Sept. 30, 2013

Hello Family!

Ahhh!!! I cant believe I've been gone for two months already! Its gone by so fast! I had a pretty good week but not much to say about it. Its pretty much the same as the last two weeks I've had here. But yeah, we've continued teaching and having a great time! I love the ward I am in! Its so great! Its still hard understanding everyone but I've gotten much better. Our ward is so funny! There is one sister in our ward who was less active so we started visiting her my first week here because its really the only house we could find but we started teaching her and it was going really well. She has a store in the market though and Sunday is market day so that's why she hasn't been coming to church. Last Sunday she came though and it was so great having her there! She is awesome! We tried visiting her through out the week but she was always gone when we went by so we weren't sure if she would come to church this week. But she did! She told us that she realized that she needs to come to church and said she is coming to church every sunday from now on. Its so great! She is awesome and I love talking with her. She has such a strong testimony! Then there is a guy in our ward who is awesome. I thought he was a RM because his testimony is so strong but he was just baptized in May! He is seriously the nicest person I have ever met. He is always offering to come out with us and show us around. Hes great. His personality reminds me of Kiel a little bit. But yeah I like having him come out with us. And our Bishop is super great. He has been bishop for 10 years now! That's a long time to be bishop. But pretty much everyone in our ward is super funny. I had my first dinner appointment this week! It was a lot of fun! And the food was really good too! I love it! That's cool that Jenessa had her farewell yesterday! I cant believe she is finally going! She is going to love it! I cant wait for her! That's awesome that you went to the cabin. I'm sad I couldn't go this year but I'm glad you had a good time! Weird that no one was there. Its crazy how everyone is growing up so fast and everything is changing. And whats up with grandma going to Hawaii?!?! Are you serious?? That's not even a mission. That's vacation. Haha just kidding. But yeah we should for sure visit her when I get home. That would be pretty neat. Good luck with the marathon this week! I'm sure you will miss all of my help... By help I mean me eating ice cream while you all hand out bread slices. Haha. I will miss that! Haha mom I cant believe you fell at church. Just kidding I can because you fall a lot... Just kidding. I'm the one that is always falling. Speaking of falling/ injuring myself... I might have burned my finger really bad this week. I had a huge blister. Don't worry, I will send a picture. Its great. We were making no-bakes for Sister Solomones birthday and I burned it. Clearly I should leave making no-bakes to Dave, Jeff, Mike, and Mark. Haha. But anyway sorry this week is kind of short. I'm going to send pictures though! I want to leave some time for that. Thanks for emailing me and keeping me updated! I love hearing from you! I love you and miss you all so much! Cant wait to hear from you again!

Sister Remund

 Doing laundry by hand! 

And a fruit that looks really cool! And it tastes really good too!

Tayup is really pretty! 

My blister! Ouch.

A cool little boat in one of our areas. 

The Silay East Ward Choir.  They take their choir SERIOUSLY in the Philippines.  Uniforms required!

September 23, 2013

Hello Family!!!!

Thank you so much for the pictures! I love them all! I love seeing you all! And um Kam, you are so cute!!! I LOVE the dresses! And I think its funny that you are taller than Laura. Haha. Thats crazy! This week has been great! Its still hard because we dont really know where anyone lives still but the ward has been helping us. We have mostly only taught less active members but we have found a couple new investigators! Also I have been taking some pictures just not as many as I would like. And sorry my email is so late today. We went to Tayup this morning and when we got back there wasnt any power so I couldnt get on email. But Tayup was really pretty and I got some good pictures there! But I forgot my cord again... sorry. I will for sure remember next week! I am better understanding people here but sometimes its really hard to understand. And I can actually talk in some of the lessons! Just kidding I talk in all of them, but yesterday I led the lesson! It was great! Since we dont really have any active members in our area, we dont eat at peoples houses but this week we are going to someones house for dinner. And tonight we are going to a LA house for FHE. We mostly eat at home and all we eat is cereal, pb&j, eggs, hotdogs, toast, and fruit. Not anything great but I like it! They have really good fruit here! I love it! Its funny when it rains because its like the world stops. No one here likes the rain and most people wont go out in it. Its hard on Sundays because literally no one comes to church if it is raining. Its weird. But I like the rain so its okay. We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was great! I finally met Sister Manwaring! It was cool talking to her. She thought it was so cool that I had met her mom. But I was up front in the picture because they were celebrating birthdays and they did it for July, August, and September so I got a toothbrush for my birthday three months ago. But thats why I was in the front. Its funny that you mentioned grandpa dying a year ago because I kept thinking about it too. Like I didnt remember what day he died but I knew it was sometime around this time and I kept thinking about it. Its crazy that it was so long ago. Im adjusting good to missionary life and the Philippines. Its still crazy here but I kinda like it. One thing that is really weird is we will be teaching a lesson and they will have a baby and they will just start nursing right in front of us! Its so weird. But anyway, I feel like I had so much more to tell you and now I dont remember. Oh yeah! Kam- Sister Nielsen was a cheerleader in high school! And she reminds me a lot of Ashley! Its great. We are getting along really well. But other than that I dont remember what I was going to tell you. Everything is great and I love it here! And I love hearing from you! I love you all and miss you so much! I cant wait to hear from you again!

Sister Remund

First REAL missionary email! From Silay, Philippines.

Hello Family!!

Holy cow the Philippines is crazy! But its so great! I cant remember if I told you about their driving, but mom you would die here. Literally the only rule is if you are in a spot on the road, that's your spot and if no one is in a spot next to you, then you can go there. They will just drive up the middle of the road and swerve around everyone. At first it was so scary but now I'm used to it and think its great. My companion is Sister Nielsen and she is from Mesa Arizona. She knows Sister Evans brother! And Sister Evans is in my district! Its great! I love getting to see her around sometimes. Right now I am in Silay East and its great! I love it! But it also stinks because they just split my area so me and Sister Nielsen are new to the area. Neither of us know where anything is. We have two other sisters in our ward and they have helped a little but mostly all we have been doing the past few days is walk around and try and figure out where everything is. We finally started finding our way around in a couple parts of our area, and then the Bishop split the area a different way because he thought it wasn't fair to the other sisters so now we are pretty much starting over again. The only people we knew in our area are in the area we lost. Its great. But luckily the ward has been helping. Last night two members came around with us and showed us where a lot of things are. Also we have no progressing investigators. The other sisters had focused more on other areas before we got here so there aren't any progressing investigators which makes it even harder to find things to fill our time with. Everyone in our area in less actives pretty much or a recent convert. But the recent converts don't come to church either. We have a lot of work to do. Really all we have done is go around and try and find the less actives and try to get them to come back to church. But it will be great! Sorry I'm not sending any pictures home this week, I forgot my cord. And I don't have a lot of pictures from the Philippines. I have a lot from the MTC and traveling, but not here. President Lopez has a rule where we cant take our camera with us. He doesn't want us to look like tourists so we cant really take any pictures. It stinks because we will be walking around and I see something really cool and want to take a pictures, but I cant. I just wish that someone could follow me around and video everything that happens because its all so cool! Its funny because we will be walking around and everyone will just stop and stare at us. Most of them are really nice though so they will smile and wave. Its great! And I am really tall. A lot of people have commented on that. The other day three little girls were following us around. They were so cute! I wanted to take a picture of them really bad but of course I couldn't! But its okay. I will get some pictures eventually. On music, we are only allowed to listen to hymns. So I don't know what CDs I have that I can listen to. Its funny because the people in my ward think I am famous. I had one member tell me I look like Taylor Swift (what?) and some others though I was in the Harry Potter movies. And another thought I was a Hollywood star. Its great. So far the food is amazing! I haven't tried much because mostly we eat in our apartment and neither of us know how to cook their food but from what I've tried its great! Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!  On Friday that is, sorry its a couple days late. Also small packages and letters only take like two weeks to get here! So you should for sure send me letters! And also I need a couple things... I need more pictures of the family! And friends! Since I sent the digital one home I only have like two pictures of our family and none of my friends. So send some of those. I also need a little hymn book. We sing a lot and I don't have one so its hard. I think that's all. For now. We will see. But everything is going great! I love it and its all great! I will try to remember my cord next week to send pictures! I love you and cant wait to hear from you!

Sister Remund

Sister Remund and her new trainer, Sister Nielsen.

McKenna with her Mission President, President and Sister Lopez

Sept. 10, 2013: 9:38 PM - Philippines!!

Hello family!

I am officially in Bacolod! We are at the mission home right now. I just met President Lopez and his wife. He gave everyone about two minutes to email home and let you know that I have arrived safely! We slept in Manila last night (for about three hours) but we got to stay at a really nice hotel! We were a little spoiled our first night here. Right now we are going to do an orientation and tomorrow I get to meet my new companion! Im so glad I got to talk on the phone with you on Monday and I look forward to your email next Monday! Check out President Lopez facebook page tonight. They took a lot of pictures today! (Marlo Oliveros Lopez) I love you and miss you! Cant wait to hear from you! Palangga ta ka!

Sister Remund

Sept. 5, 2013 - AHHHHHHHH!!!!

I cant believe this is happening! I leave in MTC in three days! Wow it has gone by so fast yet so slow at the same time! Its crazy! I still dont know when I will be calling but it will probably be in Detroit. But maybe I can call both times. We will see. I had a pretty good week. On Friday we got our travel plans which was so great! It made everything so much more real. But I am super excited to talk to you all! Also, I agree with Ryanne, I think she should get to talk to me too. That would be great. But if its against the rules or anything then thats okay. Im not sure. I dont know what the rules are. And its a good think I have a lot of journals. Turns out I write a lot. I am almost half way through my first one. Last night I got to read Kaylas message that she wrote in my journal the day of my farewell. It was nice finally getting to read it! Also I ended up buying another journal to take more notes in. Good thing I have a lot! I am going to have more stuff to send home. Every dress that you sent me is too short. You said that they dont have to cover our knee anymore but President Lopez is really strict on that kind of thing. He still wants everything mid calf. I loved the dresses and really want to wear them but I dont want to break the rules. I didnt know if you want me to put your address on it or Ashleys? I can just send it to Ash and next time you see her you can get it. Im pretty sure she gave me her new address and I have her phone number so let me know if that will work. I am going to have Sister Nonu drop it off for me on Monday. So whoever is going to pick it up, it will get there on Tuesday.

This week consisted of a lot of lasts. We had mission conference on Sunday and that was so great! I still have one more Sunday here but it wont be mission conference. Also on Sunday (not a last) we watched a video about Joseph Smith. I've seen it before but I love it! It was funny, during part of the movie, Joseph kisses Emma. Everyone started freaking out. It was so funny! Only at the MTC does that happen. Also this week was my last Tuesday night devotional. The speaker was David F. Evans of the seventy. It was a really good devotional. Also today is my last temple trip. Also I finished reading the Book of Mormon this week! That was pretty cool. On Monday we had FHE with the other district. It was really cool. I liked it a lot. We all had been given a question and we went around the room and answered our question and bore a short testimony. It was great! Then at night me and Sister Evans always raid the vending machine. We are given eight dollars a week on our cards so we eat a lot of food from the vending machine. Pretty much we just eat a lot of food all the time. And after eating food from the vending machine, Sister Nonu will come sit on my bed with me while we write in our journals and eat more food with me. Sometimes Sister Masse will come in too. Its great. Thats funny that you mentioned the orange juice. One of the first things we were told was to not drink the orange juice because it will make you sick. We have all avoided it. I dont remember if I brought Tylenol PM or not and I dont know if they have it in the bookstore to maybe just send me some just in case. And Mom stop crying so much! Thats funny that you started crying at the bakery when you found out the Andersons saw me. It was great seeing them but I didnt get to talk to them. They have a big rule when you are hosting that people cant pull over to talk to you. So I was standing on the curb and they drove past and went to pull over. Sister Masse and Sister Nonu were with me so they started yelling kind of because they were like, "No they cant stop!" I ran up and said to keep driving so they hurried and took a picture of me walking and drove off. It was good to see them though. I also saw Mica the other day! It was nice talking to her too. Also was the branch presidency wife you met Sister Hansen? Sister Capik? Sister Hardy? Those are three of the wifes in my branch presidency. Sister Hansen was the one that was in our meeting after the rain so I would assume its her. And you mentioned that you are planning a vacation for when I am back? What are you planning on? You cant say stuff like that and not tell me! And why would you tell me that Susan brought over peach pie? Do you not remember that I love that?! Come on! Now I want peach pie!

Hallie- no I cant say an entire talk in Hiligaynon yet. Im not that good! But I can still talk in minion! My roommates think its great when I sing the banana song. They love it! And thats great that you are still going to do Annie! Im so proud of you! And Im glad you still like basketball. You will be so good when I get back! Youre awesome!

Dad- I did tell you about my rough week! I wrote you a letter telling you all about it. When I said that in Ryannes letter, I was talking about the email because I didnt want everyone to know. Hosting was so much fun! I helped two sisters. They only had like 170 sisters come in on Wednesday so I didnt get to help very many but it was still awesome! I really liked it. This Sunday in sacrament meeting the two districts that are leaving on Monday are singing in church. We are singing come thou fount. I love that song! Its so great! Its weird to think that this Sunday is my last Sunday in the US. Crazy. But Im so excited to leave!

During gym time we have been playing four square. Or what we like to call it, apat square. Its so much fun playing with everyone! Its great! Its funny watching everyone play too. I love it. But I cant wait to talk to you on Monday! It will be so great to hear your voices! I love you all and miss you so much! Palangga ko kamo!

Sister Remund

This statue is on the MTC campus. We thought it was funny that we could do the same thing with our laundry and books.

 I printed the picture that Ashley sent me. I love it! Its so funny!

Sister Nonu will come sit on my bed with me so that we can eat food and write in our journals together.

The two districts speaking Hiligaynon. Except Elder Orr who is speaking Cebuano.

Me and Sister Nonu.

Our district on our last temple walk. We dont get to go this Sunday because we have a devotional for everyone that is leaving next week.