Week 23

so here is like some things that I came up with to make my mission better

JUST OWN IT!

be a missionary! act like you have been speaking whatever language you are learning for years, and act like you have been a missionary all your life, if you do that the blessings just flow! all the other missionaries thought I was much older than I am and the investigators took me much more seriously too.  DONT BE SHY!

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND!

just know how long you will be serving, it helps with whatever your facing. all the crap you deal with is only for 15 more months. and you only have 15 more months to serve our lord so you cant waste anytime. so get going! 

"don't let thoughtlessness and ignorance put us into the error of assuming that the fathers foreknowledge as to what can be, determines that such must be." this is a quote from James E Talmage that explains our choices matter in everyday life and we must choose carefully and have the spirit with us. As a missionary I have to make choices to make sure I will help anybody who wants to come closer to Christ! That's why missionaries callings are so important. I know that this will continue after my mission and I will kick butt AMEN!

Monday! so we stayed inside cause we were still sick heheh...

Tuesday. we went out to work and came home around 6ish cause we were stilll sick heheh.

Wednesday. we had Zone tour, that is when like a third of the missions missionaries gather and have a small congregation to talk about the work. I met missionaries from mindoro and other places it was really cool! 

Thursday. we tried to work but got super sick again..... haha lol so annoying satan is a bobo

Friday. we were studying and the power went out and it was suuuuper hot all day.

Saturday. we worked all day! I"m finally getting over this sickness I can feel it. We had a bunch of good lessons and helped a lot of people. 

Sunday. We had church, and a good lesson with Jacob (the one kid who I took the selfie with) 

all in all boring week

the hobbit made my week though, that book is fantastic, I read the whole thing and Im reading it again. It defs wrecked my soul when Thorin Oakenshield died even though I knew it was gonna happen.

Did I mention that we live on top of a dental care facility. I hear screams every now and then

Week 22

Oh boy. what a week. hahah

Monday. we had a zone p-day at a zoo nearby! It was pretty cool but there were only like 4 animals.  They were exotic so the foreigners really liked it but not so much the locals.

 Tuesday. We went out and taught some lessons and my companion got a head ache so he called the mission pres and we got to sleep early. WOO!

Wednesday. so we planned on doing exchanges with the cuenca elders on Monday night to Tuesday night. but they cancelled (didn't know they could do that) so it switched and surprised us on Wednesday night.

Thursday. we had exchanges on Thursday, the office elders would supposed to come and bring our supplies but they didn't show up until 3 hours later so we just hung out at the house. when they did they didn't bring any supplies....just my package. so I guess that was a plus. when we finally went out we went proselyting and found this grave yard. it was creepy cause graveyards are different here. not all bury in the ground just in like cement coffins. some were broken open and you could see the corpses.....lol hahahah

Friday. Me and my companion went to Matala and just did a lot of talking to people and taught one lesson to an investigator who has been investigating for 8 years. It was a good lesson.

Saturday was a normal day until around 6 pm, I felt my stomach churn and burn so I told my comp we are going home and I had an LBM (loose bowel movement) and vomited until the morning after when it was time for church. I didn't know I had so many fluids in me. and I wonder if I lost any weight. 

Sunday. I had 3 more LBMs within like 2 hours. I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday. and I put trust in the lord and went to church.  I sat next to the bathroom the whole time then nothing. but after I just felt achy and had a fever and had more LBMS the rest of the day. and now I'm here with it still hahah! 

Goodbye I love you guys, make sure to pray for me.

Week 21

Monday! We had a district PDay and went to play at a park! Ut was super fun and I was with my whole district! I and one other sister were the only Americans so obviously we talk the most cause we have the most in common but they all think we like eachother lol.

Tuesday. Was a normal proselyting day and we went out at 1 and walked and preached until 9 we found a lot of new investigators so that's good. 

Wednesday. we had our zone training meeting and our mission president was there so it was especially good. He is fantastic! We went to meet one of our recent converts cause her mom is sick so we could give her a blessing. she was trally freaking out so I told her to call the ambulance she had no idea what that was. 

Thursday. We went to this place in the "squatters" Its suuuper ghetto. During one lesson the father left to beat up this random guy who knocked over their chicken coop or something, there is a lot of drugs and stuff but good investigators. hahaha pray for me! haha of course the spirit wont let anything happen to me I'm too valuable to him, but if I am disobedient then I will probably get screwed haha after that we watched a local volleyball game and talked to some people and then I did laundry. I hate doing laundry here.

Friday. We opened this new area, we have never been there before so we talked to over 40 people and got a bunch of return appointments. 

Saturday. We had a fantastic lesson. the gift of tongues is real I poured my heart out to this investigator and he cried, it was so cool.

Sunday. We had a good day at church. then after we taught a lot of good lessons and I ate dinner at someones house, it was Ramen on Rice.......lol Im gonna get so fat here.

I miss Jimmy Fallon and music, music by far is the thing I miss the most here after family and friends of course.  Frick I miss Isabelle and her posse, they are all the best.  I miss the mountains and looking at them. We are decorating our apartment since there is no Halloween here or thanksgiving. Christmas here starts in September

Love Elder Yarro

Week 20

Monday. I had finally memorized the ASL alphabet cause I got super bored hahah. other than that just a normal tracting day.

Tuesday. Finished our long day at work and finally received our support so we celebrated by eating at this nice restaurant.

Wednesday. We had our district meeting and my district is awesome! I love these people! and did laundry.. out of a bucket again hahahaha woo!

Thursday. we spent all day cleaning and getting organized then we met our new neighbors they are 4 lesbians and they are super nice! We ended the day by going on exchanges with the cuenca elders.

Friday. I had an exchange in cuenca all day. that was really fun, I got to meet new members!

Saturday. Was a another day to just go and work, it was also market day. that's when the palegke is suuuuuper busy and has all kinds of stuff so I got to buy peanut butter! woo!  There are 150 baptized members here and only are 30 active the missionaries that were here before us were terrible and did some pretty bad things so no one in the branch trusts missionaries and pasaway so Ive been slowly being my friendly self and building it again.  After the long day we were just beginning to sleep and the power went out which means the fans died, I moved my bed by the front door and slept with no blanket or shirt, it was like that pretty much all night.

 Sunday. we had a normal church day. It was fast and testimony meeting which was fun and hard because we got no sleep or food hahah we were dying but we stayed strong!

Week 19

Not too much happened just got transferred to a new area. this is Ibaan area. Lipa about an hour from my first area.

Monday. Had my last family home evening in Tayabas and I was kind of sad, I will miss all of my friends I've made and helped there.

Tuesday. Had my last District meeting in Lucban, I will miss having Elder Naylor as our DM and all of our district they were boss. I also finished the BOM my first time in, and got a super dope blanket as a present from this family.

Wednesday. My last day in Tayabas, we went around and taught lessons and I said goodbye to everyone I got lots of letters.

Thursday. Transfer Day I left to Ibaan met my new companion Elder Mumuad (ironic right) 

Our current house really sucks, no gas to cook. no water filter. and its dirty as balls. I was told that  the apartment reflects the area. they were right.....

hes fun he likes to play dota and is a convert to the church, he wants to get into coding after his mission,  he's Filipino. and Ilicano, which means he's from way up north by the ocean, he is the district leader which means we will be traveling a lot and he goes home in January. He is an amazing cook so I'm getting him to teach me to cook some good dishes. I'm excited to use my Filipino skills to cook food like a poor person to save a lot of money.  Right now its just ramen cause we are super broke until payday because of transfers. thats okay though I will need as much food as I can get. I could get rice and a chicken and get it to last me about a week then I just mix veggies in.

 Friday. we spent all day planning and cleaning and getting organized to get this area up and running again.

Im stoked cause it flushes...but there is no seat, its really teaching me how to poop in the woods

We happen to live next to a computer shop so I can still email regularly, sad to see my old game room getting torn down, I miss that old place, lots of games and jokes and kisses shared in that room

Tell Dad I am praying everyday chance I get for him. I fast for him too. Gene does too. He told me he has dreams about dad all the time hahahahaha

Saturday. we had a visitor his name is Rico he just got baptized and he had a concern he told us about so we really got to help him out. 

Sunday. This is a branch not a ward so its much smaller and no building just a meeting house, but the people here are rad. This is more of a rural area than the last so we walk like 5 miles a day.

There is definitely potential here and I'm stoked to make it work. I know the Lord put me here for a reason and I'm excited to help people come unto Christ.

Week 18

Monday. We had family home evening and played a game where you write on a piece of paper and everyone tries to guess who wrote it. I lost because I'm so different from all the Philippines

Tuesday. We had district meeting in Lucban, then after found this Italiano restaurant that had some pretty good calzones.  I started getting a sore throat as we started working, Satan is a BOBO

Wednesday. Started getting sicker and sicker, we met this RCLA who went to the hospital because he had heart problems and no one in the church visited him so he got super hurt about it and left the church. We told him that the people didn't know because he didn't text them. but he wouldn't have it.  We also had another good lesson with our new member JUN he was struggling a bit so we gave him a blessing and he said he wanted to bless the sacrament this weekend so that was awesome. 

Thursday. One of our investigators kind of went missing, last thing we heard was that she was taking care of her boyfriends mother at this house, that was like 3 weeks ago so we went out to find her. After a few questions and really good revelation filled guesses we found the house and we found the place she was staying at. She was surprised to see us and we told her that God cares about her and she needs to come to church and prepare to be baptized, it was a good lesson. That night we had an exchange, this time I was with elder Jalova who is my batch. We were in the manilla mtc together. and I'm going to Lucban for the day. When I showed up they were in the middle of fiesta! Imagine a rave but more Spanish. so fun.

Friday. Had exchanges I helped and taught a lot of lessons to people and it was just a good day. a nice change of pace from normal things. 

Saturday. we baptized 5 people. 4 kids and one nanay. I did my first baptism ordinance it was really fun but I was nervous and ended up doing it really good so that's dope. Then right after I changed my clothes I received a call from the AP That I will be transferred this Thursday to IBAAN LIPA. I was sad at first cause I feel like the work here isn't done, but that's okay, the lord knows whats best. 

Sunday. the ward had me give a small testimony cause I was leaving so that was fun. I just said thank you for everything and they all felt the spirit. then we taught kisha and she is back to progressing. she said she wanted a temple marriage and her boyfriend isn't best for her.

Wish I could have been at Grandmas funeral, it was so pretty. I hope it wasn't too sad, shes in a happier place and in a years time she will experience joy that she could never imagine! (but maybe that;s just the missionary in me) it is sad and change sucks sometimes, but look at it this way, after we are all sealed. its just like a small break, you will see her again. Glad my cutout made it though

Keeping it real out here in west phillies. love you all see you next week!

Elder Yarro

 this is my exchange and pday with elder naylor who is soooo funny 

Week 17

Monday.  zone pday. had a lot of fun games and played mafia. 

Tuesday. had zone training meeting we talked to this lady about her fasting and she had a vision from god so that was weird.

Wednesday. we had just a long day of work.

Thursday. was a normal day and had weekly planning

Friday. we had to talk to a investigator and talked him into not stabbing his family with a knife. yea....that kid was weird.

Saturday. we cleaned the baptism font and had interviews at the church. I played volleyball with all the kids while they went down. That night was junes batpism, my first baptism!  We had lots of fun I gave a spiritual workshop about testimonies and it was really good.

Sunday. we had church and I saw a cat carcass. 

This is Jun, our first baptism, hes great! It's funny because for the last 5 years there were only sisters in this area, and the last baptism was 8 months ago. They were all averaging about one a year. We are here now and we had 1 last sat and 5 this coming sat. lol elders rule!

Next time Tanner asks you where I am, tell him that I'm out saving lives in a country further than he was in his mission. I calculated and its 10,000 kilometers away! SCIENCE!!!  hahahah lol

I will most likely be transferred soon,  I could go anywhere in the mission. my trainer says I'll probably go to another zone and be partnered with a leader of some kind, then after be like a zl or dl on a island which would be cool. I would love to be on an island,  I feel I could help there the most, president says he sends missionaries there who he trusts can handle the situation, cause he can't go there often.

There are spiders everywhere, I hate it cause my companion always chases me with them. screw that noise!

Love Elder Yarro

Week 16

no letter from Nick, the internet was down