May 2013 Emails From Julia!

Sorry friends for not posting for so long....

 

 

 

 

MAY 26, 2013

Well hello there family and friends that I love so so much! How are you?
I hope you are all healthy and happy and stuff. I am feeling well and so so happy because this week out awesome investigator brother Joven is getting baptized on June 1st!!!! he had his interview this Saturday. Our DL elder slaughter from Utah interviewed him and he passed! He has a strong testimony of the restored gospel. because he is so close to his baptism, we pretty much teach him everyday so we can follow up on how his preparation is going. He is prepared! I feel so much joy as we are able to observe and be a part of his conversion process.
This week we went to Dagupan to the hospital. Sister sokes has a rash thing on her legs. Turns out it is a bacterial infection. But while we were there we went to McDonald's :) fun adventure.
We are all very excited about the mission split! we are working hard as a zone and seeing fruits of our labours. Every one in the mission works hard and we all get a long really well. Me and sis stokes are in a new district and it is almost all foreigners! we have elder McDonnell and elder slaughter from Hawaii and Utah. then elder vonibolla and elder Wilkes from Fiji and Utah then sister Flores and sister Davidson from phil and Australia. sis Flores is the only local! haha! we have fun and we are all learning together to be more effective missionaries.
Not much exciting happened this week except for brother joven . we actually had a really hard week. allot of our appointments fell through and we had some gates slammed in our faces. but that is OK because it is another week. I love you all!

We had a zone activity this week and so i am sending pics.

How is your church branch? our branch is great! they are all very supportive ad friendly. Our leaders are learning how to be leaders and we are helping them a lot. This branch is hoping to become a ward soon! we had 118 in attendance last week so it is a possibility that that might happen!
Are the members helping with the missionary work? We have a few that work with us but we could always use more! We encourage them to work and give us their referrals.
Are they cooking for your? Yes! they feed us quite often. At home sister caunca and baluyot cook. I act as their assistant as I chop and stir things :)
Are you taking a ton of photos? No :( sorry sometimes there is just nothing to take a pic of. I know you like to see exciting things. also we cannot just whip our camera out willy nilly.
Do you think you will be in the Urdaneta Mission? yes
How are your clothes holding up? for the most part.
How is your companion? great! I love her to death. we have a good time and are united.
Are you speaking Tagolag a lot? Opo. everyday all day. well most of the day.
Any new investigators this week? we have a few but none that are super interested.
What is your favorite part of the day? Teaching of course. I love when we are teaching people.
What are you studying? this month we have been studying about diligence. read about it in PMG :)
Who are the other sisters in your area? sister caunca and baluyot I think I have told you that before.
When are transfers? In 4 weeks. or so

Grandmas questions

Grandma ad grandpa! I got a letter from you today! thanks! I love you both so so much

My cancer sores are better I still get them every now and then but that toothpaste that you got me works! Also thanks so much for the sweater! It is so
cute and I wear it a lot. Also the razors. I still have lots of potatoes. I use them sparingly. haha! I like to eat them on special occasions. As for mac and cheese I like the cheddar better. I love you both! I will be sending you a letter soon!!

Kara!!!

I love you and just want to tell you that you are awesome!!
I will write you soon!

 

MAY 19, 2013

Hello everyone!

I was so happy to be able to see your beautiful faces last Tuesday :) you all look great! Keep up the good beauty rest. haha. I wish I could have skyped with everyone that is reading this but I will see you someday soon :) I have had a great week!

Although it was hard to re-adjust after skyping haha. I bounced back pretty quickly. we are getting Brother Joven ready for his baptism which is on saturday June 1st! he will have his interview this sat. He was nervous at first. He imagined it like a job interview. But last night we brought a recent convert to the lesson who was able to share his interview experience and ease bro Jovens worries a little. He is really excited. He came to church and learned about revelation. He wears a white shirt and tie and everything! Oh and he also went to the branch swimming activity. It is all just so exciting because he is becoming a member of the branch family already which means after the baptism, there will be a good hand off from missionary to branch.

In other news we had apt checks this week. The zone leaders and the Dinkles (couple missionary) came and checked everything. We did pretty well but I got a 9 on my desk!! They said I had too many books on my desk :( They were nice and orderly! but I guess not up to standard. Oh well.

Also this week we have gotten lots of Langka! It is jack fruit! They are growing like crazy right now so people just hand them out. In the pic I attached me and sister caunca are pulling one apart. With jack fruit you have to work with your hands to separate the seeds, the fruit and the peel. it is hard and very very sticky and stinky. But delicious afterwards. we boil the fruit in sugar to make it sweeter. then eat! yum. we just got another yesterday that is like the size of a baby! I will take a pic soon.

This week we have been blessed with many dinner appointments. We had one at a members house on Friday. The cayado family. They are so sweet and we taught them about the restoration. Then we ate. The next night sister cayado texted us and said we have some cake if you want you can come over and have some. So we went over of course and she surprised us with another dinner!!! we ate there two nights in a row! They are so loving and generous here we are so blessed when we are obedient.

Also yesterday we got invited to two bday parties! lots and lots of pancit was served :)

I am loving it still and love this work.We have been getting lots of rain and lightning and thunder lately. Some lightning is so close we have to run home! but they say by June the lightning will be gone and it will just be rain until November haha! cant wait! We are already getting soaked a few times this week and it will be everyday very soon. It is nice and cool when we sleep at night which I like :)

I am so grateful for all your love and support. I love getting letters from all of you and will try to write back as best I can. If It takes me a while just remember na Mahal na mahal kita!!!!

Ingat kayong lahat!

Sister Stapp

 

 

MAY 5, 2013

Hello there family!!

I love your emails and love and faces. I have had a great week here on the mission and we are working hard!

We are very happy because earlier this week we were able to hear from our dear area President Elder Nielson and his wife. They came to Dagupan and spoke to us along with pres monahan and sister monahan. Elder Nielson chastised us all!!! haha! he basically told us we need to refocus. He explained to us how when the phils first opened to missionary work, it was and english speaking mission and the missionaries were commanded to preach to the people of influence to establish the church here. Then when the mission started to be Tagalog speaking eventually missionaries started ot only teach the lower class. The church is still in the process in being established here and all we are doing is teaching the lower class. Elder Nielson reminded us that we are called to teach ALL the people of the Philippines and commanded us to teach people who will help establish the church here in our area. We are to preach to people with cars and we are to teach in English!!! Very nerve racking but exciting! Sister stokes and I have of course decided to obey his council. We have started to tract at the BIG HOUSES! i always start in Tagalog and then once I spit something out like "We are missionaries!" then i can somewhat speak English. I cant really get the English grammar down. Sister stokes laughs at me because I speak English really slow and choppy when I am teaching. Oh well. Enough about me. so far we have had success! we have found some new investigators that are people of influence here in the area and have cars which means they will be able to home teach and bring people to church!

Of course just because we are preaching to the rich...does not mean we exclude the poor! of course we love them and will keep teaching them. Brother joven is doing great! He loves church and even came to a few teaching appointments with us this week. I will take a pic with him soon so you can see what he looks like. he loves church and loves reading the bofm. he loves to pray and has been praying about the bofm. I love the bofm too!I love reading it everyday I wish i could read it all day long. Anyway

Also today we had a zone activity! we played steal the bacon. very fun but oh so hot! I stole the bacon a few times...I wish it was real bacon.

I am so happy to hear all that is going on with you all. your plays and the baby...everything is so exciting` I received a dear elder from mom and....that is it. I haven't gotten any hand written letters yet.

The branch is doing very well...we still don't have a Branch mission Leader...which is hard. But there is hope still. President Agulan is really nice and supportive. all the members are great1

well I dong have much time sorry for the short and lack of pics!!!!

love sister stapp