August 31, 2014

Hello Family!!!

Well I had a pretty good week. Ill start with the bad news though. On Saturday was the baptism of Casandra and Roxan. It was really great and thats not the bad news. They are the cutest little girls and I love them and they are just the best. The bad news is what happened before the baptism started. So Casandra and Roxan were a little late to the baptism and there were a lot of young women at the church so we started taking pictures with all of them. They wanted to see my camera and take pictures so I gave it to them and then walked away. That was a mistake. I guess they took a picture they didnt like so they tried to delete it but they accidentally deleted everything. Luckily I just started using a new memory card when I got to 5th ward but all my pictures, videos, everything from 5th ward is now gone. So I was a little sad about that. All the funny videos I told you about with me, Sister Vargas, and Sister Ivy are gone. All thats left is the pictures Ive sent home. So I was sad. But then the baptism was great! So its okay. At least I still have the pictures I sent home. And Im still here so Ill take more! We had a pretty good week though. We found this family this week and I think they are going to be really good. The Alegre family. We met brother because he drives us home a lot so we asked him if we could visit his family. So we went and they seem pretty interested. We havent been able to teach them a second time though because they havent been home but we will try again this week. Aaron isnt doing very well. He hasnt come to church for two weeks now and he still hasnt stopped smoking. His friends told us hes back to 10 cigarettes a day. He told us last time that eventually he will stop but not yet. So weve been a little sad about that. But we have another investigator, Victoria, that is doing pretty good. She hasnt come to church yet but shes doing good. We will see what happens with her. On Friday was Sister Turtals year mark! After weekly planning we ate lunch to celebrate. It was fun. It was a good week but I feel like things have slowed down a lot. Like, not really any of our investigators are progressing right now. Things are just a little weird right now. I dont know why. We are just kind of struggling to get investigators to come to church. But we will keep working on it. It was still a good week though. Me and Sister Turtal are still great. I love her and we are trying to keep working hard and find more people to teach. So things are good! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Sister Remund

Aug. 24, 2014

I had a great week this week! We have continued to see miracles here in 5th ward and me and Sister Turtal are still having a blast! I have good news too! Rex got baptized! His baptism was on Saturday! I was so happy! We went to him this week and he told us he wasnt going to start working until next week so he could get baptized! We were so excited! He is so great and wanted to get baptized so bad and now he is baptized! It was great. Also, this Saturday is Casandra and Roxans baptism! Im excited for them. They are the cutest little girls in the world. Have I told you about them? Me and Sister Vargas started teaching them on my birthday actually so that was cool. I didnt want to teach them at first because they are children and thats always hard because if their family isnt members, they usually go less active right after baptism. But we started teaching them because their uncle is a member and their cousins are members. It turns out they dont even have any communication with their parents and their aunt and uncle are their guardians. Casandra has never even met her dad. I felt bad for them. But their aunt and uncle are so supportive and great. And they come to church every week and now they are getting baptized on Saturday! Im excited for them. They are just the sweetest. Also, Amy is going on a mission? I didnt know. Where is she going? Also, Kaley Armour got married? To who? I dont know if you forgot, but Im in the Philippines and I dont hear about stuff like this! Yesterday I went on splits with Ivy again. It was really fun. I love Ivy. Im happy you get to see pictures of me on her facebook. Thats really nice of her. I will thank her for you. We started teaching one of Ivys friends, Victoria. Shes great. Her brother is a member. We have been teaching her for a couple weeks now and she is doing great. She wasnt able to come to church yesterday but she committed to come next week so we are excited. Also I have a funny story. On Saturday as we were coming home for the night, Sister Turtal started talking about how September starts this week and how it was the end of August. I forgot what the date was so I just agreed that it was Aug 30 like she said. Well, Sister Turtals year mark is August 29. So thinking it was now Aug 30 I was like, Sister Turtal your year mark was yesterday! So to celebrate, we ran into Robinson quick to eat dinner. I asked her what she wanted and we bought pizza and brought it home and celebrated her year mark. Then Sunday morning, we were sitting in the church and I realized it was really only Aug 24. I told Sister Turtal and we just started laughing because she isnt at one year yet. So we get to celebrate again this week! It was funny. So we celebrated a week early and we will celebrate again this week! And then on Sept 11 we will celebrate our year mark here in Bacolod! So its going to be fun! Also, Sister Vargas is getting married. She just got home two weeks ago. Her boyfriend hasnt proposed yet but they are planning their wedding. Crazy. And Sister Turtal reminded me of being at home for our family prayers this week. As we kneeled down to pray, we both just started laughing. I dont know why. But it was just funny and I just was reminded of my wonderful family at home and how you all always start laughing right before we pray. I dont know it was just funny. Overall it was a good week! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Remund

Celebration of Sister Turtals year mark a week early. I cant believe we forgot the date and thought it was her year mark. But the pizza was yummy!In one picture, she is like crying or something? I dont know but it was funny.

Brother Rex baptism!

Aug. 17, 2014

Hello everyone!

I had a great week this week! Yes I got my new companion and she is the best thing in the world! Her name is Sister Turtal and shes my batch! We got here at the same time but I will go home before her. She seriously is the best and you all would love her! Shes just funny, friendly, outgoing, loving, and any other good thing you can think of. So this week has been a lot of fun. I will send you a picture later. And she has been good for me. Guess what I did for the first time in a long time this past week? We went running for our exercise in the morning! It was great. It was the first time Ive had a companion since Sister Nielsen that wants to run. Speaking of Sister Nielsen, she was Sister Turtals last companion! That was pretty fun. I got to see Sister Nielsen on transfer day and we talked for a while and it was awesome. I loved getting to finally see her again before she will go home. She goes home next transfer. Also, speaking of going home, Im not going home alone! Sister Bahm is going home early too! I was so excited to hear that. I was nervous to go home alone but now Im not so its okay! So this week was really great though. Sister Turtal is so good at OYM. Seriously. We have so many new investigators from this week and its been so good so far. This area is about to blow up. Its awesome. Im excited. Things are just going great right now. I really love this area and Sister Turtal is perfect for it right now. We are going to have many miracles and blessings and its going to be great. We are supposed to have a baptism again this week but I dont know if we are going to now. Its supposed to be the baptism of Rex but he got a job and he doesnt know now if he can get baptized because he doesnt know if he will be able to attend church. I was sad because he seriously is so prepared and wants to get baptized so bad and knows this is true. We are going to keep working on it though and see when he will be prepared by. Im not sure right now. But its okay. Aaron is doing good. He has almost given up all his word of wisdom problems. He still has 1 cigarette a day but has committed to give it up. Im excited for him. He really is great and hes going to be even better when he can give up his word of wisdom problems. Other than that though it was just a good week. I love my companion and my area that Im serving in. I love you all. Have a great week!

Sister Remund

Dont look at me in these pictures but Sister Turtal looks good!

Seriously she does this anytime I pull out my camera. Shes like, no pictures!

Me and Sister Vargas the day she went home.

Sister Turtal! She is seriously probably the prettiest Filipina Ive ever met. And the last picture just describes our companionship the best. Its just funny.

Everyone told Sister Turtal these two girls in the ward are her twins. I dont think they really look alike though.

Aug. 10, 2014

Well I had a great week! A lot of great things happened. It was Sister Vargas last week so we had some fun. This week we had our zone training! It was great! I always learn so much from my zone leaders and sister training leaders. Its awesome. And then on Thursday we went on exchanges! I was with Sister Piula! Shes my batch! Do you remember her? She was in my district in the MTC! It was a lot of fun. It was the first time Ive really seen her and been able to talk to her so it was great to catch up. She has been companions with Sister Evans and Sister Smith from our MTC district! I thought that was pretty crazy. But shes great and I loved talking to her. She is also very bold. Seriously as we were teaching I was just like in shock because of how bold she was. For some people it was really great but sometimes I couldnt help but think it was over bold. But it was still good and she helped a lot of our investigators. Then on Saturday was Angelinas baptism!!!! It was seriously so great. Her daughter, Queen Mae, was one of the speakers and it was just the best thing ever. Seriously it was so great. Sister Queen Mae is the best. It was really great. And Sister Angelina bore her testimony and it was the best. She is so great and Im so glad I was able to teach her. It was seriously the coolest thing seeing her change so much in such a short amount of time. And another miracle, Bishop attended our baptism!!!!! This is the first time he has attended a baptism since before Sister Vargas got here. And then on Sunday we had our first ward council! It was so great! The ward is progressing! Me and Sister Vargas were really excited! Also this week Aaron got bit by a dog and had to get a rabies shot. You might think its really random that Im telling you this but Im telling you that because its a miracle. Aaron has really started to progress well and he attended church again yesterday. His problem, the word of wisdom. He is slowing losing his vices but obviously its hard. Well, since he had to get a rabies shot, he isnt allowed to drink alcohol for two months! And after that he said he wont drink it again. He still had other problems but hes slowly overcoming them. Hes so great and this week he committed to be baptized! We are really excited for him! So its going good. Also as we were walking around our area, someone just started talking to us because she recognized us as missionaries. Well shes a less active member and has been for years but she let us share with her and she has a great desire to return. Shes shy because shes been less active for so long but she has some great friends and relatives in the church so I think she will be good. It was just a really cool lesson with her and I could just feel so much love for her and it was great. I love lessons like that. Also I heard about your new facebook friends. Sister Ivy told me she added you. Shes my favorite. I went on splits with her again yesterday and it was the best! She told me she posted a picture of me and that you got super happy. Shes going to put some more on. She also looked at Kamryns facebook and she said shes so pretty! She asked if she was an actress because shes so pretty and she said she looks familiar. It was funny. They said all of you are beautiful! I havent seen Jaja (April) in a while so I didnt know you were friends with her but thats cool and really nice that she messaged you! Klayklay said she is going to message you but you havent been online while she is so shes waiting for that. Overall it was just a great week! Im glad you all had a great week and have fun in school! Haha thats crazy that summer is already over. I feel like you all just got out of school. But enjoy school! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Sister Remund

Angelinas baptism!!! This is her mom and daughter Queen Mae. And the youngest girl at the bottom is Nicole. Shes the cutest.

Our investigators. Their uncle(who is their guardian) is a member. The investigators are the two girls. Cassandra and Roxan.

Sister Vargas and Sister Ivy. I want you so see this video. Its the funniest thing. There is a commercial here about shampoo(well there are a lot) So we did a little remake of one. Well, after I got my hair rebonded, Sister Vargas will always say, "Sister Remund, nagparebond ka?" (Did you get your hair rebonded?) And I say, "rejoice lang yan!" (like, no, I just use rejoice!) Its funny. So Sister Ivys hair is just perfect always so we were having her do the commercial but they didnt have rejoice so we used this shampoo, sunsilk. I dont know if this makes sense but it was really funny.

Sister Vargas with her name tag.

Aug. 3, 2014

Hello my wonderful family! How are all of you? It sounds like you all had a great week and a fun camping trip! The pictures looked like a ton of fun! Stop having fun without me... Just kidding. But not really. Well I had a great week. It was a lot of fun and just great. We have some really great investigators right now. I told you about Angelina right? Her baptism is this Saturday. Im so excited for her! She has really prepared herself to be baptized. She is what we call a miracle baptism because me and Sister Vargas found her when I first got to this area 5 weeks ago and she has prepared herself so well and is getting baptized in the same transfer we found her. Its great! She has been prepared for such a long time. Her daughter, Queen Mae, worked with us this week (shes a member) and she told us that when her grandparents got baptized(Angelinas parents) Angelina was too busy with work so she didnt listen to the missionaries. Then when her daughter got baptized she saw the change in her and wanted to learn more and so now she finally listened to the missionaries and is getting baptized! She has been reading the Book of Mormon and is already in Jarom. :Its crazy. This week she told us about an experience she had. She was reading the Book of Mormon and when she finished, she looked at a picture of Queen Mae and saw an evil spirit. She hurried and prayed and it went away. But she said that she knows its satan and he doesnt want her to get baptized. She talked about how she knows she needs to be baptized and is so excited. It was the coolest thing. I love her. Also, this is Sister Vargas last full week. Crazy. Also can you believe I hit my year mark this week? Like what? I feel like I just got here. How am I already at a year? Crazy. Also, we started teaching a girl named Princess this week. She lives with the Desaldes family. The members we did a family home evening with a while ago? And Sister Ivy? Thats the Desaldes family so she already has the best fellow shipper. Shes been taught a couple times before but never continued. But shes really great and Sister Ivy just bore a great testimony and is such a great help to Princess. Its gonna be great. Also, yesterday I went on splits with Ivy again and it was just great and a lot of fun. Shes the best. Also, on my year mark and yesterday, I got Coke again from Nonoy Al, our recent convert. They always givbe me the big one and call it American size. I told them they dont need to but they give it to me anyway. But its great and I love getting soda. Over all it was just a great week! And I feel like Ive been typing forever. I dont know why my emails are always so short because I feel like I make them a lot longer than they are. So sorry I dont send longer emails. Just know that I love you all! Have a great week! I cant wait to hear from you again!!

Sister Remund

Sister Vargas and Sister Queen Mae! Sister Angelinas daughter!

This is Aaron and all his friends. They are crazy but super funny!

Um look at her shirt! It was my favorite!

The four sisters. They are the ones who lived in my apartment for a week.

My district again!

This was our FHE last week! Aaron and all his friends!

Just a random picture but this is my house!

Which coke is for the American?

Us with Aaron! I told you about him right? Hes doing a lot better now! We had a FHE there last monday and it was great! And he came to church yesterday! We were so excited!

Me and Sister Wallace

Me and Sister Santos