Magandang Tanghali!

Hi! It's great to read all your lovely emails! Thanks, what a day brightener! Hey, today is Elyse's birthday! Wish her a happy birthday for me will ya? That's too bad about grandma's knee. I hope she feels better soon. Send her hugs from me! And send hugs to GrandmaBC too - it was great to get her letter this week :) I sure miss you all! I am doing very well here in Caba. I love it here. The rainy season is supposed to be starting soon. I'm excited. One thing I absolutely love about my area is that most of it is sort of uphill from the shore, and so we can see the ocean from most of the roads as we are proselyting. So pretty!

A couple highlights from this week was teaching Sister Ruby. We watched the restoration video with her (in Tagalog) and it really touched her. She teared up as she told us how she felt in her heart that it really was true. One thing I love about sister Ruby is that she always reads and really ponders every assignment from the Book of Mormon we give her. It is neat to come back and hear her insights.

One of our new investigator, brother Juan, is such pure, sweet old man. He lived in California for 2 years, and I started talking with him one day on the side of the road. When I showed him a picture of Christ ministering to the Nephites, he started crying because of his love for the Savior. It was really sweet. So I gave him the Book of Mormon and we told him we would come back and teach him more. Well after teaching him the first lesson, I decided to invite him to prepare himself to be baptized into the Lord's true church, and he accepted! We found out that Brother Arellano (from our branch) is really good friends with him already, and so we've been having him accompany us to lessons. It's really neat to see how effective it is when members really step in and get involved in missionary work.

Both Ruby and Juan have both repeatedly told us that they hope we always keep visiting them. Which is really nice that they want to learn!

As for Lisa's question...how is it different and similar to Dagupan? Caba is a much smaller town, more spread out, more fields, more mountains (actually, there weren't any mountains in Dagupan). The main product of Dagupan is Bongus fish, but here they grow a lot of tobacco and corn. :)

We've been having fun with the rats in our apartment. This week Sister Dollente found two big holes in her clothes that a rat had eaten through. One of my 50 peso bills got eaten too! luckily just at the corner though - it is still usable. hehe!

When teaching a lesson to a bunch of little children this week, we asked them to repeat what we had said, and one of them piped up "Bawal pagdurdura!" (don't spit) instead of "Bawal pagmurmura" (don't swear). hehe!

Guess what--there are blood-sucking lizards here! Yikes.

Well, gots to go! I love you very much! See you later!
Love, Rebecca

Hello!

Hello! It was sooooo good to talk to you on the phone last night! Happy Mother's Day!!!
Well, on Wednesday I got to go to Baguio for Tri-Zone Conference! It was exciting. They took my fingerprints and did a bunch of paperwork for my visa (so that I can stay here for the next year), and it was great to see President and Sister Jensen. The conference got me all pumped up and excited about working with members in doing missionary work.

The buses here are scary! They are so big and go so fast and pass all the other cars - it's especially nerve-racking when you are riding a tiny little tricycle and you see this huge bus charging straight towards you. haha.

Today is Election Day in the Philippines. Heehee, elections here are very noisy :) . They have been advertising and campaigning for the past few months. And the way that they do it is by posting up a bazillion posters with the person's face all around town, and then driving trucks around with very loud and catchy songs, with the person's name as the lyrics. It's so funny and ridiculous. It makes me giggle, and I can't get some of the songs out of my head! We've been instructed by President Jensen to go home by 6:30 for the past few days to stay away from any danger related to the election.

We have a few rats, ants, and cockroaches in our apartment, but it's not too bad.

That's great that the twins were able to participate in the "Hope of America" performance. From the picture, it looks quite fun!
That's great that you were able to get another geo metro!
It was fun to see the map of Caba! Yep, I recognize that. The plaza in the west is where we buy groceries and email. I am emailing from there right now. I live on road where the plaza is, but way up towards the east (next to the ocean). In fact, if you are going from the ocean towards the west on that road, my apartment is right before you see fields on either side. The sign says "villa navarro beach resort." The hwy right next to the plaza that is going towards the north is where we take the bus every time we go to Agoo (for district meeting) or Aringay (for church). Anyways, just for fun. That's great you were able to look it up :)

Three of our investigators are getting baptized on Saturday :)
One of our investigators, Brother Lito, is such an example to me. His wife got baptized last week, and his son is going to get baptized this week, but he is not able to get baptized yet (because of a sensitive and some-what complicated circumstance in his life). But his humility and faithfulness astound me. He is so desirous to be baptized. From the very first lesson, he has known that this is the true church, and he attends church meetings every week his family, faithfully pays his tithing, and is even fellowshipping one of our other investigators. When we taught him about the Law of the Fast this week, he meekly asked us if it was allowed for him to participate in fasting and giving fast offerings even if he is not a member of the church yet. We told him that of course he could, and that no one is deprived of receiving the blessings of obeying Heavenly Father's commandments. It is amazing to me to see the faith he has in enduring to the end, even before baptism, even when he doesn't know when or how soon he will be able to qualify for that special blessing.

Out of time, got to go!
Love, Rebecca

Happy in Caba!

Hello! I love you! Not much time so real quick - life is great! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Me and Sister Dollente are doing great. I just love her. She is very animated and cheerful. We almost got attacked by a dogs this morning, but we are safe.

We went hiking this morning at 5 AM with our zone, which was fun.

I've noticed that Ilocanos roll their r's more and speak louder than the people in Dagupan.

I'm so grateful to be serving here in Caba. I love Alma 16:16 about Heavenly Father is preparing the hearts of people in every land to accept the gospel. I've seen that that is true. I know without a doubt that this is the true restored church of Jesus Christ and that we are truly led by a living prophet of God. Everyday my testimony of this grows stronger.

Out of time! Love you very much! Take care!

Love, Rebecca