Merry Christmas!!

Hello my wonderful family!!! It sounds like you all had such a great week! Thank you so much for all the pictures you sent. I love them! You all look so happy and great. I had a pretty good week. Of course this week was Thanksgiving and I loved it! I am so thankful for my wonderful family! But on Thanksgiving it rained all day so it actually made it feel like it was more like Thanksgiving because it wasnt super hot and it actually was a little chilly. So I loved it! And for Thanksgiving dinner we went over to a members house who served on Temple Square! Her name is Melody. It was the best! Yes mom she did make the potato salad but because of my request, her aunt made mashed potatoes just for me!! It made me so happy and I just loved them and they tasted so great! We also ate chicken. Turkey here is too expensive so we had chicken instead. So it was a great day! Me and Sister Yanson are doing good. We have had a pretty good week. We have struggled finding people to teach though. We are really struggling with progressing investigators right now. We have one investigator though that is going to do great. His name is Alex. He was going to come to church on Sunday but he had work so he couldnt. He is our most progressing investigator right now though. He has word of wisdom problems though so we will be working on that this week. We are also really hoping he will come to church this next Sunday. He is so great though and he has a big desire to know if this is true. Im excited to keep teaching him! We also are teaching this really old lady named Luciana. Did you tell you about her last week? I cant remember. Well, she is 80 years old and is the funniest person ever. Every time we go to visit her, shes not wearing clothes. She just lays in her house without her clothes on. Its actually really funny. But she is just the cutest old lady and is great. She wants to come to church but we have to find someone to go with her because her relatives wont let her come by herself because shes so old. So we will find someone this week to bring her. Shes great though. Other than that we taught a lot of less active members this week. We have a ton of less active members in our area and so we are trying to help them come back. We are really trying to find new investigators though because we really dont have any. But we will work on it. Anyway, I had a great week and I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!!! Keep reading your scriptures!!

Sister Remund

This is Ford and Faith. It was Fords birthday and they are the cutest little kids ever!

We found a cool dam in our area!

Me, Melody, and Sister Yanson!

Companion #14

Hello my wonderful family!!! I had such a wonderful week with my companion! Her name is Sister Silvano and she is from La Castellana which is part of my zone. She is great! Unfortunately she goes home today so I will be getting a new companion. I dont know who it is yet but she is also a short term missionary. Im not sure how long we will be together, if it will be one week for two, but Im excited! It should be fun! But this past week was great! Sister Silvano is just the nicest person and we had a great time. The work is going pretty good here as well. We are kind of struggling right now to find new investigators and the investigators we have arent really progressing. Im still trying to get to know where everyone is too. I know where all the investigators are but I dont know any of the members in our area so right now Im still trying to get to know them. Its been interesting. Lets just say we spent a lot of time walking this past week trying to find peoples houses. But it was actually really cool this week because I was able to really feel like I was being helped. When I first found out I would get a short term missionary, I was nervous. But then as soon as we were together I didnt even really feel like I was the one working. I dont really know how to describe it but I just felt so much help. It was the coolest thing. The spirit was really with us this week and it made a big difference. It was great! We have a few investigators right now that I really think will do great and progress well. They were supposed to come to church yesterday with our recent convert but none of the recent converts came so the investigator didnt come. We will go visit them tomorrow to see what happened and why they couldnt come. But they will be great. His name is Alex and his son is named Jason. I like them. They are so receptive and are just great. Also, this week we started teaching an old lady named Luciana. Shes really funny. I was telling her the story from the Bible about the 100 sheep and one of them got lost and she said, "maybe he was kidnapped!" And the whole story she was just like "Oh wow!" It was just really funny. But she is so cute and I just love her. We are also teaching a lady named Josetta. Shes good but I think it will be hard. Shes really great though. Shes very active in her church and I think they are the closest religion to us. Literally like everything we talk about is the same. The big difference is the restoration obviously. But shes great and hopefully she will understand the difference. Well, overall it was a great week. I dont have much time today because I have to go to Bacolod to get my new companion. But I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Remund

My area! Its the beach so we got to watch the sunset on the beach.

Sister Tanes last Sunday.

This was our food every day this last week. All those containers are full of spaghetti.

District meeting. Me and Sister Silvano!

We put up Christmas lights and made them look like a Christmas tree! Our weekly baptism chart was the presents I guess and we hung my stocking too! It was funny though, right after I took the picture, the Christmas lights stopped working. As in they are totally broken now. So we took our tree down. It was sad.

This is our recent converts daughter. Shes so cute!

This is where we get water to wash our clothes. The pump. So anytime I have to wash my clothes I get a good arm workout.

Companion #13

Hello my wonderful family! I had a pretty good week. We were able to work a little more this week but still not as much as I would have liked. Also, as the subject line says, I am now going to receive companion #13. President called last Monday after we emailed and said that Sister Tanes will be going home. She actually ended up going home this morning. She got a medical release. A few years ago she tore her PCL and I guess its been hurting since she got on her mission so President sent her home to recover. So later today I will get my new companion. I dont know who it is yet. But honestly Im a little nervous. I found out that it will be a short term missionary. So shes not really a missionary. And we will only be together for maybe a week. So next week I will receive a new companion again. But it will be fun! Also, guess what the topic was for one of the sacrament talks yesterday? The real meaning of Christmas. How great is that? Also this past week we had mission tour with Elder Ardern! It was the best thing ever! I really learned a lot! One thing I really liked that Sister Ardern said was that we will never find the time to do things, we have to make the time. I just really liked it. She said there is no resting place on the path called faithfulness. She also talked about how us as missionaries need to act the part, look the part, and be the part. But really it related to all members of the church. Does the was we talk or dress draw attention to us or to Jesus Christ? Does the was we talk or dress represent Jesus Christ? She said you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Unseen eyes are watching us always. Every missionary or member is judged from what others see us do. We need to always act and be representatives of Jesus Christ in everything we do. I really liked it. Also Elder Ardern shared a verse. We read in Moroni 10:32. Elder Ardern talked about how after everything in the Book of Mormon,  the message is to come unto Christ. It doesnt matter how many times we go through the Book of Mormon, but how much of it goes through us. I really liked it. It was a great meeting. I learned a lot more too. Also there is a girl in my branch that was assigned to serve on Temple Square. It was fun talking to her. She also knows Kortnee Lytle! She met her  before she came home! Anyway, I had a good week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Remund

Merry Christmas to ME!!!

Haha Merry Christmas to me because I did get my package!!! How did you know? I just got it Saturday. It was actually very nice because the couples drove down to my area just so they could give it to me! I was very happy! Holy cow its probably the biggest package Ive ever seen in my life. I cant believe it. How in the world can I eat that much food before I come home? Haha just kidding. I actually already ate a lot of it. But anyway, enough about that. I had a pretty good week. This area is probably my prettiest area. It seriously is so cool! There are rice fields, sugar cane fields, and the ocean! Its perfect! Unfortunately thats about all I can tell you about it though because I havent actually spent a lot of time in my area yet. We worked on Tuesday and I met a lot of people and it was a great day. But then on Wednesday, Sister Tanes got sick and we couldnt work. Then on Thursday we still couldnt work. Then on Friday we had zone training and after that I went on splits for a couple hours with a ward member because Sister Tanes still couldnt work. Then on Saturday we worked and thats when I saw our really pretty areas but we still only worked a few hours. Then on Sunday Sister Tanes really wasnt feeling well so we couldnt work because we didnt have enough sisters to do splits again. So I spent a lot of time inside this week. This morning we went to the doctor though and they said she just has a fever so its nothing serious. We should be able to work again this week. But I was really happy to be able to leave the house. Anyway, so I cant really tell you about our investigators because I guess we dont have that many. Sister Tanes said we dont have many investigators right now and they arent really progressing so we will work on that. But it was a good week though because I just got to study! I was able to learn a lot this week so it was good. A lot of the things I read this week just talked about how we need to make our will the same as the Fathers will for us. It was really cool. I read this thing about 4 missionaries. Have you read it? Ive heard a lot about it but this was the first time Ive been able to read it. It talks about 4 different types of missionaries. The first 2 are just disobedient. The 3 missionary is obedient and has great success on their mission but they dont like being obedient. They are obedient, but they have other things they would rather be doing. The 4 missionary is the obedient missionary and wants to do what the Father would have them do. They are the only ones who experience real happiness and are completely changed from their mission. It goes into a lot more depth than that but I think you might have read it so I wont talk about it more. I was just really thinking about that this week and how I can become more of the 4 missionary. It was just really good. Then at zone training, they talked about Jesus Christ is the center to everything we do(of course). But I really liked what they said. They read the scripture "let your light so shine before men..." and talked about how Jesus Christ is the light that we hold up. They then related it to being outside at night, if there are a lot of lights on, you cant really see the stars. But if you turn the lights from your house off, you can see the stars. Its like us, if we turn our worldly light off, you can clearly see the light from Jesus Christ which is like looking up at the stars. As we are set up on the hill and turn our worldly light off, you can clearly see the light that comes from Jesus Christ, and that is our light. That is the light that we hold up. Everything we do should be centered on Jesus Christ. Turn your worldly light off and focus on Him. I really liked it. Anyway, I had a great week. I hope you all had a great week! I love you all! Keep reading the scriptures!

Sister Remund

San Enrique bathroom...... My toilet and my shower.

San Enrique!!!

My area is on the beach! Literally, we walk on the beach to get to our investigators house.

Welcome to Narnia! Thats what Sister Tanes calls this bridge.

Family!!!

Hello my wonderful family!! Sorry Im late emailing today. We had transfers this morning. Yes, I did transfer. Im excited! Im now in San Enrique which is in La Carlota zone. My new companion is Sister Tanes! This was Sister Nielsens last area and Sister Turtal was also assigned here! They both said its great and the people are super nice. I actually dont know yet because Im still in Bacolod... We decided to email here because in San Enrique there actually isnt an internet shop so every Monday we will have to travel an hour to La Carlota to email. So from now on I might be emailing later. But Im excited! This is the first time I will be assigned more in the south so Im excited! The week was good though. Me and Sister Maningas had a good last week! Aaron got baptized!!!!! It was so great. I was so excited and happy for him. It was a great day. Also, his baptism was on All Saints Day! We were supposed to proselyte in the graveyard but we didnt have a graveyard in our area so we didnt go. I was sad but it was okay because we just visited our investigators that were still home and Victoria worked with us so it was a good day. Also, this Saturday will be Robertos baptism! Im sad I cant attend but Im so happy for him! He is the coolest old person and just wants to become better! I will miss them. I had some other people I was going to tell you about but they are new and I dont know whats going to happen with them. We had some new investigators that I was really excited for but... now Im not in 5th ward. But its okay. Sister Maningas will take care of them. Also, on Sunday we attended an area broadcast with Dallin H. Oaks! It was really good. I was sad though because during his talk, there was a brown out so we missed his talk! I only got to hear half of it because by the time the power came back on, it was the closing prayer. But from what I heard, it was really good! Well, I dont really know what to say this week because I dont know anyone in my area yet. But Im excited to get to know them! I will let you know next week how it goes! I love you all! Sorry this email isnt very good. Have a great week!

Sister Remund

Us with a mask! I have a lot of other pictures but you will just see them when I get home! They had a ton of cool masks in Robinson for Masskara!

This was us at general conference.

Last night in 5th Ward

Us today at transfers. Jane came so I got to see her before I transferred!

Me and Ivy!

Us at our FHE a couple weeks ago.

Aaron's Baptism