Las Pinas- week 3......Happy Halloween!

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails I've received. It's always a pleasure to hear from all who regularly send me emails   This past week has been a good week.  I've learned so much this past week and I appreciate what I'm learning. My companion and I set some high goals this week, (a bit more than the standards of excellence), and we're both excited about it. I'm going to be working so hard and we're both striving to be obedient. I know that we can reach these goals as we strive to be our best. Today is All Souls or Saints day in the Philippines, yes, it's on the day of Halloween for us but it's a different holiday. Apparently many people go the graveyards and spend many days there sleeping (at night) and having get togethers with their family while praying for their dead, since this is mostly a Catholic country. Lots of flowers everywhere. It's a pretty interesting place. I probably didn't tell what the holiday is exactly, but I just wrote what my companion told
me. My companion is really nice and I'm glad I get another opportunity to grow more.
Yes, Las Pinas (my area of it anyways) is massive. The statistics online about how many people are in Las Pinas are wrong, according to some people I've met. It's huge area with many people (one part of my area alone has close to one million people). Yeah... not sure the exact statistics but I share what I learn with you all
Sorry this is short but hopefully next week, it will be longer with some stories for all of you
Mahal ko Kayo!

Las Pinas- week 2..... God is blessing this work

Kumusta!

Things are great here. I'm learning so much every day and I can feel God helping me out so much. Las Pinas is a city. But it's a city like no city I've seen before. My area is shaped like a doughnut. The other sisters have the middle of the doughnut while my companion and I have the huge, thick outer ring of the doughnut. Our area is so huge! So many people! The population of San Pedro is nothing compared like this, although it was big too. One of our areas, alone has about one million people, and that's just one part of our area (not to mention that it's only a small part of the whole city of Las Pinas. God is helping us both out so much. We're both still new and we're learning things that we should and shouldn't do. She's a great companion. Sister Cuenca is really nice and humble. I'm learning a lot every day. Since you've asked for more story type things to be written, I'll share one. One reason is because it's a pretty cool story and another is that I don't have a lot of time to write it in my journal... so it's a win-win situation When I was in San Pedro, I contacted a lady on a jeepney on our long ride. I gave her a pamphlet and got her name and address down. But she lived in the Paranaque zone, Las Pinas CAA. So I gave the referral to my zone leaders who were supposed to pass it on but they didn't and the sisters never received the referral so all was lost for this investigator. Then about a week and a half later, or two weeks, I got transferred to this area and we were finding and I felt that we needed to go find her so we were able to find her because her address and name was written in my planner... and she's now an investigator with a baptismal date.. so I thought that was a pretty cool story. It's amazing how God loves us all so much and how much worth one soul has in the sight of God. She has a long ways to go but we're working with her and hopefully she'll develop a strong desire and testimony to continue.  I love this work and thanks for all the emails!
Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

San Pedro- week 12?...........hello Las Pinas

Kumusta!

Yesterday was transfer announcements and today were transfers. I've been transferred to Paranaque zone, Las Pinas City, so not very far away from my old zone, hehe. The ward I'm going to be serving in is Las Pinas 1st ward. This ward used to belong to the Las Pinas stake, which is the Las Pinas zone. Pretty funny thing happened. On Monday night, I decided I would wash my clothes and as I was washing them I really wanted to stop. But there was something inside of me that told me to finish washing all of my clothes or just my tendacity to finish the menial task until it gets done :). Then yesterday, we went to district/zone meeting and I found out that I was transferring while my companion was staying. It was also an extremely hot day yesterday (more so than usual) and it was a great blessing because my clothes got dry. So I spent the day packing yesterday. At night, a family called us and told us to come over for dinner so we arrived at their house around 8:15 PM or so and were fed food. I love that family and all of the other families and people I've met here in San Pedro. Sister Elix, the mother in that family, said that she would drive me and my companion and the two zone leaders to Buendia for the transfer meeting. That was such a great blessing. Buendia is about an hour and half away and it's really expensive if you have luggage with you. This morning she came to our apartment and picked us up and we didn't have to pay for anything. She even gave us doughnuts for breakfast. God has blessed me so much and is continuing to bless me as I strive to become better. My new companion is my batch mate... which means that we arrived at the mission field at the same time (she came from the Philippine MTC). She's the senior companion and I'm the junior but she says that we need to share the power... 

This is going to be an interesting transfer, but I look forward to applying the things I've learned these past two transfers. I know that the Lord has called me to Paranaque zone for reasons I don't know yet, but I'm excited, as always, to go out and serve my God. I'm being stretched in many ways and I appreciate these lessons I'm learning. Thanks for the emails everyone. It's always great getting email; sorry if I don't respond because of time, but I appreciate it very much and Thank you. My companion is a native and I'll definitely will learn the language much better in this transfer. It seems like whenever you're around people who don't speak much English, you learn better. So I'm excited for this transfer. The apartment is pretty nice. The other two sisters in the apartment are a Filipina and an Indian (she's from India, not the American Indian thing). They all speak Tagalog of course and I'm excited for this opportunity ahead of me. Thanks again for the emails and I'll let you know in more detail on Monday (maybe, depending on time) about the questions you've asked.

Mahal ko Kayo!

Sister Mohrman

San Pedro- Week 11.......I love Conference and apparently short emails :)

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails and pictures! I appreciate it! This past weekend was General Conference for me and it was amazing. It answered so many of my questions about a ton of things! I went to the stake center to watch the Saturday and Sunday session. It was really what I needed to hear and it helped me out so much. I'm learning so many lessons every day and I'm so grateful for these lessons and experiences I'm having! Sorry this is short, but I don't have a lot of time.... and next week are transfers. I'm pretty excited for next week but my email will probably be short :S. It's been raining a lot here and I really do love the rain. Thanks for all that everyone does and hope you all have a nice week! :D

Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

San Pedro- Week 10.......wonderful weather :)

Kumusta!

I love the weather this past week. Yes there was a typhoon but that was north from where I was. We received a lot of rain and wind but that was about it. This past Tuesday was the heaviest day for that and all missionaries in Metro Manila (that includes me but I'm at the southern tip of that) were told to not work that day but use the time for extra study. It was a great study time. I learned so much. Rain is so amazing. It makes me happy every time it rains   General Conference... I didn't watch because it's not until this coming Saturday and Sunday for me. But I'm so excited to be able to go and listen to it and the end of the week :D.  A typical day I guess... would be that we study in the morning and then in the afternoon around 1 PM we go tract. We walk everywhere. Sometimes we take a trike or a jeepney but walking is the best. We live in the zone leaders' area and they live in our area... so that's pretty funny. I'm not sure what else you want in the description... There's so much potential in this area and I love it and the people so much! I'm working every day to be better and work harder than before!  On Sunday, for the ward's Relief Society, we watched the film about John Tanner. It's a great story, it's very inspiring. I learned a lot! We don't really have any investigators but our focus is finding this week. It will be great at working on improving my Tagalog and different finding techniques. The Philippines is very religious. I've never seen a place like this before. There's lots of religions, but the majority are Catholic. However, there's this church called Egliescion (?) Cristo. The Church of Christ. It's a pretty interesting and popular religion here in the Philippines but only in the Philippines.
P.S. They're not allowed to talk about their religion to other people because then the people might convert them to Satan's religion or something like that. Funny thing, the leader (from what I've heard) went to BYU and graduated but then I guess he wanted to be a prophet or something so he started this religion, hence why they're not supposed to talk about their religion to other people, especially missionaries pretty funny twist of irony. end of P.S.
They're not allowed to read the bible either... You hear a lot of rumors about different churches. It's a pretty hush hush religion, but people have talked and that's why everyone knows their basic beliefs. I'm sure I'll learn more about that religion as I understand and speak the language more later on. The extra study time is for the 12 week training missionaries only (unless it changes in the future). As far as I know that after transfers (around mid-October) I'll just have the one hour of companionship study. It's a shame, but there's reasons for everything and I know that this mission is being inspired to know what we need to do. The next few weeks will be kinda crazy... so even shorter emails maybe, and I'll probably won't be able to write them on Monday. I'm really grateful for what I've learned and still learning in this companionship.... I love the lessons and can feel myself every day spiritually changing. I love this work and I'm so excited for this week! Thanks for the emails! I appreciate them!
Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

San Pedro- Week 9.......

Mahal ko ang Ulan!  :D

Thanks for the emails everyone! First off.... hopefully there's not misunderstanding about my emails. Some of the emails I received were interesting. I love it here and I really love the lessons I'm learning. I'm not trying to portray a positive or happy attitude if the situation isn't that pleasant, I'm just writing how I feel and being honest. I really appreciate my weaknesses because they allow me to grow. I don't dwell negatively on them, but I am always trying on making them stronger. Same with situations. It's a great learning experience. I love it here and I love the rain! It seems that it rains really hard when I need to feel better or when I'm about to do something I haven't done before. God is blessing and helping me a lot! Thanks for the emails. I love reading them; however, I am unable to print them... so hopefully there's a way I can get a copy of all these emails that were sent to me during this whole time....  
I know my zone well. I guess it's kind of like Joseph's zone? We become close to the elders. We usually have an enjoyable time together. This transfer.... is a great learning experience for the zone.... so it's very good for everyone. The ward is great. They're willing to work with the missionaries. There's always room for improvement when it comes to things but this week should be more productive. We're finding people and what not... and I've run out of things to write about...  This week should be really exciting when it comes to work. My companionship is slowly getting stronger and I really appreciate what God is teaching me this transfer...  I love challenges and this has been a challenge so far. I've had a lot of realizations and I'm excited for the continuing of these lessons and the many more yet to come! Things are going good and I love it here in this area. There's a lot of potential! Sorry this is short but I'll have more to write next week! 
Mahal ko Kayo!
Sister Mohrman

San Pedro- Week 8.......love the temple :)

Magandang Hapon!

 

    Thanks for the emails!  Today is my preparation day because it was temple day. It's always great going to the temple! I love the spirit there. 

    So far this transfer has been interesting. I find it amazing how much God looks out after us and puts us in circumstances that allows us to grow and change into what He sees in us. It's been an adjustment having the two other sisters in the apartment but it's what I need to grow into the missionary I want to become. I'm learning a lot from my companion, especially patience and charity :D... haha  I'm really grateful for these growing experiences this transfer. I'll be so excited when I finally have learned the lessons but I like the growing along the way. I won't lie, this week has tried my patience and difficult at times but then I really appreciate the patience that God has with me :D.  He has helped me out a lot and I'm so excited for these challenges to overcome!  I have to say that it's a big blessing to have this type of growing experience now instead of gradually along my mission. I'm being blessed a lot with these circumstances!  This zone has been really different this transfer.... more Americans in it and it's kind of separated between the two groups. It's a learning experience for everyone and it's exciting that as we strive to become better and have more unity... what miracles will come. 

     This area is great.... if a person works really hard, then they'll reap a lot. There's always challenges but it allows a person to be creative with finding techniques. My companion and I have been adjusting to each other and I know that now as we work hard, we will see a lot of investigators in this area! For example, on Monday we found 15 people to teach in a short amount of time... The Philippines is a choice place but only if the missionary is really dedicated to working hard and doing their best. I've got lots to work on, especially these weaknesses I have, but I know that God is helping me and I'm really grateful for Him.

     The food is delicious.... I think I've already said that before, but I'll say it again. I love the food here, except for the Fried pig fat thingy mabobber. I've had rice, squid, crab, fish, shrimp, rice and a bunch of other food and it's all delicious!  The crab, I'm not sure about what it's supposed to taste like.... I don't think I figured out how to eat it out of it's shell, but the part I did manage to get out of its shell wasn't bad. I really love the rice, I have to admit.  The fruits and vegetables are amazing. But enough about the food  :D  

     In answer to some of your questions, some people have Christmas decorations up! It's pretty cool. I still have my area. I'm in SP1 and the other sisters are in the other ward, SP2. It used to have elders last transfer but this transfer they made it a sisters area. So the sisters are shotgun training that area.  We have a refridgerator because we have to keep the majority of our food in there or the bugs will eat it. We don't have a microwave but it's all good. I love it here.

     Time is short... so sorry yet again... but I'm trying :D  

Mahal ko Kayo!

Sister Mohrman