Week 38

Magandang hapon sa inyo lahat. Sobrang maganda ang linggo ko ngayon. Nakakita ko ang kaibahan dito sa Legazpi and sobrang masaya ako. Maraming lessons kami itong linggo so sympre masaya kami. My all time high so far in the mission for total lessons. We have a bunch of new investigators and we have new baptismal dates and we have progressing investigators. We have a lot of members willing to work with us. All the sudden there was a like 180 change to the work- but of course I'm not complaining. I've really learned how diligence and patience are a big part of this work. My miracle for the week happened yesterday at church, sacrament meeting had started and we had no one there. Very few less actives and no investigators. (it was raining. when it rains no one comes. it sucks) but then about 15 minutes into the meeting, Ellaine, a new investigator walks in with her two young daughters. Me and Sister Whaanga almost started to cry we were so happy. We just started teaching Ellaine last week. We got to her twice. She is SO interested and I am really excited to continue with her. I know this is the Lords work. I am so grateful for the chance to help in it and help these people here. I truly have come to love the Pines and it is so crazy how fast time flies. I see the Lords help in everything here. This past week I found myself speaking Tagalog words I didn't even know. After a lesson I had to ask Sister Whaanga if she remembered what I had said and we wrote it down to look up later (it was right! and made sense!) The gift of tongues is true. And amazing. Kahit namiss ko kayo- gustong gusto ko yung mission. Mahal ko ang mga tao at ang culture dito. Talaga I love it all. Alam ko na itong simbahan ay yung kaharian ng Diyos dito sa mundo at ito lang ang paraan para sa atin na makabalik sa Diyos. Alam ko na may plano ng Diyos para sa atin lahat at mahal na mahal tayo ng Diyos. Mahal ko kayo. At sympre namimiss ko kayo.

Ingay kayo 'lagi

Sister Ianuzi

Week 37

Hello po sa inyo lahat!

Well I finished typing this whole thing out once, and then we lost power here in the internet shop and I lost it. SO now it is time to round two- and I am lazy so it will not be as exciting ha. This past week was just a regular week here. I don’t have a ton to say. It is getting quite warm here and this heat really takes all my energy. I am like always tired now so that’s a great feeling ha. I wake up and am already tired. But oh well- that’s missionary work! We have a new sister in the house- She is from Samoa and is super cute and nice. But I cannot say her last name for the life of me yet. Let alone spell it ha. Me and Sister Whaanga are just continuing trying to find more investigators because Legazpi desperately needs them. We are continuing to work with John, but he is so ready for baptism we are just passing time right now. Hopefully all goes well in the upcoming weeks though! Oh funny story- I was talking with Sister Whaanga and said “Sometimes I think I look tan but then I realize I am sitting in the dark.” SO yeah that’s my life here. I try so hard to get tan but I am still the whitest person in the room at any given moment. But for myself- I have gotten darker. Just with really bad farmer tan lines. #missionarylifeinthepines. Ha. OH! I almost forgot! Last Monday the Elders surprise me with 10893597398 letters! Ok not that many but like A LOT. I still haven’t even read all of them because I haven’t had enough time. So thank you J I am replying as fast as I can of course. Well this past week I read Jacob 7 and REALLY enjoyed it. Jacob has such strong faith and hope and patience. Even though Sherem is trying to try his faith, Jacob doesn't falter. It really shows how important our testimonies are and how we never know what kind of trials we will face- but that with a strong testimony we can overcome everything. Well yup- I said more the first time I wrote this but I’m too lazy now. Ha sorry. Namimiss ko kayo!

Mahal kita

Sister Ianuzi

Week 36

Hello po so inyo lahat! Una una I want to talk about prayer. There has been something I’ve been praying for for weeks now. And I had thought that Heavenly Father wasn’t answering. This past week I realized He just answered in a different way that I expected. And now I am more at peace. Seeing that all along He was helping. He was there. I just was the one not seeing Him. But now I am grateful for all the help He has been giving me and all the answers to the prayers that I receive. So this past week was crazy ha. Well the weekend at least. On Friday we get a call from the APs (Assistants to the President) saying we are going to have a third companion until transfer day and she would be there in a few hours. Crazy! So yeah Sister Montecillo came from Catanduanes (an island here) to be with us. It has been fun! She is a great Sister and has helped a lot! But yeah crazy ha. Saturday was good- we had a 1 day mission here in Legazpi Ward. That’s when a bunch of members all show up and like we all split from our companion to go out with members and cover more area. So yeah it was so successful and we got to a bunch of people! And then the next day,Sunday at church, we had SO many of them attend church! It was so exciting! Members are so important in missionary work! Oh back to Saturday- we had just ended the 1 day mission with the ward here, around 5, and we go back to the apartment to study for a bit since we hadn’t all day. And then we get a call inviting us to dinner at the Guanzons- ha of course we don’t say no to that! We go and WOW- so much food! And it was amazing. We also got the text about transfers- walang transfer sa aming dalawa (no transfer for us two). So yeah another transfer with Sister Whaanga. I hope its great! Oh yeah it should be! HA WE HAVE A BAPTISM! On Sunday we finally committed John, the security guard at the mission home that we teach to baptism. He is so excited. The Guanzon’s were crying they are so happy because he is basically family to them now. SO yeah I am looking forward to that in a month. Hopefully we have others too though. There are prospects ha. So yeah that was my week. Well weekend- I don’t remember anything else before- it wasn’t as exciting. I hope you are all doing good! Namimiss ko kayo! Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Ianuzi

Week 35

MAGANDANG ARAW PO SA INYO LAHAT!

This week was quite....boring. Ha. Sister Whaanga has been sick so we just sat around the apartment a lot. Well I sat around while she slept. She has like some stomach bug I think. But yeah so I had a lot of time to read. I really liked Uchtdorfs talk from the January Liahona (and Ensign I think) called The Best Time to Plant a Tree. Its all about like goal setting and achieving those goals. I liked this part:

An old proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”

There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word now. There is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment.

Now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be—not only 20 years from now but also for all eternity.

I think we all know that procrastination is like terrible. But we are only human. So just start now to improve. I know there is a lot I want to improve on but constantly put it off. But I am going to start now... Sana ha. I cooked for myself this whole week. Some things turned out good. Well actually they all did until I made adobo yesterday (its Philippino. Like chicken and soy sauce). But yeah somehow my turned out really sweet. So that was interesting ha. Ummmm oh we did go out a little and we went to this one lady. And she has A LOT of little kids and like while we are over she kind of just lets them go wild and focuses on us. But this one boy (maybe like 3?) went pee outside the front door (not too uncommon here....) but yeah our shoes were sitting there. So we go to leave and we have wet shoes. They was a gross experience I thought I'd share. We just put them on and hurried to a water pump to wash them and our feet off. I'm grateful for those water pumps. Oh! There was a lizard this week. IN MY SHOWER. And normally these lizards like scurry away when they see people but this one didn't! It kept getting closer to me and like it was in my shower! I like kept freaking out. It wasn't a nice start to the day. No matter how long I am here in the Pines I still don't like all these little creatures. Well yeah I hope you are all doing good! Namimiss ko kayo!

Mahal ko kayo!

Sister Ianuzi

(by the way I wrote a ton of letters but ran out of envelopes... so eventually I'll send them out! ha)