September 2: There are No "New Missionaries", Just Missionaries who can Receive Revelation and Love People

This week was great. And hard. and Good. So random again.. here goes.

I left a member's house and tried to put my shoes on.. we always take them off when we enter their house. And I had 3 cockroaches in my shoes. Awesome! 

Funny story. I went to the store last week and bought grapes.. well apparently they don't grow grapes here so they are super expensive.. like you eat them on Christmas only. so they were 385p....that's sooo much! like a jeepney ride is 5 or7p. Really funny when i figured it out. The sisters in my house were laughing so hard. 

Then it was raining really hard during personal study so it was starting to come in through the windows on our books. so my companion put a bucket on her head and ran outside to close the windows haha. 

I cut my foot so I can't walk and I can only go so far on crutches. The hospital was fun though ;) especailly on hard roads. So I can't really work this week. so we'll see what happens. Pray for me to be positive, productive, and happy anyway. 

My all time favorite missionary got transferred this week. I was so upset. He really has been such a great, positive example to me of how to be happy and loving. He has truly blessed the rest of my mission and encouraged me to become better. He reminded me when I left that there are no "new missionaries", just missionaries that can receive revelation and love people. Although I am still struggling with the language I've learned to show people my love without words. I LOVE playing with the little kids. They are so smart. And know way more Ilonggo than I do. haha. But we have so much fun, and I'm trying to learn a magic trick this week. Just love people, just love them.

So one of the highlights of the week was teaching the Ramos family...my favorite. We taught the little boys how to pray and helped them say the opening and closing prayers. It was sooo awesome. I am just so excited for that family and all the blessings the gospel can bring them. They said they feel ready for their baptism now. :) When the little boys see us coming they just start sprinting towards us. It's so awesome. 

We challenged another man to be baptized and he said the coolest thing. "Malipayon ko sa magbalik sa Ginuo" I am happy to return to the Lord. It was beautiful. 

Another cool thing. We were looking for the LA Ponteras family and the ward missionary lead us to a different Ponteras family's house who are awesome and way excited about the gospel. She is a member and he isn't, but he said he really wants to be with his family forever and we are just excited for them. I told him how much Heavenly Father loves him and compared it to how much he loves his baby. 

Just encourage them. If you want people to change give sincere compliments and guide them. Don't tell them they are doing things wrong or insult them.. that will never give you what you want. Just sincerely care about people. I just keep learning that more and more. 

Sister Cruz who lives in my house left this week too. We cried when she left. but she will be great in her new area. It is incredible the people God has put in my path. I feel so blessed to have met such wonderful people.. including missionaries. They inspire me. Such great friends. 

The good news is the new sister is Sister Young from my mtc district!!!! i love her so much. 

God knows us. If we are looking we can see His hand. 

I'm sorry, Steven, about your leg!!! We will be on crutches together. 

I love you all so much!!! Thank you for the support, prayers, and letters. 

Love, 

Sister Foote

August 19, 2013: God Puts Those in Your Path that Need Your Help

Kamusta Pamilya

I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!!!!! On hard days I remember that I have emails full of inspiring words and people praying, loving and supporting me. It makes it all worth it. Emails are absolutely precious to me. I can't express that enough. 

Question for everyone. If someone has already been baptized in another church (all my investigators have been baptized Catholic and usually Baptist too. haha)  I want to explain the purpose without straight up telling them their baptism didn't count. It didn't matter. It was wrong. They were baptized before because they wanted to follow God they just didn't have the truth. Help!

A lot happened this week. I ate a lot of new foods, like chicken noodle soup with huge chunks of banana in it. Apparently its very popular here.

Also, Rumbutan, that crazy spikey fruit they have in grocery stores. It's like a giant peeled grape inside. Super good. 

I ate sugar cane. So good! It really looks like bamboo, like a huge think bamboo stick that's not hollow. Then you cut off the outside and eat the inside.. still like a stick.and the texture is too but it tastes really sweet. You just chew it for  a few seconds then spit it out. It's pretty funny. I felt like a real Filipino. 

Oh and agogo. It's like ice mixed with an otter pop. Way good. 

Oh dear. I'm trying to speak more to everyone right? So i asked this little boy what his name is. and he looks at me and just started peeing. Yep, happened. A lot of time little kids don't wear pants. just longer shirts. and babies never have diapers. So that was awesome. 

A couple of kids started following us around in one of our areas, so i started mimicking everything they did and they thought it was hilarious. I just have to be happy and nice because I usually can't think of anything to say. you know how I'm shy when I first meet people and don't know what to say or to little kids.. multiply that times 100 because i have to say it all in another language. but im trying. 

They have brown outs here pretty often. aka no power. because of too much wind or rain or just no reason. they can last for 5 minutes or days. We had 2 this week and one was 12 hours long. 6pm to 6am. So we had to do all our studying and cooking by candlelight. And it's really hot because no one can use fans so we are just dripping in sweat. awesome. 

oh and the funniest thing this week. we are teaching a girl named clysel and her sister is a recent convert glysel joy... yeah they sound like the same name to me too. they are only a year apart and look like twins. so we are always confused about which is which. and my companion commited joy to get baptized..... again... oopps. she said yes though haha. so we are accidently teaching false doctrine. it was way funny. 

The elders in the ward had a baptism this week and it was great. Hopefully ill be going to baptisms every Saturday for the rest of my mission. That's the goal. 

We had 11 less actives come to church yesterday. It was so awesome. On of the men hasn't come for 6 years and he text us last night and said "thank you for guiding me sisters". It was so awesome!!!!!

And my favorite investigator family(the Ramos family) came to church for the first time. My companion and I both started tearing up. They are so awesome. They have 4 kids. 3 adorable nice boys that love the missionaries and 1 baby girl that is so cute! They are truly searching for the truth and said they loved church. It just makes me so so so happy. We found them because we were lost and we needed directions for another house. We stopped to ask and they asked if we could come back. Interesting that God puts those in your path that need your help. I know this is His work. I think of My Comission often and try to say and do what He would say and do to the very people He has sent me. 

Another girl, Clarence, is preparing for baptism on the 31st. We found her on accident too and she is awesome. When we taught her yesterday she really looked different. Beautiful. Happier and more confident. I can see she is changing and I am so happy the gospel is blessing her life. 

One thing i love about this place is all the people live really close.. like the same neighborhood as their cousins and parents. It's awesome. I think it's so important that we live close. I would even consider living in a house like that to be close to family. It's the most important. :) 

I also realized the importance today of loving people, really loving them. Sincerely wanting to know how they are doing and then listening. actually listening. That's how they will recognize love. It's such a huge deal. Listen to people. Be sincerely interested in them. 

I love you all so much! You're the greatest! I love loving people. I am trying hard to show love to everyone. Love people. Truly love them and everything else will come. When we love God, really love Him, we want to obey. We want to do what He asks and it doesn't seem hard. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

Sister Kimberly Foote

August 12, 2013: If We Really Know God, We will Trust Him

Kamusta kamo pamilia. Ma-ayong aga (Hi everyone. Good morning)

Those are the words I use the most... pretty much all I can confidently say haha. It's good though. I'm loving it here. 

The start of this week was pretty rough, but the end was good. We had ward conference and we had 3 investigators and 6 less actives we have been teaching come!!! so awesome :) And one of the less actives hasn't been to church for 6 years. 

Last week when we were trying to get home we went like 5 minutes too far on the bus and when we got off we were lost because we are both new to the area. We were taking the jeepney home but it was dark and pouring rain so we couldn't see our neighborhood. (You just yell "here" when you want them to stop. There are no "bus stops") so we went too far and when we got off we were lost. A member who happened to be on the bus too jumped off and walked with us until we found our neighborhood. People here are seriously so nice! She was late for work but helped anyway. And we were walking on a 1 foot wide path in the dark with a 7ft drop off into muddy water. Awesome times here. 

People here are sooo funny. Oh my goodness. The little kids are just so excited for us to come to their houses. It's so cute. And they love giving high fives. 

And the people STARE at us everywhere we are. Every person. We are the only Americans I've seen since I've been here so they are just happy to see us. Everyone calls us beautiful all the time....yeah we are covered in sweat and so gross..so whatever. 

I see funny things here everyday. There are lizards that just hang out on everyone's walls all the time. It's fine, no one cares and sometimes they chase each other. It's entertaining. And there are chickens fighting in the streets and what not. It's great. There are ants everywhere, but i haven't seen any huge gross bugs.....yet.

I have a shower bucket. Not that bad minus it's cold water. And i have to wash my clothes in a bucket every week that's a little rough i don't really know what I'm doing. But i have 2 Filipino sisters in my house so they try to teach me, and just laugh and say I'm cute because I'm doing it totally wrong. 

Teaching is going pretty well. I always bear my testimony and pray and try to teach a few principles or recite the first vision. It's hard because I don't really understand what the people are saying most of the time...so I just guess based on facial expressions mostly. When people ask me questions I just kinda stare at them because i don't know what the right response is. I also taught the bishop and his family fhe last week... kinda intimidating in Ilonggo.

 That's what the nice houses look like. We also teach in some bamboo huts. 

I have been studying a lot about God's love and I know the scripture in John 17:3 (And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.) is so true. If we really know God we will trust Him. He is so loving and merciful and only does things to help us. WE are his work. (Moses 1:39--For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.)

President Hinckley said we need to bring people into the gospel with kindness, so that's my goal for the week. Love and serve everyone.

I am loving life here, even though some days are hard. I am grateful for what I'm learning and for my faith. God loves us. He loves us. 

I love you so much!!!

Love, 

Sister Foote

Alma 31:34-35--

 34 O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ.

 35 Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee.

August 5: They Understand the Blessings that come from the Gospel

Kamusta Pamilya ko.

I have been so blessed this week. I have been happier than I expected to be. So, I traveled forever but was able to sleep some so that was good and I was with my district which was great. I sat next to a Filipino on the way and she said she told me about the Philippines. I gave her a pass along card and she seemed fairly interested. 

Then we had training but you already saw pictures of that. Then i met my trainer Sister Rosdahl. She is from America and is so nice. Se has only been here for 3 months so it's kinda crazy, but she understand almost everything and speaks pretty well. I understand when she talks. and some things others say. but not tons, especially when they really start going off.. telling a story or something. It's pure gibberish. 

I am convinced the 3 year olds know more Ilonggo than i do. And they do. It's so funny to hear toddlers talk because I can't tell if they are babbling or speaking Ilonggo. It's all the same to me. 

I'm in a 'wealthier' area. It still is poorer than anything I've ever seen, but most the people are fairly educated so they speak some English. Church was hilarious. They switch back and forth between English and Ilonggo every few words, then 3 minutes of straight Ilonggo and then straight English, and it's just random words. I can't figure out how they decide which language to speak. 

the kids are SO cute! I love them . They are hilarious. I am the only american I've seen besides my companion so people always stare. When we start speaking Ilonggo, their jaw drops. It's awesome. 

I have had some good food so far. Banana q... bbq banana with brown sugar around it. SO good. The bananas and mangoes really are SO GOOD. 

The hard part of this week is we are the first sisters in our area in 5 years so we were white washed. We have no idea where we are going or who to teach or anything. But the members have been so helpful. They will go with us for 5 hours at a time. They're awesome and so excited about missionary work, and so excited to have sisters! They all bore their testimonies about missionary work. Everyone. And i bore my testimony.. mostly Ilonggo.(Bishop asked us to). they sacrifice a lot to come to church and they all dress in their best. They understand the blessings that come from the gospel. One of the sisters said in church "money is not a measure of how blessed we are." 

We had one investigator and one less active come to church. Awesome. 

In the handbook it says "You represent the Lord in this area". I am trying hard to do that and show love. I want people to notice I'm different not just because I'm american but because I am emulating Christ. 

I love you!!!

ill explain more about the country next week. Keep praying for me. I think this week will be hard. 

Love,

Sister Foote 

July 31: First Views and Experiences is the Philippines