Real Growth

Dear family, 

A Christmas call

     I cannot say how GREAT it was to get to call home on the 24th and the 25th! I was amazed- SO shocked- that I could speak to Mommy and understand her and I could finally speak to Grandma and Grandpa and UNDERSTAND them... Man, this mission blows my mind. The gift of tongues is real. Every new person that I meet here keeps asking why I speak so well, and I'm like, "I have no idea!" I was struggling a year ago, so I guess twelve months of hard work does something? :) 

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A Christmas shock

     Okay, so I apologize for my make-up being all runny and my eyeliner being all over the place when I called you guys up Christmas morning. They had JUST unloaded on me all that information about our release dates being changed from April 6 to April 20 and it caught me SOOOOO off surprise and I just burst into tears, because let's face it, I really wanted to be at Ether's graduation and then that happened and ruined it and I was so upset, BUT, getting to talk to you all was MAGICAL. I can't get over how grown-up Gladys and Krystal are now (physically) and Daddy you lost weight. And you look hip with your new glasses. You're the coolest Dad around the block. Can't wait to be back with you all again! (I wish I got to see you Mommy! Are you still young as ever?) 

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Acceptance, willingly

     I guess I need to formally put it out there that President gave me the option of coming home on April 6. I did not like that I was given a choice; I'd rather be told that THIS is how it is, or THAT is how it is - I hate making choices. Choices like this. But... I know that God's hand is in all things. I know that this change of date is not coincidental, and I know that everything will be okay. It took a lot of soul-searching and actually many, many, many tears and tearful prayers and time on bended knee for me to find out for myself if this is really okay for me to do...but I have felt very strongly that I can't come home on the 6th. If the 20th is when I need to be here up 'til, then the 20th it is. I have faith. I have faith that it will be okay. With that being said, I'm still so scared. And that's ironic because faith should dispel fear, and okay, maybe I'm not 100% fearless of the future yet...but I'm praying hard for this added faith. I'm crossing my fingers that this faith will devour my fears. 

I don't know what God needs to be do in these two extra weeks, but...I will do it. 

Please support me in my decision. 

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It's all about timing

     This is kind of old-story, but about two weeks ago when I went to get my passport renewed at the Singapore embassy (I think that Ether and I should be laughing about this because...um...the passport won't last very long...ahem) Sister Esmolo and I met this couple. The guy, the brother- he was Singaporean and he was getting HIS passport renewed as well. His name is Mr. Thng and he is married to a Filipina. We talked to them for a good hour in the waiting room (because the people in the embassy were late) and so we had a pretty good relationship of trust. Well. Can I just say? --- God is not a God of coincidence. It's all about timing. We met them there, and we were able to drop by their house yesterday. Um, they DO live at the furthest end of our mission, and so THAT was fun to have to travel in traffic, BUT. That's the blessing of getting to serve in the international ward. You get to serve in the ENTIRE mission! Sometimes it blows my mind that God trusts Sister Esmolo and I with this... Anyhow, this family is one to watch out for. Hopefully we'll have more updates for you soon!

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Carol Ashby

TODAY MY DEAR FRIEND CAROL LUMAPAS BECAME CAROL ASHBY. 

     And she was gorgeous. And her wedding was gorgeous. And the food was top-notch. And she is my role model because she made sure this wedding was low-key and small, because she'd mentioned to us that she KNOWS what the purpose of marriages are. It isn't about million-dollar receptions or the best bouquet of flowers or the most expensive wedding gown...she told us that she knows in her heart what she wants. She wants to start a family. She WANTS family. And family beats money or hyped-up preparations for a wedding reception that will just last a couple of hours. She's got her priorities straight, and with her being newly baptized in October and now her and Josh being on their way to the temple NEXT October...I can't help but feel so proud of her. She is one of my greatest role models. (P.S. Tons of wedding pictures!) 

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     The new year is just around the corner. 2015 has been...I cannot even put it into words what I feel about all that has gone down this past year. Thank you for all your support this year. Thank you for every silent prayer from countries across the world. To everyone that has followed me on this adventure...Thank you. Thank you so much.

I did it.

     I gave my Savior this entire year.

     And I will keep running to the end, because this mission isn't over until it is over.


With love,
Sister Teo

The December Rush

Dear family, 

To sing to millions

     This last week we finally got done with our last choir performance for TV. We sang for Channel 4 and this was probably the best exposure we got so far. The cameras and the show actually gave us legitimate airtime, where they filmed us singing an entire song. We didn't get that from Channel 5 (Santa House) and GMA7 was great, but...we got like, ten seconds worth of TV time from them (GMA7). SOOOOOO my conclusion is that Channel 4 rocked the house and LET us rock it, and by the end of it all President Ostler sent us choir members a text, thanking us for spreading the gospel through song, and for spreading our message to millions of watchers. I will miss this Christmas choir so much! I don't think I've ever sang so many Christmas songs in my life, and especially not with this much heart. I felt goosebumps run through me over and over again. The Spirit testified to me that what we are doing is good. Hopefully someone out there felt that, too. 

Only a delay

     December 26 is this weekend! During our mission Christmas party this last Tuesday, President told us that there are 98 people on-date for their December 26 baptism. Okay. Here's where a bit of heartbreak comes in. We found out on Thursday that...Sheila left for her province because her grandmother was said to be very ill and she wanted to spend some "last minutes" with her lola. YAH. Sister Esmolo and I were left speechless. Here we have our GOLDEN investigator that God placed in our hands- she really came to us from out of nowhere- and without a word of warning, she left. Easy come, easy go? (insert nervous laugh) I'll have to be honest though: I am sad that we won't get to baptize her this weekend, but I'm more worried for her and her grandma than I am about us not achieving this goal. We are here teaching people. We aren't here to count numbers. Sheila is so great. So prepared. I've never met a more spiritually-mature young girl than Sheila, especially at her age. She WILL be baptized...we'll just have to wait for January!

Brrrrrrrrrs

     Ya. That was me during ALL my cold, icy showers this past week. The passing typhoon brought with it really chilly weather and heavy rainfall, and with it being December and the temperature being significantly cooler right now...showering was NOT very fun. I don't think I've ever showered in such cold water in my LIFE. I never DREAMT of showering in such cold water. And the whole time, I just pictured myself in Antarctica or something, in some cold, cold, COLD country, maybe having a shower in the SNOW. It was that cold. No kidding. Mission experiences- they are the best. 

Feelin' the Christmas spirit

     The Filipinos know how to celebrate Christmas, alright! They are getting ready their karaoke sets and their decorations and I don't think there are more humbler people on this Earth than them that, despite their circumstances, still know how to throw a good party and fill the air with Christmas cheer. We have quite a lot of member mealtime appointments lined up this week as people are inviting us into their homes for Christmas meals. And sometimes, maybe more often than not...I sit and realize, in awe, at how different this Christmas will be from last Christmas. From Palawan to Manila city...Christmas is the same Christmas, if it comes from within your heart. 

Temple and wedding, but not temple wedding

     So just for your information, I will be emailing home on Tuesday next week! That's when we are scheduled for our temple day. But before that, Sister Esmolo and I...get to go to Carol's WEDDING!!! Carol's getting married!!! She's tying the knot! She's going to start her forever family! She won't get to be sealed until she reaches her one-year mark next year, in October of 2016, BUT...this civil wedding- that's a good first step, right? I am so excited. This will be my first time going to a wedding in a looooooong time! And you can bet your money that I'll be there in Salt Lake when her and Josh get sealed next fall! Sister Lockwood and I both! <3 

Skype

     IS ANYONE ELSE JUST WISHING THAT CHRISTMAS DAY WILL COME ALREADY?! The kind, senior couple missionaries have offered up their homes to us missionaries to make our Skype calls this week, so I'll be calling you guys at 10 a.m., FRIDAY MORNING. Be online! We only get 30 minutes with each other (sad face) because the other 30 minutes will be with Mommy, over the phone, but 30 minutes is better than nothing! I can't wait!!!

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     I can't believe how quickly December is going! It blows my mind. 

Also, shout-out to one of the BEST FRIENDS I've gained here on the mission...SISTER LOCKWOOD IS OFFICIALLY HOME!!!! I am so proud of her. We'll be awaiting our reunion! 


With love,
Sister Teo

Fevers, flames (real ones this time), fears & faith

Dear family, 

     Before I get started... GUESS WHAT! I lost my camera cord. I misplaced it and I have no idea where it is, and at first I was really bummed out and getting a little frustrated looking all around the apartment, but thank goodness for angel companions because for the entire transfer now, Sister Esmolo hasn't been able to find HER camera charger...so we were both laughing about how there's a ghost or a camera-cord thief around here that is stealing everyone's thingamajiggy....we had a good laugh about it. Thank goodness for angel companions. I was about to go crazy! 

Thursday (the 10th) was the day I...

I hit my fourteenth-month mark

I burned up with a 39.3 degree fever with a burning sore throat and couldn't breathe through my blocked nose

No taxis wanted to pick me up earlier that morning and so I had to walk around this traffic-drenched city that is Manila, sweating my fever, feeling like I was going to faint, feeling forsaken by God (dramatic) because NO CABS WANTED TO LET ME RIDE IN THEM!

My eyes swelled up like GOLDFISH halfway through my fever, and I was like, "Ummm.........okay...."

      Later that night, as I was lying in bed dying from the fever, SUDDENLY FIRE ALARMS WENT OFF LIKE CRAZY and the street outside our apartment broke out in chaos, BECAUSE! Two streets away from us a compound of houses was up in FLAMES. No kidding. FLAMES. 

Burning while watching something else burn

      Okay. So all four of us sisters in the apartment run up to the rooftop garden of this apartment complex (not that high up; only three levels high) and I'm coughing and not being able to breathe and my fever is HOT, and I'm standing there burning with the fever, WATCHING houses burn down. Perfect! Heavenly Father has a sense of humor! 

     I felt so worried for whosever's house that was that burned down. I can now officially say that I've seen houses burn to the ground. The flames were high and h u g e. As we stood there watching, Sister Vaka (who was next to me) said, "These people are lucky that missionaries are living here!". She said that in reference to how God always protects his missionaries. Our apartment was actually not too far away from where the fire was. If the wind started blowing and it blew the flames in the wrong direction, there was a pretty good chance that the fire would spread to us. We really weren't that far away. And so Sister Esmolo and I said a little prayer and I asked Heavenly Father to send angels to protect us. And thankfully the fire was just contained in that area. The firefighters were able to put it out within a couple of minutes. 

Things I saw while the house was burning

...A man on the street running, CARRYING HIS LARGE, FLAT-SCREENED TV IN HIS ARMS. Okay. Fire! First thing- GRAB THE TV and JET! That was an image I'll never forget. How come as human beings we place so much emphasis on the things of this world?

...Two men in the house across from us SPRAYING DOWN their small, cement house with water. They were just splashing buckets of water all over their roof (they had gotten up on the roof) and hosing everything down to get it soaked, just in case the fire spread to them. They were preparing for the worse. We had a good view of them because they were standing on the top of their roof, and they were constantly surveying the flames that were just right across the street from them. Now THAT'S what I call worthy preparation. Props to them. The fire never got to them, but they were prepared.

...Chaos on the street. It made me think: Is this what the world will look like when one day, all hell breaks loose and commotion ensues and Christ comes? 

MORAL OF THE STORY

Kids: don't play with fire.

Adults: be smart. Don't burn down your house. 

Overcoming fears

     Sister Esmolo and I are working REALLY hard at talking to people on the busy streets of Manila. Most of the time we come into contact with people in the little barangays, sectioned off from the MAIN streets. And most of these people within the barangays are working at a much slower pace and so it is easier to go  up to them to talk to them. But I'll have you know that I am TERRIFIED when you place me in the middle of a CROWD of city people and tell me to go up to any old Jack or Jill and tell them that we are the missionaries. I know I've heard Ether tell me how he did it in Montreal, in trains, on the roads, buses, wherever, and that takes COURAGE! Again, though- I'm grateful for a good companion who cheers me on and we have good laughs when people reject us and try to run away from us. Only the missionaries have the power to dispel crowds! :)

Christmas

     Christmas. There is such a special spirit in the air when people, families and NATIONS know that Christmas is around the corner. I've been thinking alot about my Savior recently and about His birth and what that has meant. And I feel like I can safely say that...my appreciation for the TRUE meaning of Christmas has matured alot from last year. Christmas is different this year. I'm a different young lady than I was last Christmas. And that's a good thing. 

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This month is going by WAY TOO FAST! But I am excited to see you all in less than two weeks!

I miss you all so much.


With love,
Sister Teo

A whirlwind, wonderful week

Dear family, 

Where do I even start? This week has been unforgettable. 

FRESH-FACED AND INNOCENT

     This week Sister Esmolo and I were at the mission home the same time that the new missionaries were that were coming into the mission. Man! They looked SO innocent, I couldn't help but laugh at how fresh and FOB they looked! It made me think of how my batch mates and I must've looked like that 14 months ago as well. Every missionary has to go through that awkward first stage of missionary life, right? I get a kick out of observing how new these kids are. Bless their hearts. The mission will change their lives as it has mine. 

THE CELEBRITY LIFE

     OKAY. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START ABOUT THIS. Let's just say that I've officially been ON TV! HAHAHAHAHA. (tears of joy and tears of sadness at how awkward everyone looks on TV........#ugh) So get this: Tuesday at around 6 pm we get a text from Sister Duford (one of the couple missionaries) saying that all of us choir members will be sleeping over at the mission home Wednesday night, because Thursday early morning at around 4 a.m., we'd have to leave and make our way to the Santa Claus house. So everyone makes their way to the mission home on Wednesday night, we practice from about 9 p.m. to 11 p.m (while waiting for everyone to get in), go to bed at 11:30 p.m., wake up at 2:30 a.m (it is a NIGHTMARE sharing two bathrooms with 14 young ladies trying to prep themselves up for national TV), and are on the road at 4 a.m. Talk about living the life of a celebrity! 

     The adrenaline was pumping all throughout our performance on TV 5 but we were dead tired by the time it was over. We got home at about 8 a.m. and I knocked out the minute I crashed onto the bed. We were allowed to take naps and I definitely napped like a baby until 12 p.m. At 1 p.m. we started practicing again (all of this happened at the mission home!) to get ready for our performance at the TEMPLE/MTC later that night. I had sung my lungs out the entire morning and all during practice (which probably wasn't the wisest thing to do) and so by the time we performed for all these religious dignitaries of the community that had been invited to a special Area Presidency dinner inside the MTC...yup, my voice was cracking left and right. Embarassing. BUT THANKFULLY my duet with Sister Indino went well! It was a MIRACLE. Miracle, I tell you. Oh. It feels so god that we did well on the song. BUT ANYWAYS, YES. We were their dinner entertainment that night and after the night was over so many people kept asking all of us how we were still happy and smiley and bubbly and energetic. (Truth be told we were dying inside!) 

     BUT HERE'S ANOTHER THING: During our practice at the MTC, as we were preparing for that night (Wednesday night), Sister Ostler gets a call/text from GMA 7 telling her that they wanted us to sing the next morning! This was NOT planned from the start! We got notified only 12 hours before and everyone hadn't brought extra clothes to wear and we hadn't expected to sleep over the mission home ANOTHER night! Well. It had to be done! And so we all spent a second night at the mission home. Giant sleepover. Very tame. Not wild at all. Everyone knocked out. Missionary sleepovers are the best. HA. 

GMA 7 was much more intense than TV 5 was. Maybe because GMA 7 is bigger than TV 5 is. Anyhow, wow. We were so tired that everytime the camera turned off and we weren't on-air anymore, everyone just collapsed onto the staircase/the floor and we just closed our eyes and laid on each other's shoulders. And then every time the camera came on again, Sister Ostler (bless her heart) would start dancing like a crazy lady to try to get us to laugh and to get our spirits back up THERE so that we'd be smiling on TV and not look haggard. Talk about the best 48 hours of my life! 

I don't even know how else to describe this experience except that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! I didn't think I'd be a missionary AND perform with all my friends AND be on TV?! The important thing though wasn't so much about being on TV as it was about touching these people's hearts with our music. That was our main goal. And so, as wonderful as it was being on TV...I loved singing at the MTC and temple the most. There was such a beautiful, serene spirit there. That was my favorite. 

I'll stop rambling about this. ASK ME MORE OVER SKYPE IN THREE WEEKS.

SATAN'S SNARES

     Remember the amazing 15 year old girl we started teaching only just recently? Sheila? Well, keep her in your prayers this week because...she went online this week and read some stuff, out of curiosity, and those websites weren't lds.org or anything and we ALL know what happens when people try to get their information from Google or Yahoo. Not good. And unfortunately that's kind of what happened to Sheila. What she read really confused her. It started to get to her head. We went back to her yesterday and talked about that experience and it made me so sad to see that her fire had dimmed down. She is so ready to receive the gospel but Satan is working just as hard to keep her away from it. I've really learnt the importance of receiving personal revelation/answers from GOD and from reliable sources. And so we told her, "Trust the spirit. Trust what you feel. What you feel will never lie." Fingers crossed! 

TOGETHER FOREVER

     Sister Esmolo and I were able to attend a family sealing this past week. This family - the MORAL family - were very close to Sister Esmolo when she'd served them on Palawan, and President granted us permission to witness their sealing. This was my FIRST time, and...I cannot put into words what I felt. I felt...like I was on fire. When their two little kids came into the room and joined Brother and Sister Moral...the tears just wouldn't stop. How beautiful. I saw a family get sealed right in front of my very eyes. It made me think of you, Mom and Dad, and how the two of you were sealed, probably in such humble and modest circumstances. Two new converts to the church, with little/no support from your own families, kneeling in the temple, being sealed...I thought about that the whole time I was in the sealing room. Thank you for your sacrifices. Thank you for helping us be a forever family. Thank you for letting me be with my sisters for ever. Thank you. 

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     Our next performance on TV will be on December 16 at 5:30 a.m. These next couple of weeks are going to be SO busy. Half of me wants to cry; half of me wants to break out in MORE singing at this joyous Christmas season. Wow. I can't believe it's been a whole year since LAST Christmas season when I was on Palawan. So much has happened. There is so much to be grateful for. 


I love you all so much. I can't stop laughing at those screenshots Gladys and Krystal took of the performance. UGH. I hate candid shots. #imamissionary...butimforeveragirl


With love,
Sister Teo