other way to get into the fenced off area.  Anyway... every time she hops over that fence she starts trilling (specific kind of meow... man.  I'm still such a cat person) and her kittens are all SO happy to see her and... aw.  Man.  That mom cat wanted to keep her kittens safe, so even though it's very difficult for her to jump that height every time, she does it so her babies will be protected and happy.  There's a lot to learn there... I feel like when I see the examples of people here as well, I see what parents need to do more clearly as I see good (and sometimes bad) examples.  It's not easy to be a parent, but I'm confident my mission is preparing me to someday be a better one.  I am supremely appreciative for the hurculean efforts of my parents in the past to keep me on the right track, instruct, correct, and love me so that I would do what was right and be safe like those kittens.  That spiritual safety is something that I want for every single person in the entire world to experience, and I know that Christ conquered insurmountable opposition so that he could save us, the children of God.  

I've learned a lot this transfer about how important positivity is, to me personally.  Without Christ, none of what I'm doing now or anything that we ever do would be possible.  Our lives would have no purpose.  My understanding of the Atonement has grown in leaps and bounds this transfer, and I am so incredibly grateful for the eternal sacrifice that Christ saw fit to perform so each of us could have the choice to be happy eternally.

And, for fun, here are some of my goals from when I was 9 that my mom found cleaning back home and sent me.  I'm not doing too bad so far, actually.  I was actually surprised "go on a mission" was one of them at that point in my life.

1. Go to BYU Provo

2. Have 10 cats

3. Become an art teacher

4. Have kids

5. Get on a chior [sic]

6. Go on a mission

7. Heart cats even more

8. Get a drivers licence [sic]

9. read all Harry Potter books

10. Make my own flower garden

Love you all!

-Sister Larsen

In celebration of Halloween... I still don't know what these are called.  But their call is super weird sounding and they look like zombie pheasant things.  They just wander around in our area wild.  I'm gonna miss the green and fresh air here, but I know I have other things to do that the Lord sees fit for me now.

How To Begin Dating--Preach My Gospel Edition; Photos from Beach

Dear friends and family,

So, one day, after a solid day of work, us four Sisters were sitting at our kitchen table eating some food and chatting.  We were feeling kind of silly since it had been so hot and we'd done a lot of walking.  We then started talking about how hard it must be for missionaries to start dating once they get off their missions and return to "normal life."  Then Sister Jones started quoting some of the points of "How to Begin Teaching" section from Preach My Gospel (the guide all missionaries use) and altering them.  We came up with some really good ones, and I decided to go in and modify all of them cuz it was just too funny.  These will be funnier to missionaries who also know Preach My Gospel like the back of their hand, haha.

1. Because we are both part of this relationship, we are now dating.  I would like to refer to you as "girlfriend" and you to me as "boyfriend."

2. Each person has dating life challenges and concerns.  No matter what they might be my superior dating knowledge and experience can help you.

3. Our relationship will enable you to improve the quality of your life.  I will help you with the problems and challenges you will face in life.

4. Our relationship, which is centered on eternal marriage, is of great value and importance.

5. We all make dating mistakes in life, and those mistakes can create feelings of anger and confusion.  These feelings cannot be relieved without moving on.  They can be fully relieved by getting a new, better boyfriend - me.

6. My potential as your future spouse cannot be discovered all at once. Understanding will come over many dates.

7.I have weaknesses, just as everyone does. I may not always buy you flowers every day or remember your birthday every year.  But I know through personal revelation we're meant to be together.

8.I will be your guide so you can learn "we're destined to be together" for yourself.  It is your choice to accept and act on my future proposal to you.  Therefore, you should feel free to openly express your feelings of devotion. 

9. As you sincerely seek to fall in love with me, you may face obstacles, but I will help you overcome them.

10.  As you accept my proposal, you will be able to make promises to marry me.  You will learn how to make changes in your life so our dating and married life will be more perfect.You will want to follow the counsel of the Prophet to be married now and not wait until after your own mission.

Commitments:

Will you follow the example of Adam and Eve by committing to multiply and replenish the Earth?

Will you pray to know I'm the right man for you?

Will you commit to December the 21st as our wedding date?

May we set up a time for our next date?  before them, I ask you to commit to read "The Family - A Proclomation to the World."

Will you attend church with myself and my family this Sunday?

Hahahahaha.... alright.  Don't really follow these or you RM's will never get married.  But we had a good laugh about it.  

Back to real missionary work - we've had a lot of success showing "The Restoration" video to people.  That video is amazing and really helps explain the story of Joseph Smith more effectively than we (or especially myself) ever could in Tagalog.  Speaking of which, if you really wanna know what Tagalog sounds like, pop that video in and watch it on the Tagalog language setting.  Happily, I understand most of what they say on there at this point, but probably also cuz I've seen the video in English enough as well.  When our investigators watch that video, it's hilarious because they freak out about the snow (no one's ever seen it before here), the geese (the geese here look really different), they've never seen blackberries before, they say "He should use a carabou (huge ox) rather than those cows to plow his field", they love the planting and harvest of the corn (they have corn here but not very much), and in general just think it's an awesome cultural experience.  When  tell them my homeland looks a lot like New York that's shown in the video, they always think that's cool :)

That's what I've got.  transfers are in a week and a half!  We now know Sister Bechachino is training, which means I'm getting transferred - there's a high chance I'm getting transferred off of Palawan and back to Manila.  I have mixed feelings about that, but I know that all things on our missions are established by God for our best growth and service to the people in our areas!

Much love,

Sister Larsen 

Dagat = beach.  This is all the rocky area before you get to the water.  Super dang awesome. 

 

Also at the beach, I was standing calf deep in deliciously warm water.

 

All Soul's Day; A Better Place Now

My dearest friends and family,                                          written Oct. 20, 2013

 

I thank you so dearly for your prayers you have offered for me during this week. On Tuesday, at District Meeting, the opening hymn was "Abide with Me - Tis Eventide."  I couldn't handle it.  I just started crying uncontrollably, which then continued through the entire meeting even though I tried really hard to control it.  Afterwards, I asked for a priesthood blessing.  I received great comfort from the words, "Christ will be right beside you, shoulder to shoulder, and you'll feel His presence" and "You will be as steel going through a flame, and become stronger spiritually through your trials" and most especially, "The prayers of your family will be answered."  I can't tell you how much that blessing brought me the peace and comfort I needed. I now feel that I understand what is going on. The power of the Priesthood is so incredibly real.  The power of the Atonement is also something that I never think I even scratched the surface of until now when I needed Christ's love and support more than ever before. I'm happy that I have such great friends and family that love and support me - I've really felt your prayers this week.  I know all will be okay as I continue to follow Christ steadfastly and realize that sometimes we just have to accept our trials, even our hardest ones

 

Technically, Nov. first is All Soul's Day, but they celebrate Halloween and All Souls Day here.  In accordance with the title, I'll tell you a fun story.  One of the member families here, a VERY old couple who are very nice shared with us a story about the time Nay (the mom) was in the hospital.  Apparently, she was on the verge of death, and then when Tay (the dad) woke up her eyes were wide open and she wasn't breathing.  The nurse came in, shined a flashlight in her eyes, and there was no response.  They pronounced her dead.  Tay was upset, and so was his family, but after they called the morgue to pick her up Tay felt before they took her they should check one last time.  They shined the light - no response.  Then Tay started to call out to her "Nay.. nay... can you hear me?"  Somehow, she sqeaked out a small "Ehhh..."  They then checked her breath, and although she hadn't been breathing before, she suddenly was!  She received a Priesthood blessing, and literally came back to life.  I actually understood that story in Tagalog, aren't you impressed, haha? There's a lot of miracles like that which happen here.  

One day, we were supposed to travel to a further part of our area called "Bagong Liwanag."  We said to a motocab  "Bagong Liwanag" and he said, "Tara!"  Get on!  We did... and we were driven... and driven... and driven... and... I was thinking, why are we going into the city?  Our area is far out in the country.  But, as he was the driver, I assumed he knew what he was doing.  We were then the last people on the motocab and he says, "Sige, dito Barangay Liwanag..."  BARANGAY LIWANAG???  He thought we had said "town of Liwanag" but "Bagong Liwanag" is a totally different place.  We then had to catch a different motocab all the way back out of the city into the country.  Careful with those motocabs, they'll getcha every time, haha.

Yeah, that's all I've really got this week.  It's election week here, so that's pretty cool.  I totally plan on bringing home some of the sweet election fliers they have... they look like wild west "wanted" posters, haha.  

Oh, and Conference was SUPER AWESOME.  I watched the Saturday morning session in Tagalog and understood like... 20% of it.  Not enough, haha.  We watched all the other sessions in English at the other chapel.  I really really enjoyed it, there's nothing better than listening to the living 12 Apostles and the Prophet called by God.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Nakakapagpabakabag

Nakakapagpabakabag 

 

^That word has nothing to do with anything, but is awesome.  It means "guilt."   

 

 

The picture epitomizes all that I really need for happiness - a kitten and the Word of God.  Srsly.  I felt SO MUCH JOY.  I mean... yeah, maybe I'll get married eventually too.  But if I don't also have the cat and scriptures, my joy will not be full, hahahaha.

First off, we had the opportunity to have our branch president accompany us with some members to go visit less actives.  That was a novel experience, and at one point they were all telling some stories when suddenly our branch president lifts up his shirt and starts showing off weird scars on his stomach.  I didn't understand it at all, so I was just going "Uhhh... what's going on??"  Turns out he was struck by lightning and survived and he knows he was spared to do this work in the branch now.  Pretty neat!  Although when it happened, I was a lil alarmed, haha.

Also, on Monday we got a text from the mission president's wife asking if she could work with us the next day (go with us to some of our appointments.)  In my head... I was like, "AAHHH!! Why??  Panic!!"  But it all turned out okay.  Sister Stucki is one of my favorite people ever, that's for sure.  Her testimony was in English, but through translation (and the limited understanding people have here of English) all went well.  She has a powerful testimony and she really loves every single missionary in the mission, and is a huge inspiration to me.

One cool thing - if you're an American Sister and you come to the Philippines on your mission, you'll probably lose half your hair.  Apparently I'm not the only one experiencing this,so I'm not worried.  Now I won't be able to win hair floofiness contests with Deb anymore though until it grows back :(

I'll be straight with you all... this is a super hard, super stressful time in my mission.  Prayers sent my way would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for all you do, and I love you all.

Love,

Sister Larsen

 

 

"Baka" means maybe;  "baKA" means cow.

 

 

Don't Eat the Green One.

Dear friends and fam,                                written Oct. 6

So, last P-day, we went to this place we always go to eat and I ordered the same thing I always ordered - this delicious marinated chicken thing.  I was eating it, when I looked down and buried in my rice looked like something green.  I didn't think much about it and thought, "Oh, some gulay (vegetable.)"  I bit down on that bite... and my entire face erupted in flames.  NEVER EVER EVER EAT THE GREEN TINY PEPPERS.  If you come to the Philippines.. just don't.  I was crying for a good 3 minutes and my mouth was literally on fire and my body tried to make me spit it out but I wasn't gonna allow that.  True story.  Hottest thing ever.

We haven't watched General Conference (the video broadcast when our leaders speak to us from Salt Lake, including the Prophet) *yet* since we get it a week later.  We watched the Relief Society broadcast Saturday and it was awesome (and in English... all of them are in English here since people kind of understand English.  Whew.)  So, I'm super looking forward to that this weekend.  Like, a lot.  We also have Zone Meeting this week, so it's gonna be fun!!

Here's some words I came across this week - 

"pagngilngil" - whinnying

"ngisngisan" - grinning

I couldn't even have made up this language in my wildest imagination.

I caught myself speaking Tagalog in my sleep twice last night.  Good sign!

And that's all I have this week.  Short lang... I hope everyone continues to learn, progress, and love everyone.  Spread joy and hope wherever you go.  I love you all and I hope that we all continue to progress and become the best people we can possibly be, even when it's hard.

Love,

Sister Larsen

P.S. the picture is at the croc farm.  THAT CROC IS SO BIG.  That's Elder Belnap (Idaho shirt) our ZL and his trainee (now no longer trainee because of transfers) Elder Osguthorpe.  We like to have fun in our Zone!

Not really, but every time we squish into one of these motocabs with like 25 people I feel like I'm a clown getting out of a tiny car.  They are not made for medium sized Americans, that's for sure.... good times with all the District on P Day!

*Almost* Virginia but not quite.   Asian style Massanutten mountain, diba?  No?  Hahaha.  Super pretty here, forreals.

Planking on a crocodile; New favorite animal

Dear Friends and Family,                                  Written Sept. 29, 2013

I'd like to introduce you to my new companion in the picture.  Her name is Sister Bearcat and even though she's a lot smaller than me, I'm used that now since everyone's smaller than me.  I feel like she's pretty attached to me already, especially when she wraps her tail around my neck (that's a strong tail!)  She doesn't talk much but sometimes when she's mad she hisses.  That's taken some getting used to.  

Joke-lang!  This was at the crocodile farm, and for the equivalent of a dollar, we got to let this adorable bear cat crawl around on our shoulders!  There's other good pictures of that, but needless to say... I was in heaven.  Bearcats are replacing my third favorite animal, anteaters.  Naturally first are cats and dogs, but there's just nothing quite as sweet as an animal that's a cross between a bear, cat, and sloth. Maybe a raccoon or something else too.  They live here naturally, along with the crocodiles.  Haven't seen any in the wild, but maybe eventually... our areas are probably still too populated for them to want to hang around.  But yeah.  Like... sheer, unadulterated joy with that bear cat.  I want to get really really rich and then buy one as a semi-legal pet one day.

My real new companion is Sister Bechachino!  I don't have any good photos of us yet, but she's somewhat taller than Sister Ordiz but I'm still a giant.  She's already been well prepared, both out of her own efforts and her previous trainer before me.  She's helping me with my Tagalog, and is a good example to me in many ways.  I'm very happy to have her as my companion now, and I know we're going to learn a lot from each other.  It's a little rough being Senior companion since I still don't speak very good Tagalog... but the Lord is blessing me with the skills and talents I need right now to communicate and make things run *mostly* smoothly.  Before now, I was too scared half the time to really speak much in general or speak much Tagalog.  Now that I have to... well, suddenly everyone is really surprised (including myself) that the "gift of tongues" seems to be manifesting itself suddenly.  Not perfectly, as there's still a lot of times I don't know how to say things, say it wrong and they can't understand me, or I can't understand them.  But when we worked with a bunch of members the other day, they all said, "Sister Larsen!  Filipina ka na!"  (You're a Filipina already!)  

I also learned one word of the local dialect of Palawan, Cuyunin (that's probably not the right spelling.)  I was just out of curiosity asking Sister Jacqueline (our baptism last week) what some of the words were in their language, and I asked her what the Cuyunin word for "Bulaklak (flower)" is.  She said, "Burrak!"  It sounds like the Ferengie language from Star Trek to me.  So I repeated it really emphasizing the rolled "r" BURRRRRRAK!!! It's kind of my favorite word now.  We've had a lot of fun times working with members, that's for sure.

One time, we were teaching a lesson this week in a part of our area that's quite jungly.  Towards the end of the lesson, suddenly our investigator looked behind us into the garden she had behind her house, her eyes wide. We turned around and she said "ahas!!!" (Snake!)  There, slithering towards us, was this long green snake.  Her house was up on stilts so we weren't scared, but as soon as the snake saw us he reared up then slithered away quickly.  She said, "It's Satan and he's scared of the word of God" joking with us - we thought that was pretty funny.

I think that's really all I have this week.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!  Also... letters are greatly appreciated.  It's nice to feel remembered sometimes through letters, and you all have my address on Facebook if ya wanna write me.  This is probably the only time I'll say it, and props to Brooke for stickin' with it this whole time as well as Rachelle :)

Love you all!  

-Sister Larsen

We went to the crocodile farm and it was awesome!  They raise crocodiles there and there's some HUGE ones and some babies and... yeah.  But anyway, I figured when you have the chance to plank on a plaster crocodile in Palawan, you might as well take the chance.  More pictures of the crocodile farm will probably follow later when I don't have different pictures to send back home.. since we rarely are allowed to have our cameras with us.

 This was national Philippines family week so we had a lot of activities.  one of them was cleaning up a beach!  I found cool shells there too while cleaning up.  It's like.. .mind blowingly gorgeous there.  Also, I want everyone to admire my calves.  I don't know if you can tell, but because of jump roping every morning my calves are now huge and muscley and stuff.  I mean, they're certainly getting there.  Pretty proud of that, haha.  I remember when my brother came back from his mission and had huge muscled calves and for me, as a fourth grader back then, I was really freaked out why his legs were deformed.  Muscles, here I come!!

 This is a photo of myself and Sister Jacquiline at her baptism last week.  She's already been out working with us this week as our member present at our lessons!  She's amazing, and we're good friends.  She's had a hard life in some ways, but she's progressed SO MUCH just in the time we've taught her.  She really has the light of Christ in her life, and is a good example to me of changing to become closer to God.  I will definitely miss their family when I get transferred. 

"Buntis Na Ko" = Pregnant

Dear errybody,                        written Sept. 23, 2013

Not a lot of time to write this week, but next week will be awesome cuz I'll send you pictures of the Crocodile farm which we just visited.  The biggest news - I'm "pregnant" in the mission sense, because I'm about to train a new missionary.  Now, it's kind of a different situation because somehow she's already been out 6 weeks apparently so I won't be fully training her (when you train a new missionary, you become their "mom" or here in the Philippines, "nanay")  but this Wednesday I'll get to meet my new companion and I'm super excited!  It'll be hard having my nanay, Sister Ordiz, leave me, but... that's the way of mission life.  Transfer transfer.  This also means I'll probably only be on Palawan 6 more weeks unless something weird happens.  It's the Palawan pattern - trained here, follow up training (or training someone else) then leaving.  That's the main and most important news, for sure.  Pray that all will go well, even though it's going to be hard since I still don't speak the language very well.  

We were walking through Palawan State University (part of our area) and I had my hair down (a rare thing here for me.)  A student started singing a Taylor Swift song as we walked by and when we had passed by he yelled, "BYE TAYLOR!!!"  The Young Women in our ward ask me often "Sister Swift, when's your new album coming out?"  Yep.

And most importantly - baptism!  Sister Jeannic's mom (S. Jeannic works with us all the time and we baptized the second week I was on Palawan) was baptized!  We are soooo happy for her, and that she was ready for that sacred covenant with God.  She's awesome, and even though I often don't understand her cuz her Tagalog is particularly hard to understand, we're really good friends nonetheless :)

Love you all a whole lot!  If my pictures don't upload this week - sorry, there'll be a lot next week then.  We're at a different computer cafe that doesn't work very well all the time.

Look for missionary opportunities (or opportunities to help everyone around you) whenever you have the opportunity.  We definitely take service and missionary work too casually in the U.S. - or at least I know I did.  

Gniti!  Smile!  Mahal kita!  I love you!

<3 - Sister Larsen

When the Lord Commands--Do It

                                                                                                           written Sept. 15, 2013
Don't even know where to start on this one - I can't tell all the awesome stuff that happened this week because there's not enough time.  I wrote about it in my journal though, so someday maybe you'll hear the stories eventually.  I'll try to explain as many as I can briefly.

First, the random stuff.  It has been officially declared in our mission that everything but Mormon Tabernacle Choir music is "bawal" or "not allowed."  That stabbed me to the heart a little bit... since everyone knows the type of music I normally listen to at home, and how even EFY music was very far from what I'd listen to during the week.  However... I gave a talk on "exact obedience" at zone meeting last week (where they announced this) and I also recently read in the manual "Teachings of the Prophets - Joseph Smith" that Joseph Smith once said, "I made this my rule - when the Lord commands, do it."  To me, that pretty much sums it up.  Our mission President knows what our mission needs, and sometimes it may initially be hard to accept, but... there you go.  We're doing it.  Exercising to Mo Tab still feels kind of weird though, haha.

 

 

That picture attached is of us at Zone Conference (three weeks ago, I think.)  Notice anything out of place??  Hahahahahah.... still probably one of my favorite pictures ever.  There wasn't space for me so they put me smack in between some Elders.  If people don't look closely at that picture, they're gonna be super weirded out.

There's a monster here (imaginary... or is it???) called a mananangal which is a vampire... with wings... that eats fetuses while they're inside pregnant women... and at night its legs detach from its body and walk around and scare people.  Yeah.

There's cheese ice cream here.  Not too bad, actually.

To the family - I showed some of our investigators the pictures of Miles and Molly (my niece and nephew) and they said that Miles was a "joker" because of his big grin in the one picture and that he's smart too because his head is so ginormous.  Matalino - genius, haha.  And that Molly is very tiny, haha.

We taught 9 people at once in a lesson this week.  It was awesome, and the main investigator accepted a baptismal lesson.  We were super intimidated to teach at first, because it was 9 teenagers of varying ages, but  all went well and we are excited to teach them again.  We had 21 new investigators this week who are willing to have us back to teach them.  Lots of good work this week.  Seriously... here in our mission, there's so many people willing to listen (and many with real intent) that it's hard to fit everyone in we'd like to teach!

Yeah, needless to say, I'm excited for our area.  Transfers are... next week.  Soooo... that's going to be exciting, but this is very far from being a "dead area" as they say.  So many people here are willing to hear our message, and are progressing as well.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be serving now in the Manila Mission.  I know that as we expect miracles in our lives and pray for them and act so that we do every possible thing for them to happen - in our personal lives or the mission field - those things will happen that we ask for in righteousness, even if it's not in the exact way we might initially expect.

The work is good.  Stay strong, and keep your faith growing always.  The Lord has great plans for all his children we can't even begin to comprehend.

Much love,

Sister Larsen

 

[Note from Marinda's mom-- The following photos went with the previous blog post. I am reposting the explanations of the photos.  I finally figured out how to use Print Screen and Paint to save photos that aren't jpeg.  Thanks to my husband for reminding me about how to do this.]

 

 The picture is of me at FHE at Nay Montilla's, she works with us a lot and is just awesome - she keeps a record of all the missionaries that have been through the ward since 1997 when she joined.  The guy next to me is one of our investigators, he's awesome too.  I taught them how to make "french toast" my mom's way, and they were all amazed to see how american food is made.  I also cooked it in Nay Montilla's HUGE wok, which was fun.  It turned out pretty tasty, so... success.  They liked it well enough but said it was "sweet" which I find funny because every single food here in existence is sweet, pretty much.

 

 

 

The tiniest lizard of all!  (These aren't my hands - we caught him crawling on our wall in our apartment like they love to do)

The man with his hands clasped in front was our baptism.  He's so awesome!  We are so excited to have him now as a part of our branch - he and his family are so sweet and I know that this is something his family has wanted for him for a long, long time.

Kind of like Virginia... buuuut not quite.  Asian flair, forreals

Awesome road 

 

Sunset from the church - because you requested it, mom.  Most of the time the sunsets are SUPER AMAZING, like... breathtaking.  But most of the time I don't have my camera  on me.