Week 30

Manigong Bagong Taon! 

(Happy (well actually it means prosperous) New Year!)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. My experience was of course a little different this year because I am in the Philippines. But it was still great! I got to skype with my family which made me like soooo happy. We had a ton of members invite us over for like every meal on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was actually a little stressful because we had so many appointments- but they were all with active members for eating. None for like teaching. Everyone told us they were too busy to be taught so our lessons this week were low again. But hopefully after this week (because its still holiday- New Year) things pick up again. So we had curfews this past week so we spent a lot of time at home so I wrote people a lot of letters so be looking forward to that. And more curfews this week- more letters ha! Oh we had transfer announcements- Sister Dumas will be transferred! It was quite a shock. We had expected to stay together for double transfer since she goes home after this next transfer. But nope- she has 1 more area to go! Tomorrow is transfer day so I'll get my new companion then. I hope everyone has a good New Years... I haven't really thought about any goals yet so maybe I'll talk about that in next weeks blog...if I remember ha. I miss you all!

Sister Ianuzi

Week 29 MALIGAYANG PASKO SA INYO LAHAT!

So first- some different Christmas traditions here

1- Caroling like is done by groups of kids who go around singing and when they are done you are suppposed to give them something like a peso or a candy. 

2- People decorate their cars or motorcycles or triceys or pudjuks. Like with lights and all. Its really festive. I wanted to get a picture but they always end up blurry

So we had our Christmas Party as a mission this past week which was fun. We were all asked to prepare a short talk about 1- "What is Christ's gift to you?" and 2- "What is your gift to Christ?" I wasn't picked to talk luckily! Ha. But I did enjoy pondering on these topic ha. And I invite you all do think about them too. Think about ALL that Christ has given to you and what you can give to Him? As a missionary I have given my whole life for this period of time to Him and it still doesn't feel like enough to even start to repay Him for all He has given me. I am so grateful for my Savior. And at this Christmas season it really important to celebrate His birth, but remember the only reason He was born was to die to us. I know Christ is my Savior and I rely on Him more and more everyday here. I know His Atonement is real and it is everything to me. I receive forgiveness and strength from Him. And as President Monson said, "To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, individuals need only drop the last syllable of the word, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ."

I miss you all! I hope you have a good Christmas and remember the real reason of it!

Mahal ko kayo

Sister Ianuzi

Week 28

Hi!

This past week was pretty much the same. Sister Gamba ( a sister in the apartment ) made fruit salad this past week, which like isn't like fruit salad in the US at all. It's like super desserty and super yummy. It has like coconut in it and so obviously I love that. Um well I don't really have any stories about the work. Our area is struggling. It's really starting to take its toll on me. The stress of all this is what was causing me to feel sick last week. I don't understand what the Lord is testing me on right now but I am trying my best to stay positive and learn from it all. I am trying to be as obedient I can be, even if those around me aren't. I know that why I am here is to help people accept this gospel and return back to our Heavenly Father. And even though it is hard, I still love it. I love the people and their kindness. I am exciting for this upcoming week and the Christmas conference here in the mission. I'm hoping to learn a lot and have that help me in this work. oh- last night I watched the Christmas Devotional by the Church. It was so good and I encourage everyone to watch it. It really brought me the true Spirit of Christmas. I miss you all and hope you are doing well!

Sister Ianuzi

Week 27

This past week. Well nothing really happened. I have been sick with I don't know what. I've had every test done here and no results. But I am in pain to breath. So that's fun. We haven't worked since Wednesday. I have been to the doctors but no result yet. I really don’t have a ton to say… all the doctors and nurses are always impressed that I speak Tagalog to them so yeah that’s cool. Oh. For my address, if you use this

Sister Kendal Ianuzi

LDS Chapel Rizal Street

Poblacion, Daraga

4501 Albay, Philippines

It  will get to me faster J but the other one works as well. So yeah I really don’t haveanything to sayin the blog this week I am sorry. I just have like sat around this past week. I miss you all! I hope you are excited for Christmas being so soon!

mahal kita

sister ianuzi 

ps i got a ton of mail this week. thank you everyone!!! :) ill getback to people as soon as possible!

Week 26

This past week! Well I experienced my first flooding in the Philippines. Complete with kids swimming in the dirty mud water and us having to walk through knee deep water to get to our apartment. What a joy! Ha. Yeah it rained REALLY hard for a day and a half this past week. We learned that our bedroom has leaks so we had to move around all the furniture away from the leaks and had buckets everywhere. That was fun! Our room is still arranged all weird until we get it fixed incase it rains again like that. I am trying my best to learn the new area but it is so hilly and crazy! We are trying to drop maps for our teaching records and it is impossible... we just like say "go up this mountain then turn left at the tree that looks like this and then walk up that mountain" so yeah that my area. We had exchanges this past week. It's weird that that will be my ONLY exchange this transfer after being companions with STL's the last two transfers but it was fun. I worked in their area so yeah. It was fun :) Sister Donato (STL) is super funny and nice. Ummm what else happened this week- oh a member gave us ube. It's like my favorite dessert so that was nice :) OH! LAST MONDAY! By far the most stressful night of my mission so far. We were invited to a FHE on sunday so that was our plan for monday night after pday. But while we were out we got a text inviting us over to dinner. So we were like "ok we will go to dinner then the FHE after" while we were at dinner we get ANOTHER text inviting us over for dinner that night too. So we felt bad so we said yes... So we had THREE dinner appointments (Because the FHE had dinner too) in ONE night. It was really stressful and hard to eat. Because all the food is so good but yeah. We suggested this past week to start a dinner calendar here in the ward. The members here are great just they always invite us over last minute ha. Hopefully it gets fixed! But that they still feed us :) So yeah that was my week. I have been studying about diligence and I know I really need  to improve. My area needs a lot of work and the only way it will get fixed is if I am diligent in everything I do. I miss you all! 

Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Ianuzi