I'M JUST BARELY ALIVE AND THE ONLY ONE THAT SURVIVED HERE IN PILAR

The Infamous DeJesus Family

Haha just kidding.  When I got on my email earlier, I had about 8 emails just asking my if I was doing okay and how bad the typhoon was here.  The funny part is we didn't even find out about the typhoon here until late late last night.  I'm so used to having it rain super hard and having so much wind i could probably walk sideways that we didn't even realize it was a typhoon until after it was over.  Here in Bataan city and in Pilar specifically, we had crazy crazy rain (which seems pretty normal now) for a day and then we didn't have power for the day.  That's about all.  We couldn't work at night because the rain and well frankly, it's kind of hard to teach when it's dark outside, we're not sure if the roof is going to come off, and we can't see anything... so we went home about 7:30, lit up some candles, made some energen, and went to bed early.  Pretty sure we slept through most of it.  Too bad.  

This is the River We Cross Every Week

We heard that it hit super super hard down in the islands and there are missionaries missing too?  100000 dead now?  That's pretty insane and so sad.  I saw a couple pictures at our branch president's house from facebook and wow.  Not nearly as bad here as down there.  It's pretty far away so we won't get to help in cleanup or anything, but there are a couple missionaries that I now from down there who don't know if they're family and friends are okay, so that's been pretty hard.  

Other than random typhoons, it was a pretty normal week.  Still here trying to be a missionary.  My cute little trainee is doing fine, we're getting along quite well and she's picking up on things pretty fast, I'm impressed with her.  She is also helping me learn to cook.  Get ready for when I come home.  We will cook up a storm mom of crazy veggies and strange Filipino ingredients that I still can't pronounce right.  

I had a crazy dream that I came home from my mission, couldn't speak English to anyone and so when I went back to BYU and tried to get into my apartment they wouldn't let me move in because I couldn't pass the speaking English test in order to get in.  I was crying, trying so hard to speak English to them and would cry even harder because it would only come out in Tagalog.  Welcome apparently to my deepest fears and problems here.  

Sunset

Right now in out here in Pilar, I'm helping to split our area into a new zone *hopefully and into a new area *for sure because we have so much work, so many new missionaries that are coming in, and the work is moving to fast for just us two to be working here.  It's pretty cool to be working so closely with the leaders and become so invested in one specific area and to see soooo much progress in a town about as big as Murray.  

Last week we were working with a family that has been looking into the church for foreeeeever.  As in like 2 years.  But they will not come to church.  The problem though is they're just lazy.  They don't really have an excuse.  So last week we went over for about the 19349587232 time to teach them yet again about sabbath day and church attendance.  My trainee couldn't figure out why we were teaching it again if they didn't want to come to church, but we rolled with it.  We taught them our lesson, yet again they told us they would try but couldn't be for sure.  So we turned to a scripture that talked about being cast out of the presence of God when we aren't obedient.  Oh I forgot to mention, this family is so low-gets.  As in every single answer to every single question is "read the BofM and pray."  They read the book of mormon picture book even though they're 36 and 50.  As in soooo low gets.  Anyway, after we kind of shocked them with that scripture, we asked them why they wouldn't come to church if they knew they needed to.  They told us that some of the grandkids had been sick and it's hard to take them all to church.  We were able to promise them that if they would first come to church and listen and be faithful, all their grandkids (all 8 in the one house...) would be better.  They came to church, they went home, and when we went to follow up with them the next day, nobody was sick anymore.  Bam, the power of Heavenly Father through us as missionaries.  Great miracle that I was able to see.  

Funny story this week:  I got to eat papaya this week for the first time ever and I'm happy to report, it tasted exactly like the papaya soap at Bath and Body Works.  It literally is exactly the same.  So if you want to taste real, Philippines yummy papaya, just get some papaya soap.  Same thing.  

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

SISTER TAYLOR