"And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the Earth."  Tag - ulan.  Rainy season.  I now know what it feels like to be Noah.  The following picture is of Sister Ordiz, my companion, at the BEGINNING of the week, before it torrentially downpoured all week. 

 You can probably guess what our area looks like now, haha.  It's okay though, I consider every day an adventure as we slosh through huge puddles halfway up our calves with no idea what's hiding in the murky depths.

Sometimes, in my dreams, our investigators and members speak English to me and I understand everything they say and speak to them freely.  And then I wake up and remember I still need to learn the language.  It's coming though... slowly... but I am noticing improvement in my understanding.  Speaking is getting better too.  I'll get there someday.

Here's a super funny story - my first "hilarious word mis-understanding" story.  So, we were in Relief Society on Sunday and during the lesson, someone said in English, "Chismis never faileth!"  So, being familiar with the citation from the scriptures "Charity never faileth" I assumed that "chismis" meant "charity."  So I wrote it down in my little book where I write down words I"m learning.  

Later in the week, I decided to be cool, and during daily planning when Sister Ordiz and I were deciding what Christlike attributes we were going to work on for the next day, I suggested, "Diligence, Faith, and... Chismis."  She said, "What??"  And I said, "Chismis, or Charity."  She laughed for about 10 minutes and said, "Who told you it meant charity?? It means gossip!!!"  Hahahahahahahahahaha.  Classic.  I totally would have used "chismis" in a lesson about charity too, if it hadn't been caught earlier.  To quote the member - "Gossip never faileth,"  hahahahah.

I have never been so popular with children in my whole life.  All the little girls here seem to think I'm some cross between a Barbie and a Disney Princess.  They come up and literally cling to me, or try to talk to me in Tagalog and I just look at them mystified, but they don't seem to mind and keep on talking anyway.  They are SO cute.  I"m pretty sure Filipino kids are significantly cuter that caucasian children except the ones that are related to me (that's for you, Miles and Molly.)  I want to speak Tagalog SO badly so I can communicate with them because they are so sweet and seem to want to be around me so much.  I can honestly say I've never had such an appreciation for kids before, since I was never around them very much throughout my life.  That's probably one of those blessings from being on a mission - a bigger appreciation for the innocence and happiness of kids.

Here's a story of great restraint.  One day, Sister Ordiz and I were walking down the street to catch a tricycle to our area.  As we walked, two tiny black kittens no bigger than my hand scampered over to us and began to follow us.  When we stopped to hail a trike, they began to play around my feet.  Now, it is a rule that we are not supposed to pet stray animals in the mission.  I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever in my memory been so tempted to do something that I wasn't supposed to do.  I wanted to PET THOSE KITTENS.  But somehow, somehow, I resisted.  They were just... so... fluffy.  And adorable.  Ah.  The temptation was great.  But I resisted.  So then, another lady walked by us and then across the street.  But the kitten followed her!  I thought it was toast, but he was fine.  The lady then got onto a motocab, which is a bus which sits about 3 feet off the ground.  She got on, and the tiny kitten tried to jump up ONTO THE MOTOCAB to follow her on!  It jumped 3 times, and 3 times it fell backwards.  I wish I had gotten a video of that.  It was so adorable.  Then it crossed back over the road, but it was fine.  Whew.  Man I still love me some cats and dogs.

Yep, well, that's all I've got this week specifically.  Things are going well - we're working hard to find new people to teach that will really progress and keep commitments to reach scriptures and go to church.  I hope all is going well with everyone back home.  I love you all!  Stay strong in the faith and remember - the Atonement of Christ is always there to strengthen, enable, and cleanse us, if we sincerely seek Christ with penitent hearts.

Much much love,
Sister Larsen

P.S. I now know our area and know where people live.  I thought that might never happen, since there aren't street names and a lot of our area is jungly.  But yay!  It happened.


Some missionaries in our district, we ate at the District Pres's house today - masarap!  Delicious!

Sister Jeannic (my first baptism) and Odie, probably the cutest baby ever who belongs to the members whose house we ate at.
Tuko.How to cook on a fire.  The inside of a member's home, their daughter, and the stove and fire they used to cook Puto (and their other food). 
 
 

So, Puto is my favorite thing here.  It's essentially - sweetened rice flour in cakes.  So we had FHE at a member's home and they made it the real Filipino way.  Super delicious, super fun!