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.