I FOUND MEXICAN FOOD!

Kamusta  ang pamilya   ko

This week was a rough on the missionary work aspect, bottom line the work is just not as easy here, but it's allll good. I'm still seeing miracles and life as a missionary is still amazing

As you can tell from the title, I'm pretty excited because I found a Mexican restaurant in Laoag. I'm so beyond happy.   yes I love my new area. Also this week I ate fish eyeballs.. so that was interesting. 

We had exchanges this week and I worked with sister Pammitan. It was really awesome. Her first area was vigan as well so we got to share all kinds of stories! and her apartment has an Oven so they made me butterscotch brownies... hallelujah. I found out afterwards that her apartment has hot water and I was so mad I didn't get to take a hot shower, but don't worry she promised me I'd get to take one before the transfer is over.  My first hot shower in five months... I can't even imagine. I think I might cry. 

I met a crazy American from New York that doesn't speak any tagalog or ilacano and he wanted me to teach english to koreans?? wait I'm in the Philippines last time I checked, but okay.. ha anyways he was pretty impressed when I told his tricee driver where he wanted to go and then asked me for a book of mormon... unfortunately I didn't have any in english, but he said he would be coming to church so we'll see what happens.

Miracles!

We have been teaching the Molina family and the dad is really sick. He can't come to church because he always has to be hooked up to oxygen. any ways he can't speak because he literally doesn't have enough energy so he just sits and reads his Book of Mormon. Last week we set up a priesthood blessing and when we came back the next time he was sitting up and wasn't even hooked up to his oxygen AND he was talking to us! MIRACLE soon enough he'll be able to go to church and him and his cute little family of 5 will be able to be baptized! 

We met this lady this week who has been taught by literally every religion and she said we could share a message with her. The spirit was strong in that lesson and as we were testifying she stopped us and said that of all the missionaries she's listened to she's never felt what she felt with us. We know that to be the spirit! We explained what she was feeling and he eyes lit up and said yes! My heart is burning and the hairs on my arms are standing up. I asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes! She told us to come back next week and we could teach her whole family!

I'm so grateful that I am worthy to have the spirit with me! I know that even though I will experience disappointments as long as I'm obedient and work hard, the Lord will lead us to those people who are prepared to receive the true gospel of Jesus Christ! 

I love you all!

Sister Abelhouzen

We all have walls to face, but we are not forgotten

Hey fam.

Sooo I'm sitting here in Laoag and everyone is speaking Ilacano... awesome. I just barely got good in tagalog and they're like hey we're gunna speak a different language now. okay whatevs I can handle this.

haha anyway my last few moments in vigan were rough. First off, our apartment got nice and flooded so that means I lost pictures and letters and allll that jazz, but It's okay no damage to the Book of Mormon. tapos It's hard for me to say goodbye. I felt like I was saying goodbye to family, except worse, because to be honest I don't know if I'm going to see them again. Yes I cried like a baby. 

My new area is Laoag, it's fun, but there are a lot of problems here. The area really isn't progressing as much as I'd like it to. So it's going to be a challenge, but on the bright side this is going to be one of the times (besides all the time) when I'm going to really have to rely on the Lord. I know that I'm going to see a lot of miracles. 

My new companion is Sister Quimpo. She's filipina, 24 and  so great! Probably one of the sweetest people I've ever met! She cooks amazing food AND speaks Ilacano! She's teaching me and I'm learning so much! Can you believe I will know two languages by the time I come home?? 

This week has been a lot of fun! The sisters in my apartment are so fun and I'm really growing a lot as a missionary. My Zone Leader (Elder Crandall, who also happened to be my District Leader in Vigan) Called to tell me how great I 'm doing, he told me that I've become a very effective missionary and he's excited for me to "turn Loaog 2A upside down." what a great compliment! It really makes me want to work hard. There is this family that President Barrientos always uses as an example of quality converts and every missionary has their baptism picture for inspiration and guess what, this family is in my area! I taught them yesterday and they are amazing! The gospel has really changed them. I'll share you there story sometime! And this morning: FREE MCDONALDS. yes I know right. There is still some america in the philippines, even if it does have rice and spaghetti with it... haha anyways so good! 

During my personal study kanina I read a scripture that really hit me. " Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me, but he will show that he hath not.. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands: Thy walls are continually before me." Jesus Christ is who he is because he loves us. Everything he does is literally for us. He hath 'engraven us in his hands' and is always there to help us face those walls in our lives. He knows us and he loves us, and hes is ALWAYS there for us! 

I love you all so much! Have a good week!

P.S. Pictures of some of my peeps in Vigan The Amecay kids and the Reals Tricycle! 

Don't trust turkeys. Baptism and My Good Byes

P a m i l y a   k o

Woah. what a week.

So to start things off: I'm getting transferred. The day has come and I'm a little in denial. These people have truly become my family. To say goodbye I've been visiting 10 people a day and today's my last day. I also got to speak and sing in church and it was really neat, because so many the the branch members came up to tell me how much better I am at the language. Dang, I'm going to miss Vigan! The amazing ward; All the kids running and yelling sister A and randomly giving me flowers; the families I teach; all the good times!

My next stop: Laoag City 2A. I'm going from the bukid (farm) to the City. Every one has told me it's hard there, but it's really fun! So It's a little bittersweet, but I'm ready for my next adventure!

Paolo's baptism was on Saturday! Ah it was so amazing! He bore his testimony after and he said he has never been so happy in his life! Paolo has been an Investigator for almost 3 years, because his parents said he needed to wait until he was 18 because they didn't approve. His birthday is not until may, yes folks miracles do happen. His parents told us they will allow him to be baptized. His mom even came to his baptism and threw a party for him afterwards. It was a great day and I'm glad I was able to be there before he left!

I definitely got chased by a turkey this week. dang they're fast! I was doing my professional turkey call that dad taught me, but then my companion said, "sister what are you doing?! they are mean." I just laughed. I mean it's just a turkey right? no they're evil. It started charging haha my companion and I just booked it, I've never ran so fast. when we came to a turn the turkey stopped following us and we just laughed and laughed. yeah. Don't trust turkeys.

I want you all to know that I know this church is true! I have been exposed to SO much on my mission! It's true! It's all real so real. I love you all so much! Keep on Keepin' on!

ay ayeten ka

Sister Abelhouzen

P.S. Happy Birthday to my darling sister Ave! (I've sent you some pictures) I love you so much & hope you Have the best day ever!

"Is anything to hard for the Lord?"

Hey family!

This week was pretty awesome, but I'm sorry I forgot my planner sooo this is going to be really short! We found a lot of really awesome new investigators! And I had exchanges! again! with sister Rosell! She's awesome, I always learn a lot from her.

We had 10 investigators at church yesterday and Some of the families we are teaching are really progressing! The best part of the whole week had to be when Melchor, one of our recent converts, bore his testimony. He shared about his conversion story. It used to assist the Priest in the Catholic church, but he always knew something wasn't right. He spent a year attending different religions until the missionaries found him. The moment he entered the church he knew. He has felt the spirit testify this is true. He testified of how he knows this church is true and how he can't wait to go to the temple with Sandrie and be sealed!

Jojo and his family came to church. Hallelujah It's a miracle!

Paolo is getting baptized! Okay so paolo is 17 years old and has been an investigator for about 2 1/2 years. He has such a strong testimony, but hasn't been able to be baptized, because his parents said he had to wait until he was 18. until a few weeks ago when his parents randomly told us that he could be baptized! So hopefully next week we will be having a baptism! Also paolo just told us that he is planning on serving a mission one year after his baptism!

I love seeing people be truly converted of the Lord. Even if my mission were over right now I would call it a success, because I got to help bring these people the gospel!
I know that God is aware of all of us, he knows what we're feeling and he knows what we are going through. I know that if we turn to him in all things he will help us and guide us. All we need to do is trust him! He can do anything! 
 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid."  John 14:27

Have an amazing week! And to my precious sisters Ashton & Avery - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

5 months! Another Crazy fast week!

Hey family! So today I hit my 5 month mark on the mission! Sister Brewer wants to go to the cake shop to celebrate, she's always looking for a chance to eat cake. "it's my cousin's friend's birthday, lets go to the cake shop." I can't say I'm mad. 

Before I get into the good stuff, I have a crazy (literally) story for you all. This week we were going to teach this family that we've been teaching for about a month, let's just call them the Brown family. Anyways we've been teaching them for awhile and they have a lot of potential. But as we went to go visit them a grumpy tatay not wearing a shirt comes out of the house and tells us that we can never come back again. When we asked why he told us that Mr. Brown had gone crazy and his siblings found out we were teaching him and are pretty sure we did it. Of course we didn't believe it so we asked him if we could please talk to Mrs. Brown, he told us no and that we needed to be quiet or he would hear us. all of a sudden we hear banging in the house and someone yelling, "SINO IYAN" or who's there?! We look into to she Mrs. Brown trying to hold back Mr. Brown and then he runs up to us and says, "Sisters! May Problema!" Okay now we believed grumpy tatay, we besides the fact that we did that to him.. that's ridiculous. To be honest me and my companion were a bit scared, but before we left we made sure that Mrs. Brown was okay and she just apologized and ran to follow her husband. 

When we left, my companion and I were so sad, we had lost one of our families and frankly had never seen anything like that. After that I told my companion I had an Idea, "Let's teach the Amecays and Reals on the beach." so yes that is exactly what we did. It was amazing. We taught a lesson about the Holy ghost and then just enjoyed the beach! It was so fun, then to top it off we had some fish balls. which are now my new favorite thing. When I first got here I thought they looked and smelt disgusting, but I finally tried it and I LOVE them haha. 

Funny story of the week: Jessa Amecay is 6 years old and probably one of the cutest kids here. The other day while we were teaching the family she put on my name tag and was walking around shaking everyone's hand and saying "Hellllloooo magsimba po kayo!" haha something I say often. I have attached a picture, it is probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen! 

yesterday we had interviews with President Barrientos. It was so good! He is so motivating. He talked a lot about obedience and how it's for our investigators not ourselves. He so awesome! and to top it all off, I got my packages and mom you'll probably be receiving some thank you cards, because the elders loved the candy haha. It didn't last 20 minutes. You're awesome! 

On a mission, we study 3 hours a day. 2 hours gospel study and 1 hour language study.  While studying I have just learned so much! It's amazing how everything fits together. There is so much proof the church is true in history, the Bible and of course the Book of Mormon. I often think of ways I could share all of this information with my investigators, but I know I can't. It doesn't help to prove anything, because no matter how much proof you show, sometimes they still have doubts. It's crazy how many miracles I see here and my investigators see too, but sometimes they still don't believe. How is that? How is that in the Book of Mormon Lamen and Lemuel saw an angel, but were still disobedient? 

the reason is simple: miracles don't create faith, they strengthen it.

This is the same reason that before Christ performed miracles he asked the person receiving if they had faith. 

So how is that we have faith? By humbling ourselves enough to act on what we believe. Alma 32:16-18

We must act, because we receive no witness until after a trial of our faith. Either 12:6

I Just love this gospel. I promise this church is true. Trust in that! Thank you for all your love and support! 

"Let's doubt our doubt, before we doubt our faith." President Uchtdorf 

have a great week! Love you all!

Sister Abelhouzen