Whip Lash Week!

Sister Pilkington was blessed to be far away from the Super Typhoon that hit the Philippines last week.  The damage to the central Philippines has been devastating.  One of her house mates and fellow sister missionaries' family lives where the Typhoon created havoc.  We are praying for her family and the Filipino people as they search and rescue their loved ones and attempt to rebuild their country.  The missionaries serving in Tacloban to date have not all been accounted for.  They were all moved to safe places 2 days ahead of the impact of the storm and were supplied with food and water for many days.  Monday in the Philippines, many were finally contacted and safe and sound.  From contacts I have with the missionary moms, the estimate is that there are about 26 more missionaries that have not been contacted.  We hope and pray that Tuesday they will all be accounted for.  Please join us as we continue to pray for their safety.

Thank you for your continued love and support!

~Susan (Chelsea's mom)

Area:  San Marcelino

Companion:  Sister Rowley

                                                               Monday, November 11, 2013

Special SHOUTOUT TO BIRTHDAYS OF THE WEEK! Happy birthday to my dearest big sis Meghan, then of course to Elder Swaney & Alex Nearhood! & last but not least Happiest of birthdays to my Daddy 50 years old tomorrow! Wohoo! Also, thank you SO MUCH to the Nelson family for the adorable letter you sent me, cracked me up, you guys are awesome!

It seems as time goes on my weeks here become more and more interesting as I experience all that this wonderful town of San Marcelino has to offer. I feel like this week has been the most hectic week of my life. I would like to refer to it as whip-lash week.

Break up: I feel like I got broken up with twice this week. Two of my favorite investigators told us that they can't take the lessons anymore. One is Luzviminda Basilio-she is incredible. She came to church every week, always kept her commitments, and she even had a baptismal goal date for November 30. Turns out here asawa(spouse) has become super controlling. He took away her Book of Mormon and said that if she continues lessons with us, she has no place in their home anymore. She isn't the type to stand up for herself. We shared a scripture of faith with her and asked if we could return next week to talk a little more with her-we are thinking of bringing President Sangco. The other one is one of our newer investigators, Carmelita Bedonia. She is the angel who is battling cancer right now and is extremely faithful and religious. Apparently her asawa is much like Luz's and said she can't take the discussions anymore too. I'm not sure what is making the husbands act this way, I'm not sure if it's a jealousy thing or they don't like seeing them happy, not too sure. But we could see how crushed she was and how bad she felt. She kept telling Sister Rowley and I not to be hard hearted towards her to always say hi when we see each other. She then asked if we would sing for her one more time before we left--so we did. She turned to her daughter and was like "They sound like angels from Heaven don't they?" Little does she know! Ha. I am absolutely heart broken for these two sisters. I am so sad for them because I know how much this gospel could really change their lives. But we won't give up, maybe now isn't the time, but we will return. 

Only in the P.I. (Philippine Islands): We were standing at the stations waiting to catch the bus with the other sisters to go to District Meeting this week. Then one of the other sisters less actives that we haven't seen in months shows up, says hi, then walks away. As he's walking away we see some odd shaped rectangular thing under his shirt popping out by his shoulder. Turns out he was strapped up with a rifle? Yea, no biggie.

Penny Pincher: So you know when you're younger and you're always embarrassed of things your parents did and swore you would never be like them, then one day you do that exact thing? Yep, I'm at that stage now. Mom & dad-be proud, I'm becoming like you! So we take these snazzy little things called trikes when we're going places too far to walk or in a hurry. (A trike is a motorcycle with a little side car attached to it. Keep in mind, these trikes are made for little 5 feet and under Filipinos that have petite little frames, not two "tall" white girls). So being that we're white the drivers ALWAYS try to rip us off because they associate white with money. Even to our furthest area it's 15 pesos each MAX, this driver tried to charge me 80. I had to keep my cool because I'm a missionary, but I found myself acting just like my dad, I held my hand out until he gave me every last peso back, nobody was ripping me off! ha.

Americans Stand Out Apparently: Every town has that one crazy person that everyone knows they should stay away from when they walk down the street. Well, ours happens to be a less active that went crazy after her dad passed away. We have had numerous encounters with her, she likes to pinch us, she has grabbed Sister Wagner's face before and she yells english at us. Turns out she lives out in our area and Sister Rowley and I see her across the street that we are walking down. I grab Sister Rowley and tell her to put her head down as we walk by so she won't try to harass us. Well turns out we are the ONLY people walking down the street, there's no cars, nothing, and we're in the middle of the country side area. Yea, turns out that we're actually two big white girls too, it's kind of hard to try to "fit in" or "hide" here. We start busting up laughing as we realize we don't look like everyone else. Sometimes it's a reality check when I look in the mirror and realize I'm the foreigner here. 

Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers: Our theme of the week for companionship study has been finding. Sister Rowley and I are really trying to find some solid new investigators. One afternoon after paying the house bills, (yes, I am the mommy of the house, I get to pay all our bills & be in charge of the money, how did I get so lucky!) Anyways we went out to the trike station to get a ride out to one of our farther areas of Rabanes. I turn to Sister Rowley and go hmm who should we pick? Every trike driver is raising their hands shouting "Taxi!" "Sisters, ride?" "Sacay po sisters?" I turn to this random guy and say yes to him, he comes and picks us up. Little do we know what is about to come next. We hop in and all of a sudden he starts speaking fluent english to us (turns out I'm scared of people that speak english, I prefer Tagalog, so it took me a minute to adjust to what was going on). Anyways, he begins to tell us how he is a retired english professor, I then tell him how I aspire to be one too. We chat while driving, then he says what only every missionary would dream of hearing, he goes, "You know, I was born Roman Catholic, but I'm actually searching for a faith right now. Do you have a pamphlet or something I could read?" Luckily my companion was more put together than me and handed him a pamphlet while I was trying to pick my jaw up off the ground. I immediately whip out my planner and get his information. Saddest part of the whole story, if there's even such a thing, he's in the other sisters area! We secretly wanted to keep him as our own soo bad, he is too good to be true, but we referred him to the other sisters and they are currently teaching him! So somehow the childhood saying of finders keepers, losers weepers didn't exactly work out. We were the finders and the weepers! Ha. Oh well, somehow I'm totally happy about it :)

Miracle on Provinital Street: So some days are just better than others out here in the mission field when it comes to having success. Thursday in particular was just a hot mess. As the trainer of course I feel responsible for our success. So we stopped to get some drinks and refuel and I quickly lean against a wall and say a quick prayer to find somewhere for us to go. It was only 6 pm and we had already gone through all of our appointments scheduled for the day. We start walking down the dark highway when out of the shadows pops this girl Jasmine who we had I2L's earlier that week. She immediately gives me a hug and asks where we are going. I then say I'm not really sure, then she looks up to me with her big brown eyes, grabs me by my arm, and tells me she is taking us to her house to meet her family. I turn and look at Sister Rowley, we totally imaginary high-fived. We were stoked! Their family is absolutely adorable, we got to teach the two girls and their mom, and they also came to the Relief Society Activity we had Saturday! We are really excited to begin teaching them. What a miracle, an answer to my prayer! 

For all that e-mailed about the typhoon, I am aware of the devastation & the damage that has taken place, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected. We were really lucky, there was no damage here at all, strong wind was the worst of it. Friday afternoon we got a text message to return to our homes which we did until a little after dinner where we were then able to go out and proselyte but stay close to home. All is well here, thank you for your concerns. & everyone, MAKE 72 HOUR KITS. BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY.

Each day I wake up so happy and so grateful for all that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I look around this beatuiful place and amidst all the poverty and corruption, it is so completely happy here and the people are truly incredible. Never before have I met such a compassionate group of people (besides my parents;)). I absolutely LOVE serving here, I know this is the place that I was supposed to go. A lot of people we run into are shocked when we tell them that we don't earn a salary, that we rarely talk to our family, and that it is complete service. They sometimes wonder why we would do that. We do it because we KNOW our message is true, it's as simple as that. I want other families to feel the happiness that I feel. I love this quote by President Hinckley that says, "You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice, will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make." I am so grateful to serve my Heavenly Father. I LOVE my mission.

Take care everyone & BE SAFE!!

I love you. Ingat po. Mahal Kita.

Sister Pilkington