November 11: Because We were Prepared We were Okay

I am sure you will be happy to get this email. because it means I am alive.

Please pray for my companion, Sister Bendoy! My companion is from Leyte and she hasn't heard from her family. Pray for them. We are worried about them. (BBC News: Officials say up to 10,000 people may have died on Leyte island, which bore the brunt of the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.)

Guess what... we had no idea how bad the storm was supposed to be. All we knew was there was a storm, we needed to prepare food and water and we couldn't leave our house. 

So we partied. Just kidding. we studied scriptures, had deep talks, planned goals for my mission, and did practice teaching. And we cooked in the dark. 

We didn't have power Friday Saturday and half of Sunday. so we didn't have water either. We had saved some water so we showered once... good times. It felt like i was going to church at the ranch... smelly and dirty. but it's ok. 

So one night while we were home I started reading the Book of Mormon in Hiligaynon. By Candlelight. Guess what... I can understand it now!!!!!!! Miracles do happen. Really, as  I was reading I felt like it was a miracle. Words I didn't know my companion told me.. and i was able to learn them really fast. it was such a great experience. I am now in 1 Nephi 5... so amat amat. But my goal for my mission is to read the entire Libro Ni Mormon. I am super excited about it.

I also started telling stories to her in Hiligaynon. My language is getting way better. It's so exciting. I still don't understand everything everyone says and it's so discouraging. I just want to know what they are saying!!!!! Especially if they are telling at story instead of bearing their testimony... I get pretty lost. But I'm improving. 

Oh and we watched the storm out the windows upstairs. It was pretty crazy. super windy and lots of rain. I took a few pictures and videos but they aren't very good. You can't really tell. Our street was getting flooded. As in almost to our door. As in we have a gap under the door and the water would just pour in. sooo as we were about to go down and move all of our stuff upstairs a man came out. without a shirt on or shoes...so nothing new. and cleared out the drains for like 10 minutes... and it went down. and our house didn't flood. We were all very grateful for him. And because we were prepared by President's warning we were okay. We had enough food and water and candles. We feel so blessed. During the storm I read Ether 12 about the trial of your faith. And this was like that. We had to have faith and prepare beforehand. 

It took faith to trust President though.. The day before the storm was the sunniest day ever. No clouds. Perfect weather. And that's when we were preparing our food and water. I kinda felt like Noah's time..  We didn't have the news like you did. Just one text message from our President telling us to prepare. 

The storm hit all day Friday. then Saturday we went and did service. We  cleaned up the houses of our recent converts. It was great. This was one of the weirdest days of my life. We went to Madel's house and they had pretty much cleaned up. We helped a little and started helping cook... They wanted to make us lunch I guess. Anyway then brother Mansueto says he is going to kill the chicken and he'll be back.. uuuh what? So then we went to clean at Lyn Lyn's house. We cleaned up a huge area covered in leaves and sticks and stuff. It was really good and she was sooo grateful. And her little kids helped too. so fun. then we were covered in dirt and ran home to take a bucket shower. 10 minutes later we ran to Madel's for our fresh chicken lunch and her baptism was right after.. But she wasn't there yet. so we waited at her house and all went to the baptism. 

P.S. the baptism was at 2 on Saturday. and first our ward mission leader texts us this "Sisters, I think we need to cancel the baptism. We don't have power at the church. And all of my shoes are wet." So life is still hilarious. I laughed for a long time. 

And the church didn't have power or water all day.. except randomly for an hour at like 10 when we went. And they were able to fill up the font. miracles. Anyway so then we went to the baptism and it was so good. She is sooo great. I love her so much. And all the testimonies at every baptism they talk about how they want their family to have the gospel too. It's really cool. We are now teaching some of the family members of our recent converts. It's awesome.

Anyway, then we went and did more service for different areas. Then came home and we had no power still. And now no washing water. And the faucet fell off the wall in the bathroom. And the window broke. And i cooked french toast for dinner in the dark. It was just a weird day all over. But Elder and Sister Anderson, the supply couple, came and saved the day. They brought water and fixed the faucet. 

Then the next day we had church. And because of the brown out I was worried that no one would come to church. But there was like more than ever. It was Fast Sunday and so good. We loved it. I felt the strength of the gospel so much!! Our recent converts still came, all dressed up in clean clothes. It was so great. I love them all sooo much. There was so much peace at church. Oh and one of the members went out in the storm to one of the poor areas in our ward because she felt prompted to. She said she couldn't see the road there was so much rain but she went anyway in her little jeep an was able to bring 3 families to the church (where many people stayed during the storm). Their houses had been hurt and they really needed help. It was a miracle. and so cool that she went even though it was hard because she was prompted to. 

I was reading 1 Nephi 3-4 yesterday and it really hit me. Nephi wasn't successful. He was trying to keep the commandments, and he had huge trials. But he didn't lose his faith. He kept trying. We need to follow that example. Keeping the commandments or doing God's will isn't always easy or successful immediately. We have to trust God. 

Love Sister Foote

November 4, 2013: I am Coming to Teach with You!

Hello Family!

This has been a great week of great things and hard things! 

So for Halloween and all souls day/all saints day (what they celebrate here) we went to the cemetery and taught people about the plan of salvation! Awesome, right? So here they go to the cemetery and have a picnic with their whole family on the grave. And they light candles and stuff.. pretty much it's like a carnival at a cemetery. People are selling stuff everywhere and they set up shade tents and eat. It's pretty random but we were able to make the best of it. We went and sang and prayed and gave them plan of salvation pamphlets. It was really good. There were some people that were really touched that cried and were so grateful. It was crazy we were walking around and I just kept thinking "all these people are searching for peace, for the truth." 

And of course there were other people that were not so interested. Some people tried to pay us.. no no no that's not what we are doing! And I asked this lady if we could sing for her "we will sing for ourselves!!!" ...uh ok thanks!  

Ano pa? Oh when there are a lot of little kids we sing head shoulders knees and toes.. in Hiligaynon.. turns out that was a good use of time to learn it in the MTC. And now when we come to their houses they all sing it for me all the time. It's so cute. 

So the hard thing about this week was going to my favorite area Rosario.. we went with the member that knows all of them and this week she slowly keeps telling me that every person doesn't want to hear from us anymore. They are either super active in their own churches or other stuff like their family doesn't want us to come. so that was really hard. 

Now I'm worried about leading the area this week. We need to find new investigators!!! :) I'm just hoping that they will soften their hearts. And 3 people from that area have already been baptized so not all is lost I guess. 

So now for the good stuff. LynLyn and her 9 year old son Axyll were baptized yesterday!!!!! and it was soo good. They are so good. I love her so much. She cried through the whole thing and bore her testimony about how it's hard that her husband hasn't accepted the missionaries yet but she knows it's true so she is happy to be a member, that the missionaries changed her life. And she was a referral from the 1st counselor that spoke and said he has been praying for years that she would be a member. So good. So good. And the best part.. funniest part... the ward choir sang earlier that day so they were all there...and sang 2 songs for the baptism. So literally 30 people stand up and sing for the closing song. Awesome.

AND because there was so many people for the first time not everyone fit in the baptism room so we had to do it in the chapel. Oh life here is so good. I love these people so much. 

(Oh, the Elder's investigator didn't show up and so we were waiting.. and the 2nd counselor and ward mission leader rode off on a motorcycle to go pick her up...only in the Philippines.) 

We had Elder L Whitney Clayton come to our stake yesterday and it was way good. He talked about the pioneers sacrificing so much. He said people don't do that for fun. They knew the gospel was true. It was so deep in their hearts. It was good. Then he asked Sister Joy Aguilar from my ward randomly to bear her testimony and she said she wants her family to be together in the gospel and.. her dad came to church!!! (they have been members for like 20 years but he isn't and he never comes to church. but there he was in a white shirt and slacks. So Good!!!)

Ok and the other great thing! Madel is getting baptized on Saturday. She came to the baptism (ok picture this... we walk into the church for the baptism and Madel, Reynelda, LynLyn and her kids and Sister Almaras  are there... 30 minutes early) That is our recent convert from last week, people getting baptized that day, and people getting baptized the next week. and their fellowshipper. SOOO GOOD!!!! )

So anyway after the baptism I mentioned to Madel. yeah after you are baptized you could come teach with us sometime. Next thing I know she is sitting next to us on the jeepney...Sister where are you going? I am coming to teach with you!!... She came to like 5 lessons and prayed and bore her testimony and everything.  Then she kept saying after every lesson. This is such a cool experience. I love this feeling. AHH so good!!!!

...oh and she asked me to speak at her baptism... 

Oh and the 'highlight' of the week is our investigator's baby pigs were licking our feet during our prayer and my companion kept kicking them off. So funny. Yeah, she has two baby pigs living in her house. 

I love you all so much!! 

Love Sister Foote

October 28, 2013: Our Investigators are coming out of the Walls

My investigators Lea and her friends Reggie and Romel.. they all have baptismal dates...now they just have to come to church

The baptism of Reynelda and Mansueto 

and our dinner after :) 

I am so glad everything went to well for the wedding. It really does sound perfect. Of course I was dying to be there, but to honest it wasn't too hard. I love my mission so much. i love my investigators.

We had a baptism on Saturday night... same time as the reception and it was soooooooo great.!!!!!! Mansueto and Reynelda were both baptized. Their family....who are becoming interested in the gospel came too. And they cried. The spirit was super strong!!!  Oh it was the best. Thinking about them never having the gospel so I could go to the wedding--just not worth it! 

About an hour after I got off last week we found out about transfers. My companion was transferred on Tuesday and my new companion is Sister Bendoy. She is Filipino. She is going home in December so this is her last transfer. She is really good and super sagad... talented.. at the language. I am so excited! I feel like I will learn SOOOO much this transfer. It will be great. She speaks to me 90% of the time in hiligaynon. so I'll learn fast, and I lead every lesson because she wants me to be ready to train next transfer. The other 2 sisters in our house are sister training leaders... so president gave me 3 new trainers :) But it's awesome. I love it. They are helping me so much with my language and just seeing what kind of missionary I really want to be. It's great. I am really excited. Prayers are answered and I am really happy to still be in the area. I love it. 

It is weird to be the only American anywhere now though. They all speak faster because they know Sister Bendoy can understand and it kinda feels like I'm left out of the conversation all the time. It's hard but its getting better. 

It's hard, of course. All the sudden I am leading the area which I wasn't at all before, but it's good. It's good to learn.

Things are good here. As in awesome. listen to how funny this story is... so we are teaching this guy, right.. he is like 60 and it's a first lesson. We are in the shack house and then 4 minutes into the lesson part of the wall starts moving... and someone comes out. It was like a separate board in the wall. Anyway so she starts listening and is SUPER super receptive. Our investigators are coming out of the walls!!!!! So good. 

This week we have the baptism of Lyn Lyn and her son Axyll. He is 9 and sooo excited for his baptism. They are soo good. President's vision for our mission is weekly baptisms and it is happening! It is happening! In 4 weeks we will have 6 people baptized and a ton more have dates right now. It's incredible. I truly know this is God's work and I am simply and an instrument in God's hands. 

I committed Anthony Basa (13) to be baptized last night. It was really good. I was worried he wasn't going to say yes but he surprised me. He said yes! and he is going camping with the youth this week. I'm so excited

Elder Carver from my batch is now in my ward too, so that's fun.

I love you all. Keep praying for me to learn Hiligaynon and continue to improve and be patient, have energy. and be happy in all things :) 

Never forget to read the Book of Mormon. No matter what. It's key! 

Love Sister Foote

October 21, 2013: They are so Excited to go to the Temple Next Year

Family!!!! It's kinda crazy you will all be together this weekend. That's weird to think about. Enjoy the wedding for me!!!! Enjoy being together. And don't forget to talk about how awesome I am and how much you miss me! :) 

I am so excited for Jason and Shanna!!! 

So this week has been great, of course. My companion has been really sick the past few day. We think she has a parasite but she is too stubborn to go get tested.. so hopefully we will find out today. So she was out for the count a couple days, but God is still blessings this area. We were only able to work for a limited number of hours this week but we were still able to teach more lessons than ever before! Isn't that crazy!? This is truly God's work. 

This week was a lot of fun! We went bowling with the other sisters last week.. don't worry I'm even worse here.. if that's possible. 

And we had a service project this week so we got to to do laundry in the river.. naglaba ako sa suba!!!! so fun. It's so gorgeous and peaceful too. It's kinda crazy to realize this is people's everyday lives. But it was fun to help. Humbling for sure. Oh, and while we were washing there was about 15 naked children playing in the water around us... that's how they all 'shower' in the river. 

Two other sisters in my house and I "showered" in the rain this week! it was soooo funny. It was pouring rain, so we grabbed our shampoo and ran outside. It stopped raining soon after we got out so we had to use a bucket a little too, but it was sooo funny. I love being able to have fun and still be me, and be a missionary too. I am truly enjoying my mission. 

We felt the earthquake, but everyone in our mission was very safe. It wasn't too bad, so nothing was damaged on our island. Sorry to worry you all :) 

I got Jas and Shan's wedding announcement this week... SO CUTE!!!! I loved it :) 

We had the mission tour this week with President Nelson and it was awesome! He and his wife are sooo great, and they know the Teixeiras, of course. I told them about Mom and Dad's mission and they were way excited. Their family is basically exactly like us and they reminded me a lot of Mom and Dad... you know what that means, Dad... get ready to be the area president of the Philippines ;) 

I have now been on my mission for 4 months!!! sooo only 14 left, that's a long time. but I'm excited about it. I love this place. Transfers are this week and it's possible I'll start training. Let's hope not... for that new missionary's sake! 

We had another baptism this week for Clifen! He is so great... His wife is already a member and they are so excited to go to the temple next year. I can really see him becoming a great leader in the church. Their daughter is 3 and I'm so happy she will now be raised in the gospel. 

Oh, I took family pictures for 2 recent convert families after church today and I'm printing them later. They aren't the best but at least they have something to hang on their wall now :) It's cool to still be able to use my talents here

And I rode on a jeepney to church yesterday.....next to a live chicken. Yep, that happened. And after church someone had a bag of goldfish next to me. What is this place? so funny

Pray that transfers go well. Pray for me to have strength to do this work this week and a positive attitude to do it. Pray for my investigators to read and progress. 

I love you all so much!!!!!

Love Sister Foote

October 14, 2013: This is God's Work and I Feel Privileged to be one of His Instruments

Here was an FHE birthday party.

So, that spider is actually a lot smaller than some of the others. Gross, huh?  

The lady in the yellow has a son that was Jordan Royal's mission companion. Crazy, right?

 

The sugar cane field is what life looks like here everywhere. 

Hello Family!!!!!! 

I got to watch General Conference this weekend and it was awesome! I loved it :) and you'll all be happy to hear that I did not fall asleep at all... I know miracles! Believe it. It happened! Oh and we watched it all in English... so yeah i don't even know why they translated it.. I'm excited to listen to general conference in Ilonggo when I get home.  

I went on exchanges this week with Sister Sanders... who happens to live in my house too. It was great! We had a great time and I learned a ton. She is about to go home and it was cool to hear her speak and really got me excited to keep learning, and keep becoming a better teacher. 

We had a great district meeting on Tuesday.. I love my district! .. and we talked about how life is like a downward escalator. if we are not always striving to step up, or keep climbing, to keep progressing then we will be digressing. We have to always strengthen our testimony of the gospel, to always be reading the Book of Mormon. We never reach a point of safety.. a point of we have a strong enough testimony we don't need to worry about it anymore. 

We have a baptism on Friday for Clifen. I am super excited. His wife is a member and they have a 3 year old... she is so cute, she cooks me "food" during our lessons... But they are so excited to be sealed in the temple and he is just awesome. He always testifies during our lessons, its awesome. 

We went to an investigator we haven't taught in a few weeks (and we had only taught one lesson before) and she said she has been reading the Book of Mormon with her daughter. She said she read whenever she is having a hard day or they have a problem and she feels peace and even gets goosebumps. It was so cool to me that she felt prompted to turn to the Book of Mormon during trials and she found peace. There is so much power in the Book of Mormon!!! 

How is the wedding chapel doing??? Tell everyone I say Hi ok? I miss that place. I miss my camera.... but this work is SO  much more important. It is incredible. This is God's work and I feel privileged to be one of his instruments. 

The scripture I really liked this week Alma 38:2 God wants our steadiness and our diligence. It is more important that we consistently do what is right, consistently turn our lives to Him than to have one perfect day. or one awesome super powerful experience. 

I finished decorating my scripture journal this week.. on the front it says, "My everyday testimony: I developed my testimony in small ways everyday and not but one miracle moment." It is so true. It's awesome to always be able to feel the spirit when we read the scriptures. 

I am super excited to get the Ensign of General Conference. I loved it.
A few random quotes I loved:

"Live in the spirit" 

"Blessings could be a great capacity to act and change our own circumstances" 

"There is yet a place for you here. Come join your talents with ours. There is room for you in this church. Come and join with us"

**"The church is designed to strengthen the imperfect and the struggling!!"

"Make scripture reading part of a regular routine and the blessings will follow"

"Live by faith, hold fast to hope, and be compassionate to others"

"There is an urgency in sharing the gospel"

and lots more..I loved Elder Scott's and President Monson's talks. 

I love you all so much! 

Sister Kimberly Foote

October 7, 2013: We Can Always Find Something to be Grateful For Or to Complain About

This week we had zone meeting, follow up training, and fingerprinting for our visas. It was all good times. I really enjoy seeing other missionaries; it's a lot of fun and it's cool to see there are so many of us all teaching these wonderful people. 

At zone meeting Sister Vansluten (love her!) came up to me and said she is always excited to see me because I'm always so happy, that I always bring so much happiness to a room. How sweet right!? She goes to BYU too, and we are so excited to be friends after our missions too :) Wouldn't it be so fun if we were ever companions! 
Speaking of, transfers are in 2 weeks!! So I'll be all done with my training. if I had to guess I'll be staying in this area and Sister Rosdahl will be transferred, but who knows.

Sometimes I just think life is so funny! I just start giggling about so many funny things that have happened. It's great. One of the funniest things of the week was when we were teaching fasting and they just were not getting it. So the 3rd time around we were explaining... "when you don't eat or drink" and were about to say that's called fasting and you receive blessings, but our investigator shouted "We die!!"uh.. yeah that's true. ok... uh... it was so funny! 

We went to Rosario this week. It's my favorite area. Everyone has bamboo huts but its awesome. They are sooo kind! And everyone is just so happy. We are just gonna baptize the whole village! :) Wait, but wouldn't that be awesome if we did?? We have like 25 investigators there. Anyway, so we were teaching and there was like 10 kids all playing with me. Oh they are so cute! They would put leaves in their hands and put their closed fists in front of me. I would open them and act surprised to see the leaves.. and they would just laugh so hard and run and get more. we played that game for like 20 minutes. haha. They are so awesome. These kids just need some attention :) And the area is so awesome because all of our investigators are keeping their commitments! They are reading!!! We came back after our first lesson and our investigator, Pia, is in 1 Nephi 9! and Reynelda was in 1 Nephi 15! Awesome right? Its so obvious if they are reading the Book of Mormon.

And we had to move the investigator class to the bigger room because so many investigators are coming to church now... so awesome right??
In other news... I killed 3 huge spiders again this week. So fun ;) 

Some things i have learned this week: 
Number 1. Once again,  we can always find something to be grateful for or complain about. And how important it is to be kind, to be optimistic, to show gratitude. Like on Saturday we had to go to the chapel to get fingerprinted for our visas. There was a lot of missionaries there so we had to wait for like an hour. But it seemed like such a blessing to me!! 1. We didn't have to go to some government building and wait in lines and pay money to get this done. 2. We got to see all the missionaries and had time to talk to them. 3. The office elders and senior couples did so much to make sure it all ran smoothly
It just depends on what you look for :)

And number 2. I have been blessed in my patriarchal blessing that I will be able to influence others, so I need to do that. I need to always find ways to be kind to others, to build and lift them. To take time to see how their day is. :)

And 3. The worth of EVERY soul is great in the sight of God.

Number 4.  One of the biggest things I have learned is to enjoy life. Enjoy it! Every day. Even when things are hard, figure out how you can enjoy that too. Don't wish away your days waiting for better ones to come. That is something I always did before my mission. but now I just love every moment.. I'm even working on loving weekly planning haha :)

This is truly God's work. I can't even express how grateful I am to be one of His instruments. Especially here in the Philippines Bacolod mission.  I know this is exactly where I need to be. I feel so blessed to be able to help people come closer to Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is to serve a mission!
I love you all so much!!!!!

Love Sister Foote

September 30, 2013: God Blesses Us When We Do What He Asks

This week has been great. Hard of course, but good :) 

So funny things of the week. We were teaching like 5 investigators outside, but we focus our planning all on one of them, LynLyn. So we're excited to start teaching, I say the opening prayer and when we open our eyes like 5 kids are missing and so is LynLyn. Apparently during the prayer a visitor came so she had to leave. We were very confused.

Everyone here wants to have lighter skin so ALL of the soap in the store has whitening in it... that is definitely something i don't need so its hard to find any good soap. 

We had some Takway earlier this week.. it's actually a root but people eat it. It was super good but we all started having itchy swollen throats so we panicked that we were dying.. haha. But the good news is apparently that just happens if you don't cook it enough.. so I'll be eating that again later. hmmm Now that I think about it maybe it's a bad idea... 

Yesterday I was about to eat breakfast and I saw a spider bigger than my hand on the curtain... great times! Really more excitement than anyone needs in the morning. The spiders here are so gross! and so big! 

We had a big ward fhe night on Friday and it was so good! So many people came and everything. When we left one of the 3 year old boys yelled, "Bye Bye best friend" to me. It was so cute! 

Ah, we are about to have a brown out so I have to go all the sudden. This week was great though. We had our baptism this week with 3 investigators. It was awesome. They are so great and its so awesome to be apart of someone changing their life. One of them was telling us yesterday about how they didn't have enough money to buy food for the day but they paid to go to church anyway, and then miraculously they were able to get 30 pesos so they could buy food too. God blesses us as we do what he asks. 

I have been helping a girl in our ward prepare for her mission and it's so awesome. I'm so excited for her. She is incredible. And the super exciting news of the week! Novemeber 2nd Elder Neil L Anderson is coming to our mission!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited :) 

I love you all!

Sister Foote