I SURVIVED!

hello, 

I know you are all dying to know if I'm ok. Don't worry, we are all fine. It's funny because none of the missionaries in my area knew about the storm. We all had no idea and I found out from reading all my emails! I guess we got part of it because on Wednesday night it was raining so hard and the wind was blowing like crazy! It was so scary and the trees were blowing on our window in the middle of the night and I swear I thought it actually was a tsunami. But it wasn't and the next morning everything was fine :) 

This week has been great! I have been doing so much better, I have been loving it more and more everyday. It was sort of a slow week with our teaching because almost all of our appointments backed out on us and every time we do a preach by the way and ask if we can share a message they tell us to come back. So we come back and they say to come back again. It's frustrating- especially because I still don't know what's going on half the time. Also people just stare and stare and stare. It's kind of annoying, and the men always say "hello madam" or "hi Ma'm". I'm not sure if they are doing it to be funny or not but it's funny to me! I wish you could see it when I walk down the street, it's almost like i'm a celebrity or something. That's really how I feel sometimes! 

I haven't had to eat anything crazy yet thank goodness. We rarely have dinner appointments so I don't have to force anything down, except we have one this week so we will see what happens. 

Ok, funny story about one of our lessons this week. Chickens just run wild everywhere, especially around the houses. There are so many and a ton of cute baby chicks that run wild and free it's crazy. Anyways were teaching a lesson to our investigator and I look over and these two chickens are fighting. They are jsut pecking at each other and flapping their wings all crazy and it was so hilarious. The best part is that a group of kids were standing around them watching the chickens fight and they would pick up the chickens and make them get mad at each other. I wish you could have seen it. It took everything in me not to bust out laughing. I guess that's what they do for fun! Chicken fights! 

Friday was so great because we had new missionary training in Urdaneta. It was so good to see all of my MTC buddies! I really miss seeing them. I love President Monahan, he always gives the best insights. Everything that was said was exactly what I needed to hear. one thing he said that I loved was " If your not having trials, then your not an Urdaneta missionary". and he said " You can't be successful if you don't have trials". I know that that's true because I just experienced it the last 2 weeks, I have been on my kneels the last few weeks and I promise you that if you are having a trial that you will be able to be stronger from it. I promise, just trust the lord, he knows you better than you know yourself. Trust that he has a plan for you. 

Sorry I am out of time so no pictures or top 10! 

thanks for all the support and prayers. 

MAhal Kita, 

Sister Chancellor

Week 2!

Hello, 

I survived another week! I don't know how, but I did. I say that mainly because I am really struggling with the language. It's so hard, and when sister Gomez and I teach, I try to use Tagalog as best I can and every time the investigator says "It's ok sister, you use english I understand". So then I use english and it turns into taglish because I want to practice and they just laugh at me, it's so embarrassing. So I'm not really sure when I will get the language. I actually like using english because then I can get my message across clearly instead to extremely choppy Tagalog. 

This week was long. My area isn't that exciting, it's just a little city 30 mins from Urdaneta so we aren't by the ocean or anything. We just go out and find people to teach, it's hard work. Especially when you don't know what's going on. I swear some days I am doing so great and I actually know what my companion is saying in the lesson and others I have no clue what is going on or what anyone is saying. It's a disaster, but I am just trying to have the faith that the language will come eventually. 

On Wednesday we went to a birthday party for a little girl in our ward. It was so fun, they had a feast! Seriously, so much food! On birthdays, they always have spaghetti- the Fillipino spaghetti is like a sweet and spicy taste with hot dogs and bacon, sounds weird but it's delicious! They had chicken of course and a bunch of others things that I wasn't sure about. They also had music blasting.. it was so fun! They love to party! 

I am slowly adjusting, I  love my apartment because our neighbors like to blast music super loud almost every morning and they play good songs too. This week they played the Josh Groban Christmas CD.. I love that CD so much! It made my week.. but it also made me super homesick. :( We haven't had too many bug problems in our apartment yet, thank goodness. But if we do we have this bug spray-Permitox.. it kills anything! I love that stuff. I really only see big bugs and spiders when we are out teaching. I saw a spider the size of my hand as we were walking down the street. Scary. 

Friday and Saturday we had to be in by 6pm because it was "all souls day" which I guess  is like their Halloween. It was so fun, we got Jollibee which is like MCdonals, I swear they have on every corner, and we watched movies! Gospel movies of course! It was great, we live with 2 other sisters, sister Brown and sister Stokes, they are both from America and they both love Disney just as much as I do so we always talk about Disney. It's great! 

Not much else happened this week, I am still trying to adjust and get used to how things are here. I will try and send pictures too.. I don't know why but the computer won't read my card. Anyways I will try because I want you to see my beautiful apartment! 

TOP 10

1. MCdonalds last P-day!

2. Josh Groban music

3. Lumpia (my comp is a great cook!)

4. FHE

5. CUrfew!

6. Birthday party

7. Zone meeting

8.Ice cream from 7-11

9. Church 

10. P-DAy!!!

1. my apartment 

2. birthday party!

my shower!!!!

MAhal kita, 

sister Chancellor