White Wash

I just want to let you all know that you have missed out on a fabulous opportunity to talk to me. Haha no it's not your fault, you didn't know my P-Day would be changed to a Monday for just this week because Zone Conference is on Wednesday. I didn't even find out till Saturday. So I don't remember if I talked about it in my last email but... I am White washing this transfer, which means both me and my companion are new to the area.. patay... It is extremely hard. We don't know anything here. There has been a LOT of tracting. When you imagine missionary work what do you imagine? You imagine missionaries walking for miles trying to find people to teach. That has been my life this week. And it is hard. Although I have discovered a new boldness in myself that I did not know existed. I will talk to ANYONE! 

Also, I am finally at a point where I'm comfortable with the language. I woke up last Monday and I was thinking about it and I just thought "I'm comfortable, I've got this, I can speak Visaya." and then just a few short hours later I was thrown a curveball in transfer calls. The Lord has decided that I always need a challenge in my life. I sure have a lot of growing to do.

 
White wash is my new challenge this transfer. We are going to whip Bacong into shape. I just know it. 

So last monday thru Wednesday there were a lot of tears. My favorite experience was we went to go say goodbye to one of our Nanay's and as we were leaving she starts hugging me, she's just a tiny little thing, and she just starts sobbing saying "Don't forget about me" and I promised her I wouldn't forget about her. 

So Wednesday night was a hoot. We spent a ton of time doing last minute packing and trying to deep clean our apartment because it's been closed. They closed our area... Cleaning out missionary kwan and the gunk of 20 sister missionary's past was very exciting. Not. I did find this rocking purple mumu with peacocks all over it. 

We woke up so early though on Thursday, we get all packed. We flagged a trike for Sister Conjelado, and loaded her stuff up. I managed to hold myself back from crying as I hugged her goodbye and watched her drive away. She really was like my nanay. I relied on her so much. 

Sister Beyer and I started the very fun adventure of trying to get a trike for ourselves... We even tried to bribe the taggiya to do it but she doesn't know how to drive any of her 5 trucks. Salamat. We were running down the street, our bus was leaving in 15 minutes and I stopped and said "Let's pray." so we said a prayer and as soon as she said amen she looked up and Sister Poteki and Sister Abenoja had come back for us. We sprinted to them (Sister Beyer rocking a limp run because of her foot) and we loaded up our luggage. There was no room for us, so I climbed behind the driver, used one hand to balance my giant suitcase on top of the back of the motorcycle through the window, and Sister Beyer sat on my lap. Life here is very exciting. We made it on time. 

The bus ride was sickening, I got car sick so I hung my head out the window and got mud all over my face and arms. We rode to Cebu and then we got another bus to Dumaguete. Four hours of driving along the coast, gorgeous beaches. We just talked and talked for hours. The bus drove onto the boat, we got out, went to the bathroom. There was a porthole window on the bathroom and I died laughing over it. We got back on the bus, drove to the station. The zone leaders picked us up, took us to our new apartment. It looked like a typhoon had gone through it. It was disgusting. There was still rotten food out. The cleaning had not been done... We spent a few days picking it up. We're still taking care of all the kwan. 

We got to go to Robinsons, which is like a mall, fabulous. 

Friday: After a really kalo-oy weekly planning (pathetic) we went out proselyting. We taught this group of drunk people who were harvesting mangoes so they have us two GIANT bags of mangoes to take with us. We found another girl after that who is really good, I'm excited to go back and teach her.
There has been a lot of wandering these last couple days, we have talked to so many people though. SO MANY! 

On Sunday we got to take a hable hable (motorcycle) up the mountain to Buntod and we fit 5 of us on it. It was fabulous. I loved it so much. 

This morning we had district meeting and we ate at Robinsons in the food court and after this I am going to have little fish eat all the dead skin off my feet. Yea. We found a place that does that. 

My new companion is fabulous. Her name is Sister Koyamaibole, she is from Fiji, and she's a light. She serves everyone, and loves everyone. I love poly's! I am so excited for this transfer. 

Something from my personal study i want to share with you: So my first morning in Bacong I woke up super stressed (obviously) we don't know what we're doing, or who to talk to, and my mind was running. I was reading in Ether, and this one verse stood out to me. Because of the setup of my book of mormon, the first line of Ether 2:16 says: "And the Lord said: Go to work" 

It answered my question. We are going to hit the pavement (or the bukid so to speak) and teach like we've never taught before. We are going to GO TO WORK! We're finding, we're teaching, we're baptizing. Hold on world, we're rocking this. 

There will be tears, but it will all be worth it in the end. 

Pray for me! I love you!
-Sister Katrina Dunn

Toledo: the City of Copper with a Heart of Gold

No I'm not just being char. Those are the exact words on the sign by the bay in the city. And did I have an exciting week or what in the 'copper city with a heart of gold'.


Wednesday: Of course I went to the temple. The bus was so hot on the way home. One of our less-actives hid from us but we hunted her down and taught her anyway. It was very exciting.


Thursday: Bandeau's birthday. I hope y'all celebrated right! He deserves the best. My companion told me I needed to humble myself. I was embarrassed. Thank you for the wake up call Nay, I needed it.


This woman we OST'ed when I was only a week in the field, we walked by her house and she invited us in and let us teach her, and she told us her husband has been reading the BOM! Awesome.


The elder's gave us 'perfect directions' (no joke they even titled them that when they handed us the slip of paper), to Talavera. We taught a woman there named Charmain, and I botched the first vision, but the lesson was still really good. I just need to do better next time.


My companion stepped on a tiki and it was smashed so bad. Just killed it dead. It was an accident, it was really funny. But we were so tired we didn't throw it away till the next morning.


Friday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT LINDA! I haven't forgotten about you! We had a CSP and they blasted 'Complicated' by Avril Lavigne. I was laughing so hard. Rocking old school there. Norein and MaiMai treated us to Jollibee that night. Spaghetti and reeses mix in. Fabulous.


Saturday: We FTE'd a group of incredibly drunk men. Want to know why i hate alcohol. It makes people ridiculous. One of them went back and forth from yelling at me, and being nice to me. And then he bought us soda. I don't know. It was very strange. We celebrated Sister Abenoja's birthday in style. We ate mexican food! It was delightful. We got to go to the halls and have snacks for dinner! One of the member's kuyog'ed to an appointment.


Sunday: We went to Casoy in the morning for special sacrament but it got canceled so we just took pictures and hung out. Fabulous. We almost lost each other too. Whoops. It is the cutest little mountain village. We said our goodbyes to sister Lamoglia, she's heading home #char. There were tears, not from me.


Monday: Transfer calls. and guess what... I'M TRANSFERRING! to the other island. I'm going to the land of Milk and Honey. My new area: Bacong. bukid. fun! Let's go. I'm gearing up for follow up training. I'm not a baby anymore.


We have spent the past few days saying goodbye and packing up. I'm scared, I'm stressed, I got this. I love all of you


I have a challenge for anyone willing to embark. Read the Book of Mormon before I come home, and you will get a boss gift.

Gihigugma ti mo!


-sister katrina dunn

Temple Trip & Skype

Let me just start by saying this week was FABULOUS! Well not all of it, everything has it's opposite. Honestly I never know how to start the emails. Awkward... I need to type fast though I don't have a lot of time.

Wednesday: we went to the Bato Fish Sanctuary and there were rainbow fish that kept jumping out of the water at us when we fed them. The water was like glass, and the dock went out over the reef. We could see to the bottom. So cool! Also update: Jollibee has fantastic reeses peanut butter mix ins. 

Thursday: We took all the WOW items from an investigator and disposed of them for him. He was shocked, but willing to let us take them. He wants to change. YAY! One of our Tatay's is reading his book of mormon every day :D

Friday: I experimented with pasta. The cheese situation here is very kalo-oy so i used a 'cheese spread'. I'm not sure what it is actually made of, but everyone assures me the pasta was great. We OST'ed in a field too, while the sun was setting. It was beautiful. 

Saturday: I cooked Bicol Express (i'm sorry I talk so much about the food, I just really love it, and Bicol is amazing). We found a new girl to teach, she is so ready for the gospel. Her name is Vanessa, her husband is working abroad right now. They have a tiny baby. She was really upset when we first brought up baptism because she said "I don't have money to pay for my baby to get baptized" I was shocked on several fronts, but we assured her that her baby doesn't need to be baptized because he is perfect :D She was really happy after that, we have another appointment with her this weekend. 

It was also Nino's baptism, I was so happy for him. He was so excited he came to the church 3 hours early. He sprinted to the bathroom when it was time to change into his suit :D I held his CTR ring for him. He's been waiting for this day for 5 months, because neither of his parents are members he has to come to church for a long time before he qualifies for baptism. He's 14 years old, I love him! He wanted the Melchezidek priesthood pronto but we had to tell him he has to wait haha. 

We had dinner at the Halls (the senior couple in the area) and they made COSTCO LASAGNA AND THERE WAS CHEESECAKE FROM THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY! WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?!?! I stuffed myself full I was so excited. We discussed what intelligences were. I love doctrinal talks with Elder Hall he is soo smart. 

Sunday: I got to skype with my lovely mother, my father and my sister and they all look great! I bore my testimony, I don't know how it sounded. I hope they didn't tell anyone I'm fluent because.. I am not hahah. Not yet that is. 

On the way to church I saw one of our less actives who always gives us free rides places and I just thought "He's coming to church today" so I marched over and climbed on the back of his motorcycle and said "okay lets go," and he drove us to church and tried to get away but I told him to park his trike and come in with us. He was worried because he wasn't dressed for church but I assured him it was no big deal. He stayed for 2 hours, I was really excited. And he liked it.. he just needed a push.
I helped an Elder sing "mother i love you" to his grandmother, it was fun although i don't think I have ever sung that song before. 

Monday: the goat that lives outside our apartment was murdered. A few days earlier we had made jokes that he had died because he had gotten quiet but then we heard him again so we knew it wasn't true.. but then he was killed on Monday. It's like that moment in Jurassic Park where they are all like "where's the goat?" and then the leg lands on top of the car. It's actually kind of funny. The owners cooked him up hahha, I hope he was good.

We also went back to an OST's house and met her granddaughters and they are soo good, we're teaching them again later. We're basically rebuilding our teaching pool right now. 

Tuesday: We got up SO early to play games at the church and then I was exhausted all day. Not a lot happened. 

Wednesday!! WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!! I SAW SISTER QUINNEY!! It was all perfect. I'm out of time. I love you! I'll try to leave a spiritual thought next week when I have more time, I've been traveling all day so less time than usual!
bye bye!


-sister dunn

Dusters, Death, and Leonardo DiCaprio

We went to the beach this week! Beautiful. Talavera has got it going on! We took a lot of char pictures, I'm still laughing over them. Our dusters and my dress are finished, they are both fabulous. We look awesome when we are dressed like Nanay's. 

We made tuna carbonara, brownies, and cookie dough and the sisters from downstairs brought us cheese and potato soup. No wonder in weekly planning this week I made a goal to jump rope every day (even on the days I don't want to). 

We played football and volleyball on Saturday, it was really fun. I amaze people with my mad football skills haha, joke ra, but at least i know how to throw it. 

So there's an investigator we've been working with, he was doing so good. He was smoking wayy less, and he was really receptive, we've been teaching him for about 3 weeks and.. he died on Monday. He was only 51 years old. It was really sad, he has a few sons. We went to his viewing yesterday he looked so peaceful. 

We were sick again this week, it's probably because I consumed dairy again. This country is trying to teach me a lesson, stop eating dairy its of the devil.. but it is so good. 

We found this really awesome family when we were fasting, they were so prepared. She is like a cross stitch pro, she had a giant cross stitch of leonardo dicaprio it was spot on. I can't even explain how fabulous it was. It looked like a photo. She also had a cross stitch of the manila temple we were like "do you know what that is" and she was like "no, it's just pretty" so we taught her about the temple. We got a return appointment. :D 

We had dinner at a member's on Sunday, it was chinese food weirdly enough haha, and we had my favorite for dessert(one of my favorites, I have too many) jelly and kondensata. and they gave us a ride home in their motorcycle/cart thing and we went down this hill soo fast it felt like a roller coaster. 

It's week 11 of the training so that means... I lead all the teaching and planning of this week. aka.. terrifying. 

As a result we sari-sari'ed for a few hours on monday and got 4 OST's! It was fabulous, we taught a woman who belongs to the united pentecostal church. very interesting. They aren't allowed to cut their hair, wear make up, and girls have to wear dresses or skirts. They can't wear pants. She was very nice. 

We taught this boy named ammon about ammon, because he had no idea who ammon was, it was very cool, watching him just amazedly read the scriptures in that lesson. 

Sorry my english is so kalo-oy. I miss cinco de mayo, I miss mexican food haha. I'm surprised that so much of the spanish culture stayed in the philippines except for the food. We actually discussed that yesterday. 

There is a scripture i found in my personal study yesterday that I really liked. Jacob 2:8 - And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul. 

Tinuod siya! I get to help heal souls here with the word of God. And I know every day that it heals my soul, I'm humbled by my trials, and then lifted up by this gospel. I'm thankful for the atonement, this week I wrote in my study journal what the atonement means to me. I challenge all of you to do the same. It gives you a new perspective. 

Love you all, stay safe!
-Sister Dunn-

P.S. Banana mango smoothies are fabulous
P.S.S. I got to try raw sugar cane, very good.