December 29, 2013

So this week was pretty good! It started really great! But it didnt really end good. Ill talk about that later. Our zone conference with President was awesome! I loved it! And I loved watching the Christmas devotional! Elder Nelsons talk was so good! I loved it! Me and Sister Nielsen loved it so much we watching it again and posted it on our facebook page. And I really loved what President talked about. He talked a lot about tithing and numbers. I love the things he said about tithing. Are you all full tithe payers? You better be! Tithing is one of the biggest commandments and is the only commandment that we literally show our faith by paying our tithing. Its awesome. And so many blessing come when we pay a full tithe. It was really good. He also talked about numbers and the importance of them. A lot of people say that numbers arent important on a mission. Like how many baptisms you have. But President put it very clearly when he said "how many children do you have?" and answered with "I have children, thats the important thing. Not the quantity but the quality of my children." And siempre Heavenly Father knows all of His children and how many He has. He also showed us in the Book of Mormon a few of the missionary stories. They say how many baptisms they have. They always count. Even when there are so many people, they say 8 thousand were baptized or something. It just really made me think about how important numbers are. Its crazy. Because this mission is big on numbers. We are always raising our goals and what not. Its awesome! And clearly it works because our mission is super successful and are always baptizing people. Its great! Then yesterday at church Angel was confirmed a member! It was so great! Sister Mirasol came to church too and even payed her tithing! It was funny, she didnt know how to pay tithing so we helped her and taught her how to pay. Angel loves church now though and was so excited for her baptism and confirmation! Then after church we went out to Bagol and went to see a member. We found out last week that her sister in law who lives there isnt a member. She took the lessons a long time ago and went to church for like a year but her parents and grandparents are strong catholic so they wouldnt let her get baptized and they made her stop coming to church. Well on Christmas we went to visit them and the grandparents were there. We just shared a quick Christmas message with them from Luke and just kept it simple and quick. Well last night when we went back, she told us she prayed for a sign(Jemma, the investigator) and the next day when her grandparents were there, they told her she could go to church again and get baptized!!! Their hearts were softened and now she can get baptized!!! So we set a date for her and are super excited for it! Right now her date is Feb 1. Its gonna be great! After that is when everything went bad. Of course. After that we went to see the Baquias. We had set up an appointment with them at church to come that night. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. I saw the affects of drinking more than I ever have. I wanted to cry. We walked back to their house and heard crying. They dont really have a door, just a curtain and it was kind of open. We looked inside and the whole house was destroyed. We could hear brother yelling and someone crying. We started calling in to tell them we were there and to see what was going on. Dexter came out and we saw Dixon run to the back of the house. Then we saw brother with the stick. He was beating Angel. It was the hardest thing I have ever been through. Sister came out and just told us to come back later because siempre we werent going to go in. Dexter came out front with us and was just crying. It was the hardest thing. There was literally nothing we could do. It makes me so mad but mostly Im sad. I want to go back and see Angel and make sure she is okay but President said we cant go back until we have a leader with us. We talked to bishop this morning and he is going to go back with us tonight. I just feel so bad. I dont know what to do for them or what we will say next time we see them. I just hate alcohol. So last night after that happened we didnt do anything because we couldnt even think straight. Hopefully Angel is okay and we can figure this out soon. But other than that it was a great week! I loved talking to you on Christmas! Did you have a good Christmas? I still havent gotten your email yet so hopefully you send that soon! But I love you! Have a great week!

Sister Remund

CHRISTMAS EVE SKYPE CALL!!!

FROM BRETT & SHERRI-

We got to Skype Sister Remund on Christmas Eve (her Christmas day) and it was AWESOME!  She has never looked happier.  We took a screen shot to show her off.  Is it just us, or is she glowing?
We've also included some pics taken from President Lopez' Facebook Page.

Merry Christmas!

December 22, 2013

AHHHHH!!!!!! I cant believe Christmas is in two days!! Im so excited to see you! Its going to be awesome! Im probably going to get on around 11 here because the internet shop only has 6 cameras so Silay West is going at 10 and we are going at 11. Hopefully the internet wont be too slow so that the video goes good. But its going to be great! We had a pretty good week. Angel Baquia was supposed to be baptized Sunday morning but her parents got too many ice cream orders (they make ice cream and its the best ice cream Ive ever tasted) so we had her baptism Sunday night. So she was still baptized but her confirmation wont be until next week. But it was still great. This week we had to go to Bacolod a lot. Sister Nielsen has had jaw pain ever since the MTC and lately she thought it was a cavity so we went to a dentist in Bacolod to see if it was. He said its a root canal and since its at the very back she should just pull it out. Well Sister Nielsen didnt want to loose a tooth so a few days later we got a second opinion. That dentist said its just her jaw and no cavity but sent us to a different place to get an x-ray. The people who took the x-ray have no idea though and so we still dont know whats wrong with her. But she decided shes just going to wait until she is home to figure it out. So we pretty much wasted the whole week in Bacolod and still know nothing. But its okay. Also mom, you said you sent a letter when you sent my packages. Did you really send a letter? I havent gotten any letters since Ive been here. I got the two packages from you and one from Susan but thats all Ive gotten. So I wasnt sure if you ever sent it. Also this week we had our ward Christmas party! We werent supposed to be there for the whole time. We were only allowed to go if we had a part in the program and we did. We sand the first noel. But we werent supposed to stay the whole time. But We had recently gotten back from Bacolod and Sister Nielsen was still way distracted from the dentist and wasnt in the mood to teach so we stayed. I felt bad because President told us not to stay the whole time but we did. Uhhhh, so much for exact obedience. Sister Nielsen just didnt have a great week so she needed to relax. So it was okay. But this week we are going to be exactly obedient. Other than that though nothing really big happened. I had a good week and Im super excited to talk to you! Tomorrow we have our Christmas zone conference. Its in the mission home and its going to be awesome! Im really excited! And then after that its Christmas! Its going to be a great week! But I love you! Im super excited to talk to you! Have a great Christmas Eve and Ill talk to you soon!

Sister Remund

December 15, 2013

Hello Everyone!

How crazy week! Im sorry that everything happened! Hopefully you can get everything worked out soon and they catch those mean people that stole everything. I hate when stuff like that happens. But for real the van? That was the one thing that was supposed to last my whole mission! Come on! Hopefully everything will get worked out soon.

This week I had to learn a lot about patience. I thought I was a pretty patient person until this week. So on Saturday was Emelie, Rosela, and Lovely's baptism. It was supposed to start at 5:30. The sisters in west ward had a baptism at 4. And we were supposed to teach a recent convert at the church at 4. So we show up at the church and the recent convert isnt there. We wait for a while and he doesnt show up. So we decide to start getting ready for the baptism. The other sisters used almost all the clothes though. So we could either use wet or huge clothes for our baptism. Then 5:30 hit. No one was there. So we wait. Then Michael shows up, the recent convert. Well we were supposed to be having a baptism so we couldnt teach him. Finally Emelie and Rosela show up. They were great. But Lovely wasnt there. Emelie said they stopped by to see if she was coming but her parents werent home so she didnt have anyone to bring her. So she couldnt get baptized that night. Then right as the baptism was starting, there was a brown out! No power! That has happened every night this week. Hopefully it gets figured out before Christmas so we can skype! Luckily its at night so we should be fine. But the baptism happened, and everything was great. After the baptism we went out to visit Lovely and we talked to her parents and we were able to have her baptism Sunday morning. So everything is great. Well pretty much everything else this week was pretty normal. Im glad you have my car to be driving around! So much for waiting until Im home to buy a new car! You would think they would be able to find the van because its hard to miss. Sweet I just got your email! Good timing! I almost missed it! Haha. But I will skype at the place I email every week. They have skype and will be open on Christmas. Glad the van and tv are covered! Thats good. I love the letters from everyone! I open them every morning! Well pretty much everything else was normal this week. Oh also, on Sunday for Lovelys baptism, Bishop didnt show up. So it started like 30 minutes late and we almost couldnt do it because church was going to start. But luckily we got everything figured out. But thats all the news I have this week. It was a good week. I hope your week is better than last week! I love you!

Sister Remund

The kids wouldn't let Sister Remund leave.

Taking a lesson from the GIANT American.

December 8, 2013

Hello Family!!!

Sorry Im late today. I got on earlier but right when I went to email there was a brown out so no power. But anyway, Im on now! First, I would like to start by saying... HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMRYN AND HALLIE!!!!!!! Wow I cant believe its already here! Kam I cant believe you will be driving! And Hallie, are you really 12 and going into yw? I dont believe that my little sisters are so big! Stop growing up okay?! haha. But anyway, I had a great week! This week was Abegails baptism! It was so great! And this coming week we have Emilie, Rosela, and Lovely's baptisms. Its going to be a great week! I cant believe it snowed in St. George! Why is it that the one year I am gone it snows a ton! I want snow! Its still really hot here so its hard to imagine snow... and looking at the pictures made me want to play in the snow. But thats okay. I like the heat. And mom, of course I opened my Christmas countdown! I can barely wait to open each envelope on the right day. I want to open them all right now! But I will wait, dont worry. Also, I am sending this to Ryanne and Laura because both of them said that I dont give them enough detail in my email to them so hopefully I have more details here. But I kind of stink at details. So dont get too mad at me! We will get to watch the Christmas devotional on the 24. We are having a zone conference and we will watch it there. Im really excited! Haha I love that you are doing to contest again! Good job Laura! Ryanne- do better next time. Haha. I cant believe it was an entire year ago that we did that! Its crazy. Time has gone by very fast. Thats so cool that dad won fireman of the year! Good for you daddy! Thats awesome! So we had a pretty normal week other than the things Ive already mentioned. Just teaching everyone and trying to be obedient always. Our vision for our mission is exact obedience and also weekly baptisms. This is a baptizing mission. The first two transfers were hard since we didnt have any baptisms and we had to find everyone we have now to teach. But now its paying off! This month we should have weekly baptisms! Its gonna be a good month! So like I mentioned, this week is Jisha (lovely), Rosela, and Emilie. I sent you a picture of them a couple weeks ago. But they are all so awesome! They were taught a year ago and were almost baptized but couldnt because of the people that own the lot they live on. But now I guess its not a problem because they are getting baptized! Im really excited for them! They are awesome! Also Abegail! She is awesome! Im so happy she was able to get baptized this week! I love teaching her and talking to her. She is great. Also Angel Baquia is going to get baptized this month. I sent a picture of them last week. The really cute family and Dexter who reminds me of Cru. Pretty much everything is so great! I love it here! Last Monday was good too. For Sister Nielsens birthday we bought ice cream and celebrated! I love ice cream. Also guess what? A family we teach I guess is pretty rich and has some good connections because somehow they had catching fire on DVD. I dont know how. But I saw it sitting there and I wanted to die. I wanted to watch it so bad! But its okay. I will watch it in a year. But I just want to know how they got it! Also, Ashley, I want your professional opinion. Is rebonding your hair good? That sounds weird but everyone here rebonds their hair. And I kinda want to do it so that I can have straight hair. But I dont know. Its really cheap too. So you should tell me what you think about that. But anyway, I hope you have a great week! Thanks for sending pictures! I love the pictures! And I love you! Cant wait to see you soon! Oh also we found out that I will probably skype you sometime between 7-9 pm on the 24 (Utah time) Because thats Christmas morning here! So be ready at that time! I love you!

Sister Remund

December 1, 2013

Hello Family!!!

Thanks so much for the pictures!! I love looking at them! Looks like everything is going great back home. The roll party looks like it was fun. And I showed Sister Nielsen the pictures and seriously weve decided that Kamryn cant even look bad in any picture. Seriously Kam you look like a model in every picture. What in the world. Crazy! And Hallie your beautiful too! I loved the picture of you! We had a good week this week! And guess what? Abegails baptism is on Friday! Im so excited! We have been teaching her for a while and at first she was really quite and didnt really understand but then she moved in with her uncle and his family. Her uncle is our stake president. Now she understands everything pretty much and is getting baptized on Friday! Shes awesome and Im so excited for her. Last night they called everyone for transfers. Me and Sister Nielsen really though one of us would get transferred but we didnt! We get to stay together for Christmas! Im really excited! And today is Sister Nielsens birthday! So we are gonna party it up! Haha not really but its gonna be a great day! Thanksgiving was good. No one knows what Thanksgiving is obviously but it was still good. We went out to dinner with the other sisters and had a good time. Its still hot here. I always forget its December now because it doesnt feel like December. It still feels summer because its pretty hot. But its not that bad. I like it. Yes mom just send letters to the mission home. No one has addresses here. Which makes it a lot harder to find less actives and referrals because they just tell us what area they live in and we have to ask everyone if they know them. But its great. A couple weeks ago we found a former investigator in one of our areas that was almost baptized last year but last minute cancelled. So we started teaching her again and she is awesome. Her and one of her friends have been coming to church and let us teach them all the time. They are so awesome and so ready to be baptized. Their baptism is going to be on the 14! Im really excited for them. They pretty much know everything already since they have taken the lessons before so its great teaching them. I love it. Pretty much we just had a great week! And I loved starting my Christmas countdown! Is there a different person that wrote me a note for every day? I love reading the notes and Ive only read two days so far! Thanks! And yes I might have opened Susans package... I just couldnt wait any longer. But Bryce is my favorite person ever. Tell Susan thank you so much! I loved the Christmas card and seeing their cute family. And make sure Bryce knows that I love the hot pad he made me! Its perfect! Everything was great! Sorry this isnt very long but I have a lot of pictures to send this week! I love you and miss you so much! Cant wait to hear from you again!

Sister Remund

ps-mom, Ash said that you havent been posting my emails on the blog. She isnt very happy about it. She told me to make sure you start posting them.

Sugar cane!

Angels Baptism!