Sister Harris // Philippines Cebu Mission: Sibonga Week 7

hi everyone!!

this week has been great! i am so excited i get to be here in sibonga for another transfer! i really felt like my work here wasn't done and so i'm glad it isn't...there is SO much that needs to be done here so i'm thankful for another transfer to get things done. sister tueller and i are still here- but we did get a new elder in sibonga, elder robson was transferred to talisay so we got a filipino elder named elder mozar. he seems like he'll be great here. we also have a new district leader, elder velasco from manila. also, elder blount was transferred to the city (i think) so we got a new zone leader, elder milan, from luzon. elder glines is still here. our zone leaders are hilarious and such hard workers at the same time. i am so thankful for them. sister tueller and i are the only americans in our district, and elder glines is the only american elder in the zone haha. we are with a bunch of filipinos, but i am super excited about it!

THANK YOU for my christmas box!! ahh i love it! you guys are sooo good! i had forgotten that some of those foods even existed i was so happy! the zone leaders had to come with the AP's in their van to bring it because it was so big, haha they were all super excited to bring it to me, they surprised me so that was fun too. they were filming me haha it was super fun. that is my landlord in the back of the picture, she was excited about the box too, she is really funny :) thanks thanks thank you thank you thank you i loooove it! i love my little fan club back home!

so this week has been pretty good but nothing really out of the ordinary happened. it was just another week of work! last week we taught 31 lessons and we were super pumped...this week we aren't doing so great but we are just continuing to work hard!

number of houses i have taught in this week that are smaller than my closet at home: 4. it's super humbling. i almost feel like i am teaching people who are on survivor...i really go into the jungle to teach these people.

here are some updates on my friends:

Sister Estelloso- so she is still smoking. we went to teach her yesterday and we caught her in the act. she didn't have money to come to church on sunday either, but she is going to read the book of mormon. and we are thinking of having the elders give her a priesthood blessing to help her stop smoking...we also found out she isn't married so we have a long ways to go with her before she can be baptized but we sure love her and i am learning a lot of patience with her!
Mary Jane- she is an investigator (16 years old) who is supposed to be getting baptized this weekend...it's not happening because she has a problem coming to church. she is super funny and a spitting image of jaclyn smith when we were 16...she's kinda sassy and just super hilarious. she wears like 20 hair clips at one time haha
CARRY/Harry Davis- so about a month ago we tracted this house, and we wrote down the name "Harry Davis" and we couldn't for the life of us figure out who Harry Davis was...sounds like a man's name right? so we just kind of stopped looking for Harry Davis. yesterday we had a feeling to stop by the house where we found Harry Davis...and a lady answers the door, and she told us her name is CARRY DAVIS. hahahah so we found the mystery person! we taught her and she is so good. her question to us was, "i have been wondering for years why there are so many translations of the bible?" it was such a good lesson and we taught her about the book of mormon and are excited to keep teaching her.

sorry i don't have a ton to say this week, it's just been another regular week. i do however want to tell you some funny things so hopefully they make you smile!...

so people like to guess where i am from. they rarely ever guess america. usually they guess germany or australia. however, sometimes they guess america, and i tell them i am from utah, and what do they say? they literally say: "go utah jazz KARL MALONE!" just like that. everyone knows who karl malone is. someone also knew where brigham city is, but didn't know where salt lake city is. if they don't know where utah is, i tell them it is close to california, and usually they tell me the name of someone in california...um i don't know that person, there are millions of people in america. :)

oh and everyone in the branch is obsessed with the idea of a 72 hour kit, but nobody has one. but they always talk about them, without fail, every sunday.

sister tueller and i are like celebrities in this little town. there have never been sisters here, let alone americans, and so we get a lot of attention. everyone honks their horns at us when they're driving, or they yell "HEY! AMIGA!" and almost crash their bikes haha. they try to speak english to us and it's hilarious. just the other day someone asked me, "where you?" i figured out he was asking where are you going, but it was still funny.

here it's totally normal to ask someone where they are going, where they are coming from, what they are doing, etc. so people always ask us those questions. also everyone knows where our church is, and they think we live there. we have to explain that yes it is a house, but it is actually a church.

they LOVE videoke here. it's similar to karaeoke. go look it up, i can't even explain it haha. so they are always singing REALLY loud, but REALLY bad...some days i literally laugh so hard i start to cry haha

a few weeks ago we were walking through a neighborhood in one of the more rural areas in sibonga, and picture this: an exercise class in the middle of the jungle. really really loud techno music, and a lot of punching/robot actions, and then at the end...some leap frog-like moves. good stuff.

i am on a quest to try as many weird filipino beauty products as possible, this week i bought some paste that goes on your nose that is supposed to "whiten and stretch" haha people comment on our noses all the time.

oh, and nobody can say sister tueller's name. she's so cute about it and so patient with them! they call her "sister tweeller" it's hilarious.

well, that's all i have for this week. just another week of work, thanks again for the package, and thanks for your love and support! i hope you know how much i love you all!! keep on keepin' on and i'll talk to you again next week.

love, jos

Typical home we teach at