Happy Father's Day

Saying farewell to my Mission President and his wife

 Hello! 

I'm really, really, really sorry! This is going to be an extremely short email! I've completely run out of time. I was emailing my Mission President a longer, farewell email and lost tract of time! (He leaves in 2 weeks and we get the new mission President, President Magnum.)

Also, the computer won't accept my memory card so I'll have to send them next week. Sorry! 

First off though, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I wish that I could skype on Father's day and Mother's day! Darn it! But I love you so, so much dad. I'm so grateful for everything you've taught me and how you have prepared me to serve this mission. Thank you for being a strong priesthood holder that I could have and rely on growing up, and thank you for your strong, strong testimony of this gospel which gave me the desire to gain the same! 

Well, because our mission president is leaving, we had our last Zone Conference with him. It was 10 hrs long. Crazy! We did get two breaks and lunch, so don't worry. But it was so amazing! He taught the doctrine of Christ. He really understands the doctrine of the Atonement and it was so powerful for me. He is an amazing speaker. I feel like I just couldn't learn enough from him! Six months was too short to have him as a mission president! But at the same time, I'm so excited to see our new mission president and what wonderful changes and things that he can teach us. His homecoming is in two weeks... in Arizona... if you want to go... :) 

He had us come up one by one afterward, and get one last hug goodbye. That was so hard! We were all crying! I love them so much and I will miss there spirits, wisdom, and leadership in this mission. 

By the way, speaking of six weeks... I know that you were asking about this mom. I feel like 1 year left is definitely not enough time. I can't believe I'm already here at the six month mark. What happened? I still can't speak Tagalog!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha, but I feel like I have changed more in these last 6 months than I have in my entire lifetime. I have learned so much. I am happy to be here and sad that it is just a year,  because I know it will go by all to fast. 

This week I was told a really funny story by one of our investigators. He was talking about his friend, who was doing a job application in English. He's not very good at English, which proved to be a big problem. When he got to the question SINGLE? He thought it was referring to his motorcycle, as in "Single, or Sidecar." So he put Sidecar. He failed. :) 

The area is a little harder here than in Batangas. We don't have many investigators, but the ones we do are really wonderful and I love them so much. One is Sister Peters (Name is changed). She is ready to be baptized, and so faithful and excited. Her only fall back is that she needs to come to church enough times. It's hard for her because her husband is catholic and not very supportive or interested, but she was able to attend this last Sunday. She expressed a strong desire to be sealed in the temple. I'm so happy for her! 

We started teaching a new investigator yesterday, that comes from a very modest circumstance. She lives in a one room home, with four tarp walls and bamboo sticks holding up her house. She has two young children and little to provide for them. As we taught yesterday, she pulled out a very worn copy of the Book of Mormon, given to her by some missionaries last year. The children were being very disruptive and so I handed them Jesus Christ stickers to help them be quiet. Her daughter got bored with it after a while and I noticed that the mother picked it up and started smoothing out over the cover of her Book of Mormon. As she did, I could see the love and admiration that she had for the savior. I recognized that from her poor circumstance, she had the strong desire to keep this 1 inch sticker, that hardly stuck anymore anyway, just to have a picture of Christ. It brought tears to my heart and I gave her a new one, that would stick better. I was overwhelmed with the joy that she had in the simplicity of that single sticker. It truly touched my heart.

Well, 

Love you! 

Sister Beaumont

Transferred To San Pablo!

Hello everyone! 

Well, I just read your emails. I can't believe that Nathan fell 25 feet. I'm so grateful right now that he was protected and that he wasn't injured seriously. What an amazing miracle, really! I'm still in shock about it. I can't believe that it happened, that he's still alive, and that he only had a fractured wrist. I will be praying for you Nathan, that you will have a quick recovery. 

Haha, I thought I was going to have the "news to tell". But you got me, everyone. 

My news, though not nearly as exciting/scary is I WAS TRANSFERRED. 

Ayaw. 

Okay, actually, now that I'm here, I'm so excited to be in a new area and I love my companion and the people. But at first, it was really hard. Really, really hard. 

It started with Tuesday, the day you get "The Call."  I was dreading that day like the plague. 

Sister Johnson got the call first, at 10am. We were all so shocked. She had just became companions with Sister Ebuen, so we figured if anyone was going to go... it would be me or Sister Feinga and if anyone was going to stay, it would be them. After she got her call, I thought for sure mine would come within seconds. We waited... and waited... nothing. There was no call. After about two hours, we decided we would be companion for one more transfer.

We were so dang happy! We were on an ecstatic proselyting high - doing above and beyond just because we were THAT HAPPY. 

And then... at 5pm I got the call. Transferred- to San Pablo 1. My new companion is Sister Maagad. 

Sister Feinga and I were literally in tears. Of course, we had ward council right after the call. It was so emotion and difficult, saying goodbye to everyone I had come to love so much. The ward was so sweet and treated us to a fancy bamboo hut restaurant in Batangas as a farewell and it was really great to just relax and socialize one last time with all our ward members. 

And then, in just two short days... I was on my way. 

My companion:

Sister Maagad. (Ma-ah-gah-d) 

She is the best! She is filippino and so much fun! She is from all over the Philippines and knows 3 of the Filippino languages here. Crazy! Not to mention, being really good at English. I am excited to learn Tagalog from her. She of course, is fluent and knows exactly how everything is supposed to be pronounced. She loves to have fun, but also loves to work. She has a deep, hearty laugh that always makes me laugh. Oh... and she also hums hymns a lot... but probably not as much as Sister Feinga does. :) I'm really, really happy that I have her as a companion and I know that we are going to have a lot of good times together. 

My area: 

San Pablo 1. 

Sister Maagad has told me two facts about the area since I've been here...

1. We are the luckiest missionaries because we have 6 of the 7 San Pablo Lakes in our area. (I've already seen 2 of them! Gorgeous!) 

2. We are in one of the hardest area in the mission. 

I don't know if the second one is so true... it seems like everyone is pretty open to listening to us, but she has been here a lot longer than me... so we'll see I guess.

Well the area is really, really pretty! And thankfully, about 10 degrees cooler than Batangas. I actually sleep with a blanket at nights again.

There is a lot more jungle life here... a lot more of what I was expecting when I came to the Philippines, and I love it all. This is also a more "pure" tagalog area, which means I'm back to not understanding a word that anyone is saying. But its okay, because my companion does and she is really, really helpful with learning/ understanding it all. 

My apartment:

I haven't taken any pictures of the apartment yet, sorry mom. I'll get onto that. 

The apartment is one floor. We have a shower and if the air here is about 10 degrees cooler, that means the water is about 10 degrees colder too. I feel like I'm jumping into the artic ocean each time I take a shower. We sleep on the floor in the kitchen because our bedroom is a little on the small side and the fans don't reach us as well in there. Don't worry, I actually love it. It's like having a sleepover every night. 

Which brings me to the roommates; Sister Williams and Sister Vaka. Yes, that Sister Williams. My old companion. It's weird to be living with her but not be companions. We realized that so far we have lived together 3 times on our mission. (MTC, Batangas, San Pablo...) Her companion is American, but both of her parents are Tongan. She is so fun-loving, but also has a really big heart. I can tell we are going to have some great times together.

The Work:

I don't really know many of the families well yet, otherwise I would be able to give more details about them. 

I do know that I love everyone we've taught so far and I'm excited to get to know them better. There is a family that I'm really in love with. The mom is a member, but the rest of her family isn't. They have 5 adorable kids. We taught the Word of Wisdom, using Lora's visuals. They loved it. 

The Weather:

It's Tag-ulan now. (Rainy season). It goes on and off. We have really strong rain and then nothing. 

My second day here we had a small rain storm after one of our appointments. It was really exciting. We got so soaked. The appointment was out in the jungle, and so we had to hike back to the main road through the rain and mud. I loved every second of it, especially as we went up hill. There was a mini river coming down our way and it was so exciting. I'm sure there are more stories to come from my experiences with rain. 

Oh yes, and before I forget. I saw my first monkey! He was actually a pet of someone at  the lake, and he was chained up to a bamboo stick about 10 feet up between two palm trees. He was really cute and liked to jump spontaneously off the bamboo stick letting the chain catch him. 

Well, that's all. Once again, I'm so happy that Nathan is okay. I will make sure to pray for you this week. 

I love you all! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Transfer 4

Basilica of St. Martin of Tours

Basilica of St. Martin of Tours

Basilica of St. Martin of Tours

Hello Family!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like it's been so long since I wrote you... only 7 days. It feels like 3 weeks.
Sorry I'm sending this off so late. Normally, we would be emailing a lot earlier but we had Zone P-day today. It was so, so fun. We went to one of the oldest Catholic Cathedrals in the Philippines called the Basilica of St. Martin of Tours. It's in Taal, Batangas if you want to look it up. It's so awesome!!!!!!!! It's the oldest and biggest Cathedral in all of Asia. Seriously, who else gets to see that? Once in a life time opportunity! The only part I didn't enjoy is that they charged all the Americans 100 pesos, while only charging everyone else 50. But it's on their recipets and there was nothing we could do about it. Oh well. That's life I guess. 

Well, this week is the end of transfer week which means I might be transferred. I am completely dreading it. I will of course be happy in the end wherever the Lord sends me, but parting with Sister Feinga and all of my investigators/ friends here in the ward will be so hard! I love everyone so much in Batangas... and my companion is like my sister. We are so, so close.
So this week I'm not going to be sending home any pictures... or probably for a while. Two missionaries in our zone have lost all of their pictures from the viruses on the computers and I'm really afraid of that happening to me. So instead, I hope you understand if I just send home the memory card when I done with it. That way, my pictures can stay safe and you can see all of them at once. I can't imagine losing all of my pictures! That would be so sad!! My memory card is pretty full now so that should be pretty soon ps.

Well, stories for this week....

This Monday we taught Family Home Evening at our Bishop's home, with a couple of other families from the ward. It was really fun and used the same lesson that I taught to all of you once... (the one where I hid my missionary tag in my pocket.) This time I hid Sister Feinga's. It was really fun and I'm beginning to really understand tagalog. Whether everyone understands me is different... but hopefully I know enough now to get by. Most of all, I'm beginning to fall in love with the Philippines and the culture... these people are so happy and so fun! It is definitely MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES. (One of their famous logos)

Tuesday we went to a devotional in San Pablo with... Elder Christensen!!!!!!!! From the Quorum of the Seventy. It was so amazing to feel the strong spirit of about 150 missionaries and all that church leadership in one room. He talked about prayer, which was perfect because it has been something that I have been praying to better understand. (Haha, yes... I did pray to know how to pray...) :)Secretly, the best part might have been seeing all the missionaries... I got to meet so many new people, as well as see all the Sister's from my mtc district. It was so great to catch up with them all. Okay, so yes. The best part was actually Elder Christensen though. I learned so much and I just kept thinking about how amazing it is to be a missionary and have all these cool conferences and meetings. I'm constantly being fed the gospel- and I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also on Tuesday, we came home to find that our laundry door had been left open. Don't worry, no person can get in.... but bugs, creatures and other such things CAN. And so of course, not 4 minutes after being home, Sister Johnson watches this black shape scurry from our fridge to our kitchen cabinets under the sink. Sister Johson and I were completely whimps about it. We jumped onto chairs and waited anxioulsy while Sister Feinga and Sister Ebuen pulled out everything... and I mean EVERYTHING in those cabnets. They found ... nothing. I was beginning to think Sister Johnson was crazy, and she kept insisting that she saw it.... finally Sister Feing and Sister Ebuen gave up and went upstairs. Sister Johnson and I looked at each other and slowly climbed off the chairs. We kept daring one another to clean up the mess (Yes, they had left it for us two whimpy American's to clean.) Finally, we got up the courage. As we approached, I said, "I just know as soon as we start, he's going to jump out." She said, "I know! I know!"
Well, I picked up my first item and suddenly, Sister Johnson was screamig. I started screaming too... and then I saw it. A BIG, BLACK THING RIGHT.BY. MY. FOOT. I screamed louder and jumped up and down, basically resembling a yodeling irish dancer. I didn't wait around to find out what it was or why it was in our house.... I was gone. I didn't stop running until I was all the way to the top of the stairs... at which point Sister Johnson and I just laughed and laughed. Thankfully, in all the comotion, we scared it bad enough to decide i had enough of our house and it scurried back outside. I don't know if it was a rat, mouse, or an abnormally large cocroach... all I know is that I hope it never comes back.

We also had the privilige this week of having a jazz band play right outside our house. Seriously. RIGHT.OUTSIDE. I'm not joking. They were on the doormat, playing their "Marde Gra" style music and begging for money. Of course we were studying, or course they interrupted, and of course it was really hard to get back on track after that. But It was fun while it lasted.
I took pictures so when I send my memory card, look for it.

On Thursday Sister Feinga and I had a cool experience with a new investigator this week. When we started the lesson she didn't seem very interested and kept rushing us through everything. She was just waiting for us to leave so she could get on with her life. It's hard to know exactly what to do in those situations, but for her, we just kept teaching.
But seriously, her body language and her expressions all said that she wanted nothing to do with us and was seconds from standing up and saying, "Sorry, that's all Folks."
But then we got to the part of Joseph Smith's testimony of the Sacred Grove. She suddenly interrupted and asked, "Why are you called Mormons anyway?"
We were taken completely off guard and confused, began to explain that it was a nickname, that we were really the church of Jesus Christ. We taught about the Book of Mormon and as we did, I noticed a change in her. She was suddenly interested, listening, and actually turned to face us. We both bore witness that the Book of Mormon was true and that the Church of Jesus Christ had been restored through Joseph Smith. After we did, she sat in silence for a few moments before asking, "How can I know?"
We both dropped our jaws. This woman, who had been searching for a reason to chuck us out suddenly believed that we were teaching her the truth. Furthermore, she wanted to know how she could gain a testimony too!!!!!!! It was like night and day with her.
We excited taught Moroni 10:3-5, she committed full-heartedly and eagerly to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true.
As we pondered over what had happened, we came to realize that her attitude only changed after we established that we weren't Mormons, but members of the Church of Jesus Christ. His true, restored church. Because of this, I have made a goal to correct someone when ever they say, "Oh... Mormons?" I now want to reply, "That is our nickname. We are really the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But we would love to teach you why we are commonly called Mormons."
I have already noticed that in the two people we have tried that with, they realized that we are more than people going around for "bible study." They recognize that we have a message to share, and it helps them become interested enough to accept a lesson.

Well, I love you all!
I hope you are all safe and well. I pray for you everyday!
-With love,
Sister Beaumont

Since Emilee couldn't send any photos I added some photos I found on the internet of the Catholic Cathedral they went to visit 

Summer In The Philippines

Kumusta, Kumusta sa inyong lahat! (Hello, hello to you all!) 

I miss you! I love reading your emails each week and hearing about what is going on in your life. It's sounds so natural, everyday. I can't believe that you are still real sometimes. But anyway, I really do love and miss you and want you to know that my heart is with you this May 26th. 

I have a question. Did you all already see Les Miserables at Hale? If yes.... Why haven't I heard about it?!!!!!!!!!! I'm still sad I missed that one. Tell me all about it! 

But I think that's all. Keep telling me all about your lives!!!! I love hearing it!!!!!!!!! 

Well... another week has flown by. Sometimes I really wonder if seven actual days passed by... or if I just email home every other day. TIME.IS.SO.FAST!!!!!!!!! But despite how fast time feels, there is one thing that has felt very very slow in passing. SUMMER. Summer has been the LONGEST STRETCH OF SUMMER in my life. And it's only been one month. I feel like Summer has really been 4 months, or like... my whole life. 

Here's some everyday facts about the summers here in the Philippines. 

First off, you sweat every drop of liquid in your body everyday. Your clothes become one with your skin by the end of the day, so you literally have to peel it off to take a shower. Multiple times a day, I feel beads of sweat drip down my back, down the back of my calves... Yep. It's hot here. 

I've decided that there is one must have filippino conversation that we have with everyone, everday. It goes like this.

They start it off by saying, "Mainit!!!!!" Which means "Hot!!!!!!"

To which we reply, "Opo. Sobra." Which means, "Yes. Very." 

Then we sit for a minute, in silence, fanning our faces with lesson pamplets and blinking sweat from our eyes. 

Then they say, "Grabi, Mainit!!!!!!!!!" Which means "Wow, it's hot!!!!!!"

To which we reply, "Opo. Sobrang Mainit!!!!!" Which means, "Yes, it's very hot." 

We really do have this exact conversation with everyone we meet. I don't know if its a conversation starter or if it's just to hot to think of anything else to say. All I know is, it's really funny. 

Lately I've been eating what I like to term as the Feinga diet, after my companion, Sister Feinga. 

What is the Feinga diet? 

When we first became companions, I was amazed at how many mangoes and bananas she consumed. Each day on average, she would eat 10 mangoes and about 8 bananas. 

I thought she was crazy. But now... I eat the Feinga diet too. 

We estimated that between the two of us, we consume about 100 mangoes and 60 bananas a week. 

Aside that, this week I also ate Pinapple, apples, special bananas that you have to fry because they are too hard for your system, and buko. Fresh buko, straight from the tree. 

Buko is a type of coconut, but its green and bigger than a human head. As we were passing by this buko tree forest, a boy offered to climb up and cut us down one. Sister Feinga was of course excited. 

So we watched him crawl up this tall palm tree, Jungle Book style. Then he cut down one with his machete and we drank it. It was surprisingly, so filling !!!! Like, I just ate a steak, that filling!!!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty adventurous! 

The computers are having issues right now... So I might not get to email much longer. Darn it! 

I guess I'll just run through the important stuff. 

We are slowly loosing a few  of our investigators. This week the family that we tracted into that we were so excited about ignored us when we came over. We KNEW they were home, but they didn't come to the door. It was really sad. After we left, we could here them saying, "It's okay, they're gone!" Darn it! 

But don't worry, we've also found some really great investigators this week and were still busy with lessons. And of course, our other family is doing great. They will hopefully have their baptism interview this week. 

Well, the last piece of info is that next week is transfer week and I have a 60/70 percent chance of trasferring. I'm really hoping that I won't. I love Batangas and I love my companion!!!!!!!!!!!!

With Love, 

Sister Beaumont 

Emilee wasn't able to send any pictures again this week so I found these on the internet.

 Buko Tree

Buko

Mangos

Mango Tree

Life Is Good In The Philippines!

Hello Family! I really hope that I have enough time to email you now! It was really hard to get the internet up and working today. The internet server kept rejecting the mission websites. Then I was struggling with trying to get my card reader to come up. I'm sorry but I guess I'm not sending any pictures this week. It's okay. I only have two to send anyway.

Well, I've been on a mission for 5 months now. I have 13 months left! What? I still don't know the language!!!!!!!! (Moms note:  When we skyped with her she had a hard time remembering English and speaking it to us so I think she is doing better than she thinks with the language, we have also had people from her ward tell us she speaks the language really well)  I feel like that came so fast. Has it been going as fast for all of you? I hope so. I've got the easy part of the "waiting 18 months to see you again". I'm having so much fun out here, I think I really don't even notice time passing. But speaking of all that, I am officially going home June 2015.

When I get released, I go to the mission home.   I think you can meet me there... So plan on that I guess... 

I do know that they have three days of meetings and activities with the mission president, and I'm NOT going home before that.Sorry! :)  

Um... yep. If you still have questions, just ask I guess.
 

This week we had companion exchanges. We went into the other Sister's area, which was really weird. I haven't "lived" in a new area yet. I felt like I went through culture-shock all over again. I thought I was over it, but nope! We went to downtown city to catch the right Jeepney. That was culture shock number one for me. It was straight scary trying to get that jeep. Everyone was coming back from their work, so there were about 150 other people waiting to get on the same jeepney we were. Each time it would stop, everyone would run to the street, pushing and shoving trying to get on first. It made me think of that line from the Brian Regan thing. "Everyone push and shove! This is the last helicopter out of Vietnam!" I felt like I was in some sort of zombie apocalypse movie or something- mostly because it was dark, in the city, and everyone was behaving... not like mature adults. :) But don't worry, we did get safely on a jeep, and arrived safely in their area. Just another reminder that angels are protecting the missionaries, right? 

Cuture shock number two: I found out that rats are secretly everwhere! This chirp-like noise that I kept hearing everywhere turned out NOT to be some cool exotic bird like I thought, but in fact, RATS. Haha, sometimes I surprise myself at how little I know about the world! 

But other than that, life is happy here in the Philippines.

 I had the unfortunate opportunity of sticking my hand in someone else's toilet this past week. Guess why? Yep, that's right. I dropped my NAMETAG in THEIR toliet. Don't worry. It was still "clean" water.... hopefully... but I definitely had a freak out session as I dived my hand in like some mad-woman. I then poured my entire bottle of alcohol over my nametag before I was satisfied. 

Yep, more fun in the Philippines.

Our lessons this week went very well. We had the opportunity of working with one of the people I baptized with Sister Williams. That was so fun. They had such a great perspective for our investigators.

Oh... darn. Times up. Sorry! Next week I'll be sure to pick a better computer. Love you all! 

-Sister Beaumont 

Mother's Day

Mom's notes:  We got to Skype with Emilee on Friday night (her Saturday morning) it was so fun!  So good to see her and neat to see the background. (She is defiantly not in Kansas anymore)  :-)  I am thankful to the family who offered to let the missionaries use their tablets to Skype home.  Troy said it would take him a few days after calling home for Mother's Day or Christmas to get back into the swing of things because everyone felt a little home sick.  I thought I could see a little of that in this letter besides it HOT!!!  Poor girl, but, all these things build character and I could already see a change in her she is not the same girl we sent in some ways but, the changes are all good. We really love her and miss her but I wouldn't want to take this experience away from her for anything.

So.... guess who was skyping for Mother's Day and forgot to say Happy Mother's Day????????? Yep, me. Literally, five seconds after closing the window, I slapped my forehead and turned to Sister Feinga. "It's Mother's Day and I forgot to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

    So... um... yeah. Happy Mother's Day. I love you. All those things I should have said the first time round. But really, yesterday at church I was struck with just how much I love you Mommy. And just how much I miss you... and wish that I could give you a fan- hand out that all the other mother's were getting here. At least, when you actually read this email, it will really be Mother's Day, right? 

Other than that... I'm already counting down the days until we can skype again! I was so happy to see you all! You probably noticed, but I was crying on and off throughout the whole thing.It was a little weird to see you all too, because sometimes I really feel like I was born here in the Philippines and I'm going to die here too. I don't feel like America is real... but seeing you reminded me, it's not a dream!!!!!! You all do exist and I'll come back one day. Weird. Weird. Weird. 

       But yep. I feel like I've already told you all the good stories for the week and I'm not really sure what to write right now. But here it goes. 

          I decided to give our investigators fake names so I don't have always say, "The family that we tracted into..." or "The family that is closest to being baptized..."

So, the family that I felt like we should talk to and finally tracted into is the... Smith family. Really generic. I know. 

And the family that is close to being baptized and wants to read the BOM before their baptism is the Lewis family.

There. 

         The Smith family is doing great. They still won't come to church, but they are reading the Book of Mormon and keeping their other commitments. We are going to have to teach Sabbath Day for the third time now. Our mission President says you have to teach Sabbath day in four different ways before they finally get it. Sometimes, it's really true. But I love them so much and I love seeing the light and spirit that has come into their faces and homes. 

          The Lewis family is due to be baptized March 31st. They have come to church every week since they started investigating and are all reading the BOM. Sometimes I'm like, "But really, are you all secretly members or something?" This week when we went to teach them, they had a friend over. The eight year old daughter came running out to meet us at the fence and the first thing she said was, "My parent's friend is here.She hates Mormons." I felt something sink inside me. What did this "friend" say to them? And fear that she was poisoning our investigators hut. Psh. I had no reason to fear. The church is true, duh. They were really strong about it and the father even said that he's beginning to feel it's true, despite her opinions. 

As we taught, we could see the friend tense a little about some things, but thankfully she didn't say anything.  After the lesson, we found out that she's Iglesia Ni Cristo. (Church of Christ in spanish. I don't know how to spell it.) That church is intense here. It's a Philippine church that is broken off from the Mormon religion. If you have time, you should read about it on wikipedia or something. Its really interesting how they broke off from us. Anyway, love them so much and so happy that they are staying strong!!!!!!!!!

        We taught a less active father this week. He lives in this jungley area surrounded by other less active siblings. Only one of his siblings is active and she helped us set up a lesson for him. He has three kids and no wife. I don't know what happened to her. Anyway, we watched Together Forever. It was amazing the difference we felt in their home from the beginning of the movie to the end. I know that the testimony of families has real power and we could see a change in him after it was over. We hope to help them more in this week. 

     Well, the stories of this week are....

  Sister Feinga and I had a really rough Weekly Planning. It was about 110 degrees upstairs and we had already been studying in that stuffy,hot room for about 5 hours. It was hard to focus and to stay awake and every few minutes we would talk about how much we hated doing Weekly Planning and how much we wished it was over so we could nap. (As if we could actually take a nap.) After about 5 hours, I went downstairs to get a drink when suddenly, I saw this long trail of hangers outside our downstairs window with asign. "Weekly Planning is boring! Ayaw ko!" (Ayaw ko means I hate/ don't like.) I go outside to see Sister Feinga on our balcony with hangers connected together like monkeys in a barrel. She made a face at me and I just laughed and laughed. I sent the pictures to you so hopefully you get to see them. (Speaking of pictures, the ones of me and Sis. Feinga standing dangerously on the balacony was when we were watching fireworks last week. That angle was the only way we could see them. It was pretty stupid of us because all it took was one second of leaning to far and we would fall.) 

  As we were singing a hymn to open our companion study, facing the balcony to get a better angle, we suddenly see our neighbor come out on to his balcony, in his boxers, big potbelly and all, holding his orange cat. He took his cat, and exactly like in Lion King, held it high over the balcony; Simba-style. I have no idea what he was doing or why- all I know is that Sister Feinga and I only made it through one verse of our song before calling quits because we were laughing too hard. 

Well, the time has come to get off. I love you all so much! I loved skyping with you! I can't wait to see you again this Christmas!!!!!!!! 

And... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

-Love,

Sister Beaumont 

The pic of me with my pens and sissors is after our nightly planning. I just started sticking pens in my hair... and then the sissors... just happened. 

There is a pic with three people from tonga. They are all in my zone. Sister Feigna is in the the same stake as the one on the far left. 

Elder Richards was our post for a pinata a mother sent for a birthday present to another elder in our zone. He's really, really, really tall. Like 6 ft 10 tall.

Another Week In The Beautiful Philippines!

Hello Family!

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!!!!!!! You are now sixteen. What? You can date? Finally? And drive. Yikes. If you are anything like the driver you were when I left, watch out over there everyone! He's on the road!  :) 

Second, WE GET TO SKYPE!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!  I love you all and I'm excited to finally skype and see your beautiful faces!!!!!!!!!! 

Yes, I did get to read that article in the Liahona about the Philippines. It was really good! 

Yes, I have actually seen a "Scouts of the Philippines" building here... but it kind of looked like it was closed. I don't know how big it is here. I haven't met any "scouts" yet. 

And, whoops. Sorry about that Breakdown movie. Um... when it was showing here it said it was PG. I think the ratings are different here. 

Okay... now to my week. 

Spiritual stuff first- 

*We taught the Restoration again at one of our longer time investigating families homes. (The eight year old in their family needed that lesson still.) It was really cool for them. We used the Restoration video and Nanay (The grandma there) kept pointing things out, like, "Oh... he's asking questions now!" or "Oh... he's going to pray now and see Christ." And when Christ and God appeared, she cried out, "The pillar of light!!!" It was so touching to see that she had understood everything well enough to predict what was going to happen!!!!!!! The spirit was really strong as she testified of the Restoration after the movie. I loved it. 

*We taught another family the Plan of Salvation this week. It was actually a really special moment for me because their baby, (about 1year) really listened as we taught. When Sister Feinga began teaching about how families can be together forever, he looked up at me with really solemn eyes. I could tell that he actually understood what we were talking about. He smiled at me, and I almost started crying. It was as if he were telling me, "Thank you for sharing this with my family." It was so real.  

*This experience is similar to the one above. We were teaching a less-active, who is really struggling with her family. Her husband doesn't want anything to do with the church anymore, (he was a member), and her sons are doing crazy things with their lives. Her husband wants their baby to be baptized into the catholic church but she knows its wrong. Anyway, as we were teaching, her baby, (about 10 months or so) was getting a little fussy, so I started to help. As I caught the baby's attention- it was like night and day. He went immediately from crying to cooing. For the rest of the lesson, he kept smiling and cooing at me. He was really trying hard to communicate something to me. It was so cute and I knew that he recognized Sister Feinga and I as missionaries. Each time I would try to look at the mother and say something, he would get fussy again. He wanted my whole attention!!!!!!! So I ended up letting Sister Feinga teach the majority of the lesson while I engaged with him. It was so, so cute. 

*Another family that we are teaching is beginning to be converted. We had a really special lesson about revelation through the spirit and I could see the light in their eyes. They are beginning to accept it!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully, they will be baptized at the end of this transfer.

And now the stories, for my brothers.... 

This week has been a week of laughing. Really hard. Really, really hard. Because I have the funniest companion and the funniest housemates ever. 

Here's story number one.

Monday night I was in the laundry room washing my clothes. It was 9 pm- ish and Sister Johnson and Sister Ebeun were planning, while Sister Feinga was in the shower. All of the sudden, Sister Johnson gets up mid sentence and runs over to the bathroom. She looks at me with big, worried, doubled over trying to hold it. "Sister Beaumont, I have to go so bad!!!!!!" But Sister Fienga was in the shower- so she tried to go back over to planning. She made it about half-way before running back and pounding on the door, she said, "SISTER FEINGA.... I HAVE TO GO!" 

We hear this cheerful voice reply, "Okay po sister!" (In tagalog "po" is a word used to show respect to another person) And Sister Feinga shuts off the water. In less than 10 seconds, out comes Sister Feinga, wrapped up in a towel, dripping water and shampoo everywhere and in runs Sister Johnson. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time. Sister Feinga was so fast, like a fire drill or something. 

Saturday, we were doing our nightly planning and I was leaning forward on my chair. Suddenly, my chair fell out from under me. I had time enough to cry out, "Sister Fienga!!!!" Before suddenly I was under the table. Like, completely, under, flat on my butt. My chair fell over the desk, trapping me underneath. It was so bizzarre and we are STILL laughing about it. 

Because we are usually on the run, we eat snacks along the way. Once we stopped for some bread at a bakery on the street. After looking at all the choices, Sister Fienga ordered "dalawa" (two) pieces of some fancy looking bread. But when they hand it back, she gets TWO LOAVES. She had already paid, so there was nothing she could do. But of course, being the Christ like person she is, she handed it out to our investigators at the next lesson. I love her example so much!!!!!! 

Lastly, 

I got called Elsa from Frozen about 6 times this week. I'm not really sure why, because here on the mission is the roughest I have ever looked in my life. But hey, I'm not complaining. And I knew Kaylee would appreciate that her older sister is her favorite Disney Character. 

Well, that's all folks!

Love you all!!!! Until Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sister Beaumont