And the rains came down...

But don't worry the flood didn't come up!

It just been another great week here in Carmona. I love, love, love it! Let's start with Monday. So after I emailed you we had a zone activity at the Fornash house. It was really fun and the food was great! And I got your letters! It fun because the letters get here really late so I am still getting you reactions and comments about Naic, which is kinda fun to relive the memories. So next week is Jackie's baptism. And I am so excited. She is the 16 year old niece of the primary president, and has a HUGE desire to be baptized. We were there every day this week so get her ready for her interview, and everyday she would tell us how many days until her baptism. Her testimony is so strong and she says she wants to serve a mission. I told her that I will pray that she gets called to the new mission in Salt Lake. But then again Sister Pacino will be prayer for Jackie to go to her home mission. So we'll see who wins. But because there house is super close to ours, we always had it as our last appointment, and Sister Omendto always fed us. Yummy! It started to feel like home there. It's like we belong there. Later on tonight we are going there again, and we are bringing treats because they always give us food, so we thought we'd switch things around. Jackie had her baptism interview on Saturday and all is well! We are good for the 4th of August. I am so excited!

There is this couple, Harold and Lisa, that has been investigating the Church for over a year now, but they couldn't get baptized because they weren't married. They've been coming to church and paying tithing and everything. But then they went to  Lisa's provence so she could give birth to her baby, who is super cute! Well they are back now, and their paper are being processed for their marriage. They should be cleared to get a marriage licence by the August 3rd. And then they just have to wait for that part which could take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. It is actually super hard to get married here in the Philippines and really expensive and you cannot get a divorce. So most people just live together. But the point is they are super close and super excited. As are we! Sister Pacinio is a little sad because transfer day is Aug 8 and she has been here for 4 transfers, so she is probably not going to be here for their wedding or baptism. And once again I will be leading the area. I don't know where anything is... this could be fun. I just tell my companion that this is my first transfer here too... we'll she if she buys it.

One day (I really can't remember when... everything kinda turns into a blur after by the time monday rolls around) we went to go visit a less active sister who is coming back to church. She is super nice and always reads the Book of Mormon. But I have never seen her smile. It is so sad. She literally never smiles, which is really quite odd for Filipinos. She always has this look of pure exhaustion when we go there. But we went there unexpectedly, because both our plan and our back up plan fell through. Her sister-in-law was there because her and her husband are moving in with them. She is not a member but her husband (who is not on our records, because they moved from a different lugar) is a member but less active. She we taught them both and they both came to church on Sunday. And Sister Joanne seems really interested. This finding through less actives really works. Tell the Elders that are living in your basement, if they are lacking in the investigator area... visit less actives and they will find them. I wouldn't know how to do missionary work without this focus on Less active members.

We also found a new Less Active family through a recent convert. Rachel would love him. His name is Cyrus and is covered from head to toe in tattoos. And is such a punk. He really is like the boys she used to work with. Cause he is a softy at heart. :) Anyway, he just want everyone to be a member, so he told us that we should go with him to his friend JP. So we went. Come to find out his Grandpa had died and there was a sit in. So of course we had to go pay our respects and then they shoved us full of food, even they didn't know us. Well, a sit in is a really good place to talk to people about the Plan of Salvation, oh di ba? So the first Nanay we talked to asked us where our church was. So we told her. Her answer, "I used to be a member." We get that a lot. No Nanay you are still a member, can we come visit you? Yes. Sweet! Then when we went back to her house, come to find out it's been like 20 years since they went to church (once again in a different lugar) so half of their children aren't members. Thank you Cyrus!

The Paglinawan Family are recent converts. They are a cute young couple with two cute little girls. Sister Liza was baptized in October and Brother JoJo was just baptized in March. Anyway, Brother JoJo had someone at work who had a question about people that died without baptism. He said that they were damned. Brother told him he was wrong and bore his testimony about history and baptism for the dead (even though he hasn't been able to do baptism for the dead yet, himself). We were so proud! He want's to look for his family's name when they go back to their province. We said we would go with him to Binan to help him look up the names on the church site. He got really excited, and of course so were we. I've never taught anyone about Family History yet, so this will be fun!

It rained again really hard yesterday, so Sister Pacinio and I were worried that there wouldn't be any people at church again. But there were so many! And we had 7 investigators at church. So cool!

You all sound so great, and I love you letters! Pictures! Send me more Pictures! Lots and Lots of them! That's my favorite part is the pictures. Salamat for all of the letters, they make me feel like I'm home, in a good way, don't you worry. Love you all! 

I love you all so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much!
Mahal kita!
Sister Lyons

I'm in love....

With Carmona... don't worry. :) A little about the pictures I am sending you... The one with the food is the Cusile Family. They are both returned missionaries and newly married, and they feed us every week because they miss being missionaries and they say we are like their children. The other boy in the pictures is Jewel, he works with us almost everyday and is preparing his mission papers right now. The family with the 3 little boys, is my favorite family, the  Evangalista family I told you about last week. Aren't they the cutest? The two little girls are neighbors, and always tell me how beautiful I am and always touch me and my clothes. I love them all! And the duck. He belongs to a member (as does the little boy holding the duck).

So last Tuesday was Zone meeting and it was super good! The San Gab district only needs 30 more active Melchizedek (or how ever you spell that) Priesthood holders to become a stake! Malapit na! As a Zone we set the goal to have it happen before October. We are all so pumped. We are the smallest zone in the mission. There are only 5 companionships and most of us (including Sister Pacinio and me) are actually working two areas. So it's a lot of work for just a few of us but President Stucki has asked us to make it happen, so we are refocusing our efforts again on retaining and reactivating. It will be cool to see it happen too. The branches are excited.

On Friday we had interviews with President and Sister Stucki, which of course is always good. Poor Sister Stucki, though, so many missionaries are getting sick and some are even in the hospital. One Sister in our zone was out for three weeks and one of those weeks she spent in the Hospital.Her phone never stopped buzzing the whole time she was there. She looked tired. President always know just what to say to make me feel better about what I am doing and gets me excited to continue pushing on. They are both so good.

It was a week of a lot of first, too! I showered out of a bucket for the first time, because there was no, and I mean NO water pressure. I also showered with a butike. I pretty sure I spelled that wrong but it's pronounced boo-tee-key, and they are the noisy little lizards that lose their tails if you scare them. And they have a nasty habit of jumping off the ceiling and scurrying who knows which direction. So needless to say I showered with my glasses on and was ready to jump at a moments notice. Luckily he waited until I was done before he dropped right to the place I was standing not two minutes before. :)

It's rained for 3 days straight. No joke. Manila is flooding, but what else is new. It's always flooding. Some of the city missionaries weren't allowed to work some days this week because the rain was up to their hips. Luckily the rain is only to our ankles here, although it has come into some people's houses. But they are amazing. They just scoop it out and move on like nothing happened. And we go out everyday, armed with out umbrellas, rubber shoes, and scriptures covered in plastic. And come home soaking wet and have to put out everything (including our money) to dry.

Sunday attendance was pretty low, because of the rain. At 9, you had the missionaries and the Branch Presidency. At 9:10 the RS and Primary presidents rolled in. And by 9:15 the EQ showed up, and right after the sacrament the speakers squeaked in. We only had one investigator, which is super low for us. The branch president was a little discouraged as were we. but hopefully next week attendance will be back up again. One of the counselors had us over a couple weeks ago for a FHE and I was in charge of games, so we played Big Buddha. They loved it! I guess they play it all the time as a family now, and every time they see me they sing the song and do the actions. So if Big Buddha becomes the big thing in the Philippines, you will all now where it started. With me.

So I haven't gotten any letters recently. Not because you haven't been writing them, but because I no longer live right next door to the Zone Leaders, and they keep forgetting to bring them. But we are having a zone lunch later on today, and Sister Pacinio has threatened them repeatedly, so hopefully today I hear some news.

I love you all so so so so so much!

Hugs and Kisses from Carmona!

Sister Lyons  

Pictures :)

First Transfer...

Danielle has been moved... and yet she still finds herself stranded on a beautiful tropical island. How does that girl swing stuff like this?

This week's email and pictures:

From Carmona! That's right I am still in the Provence! Yippee! Sayan, walang apalaya dito, pero maraming magangang Mountains (wow you have no idea how long that took me to figure out how to spell that) and maraming rice fields. My companion is native. Her name is Sister Pacinio, and she is super cute! I love her and the area already. I love that everyone assumes I speak Tagalog. It's great! Because guess what? I can now answer back... most of the time. And it's language study 27/7. I am starting to think in taglish, because it is a lot easer then thinking in English and then translating. Wow! I am really struggling to write this email. I can't imagine not having any investigators, like Andrea. Here, they basically find you. Like this one experience. One day we were having many unplanned opportunities (we don't use the word punted any more) . At this one point both Sister Pacinio and I just stopped and started talking to the same person. While we were talking to her, her friend came up and started listing. Come to find out, she is a less active member and her family is active in her home town. She moved here a year ago and is married to a non-member. She asked us when we could come teach her husband. He eventually came out, too and started talking to us. And then a wife of a less active member we were on out way to visit walked down the street, and asked for a Book of Mormon. It was like one right after another! And because there were so many of them Sister Pacinio and I were talking to 2 different groups. That's right I gave a lesson on the side of the street, all by myself, in Tagalog, and the guy is willing to listen. My Tagalog has improved so much just over the last 3 days.

It was really hard to say goodbye to Naic. So many people fed us that last week. And Evelyn (the one that lives really close to us and was the one that always said hi to us?) gave me these really beautiful diamond earrings. Wendy said she would hide me. And I'm pretty sure I made a few Nanays cry. And I cried. I don't have anything else really to say so I just send you the last batch of Naic pictures. After this Carmona lang!

Loves you all so so so so so so so so so so so very much!
Sister Lyons  
A little more about the area. It is huge! Some of the members have to spend more the 200 pesos to get to church. That is a huge sacrifice, because most only make about 100 peso a day. But they come. It is still a branch, but alot smaller then Naic, people wise. But the members are amazing. They love to feed us and work with us. I am super duper excited about this transfer. I've been reading the Priesthood talks... there amazing! (yes we are just barely getting the conference issue) Keep sending pictures and letters and boxes (just kidding on that one!) But I still love you tons!