Week 24: TRANSFERS!!!!!!!

Hey everybody!!! This week was amaaaazing and then I got TRANSFERRED! So I'm moving out of Bacolod 2nd and going to Magsungay -- which are in the same zone haha. But Sister Lee is my companion and we're SOOOOO excited, it'll be such a fun transfer. But anyways I'll get to the week:

So these three adorable kids in Laurel (same place as the basketball boys) went teaching with us all day Wednesday. They're investigators and really sweet and just walked the whole day from appointment to appointment with us. They were so good the whole day that we treated them to ice cream afterwards :)

So Joseph, one of the basketball boys and Ricky's younger brother, was finally baptized :) He's had a desire for awhile but finally outwardly showed his desire by finally going to church consistently, reading the scriptures, and offering really sincere prayers. This boy has changed so so much and I've come to love their entire family like my own. The baptismal font in our ward though is outdoors and our ward mission leader was late so I just cleaned the font myself haha. It was a good adventure.

Anyways this next transfer in Magsungay should be fun, get ready for a lot of pictures!! Thanks everyone for all the support and huge shout out to my family that sent me Christmas cards :) It really means a lot to feel your guys support! Love you all and have a great week!

Sister Pope

1) Benjie, Gerry and Daniel :) Daniel wouldn't smile so I had to intervene

2) Treating these crazy boys to ice cream, love em

3) Sister Moy and Sister Fawcett!! Sister Moy goes home tOMORROW I'm seriously going to miss her so much

4) Sister Ducado and I :)) sisters 4ever

5) Sister Lee and I!!!!! New companions and totally ready to hit the field

6) Cleaning the outdoor baptismal font!!

7) Joseph :) so proud of him

Week 23: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS :))

Kamusta kamu everyone?? Another good week in the Philippines, we were productive and the people were nice but most importantly: there was no rain.

Good there was no rain because I left my umbrella in the Elders car on Tuesday from zone training and the WHOOOLE week it was so cloudy and we though it might rain but it didn't! #blessings

So I know you all are on the edge of your seats to know what disease/infection I have this week but I'll have to disappoint you all because I'm CLEAN!! Well I still have parasites in my stomach but I feel fine and working normal now!! 

Everyone's doing well, we got to explore more sketchy parts of our areas that we don't normally work in because Ricky worked with us. We're only allowed to be in those areas if someone is with us and if there's still sunlight. Yeah not creepy at ALL haha but it's good and we met some cool people.

Anyways that's pretty much all that happened, pretty normal week. I just want to say though that I know that Heavenly Father loves us and most definitely has a plan for all of us, even though hard times may come into our live and we have trials and think that times are hard, he's still there and he's working out amazing blessings for the eternities ahead. So we shouldn't give up the fight now, we have soooo many amazing things in store for us. Love you all and thank you all for the support :)

Sister Pope

1) Our zone! Love all these missionaries, I'm sooooo scared for transfers next week for real...

2) Trying to take a cute picture by a caribou and then it makes a horrendous noise and you think your life is in danger

Week 22: NEW YEAR AND WORMS

Happy new year everyone!!! And happy 2017 :)) it was a CRAZY new year here in the Philippines for real, I'll explain all about it:

So on New Years, people were just setting of fireworks the whole day, even like seven year old children haha it was actually kind of scary sometimes. The children like to light the baby dynamite and throw it at the missionaries and it's soooooooo (not) funny!!! But there's no sound rule or anything here so they started at like 5am and went until 5amthe next day haha. We just ate tempura and fries and played games in our apartment though until 10:30 and tried to go to bed and then didn't because it was soooo loud haha. It was fun though! We got free babylonian music all night and got to watch real fireworks from right outside our doorway. 

So you all are probably just used to hearing about my sicknesses now and expecting another one every week haha. You're right! The sickness special for this week: WORMS!! So yeah I have worms in my stomach and it's the worst but we're continuing on strong. Hopefully they'll go away soon though, I'm sure things will be ok :)

But anyways I can't believe it's 2017 already! Time has seriously flown by so fast I don't even know where it's going. I feel so incredibly blessed to be here in the Philippines though and feel so excited for all the things that will happen this year. Thank you all for your love and support, it means the world! Always remember to keep Zion in your hearts and in your homes and our Savior who died so we could live. He lives, and He loves us. Love you all!

Sister Pope

p.s. it's another one of those sketchy-computer-shop-my-usb-will-be-destroyed-here kind of days... next week I'll send some :)

Week 21: CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Man it's already over which is crazy but it was definitely interesting, much different from America!

Anyways not too much happened this week, Joseph, one of our investigators, went teaching with us in one of the more rural parts of our area and he loved it. Hopefully the YM we go with do a good job fellowshipping him!! 

Christmas was kind of lame actually because we had to go home at 4pm :( There are tons of drunk people out and there's a lot of fireworks that they put off in the streets so we have to be really careful and go home early. Same rules for the 31st too. It was fun though because we celebrated with four other sisters in our zone and just listened to Christmas music while eating our weight in candy that parents sent for Christmas. So, really a good day haha. I was also able to Skype my family earlier this morning which was super awesome. I love my family so much!

I can't believe that this year is almost over and in just one week, it'll be 2017! Crazy to think for the whole year of 2017 I'll be in the Philippines but I'm beyond excited for the people I'll meet and the experiences I'll have. These five months on the mission have seriously flown by! But thank you all for your support and love, it means the world to me. Hope you all have a fun and safe new year! 

Sister Pope

1) Going out teaching with Joseph, Jojo, and Jomen. They're great and so supportive of Joseph! Hopefully all of them will serve missions :)

2) Our crazy Christmas stuck in the apartment. This was after eating a lot so don't judge our faces!!

Week 20: PASKO AND PIGSA

Hey everyone!!! I can't believe that christmas is nEXT WEEK!!!! Christmas in ilonggo is "pasko" fyi. This week was pretty good though so I'll get right to it!!

So "pigsa" means.... boil. Yep, I have a boil. AGAIN. It's cool though because now I know exactly what to do for it to get better so hopefully it'll heal a lot faster than the first one. We haven't has to miss any proselyting time though which is good, as long as the pain stays down we're good to go for teaching. 

So I think I talked about this investigator we've been teaching before in previous emails, we call him mushroom boy. Well, he's finally been baptized! He was so excited and he's become so bakod (strong) in the church. He was a referral from a member, Jeffery, and had a lot of support there, so much so though he really wants to serve a mission as soon as he's done with school. Just such a great day for him, it'll be exciting to see how much more he grows in the coming months! Let me just testify real quick of the power of members/fellowshippers. Every member a missionary for real guys! 

Other than that, things are about same as usual, good as usual. I'm so excited for christmas and all the food that members will give us HAHA. But seriously, Christmas is great and everyone should remember the real importance of Christmas; families and Christ's love. Love you all and have a great Christmas!!!!

Sister Pope

1) Joshua and Jeffery, these two boys are crazy but awesome

2) Joshua!!! I pulled out my camera and this was the first pose he made haha

3) This was from splits last week, me and Sister Schneider!! 

Week 19: KUTO!!!

Hello everyone!!! Another great week here in the Philippines, lots of awesome people we met and it's SO HOT like for real we smell terrible when we get home haha. But anyways I'll get right to it:

So "kuto" means lice in ilonggo. Yeah I have lice!! Really it was only a matter of time, like every single child here has lice for real, especially John D., one of our investigators. Sister Ducado though loving takes the lice out of my hair for me and we bought some lice shampoo so it'll clear up in no time!

We went on splits and exchanges this week which was super fun. First were the splits on Tuesday and I was with Sister Schneider!! I'm actually in her first area so we were able to go and visit the people she taught while she was here and it was just a fun day. Then we had exchanges on Thursday and I was with Sister Moy, the cutest sister here for real. She's from England and has an awesome british/ilonggo accent. She goes home next transfer though which is craaaazy. Time is flying people!!!!

I'm not going to say nothing else much happened this week because a lot happened but just little things that make the mission great. I'm seriously so grateful for all the people I've met/meet every day and feel blessed every day to go out and tell people how awesome and great their lives can be. I love the Philippines and I'm excited for another week!!

Maayong pasko, palangga ko kamo tanan :)

Sister Pope

I tried uploading pictures but the computers in this computer shack are SO sketchy and my camera might get a virus so stay tuned for next week haha

Week 18: BOILZ

Kamusta kamo sa inyo tanan!!! This week had it's up and downs, I'll just get right to it :))

So the downs for this week is I got a BOIL on my leg. If you don't know what a boil is, don't google it because they're hecka nasty for real. It was super duper painful and I had no clue where it came from but we had to stay at home for tHREE and a half days for it to get better. For any of you that have been sick on the mission field, you'll understand the torture of being trapped in your apartment as you try to get better. You just stare at the clock at every hour, imagining where you would be, who you would be teaching, all the people you need to teach but you're SICK at HOME. It's the worst!! Glad to say that I've fully recovered from it all, I just sound like a chain smoker now from the sore throat haha. 

So I'm done with my training already which is crazy. Transfers were today but I get to stay in Bacolod 2nd for Christmas!!!! Best present ever for real. I'm just going to cry for days when I leave this area. I love everyone too much!!

Not much else to write about since I was dead this week but we're back at it and excited for the work!! Really loving Bacolod and super excited for this month :) Filipinos are crazy about Christmas and I am too. If you guys want to get to know who the Savior was, what He did, and what He does for us now, just go check out mormon.org !! Lots of good stuff on there. Being on the mission I've seen the hand of the Lord in so many things and I know that He lives and loves us. He sacrificed all so that we can return to live with Him and our Heavenly Father. I feel both of their love for me and feel so blessed to live the life I have. He lives!

Sister Pope

1) You guys might be sick of seeing another picture of the basketball boys but here they are again!!! They're really just super amazing and they always bring their friends to our lessons so we usually have someone new to teach. From left to right, MikeMike, Marvin, Marlon, Aldrich, Ricky, Joseph 1, Argie, Joseph 2 and Carl. 

2) Me sitting on a jeepney!! This is what they look like on the inside. I look kind of dead in this picture, it was the first appointment we went to after being in the house for so long haha. Glad to be out in the real world!!

3) Sister Lee is in my district and they live on the other side of our house so we see her a lot. She KILLS me she's so funny haha. This is us on a tricycle going home after playing soccer at the church so that's why we look like we haven't showered in awhile haha, we haven't. There's a seat attachment on the side that can fit four people but since there were six of us Sister Lee and I sat on the back of the motorcycle. He was going sooooooo fast haha. Don't worry mom it's totally safe

4) Us on thanksgiving a couple weeks ago, eating chicken instead of turkey. Still good!!