All of a sudden I became the "house mouse!"

Pamilya!
     Yes, transfer day came and went pretty fast.  I can't believe how fast this last transfer went.  To answer your question about transfers, I just kind of had a feeling that after the 12-week training program, Sister Culango would be transferred because she had been here in Carmona for six months.  And . . . I was right. :)  She got transferred to Manila and now is a city girl, while I stayed here in Carmona and received a new companion, Sister Ronquillo.  She's Filipina all the way from Quezon City. haha Her first area, Pasay, she said she was 30 minutes away from her house.  But she's a sweetheart and really nice, and I'm excited to get to know her more.  She's been here for eight months, and this is her third area. 

 Sister Stromberg & Sister Ronquillo

     As much as I'm excited about having a new companion, I'm not going to lie; it was REALLY hard to say goodbye to Sister Culango.  Let's just say that there were tears shed. We became super close, like best friends here in the mission, and everyone could see that.  There were many missionaries that would comment how close we were, even President Stucki.  I was super lucky to have her as my trainer, and we will definitely keep in touch the rest of my life. :) 

Sister Culango and her greenie

     But putting that aside, I'm lucky to have a new companion, Sister Ronquillo, and it will be a great transfer with her. After transfer day I felt like all of a sudden I wasn't a new missionary, and all these responsibilities were put on me.  I became the "house mouse," meaning I'm the one that's been here in Carmona the longest (Sister Abanggan got transferred also) so I have to take care of all the bills and the house and just everything.  Then I had to lead the area, plan every day what we would do and what we would teach, and do just about everything for the first little while until Sister Ronquillo becomes familiar with everything here in Carmona.  So I've definitely been stretched this last week, but it's been good for me.  I certainly had the help of the Lord.  The sister that replaced Sister Abanggan is Sister Pacino from Bacolod.  Also I got a new Zone Leader Elder Bueno, and Elder Olongayo left, which he was a lot of fun and I'll miss him.  So yeah there were a lot of changes this transfer with companions.

  Carmona RS President deOcampo

feeding Sister Culango & Sister Stromberg pandisal! :)

 

 

     Then as far as our work this week one thing that was really exciting is we got one of our less-active members who is 20 years old to work with us on Friday.  His name is Jewel, and we've been going to him for a while with no progression at all. But he worked with us Friday, so hopefully we can get him to go back to church through feeling the Spirit when he works with us. 

     Then I had a neat experience again this last Sunday! So first off, we had three investigators at church so that was really good.  Tina was one of them, and she has now been at church four Sundays so we just need to continue to teach her all the lessons. She's golden!  But what was neat is we've been teaching Sister Encarnation for months now.  She's less-active and has some family problems (It's hard to explain.).  But since we've been teaching her, she's been progressing, and her desire to go to church again has grown, and we thought she was getting close.  Well she came to church yesterday!! And it was just the best feeling ever.  I can't even describe, but I was so happy when I saw her walk in to Relief Society that tears came to my eyes.  You get so close to these people, and you teach them over and over; you are constantly praying for them and then to finally see them take that leap of faith and go to church. It's just the best feeling.  Before my mission I don't remember having a lot of experiences where I cried because I was so happy. But here it's happened a couple times, and I love it.  It makes all that we are doing here in Carmona so rewarding!  So yeah that was my Sunday.  Also one other less-active member came back for the first time also, Harry, which was so exciting to see him at church. 

     Dad, a member from my branch who looked at our family picture and also my new companion both told me that you look like Pres. Uchtdorf.  haha It made me laugh, and I had to tell you.  

     Anyway that was my week.  Yesterday at church I was thinking about how close I'm getting with all of Carmona branch, and it will be hard when it's my turn to transfer.  They're all so great! I can't believe it's already March; pretty soon I'll hit my 6 month mark, and that's just crazy.  My goal was to finish the Book of Mormon and be fluent in Tagalog by 6 months, and I'm in Ether and getting there with Tagalog. :) 

I never knew what a big deal transfers were

Magandang Hapon!

     Well, Happy Presidents Day! Hope you all enjoy your day off. Life is crazy this week. Later today we are going bowling as a zone for a zone activity, and that's where they are doing transfer announcements. They will tell us who is being transferred and who is staying, and then tomorrow at district meeting, they'll tell us where those missionaries are being transferred. Then Wednesday in Makati, they'll tell everyone who their new companion is. Crazy, I never knew what a big deal transfers were when the brothers were on their missions.

     This last week we got to go and do a CSP project with our zone on Friday morning. A member that is actually in my area (the Amores family) has a farm, so we went to their farm and helped clean it all up and harvest tomatoes and such. It was a lot of fun. They use this big knife looking thing to weed.

 

The big banana leaves that the food was on was actually 

just the leftovers of what we ate from lunch.

 
We ate with just our hands, all of us, right off of the banana leaves, 
and then when we were done, 
Bro. Amores let all of the animals eat the leftovers.  
That was way fun.

CSP stands for Community Service Project  

 
 or Culango Stromberg Party :) haha, either one 

 

And yes, I did eat the tomatoes in soy sauce, 

and that's actually really good.  You should try it!  

 

     Then the big news for the week is we were very blessed yesterday at church. We had five investigators there at church. :) Two of our recent converts who have become less-active that we have been visiting for months now finally came to church yesterday too, and we were so happy to see them! Mark came to church, and that's his first time since I've been here. Then also a sister who's inactive that we've visited for months now (She was actually the first person here in Carmona that I taught.) finally came to church also! It was so exciting! We were sitting up on the stand because Sister Culango was assigned to talk, and as our investigators and less-active members one by one came in and sat down (some late), by the last ones that came in, we just both looked at each other with tears in our eyes. It was just the best feeling. It's hard because these people we are teaching every week, and we have come to love them. It's so hard when you don't ever see them actually commit to come to church. So it was a very exciting day for us at church. I'm not sure if they came just because it was most likely Sister Culango's last day in church or what, but we were just so, so happy to see them. I just hope that they continue. So yes it was a great day.

 

     We also finished the 12 week training program where we have companionship study for two hours each day, so now just one hour for me, and I'm officially trained. :) It feels good! Even though I know I have a lot more to learn, and I am excited for a new companion that I'm sure will teach me a lot.
     One of our investigators, Tina, is really progressing, and it's so exciting. She's actually the nanny of a member (I can't remember if I told you about her.), and we've been teaching her. She's now come to church three times which is the most out of any of the investigators I've taught. And we set a baptisimal date with her this last week. Her boss Sister Que at church told us that she was so excited and told Sis. Que all about it. So that's really exciting. She is going on summer vacation in April and told us she wants to get baptized before she leaves. So hopefully she will continue. Yeah that's pretty much all that happened this week.
     I don't have a whole lot of time because Sister Culango wanted to go to the salon today and get her hair "relaxed" whatever that is. They have weird things for hair here. They also get their hair rebunded...  Mom, you should ask Annette about all these weird things they do. I'm not really sure about it. haha Just curious. But yeah the hairdressers here are all cross dressers, and it just weirds me out! I thought the hair dresser was a girl, but nope she\he was a guy. I didn't know whether to call it brother or sister, and it just was really weird. And he kept talking to me too while Sister Culango was getting her hair done. There are a ton of people like that here too.
     So yeah to answer questions... Probably my favorite food so far is chicken adobo or pork adobo! Oo it's so good! And it's actually not allowed in our mission to eat balut so that probably won't happen, haha even though my investigator Tatay Rolando is sure that I will eat it at some point. Man, he is so funny. He's not progressing, but his daughter is interested so we go to see them about once a week. The last time we did, he looked through my pictures that I brought, and he saw Ryan and asked "why is he tan (like a Filipino)?" and then went on to tell me that Ryan looked a lot like him. haha It cracked me up. I wanted to take a picture of him to show Ry, but he left the lesson early. Next time I'll try to take a picture of him for ya.
     The Swedish pancakes turned out pretty good. They weren't quite as sweet because the milk here tastes different, but it was still good. Then it was thicker in the middle because the pan is bowl shaped so different than home and, of course, not as good;), but the sisters liked it. Oh and I cooked American spaghetti for them, and Sister Culango said it's the best spaghetti she's ever had. haha. They have this store in Binyan that has an international section, and I found Ragu there so yeah. Now tomorrow we have this member family that wants to try it so they bought all the ingredients, and then we're having FHE with them and I'm making it at their house. haha It makes me laugh.
     Anyway, I'm out of time. Hope your week went well. My P-days have been crazy, and I never have time to write. Love you all, and pray for you every day!

Mahal Ko Kayo,

Sister Stromberg

. . . seem just like a Filipino

Happy Valentine's Day, family!
     I think I'm going to try and make Swedish pancakes for Valentine's Day for the sisters! haha We'll see how that goes.

     This last week has been quite the week actually. On Tuesday was my first zone conference. It was really good too! We got together with two other zones, and President, Sister Stucki, and the AP's spoke to us and did some training with us. Then two different times we split up to do some practice teaching situations. Then we had a lunch that was catered (but wasn't actually that good), but they had chocolate cake that was delicious, of course! And yeah that was our zone conference!
     We got our pouches that day. I had two from Uncle Randy, a post card and a pouch that was sent I think a couple weeks after, and I got both of them at the same time... so I think that pouch is faster. I also finally heard from Sister Vickers. I was actually really starting to worry about her, but I got a letter, and she's doing great, a lot better she said than in the MTC, so I was really happy to hear that.

      Then on Thursday I experienced my first companionship exchange! The last temple tour we talked to one of the AP's and requested an exchange. In our mission they have two sisters who are assigned specifically to help with exchanges, and each week they'll go and do exchanges with sisters. They are sisters that have been in the mission for a while and are experienced and are just really good missionaries. I wanted to do an exchange to make sure that I could lead my area and do everything without Sister Culango, in preperation for if I get a new companion here in Carmona. And it went really well. I had Sister Torres from Iloilo (the mission where Ashley is going) who has one more transfer here in the mission. She taught me a lot, and I was very grateful for the opportunity. She just plans differently than Sister Culango and teaches differently and goes about getting referrals differently and so because all I've had to learn from thus far is Sister Culango, it was just good to learn from someone else. It kind of got me excited for a new companion (even though I love Sister Culango). It will just be good to grow in different ways with different companions. Then she gave me some really good feedback on what I was doing well, and it was just a good day. One thing that made me laugh, is while we were walking towards the end of the day she turns to me and says... "It's hard for me to believe you're an American. You seem just like a Filipino to me." haha It made me smile. So yeah it definitely helped me with my confidence that I'll be just fine without my nanay!:)

Sister Torres from Iloilo

     Then the excited news for this week... THREE INVESTIGATORS CAME TO CHURCH!!! Oh man I was so excited. We have this investigator, Lace, who is 17 and so smart. She's studying accounting right now. And we brought just the right member with us the last time we taught her (Eva), because it turns out that they go to the same college. And so Eva has been so good in fellowshipping her, and I think that might have made the difference in getting her to church. But Saturday night I was just praying and thinking a lot about Lace; out of all of our investigators she was the one I wanted to see at church. And then she came!:) It really was such a good feeling. She's so funny. The last time we taught, after our lesson she told me that she always wanted to study art and went and got her sketch pad and showed me and asked me for advice:) haha. Then at church she told me that her professor told her class that Americans are afraid of eating, and wanted to know if that's true... haha funny girl. I hope she'll continue. Then our investigator Tina who is the Nanny for a member in our branch came with the Que family to church. I wasn't expecting that because both times we went to teach her this week, she "hid from us." We found out later from Sister Que it was because she hadn't read her Book of Mormon, and she was embarrassed to tell us that. But she came to church, and we were so excited. Then the last one was a referral that we actually haven't taught yet. It's a girlfriend of a member, so we'll see how that goes this week. So there's improvement.
     This week is the 12th week in the 12-week program for new missionaries, and then I'm done with that. Week 11 was probably the hardest because you have to plan every night, and then you have to "take the lead" in teaching every single lesson you teach all week. So yes I'm about ready to be done with the training program, and that's exciting!
     Other than that there's not a whole lot else. The other sisters here in Carmona had a baptism on Saturday that we went to, and it was so neat. It was for a little 9 year old boy named Jon, and whenever he sees me, he'll yell, “Hi, Sister Stromberry.” He's way cute. Well his dad is actually blind and was able to baptize him, and it was just a neat experience seeing his dad able to do that for his son even with his disability.

     To answer your questions: I did not feel or even hear about the earthquake here. And, Nicole, you said that you feel like all you do is plan and teach and plan and teach... Well I'm right there with ya:) haha That's all I feel like I'm doing too! Dad, that's fun you work with the full-time missionaries. Do you go out and teach with them? Do you know the Filipino family in our ward? I don't remember their last name, but I got a Christmas card signed from a bunch of members from our ward, and there was a Filipino family who wrote to me in Tagalog. Anyway have a fun Valentine's Day tomorrow. Love you all lots! Take care, and have a good week.

Mahal na mahal ko kayo,
Sister Stromberg

. . . almost like a celebration

Kamusta kayo!
     I can't believe it's already February. We have transfers coming up in two weeks, and I just can't believe how fast this transfer has gone by. And it's very likely going to be my last transfer with Sister Culango. I just love her. But it will be good for a little change at the same time.

A tricycle with the name Ryan on the front!

     So Mom, you talked about lots of funerals going on, well this week I had two experiences with funerals here in the Philippines. First one is just funny. We were walking to an appointment one day, and here down the street comes what looks and sounds like a parade. There are three vans in the front, then a band, lots of people walking, and a TON of tricycles. But then what's in the middle of it all... a hearse!! Yeah it was for a funeral, but there was a band, and everyone looked happy almost like it was a celebration. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. haha I don't know about Carmona:)
     Then the second experience was actually really sad. In the Valencarina family, Tina is a recent convert that we try to teach once a week, and she's 21. Then there's JP who has been a member for over a year now and works with us to teach, and he's 19. They are both so awesome. Well Friday morning we got a text that their mother passed away (at age 43) from either liver cancer or ulcer; I don't really know because I heard both. It is so sad. They don't have a dad right now either, and they have one other sibling who is 9. I feel so bad for them. :( And what they do here is kind of... unique; they have the casket in the family’s home for like 7-9 days, and then people can just stop by whenever for that period of time to give condolences and what not. So we stopped by yesterday after church and talked to them for a while. Very sad. So yeah that was my experience this week with funerals.
     To answer someone’s question: no, I'm not in Manila. I'm in a town called Carmona, and it's not a big city. In fact, it's away from the city in what they call a province here and is made up of a LOT of very little homes and a TON of people.

 

 

 

      This last week we didn't have any temple tours, meetings, and what not, so it was a good week to do a lot of work. We reached our goal of 18 lessons to investigators and 14 to RCLA so we were excited about that. Dad, to answer your question: we do still do some tracting to find new investigators every week. We're always looking for new investigators. Then we have a list of all the members in our branch which is like 600, but the records here aren't the best so they don't always have current or correct addresses, so when we have time, we try to find where less active members live as well. And then we visit the less active members we do know. We are focusing on reactivating a lot, and this last week we had a member come back for the 4th Sunday so that makes five members that we've helped come back to church. And as far as our investigators... still we had 0 investigators show up for church. :( So that's why we have to keep finding new investigators so that hopefully we can find some that will want to go to church. Hopefully next week. Tomorrow we have zone conference in Desma, and that will be my first one. I'm excited for that.
     Oh I just remembered! The Indian sister that's living with me, Sister (Pavetra) Verma, knows Ish Erickson. And another sister that's in my mission who I haven't met yet because she's in Palawan right now was one of Ish's converts. So you'll have to tell him if you see him! Kind of exciting. Small world!
     I had a really neat experience this week teaching. We had an appointment that was a referral from Sister Murrillion. Sister Murrillion is so funny; she's an RM with 3 kids and is OBSESSED with David Archuleta. Every time we talk to her, she has something more to tell us about him. Apparently he's going on a mission, and the rumor is that he either got his call to Manila mission or Quezon City mission (I don't really believe it, but who knows). Then a couple weeks ago he was in the Manila temple here doing a session. He signed a contract here with a TV station to do something, I don't really know, that's why he was here. And yeah Sister Murrillion always has something to tell us about him. Anyways she gave us a referral and came with us to teach Gem. And when I shared the Joseph Smith story and told the first vision, I felt the spirit SO strong! It was so neat! I love telling the story about Joseph Smith! She has to work on Sundays now so that's why she wasn't at church, but she was very receptive and interested so I'm excited to go back to her on Saturday.
     So yeah I'm about out of time. Anyway I love you so much! Have a good week! Thank you for all the prayers, and I'm praying for you all daily! Oh and did groundhog see his shadow?? haha

At the Seguenza family's home where we're going tonight for FHE;

they're a super nice family, and the dad is a really good cook. :)

Mahal ko Kayo,

Sister Stromberg

. . . JUST A REGULAR WEEK IN CARMONA B

Hello Pamilya!
     This week we got to go to the temple, Wednesday morning for our temple day. And I got a special surprise when I got there. :) I walked in the door and who was sitting there in the waiting room... Sister Westover, from the MTC who's serving in Quezon City North. It was so fun seeing her and chatting about our areas and such, and then we actually got to be in the same session. Then after our session, after we changed, we ran into Sister Dennis also. It was so fun seeing them! Sister Dennis said that she saw our names on the check-in list so she waited for us after her session. We always said in the MTC that we hoped somehow we'd run into each other, and we already did. It was a lot of fun seeing them.

Back together again in the Philippines!

     Then we also had another temple tour on Saturday where we were assigned to be users this time for all the different groups. It was fun seeing all the different missionaries. I found out that one elder in my mission is actually from Logan. I forget his name, but he knew Cami. So other than going to the temple twice this week, it was just a regular week in Carmona B.

     So to try and explain a little better, I'm not in Manila. I'm like an hour or so away from Manila. And there are a lot more zones than I mentioned before , but I just don't know the names of them all. There are three zones on Palawan (more then I told you before because I didn't know before). I am in the San Gabriel zone, I think I mentioned that in my first e-mail. There are two districts in my zone. I don't really know how more to describe it. Carmona is where we are assigned, and we have our district meetings in Binan where the elders are serving. There are a lot more stores in Binan, and it's a bigger town. We actually are here in Binan today because we wanted to visit the palengkes which are markets where you can barter for things. I got a purse that's cute made out of bamboo looking stuff. There's also a McDo's here which we went there to eat and actually ended up finding someone to teach that is from Carmona and from our area. Her little girl (probably 2 years old) came over by us, and we were talking to her; it gave us an opportunity to talk to her mom, and she's very nice. We'll go visit her later this week.  Definitely didn't happen by accident. Neat how those opportunities happen.

     About chocolate... they do have chocolate here. Not all the chocolate in the US, but they have KitKats, M&Ms, Toblerone, Oreos, and I bet there are others, I just don't remember right now. But they don't have Fastbreaks, I know that. It's just really expensive here so whenever anyone gets chocolate, it's just a big deal. So yes, I enjoyed it a lot. It was Sister Culango's first time eating Reeses, and she really like that. So thanks again!

     My interviews were two different interviews. The one with President Stucki was the one I told you about, and yes I shared the background to that scripture. I will tell you my goals next week; I didn't bring them, and I'm out of time so just remind me. Sister Stucki just chatted about if we had everything in our apartment we needed and if we needed anything for our health purposes and such.

     So I don't know where the time went today, but I'm out of time. We had to e-mail our Zone leaders pictures for a slide show so maybe that's where it went. But I hope your week goes well. Oh and, Dad, can you send me the recipe for Swedish pancakes? Sister Culango wants to try them. And also carmel corn?:) Thanks!
     So to sum up my work fast, we taught a lot this week and a bunch of our investigators told us they would go to church, and we fasted for our investigators to go to church this week, and when Sunday came... there were none at church. :( So yeah that's definitely a struggle for us right now! It's rough, but this week we're going to focus on finding new investigators who will be a little more committed hopefully, but still visit our other ones, of course. So hopefully we'll find some good ones. Well I love you all so much. Thanks for the e-mail. I can't believe it's already February this week. Man, January just flew by! Anyway...

Nothing is impossible . . .

Mahal ko kayo,
Sister Stromberg

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello, Hello!
     So if you didn't know, today is the Chinese New Year! Haha, and the only reason I know is because we had more fireworks at Villa Alegre (our subdivision) last night, haha, definitely not as much as on New Year’s, but we still had some.

     This week I had my second interview with President Stucki and Sister Stucki. Friday we met as a zone and had a short training, interviews, pizza from Pizza Hut:), and then district meeting. The interview went well, kind of shorter than I expected. We were asked to share our New Year’s goals and then share a scripture from the Book of Mormon that has changed our life. I'm sure most of you can guess which one I shared, but for those of you who don't know 1 Ne 7:12 but no time to explain why. Then for our district meeting we did practice teaching, and my district all commented on how good my Tagalog was. :) This last week I actually got a lot of compliments on my Tagalog, so that made me feel really good. I was at the temple and was just talking to a member that was sitting next to me in the waiting room, and after we had been talking for a while, she asked me if I had been in the Philippines for a year now. When I told her two months, she was very surprised and told me that my Tagalog was very good. So it's coming! :)

     With investigators this week we had a really neat experience with Mark on Tuesday. So before in December the day he was supposed to be baptized, his mom ended up in the hospital in another province, and he ended up going there and staying there for a couple weeks. Then when he returned and we visited him one day, he'd say he didn't have a desire to be baptized anymore; then the next time he would tell us that he did want to be baptized, and he was just really wishy washy about it all, which was so surprising because he has a testimony and knows it's true. Tuesday when we were teaching him, he told us that the night before he decided to watch the restoration movie. While watching it, he got a confirmation that this was the true church on earth, and he told us that he would do whatever it took to be baptized and asked us when he could get baptized. It was really powerful. So we set a date of 2/18 so he could go to church four times and then get baptized. Then on Sunday he didn't show up to church:( So we don't really know what's going on with him. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we visit him.
     Then also Helen was approaching her third Sunday, I think, but she didn't go to church:( We don't know why either, so we will find out. We only had one investigator come, and she was an investigator we actually just met the night before. Saturday night we were eating dinner at a member’s house, and she was the "maid" for them and cooked the food. We talked to her and gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to go to church the next day. We'll teach her this week so hopefully there's some luck there. Other than that none of our investigators showed up! Bummer. Also I mentioned earlier I was at the temple for our second temple tour. We had four investigators tell us they would for sure be there and two less active members, and then when it came to the day of... only one less active member came. Kind of a bummer. But what do ya do... keep pressing forward, I guess! haha One of these days we'll get our investigators to keep their commitments.
     Earlier this week we met the funniest lady! haha She's Filipino but married a Swedish man and lived in Sweden for a long time. So she actually approached us and has forgotten most of her Tagalog so she speaks in English to us. She is just loco! She told us that she was baptized in 1980 something; that she loves music and plays the harmonica and the piano; that she knows how to cha-cha, disco, tango; and who knows what else she was talking about. She even showed us right there on the street how to cha-cha. Then she got really excited when I told her that my name was Swedish. She had to tell us about every one of her kids, and, man, she was a talker. Then we asked if we could visit her later in the week. So when we returned to teach her, I'm sharing about the atonement and find out she doesn't know what the Book of Mormon is; she doesn't know who Joseph Smith is; she doesn't know what the sacrament is... yet she was baptized. Yeah so we don't really know if she's an investigator or inactive or what. But she played her harmonica for us, and it was way funny. And she's leaving to visit her daughter for a month in Sweden. She said she wanted to go to church with us so we went to pick her up Sunday morning (like Ryan said he used to do), but when we got there, she said she was busy and couldn't come. So yeah, crazy experience with her.
     With Patricia Pascu this week (the fruit stand lady), I haven't told you about her in a while, but we're still teaching her, and she still gives us fruit every now and then:) This last week she gave us tamarin which I had never tried. It's pretty good! Anyway we set a baptisimal date with her for March, and on Friday we had a really good lesson with her. I love Nanny Pascu because unlike others when we ask her if she'll go to church, if she doesn't know, she'll only say that she'll try or hopefully she can go; whereas the others will say yes of course and then not show up. Well this last lesson she started to ask us more about church and what she would need to wear and different things. So she's showing more interest, and I think we'll get her to go to church here soon! So yeah those are our investigators. We have others with baptisimal dates, but we have to get them to church.

 

 

Yummy Mexican food at the Spencers?!?

     To explain my mission: I don't know exactly, but this is what I have gathered from what people have talked about. There are "city missionaries" and "province missionaries" and then missionaries that are on Palawan (the island). Only 8 missionaries are on Palawan (4 elders and 4 sisters). In the city there's a Makati zone and a Manila zone so I think they're just two different big cities. Then there are other zones as well in the city like Pasay (where the MOA is and I really want to go). Then for the provinces, that's where I am right now, they are cities that are away from the big city. So yeah that's really all I know. And no, there hasn't been rain for a while. Just hot. This last week a couple of nights I kept waking up in the middle of the night because I was so hot. This last week for the first time I used an umbrella... for the sun. Haha, Filipinos always use an umbrella to block the sun. Sister Culango always does, but I don't because, of course, I want to get tan! haha. So she was so excited the one day that I used an umbrella for the sun. She's so funny!

An umbrella to block the sun?!?

     Then about mail: I've gotten a couple of letters, oh and I got your package!!! Thank you so much! I got it when we were at the temple tour from the AP so on the bus ride home all the elders wanted chocolate! haha And I really liked that little booklet too! I'll have to use that next Christmas and share it with those I teach. And I didn't have to pay anything for it, so I guess if it's small and through USPS you don't have to pay a custom fee. And it wasn't even broken into. I think it said it arrived here in the 'Pines on 1/6 or something, and then I got it Saturday.
     The sisters I live with keep telling me that I need to cook American food for them. Well I can't cook my famous quesadillas because no cheese in our area and no Ranch dressing in the stores in our area, and I don't know if they have tortillas either. So do you have any suggestions? I was thinking mash potatoes, fried chicken and gravy because they really want potatoes and gravy, but I've never made that... haha just watched. I have an idea how to make it, but need some explanation. :) Or any other good suggestions on what I should make them with only a stovetop? Could I make Hawaiian haystacks with a frying pan? Or do you need a crock pot? If I could, I need that recipe:) haha. Sister Verma made us Indian food this last week with curry, and it was delicious!

Mahal Ko Kayo,

Sister Stromberg

First transfer

Kamusta!
     Happy Martin Luther King's Day, definitely didn't remember that was today. So one exciting thing that happened this past week is last p-day: I finally got to play basketball! The kids here play all the time. There are courts all over, and I've always wanted to play when I pass them by. Well last p-day at the court in our subdivision I played with 3 boys, 2 vs 2:) haha. It was JP (one of our ward missionaries), Mark (who is our investigator right now), and then Mark's cousin Jay (who is not a member and isn't interested). It was so much fun. The other sisters just watched.

I always wanted to play . . .

     Yes, transfers have come and gone. Monday night our District Leader called us to tell us individually if we were staying or leaving. Then Tuesday as part of our district meeting, they told us where those who were leaving were going. From our district it was just Sister Duncan who got transferred, and then Sister Verma is now living with us. She's from India and has been in the mission for almost one year. She's making Indian food for us tonight, so I'm excited for that. She also told me that she wants to go to BYU after her mission so that will be fun to get to know her and then see her in Provo. But yeah everyone else in my district is the same. I'll attach a picture of my old district that we took Tuesday.

My first district in Manilla

     This week we had an area broadcast on Saturday where Elder Teh, Elder Ardern and Elder Nielson (from Idaho) talked to us. It was broadcasted to all of the Philippine missionaries, as well as the leadership for all the wards and stakes. It was a very good broadcast. It was all about establishing the church here in the Philippines. In the last fifty years the number of increased members of the church here in the Philippines is the most of any other country. But there's a big problem now that of that number only 22% of the members are attending church regularly. They talked about how it's a big problem that we need to fix. They just taught us what we will be focusing on as missionaries and as a ward/branch to try and help. Our focus is on teaching less actives and bringing them back to church. A quote that they shared that I really like is: "If not now, when? If not us, who?" It's kind of neat that we are all working together throughout all the Philippines and doing the same work. So far Sister Culango and I have brought back two less active families (attending church four Sundays in a row), and yesterday four less active members attended church for the first time in a long time, after we visited them. So that was really exciting. Then with our investigators this week, we got one of them to go to church. It was Helen, and she brought her husband with her as well. She's the one that has to go to the other church to save money because it's closer. It's kind of a bummer because we don't get to see her at church and talk with her, but at least she's going. I'm not complaining:) The elders that go to that branch texted us to tell us, and we were really excited. Our other investigators we just can't quite get them to come. Mark keeps talking about how he wants to get baptized, and I thought for sure he'd be at church, but he didn't show up. We have another temple tour this week so hopefully we can get some investigators to go to that and that can stir a desire in them to get to church! Sister Culango said she's had investigators before that after they saw the temple, they started coming to church. So we'll see.
     This Saturday we did our first service project. We've been asking different members and investigators if they need help with anything but haven't been able to find anything. Well finally we talked to Sister Vilasco, who was one of the less active families who we helped come back to church and who also has 7 kids. They are the ones who live very far from the church, and they all walk each week. They start at 7 to get there by 9. And we went to their house and washed the little kids’ clothes, cleaned the floor, and cut a bunch of wood with a saw (I'm not really sure what that was for.). And when I say cleaned the floor, it was a new experience for me:) ha. So you use half of a coconut pushed down on the floor and rub it on the floor to get off scuffs and to make it shiney. haha Very interesting. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but I didn't. Next time. So yeah that was a lot of fun.

 

My first service project

     Hope you all have a good week and enjoy the Monday holiday. Dad, my Tagalog is coming along. It's interesting because some of the members and investigators I can understand very well, almost all that they are saying, and then other investigators it is still really hard to understand them. Sister Culango and I figured out it's usually those who are originally from Cebuano speaking parts of the Philippines, and they learned Tagalog after Cebuano that I can understand. It's just the way they talk, and I'm sure the reason I understand them well is because that's how Sister Culango speaks, and I'm with her 24/7. So yeah, it’s kind of interesting, but it's coming.
Mahal na mahal ko kayo,
Sister Stromberg