Tuesday, December 31, 2013

A Filipino Christmas

Hello all!

We had a lovely little Filipino Christmas here! I learned this week that no ward Christmas party should ever be complete without Psi blasting at full volume and a pool-sized bowl of pancit (noodles). It was great. We had early curfew, so us four sisters had dinner and then we moved our mattresses into the main room/kitchen and had a reverent/missionary style "slumber party" with an exact bedtime of 10:30 of course :) We exchanged gifts and Sister Fronk and I discovered we have the exact same taste in stationary-we got each other the EXACT SAME set of stationary haha. Glad to know we have good taste :) The best Christmas present I recieved was the chance to skype my family for a solid hour. It was wonderful. I love them so much!!

A little friend at the Ward Christmas Party!

I was inspired by Sister Parker, so I decided to make a Filipino version of "You know you're a missionary when..." :)
You know you're a sister missionary in the Philippines when...
-you live in a house surrounded by a nine foot tall fence topped with barbed wire
-you know the most graceful way to enter and exit a tryke while wearing a skirt
-you've never knocked on a door in your mission, but you've stood outside and called "tao po" a million times
-you have a Mary Jane tan line on the tops of your feet
-finding ants crawling on your arms has long since ceased to bother you
-you keep your oreos and cereal in the "ref" (fridge)
-you get called "ate" (older sister) daily on the streets
-when you pass a house blasting the radio or videoke, you and your 
companion start singing hymns
That's my life!
A little background on the picture: We have seen this pedicab (bike with a sidecar) a million times. Every time we see it, it's either dark or rainy or I don't have my camera. But on Christmas eve there was a miracle! It was sunny and I had my camera and so I got a picture!! We're not sure who it belongs to, but we don't think they know what it means. It doesn't belong to a member. Someday we will find the owner and tell them what the saying on their pedicab means and they will join the church :) we just need to find them first!
I love you all so much! Keep your covenants. Go to church. Love others. Live the Gospel. The Way to be truly happy is there for us, all we need to do is live it!
Love,
Sister Gustafson

PS-we have a really cool investigator who's blind! Danilo is 28 and a part member family so there's a lot of hope for him to progress :)It's a little tricky to teach him, but he has a strong desire to learn! I'll let you know how it goes!

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