HEY FAMILY!

So it's Sunday here and you know what that means!!!! LOL

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry I haven't emailed you lately! We are so crazy busy on P-days and between writing the big email home and writing my weekly report to president I find I never have enough time left :(((

But anyways I don't know if mom told you yet BUT I am coming home hopefully next week, if all goes well with immigration. But yeah I'm getting medically released :((((((((((((((( and I have to come home and rest and just figure out what can be done so I can get better and back out in the field. 

I am currently at the MRC in Manila :) (missionary rest center) and I am supposed to stay here until I can leave the country which I have been told could take weeks. 

SO yeah :((( but I'll be seeing all of you soon! And thats exciting for me! I wasn't expecting any of this BUT I know I have to be obedient to WHATEVER it is the Lord wants me to do, even if it means leaving right in the middle of my mission. It's not an easy decision to come home but one I do gladly knowing that it is the will of my Father in Heaven. 

Can't wait to see you all! I hope you all had a good Easter Sunday! And I hope you were able to spend it with mom and john :))) I hope she's calling and keeping in contact with you guys. If not I'll change that when I come home. 

Okay! I gotta go lie down hahahaha I'm soooooooooo tired lately I can hardly do anything without sleeping for like half the day. 

I love you!!!!!!!!! Give my love to the kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See you soon :))))

Oh also I'll keep you updated with how everything goes. I go tomorrow morning to the immigration dept. to get fingerprinted and hopefully be able to get something done so they will let me out of the country. Apparently after Typhoon Yolanda all the stuff with visa's and going in and out of Manila just became crazy and so incredibly hard. So I'm really not sure how long I'll be here for or even when I'll be aloud to come home. Other than that I'm fine and in good hands here at the mrc.

I'll talk to you soon! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Fonua (soon to be samantha ....... again ........ awkward.)

Stalwart & Strong the Work will Go on!

On behalf of Samantha's mother, Raewyn, Sister Samantha Fonua will be leaving the Legasapi, Philippines Mission to come back home to the U.S. sometime this week.

 

Not knowing too many details yet, it came to her attention that Sister Fonua had not fully recovered from being sick in December. 

 

A prayerful decision was made for Sister Fonua to seek medical attention in the United States to determine why she is not getting better.

 

Thank you all for your countless prayers on her behalf, words of encouragement, and love.

 

Please keep Sister Fonua in your prayers at this time.

 

We Love You Sister Fonua!

 

Some of the last photos she sent with her last two companions.
 

Mabuhay po!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Fonua's new companion

Hello po sa inyong lahat ulit! It is summer now. And I am probably going to become a burnt piece of charcoal by the time I leave this place. Lol seriously every day here its just like I’m inside of this oven that just keeps getting hotter and hotter and I just keep sweating and sweating. OMG some one pass me a fan hahahaha.

Basta we had a really good week! We reached the Standard Of Excellence for number of lessons taught! IT FEELS AWESOME! Lol I wanna stand on someone’s roof and shout it to the world! Lol this happiness doesn’t come from me reaching the SOE as much as my companion and I reaching the SOE IN THIS AREA! 

For reals it’s a miracle! BECAUSE our area is so huge! And just the distance between each area coupled with the amount of people and lessons we plan for and try to reach every day … all of these factors put together have just left me feeling GREAT!  We worked SO HARD this week and we have literally seen the blessings that come “after much tribulation.” In addition to this I got to watch the Woman’s General Broadcast! IT WAS SO  POWERFUL! I actually cried! Lol the Spirit that I felt while watching it was crazy and it gave me tons of stuff to ponder and think about.

I am so sorry but I really don’t have that much time this week so I will just share with you what I can.

Sige SO this week my companion and I learned a lot!!!!  Honestly like I said we worked so hard. Lol at the end of every day when we were doing daily planning it was SO FUNNY! Because one of us would be talking and then … just silence because we would be falling asleep or too tired and exhausted to speak lol our eyes would be red and we were basically the epitome of haggard. Lol yes my glamorous life here in the Philippines just keeps getting better and better cause each day we work hard I just keep looking more and more like something the cat dragged in hahaha. Its okay tho, I LOVE IT! Lol its so awesome!!!!!!!! Anyways my companion and I visited an investigator that we’ve been teaching for the past few weeks and on Saturday night when we went to his house, he was blasting music and reading the Book of Mormon! Lol when he invited us in and he was telling us some of the things he had been reading I kind of noticed that he was …. Acting a little funny lol. 

When I looked at my companion she mouthed this to me, “He’s drunk!” Lol when I looked back at tatay, his flushed face and the excitement with which he was relaying his story I realized she was right! Lol I looked back at my companion and then back at tatay and I laughed. After this we sat for about 10 mins listening to him tell us the most random things. Lol as we sat there quietly listening and observing a lot of things were running through my head. First of all I couldn’t doubt for a single second, even in the state that he was in that Heavenly Father loves him VERY MUCH. Here this man was, literally in the depths of all his sorrows, AGAIN, feeling alone and totally and completely unimportant and even tho HE couldn't see it I could. 

I could see how much Heavenly Father loves him and I could feel so strongly in my heart how much he wanted to take this mans sorrow away ... the only part that was sad to me was that this man had NO idea any of these things. All he knows is his sorrow, and he defines himself by the mistakes and sins that he has made in his life. This particular lesson to me hit me hard. As I was sitting in his house watching him beat himself up for sins and mistakes that are long behind him. BUT because he truly didn't know about the Father's plan for him, or even his divine heritage he was stuck in a deep dark hole that he created for himself. I know that these feelings of guilt and shame come from Satan. I have learned that even tho we HAVE those thoughts and we do think some of those sad things, they are not who we are. Those thoughts come from a source who is trying to mold us into who he wants us to be and that is miserable and totally and completely alone. SO in order to help tatay know and feel the love that Heavenly Father has for him I decided that we needed to teach him about the Word Of Wisdom. Lol it was definitely a different lesson and when I told tatay that we were going to teach him about that, my companion looked at me and smiled lol and then we proceeded with the lesson. My comp is the best lol! I am literally learning so much from her every day! 

I know this church is true! Sorry for the short and bland email. I have no time! BUT the work is working and I am probably going to be a puddle of sweat by the time summer ends hahahaha. 

Love you all! Wish I could have you all here with me! YOU WOULD LOVE THE PHILIPPINES! Lol I already know that when I go home I am going to get #CULTURESHOCK2 

Mt. Mayon in Legaspi from afar

Home made water well for drinking a washing clothes

Rice field

Hello po sa inyong lahat! Kumusta po kayo ha?!

Lol WELL this week has been crazy busy and AWESOME! Seriously being a missionary brings you so much JOY and PEACE I can't even explain! AHH! This week was AWESOME! We worked SO HARD lol and walked for hours under this hot sun every day just to try and hit the SOE. My comp is amazing! Her name is Sister Alabanza she's from Cavite, Philippines and I actually knew her in my first area. We served in the same branch and she trained Sister Reategui! Crazy huh? LOL yeah it is. Tapos I really don't have a lot of time today so this is going to be short! Like I said before this week was AWESOME! So many cool things happened but out of all of them like always I only have time to share one with you.

SO at the beginning of the last transfer, my previous companion was able to find a filipino lady (while on exchanges with one of the STL's) who lived in the states for almost 40 years before she moved back. Tapos we finally were able to catch her when she was home the last week of the last transfer. It was cool she was super nice and we had a really good conversation. She gave us syrup and grape jam! IT WAS SO NICE! Lol anyways on Thursday I planned with my new companion to teach her again (Sister Mariza), when we got to her house her maid/helper was home but the sister wasn't. 

 

Because my companion is simply AMAZING lol she asked the maid/helper (Joy) if we could share a small message with her. She let us in and we shared a short but powerful lesson with her about the Restoration and prayer. Towards the end of the lesson some of Sister Mariza's kids came into the house and when Joy saw them ... her face changed and I could feel a sort of tension in the room. After about 2 minutes Joy immediately got up and told us that Sister Mariza was going to have visitors and she needed to finish cleaning the house before she comes home. She looked really worried and immediately grabbed a broom and dustpan, seeing that she was in such a hurry we closed the lesson and I said a really quick closing prayer. As we were leaving the house my comp we said our goodbyes, and set a return appointment all seemed alright but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Lol we kind of walked in a random direction leaving the house and because I have almost no sense of direction I remembered that the person that we needed to see was back the way we came, passing by sister Mariza's house. 

 

As we were walking away from the house towards our next appointment I heard someone yelling and when I looked back lo and behold, it was sister Mariza chewing Joy out for inviting strangers into her home right there in the middle of the street. We kept walking and I didn't stare because I didn't want to embarrass Joy but I felt SO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once we eventually found the house we needed to go to, the lady we were supposed to teach was out SO we started heading to our next appointment.  As we were going tho I seriously couldn't stop thinking about Joy and I felt SO BAD for her! I felt like we should go back and talk to her or do .... something but at the same time I didn't want to get her into more trouble, and I didn't want to cause trouble since it was apparently our fault that she was yelled at. My comp and I decided to send her a text message but after I sent it, it still didn't feel like enough. We walked back to sister Mariza's house and this weird anxiety kept building in my chest. I knew what the right thing to do was but I was afraid of the consequences .... to make a long story short I kept walking away and then walking back and then walking away and then walking back hahaha it was just one vicious cycle for about 10 mins, until finally my companion suggested that we say a prayer. 

 

We went off to the side of the road and I offered a short and simple prayer. Right when I said amen I felt this peace come over me and I knew that we had to go back no matter the circumstance. So with a heavy heart we did, lol I knocked on the gate and yelled "tao po!" we waited for a few minutes and the anticipation was killing me! Lol I really thought sister Mariza was going to come out and start yelling at me, but instead it was joy and from the look on her face it was obvious that she had been bawling her eyes out. Right when I saw her I just KNEW that what we did was the right thing to do. Now this experience  is not jaw dropping or fantastic by any means, but through this small and simple thing I learned SO MUCH! Seriously! My comp and I spent about 5 minutes comforting her and testifying to her that even tho the outcome of us teaching her seemed negative it wasn't! And Heavenly Father was so happy with her! And He loved her SO MUCH! The evidence of that love was the undeniable prompting that I received from Him that day to GO BACK, because what she needed was to feel comfort and love from Him through US. That experience has played over in my mind again and again and I have pondered the outcome of that over and over again. 

Sometimes we forget or sometimes we don't fully understand God's love for His children. For US. We have so many things to do and we have so many responsibilities every day that some times they over power the influence of the Holy Ghost. I know with out a doubt how important it is for each and every one of us to strive to become instruments in God's hands. As members of this Church we are privilege to the companionship of the Holy Ghost and we through the Spirit can be guided and directed in all things. I know and understand how important it is for each and every one of us to "impart of our substance." This tiny phrase means many things. Substance doesn't necessarily mean wealth, or abundance it means "giving of OURSELVES." Being a kind and loving person willing to do all the Heavenly Father asks of them doesn't require money and anything like that. In order for us to become better people and better saints, and in order for us to "impart of our substance" Heavenly Father requires us to have a willing heart and an open mind. Harsh and misplaced judgement is natural because we are human. But kindness and forgiveness are necessary if we want to become or stay happy and peaceful. This Gospel is FULL of ways that we can become better and more happy but those ways arent effective until we learn how to be more willing to GIVE OF OURSELVES. There is one thing I always think when I meet people or teach them, I always think of the Savior and His example and the love He had and SHOWED for His people. I know with out a doubt that if I were to stand beside Him the love that I would feel would be impossible to describe because it would be everything that I am not and it would be everything that I want to be. 

I love it here! AND I LOVE MY COMPANION! She is teaching me how to be better and she is helping me become better because I know she loves me with out a doubt. 

 

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!! Sususunod ha!