My Typical Day

Okay.... So I recently read my first few emails home and I felt really bad. They used to be sobrang mahaba! (So long!) But now, It's only a few paragraphs... so....

I'm going to try to change that for you.... 

First off- This week was one of the best weeks of my entire mission. Can you guess why? 

(Work, work, work that is the secret!) Yep, thats right. The harder you work, the better your week is! 

This week we set really high goals for ourselves that we had never before achieved! And then we did all we could to achieve them.... and saw miracles. 

All I'm saying is... I should have been doing this my whole mission! 

We are setting our goals next week even higher-pray that we can achieve them! We are hoping for 35 lessons next week. Whew. It's going to be an achievement for sure! 

Anyway........... 

This week I wanted to tell you a little bit more about my every day work. 

We leave our apartment and jay-walk across the "Highway" to get a jeepney. (Jaywalking is not illegal here... I think....) 

We take a jeepney... which is an old World war 2 jeep.... and sit sideways with no seat belts. We hang onto the bars over head so that we don't fall into our neighbors laps.

(Our neighbors can range from Gypsies to Drag queens to normal Filippinos....) We try to "Street contact them" and sometimes we actually get some really good lessons from it! 

Then we get off the jeepney after a 25 minute ride and walk down to the tricycle port. We take a tricycle, usually sitting side-saddle on the back of a motorcycle which has been attached to 

a side car with a wielding tool. We ride until we get to our destination, holding onto the bars for dear life. (Actually, now that I'm used to it, I don't hold the bars anymore.) Then we walk passed 

Carabuo, chicken farms, and pig farms... and many houses ranging from dirt floors to giant mansions (literally, they are all next to each other.) We walk into the jungle.... and walk.... and walk....

(meanwhile, I'm praying there are no snakes....) and we arrive at the very last house in the middle of nowhere.... our investigators. What an adventure! 

Actually, on that note... our route from the church has been closed down for the last two weeks so we've been taking the long way round. Because every jeep coming from this city has to pass by there now,

we've been getting a lot of gypsies. Almost every jeepney ride I've been on has one now. 

 Most of the time they don't speak tagalog. They are usually barefooted children dressed in rags. They jump onto the jeepneys and place envelops in everyones lap and then start playing the drums to

beg for money. We aren't allowed to give them money... and good thing. I once was on a jeepney with several adult gypsies. We got stalled for a while on this bridge and one of the gypsies saw a little girl running by.

She called her into the jeepney and made her give everything she had earned that day, right there in front of us!  It was just like Fagin from Oliver Twist. Crazy!!!!!!!!!!! 

Well, it's not all rags and Gypsies. We went to a college this week to speak English to one of the English classes there. The teacher invited us to come and said we could be very open about our beliefs, just as long as we spoke English. We answered many questions about America and how it was different from the Philippines. Then the teacher came up to us and told us that he wanted us to talk about how Abortion and Intimacy before Marriage was wrong... We were completely shocked. The education is very different here. They pray in schools and are able to discuss God.... It's really admirable. We all shared our thoughts and the spirit was really strong. Then we bore testimony of the church. It was just a really cool experience over all. 

Anyway, that's all for this week. 

Love you! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Half Way Mark

Well, I feel like I just emailed you! I guess that's because I did, haha. And sorry P.S. about my last email. My eye was swollen and it was hard to see the computer, let alone type! But I am on the road to healing now, so no worries, okay?

So, what has happened between Thursday and Now?

Thursday, 

I went home and slept all day long. Our Sister Training Leaders came and did splits with my companion so we could get some lessons in.

Friday, 

We had a mini bagyo (typhoon) and I wasn't able to go out until 6pm. But we finally went to our first appointment in a week! It was so exciting to be back on the streets and teaching! 

Saturday, 

We had a full day. I had little trouble readjusting to being awake all day, haha. I fell asleep in two lessons and I felt like it was my first few weeks in the field again. 

Sunday,

We went to church. Two investigators attended! Yay! We also taught a wonderful member and contacted a new investigator. It was great! 

Sorry it's so short. Somehow, I ran out of time again! I didn't even read all my emails, haha! I don't know what steals my time.

Happy 9 month mark everyone Ps. I am officially Halfway done with my mission. It's all downhill time now. I'm really sad! But of course, happy that I'm 9 months away from seeing your 

beautiful faces again. 

Love you! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Alive and Still Kicking

Well, This week has been adventurous, to say the least! I don't know what my companion told you on Monday but I'll try my best to fill you in about why I was in the Hospital and unable to email. :)

But before that....

Our week was going really good! 

We had some great lessons with our investigators. And we even got a really potential new investigator! She is a mother of two children and when we first started teaching her, she told us that she wasn't even sure if God existed anymore because of some of the difficulties in her life right now. But we've now seen her faith begin to grow through reading the Book of Mormon. She is so eager to learn and to believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She is perhaps, one of the most sincere investigators I've ever taught.

We also got to see some wonderful progression in the Part-member father that we are teaching. Not only is he done with Second Nephi now, but he is giving copies of The Book of Mormon for his friends to read! He referred a friend to us, and even helped us find a long lost less active. When we went with him to meet the Less active, she expressed concern about attending church. He just told her, "Don't worry. Come to church with us!" Um... are you the investigator, or what? He's so AMESOME! He is so different from when I first met him and I love watching the changes in his life from reading the Book of Mormon. 

So our week was great! And then... I got sick...

It started on Friday. I was on exchanges with an old housemate from my first area, Sister Waldrom. We were both really excited to work and high in energy. We had a full day of appointments, with many great people lined up to teach that day. I didn't feel sick at all that morning... it didn't actually hit me until we were on the jeepney ride to our first appointment. I was like, "Wait... I feel a little weird...." But I brushed it aside. We went to teach our first appointment but it was postponed until later in the day. So we started walking to our next one. Sister Waldrom told me that she felt a little off balance and joked that if she passed out, I would have to catch her. I told her I was feeling a little weird too, but at that point I still wasn't "sick". 

And then, we got to our next lesson. As soon as we started I felt like I was going to pass out. I was instantly struck with every symptom ever. PSH. Satan is so mean! Anyway, we completed the lesson thanks to many silent prayers. After the lesson, we got to the high before everything started going black. I collapsed on a bench, and after a few minutes when I still wasn't feeling any better, Sister Waldrom insisted that we return home. When we finally made it, I was running a fever of 102. Dang. I slept most of the day and then just before poor Sister Waldrom was off the hook as my companion, I threw up twice. She lovingly cleaned it up for me. Then just before she and her companion left, I threw up 3 more times. I was bedridden for 3 days straight, with a high fever unable to keep anything down. Then I started getting an infection in my eye... long story short... I ended up in the hospital. I've been taking medication now and it's been slowly getting better. I'm hoping that by tomorrow, I'll actually be able to work. 

Well, times up. 

Love you all! 

-Sister Beaumont 

In the Hospital?

Emilee is in the hospital right now. Her companion wrote and said: 
I was asked by your daughter to email you. She will not be able to email you for today but hopefully soon.

Sister Beaumont is in the hospital right now. She's had a fever for a few days, and thrown up, and her eye is swelling. The mission is aware and she is in good hands, we just wanted to inform you so you know the situation. She's being taking care of right now and we are here for her.

Have a wonderful day. She really loves you.

I am still waiting to hear more information

A Few Quick Things

Quick things about my week- (I have no more time! Sorry!)

1. No more lice! Yay!

2. We have 3 new families to teach and they are all really prepared! 

3. We had an awesome mission tour with Elder Bowen from the 
Seventy. He was so inspiring and I loved it!

4. I was once again companions with Sister Williams because Sister Cox
had to go to Manila for immigration stuff. (She's going home this 
transfer.) We became a three-some and it was so fun to be her 
companion again! 

5. Happy birthday dear mother! I love you so much and I hope that you 
get my letter, videos, and everything else soon! 

One last thing! 

Merry Christmas from the Philippines! Christmas has officially begun 
here! We have seen Christmas decorations, a Christmas Tree, and our 
Bishop even told us all "Merry Christmas" in our ward. Haha, I love it! 

They say Christmas begins in the "Ber" months. September, November, 
December... 

Love you all! 

Next week na lang! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Missions have The Highest of Highs and Lowest of Lows

Hello Family! 

Congrats to Alicia for her baby, congrats to Blake for entering the MTC, and congrats to all my friends who are now pregnant, dating, engaged and married! Wow, that's so weird to think about! What is going on back at home? I can't believe that life is moving on with out me! I just keep expecting everyone and everything to be right where I left it, but the exciting news is that life moves on and I have many things to look forward to! (New cousins, so on) 

I had a really, really great week! I wrote in my journal recently that missions are unlike anything else. You can have the lowest of lows and the highest of highs all in one week and enjoy every minute of both experiences! 

My lowest of lows is definitely lice. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. (Not that I actually have one... haha.) I HATE lice. I know hate is strong word for a missionary, but I feel that in this circumstance, it is very fitting for my emotions toward those little bugs. At the beginning of the week, I was hopefully that after three days, my lice problem would be gone. Little did I know that lice is a two week ordeal! Ugh. But cross you fingers for me! Maybe by next email, I'll have some good news. For the first few days, I had a Professional Lice Picker, my companion. But then, once someone told her that she ran the risk of also catching lice, she quit. Haha, none of my combs are big enough so I just have to hope that through two lice-killing shampoos, rigorous cleaning and laundry, and a whole lot of praying it will go away soon. 

But those have been small details in comparison to our wonderful week! 

Our investigator from the part member accepted a baptismal invitation! We were over joyed! We were nervous about extending to him, because he has turned it down twice. But then in the lesson, we both got the very strong impression to extend. I held my breath, and spoke the words, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by one holding the priesthood authority of God on Oct. 4th?" As we waited anxiously in silence, I looked around the room. All his children were staring intently. I felt their desires for his answer as well as mine. I smiled. "We are all praying, Heavenly Father! Please help him to say yes!" HE DID! YAY! And despite his swollen feet because of rheumatism he came to church! Life is too good! 

Our other investigator, the potential member referral is also going to be baptized Oct.4th! Yay! Yay! I love when investigators accept a baptismal date! 

Anyway, that's all I can write right now. 

Mahal na mahal po kayo, sa walang hanggang! (I love you very much, for eternity!) 

-Sister Beaumont