Bruise

Hello family! Okay so I totally forgot to mention that I ate Balut the night before transfer day. It was really good, you should all be proud of me. Luckily it was dark because someone took a picture and I looked at it the next day and I was like "good thing I couldn't see it because I never would have eaten that". I would eat it again though, it was like a really hard boiled egg. Cge let's get to the weekly.

Wednesday: There was a brief amount of Ukayukay (thriftshopping) before we went to the church to practice for the Christmas conference. Turns out Irish dancing is actually incredibly hard and none of us our very good at it, but we have fun and that's what matters. One of our zone leaders looks like a leprechaun when he does it, it's really funny.
That night we bought a cake and we went to the Lopez family to celebrate Emma Hale's 4th Birthday. I'll attach some pictures, they are so cute. We had a Family Home Evening with them. Russell's baptism is this Saturday. 

Thursday: We began a tremendous undertaking. It was originally intended to be something we do every day but we burned out after one time. We went JOGGING! Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I JOGGED. It felt very nice, but the following mornings we were too tired. If we get around to it will do it again.
We got punted ALL DAY. We did manages to get some lessons, don't think we're entirely ineffective. I did manage to find 5 peso batchoy, something I haven't eaten since my first area. 

Friday: An investigator ran from us #missionarylyfe. We ate dinner from a calendaria, which I usually love but then I found a piece of plastic in my soup. 

Saturday: We got punted and then got trapped at a member's house because a huge storm hit and we didn't have an umbrella, and then her house was like flooding and we just had to wait for it to pass before we could run home and grab our umbrellas. 

Sunday: I gave a talk in church, but I was asked to give the talk 2 minutes before Sacrament meeting started. I talked on missionary work. It was in visaya, everybody clap your hands I'm officially bilingual, hahha. I just chose a scripture and managed to follow the spirit for 7 minutes while I talked about it. I shared about how Ammon and his brethren pray unto the Lord for the power of the spirit to go with them. GANI, every day I pray for that. It's a NECESSARY part of missionary work.
We decided to tract for all the less actives that have been hiding from member's for years. We found 2. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at finding them.
That night we get home and the STL's scared the living lights out of us I screamed so loud, and they got it on video so that's great. And then later I was trying to go to the kitchen and our water thing was leaky and there was water on the floor, so I slipped in it and my arm caught on the cabinet I was standing next to as I was reaching out to stop my fall and now I have this giant multicolored bruise on my arm. It makes a good story. 

Monday: There was a brownout from Sunday 3pm until Monday 10am so we were roasting all night, and the water went out too. And we had ran out of drinking water on Saturday night. Life is very exciting. When it came back on in District Meeting we all cheered! And immediately bumped the aircon on. Fabulous. Also I am really good at eating with my hands. Just saying. We're also doing a Samoan dance for the Christmas conference. I am not a graceful human.
Our IBD asked me if it was true we have to fight a multi-headed/multi-eyed monster to get into heaven. Her questions keep me entertained. 

Tuesday: We OST'ed an elect woman but she lives in another CITY so I am devastated. I was trying so hard! We found a few more less actives today, and I'm trying my hardest to help one of the Recent Converts in the area. She's special, I know she is, but she won't come to church. I tried to help her with Laba but she won't let me. She body blocks me from the laba bucket.
I spilled my ice cream on myself what else is new.
I hope everyone is having a good holiday season in America. I'm having fun here, don't worry. We laugh every day, we keep on smiling. Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope your breaks are fabulous. 

We've been sharing a lot about the atonement lately and I've been reading in 1 Nephi and there is a scripture that I love, 1 Nephi 19:9. "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men." He was bruised for us, he didn't have to be but he was. I continued my reading in Jesus the Christ yesterday and the part I had left off at was when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. I was amazed that the apostles could sleep. And then I thought of all the times that we "sleep" in our lives, even in our missions. Do we not stand up for what we believe? Do we 'take breaks' when things get hard? Are we embarrassed of our Savior. I remember in my training whenever I didn't want to FTE my trainer would ask me "Are you embarrassed of Jesus Christ?" I want it to be absolutely clear, especially in this tough last days, that I am not. Even when people are willingly walking away, when they are 'sleeping' as it were, I don't want to walk away.
I love being a missionary! I hope the gospel of Jesus Christ is 'working for you'.
-Sister Katrina Dunn

Dunn & Dunne

Sorry the clock is ticking, I think I saved enough time today to write a decent amount for everybody.
Wednesday: I got a pedicure (and a really good one) for 50 pesos, and y'all probably don't know what that means.. that's just over $1. Yea, it was fabulous. Also I cleaned our bathroom at the house, because it was disgusting. It was well needed. I tried to make brownies yet I failed epic-ly. 

Thursday: I could not sleep the night before. I laid awake for hours I was so exhausted. It was Zone Training Meeting, it was really good. The zone is getting pumped up to work this transfer. Work hard. Also we're starting to prepare for the Christmas conference, I'm so excited I get to go back to my apartment in Sibulan for a night!
I received the second box! I have been devouring chocolate all week, and it's amazing. Also we have been punted ALL weekend. It's kind of annoying actually. That means I think, we're supposed to be FINDING someone. But I don't know who.. Our last appointment, the little girls brought their friends over to look at me because they'd never seen an american in person before. 

Friday: Friday the 13th, hold on to your butts. I hope you all enjoyed my Jurassic Park reference right there. Old habits die hard. We went out to Trozo (the farthest part of our area) and Sister Castillo gave us a referral who actually might be golden. I'm really excited. She's such an active member missionary. I love the Castillo family. 

Saturday: punted all day... sad. It's putting quite a dent in our key indicators, although I think everyone should be impressed that we still managed to hit our goals. The Lord is on our side. 

Sunday: primary program in Sacrament meeting. We ran out of gas in our apartment so we cooked this like corned beef mixture in the rice cooker. It seemed to taste okay.
We visited an LA who talked about ISIS the whole time. I didn't realize that was such a problem. We've been thinking about Paris the past few days, keeping them in our prayers. It hit major news worldwide I think, I'm not sure. I just hear snippets here and there. 

Monday: We started our practice for the Christmas program. We are doing an Irish dance, the Dunne's are teaching us. It's really fun, we just jump around and have a good time.
We visited Charlene (she punted us the last few days) but she PROMISED we could teach her on Monday. She's a recent convert, but she's about to hit a year. I want her to just COME TO CHURCH! I feel like the white missionary from the District. 

We had several OST's and we were able to go back to Rosie. She's a woman who called us out last week and told us she always wanted to go into the church but she was too shy. We taught her and her daughter and her niece as well. They seem good.
We had to drop one of the long time investigators. She just wanted us as friends, we kindly let her know if she wants to come to church and be baptized we'll keep coming to teach her. We just had to reexplain our purpose to her so she would understand. 

Tuesday: The Dunne's worked with us! It was funny explaining to people that we weren't actually related. Sister Castillo gave us a bunch more referrals, and they all seem really good. I'm excited to keep going back to them. The Dunne's are really awesome, and they speak Gaelic which is super cool. They told us a lot of the history of Ireland, and all the places they've been. It was a lot of fun to work with them.
The Gihuilngan sisters stayed the night for their exchanges, they are a lot of fun. 

I restarted the book of mormon, so I'm in 1st nephi again. Nephi is awesome! And he wrote a ton, and it's all good. I think 1nephi4:7 is one of my favorite verses of all time. "Nevertheless I went forth." 

We're gonna go forth! 

I love being a missionary!
Sister Katrina Dunn

San Carlos

Okay, I lied last week. My companion is Samoan. She lives in Australia though. Her name is Sister Tago (tong-o) and she's super cool. I think everyone would love her. 

Wednesday: I spent the day with Sister Rotamula and Sister Mower because Sister Quinney went to Cebu to pick up the new missionary. I had an early goodbye with Sibulan, I wanted to cry. Sister Mower is so cool, she's from Utah, she's brand new as well, and she is rockin the mission life. She's already fluent so watch out world. It was nice to just talk to someone who's new, and who has a fresh view of the mission. 

Thursday: I got up early, and the zone leaders took me to the Ceres Terminal and I got on a NON air con bus for 5 hours paingon sa San Carlos. That was definitely interesting. We drove straight into a storm complete with thunder and lightning. When we finally got to San Carlos we were taken to the Dunne's house and it's fiesta in San Carlos so their neighbors invited us over and we just ate their Lechon Pork and Black Sambo and it was delicious. We went straight out to work after that. 

Friday: Weekly planning. We went out to lunch with all the other missionaries to an american's restarant, he's from like San Diego. It was so delicious.
Okay honestly I'm out of time, but I'm meeting like lovely beautiful people here and I'm so excited to keep meeting them. 

Sunday: I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting cause I'm new in the area. my 4th time around, I don't stay in my areas very long. It breaks my heart. 

Monday: District meeting. There's fire in the zone. We are going to find 5 new investigators every week. I'm excited for the challenge. 

Love you all, stay awesome
-Sister Katrina Dunn

The End of Dream Team: Queen & Doon

Hi family, i miss you. that's all. jokes, this week was good. I love Sibulan.
Wednesday: There was a wifi outage in dumaguete and it took us like 45 minutes of walking around to find a cafe with good enough internet access. Fernando informed us that evening as well that he appreciates that we understand him, and he said we have "old minds" like we think like old people do. it sounded better in visaya, i don't know how to explain it in english. 

Thursday: this man approached us and said "who is Moroni?" and we said "he's a prophet." and he said "he's a mormon god" and we were like "no." and he was like "oh... prophet?" "yes, brother." and he says to us "No i want you to speak in english". because we had been speaking in visaya to him. and then we walked away cause he was being kind of freaky. we had actually seen him a few weeks before and he has whispered "moroni" as he walked past us. I was confused.
one of our investigators pulled out and electric keyboard and sister quinney played it and it sounded like an 8 bit video game. 

Friday: Happy Birthday Landon! I hope your day was fabulous! We went to our less actives house and we were asking him about his feelings from before when he was going to church and he just says "my love life is personal" uh we weren't asking about your love life. it was sufficiently awkward.
The Bantigue's (whom I love) fed us lechon manok, my favorite. 

Saturday: Halloween and the day before fast sunday. Something about the philippines though, they celebrate halloween on November 1 and 2. think about that eh. right before we were about to go out to work a huge storm hit and a minor flood affected our apartment. We were stuffing sheets under the door to keep the water from coming in. after about 30 minutes it calmed down and we were able to leave the apartment unattended. Fernando came to witness the baptism of the elders, he wants a copy of gospel principles book so we are working on that. 

Sunday: We had 4 investigators at church! We were so excited. I had to play the piano in relief society, that was a doozy. I bore my testimony in fast and testimony meeting, all the missionaries did. It was a really sweet experience. 

Monday: we made our weekly stop at 7/11, there wasn't any chocolate ice cream, and the guy behind the counter was dressed as a vampire from twilight. so I bought french vanilla, which in america means like that nice rich vanilla right? WRONG. Here it means coffee. so I take a big bite out of my ice cream cone, and quickly discover that it's coffee flavor so I had to throw it out. #life...
Our RC broke my heart, she refuses to come to church or even pray about her decision. I just cried after the lesson, it was so hard. she wont even look at me. she knows what she is supposed to be doing.
one of our less actives had a dream that she needs to go to church. GANI! I wish they didnt need dreams to know these things. 

Tuesday: We had MCM and they bought us jollibee! It was very exciting. we spent the whole day dancing on ice about the topic of who is transferring. well. we had apartment checks by the new senior couple, and then transfer calls came. I'm transferring to San Carlos. I've never stayed in an area more than 2 transfers :( i'm really going to miss Sibulan, it's a beautiful area. it is full of the elect. I'm sad I wont get to see Fernando or Carl baptized. But I'm excited to go to San Carlos as well, I'm excited to see more miracles there as well. My new companion is Sister Tago, I've only met her once, she's really sweet. I think she's from Tonga, YAY another poly companion!! 

I spent all last night packing and then this morning the elder's came to pick up my bags. I travel tomorrow. I'm staying in Dumaguete tonight.
I love you all, I love being a missionary!
-Sister Katrina Dunn