The Next Time We Went Back They Said That They Had Been Waiting For Us!.

Hello family!  

Yes it's true, time is going SO FAST.  I can't believe it!  Yep it has been once again another wonderful week here :).  We went back to visit sister C-- twice but unfortunately she was not home both times.  The  V-- family wasn't able to make it to church yesterday...but are still so great :).  They really try to get to church every week, but it's hard with 5 little kids and sister being pregnant.   We are going to go visit them later tonight. They are so great!  They read the book of mormon all the time, all their kids know how to pray, and they always have SO many good questions when we go to visit them.  I really love that family :).  

We didn't have to go to the transfer meeting, but we wanted to :).  To get to see everybody!  The sisters all transfer monday, and elders tuesday.  I was hoping to see my nanay and my anak, but neither of them transferred!  But I did get to see a lot of other sisters and so it was a wonderful day anyways :).  Our new kabalay (sister who lives with us) is sister newton!  From idaho!  She's so sweet, she's been a lot of fun this week :).  We miss sister compracion gihap though!

Haha I was gonna make rice krispie treats...but there's no rice krispies here!  haha only rice. I made a little bit with some corn flakes, and they were pretty good actually! but we just decided to make smores :).  haha but thank you for the recipes, maybe we'll try crepes sometime :).  

Wow it seems like its been a great week for all you!  Wow!  Jaxsen, thats sooo exciting, great work with your reading:).  and what a great day that much have been!  and Josh!  Holy moly, you're waiting for your mission call!!! wow :).  Where are you guessing?? I'll be excited to hear :) mom good luck with your patience! Josh that's wonderful you're getting your patriarchal blessing as well.  It was a wonderful experience for me to receive mine, and has helped me so much since then.  I'm sure it will be the same for you :). and those are some pretty great pictures of your soccer game! wow! 

Love the pictures of frisbee golf as well!! :).  Haha mom, it looks like you didn't take it nearly as seriously as the rest of them... haha!  glad you guys are having fun!

This saturday P-- J-- is getting baptized!!!  he is 15 years old and the rest of his family are members. they have been active on and off, so their kids didn't get baptized when they were younger.  Three of the other daughters got baptized a couple months ago, and now J-- is :).  He was SO SHY of us for the first while, but this past 2 weeks ish has finally been comfortable around us!  He really wants to serve  a mission but is scared to!  because he's shy.  I told him he can definitely do it, speaking from experience haha. With any weakness you have, it doesn't matter... you just have to bring it to the Lord, and rely on Him, and do EVERYTHING you can. And it will all be alright :).  J-- still has at least 3 years to prepare, and i'm so excited for him :). Haha me and my companion always talk about how we feel like he's our little brother.  We are so excited for him :)

This past week we found a new investigator family! The A-- family! They live near the C-- family, and some other less actives that we visit.  We oym'd them one day a couple weeks ago and they were very friendly!  They invited us to come back that sunday and visit again, but we didn't make it back to visit them that day.  The next time we went back, they said that they had been waiting for us!  We apologized and sat down with them and shared the first lesson :).  They have great faith and such a strong testimony of prayer.  It's only through prayer they say that they survived yolanda.   They don't have much but are such grateful, kind people.  And guess what! They came to CHURCH yesterday!  We were so happy :).  And so we'll definitely going back to visit them again this week :). It's so amazing to be a part of this work and meet so many people that are ready for the gospel.  I LOVE being a missionary so much :)

ah thank you so much for the package!!!  could you send m&ms and beef jerky?  haha requests from my kabalay!  and also, a mini hymn book for my companion? she doesn't have one.  THANK YOU so much :)

I love you all!  Sorry it's not working to upload pictures right now.... so maybe next week.  Take care!  HOpe everything keeps going well for you :)

Love, Sister Mortensen

Thank you  Sol Almaden for the picture!

She Needs The Comfort of the Gospel in her Life

Hello family!!

Quick email since its transfer day!  Me and my companion are both staying in tanauan, which we are SO happy about  :).  But we are still going to go to the transfer meeting, and need to leave soon!

It has been a wonderful week!  Thank you all so much for your emails for my birthday!  Those were so fun to read :).  Dad, thank you, and sorry i didn't get to reply this week, but next week for sure :).

Yesterday was stake conference!  It was so amazing to see so many members all gathered together in one building :). There were sooo many of us!  Sadly, the V-- family didn't make it to church.... because sister is 4 months pregnant!  and is low blood right now, and so it's tough for her to travel.  But they are doing great :).  Quite a few other investigators were able to attend though!  One is brother R--, who will hopefully be baptized in 2 weeks!  He is 22 and is wanting to go on a mission :).  He attended the missionary prep session of conference and said it was great.  We are really excited for him :).  

This week I wanted to tell you about Sister C--.  She's a less active that we have tried to visit a couple times now, but she has never been home.  This week though, she finally was, but said she was busy and asked if we could come back another time.  As we were walking out, Sister Culangan said to say hello to her family as well for us.  Sister C-- pointed out where they were working just down the road, and said they were doing fine.  We asked her how many kids she has, and she said seven, but one of them died, so now just six.  And so sister Culangan asks how he died and she says, "you better sit down, it's a long story." :). And so we sit down with her and she tells us how her son C-- committed suicide last October when he was just 17 years old.  She still is really struggling with accepting and understanding it.  She was very close to him and misses him so much.  We shared with her about why we have trials in this life and how we all have a purpose in this life, even when we don't understand it yet.  Both she and her son are loved by God and even though it's hard to understand, everything happens according to His plan.  She needs the comfort of the gospel in her life!  The comfort of knowing God's plan for all of us.  I'm glad the spirit led us to ask the right questions to help her open up and so we could share.  She asked us to come back again, and I hope we'll be able to bring her some comfort and help her start coming back to church :).  

I love  you all so much everyone :) .  I'm always praying for you and asking for Him to watch over you all :).  I hope you can feel that!

Until next week.... take care!!

Sister Mortensen

It Was So Great To See You All and Talk To You!

Ahh it was sooo great to see you all and talk to you! you look like you are all doing so well!  i wish the Skype worked better and there wasn't as much of a lag in the phone, but it was GREAT anyways :). Haha I didn't sleep well last night since i was so excited :).  Well, I hope it's okay, but I'm gonna send you as many pictures as i can instead of emailing :). sister arbitria is using my card reader right now but i'll forward you the pictures and then send more if i can! thank you so much!! I LOVE you all!  take care :)

Sister Mortensen :)   

Mothers Day Skype!

One of the best parts of Mothers Day is Skyping with Brianne.  The connection wasn't great, but the smile on her face was perfect.  We saw her face through Skype and heard her voice through the phone.  It was so fun to be able to talk to her and see her.  She is doing wonderful.  She loves being a missionary.

I love my kids!

She Shared Her Testimony Afterwards And The Spirit Was So Strong

(sorry this is gonna be short!)  

Hellllloooo!  

It's been a fantastic week!  G--'s baptism was WONDERFUL!  It was at the church, not in the ocean, but it was just as special :).  Her two kids were there and were so excited for her as well!   She shared her testimony afterwards and the spirit was so strong :).  We are so excited for her and her family!!  She really wants her husband and her other two sons be be baptized as well,  but they are SO shy of us.  Which makes it hard.  ahhh.  We are definitely going to keep trying through.  We planned a family home evening with them, but only G-- and her youngest (member) son was home!  So we are going to try that with them all again :). 

The family I told you about last week, the V-- family, CAME TO CHURCH yesterday!!  Brother and sister both did!!  we were sooo excited when we saw them :).  We taught them saturday night and they have such a STRONG desire for brother to recieve the preisthood and one day go to the temple as a family.  But they haven't been to church in a long time!  Brother said that they plan to come church all of the month of may, so he can recieve the preisthood.  And then sister says, 'no, we are planning to come to church for all the rest of the months as well!"  hahaha.  they are such a cute family :).  We're praying SO much for them, and I just know they're gonna make it to the temple someday!  Ah. I love being a missionary :)

Time to go! sorry it's a quick one:)  I LOVE it here, so much, and am so excited to talk to you all next week!!  Holy moly :).   Can't wait!  Love you all :)  bye!

Sister Mortensen!