Monday, November 11, 2013

I SURVIVED THE TYPHOON AND TRANSFER OF NOVEMBER 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANAY!!!!  (that means mom in Tagalog!) 

Hello World! It feels good that so many people have been worried about my well being, from my best friends Grandmother, to my own! My entire mission is fine as far as I know. The storm was more south and church members have told us of the destruction. Please pray for the 80 Missionaries and the Mission President of the Tacloban Mission who have still not been accounted for. I am grateful to be safe and sound here on the main island. Some of the Mindoro Island Missionaries in my mission have been hanging out here because no boats were going out after our Thursday transfer day because of the Typhoon. I'm not sure what level four means, but I guess it is pretty bad, and called a super typhoon, I did not get the worst of it I am sure. 

We texted Thursday night (transfer day) to return home immediately around 6:00 for safety. IT had just started raining so we went immediately back to our apartment; luckily we were not too far away. It rained hard that night, but not much more than any other Typhoon we have had. On Friday we were not allowed to leave the apartment at all, which was really hard because it wasn't raining hard for most of the day and we had appointments. Williams and I decided to have a little Missionary fun.... what better than some AMERICAN MICROWAVE POPCORN!?! Yes, I bought it for occasions such as these, in my excitement I get to live in one of two apartments in the mission with a microwave :) So popcorn and the Restoration movie!?! and some Champy (chocolate chewy candy) I sent a picture:) We really enjoyed our day and we also got talking about some pretty deep doctrine, and we both loved it! We were just praying we would get to go out Saturday because we had a baptism! I'm sorry that my typhoon story really isn't too exciting! The worst of it came at night so we just got woken up all Friday night because of the sound. It was pretty strong here in Batangas, but not really strong enough to do tons of damage to houses like mine here! 


Sorry I am running out of time today and we are trying to print a talk from conference that we need to read for mission tour, and well technical difficulties is a good word for my situation. :)

In addition to surviving the super typhoon I also survived transfers! By that I mean I get to stay in Batangas another transfer and I am really excited about it! I've never had a companion before for two transfers in a row! And I will also hit my six month mark here in another two weeks so that will be exciting as well! I Batnagas. Mostly because the ward is amazing and likes to work with us and just grabs onto progressing investigators and won't let them escape! Jokelang, but really they are involved and know our investigators by name.... not that we have that many now because they all just got baptized.... :) 

Von was baptized Saturday night! And it was just awesome! The Lozano family is now complete! (All over the age of 8 are baptized and they can progress towards being sealed for time AND all eternity in the Manila Temple!) He is ten years old and pretty much amazing. He bore his testimony in English! after his baptism, and the spirit was strong. I hope his dad felt it! I was also very impressed with his English talaga! 


Also Sister Baird wrote me today and told me that Jay still prays for me in her prayers in our lessons... that made me a pretty happy missionary! 
Ano pa... Ano pa.... I feel like I have so much I want to say and with a time constraint I do not know what to share..... 

We have a new friend here in Batangas... a few actually. May and Jeremy and their some sort of relative Jane we have started to teach this week. I absolutely love May! We ran into her again Tuesday and asked to teach her and she said come back in an hour when Jane will be there too... well she had already read the introduction to the book of Mormon. But she had to read it again before seeing us cause she forgot what she learned! She's amazing! (I can't remember if I talked about them in my email last week but she's the one that asked for a book of mormon to read before we even started the lesson!) We had a member present yesterday when we went back to teach her husband the plan of salvation too, it was just wonderful and may is just so excited for her baptism in December. They have a lot of questions about kids at church and what we do at church so we are hoping to see them there in two weeks! (next week is church in lipa for stake conf.) 

Well I am out of minutes, but I love you all! Thank you for my prayers for safety! Please continue them for the missionaries and people whose lives have truly been altered because of this experience. 
I love you all! 

Somebody give mom some chocolate covered cherries for me :)


Love, Sister Stephanie Hellewell

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