Christmas Week! :)

Kumusta sa lahat!:) Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taong! It's been a pretty slow week...and in all honesty I don't remember too much of it except for skyping home on Thursday haha. Is that bad? So, Thursday I was told that a girl named Kimberly added me on FB and she said that she saw talked to me the other day. I wasn't really sure who Kimberly was because I have met two Kimberly's while I have been here. So, like all week I have been like who is Kimberly. Well, yesterday at Church one of the Kimberly's that I have met was there. She is from Urdaneta 3rd Ward and was just visiting my ward. She is actually not a member, she is an investigator. She isn't being taught by the missionaries though, I want my second area to be Urdaneta 3rd Ward so I can teach her! That would be so awesome! Anywho, she came up to me in the gospel principles class and says "I met your mom" I was like "Kimberly! Ah tell me everything". We talked like all of sacrament haha and she showed me a cute message that my mom sent me saying that she loves me:) Thank you mommy:) I love you too! And she showed me a picture of somebody that really made me smile haha. And then we just talked about America, Books, pretty much everything that I said in my blog. So she knows how I feel about the Philippines and the differences it has compared to America haha. Like the dogs all looking the same and that I can't pet any animals haha. It was so nice getting to talk to her. She is such a great girl. She is only 16 and she is going to be attending college next year. And her English is soooo good! I wish I was that good in Tagalog. But it really gets me thinking. English is the hardest language to learn and if she can learn English then I can learn Tagalog. I do admit, being engulfed in it 24/7 is really helping me learn haha. Sige, well that has been the highlight of my week. This week I have curfew again tomorrow and Wednesday because of the New Year. Speaking of the new year. Happy Birthday Justin! I Love you and I hope you have a wonderful birthday:) Something should be arriving in the mail for you soon I hope:) Mahal Kita everyone!:) -Sister Ramsey

I don't remember which week it is!

So, this week has been suuuppperrr great! I had my first baptism this last Saturday!:) It was so exciting. His name is Wilfredo Tugare and he is 67 years old. He was so excited about his baptism, it was so sweet. I know that he was definitely missing something and now he has found it and his life has and will change so much now that he has the gospel in it. His baptism was a really difficult process because his job that he has is kind of like gambling and so our bishop here did not want him to get baptized, pero the missionaries before me got him set up with a new job that starts in January so he no longer has to do that one and we asked President Monohan (my mission pres) if it was ok for him to be baptized regarding his job and such and president said it was ok. So, now hes baptized...YAY!:) Other than that not much has really happened, we are working on getting some more IBD's, we have a few potential ones so we will just have to see how this week plays out:) We have a curfew this week on Tuesday and Wednesday because things get crazy here with fireworks and stuff so we have to be home by 6. So we get some me time. Look forward to possibly getting some letters because I'm going to have a lot of spare time haha:) I seriously love it here. It is soooo beautiful. I love all the wondering animals and all the ginormous cows haha. Literally there huge. And I love all the chickens that roam the streets same with the goats. I never get to pet them though because my companion gets after me:/ Which is sad:( but, it's ok! And we don't eat dogs...did I mention that in an email yet? I don't remember but I am so happy because we don't! They are actually pets here:) But they aren't as cute as dogs in the States...they all look the same. Only the rich people here have like cute dogs and stuff. I know that I am not going to be there for Christmas but I am really looking forward to Skyping home on Thursday because it will be Christmas there:) I look forward to seeing a lot of your smiling beautiful faces at around 6-7 pm haha. Love you!:) talk to you either Thursday or next week!:) Have a Merry Christmas! Maligaya Pasko!:) Love, Sister Ramsey P.S. Heres some pictures from since I've been here in Villiasis:) 1. This is our investigator/recent convert. Wilfredo Tugare 2. This is a picture of our Christmas party today!:) So much fun!!!:) We had a flour fight! 3. These are the Elders in my Zone. They are great. The one on the very end is my Lolo as is the one in the middle because they are my first Zone Leaders, and the one in the White tee shirt is my Tatay because he is my first District Leader. Hindi ko alam how that works but yeah haha. 4. This is Elder Sikat, Sister Alvarez and I today at our gift exchange. Oh and that's sister Briones and I...These are so out of order. Sorry:/ Sorry, I kinda forgot my other sim card so I will send pics of the area and stuff next week:) Well, that's all I can fit this week:) I'll send more next week:)

2nd Week in sa Pilipinas!

Holy...COW! This week has been sooo long and sooo hard. I hate to admit it, but, yesterday during our missionary meeting with the bishop to discuss our activities for this coming up week, I just cried. It's so hard not knowing what people are saying and what to say to them. And it stinks because I'm not going to know what to say or what they are saying for at least 6 months...according to all the other Americans. So, to say the least this week has just been really rough for me :( This last week, we were able to teach lots of people, so that was really good. Oh Ryan, I have a sister here who is going to be getting off her mission here in the next few months and she said that she really wants to marry an american. I recommended you...sorry haha. She's really pretty though. I'll send a pic with this email hopefully :) Anyways, We have a baptism this coming Saturday for a 67 year old man named Wilfredo. He is so nice, and so smart. He is ready to be baptized. He passed the interview and now it's just on to the baptism. I'm really excited for him. I have exchanges this Friday and I'm pretty excited about them. It should be fun. Last night, we had the opportunity to go to Urdaneta to watch the Christmas Broadcast. It was soooo gooooooddd! Did you watch it? Well, you should. It was really good haha. On Saturday we got to go to Urdaneta too and we brought a couple of our investigators dahil it was a youth activity and the only way we could go was if we brought investigators. The activity was watching BOM movies that the youth in the wards created. They were soooo good and sobrang nakakatawa haha. They were so creative:) Our ward did the Stripling Warriors. Well, I have to go now, i'm about to get kicked off the computer. Talk to you all next week! Love you! -Sister Halley Jean Ramsey

Unang Week Sa Pilipina

Holy Cow! I don't even know where to begin. Well, I arrived here on Wednesday December 4th, so I skipped the 3rd of December all together which was pretty cool. I feel like we discovered time travel or something. Anyways, we stopped in Hawaii too along the way which was exciting except for the fact that it was dark out and we couldn't see anything except a bunch of lights here and there. But, I can still say I have been to Hawaii which is AWESOME!:) When we arrived here in the Philippines my feet were sooo swollen...I was surprised my shoes still fit haha but so were my companions it was funny. I was actually expecting it to be hotter than it is here. Its hot don't get me wrong, but for some reason I was expecting so hot you can cook an egg on the sidewalk hot and its not that hot...yet. I am actually here in there cold season. Its like 90 degrees haha and thats cold here. I'm not really looking forward to there hot season, I am however looking forward to the rain! The people here are so humble its crazy. Our investigators are soooo cute and soooo nice and soooo yeah. I just love them and I have only met them all like once. But they are just the most humblest people I have ever met, and they are just so willing to listen and learn about the gospel. My companion is Sister Gonzales, she is a local. So, she speaks fluent Tagalog...yeah. The good thing is she knows English really well also. Shes a super great teacher and we get along really well. As for learning Tagalog, I was pretty surprised when I got here and the other sisters in my district told me that I am farther along with the language then a lot of other sisters were when they first got here. Which surprised me because I didn't think I knew anything haha. But, being here and actually having to SYL because I don't have a choice because the people don't understand English very well has really helped me realize how much I really do know. And it's pretty cool. I live in an apartment...its kind of more like a duplex. Our neighbors are another companionship of sisters so its pretty nice. I don't have a bucket shower (thank goodness!). We have a shower, the water is cold though, but I have come to enjoy it because it really does feel super good with the hot and humid weather. Church was great! I really enjoyed it. The primary had their presentation during Sacrament and it was soooo stinkin cute. Just imagine about 20 little madroneros singing primary songs and that is exactly what this was. It was so cute. I had to get up and introduce myself to the ward and I am happy to say that I said more than half of it in Tagalog...oh yeah:) I did take lots of pictures, but...I took so many pictures that I kind of drained my battery. So, now I have to wait to send them because my battery is dead. Oh, and there are sooooo many water buffaloes around here! ITS AWESOME! And dogs, chickens and goats roam the streets like its nobodies business haha. I saw a stampede of goats the other day, they were so cute haha. Oh my goodness, I just love it here. MY first day in the actual field was Friday and that was soooo hard. I just wanted to cry, everywhere I went. The air is so different, everything smells weird, and EVERYBODY stares at me everywhere I go. I don't like it. My companion tells me over and over again that it is because I am white and they think I am really pretty but it still makes me super uncomfortable. Last night, our investigator who is 8 asked me why I had green eyes. It was really cute but I had no idea what to say to her haha so I just said because my mommy has green eyes. And then on Saturday, we were walking down the road and literally everybody was staring at me. People even came to the street from their front porch to watch me walk by. And as we were just standing, talking to a lady, a girl and like 3 guys were like peeking out from behind a gate at me and so I looked over at them and the girl yells to me "Your so beautiful". It was super sweet and all I said back was aww thank you but no, your beautiful haha. It's just a super different environment that I am going to have to adjust to over time. But I am really starting to love it and I look forward to every day to come:) I hope you have all had a super good week and I am excited to hear from you next week!:) Love, Sister Halley Ramsey

Last Week Here at the MTC!

Nuka! This week has gone by so extremely fast. I feel like I was just emailing yesterday haha. No, not really. But, it really does feel like it was just the other day. Well, to start. This week started off slow. I taught my last "progressing investigator" (AKA my teacher) on Monday and it was super sad having to say that, that was our last lesson because honestly we came to love him as an investigator. And then we taught our other teacher on Wednesday and that was sad because she asked when we were going to come back and I was all um...labin pito months and she just laughed. Then we had to explain to her why we were leaving and everything and it was kinda difficult. I had such awesome teachers! They were the bomb, like seriously. They were sooo much fun haha. Thursday Thanksgiving was soooo much fun!!! Sister Erickson and I spent it with her district and a couple other Elders in another district. And it was just an amazingly spiritual day! Russel M Nelson came and spoke to us at our Morning Devo and it was such an amazing talk! He gave tons of advice and talked about the Philippines quite a bit. Actually, almost every person who has spoken at a devo since I have been here has talked about the Philippines. On Tuesday at our Devo, Brother Teh, who is from the Philippines spoke. And during his talk he asked everybody who is going to the Philippines to please stand up. Needless to say...I felt so cool standing up in front of everyone hahaha. It was pretty cool:) Oh and during Thanksgiving we did a service humanitarian project and it was so great! We made bags of lentil soup for people and we just had a blast while doing it. Every time we filled up a box, which was 96 bags we would all shout "WHOOO!" It was sooo fun haha. I love my district/zone sooooo much and I don't want to leave them:( Yesterday in class after 8 HOURS of in field orientation, we shared a tradition that our families do every year or whatever, in Tagalog. And oh my goodness it was so much fun. An Elder in my district, Elder Rogers was sharing his tradition with me and he was illustrating the entire thing...the tradition was shooting a deer and making biscuits and gravy on Christmas morning with it. Not the easiest thing to illustrate but he did and it was hilarious! I shared our new somewhat tradition of going to the buffet in Reno for Thanksgiving...but that's not really a tradition anymore since you didn't do it this year haha. Oh well, we don't really have traditions. Anyways, It's going to be so sad having to say goodbye to them all. I'm so excited to see what is waiting for me in the Philippines though. I have a strong feeling that there are soooo many people there right now waiting for ME. Like, that is so crazy to think that people are waiting for me to help them gain salvation. I never thought that I would be the one bringing people to Christ. But, I am and I am so happy! This is the best decision of my life and I cannot believe that I almost chose not to do this. What was I thinking!? Haha. Well, here is a picture of my favorite companion and I after our service project, cute huh?;) And then there is my kasama and me. And then there is me, Shelby, and Daniel. lol Then there is Daniel and me...its pretty blurry because my camera stinks! But yeah. So yeah. There't your pics for the week hahaha! Maybe next time there will be more because I will have a better camera lol. Oh mom! I need an adapter thing so that I can download pics on the computer...dont forget that:) Mahal ko kayo everybody! Talk to you next week!:) -Sister Halley Jean Ramsey These pictures are of

Week 5 at the MTC!

I am getting all my weeks mixed up lol! My last email was suppose to be week 4 and this week has been week 5 because this coming up week is WEEK 6! MY last week here! I am soooo stoked/nervous haha. I can't wait to be in the Philippines helping with the disaster that has occurred. I wish I was there right now haha. So, this last week up until Wednesday has been pretty ehh. Nothing really exciting happened. Wednesday though, we got a new sister in our zone who is a solo sister. Which means she is all by herself in a district full of elders. Well, the branch presidency chose me to be her companion when she is not in class. So technically I have like 3 companions...how awesome is that?! I absolutely love my new companion, she is sooo fun and we get along sooo well. She was really shy on Wednesday, but since IM her companion we all know that wasn't going to work very well. Shes not shy with me anymore haha. Shes actually opened up a lot and we have gotten to know each other really well:) She is just the bees knees let me tell you:) Thursday we did TRC's but instead of teaching face to face...we skyped somebody. It was hard haha. We kept breaking up and like every other thing we said was "Paki ulit?" which means please repeat haha. It was pretty difficult to get a message about getting revelations through the Book of Mormon when we only had 20 minutes and we couldn't understand a word the poor lady was saying haha. But, in the end it all worked out and the lady ended up hearing our message and understanding us. It was a cool experience. Oh and I jammed my finger playing four square at gym...hindi mabuti:( It hurt haha. Yesterday, nothing really happened. Class was super fun because we have learned everything that our teachers were suppose to teach us, so now for the next week I guess we are just suppose to review the things they have taught and ask questions. So we just goofed off pretty much the entire time during night class haha. But, we are not going to do that again...we are going to actually do what we are suppose to do haha. Anywho, thats pretty much all the importantish details from my week haha. Talk to you all later! Mahal ko kayo!:) Love/Your Friend, Sister Halley Jean Ramsey

So, I know that my last few emails haven't been very informative. So this time I am going to try to make it better. Ill start with my companions, Sister McClain is a super sweet and I love her soooo much. She is so stinkin smart and always has such great ideas for teaching and stuff. Then there is Sister Shaw, OMG!! I don't even know where to begin with her hahaha. She is so funny. There was this time that we were all in class and she was standing by the whiteboard and she tooted and tried blaming it on one of the Elders that was sitting next to her. It was so funny and she does that ALLLL the time lol! Especially in our bedroom! Then there is my entire district and they are just the greatest people everrrr. They are so fun and we always have a blast. They make learning fun...which is pretty hard to be honest. This last week L Tom Perry came to the MTC and spoke at our Tuesday Devotional. It was super good! He talked about missionary work and talked about the Philippines a lot so it really made me feel like his talk was directed towards me. Which it was directed toward everyone but it really felt like what I needed to hear. And during sacrament last Sunday I kind of broke down because everything that President Christofferson said in his talk was exactly how I was feeling and It felt really good to have all those negative feelings taken care of. I absolutely love going to the Temple! I am super sad that today will be my last time going while here at the MTC because they are closing next week for remodeling of some sort. But, I am still happy that I have gotten to go as much as I have. It is the most peaceful place on the Earth and the best place to go to get answers to prayers. This last week not much has really happened. Just the normal, classroom study, companion study, and language study. Pretty repetitive haha. But still really great:) I got to pretend to be an investigator yesterday for my teacher who was teaching me the Ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo and it was super fun haha. I really felt like the investigator and I had the urge to like want to know more about what she was teaching me. It made me realize that that is how the people are going to feel in the Philippines when I am teaching them and it made me really excited to go because I want everybody to feel what I felt for themselves because it was literally the best feeling I have ever felt in my life. Alam ko po na totoo ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo! I really do. At Alam ko po na totoo ng Ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo! And I am so beyond blessed to be here at this time preparing to serve those in sa Philippines. Alam ko po na this is where I am suppose to be and I wouldn't have it any other way:) Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, Amen:) Have a great week everybody! Love/Your Friend, Sister Halley Jean Ramsey

Weeks 2 & 3 at the MTC (:

Well, It has definitely become an emotional roller coaster here. It's finally starting to hit me that I am in the MTC preparing to serve the Lord in the Philippines...THE PHILIPPINES! Like woah! I honestly didn't really think all that much about it before I left, I was just like. Oh cool the Philippines. But now its like real and I'm sooooo excited! Tagalog has become a bit more difficult to get. I am adjusting to new words and stuff pretty easily but I am just having a really difficult time forming sentences that actually make sense haha. This last week has gone by so super fast and we are learning how to conjugate verbs in Tagalog and lets just say its not easy. But, luckily I have really awesome teachers that do a super good job at explaining and doing one on one with those that need it. I start TRC's tonight with my companions. It's not going to be that difficult I hope, because we are going to be teaching members who served missions but were sent home because of injuries or something. So they aren't pretending to be anything. They are being themselves and our job is just to increase their pananampalataya (faith)! I know...its like 3x longer than the word it means. Super weird haha. And puso is heart and pusa is cat...so those two get mixed up like alll the time haha. My favorite parts about the MTC so far are visiting the Temple every Saturday and Sunday, devotionals on Sundays and Tuesdays. And how strong the presence of the Spirit is. It's so crazy!:) And this Tuesday L Tom Perry is speaking at the devotional...i'm super excited!:) well, I got to go, but I will talk to you all soon! Kita Kita! Love/Your Friend, Sister Halley Jean Ramsey

MTC :)

Kumusta, hoy everybody!:)

       Well, I decided that since I only have a short time in the lab for P-day today I would just email you all at once just to let you know how my first week has gone. Oh my goodness! It has been so amazing. I love everything about it here. The strongness of the spirit, the growth of my testimony, and just everybody. Everywhere my companions and I go elders and sisters are always saying "Hello sisters" and its just a wonderful feeling because its not like that in Susanville haha. My first day here was great. I got here pretty early since nobody answered my call...(Mom/Dad). But, thats ok because I had a lot of fun getting to meet new people and my companions. I am in a companionship of three, and I am the senior companion which is pretty cool and I was really shocked when I got it haha. One of the girls is from Provo her name is Sister Shaw and the other one is from Bigby Idaho her name isSsister McLain. They are so much fun...the only negative thing is that they are both shorter than 5'5...soooo im a giant compared to them. no joke lang (just kidding). We began learning Tagalog the first day we got here and our teacher wont speak English so we have to learn what she is saying or we wont know. Its really fun though because there are 10 people in my district. 5 Elders and 5 sisters and we just have a blast learning the language. Yesterday Elder Rogers decided we should play Jeopardy in class and he changed his name to Elder Trebek while we played, it was pretty funny haha. One of the elders in my district no joke reminds me of that one kid on Home Alone...Macaulay Culchin or however you spell it.

       Yesterday we had to teach an investigator in TAGALOG! It was soooo difficult because we didnt really know how to answer questions yet or say things back when he answered our questions because we didnt really know what he said back. So it was pretty stressful. But in all honesty I can really feel the Lord blessing me with the gift of tongues already. I mean I have been here for what 4 days now and I can already pray, bear my testimony, and sing in Tagalog:) haha. I also know a lot of other words and little phrases which is pretty amazing for only 4 days...if I do say so myself. Um, lets see what else has happened. Well, when I got here wednesday and unpacked my suitcase some of the stuff i brought for my hair spilled in my suitcase so I have quite a bit of laundry to do today. But on the plus side they don't stink they smell like coconut haha. Oh, and i share a room with two other sisters, Sister Davis and Sister Murdock. They are so awesome! Sister Davis makes me laugh like alllll the time because she has such a great sense of humor like me, I love her! Oh my goodness, I got to see Jenny and Alex! I got a picture with Jenny...but its on her camera not mine:/ oops. And I haven't gotten one with Alex yet but he will be here for awhile because Korean is going to take him a while so i have plenty of time to get one with him. Im really excited to see Daniel in a couple weeks:D and i am really sad that im probably not going to get to see Ryan because I fly out Dec 2:( and that really stinks! I am proud to say that I have not had the orange juice while i have been here...they have orange soda, so im stickin with that:) oh and mom you would be happy to know that they also have powerade...but it tastes kind of funky to me. 

       Well, alam ko po na totoo po ang ebanghelyo. Alam ko po na totoo po ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mng Banal sa mga Huling Araw. Alam ko po no Buhay po ang Diyos. Alam ko po na totoong propeta po si Joseph Smith at Diyos. Alam ko po na mahal po tayo ng Diyos. Alam ko po na salita ng Diyos ang Aklat ni Mormon. Alam ko po na nagbayad-sala po si Jesucristo para sa mga kasalanan natin. Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, amen. 

      And in English that means I know that the gospel is true. I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I know that God lives. I know that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet of God. I know that God loves us. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and i know that Jesus Christ Atoned for our sins. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen:)
      I will talk to you all next week. I hope to have emails from all of you telling me how your weeks have been:) Ingat po (goodbye)

Love/Your Friend,

Sister Halley Ramsey:)