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| Brianne is wearing a purple shirt near the center row, fourth from the right side. |
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| 11 Pipers Piping |
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| 9 Ladies Dancing |
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Facebook Message from Sister Maurer
On Tuesday we had our first of two Mission Tour Conferences - Ormoc, Biliran, Sogod, Maasin, and Carigara. Elder and Sister Echohawk couldn't make it because of last minute illness. So Elder Peres and his wife (Area Seventy) attended instead. It was a special event for all of us. For lunch, and as a special Christmas focus, we invited each of the Zones to present one Christmas carol from a group of 4-5 missionaries. Highlights of the lunch: President Maurer having them sing the 12 days of Christmas (including actions from each table) and Elder Marlin singing a solo, 'I'll Be Home For Christmas'. As our gift to each missionary I baked over 1,000 cookies and handed them a packet each. --Sister Maurer
Sunday, December 14, 2014
This IS The True Church of Jesus Christ And It Is Gonna Spread To All The World
HEY! It's great to hear from you :). I'm so glad that you were able to feel so much peace through this too :). You really can feel so much comfort and calmness (if thats a word...) through the holy ghost. It's pretty amazing.
Everything is going great here, and starting to get back to normal. Well, as normal as a mission gets anyways. We got to go back to Hinunangan on tuesday! They weren't hit hard at all, I didn't see any damage from the storm. So that was sooo great to see :). We heard that only two members were at the chapel. I'm not sure how much of an effect the storm had on the people there, since it didn't hit too hard. Even though we were in Hinunangan, we didn't get to visit anybody becuase we only had about an hour to begin packing up then go to bed. Our apartment was fine, not even a little flooded :). In the morning, we hurried and packed and cleaned and then headed to sogod. Transfer day was thursday! Me and Sister KS had to be there to get her companion early, so we caught a van at 3 that morning! Yeah we were pretty exhausted :). Sister KS's new companion is.....sister chu!!!! My companion from the mtc! I was soooo excited for them when I found out :). Sister chu was in barongan, the area that got hit really hard by ruby. So she and sister ks were going back to recover her luggage, then would come back to their new area in Palo, near tacloban. Transfer meeting was soo great! I got to see all of my batch, it was so fun :). My new companion is sister Gaono! She is from Samoa, and goes home in february. She is great!! She only knows waray, but most people here can understand that too. So we with both be learning cebuano together, just like with sister kalua santiago :). I am really excited for this transfer. We got to st bernard thurday night, and have spent our time since then trying to get to know the area and the members and all that good stuff. Our branch president and his family is AMAZING. They have been sooo helpful, even just the few days we have been here. It's gonna be tough to get the area going again, but with his family and a bunch of great branch missionaries, it is gonna be just fine :). I can't wait!! I thought it would be hard to transfer to another area, but it really hasn't been too bad. I LOVE our little branch, and am excited to work with them and get to know them. Ah. Missions are the best. I love it. This IS the true church of Jesus Christ, and it is gonna spread to all the world! He has a plan for each one of His children here, and for me as well. We just need to trust Him, and follow Him :). I'm so so blessed to have this gospel in my life. And I am so blessed to have YOU all in my life :). I love you! I hope you have the best time this week on your cruise!! Be safe :).
I did get the packages, thank you sooo much!! Tell brother morrison thank you too, and I'm glad he made it out safe :). That will be so fun to give them out to the members!!! And there is so much! Wow! Thank you :). And the hot chocolate and pillowcase and videos and chocolate orange and the nativity...wow. You are the best :). My favorite though i think was the calendar with all of the pictures!!!! Haha me and my comp sat and looked at all of them and loved it! Thank you soooo much!
Bad news?? Haha that is great news!! The cruise will be soooo fun, I'm so excited for you guys!! Baja mexico, is that the one we went on last time? That was so fun!! Lots of great memories from last time :). Don't even worry about going on trips without me, I want you guys to have fun!! We have plenty of time later to do more fun trips together :). Just take lots of pictures for me :). And eat lots of ice cream! You guys are out of school already? That seems so early! haha christmas is coming fast. Oh and for skype/phone calls, we aren't really sure yet... we should find out this week though, and I will let you know :). I am SO EXCITED though!Everything is going great here, and starting to get back to normal. Well, as normal as a mission gets anyways. We got to go back to Hinunangan on tuesday! They weren't hit hard at all, I didn't see any damage from the storm. So that was sooo great to see :). We heard that only two members were at the chapel. I'm not sure how much of an effect the storm had on the people there, since it didn't hit too hard. Even though we were in Hinunangan, we didn't get to visit anybody becuase we only had about an hour to begin packing up then go to bed. Our apartment was fine, not even a little flooded :). In the morning, we hurried and packed and cleaned and then headed to sogod. Transfer day was thursday! Me and Sister KS had to be there to get her companion early, so we caught a van at 3 that morning! Yeah we were pretty exhausted :). Sister KS's new companion is.....sister chu!!!! My companion from the mtc! I was soooo excited for them when I found out :). Sister chu was in barongan, the area that got hit really hard by ruby. So she and sister ks were going back to recover her luggage, then would come back to their new area in Palo, near tacloban. Transfer meeting was soo great! I got to see all of my batch, it was so fun :). My new companion is sister Gaono! She is from Samoa, and goes home in february. She is great!! She only knows waray, but most people here can understand that too. So we with both be learning cebuano together, just like with sister kalua santiago :). I am really excited for this transfer. We got to st bernard thurday night, and have spent our time since then trying to get to know the area and the members and all that good stuff. Our branch president and his family is AMAZING. They have been sooo helpful, even just the few days we have been here. It's gonna be tough to get the area going again, but with his family and a bunch of great branch missionaries, it is gonna be just fine :). I can't wait!! I thought it would be hard to transfer to another area, but it really hasn't been too bad. I LOVE our little branch, and am excited to work with them and get to know them. Ah. Missions are the best. I love it. This IS the true church of Jesus Christ, and it is gonna spread to all the world! He has a plan for each one of His children here, and for me as well. We just need to trust Him, and follow Him :). I'm so so blessed to have this gospel in my life. And I am so blessed to have YOU all in my life :). I love you! I hope you have the best time this week on your cruise!! Be safe :).
Love, Sister Mortensen
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Typhoon Taguput Update - From Sister Maurer
Probably about time to give an update. Things are settling back to some kind of normality. Power is still out for many parts of the mission. So if you didn't get an email from your missionary this week then don't panic. It's just because very few Internet cafes have power. Power should start coming back on in the next couple of days, so hopefully you will hear from them this Monday. But I will keep you posted on that and give you an update on Sunday or Monday. All missionaries are safe, well and accounted for. We finally had transfers yesterday and we had over 120 missionaries here for one of the largest transfers yet. We had to close down Borongan Zone because most of those areas were hardest hit by Ruby. Altho' Borongan City is back on its feet and we have 4 elders back in there to continue contact with investigators and monitor the other areas in preparation for our full return. This coming week we have a Mission Tour with Elder Echohawk and his wife, so I bet your missionaries will have lots to talk about after that. Then of course it's Christmas.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Typhoon Ruby (Haguput)
Hey I'm on!! I'm doing fine! we are in sogod right now :). we spent the last few nights here at the chapel in sogod with all our zone. We haven't heard for sure how hinunangan is doing yet though :( i'm working on a big email, so that will answer alot of your questions:). the storm was not too bad here in sogod. it hit two other zones in samar really hard though, and the missionaries are taken out of them. power is on here, but not yet in hinunangan, and no cell there either yet. so we won't be able to go back till that comes back up, possibly on friday. we might go pack up our stuff tomorrow, and check out the area. we've heard from our district president that hinunangan is totally fine, but his wife said it was hit HARD and there's lots of damage. so we have no idea. Thats been hardest part of all of this, being away from hinunangan during it all. We still have no idea how bad it is. We will probably get to go back tomorrow and visit people and check out the area with our zl. also mom, my zone leader said thanks for the letter you sent back to him, he really appreciated it :)
Hello Family,
Alright, this is going to be a very scattered email, since there's a lot to tell, but I'll do my best! Haha you'll just have to read my journal when i get home :). We survived everything just fine :). Ever since the very beginning, I have felt so much peace and comfort from the Lord. We started hearing about the storm from the people we were teaching on wednesday, and thursday morning we got a call from our zone leader that we needed to prepare a weeks survival kit so we could be ready to evacuate to sogod chapel as soon as we got the call, if it came to that. They are SO much more prepared for typhoons now, and would pull out all the missionaries if there was a chance that they could get stuck like with yolanda. We headed right away to sogod to get the food and everything we needed, since the soonest he said we could evacuate was the next day. But on the bus ride, we got the call to come straight to sogod to stay. So....we had nothing with us. No clothes, no garments, no journals or scriptures or anything! Haha and since we had just started packing a lot of stuff was on the floor. oops. The first thing we did when we heard about the storm, was say a prayer there on the bus. And I can't even describe how much comfort I felt! It was amazing. I just felt so calm, and I knew everything would be fine. That was the first of many many prayers. We prayed all the time for the families of the missionaries, that they would be comforted and know that we would be protected, and I hope you guys felt that :). We were mostly worried about the people in our area. They wouldn't really know what was coming, and a lot of their homes could get pretty damaged if the storm was strong. We wouldn't be there to invite them to the church to be safe and to help them be comforted :(. We finally got to sogod and the sisters had bought a weeks worth of food for us :). They are the sweetest. Haha sister brereton is hilarious, I've loved spending this time with her. we picked up a couple last things we needed and then hurried and did a bunch of sister breretons laba so we could have some clothes to wear for the next few days. she's been letting us wear her clothes since friday haha. she is the BEST. that evening we found out the storm had slowed down so we got to go on splits with the sisters and warn people and invite them to stay at the chapel :). The next day we were able to go out again and do that too. There were SO MANY people staying at the church, it was so great. Lots of non members too. WE got to talk to alot of them about the gospel a little, and you could really see how this storm softened their hearts. I really hope that has happened with people everywhere that has been affected. We also got to play with all the kids!! It was so fun, that was my favorite :). they help so much with the language haha, since they love to talk to you and will just laugh when you don't understand. We taught them down by the banks and they LOVED that. And we played a bunch of other little games and just talked to them. It was soooo fun :). I loved it! The storm hit saturday night around midnight. We were in the chapel, which is a super sturdy building, so were weren't worried about us at all. It was hard to sleep though knowing how many more people there were out there in the storm. Sunday we got up and everything was calm. Everyone left that morning, and then we had sacrament meeting :). A lot of people still came to church, even though the storm was just that morning. It was wonderful :). we were out of power and water until last night, so have just been hanging out at the chapel the last few days since we can't go out and work. It has been so WEIRD to not be busy but so fun too to be with all these missionaries:). I am so ready to get back to work though! transfers will be whenever the can get the zones in samar organized again, and all the areas evaluated. the poor new missionaries that just got here are still just hanging out in tacloban i think. What a crazy first week for them :(. It will possibly be this friday or next week sometime. I am transferring to st. bernard! elders are moving to hinunangan, and sisters to st bernard. It's close to hinunangan, about an hour and a half, and same district. I get to stay with sister kalua santiago for a little longer though :). Right now the plan is to go to hinunangan tomorrow and check out everything and pack up all our stuff. and clean the house if it got flooded :). then come back here i think? haha we are kinda just going day to day right now. Its all going to be fine though, don't even worry :). There have been so many miracles through out all of this, that there is no doubt in my mind that this storm is part of heavenly fathers plan for these people. I pray for us missionaries that we can go out now and help these people recover. I pray that this storm will soften their hearts to the gospel, instead of hardening them! The lord has a plan for each and every one of us. prayer is so POWERFUL. The Lord is so willing to bless us, if we just ask!
Hello Family,
Alright, this is going to be a very scattered email, since there's a lot to tell, but I'll do my best! Haha you'll just have to read my journal when i get home :). We survived everything just fine :). Ever since the very beginning, I have felt so much peace and comfort from the Lord. We started hearing about the storm from the people we were teaching on wednesday, and thursday morning we got a call from our zone leader that we needed to prepare a weeks survival kit so we could be ready to evacuate to sogod chapel as soon as we got the call, if it came to that. They are SO much more prepared for typhoons now, and would pull out all the missionaries if there was a chance that they could get stuck like with yolanda. We headed right away to sogod to get the food and everything we needed, since the soonest he said we could evacuate was the next day. But on the bus ride, we got the call to come straight to sogod to stay. So....we had nothing with us. No clothes, no garments, no journals or scriptures or anything! Haha and since we had just started packing a lot of stuff was on the floor. oops. The first thing we did when we heard about the storm, was say a prayer there on the bus. And I can't even describe how much comfort I felt! It was amazing. I just felt so calm, and I knew everything would be fine. That was the first of many many prayers. We prayed all the time for the families of the missionaries, that they would be comforted and know that we would be protected, and I hope you guys felt that :). We were mostly worried about the people in our area. They wouldn't really know what was coming, and a lot of their homes could get pretty damaged if the storm was strong. We wouldn't be there to invite them to the church to be safe and to help them be comforted :(. We finally got to sogod and the sisters had bought a weeks worth of food for us :). They are the sweetest. Haha sister brereton is hilarious, I've loved spending this time with her. we picked up a couple last things we needed and then hurried and did a bunch of sister breretons laba so we could have some clothes to wear for the next few days. she's been letting us wear her clothes since friday haha. she is the BEST. that evening we found out the storm had slowed down so we got to go on splits with the sisters and warn people and invite them to stay at the chapel :). The next day we were able to go out again and do that too. There were SO MANY people staying at the church, it was so great. Lots of non members too. WE got to talk to alot of them about the gospel a little, and you could really see how this storm softened their hearts. I really hope that has happened with people everywhere that has been affected. We also got to play with all the kids!! It was so fun, that was my favorite :). they help so much with the language haha, since they love to talk to you and will just laugh when you don't understand. We taught them down by the banks and they LOVED that. And we played a bunch of other little games and just talked to them. It was soooo fun :). I loved it! The storm hit saturday night around midnight. We were in the chapel, which is a super sturdy building, so were weren't worried about us at all. It was hard to sleep though knowing how many more people there were out there in the storm. Sunday we got up and everything was calm. Everyone left that morning, and then we had sacrament meeting :). A lot of people still came to church, even though the storm was just that morning. It was wonderful :). we were out of power and water until last night, so have just been hanging out at the chapel the last few days since we can't go out and work. It has been so WEIRD to not be busy but so fun too to be with all these missionaries:). I am so ready to get back to work though! transfers will be whenever the can get the zones in samar organized again, and all the areas evaluated. the poor new missionaries that just got here are still just hanging out in tacloban i think. What a crazy first week for them :(. It will possibly be this friday or next week sometime. I am transferring to st. bernard! elders are moving to hinunangan, and sisters to st bernard. It's close to hinunangan, about an hour and a half, and same district. I get to stay with sister kalua santiago for a little longer though :). Right now the plan is to go to hinunangan tomorrow and check out everything and pack up all our stuff. and clean the house if it got flooded :). then come back here i think? haha we are kinda just going day to day right now. Its all going to be fine though, don't even worry :). There have been so many miracles through out all of this, that there is no doubt in my mind that this storm is part of heavenly fathers plan for these people. I pray for us missionaries that we can go out now and help these people recover. I pray that this storm will soften their hearts to the gospel, instead of hardening them! The lord has a plan for each and every one of us. prayer is so POWERFUL. The Lord is so willing to bless us, if we just ask!
Ah I love you all. Like I've alwyas said, i pray for you all the time, even more this week :). Ali, i loved your letter, thank you :). I/m gonna write you back soon ! Talk to you all next week!
Sister Mortensen
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| Playing With the Kids at the Church in Sogod |
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| "Our awesome nanay dresses!" |
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| Eating corn for dinner. |
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| Bri with Sister Kalua-Santiago and Sister Brereton |
Typhoon Taguput Update #4 - From President Maurer
Tuesday Morning Update 4 for Ruby:
Dear Parents and Friends of Tacloban Missionaries,
The storm has passed and blue skies and radiant sunshine abound here in Tacloban. All missionaries have returned back to their areas, except Borongan Zone and the new arriving missionaries. We are still to effect the transfer to incorporate these new missionaries, but hope to do it this week. Relief efforts are being distributed to Borongan and we will also assess the conditions in that Zone before sending missionaries to return.
There is no power in most of the mission, and so it is unlikely that missionaries will find internet available to email home. We anticipate that power will be restored in a couple of days. Thanks for your willingness to send your sons and daughters as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Wayne E Maurer
Mission President
Philippines Tacloban Mission
Dear Parents and Friends of Tacloban Missionaries,
The storm has passed and blue skies and radiant sunshine abound here in Tacloban. All missionaries have returned back to their areas, except Borongan Zone and the new arriving missionaries. We are still to effect the transfer to incorporate these new missionaries, but hope to do it this week. Relief efforts are being distributed to Borongan and we will also assess the conditions in that Zone before sending missionaries to return.
There is no power in most of the mission, and so it is unlikely that missionaries will find internet available to email home. We anticipate that power will be restored in a couple of days. Thanks for your willingness to send your sons and daughters as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Wayne E Maurer
Mission President
Philippines Tacloban Mission
Update From Elder Burton, Zone Leader
Magandang Gabi.. mga alibangbang... kamustan da man... well buhi pa mi...
This is Elder Burton.. I am with all of your Children.. I just want you to know they are all alive and doing well.. we will be sleeping at the Church again tonight but they are happy to let you know that they are safe and well.. they will be emailing you tomorrow.. thank you for the prayers and the love that you have sent our way..Saturday, December 6, 2014
Typhoon Taguput Update #3 - From President Maurer
Sunday afternoon Update 3 for Typhoon Ruby:
Dear Parents and Friends of Tacloban Missionaries,
Last night was a night of strong howling winds, battering rain and NO power. Needless to say it was a LOONG night. However as day dawned it was obvious that the worst was over, and people started to emerge to assess and fix up their homes. As we looked around the Mission Home there were trees down, flooding on the street in front of us (6-9 inches), debris which had been blown, and the lighter winds and rain still happening.
The Mission Home sustained some more damage, water leaking in thru windows as it was driven, and the shattered sliding door downstairs giving rain and glass all over the floor and furniture. We still do not know the extent of damage for missionary apartments, since they are all in Chapels in each Zone (except for Borongan).
We have kept in touch with each Zone of Missionaries ( since they are all together in safe locations) up until 4.00am. At that point 3 Zones appear to have lost communication network. At that point they were ALL fine. We have since travelled to Tolosa Zone to establish they are great, and in fine spirits. Actually loving the experience. We are in the process of confirming Biliran and Carigara Zone.
Please be assured that this typhoon was NOT nearly as bad as the previous one (Yolanda) last year. It is unlikely that there is any major disruption to the work, however we will hold the missionaries in these locations at least until Monday. Thank you for your prayers of faith and hope. We felt them and thank our Heavenly Father for his bounteous mercy.
Warm Regards,
President & Sister Wayne Maurer
Dear Parents and Friends of Tacloban Missionaries,
Last night was a night of strong howling winds, battering rain and NO power. Needless to say it was a LOONG night. However as day dawned it was obvious that the worst was over, and people started to emerge to assess and fix up their homes. As we looked around the Mission Home there were trees down, flooding on the street in front of us (6-9 inches), debris which had been blown, and the lighter winds and rain still happening.
The Mission Home sustained some more damage, water leaking in thru windows as it was driven, and the shattered sliding door downstairs giving rain and glass all over the floor and furniture. We still do not know the extent of damage for missionary apartments, since they are all in Chapels in each Zone (except for Borongan).
We have kept in touch with each Zone of Missionaries ( since they are all together in safe locations) up until 4.00am. At that point 3 Zones appear to have lost communication network. At that point they were ALL fine. We have since travelled to Tolosa Zone to establish they are great, and in fine spirits. Actually loving the experience. We are in the process of confirming Biliran and Carigara Zone.
Please be assured that this typhoon was NOT nearly as bad as the previous one (Yolanda) last year. It is unlikely that there is any major disruption to the work, however we will hold the missionaries in these locations at least until Monday. Thank you for your prayers of faith and hope. We felt them and thank our Heavenly Father for his bounteous mercy.
Warm Regards,
President & Sister Wayne Maurer
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