Nothing to Say and No Time to Say It.

Written March 24, 2014

I'll be honest everyone, this has been a week with a lot of good stuff that happened but right now I don't really have the time or want to put in the effort to write it all out.  Sorry!  Next time.

Some girls in my ward came up to me on sunday and said, "Sister Larsen, you look just like Taylor Swift!"  That's just never gonna die here no matter where I am.

So yeah.  Goood thngs, I'm happy, but no time and we're going to the temple.  I love the temple, forreals.

Love you all.
Marinda

Rawr-Fierce Missionaries; Manila Bay; "Inside" Mandaluyong; New Companion; HI fivES

Written March 17, 2014. [Posted late because Marinda's mom couldn't open the photos on yahoo mail and on this dinosaur computer. ]


Since I don't have a whole lot of time this week, I'm going to explain the week in pictures.  On Monday, we had a Zone activity where we went to the Mall of Asia.  It was awesome and is the third biggest mall in the world.  I felt weird though; for the first time in my life I felt uncomfortable in a mall and didn't know what to do.  It's SO BIG.  The picture is me and Sis Taufa at a little animal play cart place.  I want that tiger in my room.

We went to Manila Bay which is right behind Mall of Asia to watch the sunset.  The sunset wasn't too exciting that night (darn it) but the ocean and huge rocks are cool.

I've been transferred to Mandaluyong!  It's super city; we're right next to the skyscrapers.  Not gonna pretend that's my favorite, but I like the ward.  We live the 'suite life' because we live in a hotel.  Not literally, but this is our apartment building, and I feel like I'm in a hotel every day pretty much.  There's a pool (missionaries aren't allowed to go swimming) and a basketball court.  I'm pumped to buy a bball today so we can be bballin' every morning for exercise, just us Sisters.  When I said I was going to Mandaluyong everyone would laugh and say, "You're going inside??"  Because here in Mandaluyong is the biggest mental hospital in the Philippines.  Makes sense I'd get sent here, no? ;D

Yeah, so on my second day here when we came home my arms started itching really bad.  About 20 minutes later I broke out in some awesome hives on half of each arm and leg.  This was the second day after I'd taken some medicine... my left arm was all swollen and lumpy and it was awesome in a WHAT'S HAPPENING way.  I have no idea what I"m allergic to, but obviously I"m allergic to something.  Right now it's mostly gone away and it just looks like I had some chicken pocks recently. I won't be sad if this doesn't happen again... two nights of no sleep from scratching it wasn't so fun.

Me and Sister Disoloila, from Fiji, washing clothes for a member as a service project.  Sister Disoloila is pretty awesome, I think if I get lucky I might just have Polynesian companions the rest of my mission, haha.  Fun fact - her cousin was my first companion in the MTC, also from Fiji.  

I have a lot of stuff I have to do to help the area now, so no time to write a real solid email this week.  Love everyone!  Do your best and give your whole heart and purpose to God and you will overcome challenges and be truly, deeply, happy.

Love,

Sister Larsen

P.S. I was looking through the ward records one day and saw there's a street here called, "Backside Street."  I laughed so hard about that.  Although people speak some hardcore Taglish here, that doesn't mean they really get all the connotations and meanings of words in English!

Yay! Vampire Cockroaches!

March 9, 2014
So, for starters, the Philippines has all kinds of unexpected things.  One morning this week I woke up with something itching on my leg.  I just figured it was yet another mosquito bite and let it go.  Then, I looked at it... and about a baseball sized portion of my leg had turned white and gotten kind of hard with a red raised spot in the middle.  Concerned, I asked Sister Gabut who lives with us about it (she's a nurse) and she said, "Oh, that's a cockroach bite."  Some of the members later told me that there's some cockroaches here that specifically like to bite people and essentially suck their blood.  Yay!  This is why I'm not allowed to donate blood for ten years after I go back to the U.S. haha.  It's fine now and went away, but I don't want to think of how many diseases I probably have now.

Sister Stucki worked with us again last week, which was super awesome.  I feel pretty honored since she's worked with me twice now on my mission, and she really adds a lot to the lessons, especially when we teach people who speak more English.  I really appreciate the leadership of Sister and President Stucki.

For those of you who know me really well, I've always had a habit of gasping really loud whenever I get really excited about something or really happy suddenly. Sister Taufa is not used to this yet, and I give her a heart attack every time.  I always laugh so hard when she jumps and I see her shocked face, haha.  I'm gonna miss her, especially since I'm transferring this Wednesday.  :(  Don't know where I"m going yet, but I'm happy for the time I've had in Paranaque 1st ward.  This truly has been the happiest part of my mission so far in part because of the great support from the ward.  I'm gonna miss a lot of the people here.  The picture is of me and Sis Taufa in the shirts I had made for us.  Pretty legit.

I've noticed something - missionaries who serve stateside, their English gets better and better throughout their missions in their letters.  Missionaries who learn a language - their ability to write eloquently decreases gradually throughout their whole mission.  I almost spelled "commandments" with a "k" this week because there's not a "c" in TAgalog.  It'll be aight, but sorry if my letters sometimes don't seem very deep.  I have about a bajillion things on my mind and when I think about our investigators it's hard for me to really come up with anything profoundly insightful every week to share.  However... rest assured, my mission is teaching me a great deal about service and perservering in a righteous cause and enduring to the end.  And enjoying to the end.  Good things come to those who press forward with hope and an eye single to the glory of God.

Love you all

Sister Larsen

"Buhok" means hair in Tagalog. this is for a hair salon. As an advertising major, this sign made me super duper happy.

Hulk. Smash.

So some exciting stuff happened this week.  Last preparation day, when Sister Taufa and I were out in the laundry room washing our clothes, a common occurrence happened - the difference in air pressure in the house with the two upstairs doors opened caused the laundry room door to slam really hard.  We're used to this, but I had just finished my laundry so I went to go open the door again and leave.  I turned the handle... nothing happened.  I turned it again harder - nothing.  Again - nothing.  We were locked out.  When the door slammed, it somehow automatically locked us out.  I started jiggling it, etc, but nothing happened.  We had other stuff to do that day, and that door was locked.  Sister Taufa didn't really seem to care, but after 5 minutes of trying to open it I got frustrated and purposefully broke the handle.  That didn't work.  Then I took the one opportunity I'd ever maybe have in my whole life to do this and aimed my shoulder into the door and ran.  It worked, the door popped open,and I felt like I was in a movie.  The other Sisters who live with us walked in the door downstairs just as I crashed through on the second floor door.  No obvious damage to the door--it works... okay now. That's what happens with all the not super great construction here, hahaha. My streak of breaking things appears to be continuing in this apartment as well, although not too badly this time.

Another note... last night as we were planning we heard something running around in our ceiling.  It sounded big and the ceiling was creaking and I was concerned whatever it was was about to fall through and eat us.  Okay, "concerned" really means that I and Sister Taufa ran out of our room screaming and finished up our planning in the hallway.  It sounded like it was probably a big rat like they have here.

For one of our investigators who has a problem with chain smoking, we decided to do the addiction recovery plan the Church came out with based on the program of Alcoholics anonymous.  As we started, Sister Taufa and I decided to give something up too while our investigator is overcoming his addiction.  I gave up chocolate.  I'm not going to eat any until our investigator stops smoking... or, perhaps, until I get transferred and I don't know if he's stopped or not.  However, 2 weeks without chocolate in any form now.  Success.  Sister Taufa gave up soft drinks.We're excited for his willingness to change his life, although he's been smoking for a very long time.

Everyone here has started calling me "Foreinai,"  especially in our new area the Elders just gave us.  There's some show here called that where they have foreigners read stuff or sing stuff or do Filipino things or in Tagalog for entertainment.  One random man came up to us, read my nametag one day, and said in Tagalog, "You should go on Foregnai."  And walked away.  The more popular that show gets, the more I'm probably going to get that yelled at me as we walk around.

Hey.  You all are the best.  I love you and stay awesome!  Keep it cool... it's about 90 degrees here every day and you have snow in Virginia.  

Love,

Sister Larsen

This is a ward missionary and I.   I bought a skirt that matches a dress she had, and I told her to wear it so we'd be matching. 

Mawaige is What Bwings Us Togeddah Twoday

Dear Friends and Family,

Let me tell you.  Sometimes, persistence, faith, and love all combine to make good things happen.  That's one of the biggest things I've learned here in Paranaque - if people have some problem or obstacle why they can't be baptized, especially if they want to but there's some external problem, then we as missionaries must do all in our power and especially in God's power to help them overcome it.  

  I hope to be the kind of person who "makes things happen" according to faith and love for these people and of course with their agency to choose.  When missionaries just do missionary things, then they can't very well expect their investigators to change their lives.  When missionaries change their hearts to do missionary work because they love it and want it, then miracles happen.  It involves a lot of pushing and pulling and working on our faith, but as we do so, it will happen as we work on our own faith and those investigating the Church strengthen their own faith.  I've definitely seen miracles from that, especially in families where one of the spouses was a member and the other wasn't.

On a different note - I learned the Tagalog word for "goat" - "kambing" way before I learned the tagalog word for "twin" - "kambal."  One day, I was talking about some twins in a nice family we're teaching.  I said, "Opo, ang mga kambing nagsimba noon Linggo!"  I meant to say, "Yeah, the two twins went to church last Sunday!"  But I accidentally said the two goats went to church last Sunday.  The ward missionary I said it to had a good laugh with me about it, haha.

On a more reflective note - there's another huge thing I've learned on my mission so far. These are the reflections of a missionary at her "halfway" point which I just hit last week.  I realized for real how important it is to use time wisely in my life.  Before, I didn't do a great job of that.  I just did whatever seemed good but wasted a whole lot of time in my daily life.  Seeing how much we do every day as missionaries, I know a lot more is possible, and I wasn't really living up to my potential.  When I eventually return, I now have the tools to know how I must spend my time more wisely to really accomplish the Lord's purposes for everyone - myself included.  Wasting time on the computer or whatnot is easy, but not really why we're here on this earth.  On that note, it says in Alma 34:32 - "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for man to perform their labors."  I've taught that about 100 times to different people here in the Philippines, but I got some personal revelation that I really need to do that in real time to myself here on my mission and after I return.  We've only got one mortal life, so we had better use our short time wisely and make it productive and meaningful, not just "hayahay" or hang out.

I hope we can all recommit every day to have greater discipline and focus in our lives on the things of eternal value and worth, and check ourselves each day as to what we're doing with our lives.  There's a lot of important questions we have to ask ourselves, and I know that laying plans hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly make for successful lives in a way I never really recognized before.

Hey.  I love you all.  Make good, worthwhile plans.  Do whatever that thing is that you know you should do but have been putting off for a while.  Serve others with real love in your hearts and receive true, lasting joy.

Much love,

Sister Larsen

I'm super pumped about a wedding I attended this week, in part because I love the family so so much. 

Boddlefies!  We ate off of banana leaves again in the little province area of our area at an FHE we had.  It was awesome.  I love eating with my hands so much. Especially rice.

I hope I don't get transferred, but I probably will.  I love this ward so much.