Mandaluyong- week 1.........good 'ole metro manila

Kumusta!

So.. as the heading states, I have been transferred. Actually the four sisters from Las Pinas were pulled out and elders were put there.... so my companion got transferred to. hehe  If you look at the map of the mission, I just keep moving up, haha :)  It's pretty funny. Apparently, I'm meant to be a city missionary because I've been in all city zones so far. I like it. I'm now currently in Mandaluyong... it's a real city. Personally, I think that the area I'm in right now is like New York City. You have Brooklyn, Manhattan, etc... so I think that Mandaluyong is like that with Makati being the big main one and the other areas are like suburbs to it. It's pretty interesting. It's great. It's funny... so far in every zone I've been in so far, there's been a connection to it. While I was in San Pedro, I received the referral for the person in Las Pinas.... and voila! I get transferred to it. This case, I had stayed in this area for about a day and a half after my first transfer because I was waiting for my new companion. Also, I met this girl who volunteers at the family history center at the temple and she remembered me every time I went up there and it turns out that I'm now serving in her ward... so it's pretty ironic. The girl's name is Lena and she's leaving on a mission in March. She's serving in the visitor's center in Hawaii by the temple. That's pretty exciting. The ward is really great and really functional as a ward. I'm excited for lessons I've already learned and for the many more lessons ahead of me this transfer. I bet you're wondering about my new companion, eh? hehe  I was surprised at this, but not really... it's hard to explain. Her name is Sister George and she's from India. Pretty exciting.  I think that so far in my mission, my interest in my majors has grown so much more and with her so far, it's fueling the desire even more. It's great. She also knows a bit of Arabic.. so later on in the transfer when I get a better grasp of Tagalog, she's going to teach me some Arabic... I'm pretty excited... no worries, Tagalog is my main focus, it's a great language, full of challenges :) haha. She knows a lot of languages, though and she goes home in May. For her whole entire mission, she's been in the bigger cities in Metro-Manila and she's never been to province and she really, really wants to go to province... I get the feeling that after this transfer, she'll go to province for her last two transfers and I'll stay in the Makati zone next transfer... it's funny, the feelings you receive as you ponder. God really does have a sense of humor... I realize that more and more as things happen and areas I'm in, companions I'm with, etc...  I'm excited for the lessons up ahead of me. 

The Area Presidency broadcast was great. It's amazing what was said and the statistics that were shared. There's not enough time to write everything that was said but I'll give you a general idea. The Philippines is the cradle of Christianity in Asia. No other country can compare to it. There's also been some incredible prophecies about this land, it's going to play a huge role in the future in preparing for the second coming... it's amazing...One of them is that soon, the majority of the missionaries in Asia will be Filipino and they will be sharing with all of the Asian countries. However, right now in the Philippines, they are one generation away in the church from being extinct. Hence the high numbers of less actives. So now the focus is on the rising generation (you know the youth and young single adults like myself, that type of thing) and four other goals/focuses. They have five goals/visions for the year 2012 and I'm humbled that I get to experience this for the entire year. The Area Presidency also announced that they asked all the missionaries in all of the Philippines to help. We literally are on a rescue mission and it's so humbling to learn all this information and what we are embarking on. We are now working hand in hand with members and reclaiming the lost sheep... and as we are doing this, we're finding new investigators. It's amazing.  If only members realized the power they have in helping the less-actives... there wouldn't be any problem like this in the world! The Area Presidency was also focusing on the need for the doctrine to be shared and the focus on becoming better teachers, better spiritual environment for people to come to church, better visiting and home teaching, basically better everything. There was lots said and I took a lot of notes but there's not enough time... sorry :S No where else in the world is there a huge problem like this. I'm humbled that I get to be a part of this effort and determined to help! Thanks for the emails I've received.. I appreciate them!  

Mahal ko Kayo

Sister Mohrman 

Las Pinas- week 12......Transfers! :)

Kumusta!

So I bet you all want to know how transfers are.... well I'll be sure to let you know next week because I don't find out until tomorrow. :) haha  This past week has been great, full of lessons and what not.  On Wednesday, I went to the temple and it was great as usual. My companion and I did a lot of service this past week and it was really good. These people needed it and they appreciated it. and now, they're even more receptive to hear the word. It's been pretty good. Rachel and Raquel are progressing. Racquel (the mother) is getting even more warmer to the us and the church in general. She still has a ways to go but she's on the way! :)  The ward is getting more involved and more excited about this work. That's really exciting, especially with the less-actives. They have a plan now and hopefully they will follow through with this plan... this Saturday is going to be pretty special. This Saturday is the Area Presidency's broadcast to all the stakes, wards, Bishops, leaders of the different groups, stake presidents, teachers, etc....  and of course the missionaries have been told to attend. This broadcast is specialized training. It's going to basically help them with how to teach during church so they stay on the doctrine and more interesting for the less-actives, less-actives and members. It's going to cover a lot of things but I'll tell you about it next email after I attend it... Thanks for the emails! 

Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

Las Pinas- week 11..... bombs away!

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails! Happy New Year! Fireworks here are pretty spectacular.  You know at the end of the Stadium of Fire and they're shooting off fireworks... and then at the very last of the song, they shoot off all of them at once?  Well that's how it is here in the sky at the Philippines. It's pretty cool. Days leading up to New Year's Eve, they're letting off bombs and other fireworks that are loud. Then on New Year's Eve around 6:30 PM or 7:00 PM they start to let off the fireworks in the sky nonstop like at the stadium of fire... and it goes on for the rest of the evening with it getting even more as it got closer to midnight. and then it would still go off in the morning too!. Yes, it was hard to sleep because along with the fireworks, it was the loudest thing I've ever experienced. The horn things that were played at the world cup in South Africa that caused a lot of problems, were played constantly and other horns that are even louder. I have to admit, earlier as were heading back to the apartment. My companion and I each bought one and then right before 10:30 PM we were blowing in the horns... it was great :) and really fun. It gets crazy here in the Philippines but I didn't actually see the bulk of it because of safety issues and curfew. It's fun and then it continues on for the next few days because everyone likes to party! :D  haha.  It was a great experience. This past week has been a really great week full of lessons. God is great! He's is so very merciful to me! There's this one family whose 14 year old daughter wants to get baptized but her mom is against it and she has gotten offended by us extending a baptismal invite to her daughter during first transfer and then the problems kind of escalated. She also hasn't liked the other missionaries either. So we backed off for over four weeks and re-evaluated our efforts and God inspired us with the way to go. Now she's very warm and excited to see us. God is helping us so much and she is softening up. We're teaching her the lessons again but in a way that excites her and that is because God inspired us to do it this way. We're including a story every time we teach and getting her more involved (our focus is mainly on her) and now she's more excited to hear more. We teaching with pictures and whatever we say we try to do it in story like telling (it's really hard to explain). She still has a long ways to go but she's progressing and I'm so excited to see the change in her! God is great!  On Wednesday, I get to go to the temple again! I'm pretty excited for that!  Next week are transfers... and that should be an interesting time. So I'm not sure, if I get to email on Monday or Wednesday.... I guess I'll find out then, haha.  :)  The investigators we have are progressing a lot and so are the less-actives, slowly but surely.. it just requires time, patience and love. I love it here and I'm so happy and grateful for the lessons I'm learning. We're getting blessed by God in a lot of ways and also with finding out the concerns of the less-actives and our investigators.Thanks for all that you do! Maraming salamat po!

Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

Las Pinas- week 10..... Merry Christmas!

Maligayang Pasco!

I should say, Merry late Christmas but oh well :).  Thanks for the emails and phone call and the unexpected phone call too, hehe :)  It was great hearing about everything and sorry that I didn't tell you all everything... I forgot to mention to your question of how I get around.. I walk, I ride jeepneys, tricycles and Pedicabs and buses if I'm going long distances.... that's about it...  Christmas is always a fun time of the year. Here in the Philippines, it starts in September and then with each week that passes, it gets progressively more festive. It's pretty neat to see. The Christmas lights are really quite amazing and it's great that these people love putting up Christmas lights :).  I love it here in the Philippines and I love the lessons I'm learning every day. 
Yesterday, I had the phone call with you all in the morning, then I went to church. It's pretty great that some of our investigators were there. Afterwards, a bishopric member and his wife invited us over for a lunch so we accepted. Then we went back to our apartment and studied and then we delivered the gifts to the less-active families.. it was pretty great. God helped us out so much and for this entire week! We've had limited time where we could deliver these gifts, but He blessed us with speed and no misshaps happened. I could literally see blessing after blessing as were delivering the messages and gifts. It was a humbling experience. Anyways, then we went back to the apartment and we had an apartment Christmas party with the other two sisters that we share the apartment with. It was pretty neat and festive. We had a gift exchange too and I received some really great gifts. There's one that I love (I loved them all). It's a Filipino flute... Sister Santillian gave that to me because she knew that I played different instruments and it even came with instructions with telling me what note is what note... so I'm now learning a new instrument, hehe :)  It's really neat and very Filipino. Yes, at times, I have been playing the piano over here, in district meetings and whenever the ward needs a pianist so no worries about me not playing the piano... :)  Afterwards we shared spiritual messages and then we ate a ton of great food... it was a great experience. It's always a great time of the year to reflect on what Jesus has done for me and to recommit myself to do better so I can emulate His example all year long... it's a really humbling experience. The people here are amazing. They're so humble... they don't have a lot but the things they do with what they have, it's amazing. The food is delicious... The only thing I haven't tried is the the head of the food. For example, I eat fish, but I don't eat its' head, because the eyeballs are still attached... so I've avoided the head so far but who knows what the future holds. Apparently, the head is a real delicacy... but I guess I'll see in the future :).   haha  A couple of weeks before Christmas, they started to pull out some fireworks.. so that was all nice and loud, haha  It's all leading up to New Year's Eve and a few days after that... so I guess I'll tell you more about that next week. :)
Sorry if I haven't answered your questions... feel free to ask about them in your next emails and I'll respond when I can print them out next week or so... no worries :)  Thanks again for everything! Thanks for the Christmas cards too! I appreciate everything! 
Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

Las Pinas- week 9.....almost Christmas :)

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails! This past week has been great as usual. We went out this past Monday to work and we couldn't do any appointments, they all fell... but then we visited a less-active family and God blessed us by letting us finally know the reason why this less-active family doesn't come to church... that helped us out a lot because now we know where to start off with this family. The reason is that they don't have a testimony. The only reason they had joined the church in the first place was that the Church built them a new house... so we're glad that we know the reason. God helped us out a lot.  On Wednesday, we went to work, as usual. It was great. We decided that we would go to Jesse's house. Jesse is 18 years old and is a former investigator of some previous missionaries a couple of years ago. Out of the blue, as we were walking, he called out to us and told us that he would like to learn more because it helped him out before.... that happened last transfer. But we have been busy so we were unable to go there and when we did, he wasn't there... so we finally went back there this past week. He was at work but his family was there and that was great! His mom has 12 children and his grandma has 15 children... so small amounts of children indeed. When we taught the family, it was the mom, grandma, the brothers, and a couple of sisters...so around seven in all. It was pretty cool, they want to know more and they're really good. The brother remembers some things that were taught to him years ago (he's around 16 now) and we're excited to work more with this family. On Thursday was our mission Christmas party (with the whole entire mission, except those on Palawan)... it was pretty much the whole day and it was great. We had President and Sister Stucki speak to us, then a gift exchange, then we ate lunch that was high quality. Afterwards, each zone did a few musical talents... it was pretty neat. President and Sister Stucki are so nice to all of us. They even gave each missionary an apron with our mission name on it... Yes, I just need to cook now, hehe.  Actually, I'm starting to gather Filipino Recipes because I want to eat these foods when I get home...so it looks like I might cook when I get home, haha  :)  On Friday, we went to Pulang Lupa (a mini-city, type complex) and we didn't get to meet with very many people...but we had the ward list with us so we were trying to find these long lost people in this area (the inactives). God blessed us by leading us to this one family.  The parents are not members but their four sons are. It was pretty exciting because they also agreed to come to Temple Tour this week (on the 23rd). So that was pretty exciting. God is blessing us a lot.... 
I guess some of you wanted to know a little bit more about the Philippines, food, etc... so I decided I would tell you about the common food joints here in the Philippines. Of course, I eat the normal Filipino type food but they have a lot of fast food joints all over the Philippines. The most common (besides 7-11, haha :)) are McDonalds, Dunkin' Donuts, KFC, Dominos Pizza (which is delicious), Pizza Hut and many others... they're all over in the Philippines, not just in the city-city type area. I'm not sure what else to say about that....so anyways. Next week I'll tell you more about Christmas. They start Christmas in September but I decided I would tell about it in December to all of you :D  It's been raining a lot this past week and I like it. I love the rain... it was pretty great.  Also, on Sunday, they had a stake Christmas musical devotion. All the wards did a very good job. Then at the end, an elder from the seventies spoke.... I forgot his name but I really enjoyed it. Well, this seems longer than usual... hope you don't mind, haha...  Thanks again for everything!

Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

Las Pinas- week 8.... exciting

Kumusta!

Salamat po!  Thank you very much again for the package with the tree, etc...  I loved it. I have to admit, I really love fruit snacks and the one thing that the Philippines doesn't have are fruit snacks... so I have to admit they were consumed in about one day :) hehe I stuck the laffy taffy's and chocolate in the freezer and they tasted great. I loved the decorations! Thank you so much!  Thanks for the emails... I appreciate it!  Things are getting excited as the time draws even closer to Christmas!  Mahal ko ang Pascol!!! 
Some of the less-actives came to church yesterday and it was so exciting. One of them is named Gilbert. He lives with his cousins and only the mom typically comes to church. Yesterday, he and his two cousins came to church with the mother. He also is going to work with us this week, he's around 22 years old. So we're pretty excited. We're still working at it and hopefully they'll continue to come to church.
Besides the miracle of seeing the LA's at church, we also had some investigators. One of them is Annabethina (Annabeth for short). She has three little boys all under the age of 4 (I think). The youngest is a baby and he's very cute. Well, she actually came to church yesterday and I was so happy when I saw her come in. We were sitting on the stand because my companion was conducting the music. She missed the Sacrament but she came right after it ended and she stayed for the Gospel Essentials class with her baby. She left her other two kids at home with the grandma. She's amazing. Her husband works out in the province, so she doesn't see him on a daily basis but she really wants to know more...  Sorry, I'm not good at telling these stories, but it's a start :) hehe  There's also exciting plans for the Christmas week next week! I'm so excited but I'll tell you all about it when it comes to pass :)  Sorry this is short but it will improve... with time. :S
Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

Las Pinas- week 7.... new charge given...

Kumusta!

Transfer meeting was pretty interesting... it was also a specialized training too, so it was longer than normal. The area presidency has given a new charge to us missionaries in the Philippines... we're now reclaiming the less active. No more tracting. By that I mean, that in the planner if you have an hour of no appointments, a lot or missionaries will put tracting and go out and find new investigators.... but not anymore. All open slots available will now be visiting the less-active. We're still finding every chance we can get so we can continue to find and baptize new people, but that's on the way to wherever we go. So pretty interesting and exciting... did you know that in the last 50 years, over 500,000 were baptized but over 400,000 are less-active... really high numbers. I already gave you some of the recent numbers in the last couple of years but I thought I would share about the last 50 years too... The area presidency has also directed us missionaries to be more bold in everything we do and do the jobs that the wards aren't doing and taking the initiative while still realizing that the Bishop is the leader in the ward and respecting his authority. But apparently, the area presidency is visiting all the bishops and stake presidents in the Philippines and telling them that the missionaries will be bold and direct with them so that's what they're going to be expecting from us... the standard has been risen and we're on a mission now to find those that are lost. All those baptisms and them turning inactive... Things are changing a lot over here. They're going to be changing the standards of excellence and now there's going to be a special report every week about the less-actives and new things are being added in the area book about them. We get to track they're progress in the church and if they come to church four consecutive times then they're not less-active anymore. They even changed the price of the quad scriptures to 77 pesos! That is extremely cheap and only in the Philippines... no where else in the world. This is so that the less actives can have the opportunity to have all the standard works in their homes. The church leaders are very concerned about this part of the world- in the Philippines and that's why missionaries are now being called to step in to stay close to the recently converts (so we can strengthen them even if they don't have a fellowshipper) and reclaiming the inactive now... I think the church is doing this also as a way to generate work in the wards and branches about fulfilling their callings... so it's getting to be rather interesting. We're teaching the lessons to the less-actives and make sure that they get to hear all of the doctrine... there are a lot of other things but I don't have time to write about all the changes that are over here... sorry but I'm trying :)  Thanks for the emails... I really appreciate them. Congrats on the baby!

Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman