Happy New Year!!!

Hello to my wonderful family!!! Im so glad that you all had a great Christmas! It was so great to talk to you and to see all your beautiful faces! I loved it! My Christmas was great! I had such a great day and I loved it! Christmas is my favorite time of year and this year  was just the best! On Christmas morning before we skyped was our Christmas baptism! So even though there isnt snow in the Philippines, I still had a white Christmas! It was so great and the spirit was so strong at Lea Maes baptism. She is just the cutest. I love Lea Mae. She was confirmed yesterday and she is so great. She told us that she was talking to her parents and that she wants to serve a mission. She still has a long time but she wants to serve. Her parents arent members though. So they asked her for a sample and she started teaching her parents! She was so happy when she told us and she will make the best missionary some day. Also, on Tuesday I was able to go on exchanges with Sister Ortiz. She is great. I had such a great day with her! I learned a lot from her and it was such a fun day. In their area, they have some areas that you have to walk without your shoes on because its just mud and you will lose your shoes. It was so much fun! I love walking in the mud so it was a great day. Also, going back to Christmas, it was great because the members here are so nice. We were mostly visiting investigators and recent converts but we visited a few members as well and they gave us a lot of food. It was really nice for everyone to let us into their homes for Christmas. We also saw a lot of miracles this week. We were able to find a lot of new investigators and they were able to come to church as well! So it was really great! They are good and we actually found out that one of our new investigators mother is less active. So it was nice to meet her and we are excited to teach their family. This week is going to be weird though because this coming week is going to be a lot of lasts. But Im so grateful for the things that Ive learned on my mission. I love you all and hope you have a great week and a Happy New Year!!!

Sister Remund

Walking through the rice fields.

Christmas in the park.

White Christmas!!  Us with Lea Mae and Angel Joy. Angel Joy was a child of record.

Maayong Paskwa!!

Hello my wonderful family!!! Can you believe it? Its Christmas this week!!! Merry Christmas to you all!!! I love you all so much and am so grateful for a wonderful family! It sounds like you all had a great week and are looking forward to a great Christmas! Dad, in answer to your question, Im not sure if I will be able to skype. Me and Sister Oquias REALLY want to but the internet shops here arent very good and they dont have many webcams. But we found one that we are going to try and if that doesnt work, President gave us permission to give you our phone number and you call us so that we dont have to pay. But we will find out on Christmas. We are thinking about calling in the morning though. I think the computer shop opens at 9 but we will see. Im not sure what time that is there but probably 9am here so.. yeah. Anyway, enough about that! I had a great week! I love Sister Oquias! She is the best! We have had a great week! There are some great people here! I also got my official welcome to Pulupandan 2 ward.. Sister Oquias played a joke on me with the members. It was not funny. She told me about two investigators we have and they are members of Iglesia ni Cristo. That is a church that is only in Asian countries. I will tell you how it started. A member of the church wanted to be prophet so when he wasnt the prophet, he got mad and started his own church which is practically the same as ours but he was the prophet. It has a lot of the same principles and the members are the hardest to teach because they just like to debate and wont even really listen to us. Well, Sister Oquias told me we have two investigators that are Iglesia ni Cristo. So she was preparing me and making me nervous to teach them. I wasnt really nervous, she was just trying to make me nervous. So we taught them and things were okay, they just asked a ton of questions. But they asked some hard questions that I was supposed to answer the next lesson. Well then, yesterday, we go to church, and these "two investigators" are there. They arent even investigators! They are both return missionaries and one of them is our ward mission leader! He is also a former bishop! Then the whole ward was laughing at me because I really thought they were investigators. So it was great. They whole ward is just laughing at me now. But other than that the week was great! We have some really great people in this area! We also will have a baptism on Christmas! Im really excited! Her name is Leah Mae. She is so great! She is 12 years old and is so smart though! Shes great! Shes really excited to get baptized! We also have some other investigators that came to church yesterday but right now we are still trying to work with their parents. But we have some really great members as well! Overall, this week was great! I learned a lot! Im reading from Isaiah chapters in Book of Mormon right now and its really cool how much Im learning. I really like it! Anyway, I love you all! I will talk to you in a couple days!!! Im so excited!!!! This Christmas will be the best Christmas ever!! Have a great week! I love you!!!

Sister Remund

Me and Jelay! Shes a member here.

There are some cool Christmas lights and trees here!

Haha STL here is for the lottery but for us its Sister Training Leader! So we took a picture. Its funny!

We have a coconut tree in our backyard so we had a member come climb it for us and get the coconuts for us! Then we made a dessert! It was really yummy!

Me and Sister Oquias!

Me and Sister Oquias first Monday together in the computer shop!

Our chapel!

Area #7, Companion #16

Okay so I dont even know what President Lopez is thinking right now. Me and Sister Rey got pulled out of our area this morning and now Im in my 7th area with my 16 companion. But anyway, my new area is Pulupandan! And my companion is Sister Oquias! Im still in Bacolod though so I dont know what my area is like. Ive heard some interesting things about it though. So it will be interesting. But anyway, I had such a great week! I seriously was so sad that me and Sister Rey got pulled out. San Enrique actually started progressing! And Sister Rey was seriously the best companion ever! Even though we were only together one week, I love her so much! And we had 7 investigators at church yesterday! Seriously, we saw so many miracles in San Enrique this last week. On Thursday, we went to visit a less active family who is really close to returning. They have come to church 3 times now so they are almost returned. They are really great! After we taught them, they told us about their niece who was in the lesson with us. She is 11 years old and her parents had just abandon her so she moved in with this family. She wanted to be taught and she has already come to church twice! Her name is Jonah. She was so sweet though and cute and we were so excited to teach her. We were planning her baptism for Jan 1. We were so excited and I was excited because I assumed it would be my last baptism here. But she is still great and the elders will teach her. Also, we have an investigator that has been taught for a while names Kierwin. He is always super great in the lessons but has never come to church. Well, yesterday, he came to church!! For the first time! And he loved it! He committed to be baptized on Jan 31 and we were also really excited for him. We also had a lot of others who started progressing and a lot of people who started committing to baptismal dates. It was seriously the best week in San Enrique! And Sister Rey just made everything better! I loved working with her. We worked very well together and it was great! Also, I did get my travel plans this week. It made me very sad. Its crazy how soon I am coming home. Also, I found out that Ive traveling alone. I was supposed to travel with Sister Bahm but she is going home 2 days before me so she can talk to the councilor. So I have to travel alone and Im not very excited. But anyway, I had such a great week! And Im excited for my new area! Its crazy how close Christmas is! I will get to talk to you next week! Speaking of which, Sister Oquias just told me that we might not be able to skype because the internet in our area is really bad. But Im not sure yet. We will try but we might just have to call. Anyway, I love you! Have a great week! Ill talk to you soon!!!

Sister Remund

Me and Melody

Me, Sister Rey, and Melody.

Me and Sister Rey

This was Sister Bataleros last district meeting. I will miss her! She was my companion in Cadiz. Remember her? Shes the best.

This was us on Thanksgiving! Me and Sister Yanson and Melody again.

This is Melody and Sister Silvano!

Sister Rey is crazy. She put on my clothes and looked like a guy.

Super Typhoon #2!! Typhoon Ruby/ Companion #15

Hello my wonderful family!! I had a great week! As you can see in the subject line, this week was super typhoon #2! As you heard we were on lockdown starting Friday at 6pm and then all day Saturday. Well let me just tell you this, it was a total waste of time. The typhoon did not hit my area at all! Me and Sister Yanson were sitting inside and were going crazy because it wasnt even raining! So we just had a fun day inside doing nothing because we couldnt go out. Then on Sunday we were allowed to work and guess what? It was raining and windy and cold. We were laughing because the whole lockdown was backwards. We should have been working on Saturday and lockdown on Sunday. But its okay. We were happy we could work again. Also, as you saw in the pictures, this week we had zone training! It was great! I really learned a lot and I loved it! I loved it because our leaders turned it into a Christmas devotional because we wont get one this year. President cancelled it. So it was great and the spirit was so strong! The focus of our training was on the video "He is the Gift" and wow, it was just awesome! I absolutely loved it and learned a ton! It really just focuses on the real reason for Christmas and what the real gift of Christmas is. So it was great and I learned a lot! The spirit was just so strong and let me tell you this, the closer I get to coming home, the more my tear buds start turning on. My whole mission Ive been good and havent even cried (a blessing from the mission I guess) but the closer I get to coming home, the more I start crying. I havent actually cried, but Ive gotten really close. And lets just say the zone training was not easy for me to hold my tears in. I just really loved it and I love Christmas! It really helped me to focus on why Im here and on why we really celebrate Christmas so I loved it! Sister Moser told us a joke, she said "what would Christmas be without Christ? Mas- which is what the Catholic church does every Sunday." Haha we all laughed really hard. It was great. Also, Alex is doing great! He wasnt able to attend church again but he has already progressed so much with his word of wisdom! He cut everything in half which is HUGE! We were so happy and proud of him. He is for sure coming to church this Sunday! Im so excited and happy for him! Hes great. We are still trying hard to find new investigators though because we still dont have many. Also, I forgot, I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Rey! And shes actually a full time missionary!!!! Im so excited! She is batch with Sister Maningas (my companion in 5th ward) and she seems great! I just got her this morning so Im excited to spend more time with her. Also, I was supposed to go to Manila tomorrow but I dont know if Im going? We are supposed to go for fingerprints but the office elders never called me. Everyone else in my batch said we are going though and they already got called so Im wondering if I dont have to go because I went in May? But I think I have to because the office elders told me in September that I would be going in December so Im going to text them later to find out. So I might or might not be going to Manila tomorrow! But anyway, I had a great week! I learned a ton and am really feeling the spirit of Christmas! I love it!! And I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Remund