Birthday Week!

I had the best birthday so far because I got to spend it surrounded by the Filipino people here in Bogo. I got to spend it here in the Philippines under the heat and the palm trees and the flowers and teaching and testifying to people of the truthfulness of the gospel in Bisaya. I love this crazy language, and constantly learning new words. 

I also got to teach an FHE lesson this week. We had about 30 people there. I used an analogy of three cotton balls. One got no rubbing alcohol (doesn't keep the commandments) one got a little bit of alcohol (sometimes keeps the commandments) and the third was completely doused in alcohol (always keeps the commandments). Then I set them all on fire. The first one masiga dayon. The second one burned more slowly, but still burned. The third one stayed a white cotton ball despite the flames. We then discussed how the commandments are a protection to us and how they strengthen us from within. Then we played games and ate pancit, bread, and soda (a Filipino party classic haha). 

This week I learned how to weave a puso na saging (hanging rice)! But I'm not sure if I remember, I may have to be shown again haha.

I spent the day after my 21st birthday throwing up, but not for the usual reason 21-year-olds throw up. I hadn't eaten all morning, then at lunch I ate 1/2 a kilo of landsonies I bought off the street, followed up with cold water (shocking to the system in this heat) and a LOT of walking. Then during the last lesson of the day, I felt soooo nauseous. I managed to finish the lesson and get out of the Nanay's house before I started vomiting up the water and fruit. Then it was awkward because the lady and my companion are both rubbing my back and holding my hair and suggesting things like massages and menthol oils (the cure for EVERYTHING here haha) but after getting it all out of my system, I was totally fine.

I hope you all had the chance to hear General Conference! We just barely got to watch it this weekend, and it was wonderful! I especially loved President Monson's simple and direct invitation to live the gospel and be an example to others. 

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/october-2015-general-conference-invitations-from-the-prophet?cid=HP_SU_10-4-2015_dPTH_fCNWS_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

Last night we had a choice experience. We went out to work in this little baranguay on the mountainside. We have been praying to find investigators. We were seeking the name of a potential investigator in the area book. Instead we found her sister who agreed to listen to us. She then invited her cousin, her two sisters and her cousin's wife! Nindot! Soon, Sister Dayhop and I found ourselves teaching the message of the Restoration to five young women! One left before the lesson began, one left before the lesson ended. Of the 3 that stayed for the whole lesson, 2 actively participated. Of the two that participated, one requested for us to continue teaching her and set an appointment. 

That is the difficulty of missionary work. We need to talk to MANY people if we want to find ONE who is actually prepared and ready to accept the gospel into their lives. I'd like to invite all of you to talk about the gospel to your friends and peers and passersby. The Gospel is the way to happiness. Walay laing agianan. Without the help of members, without the courage of the members to speak up and share the truth, the work can't progress!

"As members of the Church, we are responsible to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to illuminate the great blessings that flow from heeding God's commandments as well as the inevitable consequences of ignoring them. We invite you to pray that people everywhere will have their hearts softened to the truths of the gospel and that wisdom will be granted to those who are called upon to decide issues critical to society's future." -Elder M. Russell Ballard "The Lord Needs you Now" ALSO SEE Mosiah 2:41

Sigi, wala na, amping kanunay!

-sister bertoldo

Pagkananay

Kamusta!

I'm feeling more like a "real" missionary as a trainer- I get to take initiative and make things happen. It's scary, in a good way

 Right now we are working on strengthening less active members through:

1. Setting up Home and Visiting teaching

2. FHE every Saturday night at a different LA's house

3. bringing active members as kuyog

4. Inviting EVERYONE to attend General Conference

My new companion is a huge blessing....she is pure Bisayan. My past companions spoke English and Tagalog and learned Bisaya here on the mission, but Sister Dayhop is PURE Bisaya. I just copy her pronunciation all day, and she's under strict orders to correct what I say wrong. It's so helpful. I know enough of the language to teach, but I want to expand my ability to: fluency- I want to really converse and relate to the people. It's hard to be patient with myself in the language! I'm really loving Bisaya.

Favorite new foods:

1. Landzones and rambutan fruit.....for description, read 1 Nephi 8:11 (haha)

2. Tamarind candy, imported from Thailand, it's so good! Not sweet, more like "aslum".

3. Natural Ginger candy....Relieves stress. So good!

4. Fresh Lato (a type of seaweed) with vinegar and boiled camotes.

You can't imagine unsa ka lami until you eat it for yourself!

Great Teaching Experience as a Trainer:

We were in a lesson. I felt a lot of pressure leading, opening, inviting, teaching, TALKING! I started getting scrambled, like my thoughts wouldn't align and I was messing up my Bisaya and trying to memorize things on the spot. Then I paused and a wave of calm came over me and I felt the words "you don't need to do everything. Let your companion talk, she has something to say" So I stopped talking and turned to her. She proceeded to relate a personal story to them that was just what they needed to hear. The Spirit filled the room. She was crying so it became my turn to take over and continue the lesson. Without thinking or reading anything, I just tied the lesson into her experience and into the commitment for them in seamless Bisaya. The words just came. I know that when we let the Spirit work instead of trying to do everything on our own, mahimong ta malampuson. 

"Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true" -Alma 32:21

cge amping mo, kita kits!

sister bertoldo

God id Mindful

This week is my last week of the 12 week training! 

"If sometimes the harder you try the harder it gets, take heart! So it has been with the best people who ever lived." Cherish your spiritual burdens because God will converse with you through them and will use you to do His work if you carry them well.

This week I got to work with a lot of people:

1. On Tuesday we had so many teaching appointments that Sister Fernandez and I split up with two members in the ward to cover more lessons! 

2. One of our investigators, a college student, had a day off of school and asked to spent it with us, teaching! He's curious about what it's like to be a missionary! So we took him and one other member with us to teach! It was like "reverse LTMP" because we had an investigator present to teach less-active members! I really prayed that he would have a spiritually-uplifting and testimony-strengthening experience! I loved hearing him add his testimony to ours during the lessons, even though he himself is just beginning to learn the gospel! Later that day he texted us and said thank you, and that he would never forget how he felt while teaching the gospel with us!

3. Then I went on splits with the Sister Training Leaders, which meant nakabalik ko didto sa San Rem! I got the opportunity to help Sister Detal find a whole neighborhood of investigators that they hadn't been able to find yet, and we even found 3 new investigators that day for them! 

4. District Conference, so we got to be in a Christmas choir!!! The branch hand-sewed matching skirts and shirts for our choir, so sweet! Also, we got to see President and Sister Tanner and Elder Vezencio of the Seventy!

This week was also great because I got to lead. It's scary to lead at first, mostly because of the language. But I noticed something:Here in the Philippines there are always people out walking around selling food. If you avoid eye contact, they won't bother you. But if you are curious and kind of actually want what they're selling, you'll look in their direction, even subconsciously! And they notice and they'll come up to you. 

Being a missionary is just like that. Because we wear a badge with "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" on it, people know we have something to offer. Some of them will avoid eye-contact. Or say they're busy, they need to laba and hugas, and hayhay and luto. But SOME people, catch our eye and smile....they are curious. They want to know. A part of them thinks, is what they have to offer, their message, what I've been subconsciously looking for?? And we notice. And we come up to them and invite them to listen to us. You never know who God has prepared to hear the message of the gospel.

We had one such experience this week. After being sent away from 5 houses, I still wanted to tract in that area. Finally we past by an older Nanay who was just laying down on a wooden board in her house. She was craning her neck to watch us walk by, so I didn't want to just walk by and I walked right into her house to visit her. She immediately pulled out a bench for us and fixed her hair. She said she has been visited by missionaries of other faiths and still hasn't found what she's looking for. SHE'S LOOKING! Which means she is a humble seeker of the truth! At the end of our lesson I asked her to read the first page of a pamphlet before our next visit. She told me, "Sister, ever since I had a stroke and my arm got paralyzed, I mostly just sit here in my house. I will read your WHOLE pamphlet." We are excited to go back to her and continue teaching.

I really love sitting on the floor of these humble homes and telling people things like: "Naa'y Dios og plano para kanimo" or "Ang sakripisyo ni Jesukristo mihimo malimpyohan sa atong mga sala aron makabalik ta sa presencya sa Dios." I would like to testify that there is NO better way to learn a language than by doing it teaching the gospel. The love you feel for the people is the greatest motivation....otherwise, I'd probably give up learning Bisaya haha.

I held a baby kitten this week. smaller than my whole hand! (see attached picture)

I saw a spider fight (favorite pastime of kids here)....gross haha.

If you get the chance, read "The Power of the Word of God" by Elder Michael John U. Teh of the Seventy (he is Filipino). It gives great insight about what I'm experiencing here in the Philippines!

"Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever." (Alma 26:36-37).

Butterflies and Balut

Kamusta kamo!

I finally ate Balut this week! If you don't know what it is, google it! It is a delicacy here. We had a Family Home Evening with a less-active member, her non-member husband, and her younger brother who is our investigator. They said, "Sister, we'll have an FHE with you if you eat Balut for us! So I did it!

When we showed up at their house for FHE though, they weren't home, just the investigator was there. So I suggested that we still hold the FHE with him at the chapel with the branch president and his family. It turned out really great because we got to show him the chapel and there was a youth institute class going on, so he got to meet all the youth of our branch. Then we had our family home evening lesson with him and his sister and her family got there just in time for the lesson! It was really great, Sister Fernandez had an object lesson with fire and everything (I would explain the object lesson, but too complicated! It was really cool though!) Then after we closed the lesson, they watched me and filmed me eating Balut.....

And it turns out that Balut is delicious, as long as you don't look at it.

We're really working on finding investigators through the members. Referrals are always the best way to find people interested in the gospel. We give "referral cards" now to every member we meet with and ask them to write the name and address of one person we can go meet and hopefully teach! But we also still continue to focus on strengthening the members, and we are see a lot of success! This Sunday, fast and testimony meeting, we had 2 investigators come to church and two of the less-active families we've been working closely with attend church!

One of our investigators told us, during the testimony meeting, that he felt so happy, that this was different than how he feels at other churches he's attended. He really felt the Spirit. He said "I want to be up there too, once I have my own testimony." We even saw that he was tearing up a little. My companion and I also went up and bore our testimonies. I have decided that I'm going to bear my testimony in Bisaya every fast and testimony meeting. That's 18 Bisaya testimonies. So far, I've given 4!

I'm really grateful to be in the beginning of my mission: I'm reveling in all the TIME I have left on my mission. I can already tell I'm going to miss this place so much, so I want to make all the most of my time starting from the VERY beginning!

I'm learning so many skills here that I probably won't ever use after my mission. These include:

1. opening cans with a knife

2. chopping wood with a blunt knife

3. cooking Filipino-style sud-an

4. catching butterflies with my hands

5. killing various kinds of bugs

6. hand-washing laundry

7. making keychains out of seashells

8. cleaning bathrooms that don't have proper drainage

9. taking apart and putting together electric fans

10. how to find and buy various delicacies of the Philippines

We taught a member about the Word of Wisdom last week and she said, "Sister's I've been selling cigarettes out of my tindahan, and as I'm listening to your lesson, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't do that." We really appreciated her humility and honesty!

Funny story: 

We spent one day tracting in an area outside of Bogo city and to get there you have to take a little forest path through a thicket of palm trees and these little heart-shaped flowers. It was a BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY, millions of them! So naturally, we caught a few. Then we went and taught a few lessons, all the while holding the butterfly by its wings. It was a good way to meet people because they thought it was so funny. On the way back, Sister Fernandez was like, let's keep them and make bookmarks out of them! So we put them in a spare Book of Mormon I had and shut the book....I felt so bad killing it, with the Book of Mormon even! We caught a third one and I didn't close the book very hard. Then during our next lesson, I opened the BoM to share a scripture, and that third butterfly, still alive, flew out! The person we were teaching was shocked, like the scriptures really are "living scriptures" haha. I love the Philippines.

There's so much more, but for the sake of time, I'll leave it at that. Have a great week everyone!

"The opportunity to work is a privilege, 

The privilege to work is a gift.
The power to work is a blessing.
The love of work is success.”

-David O. Mckay

Teaching Moments!

​Kamusta!

What a fast week it's been!

We have a Zone implementation to focus on teaching college students. We are teaching one young man, Vince, who is in his fist year of college. The previous missionaries have only taught him twice, but when we met with him he gave us an overview of the Restoration of the gospel, just from the pamphlet! He is VERY interested! I felt the Basahon ni Mormon burning a hole in my bag, so I gave it to him. He carefully took it, brushed the cover, and began skimming through! Then in his prayer at the end of our lesson, he said "Thank you, Father, for this precious gift the Sisters have brought me. I will treasure it forever and be happy to learn it." Awww!

Another great teaching moment: there is a member here in the branch that used to be SUPER active, but after a mistake she made, refused to come back to church. Missionaries have been working with her to tears. At the beginning of our lesson with her, she pounded the table and said, "okay, sisters, what are you going to tell me today because I've heard it all! I know the scriptures, I used to teach them! What do you have to say to me?" I don't know all of what I said, but I felt it being fed to me line by line in my mind. Then I looked at her angry face and I reached over and grabbed her hand (Part of me was like, Haley, don't touch her she's angry!! haha) and told her that Heavenly Father loves her and she needs to have faith and come back to church. It's not the "missionaries" that want her to come to church to fill their statistics, it's her Heavenly Father that wants her to return to his loving arms. But to partake of His love, she has to have the faith to ACT. Then I read Alma 32:40-43. The whole time she's just staring at me with pursed lips and a knit in her brow. Then ​she cut me off. My heart almost stopped haha. But she said, "Sister, I will take your challenge. I will come to church. I have so much fear inside me. But what will happen if I let go of this fear like you say? I will take your challenge. It is the fear inside me, now I can see that. I need to have faith." My companion and I were shocked.

Yesterday, she showed up at church and stayed all 3 hours, and participated!

Branch Activity: Family Day! We designed it like a giant Family Home Evening: opening song and prayer, then each family breaks into smaller groups according to which baranguay they live in for a lesson taught by missionary companionships and then food and games! We had a giant obstacle course! Each group also had T-shirts in a different color and the missionaries had gray t-shirts. It took up the WHOLE day, because....Filipino time!

New Cultural Experiences:

1. Rambutan fruit! maybe you can google it, but better to taste it!

2. Budlefight- I like to watch.....not participate.

3. Dampa, a game all the kids play with rubber bands. I'm getting pretty good.

4. Bisaya word of the day: singot haha

5. Everyone here thinks my name is a Filipino apellido

With love from the islands,

Sister Bertoldo​

Don't Fear Imperfection!

"We inspire others not by our perfection, but by how we deal with our imperfections."

I'm all settled into my new area. It's in the same zone as my first area, so the members always joke with me like "laayo kaayo ba siya?" haha. My new area is small, but has many more members. They are still a branch so there is plenty of work to do in helping them progress and grow! The exciting new things about my area are: 

1. Naa'y aircon nga chapel na!

2. I now live with Sister Weech, who was in the MTC with me and is also from Colorado and BYU! and her trainer gihapon :)

3.  there are showers in our apartment...not very CLEAN, but still, a shower!

4. My new trainer, Sister Fernandez, is bisdak kaayo (very good at Bisaya, native) and is like a walking dictionary for me :) Also, she used her language study hours to practice sentences with me, teach me new words, and help me with my language study. She says I will learn Bisaya by MAKING MISTAKES, by trying. We made a language wall and she made me sign a paper saying that I will only speak Bisaya from now on....sorry about all the English in this email Sister! haha

My trainer and I are whitewashing the area, which means that we are both new and have to learn where everyone lives and who everyone is. We have been walking and wandering a lot! They don't have "addresses", we just know which buarangay (neighborhood) and then we ask random people who point us in the general direction until we find their home. It's kind of fun, actually.

KINAMOT: With my last district we marinated and barbequed pork and cooked rice. Then we went outside and ripped off a giant banana leaf. We piled the rice in the center then spread the meat ontop. Then we gathered around it in a circle. I was just about to ask, "should I go get plates and forks and things?" when my district started grabbing the rice and meat with their hands! It was a lot of fun, but my parents probably wouldn't approve.

"What you think about is either conducive to faith or distracts from yuor ability to exercise faith. Your thought with respect to faith cannot be neutral. If your thoughts are not productive or edifying, you have the responsibility of replacing them with productive or edifying thoughts."

Sigi, human na ko, 

Amping 'mo!

-Sister Bertoldo

"Praise Him in the Islands"

Kamusta!

I ate pig brains this week! In my defense, I didn't know that was what I was eating until my district told me AFTER the fact! I'm ashamed to admit that....it was delicious.

Work: 

The people here are very playful. They love pictures and engaging activities.So we set a companionship goal to incorporate more media into our lessons. We now sing, in Bisaya, hymns to open each lesson. It really invites the Spirit and the people here LOVE singing and music, so they really appreciate it! I love singing for them!!! They aren't shy to join in sometimes too. We used to sing in English, because that is what the members do here, but it's better if they can understand the words. We also use the gospel artbook to show pictures as we teach specific scripture stories or principles. We've also started bringing sticky notes. We give a reading assignment and write a couple of questions on the sticky note and leave it in their scriptures. It helps them to have a very specific assignment and it prepares them for our next lesson! We also are now bring a little DVD player into the investigators' homes to play the Restoration video. It's the only video we have that is in Bisaya!

I had my first "D&C 50:22 moment" this week. We've been teaching an old Catholic woman. On our second lesson, her daughter joined in. We taught about the nature of the Godhead, the focus of the gospel on families and finished with teaching how to pray sincerely, not from a memorized script. Then we asked the daughter to say the closing prayer. She offered a very sweet, simple, but genuine prayer. After, we noticed tears in her eyes and we asked her what she was feeling. She said that that was the first time she's felt she was really praying to her Heavenly Father. Beautiful moment! We are excited to continue teaching her.

Funny Story:

There was a storm a couple nights ago (blindly bright flashes of lightning and ear-splitting thunder...so scary!) The next day we went out to work. It was rainy slightly. While we were in the home of a woman we had just met that day, the torrential downpour started. We were in the middle of getting to know her and see if she's interested in being taught, and then the rain on her tin roof was so loud that we couldn't hear the sounds of our own voices! So we helped her shut her windows, gather her laundry inside, and we just sat in her house saying nothing for about 20 minutes, waiting out the rain. He son comes out, in his boxers, and starts cooking food. She falls asleep. We still can't hear anything or open the door to leave without letting in a flood of water. So we just sit and wait haha. So awkward. When the rain slowed down a little, we asked for plastic to wrap our bags and we left, after getting a return appointment, of course! We worked the rest of the day in the rain, but it wasn't as hard....there were some bent palm trees and corn stalks though, from the wind!

I love the Philippines. I love the warm wind, the ocean, the starfish, the seashells mixed into the farming soil, the loud music emanating from tiny huts at any hour of the day, the giant tropical flowers, the butterflies, the motorcycles, the people! Isaiah best described being a missionary here: 

"Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles and the inhabitants thereof.....Let them give glory unto the Lord and praise Him in the islands" (Isaiah 42:10, 12).🌴 

Well this has been a long enough email! I hope you all have a great week!

Love from the other side of the world,

Sister Bertoldo!