Pamilya! Kamusta! My new theme song on the mission is stop and stare, even though i cannot sing it, or think about that song, it my my life here haha. Everyone stares at me when we talk by. Dahil, I am a tall and a very white american with curly hair. They love to touch curls. Haha, i stick out everywhere! Just the other day a bata lalaki yelled to me, "I want you to kiss me!" Hahaha, i couldn't help but laugh! Then in a lesson with a less active I was teaching about the Aklat ni Mormon and her anak (child) said, Nanay, Americano? Haha, He could tell by my broken tagalog I was American. In another appointment our Less Active member said, Sister Red! You are wearing Red! Haha they cant say Reed so they call me sister red. I also made a DEAL with one of our investigators. We asked her to read the last two paragraphs in the intro to the BoM, she said i only will if sister red will explain it to me, because see, you are charming! Haha, It was so funny. So now I need to learn how to explain the intro clearly in tagalog....So i hope she keeps the deal! They grandmother told me, the challenge is on! Haha. Our mission is a Tagalog/English mission. Our president only wants us to speak english with him and all the meetings. Church is in English and Tagalog. We sing in English and they use Ingless quotes. Our president also wants us to teach our kasamas Ingless while they are teaching us Tagalog. Apparently they can get better jobs here if they speak Ingless. So we speak both interchangeably. Our numbers this week were not as high as we would like them to be. Everyone says that they are busy and don't have time. I really want to say to them, really? You don't have time? This is salvation we are talking about?! No worries nanay, I am good and hold my tongue. Our area is so huge and takes 30 min on a jeepney to get to some appointments. I have committed investigators to be baptized! I am hoping we can keep building their faith to follow through with it, apparently that doesnt happen very often. Sisters have not been in this area for 7 years, bc it is a big city they put elders here. I feel the spirit so strongly when I teach. Even though I cant say exactly what i want to say, I want them to all feel the spirit. To bring them closer unto Christ unto Christ. This was the longest week of my life!!!! It feels like a month. I am getting in the swing of things. And trying to learn my area. When my trainer leaves she said i will be taking over! AHHH! I know the savior will help me. My conversion to the gospel is growing each and every day. During scripture study and making my lessons plans, I learn new powerful truths to simply teach to my investigators. The rain was so bad on thur. It is a challenge bc we have to go home early, its dangerous in the Typhoon season. A storm was coming and our ZL called us and made us go home, I wanted to keep teaching, pero, i am trying to be obedient. Love you so much! Mahal po kayo! One pic is me with the Rambuton, it is a spiky yummy white fruit! Masarap! The other is a typical philipino meal last is the sticky rice :) Love, Sister Reed

Pamilya! I am finally dito sa Philipinas! YAH! I am so grateful to be here serving as a representative for the Lord. I know this is where I am supposed to be. On the way here, I prayed for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone prepared to here it. I didn't find someone the whole time until the last flight from Tokyo to Manila. I sat next to her on the plane. She was reading a Philosophies book in Korean. I asked her if she was Korean, she was so surprised and asked how I knew that. We talked about truth. She said she loved reading. And by "happen stance" :)I had a mini book of Mormon in my bag. I shared with her the truth of the gospel of Jesucristo and that she could find the truth herself by praying to Diyos, if this is a true book. We connected fast, we are about the same age...She began reading the book on the flight and i shared my favorite scriptures with her. She said it was beautiful and she loves the language in it. I referred her to the missionaries in Manila and to the mormon website. I pray that she will be taught the lessons. I feel that she is ready to hear the whole message. I stayed in the mission home for a day, transfer day in on Thursday. The food is so much better here than in America! The mga Mango are so soft! I have been transferred from the Provo MTC to.... LOS BANOS! It will be my first area. I have been put in the city. It is the nicest city in the whole mission! I have a toilet seat in our bathroom :) I take bucket showers araw-araw and I actually really like them! It is so refreshing after a hot day of walking around. The weather varies btw 4 different types, hot, hotter, raining, tons of rain!!! My trainer laughed at me bc she has never seen anyone wearing a rain coat before. In the Los Banos area, we have been assigned to re-open the area. However, there is nothing in the area book. I have no idea what the elders were doing with the time they had before we came. Basically, we are to open the area and start all over...WHOO! I told our president i was ready to work, and that is exactally what he gave me! Our area is huge! We have no idea how to get around...we were saved by a member, an rm and he showed us to some members houses. My trainer is Sister Marino. This will be her last area so i only get her from 5 more weeks :(. She is a Philipino and has been helping me learn the language. She is the best trainer i could ever ask for! I am growing in so many ways. I am learning to answer the mga tao questions through the doktrina. The dokrina answers all the questions and is the WHY of the ebanghelyo ni Jesucrito. Pero, I have been put in a three sum and also have sister Manswell from America! She has been getting sick so i hope she can stay to work with us. We take Jeepneys around the city or tri-cycles, i love taking them bc it gives me an opportunity to share the gospel. The frogs sound cows here haha its so weird. We eat with a fork in the left and a spoon to the right. We use the fork to shovel the food into the spoon. They don't use knives dito. We have been so busy every day getting the members excited about missionary work. We have been teaching them the importance of it and asking for referrals. We will be teaching 3 investigators this week, we hope for more! I am so good at OYMing!! Not to brag or anything :) Haha, but really. I love talking to everyone. It has been helping my tagalog imoprove. I have also been helping lead the lessons. They all tell me that i am magaling in tagalog already, which means skilled, but i dont think so yet. They LOVE Americans. Every time i meet someone they are say maganda ikaw (you are beautiful). I dont know why they say that bc i think philipnos are sooo beautiful! I use that to directly go into stating my purpose as a missionary. The members say that our ward will have more baptisms now that we have sisters and americans. I hope thats not the reason. I want to build their faith in the ebanghelyo and help them gain a testimony. I love being a missionary everyday. I grow and learn. I know this is the true church on the earth. My own conversion to it continues to grow stronger. I love this work. It brings me joy. Everlasting joy. Ingat po! Mahal po Kayo!! Sister Reed

Nanay, Tatay, pamilya, at kaibigan! This is my last pday in America!! YAH!! Excited ako! And im getting trunky to leave!! p.s. I just learned that trunky means anxious to leave and pack...must be a weird missionary word. However, I do feel so nagpapasalamat para sa ito karanasang. So greatefu for this experience! I have drawn lalumapit sa Diyos dito, closer to him here. I have learned how to be a better teacher and how to let the spirit work through me so i can be an instrament in His work. This work is not about what I want at all. Who really cares about what I want really. I have learned to give myself to the Lord and to put the things I want on the self for 18 months. Sacrfices bring forth the blessings of heaven. I have learned that obedience brings forth the blessings of heaven. Becuase obediance makes me worthy to have the spirit with me always on a higher spiritual ground. I had a cool experience in my lesson teaching Darly last week. We were teaching him the Law of Tithing. At the end I felt this strong impession, that Diyos wanted me to tell him something. The words came into mt mind. He wanted me to give Darly a promise blessing. That if he paid his tithing, he and his family would never be hungry and that they would always have what they needed. The spirit was so srtong in the room and I could not deny that that was revelation from Dyios. I have been learning to put all my faith that He will tell me everything I need to say, after i prepare and study. I gave Him my heart, and with it, He pierced the veil. I know that the veil is thin between our two worlds. I am trying to become closer to it, so i can be a better instrament of God and be filled with the power of faith (pananampalatya). I had an awe-haw moment in our in feild orientation yesterday! We were learning about faith as an action, and then he stated that faith is power. I began to think about how faith is power. Or why it is power. Having the power of faith to me means that I can have Diyos power within me. Within my heart, soul and mind. That I can be more like the Savior. That when i have enought faith, He will fill me inside to have the capacity to do the things he wants me to do. It gives me the power to recieve revelation for my investigaots, to learn tagalog, to be the best i can be, because i have the faith he will help me accomlilsh them. Only becuase He is in me. According to the strength of my faith. We have to believe that He can be in us first before he can enter his power to fullfil all that is good in this mundo. I testify of the power of faith. That when i am faithful and obediant I can have God power fill my being and become a more celestial being. More purified. And more capable to accomplish the work of my Savior. Becuase my kasama and I are new sister training leaders, we got to host the new sisters this week! It was so fun to welcome then and to make them feel comfotable. Also, later this araw, Merikoles, I got the oipportunity to go to the doctors!! YAH! I had a wart on my foot...actually it grew into 5 warts on the bottom of my foot. Haha, Gotta love the byu dance floor :) Anyways, he gave me 3 options...I chose the one that would get rid of them. He said, we gotta get these things off of ya so when you come back you can get married? No one will want to marry you with wart on your foot! Haha, he was so funny. He stuck a numbing shot down the top of my foot all the way to the bottom where my warts were... Then he stuck three shots in the bottom of my foot with bombing fluid! The stuff you use for dead people! Haha! So they should turn black in three weeks and i can cut them out! yah! It has been so tender to walk on for the past couple days, pero, i am grateful that they can be fixed! They will multiply quickly sa philipinas!! They love the moist, wet and dark! I love you so much! Mahal Kita MAS MAS MAS! Excited ako to call you on monday! We wake up to leave at 615 and we are taking the train to the airport! WHOOO! Filipinas here i come!! Mahal, Sister Reed

Dear Pamilya!!

 

I have I more week left in the MTC!! Yah!! We got our flight plans yesterday! I was jumping up and down everywhere!!! So masaya :) I leave the MTC AUG 12 at 7:30am Monday morning, fly out of Salt Lake at 11:15am and get into Portland OR at 2:10 and then leave for Tokyo Japan at 4:55pm.....then fly to Manila Philippines!!! WHOO!

 

This week has been crazy!! I have exciting news! I was called as the NEW SISTER TRAINING LEADER!! The training book is new and fresh off the press. We are the second group to use them. I love being a sister training leader! I have this overwhelming love for each and everyone of my sister, from Heavenly Father. I was in charge with our zone leaders to welcome the new missionaries in our zone and have an orientation for them. We also started having nightly mini devotionals in our room with all the sisters in our zone. We have an exciting news moment, scripture, and a prayer. It has gotten all of us to each to know each other better and build a sisterhood. I love them all so much. I know that this is the work of the Lord. Being at the MTC has strengthened me so much. We also had 4 new international sisters/elders come into our zone where we got to spend the the second half of the day with them! They are so fun and so sweet. I love new cultures, they are from the island of Kitapiss.

 

My kasama and I were both chosen to help train the new missionaries in the "how to begin teaching". We got to be the example missionaries when a whole group of new missionaries watched us and talked about how we taught. I haven't taught a lesson in English, so it was hard to not let the Tagalog words slip out. We taught Jose and Barbra. Even if they were not real investigators, the spirit was still so strong.

 

Something funny happened the other day, sister keith and i were laying on the cement wedges while doing personal study time. A brethren walked up to us and said, what are you sisters doing? Missionary Planking?? Haha, we laughed and that we weren't allowed to sit on the grass. He said, who told you that? I am his boss, you study on the grass! Hah, it was Richard Heaton!! It made us laugh.

 

Tagalog is coming...I have been trying to get the grammar down better this week. Our conjugations sound like gibberish haha, when we are all talking at once, it sounds funny.

 

Here is my purpose sa Tagalog:

 

Ang Layunin Mo,

 

Imbitahin ang iba na lumapit Kay Cristo sa pagtulong sa Kanila na matanggap any ibinalik na ebanghelyo sa pamamaigitan ng pananampalatya Kay Cristo, pagsis, binyag, pagtanggap ng Kaloob na Espiritu Santo, at pagtitiis hanggang wakas.

 

I have been learning at the MTC to seek to live a higher life. To be more pure, obedient and righteous. To always do the things that will please my Heavenly Father. St John 8:29

H Bryan Richards gave a Tuesdays devo and said, Missionaries are like diamonds against the black velvet. That what a tragedy it would be if we were not prepared for our finest hour. I know that this is one of my finest hours, to bring the world its truth. I need to be as prepared as i can!

 

Alam ko po na totoo simban ni Jesucristo!

Mahal Kita!!

 

Sister Reed