April 21, 2013

hello Family!!! How are you all doing? If you are wondering how the 99 degree weather feels like, just imagine being wet all the time with sweat and that is it..... But it's not too bad. I am getting used to it and before you know it summer will be over and it will be rainy season. which means a lot of rain. It rained again last night. We had jsut finished teaching and were about to leave and it just started raining, really hard. Remember in Florida how hard it rained there when we went to NASA I think? That's how hard it rains here. So we waited for about 20 minutes because it was lightening and thundering really close. Then it finally stopped a little bit. So it was pretty cool. We walked home which was about a thirty minute walk, but it was really fun. We were just walking and talking in the rain. It was a good time.

Last week we had exchanges. So I went to Dagupan and Sister Carr (another sister) came here and became companions with Sister A. for a couple of days. It was really sad to say goodbye to Sister A. I think that President was just trying to prepare us for transfers. I was in a trio for a couple of days. My companions were Sister Navarathna (from Sri Lanka) and Sister Taliaivoa (Australia). So needless to say with all of our accents and everything, it was a pretty interesting time. The Sister's were great though. SIster T is pretty new so she doesn't really know Tagalog and Sister N. is a little longer in the mission so she can speak ok, but she doesn't understand anything. So that left me there as their translator. Oh boy was that fun. It was a little intersting, but we did it!!!!! There area in near the ocean. It is so crazy to see how just 30 minutes of travel how different everything is. It was like a different world. The language changed (in Urdaneta it's Ilocano, in dagupan it's Pangansinan), their livelyhood changed (Udaneta- rice fields, Dagupan- fishing). One house that we went to was like in the middle of the ocean. The bridge that went to their house was made of like bamboo and was super wabbly. Then half of it was under the water..... I looked at it and was like what the heck are we supposed to do here?? Then brother yelled to us "tuloy kayo". Which means come in, or come to our house. I just stared at him and the other sisters and was like seriously?? But after about three minutes of just saying, "ok you first, no you first". Brother came over and put down plywood on part of it that was in the water. But then we had to go the rest of the way and it was pretty scary. There wasn't any railings or anything. I am just glad that we made it across ok. It was quite the experience needless to say. I feel like there were a ton more things like that but I can't reall think right now. There was another area that was basically all built in the ocean. Their houses are made out of bamboo. I don't know what they do in the storm season, but maybe they have that all figured out. It was realy interesting to see a different view of life and everything. It made me really grateful for the area that I am in now and my apartment and everything. But I have a feeling I'll be transfering soon because I have been here for a while in Urdaneta. So we will see where my next area will be. But we don't have transfers for another three weeks. So we'll see. 

Other than our exchanges things have been going well here. We have really been working on trying to find new investigators. I felt like just all of a sudden we don't have any anymore. So this week we need to work on finding and expanding our investigator pool. I have really seen that if you show the people that you love them and arent' just there to teach and leave, but to build relationships and through you show that God loves them too, that is how people grow to trust you and trust in this gospel and the peace it brings into our life. We just need to show people love and I know we will help others come unto Christ. There is a kid here that we have been teaching. He is 18 or 19. He is the only member in his family and we teach him and a couple other boys that are the same age there. He told us last week that he really wants to serve a mission and he has prayed about it and knows that this is what he's supposed to do. He asked his parents, well I guess told them that he wants to serve and they said that it is ok. So now he is preparing. It makes me so happy that young men and women are going out to serve the Lord. I know that this church is true! If we trust in God we will have success, whether great or small.

Sorry I don't have time to write you all back personally, my time is about up. But thank you so much for the birthday wishes. It was a great day even though I was far from you all. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I love you all so much and know that this is the true church of God. I hope you all have a great week and keep being great!!!!!!! Love you all sooooo much! 

Sister Palmer