Part of her area

A water buffalo with tons of flies! :P

A bridge made from bamboo

February 2, 2014

Happy Birthday to Daddy and Ber-Ber! Yay, another year older. Hope you do something fun. I don't really know what else to say about that.
And yes we have had a lot of rain lately. The big downpour was at night, right after we got home. It was raining earlier, but hadn't down-poured yet. We passed by the Elders on the way home and they had forgotten their umbrella. Poor guys, soaking wet. haha. I was joking with them saying that they had to plan in their proselyting attire (because President said so) so they weren't allowed to change. We got a text that night saying that they did, they planned in their soaking wet clothes. haha. But anyway, the downpour. It was soooo loud. It's hard to hear each other because all you can hear is the pounding of the rain. It's like a shower is on outside. A really big shower. I'm so glad it wasn't while we were out though, we would have been soaked.
I think the rain affected our drains though, because our water smells like rotten eggs. It's so gross. I couldn't take a shower in it because it was too gross, but I still needed to wash my hair. So I just filled up a bucket from the sink and washed my hair outside. It reminds me of camping. It's so weird that that's my way of life now. 

So this week we met a kid that's 22 and is sooo nice. He was so receptive to our message and wanted to learn more. He's looking for the truth and is just perfectly golden. Yeah, until we talk with him again and he tells us all about his past. He was a part of a really bad gang here where he smoke, drank, did drugs, slept with girls, and killed someone. He KILLED SOMEONE! Great, so now I've met a murderer. And we found out that that whole group of guys that we teach here and there were all part of the same gang. But they are so nice and I can't imagine them doing anything like that. So we're going to talk to President to see what we should do. They're not a part of the gang anymore and seem to have changed. They want something good in their lives and say they feel a weight lifted when we talk to them. So maybe they'll be like Alma the Younger and his gang and turn into awesome missionaries. 

This week we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders (equivalent to Zone Leaders but for the Sisters). I got to go over to the other area and it was so cool. So my area is just houses, nothing cool. But they have fields and rivers and water buffalo and hills and bridges and rocks to jump across the river and yeah. It was so fun. I'll see if I can send a couple pictures. But that's the real Philippines! 

Hmm, what else? Did you know that we live off of around $40 each week? Crazy that we can live off of just that every week. So I found out the Filipinos missionaries pay around 1000 pesos each month for their missions (I think) So when I did the conversion of $400 x 44 = 17,600 pesos (because they wanted to know) It blew their mind that we were paying that much. It's just so crazy when you convert the money here. Anyway, that was random.

I really can't think of anything else that exciting. Um two birds flew into our apartment earlier today and freaked Sister Ludwig out. She hates everything that's living. And yeah, that's all. I'm going to send pictures now! Love you all so much!

-Sister Watkins

The note a man gave Julie

January 19, 2014

Wow, what a week. Not really, same as the others. Still cold, but only because I've adjusted to the weather now and like low 70's is freezing. haha. But I'm good, I just use my blanket during studies. When we go out and move around I'm fine. I hope Grandma will be okay. I'm glad Dad and Ryan were able to give her a blessing. There's a less active here that reminds me of Ryan. We're trying to help him get to the bishop so he can go back to the temple. But because he reminds me of Ryan, I've been able to teach him a different way than the other missionaries and he actually came to church. Bishop kind of gave up on him but I'm not. He's been less active for five years now and is just so sad. He's so awesome too - return missionary, strong testimony. It's time to get him out of whatever he's in. 

Anyway, story time: So I forgot to tell you this story last week because I think Psychologically my mind didn't want to remember it (Emily, you'll learn about that later). So yeah. Here goes. So once upon a time there was this awesome investigator that came up to us and said "Can you teach me? For my New Year's Resolution I want to become a member of your church. I was taught when I was younger and just know it's true." We were like "awesome, yeah, we'll just prepare you for baptism and you can get baptized at the end of this month." So we teach him all the lessons, he goes to church, we take him family home evening, he's golden. But at the same time a little creepy. He's like in his 40's and has a tattoo on his forehead that I don't know what it means but okay. And his wife left him so he's a little sad over that. And he has a weird belief in angels and keeps calling us missionaries angels, so we're like, that's weird, but whatever, we'll just qualify him for baptism. And then he started asking where we lived, so we just said the city. Then he asked how far away Oregon is from Utah because he has family in Oregon and he found out it was driving distance. After he found that out he told us he just received an answer to one of his prayers. And we're like awesome, what was it? (The Book of Mormon is true? Joseph Smith is a true prophet? etc. what we were thinking) But he's like no, just something I've been praying for for a long time. So the next day we go visit, and he give me this letter. He said they were a list of scriptures he looked up and wants me to find and read, but as soon as I saw that piece of paper I knew that's not what it was and had a bad feeling about it. Yeah. So I made Sister Dequina read it, because I was too scared to. Pretty much, ew, so gross, pretty much I'll just send you an attachment of a picture of the letter. He pretty much confessed his love for me and said that he received an answer from God that he has sent me here to be his wife and I'm not allowed to marry anyone else. So I marched right back up to his house and set it all straight. I had to right then or else I would have to tell President and be transferred. I was pretty dang bold when I said, in English because he speaks English that "I am a representative of Jesus Christ serving a mission here in the Philippines to declare repentance unto these people so they can be baptized and receive eternal life. This is extremely inappropriate and is definitely not from God. We can send the Elders to you to continue to prepare for baptism if you have a testimony that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth." He said no, he doesn't want to see any Mormons anymore and didn't have a testimony. So he was lying the whole time. So I just told him that unless he follows the example of Jesus Christ and gets baptized and endures to the end he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That's why we're here, there's nothing else that's important. So yeah, that was the story. We canceled his baptism and I haven't seen him since because he hides in his house now. Ha what a life here in the Philippines. Already been engaged to. To a gross old man whose kids are older than me. 

Story number two: So last week, on P-Day, because we were going grocery shopping I took my bigger bag that has been sitting in the corner for a couple of weeks. So we're sitting on the jeepney, I'm minding my own business, and I see a little ant on my skirt. It looks like a baby spider but Sister Dequina said it was an ant so it was an ant. And I'm like, gross, and flick it off. Then I see it again. "Wow, that's awkward, I missed it." So I flick it off again. Then I see it again. "Ok that is one fast ant" Then I see another and I'm like "Oh crap, there's never just four ants. There's either one or a million." So I'm like "where are they coming from and why are they by me?" So then I look at my bag and jackpot. There were some wrappers in the pocket that the ants could smell. I'm like "crap, crap, crap, I have to carry this bag with me and there's a million ants in the pocket." The the other Filippinos in the jeepney see what's going on and they just laugh at me. "Don't leave food in your bag" they said. And I didn't, it was just the wrapper. So I put my bag on the floor and tried to shake it so they'd all come out, which worked, but they didn't get off my bag, just came out of the pocket. So finally I just covered my hand with my jacket and spent some time smashing all of them. It was gross. And not my jacket has ant guts all over it. I spent the rest of the day smashing them each time I found a new one. But ants aren't that bad to me anymore. They're everywhere. We just live with them now. Just earlier this week the sugar ants came out of our plug and found our table where there were a few crumbs. Thousands of them set up a line and had a whole line of ants from our table to the plug. We finally threw our table cloth away and killed all the ants. But they keep just showing up. They also found our sugar and made a line to that. One day I'll take a picture of them so you can see. At least they don't bite like the red ones. 

story number three: (hopefully these don't bore you and are fun to read) So for this month our new zone goal is to find 18 new investigators each week. Yeah right! So pretty much we find people, ask if we can pray for them, try to slip in a short message, and ask if we can pray again before we leave and visit again. That counts as a new investigator. So the other day we were really forcing it. She did not want to talk to us, she said she was really busy, but Sister Dequina kept going. We shared a short message about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Restoration and asked to pray again. But before we prayed again she just broke out crying. Who knows why. So we just told her how much we love her and she kept crying. Her neighbor says she has no family and no one talks to her, so it probably meant a lot that we stopped to talk to her. It was so crazy because I thought we were pushing it. We were forcing this message. But it totally worked because she wants us to come back. You never know who needs to hear a short message about the Savior. 

So I think that's all the stories. But some other fun and random stuff as always: I had crab last night. It was so good. But they always just laugh at me because I'm more awkward than they are at eating it. I thought I did a pretty good job. I'm just glad I like seafood and have had it before. I feel so bad for all the missionaries who hate the food here.

Sister Grohse (in our apartment) got a new companion and she hates the food here. She was really hard to get used to at first. Very American and loud and mean and annoying. And a CLEAN FREAK. She is obsessed with organization and keeping everything clean. The first thing she did when she got here was ask us how we could live like such pigs. I thought our house was clean. But she can't stand even dust or a hair on the ground. So yeah. But I'm getting used to her now and it's all okay. It was just hard for all of us at first because she just had this attitude that she was going to change this whole area and she was the answer to what they needed to fix it. At least I'm leaning a lot from them so I don't accidentally do the same thing if I get transferred. 

Ok, so last couple of things before I have to leave, what do the garlic pills do? Other than keeping mosquitos away, what is their supplemental purpose. Like is it an immune system thing, a weight gaining thing, it would be good to know. And second, so they only way to keep my acne away is taking Doxycline, which is what I used to take when it got worse in High School. Is there any way to send me more? I haven't run out yet so don't worry if you can't, but if there's no way, then I want to save what I have in case I need it for something else. But every time I get a new zit all the members are like "Sister, are you okay? Are you stressed? Is your immune system okay? What's wrong?" Then they point to where it is and I'm like "no no, weather lang." ahahah because everyone blames everything on the weather right now. Too funny. Anyway, that's all. I hope you all are doing great. The engagement photos are so cute. I wish I could be there! But I'm so excited for the wedding! Anyway, I love you all. I'm going to try to send a picture of that letter and the baptism we had this week (my first one from meeting them all the way through), then I'm going to continue my P-Day while you all sleep! love you!

-Sister Watkins

Their house spider named "Harold". Supposedly harmless

Julie and her companion studying by candle light

January 12, 2014

Hello Everyone!

This week was great. Sister Dequina has been out so long she knows how to organize everything and make sure we get people ready for baptism. Before, Sister Nielson and I were tying to take care of everyone at the same time. And that didn't really work. Now we have a baptism this Saturday! An old lonely man that came up to us a month ago and asked us what we were doing. He looked and acted a little weird, so we didn't know if he was special needs or not (he lives in Home for the Blind, which has a lot of special needs) so we just gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet. The next time we saw him he taught us all about what he learned from the pamphlet and committed to live it, and he has ever since. We walked him to church that Sunday and has attended ever since. There's a recent convert that has fellowshipped him. It's awesome. But I think that recent convert had been praying for a friend because no one fellowshipped him at church he always walks to church by himself and sits by himself. But we now found a friend for him! He's really excited for his baptism. We also have two families that we're teaching that we're really excited about. It's hard to find full families to teach. But they're really receptive and interested.

So this week has been FREEZING!!! What is this? The ice age again? I have to carry my blanket around the apartment because it's so cold. And if it's cold for me, the Filipinos here are just dying. They are all getting sick - they're not used to this weather. They've never experienced weather this cold before. The worst part is the water. Because the nights are so cold now, the water in the morning for showering is FLIPPING FREEZING!!! I try to just put my hair in, but that doesn't work. Oh it's so painful. But I'm too lazy to boil water and put it in a bucket and have a bucket shower. That's what Sister Dequina does every morning though. It has also been raining everyday. So going out to work has been hard because no one wants to hear us "it's raining" they say. Yeah, so what? haha. It's also hard for them to go to church when it's raining. They just use rain as an excuse for everything. But it kind of makes sense. It was a downpour. It's also hard during lessons because it's so loud!

Yesterday we had a brownout all day. They were trying to fix the power lines. So during church we had to turn on the generator. The church building is so advanced here compared to everything else. 

Anyway, what else? Today we're going to the market to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables. Sister Dequina has been giving me new fruits and vegetables to try. It's been fun. I feel a lot healthier now that I'm buying vegetables instead of packaged snacks. That's all for this week. Just missionary work and cold weather and electricity going out. I've realized that I need to work on understanding the language better. I can speak it, but can't understand it. Sister Dequina was getting a little annoyed that I couldn't understand but could speak. I had to explain to her that speaking and hearing use two different parts of the brain and that my speaking part developed faster. After that she doesn't judge me anymore. haha. Anyway, I'm out of time now, sorry I didn't have time to write a letter for Bishop. Is it too late if I do it next week? If anything, tell him that he was amazing with the youth and we all loved him. I love you all!

Love, Julie

"Perty Flwr"

Sugar ants!

Carmen's Baptism

Michael's Baptism