Sister Britney Landrum

P-A-R-T-Y!!!

2009-08-13T17:13:00.001-07:00

So, our family is full strength again! Brit looks great and appears very happy. We can't get enough of her!

To her friends and our family that wanted to attend the airport reception we apologize. I truly wish I would have know and could have contacted you! However, we hope you will come see Brit at the BBQ we are holding for her.

Andrea, Amanda & Carin - please try to come. If there are other friends of Brit's that I didn't realize are following this please comment if you are interested in attending.

6:30 pm Saturday in Farr West. Take the Farr West exit and then go to the West side to the stop light. Then go North toward Smith and Edwards. But, watch close for the next left to go West on Higley road. Then go 1/4 mile to the next left. The party is down that lane 2/3 of the way on the left. We will have an obvious sign in the front yard!

See you there!

Come what may and love it...

2009-08-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, throughout the day I have had an uncomfortable feeling. I had all kinds of thoughts and concerns enter my mind. I dismissed them. Then, with 2.5 hours to go I became troubled enough that I began trying to track Brit's flight. The mission home sent us a simple itinerary which told us her flight number from LAX to SLC and time of arrival. But, we didn't even have a confirmation number (which it seems you must have or the Delta gastopo will take you out) and knew nothing about her international flight.

So, after 4 different phone calls and 4 different foreign employees (heavy accents) I finally got enough pieces of the puzzle from each that I was able to call the last lady (good english) and get somewhere. She was wonderful! The first lady "broke the rules" and let me know as a favor that Brit's international flight was with EVA Airlines. With that information I was able to get the next lady to give me a little more - that she wasn't flying into LAX but into SF instead. And finally, by the last lady I was able to spell things out well enough for her that she believed my story and provided me the details I needed.

So, Britney's international flight landed and she is safely on the ground in San Fransicso (changed from LAX to SF which was just one piece of the puzzle). But, there were problems with one of the missionary's luggage making it through customs so the group of missionaries missed their flight. I found out that she would be staying the night in SF and flying in Thursday morning at 9:00 am instead. We were 30 minutes from the airport when we discovered this news. So, we started urgently calling family. Then, Brit called and was quite suprised that I already knew her news. Don't mess with a concered Dad!!!

So, my promptings proved to be for good reason. I am so glad she is safe in SF and we will endure the disappointment until morning. We went to Marie Calendars to have pie to soften the blow. The benefit for Brit is that she gets to have a good nights sleep and take a good shower prior to seeing everyone.

I feel horrible because we weren't able to contact her dear friends to let them know the news. I received a phone call from Carin. It seems Amanda, Andrea and Carin (Brit's dearest friends) came to welcome her.

So, I thought I better post this tonight just in case anyone else needed to know what the latest moment in our missionaries life was.

We can't wait to see you sister Landrum at 9:00 am tomorrow morning!!!

Well done thy good and faithful servant

2009-08-09T15:58:00.001-07:00

Britney arrives in Salt Lake City this coming Wednesday evening. We invite any of her friends and any of our family that would like to attend. Be to the airport by 9:15 pm at the bottom of the escalators.

We are pleased with Brit's testimony and dedication as a missionary. Her letters and emails are evidence of how serious she took her mission. He personal growth will provide her an advantage in pursuing the balance of her life. We cannot wait to embrace her and see her smiling face. She is worried that she will be tired and beat down looking due to a 20 hour travel. I assured her she could smell and have tattered clothing and matted hair and it wouldn't make one bit of difference! She will be hugged regardless. That emotional and tearful pretty lady next to me will be her mother. She has earned every tear. Fly safe sis, we are counting the seconds.

3 weeks from tonight...

2009-07-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Britney will arrive in the Salt Lake International airport 3 weeks from tonight. August 12th, Wednesday, at 9:30 pm.

We welcome family and Brit's good friends to be there. We will be there by 9:00 p.m. securing our place at the bottom of the escalator. We will forewarn airport security about the potentially crazy group of loved ones and likelihood of animated powerful noises authored by a proud and supportive grandmother.

We have decided to stay in Utah after picking Brit up. She will be released on Thursday morning which will surely be a difficult moment for her. She has loved and embraced everything it means to be a missionary. We will be remaining in Utah until Saturday when we will host a family/friend gathering to honor Brit and hear her report her mission.

There are many reasons prompting the change to Utah from Idaho for this gathering and none of them include purposefully creating difficulty for loved ones. It simply had to be. Fortunately, we have loving and understanding family.

I will post further details in short order.

Arriving August 12th...

2009-07-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

She just loves sister Garcia!

Brit is arriving home August 12th. It has gone by so fast. She was sweet enough to send us some photos yesterday and we wanted to share.

We will be having a homecoming party Saturday night at 152 West 400 South Burley. It will begin at 6:30 pm. We will have a barbecue and fireside visit with Brit! Close friends and family are invited. Reply if you have questions.

Boy, are we excited to hug her and hug her and hug her! Sure hope those Filipinos have prepared her for it.

Email May 24, 2009

2009-05-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Today as I welcomed Sister Garcia to our companion study and announced that it was the first day of transfer, Monday the 25th of May I thought..."...that sounds like a holiday."

We had an enjoyable week as a three-some and enjoyed attending transfer meeting without the pressure of being transferred, getting to see our other friends and hear president's talk...then within the last two days three of our current investigators agreed to baptismal dates, we discussed how blessed we have been and we know it has to do with us trying to do our best and to be obedient.

We are also very excited and know the service of another missionary is helping with one. He is on a mission here in another mission in the Philippines and his mother has been being taught for years. We taught her the plan of salvation and I talked about that day that we will stand beside our Heavenly Father and about the time we will enter his Kingdom with our friends and family, and talked about her son on his mission and how that is exactly what he wants and he also imagines her there. She told us she would decide after she finishes reading the entire Book of Mormon. Then we finished teaching her and I asked her how she felt about our lesson and all she said was "Sister Landrum, I will get baptized before you go home, let's set a date and you can write to my son and tell him." We are very excited to write to her son and tell him. We can sense a missionaries just how much that will mean to him.

I met a very interesting family one of the days I worked with a member and Sister Garcia and Pairat worked together. We didn't have anymore scheduled appointments and it wasn't time to meet up with them yet so I started talking to people outside and met this woman with four little boys standing with her. As I talked to her, her husband came outside and from their door motioned toward the pamphlet I had, he wanted one. I re-focused my attention to him and asked if we could share a message. They invited us up to their porch and we discovered their neighbor is an old man and woman. The man baptized a couple years ago but since we've been here he has been ill and has not come to church. His wife agreed to listen to us also and we continued in teaching their neighbor. I started by teaching about the Godhead and knew from the start that he is a bible scholar because he had many questions and personal ideas. He is not however affiliated with any religion. His questions lead us into parts of lesson two and I was not sure where it was all going to go because I was having a hard time directing it towards one topic for our first lesson but felt like just continuing on how we were until he got to his big thing. He believes that any religion that is the true church of Christ should be actively concerned for the temporal welfare... and he brought up Malachi and Tithing so I opened immediately to third Nephi 24 and started testifying about tithes and offerings while his old man neighbor started telling them "they have a supply!" It was kind of funny... he listened now without question unlike before and I taught him about the church welfare program, tithing and offerings and then testified that we have living prophets who direct this work and closed by giving him all three of our pamphlets to read. He read them all before the next day and we taught all of lesson one and gave him a Book of Mormon. The interesting part is what he said to this neighbor of his, not directly to us... on the first visit he said "all they have taught me is almost exactly like "The continuation church of Christ" and I got from that a part of an idea about what he is up to which was confirmed at our second visit when a paper with a drawing of a church logo fell out of his bible and so he showed us. He has been creating his own Church because he doesn't find any others to have all the truths he believes in from his research.

So, they weren't there the next time we returned and I don't know where it will go but it was quite the experience and I felt so strongly the truthfulness and fullness of our Church, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ here and of what I teach. All that anyone is searching for is here and all the answers if you will only search them out. I don't know all the answers myself, I still have questions, but I have a firm testimony of the most important things and I know that as each of us continues to seek learning "even by study and also by faith" we will come to know all the mysteries of God and be prepared to receive his fullness.

Well, I hope Savanna made it to Utah alive and that Mom's leg is healing. Olivia and I will have to race when I get home... I bet I'm SUPER slow now :) we'll see. Give me a couple weeks I'll get into my real exercise program again -- all of my arm muscle is gone I think, haha.

Congrats on the graduations, birthdays coming up and SUMMER BREAK. They are about to start school again so it's funny that you're just ending. I'm sure the next few months will go very fast for you since it's break -- have fun.

LOVE,

Sister Landrum

Email May 18th, 2009

2009-05-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hello - We had our first Darasa baptism on Saturday. I realized that it could, possibly, be the last baptism that I witness on my mission due to the fact that they need to attend church at least four times before baptized and overcome all addictions for longer. We have a couple of investigators right now that I am hoping to have baptized before I get home, or right after I leave, but I guess we'll see what happens; whatever the best timing for them is.

My companion was especially excited because it was the first baptism of her mission, I'm glad we've had such quick success in this ward -- they all are so helpful. We have them working with us and yesterday we went on splits for the first time, my companion felt comfortable with having me leave her now and being in charge and we had a lot of appointments, and I worked with one of the RM sisters - it's always nice to hear others teaching styles and learn from them.

This week Sister Pairat is working with us until Friday when she will get her new companion at transfer day. We will probably go on splits almost every day. I will work with a member and they will work together. I'm excited to find a lot of new investigators this week.

We have our mission tour in two weeks with Elder Edwards and I need to read about five chapters a day to finish the Book of Mormon on the scheduled date, I find every spare minute to read and it's really great. It will be my third time through in English while here on the mission and I think I'll focus on Tagalog a little more my last two months, it's slower-going and longer in general in Tagalog so we'll see where I get, I plan to finish it once I get home though.

Did I tell you the other great thing about our baptism on Saturday. Two of the baptisms, one was a child of record, were the nephews of a member we met our first week here. He hadn't been to church of years and we taught him a lesson about the importance of the Sacrament, and about how that is the main purpose of why we should be at church every single week, because we need the sacrament every single week. He started coming to church that very week and was ordained a priest soon after and then able to baptize his two nephews. Him and his sister worked with us this last week and I noticed in his testimony that he always talks specifically about the importance of the sacrament, the very thing we taught him about and he put into action and thus gained a testimony over which he now is sharing with others -- how wonderful.

Well, I'm out of thoughts for the moment so thanks for the email and for Maddie's joke Love,

Britney

Email May 11th, 2009

2009-05-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

My companion is really great at English, isn't she? Haha...my last companion wouldn't speak English to me at all, even if I requested she do just for a minute or requested she practice...so I don't know how good she is at English -- haha. My second companion was like that also, but we got by off of her English for the most part and I know my trainer was good because I couldn't speak any Tagalog then...my third companion is also very good at English but we always spoke straight Tagalog so I could learn faster, she was good at that my current companion likes English :) haha...always Tag-lish I even speak Tag-lish now.

If you sent a package, well I sent a letter about the garments for Sister Abad only, even if it was only two-five..she only wanted five. She was the original sister that asked a long time ago and then you sent the trial pair and it was a very wrong size for her but she paid for them anyway so I just kind of felt bad never getting her any at all that were the right type and size. They like mine because they are not as hot and really easy to hand wash but they don't sell them here -- but that's what one of my letters I sent was about. As for anything else, starbursts so my companion can try them because I told her stories about how they were my favorite when I was in high school but she doesn't know what they are -- besides that I can't think of anything so maybe it really wouldn't be worth it. I guess I'm feeling like three months isn't so long that I'm going to be missing much. Almonds and dried blueberries :) haha and if you sent me a can of black beans I wouldn't probably give it to Sister Anderson as a going away gift because she was really jealous that I had some and she also loves them.

I think it's funny that Tagalog sounds asian to you -- like Chinese or something. I keep trying to remember how it sounded to me before I understood it, but now it sounds like English does kind of because it's just words that have a meaning now, not strange sounds that sound funny. Sometimes words still sound really funny to me, but words in English are funny to me also.
Well, you said my email doesn't need to be too long -- that's good because I'm not sure what more to say at this point. We have zone interviews tomorrow so I might get more mail and we found out in our email from the mission today that before transfer day we will be a three-some with one of the sisters whose companion is going home on Sunday -- a five day three-some, how fun :)

Okay - thanks for the expensive call :)

Love Britney

2009-05-11T17:16:00.001-07:00

"Happy" Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

Well, our family had a WONDERFUL 2 hour phone call with Britney last night! We went to my office and used my speaker phone. It was great! She sounds like she is very happy and well.

Did you know that to call the Philippines you use 14 minutes every minute! Where we don't have a land line we bought an AT&T calling card. Wow - 2,000 minutes doesn't go as far as it used to! LOL. We actually didn't even use the entire card because as Wendy put it 22 years ago when she and I had a similar lengthy call... Brit's teeth were floating!

What a wonderful night with all of the girls gathered to be able to each take time visiting with Britney. But, after the 4th sister opened by saying, "Hi Brit, how are you?" Brit finally said, "the same as last time I was asked a few minutes ago..."

Britney spoke tagalog to us quite a bit and it is amazing how smart it makes her sound! We were able to speak with her companion for awhile also. What a sweet and complimentary young woman. She said, "Brother Landrum, you look so young... Sister Landrum, you look beautiful and have such good fashion sense... Maddie, you are most beautiful...".

Sister Ruth Ann Garcia is from the Philippines. She went on to thank us for such a wonderful daughter. She said that 3 of her siblings had served missions also and that they told her how important it was to have a good training companion. So, she prayed hard before her mission for the right training missionary and God blessed her with Sister Landrum and that she is so thankful for her..." She went on and on about how great Britney is. I already knew this fact but to hear how genuine and appreciative Sister Garcia was touched my heart. I believe that she did pray and that Britney was the answer to her righteous desire... that is a significant and wonderful thing to know. I believe that they are working hard together and that they are being blessed for it. Britney's influence will not end when she returns to us in 3 months.

What an appropriate and blessed way to celebrate Mother's day. Wendy deserved every moment of it.

Email May 4th, 2009

2009-05-11T05:55:00.000-07:00

Here's the thing about Mother's day -- I forgot that it's this Sunday and I have no idea where we can call from so it's all kind of up in the air. My problem is i don't have a phone number for you in order to text or do a initial call to tell you, so maybe if I find out I will do another email sometime throughout the week to tell you when and hopefully you will have sent me a phone number. We might be able to use the phone at the church -- but I still think it's better to have you call me using a calling card so I would arrange to get one of those also. We would probably call Monday morning, meaning Sunday night for you.

As for food -- this was from a couple emails ago I think, but maybe I want to eat stake, how does that sound? There is a good chance I will be the most tired and gross person on earth after my flight so who knows what will happen. As for when I get home, what time, what day -- I don't plan or schedule that at all and have no idea how to figure it out time difference wise either so you'll just need to wait for the church to send you my itinerary. I think Sister Thompson's family got hers when she had about three months to go and I finally turned in my change of address form in etc. so maybe they'll be sending that to you in the next couple of months.
President Anderson says hello and asks me how my family is in Idaho every time he sees me. That includes today. We came to the mall, which is very close to our area, so that my companion can buy an umbrella because she left hers on a jeep. As we walked in we saw Elder Hunt, Sister Hunt was buying pizza at the time so he was walking alone and I randomly ran into him --- he was very surprised and invited us to eat lunch with them. As we ate President and Sister Anderson showed up and ate with us then bought us ice cream -- Sister Garcia says we're "blessed for hard work!"

We gave two women that we found our first week here a tentative baptismal date yesterday. She has attended church twice and the other has not yet, the only problem is she has no work currently and is trying to go abroad now as her only means of making money for her son whom her sister will watch over while she's gone -- we're trying to find her work here so she can stay and become a strong member of the church and have the blessings of God help her family instead of working abroad, we'll see what happens. Our first baptism here will be on the sixteenth and they are both doing great.

I hope that Savanna does not decide she needs to destroy everything in our apartment LOL, I figure we'll have unhappy roommates if she does. A clean apartment is the best, I hope I have clean roommates again, we'll see. I had amazing roommates right before I left, our apartment was always so nice to be in, always clean and happy.

As for coming home July 1, it's basically out of the question at this point, in my mind anyway -- and the only good thing would be it would give me more time to FIND a job before school actually starts, not actually make money but find a place to make money instead of worrying about it amidst school and all those other busy things like moving and going through my things which have already gone through a move while I've been away etc/ adjusting to the new time, your night is my day and that has been my life for over a year now so i wonder how the adjustment will go, maybe easy but i hear coming home is harder. Anyway, August 12 sounds about right because August nine I'm at the mission home, the tenth we have a family home evening, the eleventh all of the --wait i just don't know :)

As Sister Thompson informed me regarding her family -- I will label you also "my family is trunky for me" it's a good thing, I don't have to be trunky you're just doing it for me, making plans and all that stuff, but mom you've jumped a bit forward in time a couple of times a lot of years talking about weddings and I don't know about the spring, I like fall, haha! Anyway I actually haven't thought about it much at all and only know that the months of November through February are out of the question, no questions asked, no circumstances etc. i will not have a wedding during those months the end. You have permission to hold this against me when I get married in January, but don't hold your breath over it :)

I'm kind of old now, I need to finish school...but that's going to take me some time still and first some money meaning a job but I have a good four months to get myself to that point. I still say people will think I'm younger than Savanna -- I need to buy myself some nice classy high heels a cute outfit to go with it so I can seem older, i have a very casual, simple, easy-going (i look young) style but I could pretend that I'm old sometimes and get away from my flat third-grader style shoes -- I think I've always secretly fought against really growing up or seeming mature in my femininity (odd eh) anyway I'm short so I can wear high heels too, haha.

Was it Maddie's idea to have a party? It sounds like she thinks she's in college, we always had parties for no reason, or we would just come up with our own reasons. Garyn, in the Philippines you don't say Aloha, you say "Mabuhay!" Just look at the talk Elder Teh gave a couple of years ago in general conference, that is exactly how he started it, "Mabuhay from the Philippines..." The literal translation is "life" or "alive."

Whenever I meet children around Olivia's age, especially boys, I always say...oh my sister is just about the start the youth program also, but she is almost as tall as me and they are so shocked. They are all very surprised about how tall my sisters are. As for the sealing, I can't believe they waited all this time and then did it only four months before I come home! I told Julie ages ago that I should attend. I'm glad to hear they are alive, I talk about them all the time I realized, probably because I lived with them for a year and they were at school and work etc. I'm absolutely planning to write at least some response to all the people who have written me. This includes Aunt Molly, Uncle Scott, Aunt Amy and grandparents -- after that list I might try to get to others but I guess if they don't write me they are content with the emails if they read them so I'll see everyone in a couple of months and call it good.

Does anybody know Amanda's new last name? Not that it will help me out much, I also don't know her address but it's strange to not know her new last name, sheesh.

Well, my time is actually running out now so we're doing fine here in Darasa, we have a lot of help from our leaders and members and i enjoying just listening to the good lessons on Sunday, since usually I am the one teaching and even on Sunday before I was the one teaching and listening was as enjoyable in the first areas because I didn't understand even though i wasn't teaching so i would get sleepy and fight sleep by just writing all the words I didn't know, basically all of them. Now i participate and answer questions and learn from insights of others -- wow, how fabulous, haha.

I'm finishing up Alma and at a sprint to finish it all by June when we have our mission tour and then I'll start over again I suppose but maybe focus on Tagalog for my last little while here, a side by side reading.

My companion, i think, has found every spiritual thought in the Book of Mormon regarding being prepared to give for our companionship studies --she really enjoys those scriptures and i have noticed because of them how much it actually does talk about preparing ourselves or talk about other families preparing themselves, their foods, buildings, for travel -- being prepared is very important.

Okay, time is officially up so I'll try to work something out for calling and may end up checking email again or sending one to know the numbers so keep checking and send me a number I can call if I will need to do that first.

Ang Minamahal niyong Anak at Kapatid :) hehe Si Sister Landrum

Translation: The beloved daughter and sibling
Ang = The
Minamahal = Beloved
Anak = Daughter
Kapatid = Sibling

Email April 27th, 2009

2009-05-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

The pictures worked, kinda...it might just be this computer but they are really small and kind of hard to see but better than nothing! I have a good picture of how it all went, everyone was there it seems.

Sorry about the bad health, I've been praying for good health for all of you; especially dad. The weather has been strange here also. We have had continual rain and it's supposed to be the hot season -- I guess if it's "cold" here you would expect snow storms there even in April.

We have zone conference again this week, it's going by fast. Did you know that the sisters from my batch in other missions in the Philippines go home July 1? They go home the transfer before we should and I go home the transfer after. July 1 would be so much nicer, and in fact President said that if I wanted to I could work out going home also at that time; but of course I don't. I did however have this strange dream the other night that nobody was at the airport when I got home and I drove myself straight to BYU to try to find my old job but the buildings on campus had all been changed and I was lost. I'm sure I'll find some kind of work and in the end everything will work out fine, I also expect you will in fact be there at the airport and I don't know what kind of food I will want :)

We have a nine and seventeen year old here in our area with baptismal dates now, they will be baptized in May. I will be printing pictures later today (now that we got our support money again) so I should send more pictures within the next couple of days, sorry there aren't any letters. I actually have one sitting in our apartment not yet sent because I've yet to find the post office here. I think there isn't one in our actual area, we have to cross over into the Elder's area to send mail.

We did some bowling earlier, and they still are while we email so I'm kind of in a hurry. I got a strike my first go at it and they all chastised me for having said I was bad -- but I proved it to them all the other times when I got gutter balls :) haha. I miss the days of lane gates -- I remember I always wanted to go bowling when I was younger, I have no idea why, haha.
Thanks for the mail and all the support -- sorry this is kind of short.

I love you all

-Britney

Have a wonderful Thursday!

2009-05-07T08:57:00.001-07:00

Family Values - Strong among Filipinos

2009-05-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Filipinos highly value the presence of their families more than anything. Despite the liberal influence they have gotten from the west, the family remained the basic unit of their society. This trait clearly shows among Filipinos abroad who endure homesickness and tough work just to support their families back home.

In a traditional Filipino family, the father is considered the head and the provider of the family while the mother takes responsibility of the domestic needs and in charge of the emotional growth and values formation of the children. They both perform different tasks and being remarked separately by the children. Children see their mothers soft and calm, while they regard their fathers as strong and the most eminent figure in the family.

Because of this remarkable closeness, parents sometimes have difficulties letting go of their children and thus results to having them stay for as long as they want. For This somehow explains why grandparents are commonly seen living with their children in the Philippines. Unlike the way people grow old in the west where they are provided with outside homes and care giving, Filipino elderly enjoy their remaining lives inside their houses with their children and grandchildren looking after them.

Another trait Filipinos made themselves exceptional from others is their strong respect for elders. Children are taught from birth how to say “po” and “opo” to teach them as early as possible how to properly respect their elders. These words are used to show respect to people of older level. Even adults will be criticized for not using these words when speaking with their parents or people older than them. Inside the family, the parents are expected to receive the highest respect from the children along with the elder siblings; as they are given more responsibilities to look after younger siblings when parents are not around.
Children fighting back or addressing parents or elder siblings with an arrogant tone is not at all tolerated. They are also not allowed to leave the house without their parents’ permission. Upon arriving home, conservative families expect children to practice the kissing of hands or placing their parents or elder family members’ hand to their foreheads with the words “mano po” as a sort of greeting.

Even after finishing school, Filipino children are not obliged to get out of their homes unless they want to. In fact, most of them keep close relationship to their parents by staying at least before they get married. Leaving them only happens when they really have to, but usually, at least one child, depending on his willingness and financial capabilities, stay even after marriage to support and look after their aging parents.

Moreover, Filipinos keep close connection with other relatives. They recognize them from 2nd degree to the last they can identify. As Filipinos say, “not being able to know a relative is like turning their backs from where they come from.”.

Philippines Tourist Guide

2009-05-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

Culture

The Philippines has a unique blend of eastern and western cultures. While most of South East Asia necessarily is a blend of Chinese, Malay and Indonesian traits, Philippine culture has been marked by long periods of Spanish and subsequently American occupation.

Religion

One of the greatest impacts of the Spanish Period was the introduction of Christianity on the islands. Spanish clergy converted a large amount of Filipinos to the Roman Catholic faith. As a result, today the population is almost 92% Christian - of which an overwhelming majority of 83% are Roman Catholic, and 9% Protestant. About 5% of the population is Muslim and 3% are of Buddhist and other faiths.

Language

The Philippines is a linguistically diverse nation - there are almost one hundred and seventy two native languages and local dialects. The national language is Filipino, which is based on Tagalog. Tagalog was the national language during the American period. Filipino, with its basis in Tagalog, but containing elements of other local languages, was adopted as the national language in 1973. Both English and Filipino are promoted as official languages for the purposes of education, government and commerce. Apart from Tagalog, other dominant languages are Cebuano, Klokano, Hiligaynon, Bikol, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Kinaray-a, Maranao, Maguindanao and Tausug.

Cuisine

Philippine cuisine is as diverse as its people. There is Chinese Filipino food, such as pansit (noodles), lumpia (vegetables rolled in edible wrappers), siopao (steamed filled buns), siomai (dumplings). The Spanish introduced new flavors such as olive oil, paprika, saffron, ham, sausage and cheese into traditional food. Today Philippine food is an exotic blend of variations of Chinese, Spanish and Mexican dishes made with tropical local ingredients.

Music

Philippine music has influences as diverse as Christian religious church music, Indonesian Gamelan music and of course, the US period of occupation was significant in introducing American blues, folk and rock and roll. There was the origin of a new form of music called kundiman in the 1920s when traditional songs were sung in western ballads styles. In later times, Pinoy rock was a new form of fusion, with Freddie Aguilar being one of its most popular and successful proponents. Pinoy rock was used to motivate and unite protestors in popular uprisings in the 1980s - in fact Aguilar's 'Bayan Ko' became an anthem of the 1986 revolution.

Photos of Festival

2009-05-02T09:54:00.001-07:00

Buchi and Rabutan "Brit's favorite foods"

2009-05-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Email April 20th, 2009

2009-05-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hello, I checked my balance account in order to be safe and I am fairly sure I didn't use it all up...that's why I checked it, I just wanted you to know why my money is suddenly missing, we bought things for our apartment. We didn't have enough money here at the end of the month and after transfer day travels to buy all the things our apartment was lacking or that were disgusting like our mold covered half broken plates, so last preparation day we went to the mall and we bought plates and a shower curtain and a trash can and rags to wash dishes with etc. and we cleaned our apartment up all nice, it's very livable now. Don't worry, all the money I spent is refundable and the mission will give it back to me -- I just thought I would explain the great reduction in my account. In truth, it's a super nice apartment. It's my first apartment with a flushing toilet and a shower head, and there is very strong water pressure. The shower is still cold water but that's okay because we are in the deep heat of summer here (I can't believe it snowed only last week there! It's supposed to be April showers bring May flowers not April snow to kill the flowers, grabi).

Okay -- my last companion was very malambing which means very close or touchy or warm and fuzzy like, you know. As for calling each other by our first names, that's not allowed. We also are not supposed to call each other by only our surnames -- yet sometimes the American's in my district would do that and then I glare at them and ask if I am on a football team, and sometimes the Elder's in the office will call you by your first name because they see your mail and everything else all the time so they know all our first names -- but it's not really something we do or should we are Sister's and Elder's. As for my companions, let me try to remember their first names --

Sister Glazier-gay Mabalot
Sister Julie Odo
Sister Michelle Victorino
Sister Shanda Thompson
Sister Naomi Pasi
Sister LuDevina Jagnas
Sister Ruth Garcia

Sister Garcia is very good and obedient, extremely good at teaching and interacting with people (in part I expect due to having been a professor and teaching college students all day long), and loves to cook -- but we don't usually eat hot-dogs in the morning, yet we still eat hot-dogs. She is short, but not extremely short, and is from another Tagalog speaking region in the Philippines. It's nice to have a companion who speaks "real" tagalog, although hers has a lot of English in it because she's very good at English Tag-lish...because some of my other companions have different dialects and their language is also different -- but that's just what you get here if you want a truly common to all language it is actually English, the language of their government, schools, etc. and yet not even everyone knows that or is fluent in it. She corrects me when I'm wrong, which is helpful, but also tells me that I'm fluent now -- this I don't believe due to so many words I still do not know, but what makes you "fluent" anyway? There are tons of words I don't know in English and I also use incorrect English grammar and in fact probably understand Tagalog grammar better at this point than English grammar due to studying it -- hmmmm.

Did that answer all of your questions? We take a jeep or a bus if we go to district meeting and sometimes a trike if we go to far away areas but mostly we walk, as you said. I weighed myself last transfer day and one of the Elder's looked down at the scale and said "what, are you a philipina!" haha...except I'm still quite a bit larger than all of them and throughout my mission I have gained or lost eight pounds continually, I also have a bit of a gut more than before which in fact Andrea's brother warned me of because eating so much rice will go straight to your tummy even if that is not the regular palce in which you gain weight. I think I was at about 123 last I checked. So far they feed us a ton here and my companion likes cooking so I might come home with long kind of scraggly hair in need of a good styled hair cut, a slightly blotchy red face from a freakish break out that's been taking place along my jaw line for the past two months and a bit chubbier around the stomach but for the most part not really fat :) hehe who knows just don't be too shocked when you see me, I just don't know!

It's still so very far away so maybe my face will get worse or maybe improve and maybe I'll gain a lot of weight or just lose more than before due to some strange sickness I could pick up from the new area (let's hope I don't get sick) and maybe I will get so sick of my hair I'll get it chopped off at David's Salon where one of our ward missionaries works (but let's not bet on that, haha) anyway this is a lot of speculating about my appearances and kind of hilarious -- look where your question of my weight has taken us! hehe.

What is the best thing I have eaten? The cottage cheese the couples found and gave me, haha (joke) except it was really good. Ummm, there is a form of sticky rice that I really like, and pancit is okay -- I don't know if I could say I'm overly in love with their food style in all truthfulness it's not super tasty to me but it's not terrible either, I can't however think of any specific favorite dish. I really like Buchi, which is like a round ball of something sweet and also Shainghai which is deep fried pork or sometimes vegetables (kind of like an egg roll I guess) and I really like the bananas in wrappers, also deep fried. Oil is a big deal here and I expect to go back to not using it when I go home so as to help out my body a bit, haha, but I do like the things they cook using it. A fruit that I like which we don't have in the states -- rabutan which is red and has spiky like looking things on it and it's kind of like a huge grape.

Sorry -- I think I can't answer the question of whether I have enjoyed one companion more than another etc. but you can just think about it and guess for yourself and one day when I'm not here maybe I'll tell more stories, haha. We are going through our challenges of building up our investigator base and teaching lessons one all day long, but it's all good and the member's give us a lot of support. I really love our Bishop's family. We had family home evening with them last week and played games and Bishop gave a lesson then gave us an opportunity to share whatever we would like then we had dinner. After games there is a punishment. You have to give a talent if you lost. The Bishop's family loves music so they were all playing the guitar and singing and playing on their keyboard etc. -- it was very fun, I love music and playing and singing (even if I'm not particularly good at singing I love singing along and having OTHERS sing, haha).

Thanks for the letters and emails and support and hopefully all continues to go well for you there despite any trials that our economy or the evils of the world in general may bring -- we are safe in the church if we "follow the prophet," since we are "in a world where people are confused, if you don't believe me just go and watch the news..." I'm glad that is a part of a primary hymn by the way. Have you ever heard the hymns "The Time is Far Spent" or "Truth Reflects upon our senses" can I just inform you that they are two of the favorites here in the Philippines. It's very interesting, they have their own set of favorite hymns here and many are ones I don't know at all and in turn they are not familiar with some of my favorites like "Be Still My Soul." Okay, good bye for now

Love, Sister Landrum

Email April 13th, 2009 "Transfer to Darasa"

2009-05-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have spent my mission life separate from the city and the busy traffic and now I'm very near it. We are still in a little town a ways away but the main street of the town is a part of what seems to be the highway into the big city so there is plenty of traffic. It is a ward here and so far seems to be very established. We don't know too much about it yet, besides meeting the Bishop's family and a couple of ward missionaries because we spent Saturday and Sunday in Lipa for general conference. Today we are here in Lipa again to buy things for our apartment because it's greatly lacking in necessary items, meaning all the plates are covered in mold etc. Oh, by the way...the reason we don't know much about the area yet is because the Elder's were taken out and sister's put in -- because we are opening the area again the assistants and Elder Cheney (my batch and office elder) took us home to Darasa.

This was actually Elder Cheney's first area, and he was there for NINE months so he was very excited that his "batch" will be opening it up again and hopefully getting the work going strong here. My new companion is straight from the Manila MTC but as the few members we have met say "hindi halata" which means it's not recognizable that she's new...she is also 22 and the youngest of eight, the fifth to serve a mission. Oh yeah, so when the Elder's got to our apartment and opened it up Elder Winn said "wow, did they TRY to make it dirty!" and all of them immediately started sweeping up trash etc. it was kind of bad news. We in turn spent much of our first day cleaning then visiting some members, especially the Bishop to get to know the ward. The next day was conference and also the next and today is Monday, preparation day. Tomorrow our work will really start and we hope to get to know our area quickly and also quickly add to our investigator pool. Conference was very good. Elder Holland's talk was like a revised version of exactly what he said to us a little more than a year ago at the MTC and where my batch got the saying "Don't you dare abandon the Savior." He added some aspects and made his talk fit better for a general audience and it was amazing to hear again. I also continue to love listening to conference while on my mission because our prophets are missionaries. Elder Uchtdorf taught the entire lesson three that we teach "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" and it was so familiar to me, everything he said, plus I learned good things that I can use to teach it myself. I most especially liked how serious and stern our Prophet was in his last speech about avoiding certain evils that will destroy our lives and spirits and the lives of those around us -- I also have come to find myself teaching these same things with gravity of heart and deep sincerity for the importance of strictly following these principles in our lives and staying far from temptation.

Back to my companion, her name is Sister Garcia, pala. She had graduated from college (they graduate very early here -- ) and is now a professor of IT at the school she graduated from, something that most cannot become without a masters, she feels very blessed to have gained that job and provided also a way for her to serve a mission. As for the Moriones festival, I thankfully was not there for Friday - Sunday. As much as it might seem like a great memory to have seen the festival itself and the people who practice self harm for forgiveness and reinact the torture that our savior went though, I have no desire to see it or have a better image of it in my mind because I do not believe in that practice. We saw the soldiers and I even took some pictures but the main things happened Friday. We experienced it in a sense due to trying to travel that day -- everything was closed! People are quiet and don't do much. I never knew that what they believe is that Christ dies again each year and then lives again, and thus a day of mourning and a day of rejoicing to follow.

I know -- we'll just have a family gathering with food etc. and then you can do a question and answer session. I figure everyone individually will want to ask me some kind of question and probably I will repeat myself about some things so instead they could just ask me when we're all together and I'll answer to them all -- who knows maybe they won't have any questions -- anyway that's in a long time so whatever you plan I'll just follow along I don't think there is much else I can do, hopefully I still won't have jet-lag.

We're really busy today with buying things for our apartment and trying to finish cleaning etc. and tonight we'll have family home evening with the bishop and then start our work tomorrow so I'm going to leave my email here for now. Oh yea, since I'm here in the city area and very close to the mission home compared to my other areas I might get my mail more often, but I don't know. Also, your package came. I actually knew that last week but still didn't have it. President called us to ask permission to open it because something had broken inside -- that would be the salsa! Oops, but thanks for the effort, don't worry I'm appreciative of the rest and was able to give the ties directly to the people who will give them to the soon to be missionaries because we were all there at transfers. I am also here where there is a mall so I just bought myself some salsa and will make myself some beans and salsa, hooray! Anyway -- that's about all for now.

Love, Britney

Email April 4th, 2009 "Happy Easter"

2009-05-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, although there really isn't Easter here. We do, however, have Holy Week. This also is not that significant unless you are in Pola Mindoro or on the other island Maranduque. I happen to be in Pola Mindoro. It started this morning and goes until the final event on Sunday. I almost wonder if you could find pictures of it online. They all dress up in Roman soldier costumes with scary masks and march around the town. Other people engage in "fasing" in which they drink a lot and cause harm to their bodies then cover our white cemetary in red, they also have an enactment of the crucifiction among other things. I've heard MANY stories about it and only now started to see it. I happen to be grateful in some ways that I will not be here for the final days because I am transferred OFF the island. My district mates said that they were "voting me off," Haha. I have been here on the island longer than anyone else here, however, so I guess it's appropriate but I have no idea what's in store for me! Crazy. Due to the extreme traditions in my particular area we have in fact been teaching about the resurrection and about the atonement and the importance of true repentance and Godly sorrow not personal suffering, to everyone we meet. I think I've easily made Maddie's goal of sixteen. The problem of this particular week is that we need to be careful on the streeets and I will be transferred so we'll be traveling and thus I don't know how much I will be teaching.

I am sad that I will not see the baptism of some of the families I am teaching -- this is my first area where I have really taught families and had them progress but at least they will be baptized, that is what's important. I also feel like time will really fly by now with transfers and a new area to learn. Before I know it I'll be transferred home (the scariest transfer ever!) Speaking of that, I forgot to ask you something very important. I was given my letter from Salt Lake about going home and need to send back to them all of my information and also which airport I will be flying into . It sounds like my options are Boise and Salt Lake. From what I hear if I go to Boise I will still go to Salt Lake first and just have a lay over there before I fly to Boise -- but I'm not positive how it all works. It depends on you in the end but I won't lie - I like the idea of flying into Salt Lake, espeically if I'll stop by there anyway, because I'll feel more like I actually came home.

As for this family picnic of sorts, when would you be planning it anyway? I don't know what I would say! It's hard to be put on the spot, okay so you've already thought that I would think all of this or say it and thus you explained your intentions and asked nicely -- I still don't know exactly what I would say. How do you sum up a year and a half of your life anyway? It's not really like anything I would have expected and in other ways similar to what I thought. Sometimes I'm very curious about how other missions and even the mission of my friends who are here vary due to being in different areas with different companions etc. -- so much determines our experiences. I do see how each of my personal experiences have been meant to help me help others and myself. The monumental thing in the end is me encased in a cement box of sorts. This coming from the fact that my entire mission I feel as though I have been sitting in soft cement and slowly being pushed in deeper and deeper until it gets hard and I am covered by a hard case of my beliefs, standards and behaviors. There are many things that will still change about me but there are so many things that have become engrained into me now that weren't so much before or really only on the surface of my life. While at college I wasn't very directed. I was a "hard worker" through high school and I thought about a lot of things and what I wanted in my life but I still had to figure out what was really important to me in the end. I went through a bit of a hard time there my second year of college and in a way it all helped me to decide to serve a mission. I also had many learning experiences at my job for the counselors, EFY, working on an island all summer and these things helped me see many lifestyles and make other decisions for my life. I needed this time to really become focused and I know that everything will go better than it did before once I return -- although I don't know what will happen or what challenges will come to me I have much greater faith than I did before and understand the importance of many things about my life that I didn't consider before either.

You know what one thing I really left behind? Dancing. I'm not super talented at dancing but I have always loved to dance. I probably spent too much time just taking dance classes in college because I could. I'm not sure what I'll do in the end with that anymore because I've lost a lot of my flexibility and those things I knew and it will be hard to start over but I think that it's good for me as exercise and enjoyment but I will need to focus on other things, but we'll see right? I'm really excited to study religion again, haha. I'm glad I go to a church school. I'll basically be a missionary again, I'll probably take Tagalog and religion my first semester :) haha.

Okay, well I'll have a lot of news next week again about where I have been moved to and who my new companion is. It's too bad the pictures of Sister Jagnas still haven't made it to you and now she won't even be my companion, that shows just how fast that went.The other day the couples were here to check apartments and they took us home from the place where we did email. While riding in the car Sister started talking about what she's seen us do in this area...she said, "you've really left your mark here Sister Landrum, we're proud of you." It kind of caught me off gaurd since that's dad's poem and the pens he gave me. I'm not sure what mark I left but I hope that I have become more like our Savior and that I have left his love in the hearts of those I've met -- I want to leave His mark.-

Love Sister Landrum

March 29th, 2009

2009-04-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well hello again. Sounds like everyone had a good week and Garyn is super lucky like Savanna and won't spend college and all of high school with braces :) haha. We were busy this last week with zone conference. Elder Winn informed me that Savanna has not written me again, he checks my mail :) haha...not really on purpose but they are the mail sorters. Did Maddie and Savanna write Elder cheney and Elder winn letters? I think they are both still waiting for letters so i still think you should :) haha.

Conference was really good. We have a lot of people going home, including two of our couples and three of our assistants, so it was kind of emotional. Time is going ridiculously fast for me. I was really shocked to realize it was March and now it's over! Wow, i can't believe it seriously. They worked the board yesterday so I will know next Monday if i am transferred or not. It's very up in the air. PResident did ask me at interviews about how long i've been here and how my companion is doing with the area and at conference he told my companion to learn the area well.
It is VERY summer here again - wow. I think I forgot after all the months of fairly nice weather just how hot it gets here and just how much I am capable of sweating.

On Sunday we were happy to have some of our hopeful baptisms attend church for the first time. We committed one to baptism but he isn't yet sure, but he showed up to church so that is progress, he even knew many of the people at church. We taught him lesson three which is the gospel of Jesus Christ and I hadn't specifically planned to commit him to baptism yet but the spirit was really strong as we taught so we listened. He is still going to pray about it but we are hopeful.

A note of culture -- or something...all of the children are very skilled in creating their own kites and they fly them all day long. At almost any time you can look high up into the sky and there is a kite flying high...and i am amazed at how high they get! They have ones shaped like bees or bats etc. and the very little children make their own very small ones. I'm not sure what they make them out of, it's very thin plastic like paper and they use bamboo sticks which they carve down to be smaller. it's kind of scary tos ee a seven year old carving down a stick using a curved knife as long as he is :) haha. THey have another game they play here where they use one of their fip-flops as a base and one as a "ball" of sorts and they throw it to each other, kick it and run. They catch spiders and hav ethemf ight here like in my last area but they don't seem to have the bettles here that they would attatch to string like in my first area.

Carin sent me a letter. She said she talked with you on the phone. I guess the house you rented is not the one I was imagining. I don't know much about theo ther house but it's closer to the apartments and is the only girls house now in my old ward. Carin willb e moving, however, I don't know if by choice or if she just didn't sign up for an apartment on time :) She's planning to live close anyway. Does Savanna plan to go find work their early, start school, what?

We are teaching another family who has heard some "bad things" about the church, things not even my companion knew. I might have talked about this already. My companion is also new to the church and until here she didn't know anything about Jospeh smith having multiple wives or much about polygamy besides Brigham Young. I personally do not either -- at least not any details. WEll, somehow our investigators heard something about this and they were concerned. Their neighbors also told them that we are a cult.

I didn't feel overly concerned about answering these questions, but we prayed a lot and i did some studying on the matter myself. Once there we simply asked them about their prayers and reading from the Book of Mormon. We explain that our church is christian and we also askedt hem what their understanding of a cult is -- and if they feel what we have taught them fits there. They basically answered their own questions ont hat matter. As for the many wives. I went witht he Abraham approach and we also discussed God having him sacrifice his son which goes against hte laws of God but if it is commanded of God it is from him and we must follow until told to stop. They also understood very well how Abraham had his two sons from different wives which populated the earth. This discussion came more about fromtheir own questions and reasoning -- I didn't go into it to much. Then our investigator said "so it's kind of like with nephi also how he was told to kill someone..." i knew she had been reading but she hadn't told us much about her reading yet, she picked up on that all on her own and we were able to relate the Book of Mormon, bible, and current church all together. In thee nd they had no problemswith our explanation of polygamy in the early church, less than I even expected and after our visit was another of those times where my companion informed me my Tagalog was very clear -- God helps us as we do ourp art to continue to study and pray and the truth is very evident to the open mind and heart.

I'm ready to close now, so i'll talk to you next week and you shall know if i am leaving the island or not! hmmmm?

Sister Landrum

March 22nd, 2009

2009-04-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

All right, well I've thought about going home some -- and it's funny that you mention some of the things you do because I began to feel that way a little bit (concerning the complacency of people) before I left and feel that way very much here even with some missionaries and do wonder what life will be like when I return...but at least I have learned a LOT of patience compared to how I was before so I guess that will be a perk in overcoming discouragements.

I'm not perfect by any means but I really do have high standards for myself and probably higher ones for whoever I might marry...if I marry someone. (p.s. happy 23rd right? yes 23 because I am 22...!!!)

Having companions has helped me to learn how to work with different levels of commitment and obedience and I am thankful for that. However, it's amazing how easy it is to decide you can lower your standards in very "jusitfiable" little ways so that other people willl get along with you or like you better, so that there will be peace and you think "well that's okay because it's important also to have others happy with you and etc. etc." but in the end we should always put God first and he does not lower his standards for us depending on situations, we have to find a way to live up to his requirement and do so in a way that hopefully helps others, that is not prideful, of course in a very humble and patient and full of love way and yet all you do is not good enough for everyone and everyone will be always be pleased with you -- but God's standards are still more important, right? It's amazingly easy to question that, to wonder what He really wants of us in each situation...to wonder what strict obedience and exact performance means and "become perfect even as I..."

I'm trying to live the standards I truly want in my life and making reasonable goals that I know God wants for me and that I should seek after but I wonder if that will cause me a problem when it comes to sharing standards daily with someone for eternity? I'm good at going it alone -- but learning to do it while living with others is a unique challenge. I enjoyed reading all of Jesus the Christ which opened my mind to many things I should do and can do and needed to change.
I have lived with many different people and dealt with many different situations and have messed up and have also done what I think is the best and felt I did well in it.

I hope that in the end someone, especially those I don't expect and that I've maybe only met once or talked to a couple of times, will find themselves blessed by the gospel one day and in some way I will have had a part in it and that's what my mission was in part all about, and the other part in preparing me to follow all that God will have me do as my life unfolds and being ready to serve in each calling I am given.

Well, we're running out of time so I'll leave you there. Don't worry about me, we are safe and for the most part always healthy and I am happy in my trials and my triumphs because I know that God has a perfect plan for me and all we experience is for us to eventually become what we should, even the times when we fall or forget are meant to help us stand up and remember.

Love, Sister Landrum

Email March 15th, 2009

2009-04-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

Transfer day we ate at Pizza Hut! It's too expensive here for our budget or the money of any of my companions and we had a long and exhausting first day together with traveling back and forth and standing in the heat and smoke waiting for a bus and then staying over night at the sisters house in San Pablo instead of going back to the island and then travelled more the next day. So, amidst all our travel we made it to a big city where they have a mall and we ate pizza hut and I paid for it with the card...we were full and happy and I've never really liked pizza hut pizza that much but I ate noodles and it wasn't all that bad :) Anything is amazing compared to the food we manage to find ourselves and cook in Pola, however. I don't remember if I told you about the crab I ate...it was gross and I never want to eat crab again -- actually it was kind of tasteless but I think my big thing is smell and texture...if either are bad I don't want to swallow :) I may have already told you that, however...besides that the food is just vegetables and rice and sometimes spaghetti with hot-dogs. I eat oatmeal most mornings with powder milk and bananas if I can find some to buy.

As for persecution -- I probably haven't really mentioned persecution because we're not supposed to talk about "problems" in letters or emails so much and so I try to avoid it as much as possible. As for persecution, something I find very interesting is that many people know our church as the "rich" church and members seem to be persecuted and others don't want to join because they say it's for rich people and all the people are rich in our church. Of the three of our new members there is a bit of a story for each. One of them has her family tell her that she reads too much from the Book of Mormon and that she shouldn't join if she's not going to change (whenever she does anything that's not "perfect") because if she's a part of a church that means she's perfect now, right? It's kind of the same story with our other new member who has her family telling her there is no such thing as God and she can go to church and read all she wants but she's still not changing either and that it depends on our own hard work whether we will be happy and rich or not, not on God. They also told her that if she goes around sharing with other people these things people will think she's crazy and make fun of her. Maybe that is true because with our other member who often does work with us he has people tell out to him "Brother "name " " or "pastor..."name"" and laugh at their good "joke." These are only small trials, things they must overcome and for a season they feel alone but we are helping to to reach out to God through it so they can find peace and joy and companionship through God and his spirit and the power of Christ in our lives.

We have zone interviews tomorrow and so I will get mail...I know I have a letter from Savanna waiting (and hopefully they brought it) but who knows what else. I am slightly interested about mom's full lenghth version of the prom story she promised in a letter because it sounds more interesting than just "Garyn got dressed up and went to prom" but who knows. It's kinda of funny that my two younger sisters pretty much look like they are older than me -- I think most people would guess that at this point -- and I hear Olivia is even as tall or maybe taller than me. Sa Bagay she's about twelve now right and that's when i stopped getting taller -- i was very tall back then and everyone else kept growing! I'm tall here though -- except our new American Elder is 6'6 or something -- he's so tall. I think it might not have shocked if me if I'd seen him in America but now i'm used to short people and he is just ridiculously tall!

We have a good district. We all seem to be working hard and have a desire to do well and be obedient -- I don't know how long I'll be here at this point, maybe I'll get an idea tomorrow at interviews. Each of my areas have been so different, full of different people, different culture and food and even their language slightly different and different challenges in the wards and branches that I don't know what to expect if I go somewhere else.

I have been teaching the doctrine and covenants class to the youth or young single adults or combined or whoever needs a sunday school class etc. This week I ended up with four young-men ranging from 13-17 and we discussed section 20 about their duties, they recited the sacrament prayers for me in Tagalog and tried in English -- they have a desire to serve mission at this point. We talked about the future of the church in their country and in their city and how important their decisions are now. I noticed that the line "invite others to come unto Christ" is there in section twenty as it describes the duties of our young priesthood leaders, that is the opening line of "my purpose" in preach my gospel for all missionareis, taken right from the duties of thep preiesthood. I told them about why even as a female it is a blessing for me to serve and talked about how it is a part of their duty and we talked about what their preisthood means to them. I think I feel a lot more prepared after all my interesting experiences in life to have sons, if i even do. Before camps, and EFY and serving a mission I didn't have a lot of experience with young teenage boys :)

It has been interesting having a native companion again. She notices things that I don't and neither did my companions. She knows when I speak correctly or not and sometimes after our lessons, as we are walking away, she will tell me that she was surprised by my Tagalog, that I spoke more clearly and straight and she seems to notice when our investigators react emotionally to what I'm saying in correspondence with when I speak more correctly. Sometimes that spirit really fixes up my speaking but I don't seem to notice as much as she does when I'm right or wrong -- to me it's just trying to talk and trying to say what I'm supposed to.
I was appreciative for the activity we did at district meeting. We had questions we had to answer from the Book of Mormon that are frequently asked by investigators given to us and three minutes to find an answer. These include, "is the law of moses still intact" "I don't need religion to be saved only faith in Christ" "why don't you use the sign of the cross" etc...and I was surprised also at how quickly we all found very good answers and more surprised when my question "I don't need religion to be saved..." was asked to me a couple days later -- I was quite ready. My answer was slightly different to her than it had been at our meeting but the basics were the same.

Well, I'm about done now and need to leave so thanks for the emails and Love from me Sister Landrum.

Email March 8th, 2009

2009-04-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'm glad that my mail made it to the house -- even if it took a while. I do try to be more diligent in writing letters and in being good about my information in email and letters. As for writing mostly spiritual things in email and "logistics" in letters I'm not sure how I could sort it out. Sometimes the business gets put in emails because it's faster and my emails aren't full of spirituality, but then my hand written letters don't really happen. I'll admit that having to write my letters and do my emails only on Monday and at a speicific time makes it somewhat forced sometimes, I guess I just can't always be in a story telling mood or have that be what's on my mind. I found writing letters so much morep leasing and relaxing before my mission -- this is not complaining I still enjoy writing letters and I have a lot to say but anyway I'll just continue on as I do and I hope it works out for everyone.

We have spent a week working in Pola as a companionship and all is going well. Sister Jagnas is a recent convert. She had been a member for one year and ten months before her mission. Before the missionaries taught her she was a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo Church, a very prominent church here in the Philippines. It is very interesting to hear her insights from the change and her insider perspective. Each companion is so very, very different -- there is simply no comparing them they are just different. She is also 22, a month older than me. She has been on her mission for three transfers, I have four transfers left of my mission. I don't like counting in transfers -- that's a super small number. I saw sister Thompson also at transfers and she informed me that her family is getting "Trunky" for her and even told here that her flight plans had come, she still has two transfers left, however.

I have a few questions about the apartment -- will we have a car and did they ask you if you would like to reserve a parking space because if we do have a car I definitely want a parking space reserved, the sticker is $40.00 or something like that. Also, does the house come with Internet like the apartments or no? Anyway, I guess I can't do much about either at this point so all is well -- and continually strange.

I was doing some stretching the other day and realized that I have lost a LOT of my flexibility in my legs while here on the mission. Probably because I do so much walking so the muscle has been building in some places without the proper stretching to go with it and overall my exercise is limited to none. Well, hopefully my flexibility returns. I guess I may have lost physical flexibilty but I've gained mental and spiritual flexibility and firmness so it's a good trade. It's great how almost all concepts, or all, can be applied in gospel terms. As our body requires us to become strong and firm while equally stretching or else we will be in pain, in mental and spiritual lives must be strengthened and firm but also be open and flexible -- what I mean is that we must stand and not waver in our faith and in our testimony but we must also eventually learn to see and think as God does which is fully open, he sees and understands all and each perspective and there is no limit, and yet as mortals aour thoughts and our vision is so straight and narrow and not open. There is an importance balance in our lives to being "open minded" to matters and yet firm in our standards.

Our district is wonderful, I really like our new district here. Our district leader is training and he goes home the same time I do. His companion is American and so his Tagalog is very "beginner" and I am glad that I am beyond that :) The other two elder's are both new, they re-opened the area and one of them is Sister Jagnas's batch coming into the mission, American, and with only three transfers here is better at the language than almost anyone I know -- he also speaks spanish which is a great help to him. HIs companion is from the middle east, I believe, but his father is Filipino so he looks like everyone from here. We have good uplifiting meetings and I can feel that everyone wants to work hard and help their areas improve and help their companionships -- continue learning the language etc. We have three Americans again in my distrcit and we are all at very different stages of learning, another things that is interesting to see. Sister Jagnas said that in just the week we have been together my accent has improved -- she informed me the other day that I don't sound as American anymore. It is hard when your companions have all been American -- and besides being with her now I still have a terrible accent but people understand me.

At this point I do know the area and the people fairly well -- sometimes it's hard because I'm not sure where else to try finding people becuase I know all the places we have taught before or we were rejected at the doorstep. That's why transfers are good sometimes, get new eyes to try the same old houses again because eventually the people there will be ready.

OH yes, since Savanna is going to live there, what exactly does she plan to do there? Just wondering -- maybe her letter answered it but I still need to wait another week and a half to read it.

As for Amanda's news, I guess they decided against what she originally told me and they are getting married in April (better choice school wise).

Okay, well thanks for all of the letters and support and working hard and going to school and reading your scriptures. I'll write again on Monday.

-Sister Landrum

New area; Darasa

2009-04-13T13:11:00.001-07:00

Britney has been trasnfered to a new area. She stayed on the Island of Mindoro for a long time. She is now on the mainland again not far from the mission home. She is now training a new missionary in Darasa which is just north of Lipa. She sounds excited to be there but I am sure she will dearly miss Pola.

Picture Update!

2009-04-05T11:50:00.001-07:00

Britney on some table

Britney at an abandoned house

At the "candy" house

They mostly travel in these Jeeps...sometimes people even ride on top.

At a Catholic Shrine

Elders and Sisters stranded on an Island

I think she likes being stranded on this island

Eating with her hands off of a banana leaf

P day at Fantasy Land

March 2nd, 2009

2009-03-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hello again -- I am a bit shocked about the apartment thing! Eeeks...I can't believe it's already booked. I guess it is around March and April that they start re-doing apartments for the following year but I also can't believe that as of yesterday it is March. It snuck up on me and I haven't even sent Andrea's birthday card yet, and her birthday is tomorrow so it will be late like all my others have been.

At transfers I got some letters. Maddie mentioned that Savanna wrote me a letter in one of hers, in response to her birthday card, and yet I didn't get the letter from Savanna. Maybe she never sent it?

Okay, back to the house thing...it will be different to live in the house. I had friends and visit taught someone before that lived there and it's a nice enough place so I have no concerns, it will be interesting. As for Carin. I also received a letter from her but she still doesn't seem to have gotten my letter about apartments to help me, but that's okay because you took care of it now. I get the feeling that if they are all booked up she has already signed up for her own apartment and she has many other friends and roommates who she will be staying with. Its good enough to be in the same ward again -- if that's what she has decided to do and will be living there next year.

That's funny that he remembered me -- there were two different ones that worked in the office. The one also served his mission in the Philippines, the other one is family, I think, of the owners and is married now so he no longer actually lives in the apartments.

It definitely takes stress away, so thanks, but adds to it at the same time. Only in the moment. My heart jumped when I read it -- an apartment already there waiting for me and Savanna is going to live with me? My life will be so strange and different I don't know what to do with myself. Then there is a job to find and start and money to gather and school to get serious about, now that I'm kind of old I have a lot of decisions to make that are somewhat important. I feel less stress in other ways now that I have served a mission. I feel more directed and more patient with my life and at the same time more driven towards specific goals and flexible at the changes life brings daily.

It does seem very far away, except it's not. As for the close thing, this culture has definitely accustomed me to closeness. My companions from here mostly all like to hold onto your arm or hand and things like that etc. and when we travel anywhere there are five people sitting on you, basically, and someone tends to fall asleep on your shoulder that you've never met before.
As for my new companion -- she is coming from my last area, she's the one that replaced me when I left and Sister Victorino trained her so we had the same companion and lots of people that we both know because she was in that same ward. She is from another area in the Philippines, southern, where they speak a different language but they also learn English and Tagalog in school and she's very talkative, we've done a lot of talking and I'm sure that my Tagalog will improve while we are companions.

I enjoyed all the emails and find it very funny that both my parents are bloggers now. It was something I never did. I did the facebook thing, but even there I never posted blogs. The closest I got to blogs was the email I always sent to everyone. It is addictive, isn't it? I'm not sure how much I'll try to get into it when I get home because of that, there are too many other things I need to try to accomplish, haha! I hope you continue having a good time doing it. All right, so I'm sorry that I'm ending here but we are late to go somewhere and the place we are emailing cuts you off at time and it's flashing at me that my time is up. I hope that you have gotten a letter form me now and if now -- I think one is coming.

I'll write more about my week away from my area and with another companion that happened last week in a hand written letter. I enjoyed a good prearation day with all the youth from my first branch and spoke in tagalog with the president and Leaonard who still sounds like he's planning for his mission and his mother will be baptized soon! Okay bye it's going to cut off!

Email March 8th, 2009

2009-03-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm glad that my mail made it to the house -- even if it took a while. I do try to be more diligent in writing letters and in being good about my information in email and letters. As for writing mostly spiritual things in email and "logistics" in letters I'm not sure how I could sort it out. Sometimes the business gets put in emails because it's faster and my emails aren't full of spirituality, but then my hand written letters don't really happen. I'll admit that having to write my letters and do my emails only on Monday and at a speicific time makes it somewhat forced sometimes, I guess I just can't always be in a story telling mood or have that be what's on my mind. I found writing letters so much more pleasing and relaxing before my mission -- this is not complaining I still enjoy writing letters and I have a lot to say but anyway I'll just continue on as I do and I hope it works out for everyone.

We have spent a week working in Pola as a companionship and all is going well. Sister Jagnas is a recent convert. She had been a member for one year and ten months before her mission. Before the missionaries taught her she was a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo Church, a very prominent church here in the Philippines. It is very interesting to hear her insights from the change and her insider perspective. Each companion is so very, very different -- there is simply no comparing them they are just different. She is also 22, a month older than me. She has been on her missoin for three transfers, I have four transfers left of my mission. I don't like counting in transfers -- that's a super small number. I saw sister Thompson also at transfers and she informed me that her family is getting "Trunky" for her and even told here that her flight plans had come, she still has two transfers left, however.

I have a few questions about the apartment -- will we have a car and did they ask you if you would like to reserve a parking space because if we do have a car I definitely want a parking space reserved, the sticker is $40.00 or something like that. Also, does the house come with Internet like the apartments or no? Anyway, I guess I can't do much about either at this point so all is well -- and continually strange.

I was doing some stretching the other day and realized that I have lost a LOT of my flexibility in my legs while here on the mission. Probably because I do so much walking so the muscle has been building in some places without the proper stretching to go with it and overall my exercise is limited to none. Well, hopefully my flexibility returns. I guess I may have lost physical flexibilty but I've gained mental and spiritual flexibility and firmness so it's a good trade. It's great how almost all concepts, or all, can be applied in gospel terms. As our body requires us to become strong and firm while equally stretching or else we will be in pain, in mental and spiritual lives must be strengthened and firm but also be open and flexible -- what I mean is that we must stand and not waver in our faith and in our testimony but we must also eventually learn to see and think as God does which is fully open, he sees and understands all and each perspective and there is no limit, and yet as mortals aour thoughts and our vision is so straight and narrow and not open. There is an importance balance in our lives to being "open minded" to matters and yet firm in our standards.

Our district is wonderful, I really like our new district here. Our district leader is training and he goes home the same time I do. His companion is American and so his Tagalog is very "beginner" and I am glad that I am beyond that :) The other two elder's are both new, they re-opened the area and one of them is Sister Jagnas's batch coming into the mission, American, and with only three transfers here is better at the language than almost anyone I know -- he also speaks spanish which is a great help to him. His companion is from the middle east, I believe, but his father is Filipino so he looks like everyone from here. We have good uplifiting meetings and I can feel that everyone wants to work hard and help their areas improve and help their companionships -- continue learning the language etc. We have three Americans again in my distrcit and we are all at very different stages of learning, another things that is interesting to see. Sister Jagnas said that in just the week we have been together my accent has improved -- she informed me the other day that I don't sound as American anymore. It is hard when your companions have all been American -- and besides being with her now I still have a terrible accent but people understand me.

At this point I do know the area and the people fairly well -- sometimes it's hard because I'm not sure where else to try finding people becuase I know all the places we have taught before or we were rejected at the doorstep. That's why transfers are good sometimes, get new eyes to try the same old houses again because eventually the people there will be ready.

OH yes, since Savanna is going to live there, what exactly does she plan to do there? Just wondering -- maybe her letter answered it but I still need to wait another week and a half to read it.

As for Amanda's news, I guess they decided against what she originally told me and they are getting married in April (better choice school wise).

Okay, well thanks for all of the letters and support and working hard and going to school and reading your scriptures. I'll write again on Monday.

-Sister Landrum

URGENT! I need to contact Carin

2009-02-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

Britney mentioned getting ahold of Carin, her roomate from Campus Plaza. If anyone reading this knows how to get in touch with her will you please have her call me ASAP @ 208-431-8505. It is VERY urgent.

Mike

Email February 22nd, 2009

2009-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hello again...I didn't email early as in not on Monday, we just emailed earlier in the day. If you email me on Saturday or early Sunday it will always get to me, however :) We are emailing early again because we are here in my first area, Lemery, and about to go on an activity with all of the youth. Everyone who has seen me so far just keeps saying, "oh, you speak tagalog now!" haha...thank-goodness right? I may still speak choppy, actually, but at least I know what's going on now. One of the Elder's told me the other day, "you may still not be perfect, but nobody can sell you now." It's kind of strange translated into English but that's what he said.

I am in Lemery because I'm working in the area right next to it with another sister who'se companion also went home. We are working here until this Friday when I will get my new companion -- there are very few choices, not many sisters were transferred, but I still have no idea who it will be!

I'm having a very hard time typing, actually, because I decided it was a good idea to chop my finger off in the fan earlier today. It's not really chopped off but it hurts super bad and it bleeding all undernearth the nail, the middle finger on my right hands to be precise. I guess I should be smart enough to not turn the fan while it's still on, but I've done it some many times successfully! Gargh.

As for my exact date, I'm really guessing in a sense because they haven't given me my "trunk" letter yet which you get at about six months left...but I know the transfer is on the 12th of August so I leave on the plane the Wedenesday before that and because of the time difference arrive there that Thursday maybe or even Wedensday your time...probably Thursday actually but I really don't know, sorry. It's that week for sure, however.

As for school, I sent Carin an email and asked about campus plaza and if she would like to live with me again or knows of any openings. Hopefully I get a reply at transfers, if not I still don't know. I would like to just live there again because it's close to campus and a pretty good rate/ I like the people even though most of them are married now :) It would be great for Savanna to live with me and the institute program for non-students is fabulous, they feed you after every week and some people just went to get free dinner I think, but still got spiritually fed :)
It really is a difficult time for me to be coming home, I would like to early some money first, but hopefully I find a good job, or I'm thinking two! Since I have to take classes to stay enrolled I will take a Tagalog, religion and maybe dance class to get myself in shape again and try saving up enough money. If I need a loan for tuition I'll do it -- eeeek...and having a car would be fabulous since you live rather far away and even doing anything is more difficult without one. I don't like thinking about it, and probably did a lot more because my companion was going home, and I'm trying to be more full of faith and not scared about what will happen to me but I really wanted to try convincing president that I should just stay here as my eternal calling -- I know he won't agree and I do miss a couple of things -- like good lasagna and mexican food...and maybe my family too :) hehe.

We had another baptism last week, it went well also. She is the daughter of our recent member and the first one we ever contacted in their family -- it just took her a little longer than her mother to get ready.

That's about all I have as far as news and thoughts this week. I'm glad you are also enjoying your scripture reading along with my mission -- haha. Someone said in a devotional that it is good to have your blank scriptures, ones that you just read through without any interruptions so the revelation can flow and not be influenced by your past revelation which you have written and marked. I like the idea and do like to read straight sometimes and will probably buy myself another set of blank scriptures when I come home.

Good luck with everything and continue persuading Savanna that she needs to live with me first and it will be a great time -- hopefully ;) I'll tell you all about my new companion next week.

Love
Sister Landrum

Email February 15th, 2009 (#2)

2009-02-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hello again...I've been checking out the BYU website while waiting to see if you would email me before we leave but there still isn't anything so I thought I'd just write another short letter of sorts to make of for my lack of hand written ones (?) sorry...they are coming :)

By the way, President gave me permission to look at the site to check when I need to register etc. He said that BYU sent him a sign to form so that I can start school again and that told me that I need to plan to start school again in September -- that's going to be crazy! Well, I think I leave the Philippines August 9-11 and I'm not sure what that means about which date I get home, but that's an awfully LONG ways away so I'm not worrying about it too much, just looking at the BYU page...haha. There wasn't a lot there for me yet, however...I'll probably look again in April I think that's when I can register.

I'll get my sixth companion in the field on Friday and I hope that our work just continues to progress. I feel that's what has happened with my last couple of companions, it just keeps getting better. My transfers with sister pasi have definitely been high finding ones. We usually find more than twenty new investigators a week and talk to more, of course. With sister Victorino I probably reached my highest lessons in one week -- somewhere around 40. Our missions standard is twenty and that's not counting recent member and less active lessons. We've been good and busy, besides teaching a good twenty new people lessons one and all about Joseph Smith and the riches of the Book of Mormon in our lives we get at least more than five LARC (and one week our goal of ten recent member and less active lessons) plus 25-30 other lessons taught -- it's busy here in Pola and I think I know almost all of the people in this small town (not even close, but it sure seems that way!) I can't tell from what president said at interviews if I will be here for six more weeks or for twelve -- if twelve I really might know all of the people in Pola :)

We had our new member give a talk at our baptism on Saturday and he did amazing. He had it all written out and read it and I was surprised by him. Even President Marco (our branch president) said it was a really beautiful baptism.

Sister Pasi and I spoke again on Sunday. Here we speak in sacrament meeting every third week -- I had no idea what I wanted to speak on this week until that morning before we left. I talked about missionary work my first time, the book of Mormon the second and this time I took a strange route and went for the importance of our agency in this life and how to use our time wisely. Our area has a gambling problem and I had been trying to think of how to address it but nothing was coming. I was planning to speak on recognizing the spirit and seeking answers but that morning it just jumped out at me to speak on agency and in a sense the not gambling thing fit well into it. Sister Pasi ended up speaking on making goals in our lives, like going on a mission or getting to the temple and in the end both our talks were almost exactly what President had planned to speak on, their goals for having a chapel here next year, getting to the temple, sending out missionaries etc. and choosing to do those things that will get us there. It's amazing how when you pray for help and just act the things you need to help others just come out perfectly. I can tell when I'm speaking on what I was really meant to because it seems to flow out better, even with my sometimes choppy Tagalog.

Well, Sunday night we went to teach a new member lesson to a family that was baptized just before I came to the area and they were there with two of their friends who are members of a different church and have been trying to convince our new members to join them. He had some questions for us so we asked if we could start by teaching him our first lessons and promised it would answer some of his questions. He took time to explain his position, but would also listen and didn't have a contentious spirit which was nice, he also thanked us for the same, he seemed to be expecting us to debate with him as many other religions try to. I have really been praying for help in using the Book of Mormon in each of my lessons and trying to have faith that although I may not know all the scriptures by memory and perfectly that as i diligently study and ponder them the promise that what each needs in each moment will be brought to my mind to teach them through the spirit. I really felt that happened in this lesson. It seemed each question he brought up came with a new scripture pressing into my mind and although I wasn't sure where that scripture was or rarely used it I was able to find them all quickly and use the Book of Mormon to teach him our doctrine and principles.

We also met a new family the last couple of weeks who we are thinking will progress. At our last lesson the father came home drunk so we ended promptly and left with a promise to return. As we were closing up his wife started telling me that at our first visit he had told her he thought maybe our lessons and our church would be what helps him change because he really wants to. At at the same time he was telling sister pasi that he really wants to change and that we should come back "tomorrow" we told him a couple times that we couldn't return "tomorrow" but would come back. Even while drunk he knew he didn't want to be. I told sister that his desire is the first good step, many don't have it, and that I know our message will help them change their lives. That's who we're looking for, people who want to change their lives for the better, and I know as I have seen it in my own life, even in small ways, that we change as we learn faith in Jesus Christ and follow his commandments.

Well, I guess that's all for now, I'll check one more time to see if you emailed and if now...I'll here from you next week -- that is if I get to email since I'll be in a different area for that week I'm not really sure what will happen.

Love - Sister Landrum

Email February 15th, 2009

2009-02-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Hey - we had to email early today and it looks like you haven't sent me an email yet -- boohoohoo. Well, I'm sorry Mom but your birthday letter will be kind of late, but happy birthday on Tuesday anyway. This Sunday we leave the island and won't be back until Friday, I meant I won't be back until Friday when I return with my new companion. I'm working in Nasugbu on the main land until then, it's an area in my first district area, the other sister area in Batangas.
Mary-Grace was baptized on Saturday and on Friday Mauriel will be baptized. All went well, and I will send you pictures this week.

We also had zone conference. Our mission president is having us all read the Book of Mormon together as a mission. From now until June 1 when we have our mission tour, meaning a member of the seventy comes and stays with us for a week and we have conference with him, we are supposed to finish it. It will be my third time on the mission to read it so I'm excited to do it as a mission and see what it does for us.

Well, hope all is going well. Late happy valentines and love from me.

-Sister Landrum

Brit comes home...

2009-02-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has already been over a year and that discussions of her coming back to us are already necessary. But, Brit mentioned that she should be returning around the 14th of August. Today is her 13th month anniversary (the 23rd) and so she will have extended 3 weeks before arriving home. I know if it was up to her she would extend 3 years if she could convince her President to allow it. We are so proud of the seriousness that Brit has taken with not only improving herself and growing but in loving and blessing the lives of the Filipino people. Her life and theirs are forever changed.

The Plan!

2009-02-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

Hi.

I would like to do something special for both Britney and those who love her. I am going to plan a mini reunion for just after Brit gets home. The difficult part is that we don't know when yet! I will keep you posted at the earliest convenience. I am going to book the old Albion college for an overnighter. I have toured it and I promise it to become a favorite place for us to gather! The setting is nice and the facility has every convenience along with the nastalgia of history! I think it will be amazing to allow Brit to share stories from her mission to our whole family in one setting along with a testimony meeting afterward. Please plan for late July or early August!

Visit: http://www.albioncampusgrove.com/

Please let anyone in the family that you talk to know about the plan!

Email February 10th, 2009

2009-02-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Well, we ended up moving houses on Friday and then we were in the area of the elder's, far away from our area, for Saturday and Sunday becuase of zone interviews and our areas district conference which the area seventy came to preside over along with our mission president. Since we were so far away and had just moved our house over (so it was kind of crazy there) President had us stay in the hotel that they stay in when they come over to the island...and maybe it would be an "okay" hotel where we're from, but it was luxurious to me I felt a little bit shocked at just how nice it was to me. There was a shower head that drizzled out the water in one stream but it was a shower head and it was hot water! Crazy! We also each had our own queen sized bed with two pillows! Then they served us breakfast in the morning to top it all off.

It was really nice after my bad travel Saturday morning. I must have been exhausted from moving houses and spending all afternoon cleaning etc. then waking up at four to catch a van to take us to Calapan. I don't do well with travel anyway but despite all the vans, buses, trikes, jeeps and even the boat I have yet to throw up while on my mission until that morning in the van. I could feel it coming, not that there was anything to come...I hadn't eaten just drank water. I had this sack with my extra pair of sunday shoes in it so I took the shoes out and prepared the bag for myself and it wouldn't come, but it was trying...then it came and it really was all water...all would have been well if it had not been for the hole in my sack. I was wet quite instantly, not to mention my poor companion. Thankfully this lady in front of us gave me another sack that I put my first bag in but my skirt was already soaked and going through my layers. I cleaned it up with my rag and water as best I could and endured the rest of the trip as best I could but I started shaking super bad with chills from the sick feeling and because now I was wet. Oh, but I had already gotten wet actually when we rode the trike early that morning to the van, it was raining so my entire back and feet were wet and I get chilled easily now since my body had adjusted to the heat. It was quite the adventure and I am really amazed I made it this long without actually throwing up! Well, sorry for such a descriptive and not pleasant story.
After our meeting we went to the hotel then out to eat and I felt a lot better. I bought myself some bonamine which is the dramamine of the philippines and it seems to be working well so far -- we take the boat later today so we'll see if it continues.

Back to me not emailing -- we went to the meetings on Saturday instead and then worked all day Monday and now it's Tuesday and we are about to go to the main land for zone conference so we're just using today now as our p-day/ travel day and working in my old area day etc.
This upcoming Saturday the daughter of our recent convert will be baptized along with one twenty-year old girl we found right when sister Pasi came to the area. Last week she finished reading the Book of Mormon and yesterday she informed us that she is now in second nephi again, I'm sure I've never ready it through that fast in my life. Her testimony is founded on her knoweldge that the book is true, she knows it and she developed a testimony all on her own through diligence in reading, continual prayer and we have simply seen the fruits of it as she voluntarily shares her testimony and prays for us at the end of lessons. It sounds like her plan now is to serve a mission next February at her one year mark, she'll be twenty-one in September -- hopefully whatever happens in her life it will continue to be what she needs to strengthen her ever developing testimony of the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am also continually surprised by our other recent member. He is only eighteen and recieved the priesthood at district conference. He always works with us and also wants to serve a mission. We are teaching a large group of his friends, most of which also attended district conference and they are all reading the book of mormon together. One in particular prayed and recieved an answer immediately about Joseph Smith -- his father is a born again preacher and we're wondering what will happen there as they continue to progress, or not. As we taught them last night they mentioned something about how their friend, our recent member, has gotten "nicer" since becoming a member -- and we have noticed that he has gotten less shy. At his baptism he could hardly say two words then sat down awkwardly after we prompted him to close in the name of JEsus Christ. Now he testifies after each of the lessons we teach and even stood up on the first sunday and shared his testimony with the branch.

We are teaching his cousin, and had been before we even met him, along with his wife and their three children, one of which is still just a baby. They have baptismal dates and we were very happy to find out that he was given a job to be the one to fix out the new house we just moved into and he's continuing to help us with some minor repairs. They are both so willing and desire to follow all the commitments we give them. I was particularly surprised with myself as we re-taught them the lesson on chastitiy. I recal at hte begininig of my mission how we taught mostly males, it seemed, and I was extremely awkward about how to teach this law thoroughly, but I knew it needed to be thorough and understood because it is so important. There is a large problem here with inappropriate posters, everywehre. And they create free calendars out of them which many people have hanging in their homes, including our investigars. We had taught them the law of chastity before giving them a baptismal date, but the posters remained. We decided now that they had a baptismal date to teach it again and specifically commit them to get rid of all things in their life, such as the posters, which are inappropriate. I studied some of the scriptures in preach my gospel for the lesson that morning and we had a plan but as we were teaching another scripture came to my mind from something Brother said and so I interrupted Sister PAsi and suggested a scriptured, she yealded to the new idea and it really ended up working well, he appreciated the scripture and understood it very well -- it opened up good discussion and I testified bodly against the evils around us which we must put far from our reach and avoid them like poison. After the lesson I realized how good it felt to declar the truth and that it was not awkward as it had been for me before, it was maybe in using boldness but not overbearance as the scriptures inform us we must do, this is a topic which requires boldness but proper sensitivity and God supports us in all truth. At our follow up appointment they informed us that the took them all down and asking their father about taking the other down whic his in their parents section of the home they share, he also told us that he really appreciated the lesson and we shared anotehr scriptures with him from mosiah about the importance of watching our thoughts and words and actions in all things. Our other new member was also there and as he realized we were talking about taking down the posters he informed us that they had a poster like that inside their room which we never see and after we taught him that lesson before he was baptized he asked his father if they could get rid of it, just because he thought it was the right thing to do. It was so good to hear he'd done it all on his own, even when we didn't know.
Well, I have to leave right now because the boat is leaving and my companion just left -- no time to close really anyway have a good week thanks Britney

WHAT A GEM!

2009-02-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

I just had to share this with everyone! One of the newest aspects of the LDS.ORG web site! I have only recently noticed this site and have really enjoyed it! I hope you enjoy it as much. Just imagine what the impact of the internet will ultimately be in helping spread positive and spiritual messages worldwide! Likely, the gospel taken to every nation! Prepare to cry watching some of these!

I hope you enjoy these uplifting messages as much as I have. Oh, by the way, this week (February 9th-16th) is officially "Random Acts of Kindness" week. My college professor first introduced me to RAK when I attended UVSC in the early 90's. I have tried to incorporate the simple concept into my life ever since. I love to pay a waitress for someone elses meal that is eating alone and have her give them a message "to have a wonderful day". She is of course told to just say "a new friend" when asked who paid. I love to watch the varied reactions. One lady cried which swelled such a positive feeling inside my heart that I carried it for a long time. Pretty selfish to claim to do something kind for another when truly we are doing something kind for ourselves! A random act of kindness could alter someones entire day and just maybe even have deeper significance! I challenge you all to incorporate the spirit of RAK into your lives.

http://www.youtube.com/MormonMessages

Email February 2nd 2009

2009-02-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

We're super late to email today because we had a bit of travel and hospital time to take care of. Before the missionaries go home they are required to get an x-ray of their chest so that's what sister Pasi and i did today and then we went with some members and elder's in our district to a beach and ate food and took pictures and are in a hurry to get back to our area now but stopped to email first :) I'll be emailing again Saturday I think...because we have zone conference next week and we have zone interviews in Calapan first Saturday we are going to just do our day in Calapan as our p-day so we can work Monday since we will then be gone from our area Tuesday and Wednesday...so if you want me to get an email from you, it will need to be sent sometime Friday your time, I think. I'm glad to hear my grandparents received my Christmas card...and tell Aunt Jen not to worry. First of all I'm quite a ways away from all of the Elder's or anyone else for that matter most of the time. Second of all, my face is a bit spotted red lately and I'm always sweaty and my hair is flying all over the place -- it's not really attractive and the culture here doesn't mind pointing it out to you "so, do you have an allergy? Why are there red spots all around your lips right now? What happened to you?" They don't care at all, in fact they probably all still think I'm beautiful just because my hair is "yellow" and my skin is white even if my hair is gross and all over and my skin is white and polka-dotted :) hehe. I realize i'm deceiving...I sent pretty pictures - who wants to send a bad picture of themselves to people? haha. I'm glad that everyone is adjusting all right to the schools and are and all of that. Which dance was it they went to? Hopefully you will send me pictures. I still don't have that other letter from dad, but i haven't gotten mail yet again. This coming Saturday we will have interviews so I will get mail then and tell you if it came.

Oh yes, my one companion went home (that asked for garments) so she won't be having me send for more but the other one tried them out and says the tops are way too big for her and the bottoms were just great and she would love more -- problem is I don't know what sizes you sent for them originally to have you send more for her. I sent her a letter and hopefully I will get the information soon and you can send it -- but I thought I would ask if that is still all right?
I'm excited for zone conference because we will be staying the night in the apartment in my first area and I will probably go on splits with the new American sister and Sister Wilson, the other American, will work with my companion because they were companions before. I will get to see some of the people that were baptized in my first area again! hooray, I'm also excited to see how our new American sister is doing, it makes me think a lot about how much I have changed from those first couple of months to now, especially with her there in my very same first apartment and area.

Well, I hope you continue to all be well and that you accomplish sending me something before Friday so I can hear from you again...but if not I may be able to check it on Tuesday when we go to the main land for zone conference but I'm not really sure what will happen in the next two busy weeks of my life here in the Philippines...just don't be shocked when you don't get an email from me or get one early or get one late or anything like that. We have three baptisms scheduled for February fourteenth so we're working on getting them all ready and planning for that day and they seem to be excited that it's a memorable day (the day of love). Haha, well that's about all for now.
Love, Brit

Email January 26th, 2009

2009-02-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Magandang hapon po!
Mga pag-iisip ni Sister Landrum dito galing sa Pilipinas! :)

Well, my thoughts are full of Amanda and my unfinished letter to her so I'm sorry about that :)
After my many weeks of no letters -- 20 came! Haha...two were from dad and one from the family for my birthday, all with the money :) Whew, the postal workers are safe...except did Dad send three envelopes of his own plus the birthday card cuz I only got two...but two is better than none right? Carin sent me three, she's trying to make up I think...I'll write her later today and hope she got my last one which I think I sent before she sent hers but she clearly had yet to receive. My most mind consuming letter, however, was from Amanda. A "Dear Elder" letter which had a letter from Andrea attatched also which really confused me at first becuase Ithought it was still Amanda and yet it seemed so Andrea! Nice to hear they are alive and the holidays went well for my married friends and their married siblings and my other married friends who hosted parties and talking about all these married people -- well Amanda is joining them and she couldn't even wait six months for me to get home! I guess that's how it goes and March 21st (now isn't that when some other important people in my life got married or am I off? I could be off...) all of my closest of friends from Jr. High will be paired off. We could add this multiple ways, I now have double the amount of close friends or I have a subtraction of "close" friends :) haha. For now I'm on neutral ground and nothing can be calculated :) That's why missionary life is wonderful, eh? Sometime when I return I figure things will go about how they always do in life and the couples will hang out with the couples and the singles withe the singles -- hopefully one of them will have a baby and I can be their babysitter :)

Zone interviews are coming up, I'm thinking about asking Pres. if I can extend six months -- the Elder's get two years maybe i have a chance (my companion does not agree, she say they're shipping me off and there is nothing I can do about it -- she however has yet to realize my fabulous words of persuasion, I must not be as persuasive in Tagalog :) Okay, so I feel mostly like I'm being silly and babbly in this email. Thanks for all the emails -- I enjoyed each and every one of your individual words and I hope Maddie and Olivia -- Garyn too, are adjusting better to school and enjoying all the new people they get to meet, I know how hard it can be to fit yourself into an already finished puzzle, but don't worry it's not really finished, they all just haven't realized that a key piece is still missing :) We had a hot day, not one of the dripping with sweat hot days but it was hot compared to the rest and I thought that summer was well on its way. Their summer starts in March I think...but not it's rainy and kind of cold again. We found a new apartment that they want us to move into. We'll be moving houses in February, right after district conference and zone interviews, and the next week we have zone conference and a baptism and the week after that -- well that is the last week my companion has here in the mission field and the following week we'll go to Alaminos and I'll work somewhere else until Friday when we all get new companions, crazy. We're relishing the time and each week we seem to find even more investigators from the week before. The more you find, the more that progress and come to church and eventually get baptized -- it's all about finding! The finiding might go down a little as we try to help the ones we have progress -- but hopefully we find more people in the morning and early afternoon and that they continue wanting us to teach them in the morning and afternoon :) Our real problem is that we need eight night hours and no afternoon hours, everybody want us to teach them between 5-7 and that's just not really possible.

We taught the cousins of one of our new members. They are actually leaving again to Manila soon so we won't continue teaching them but I hope that the missionaries teach them there because the one sister seems ready. The interesting thing about these lessons has been that they are both blind, and thus our demonstrations and picturs do us no good, it's all in our words and our words are all in Tagalog :) Haha, I've recognized how I teach differently when I use only words, not even my hands can be used to demonstrate. Anyway, it has been an interesting experience.

So, i'm really sorry about this crazy letter but we're actually going to leave now so for this week this is what you get. I know that the church is true, I know the book of mormon is the word of God and there is not a single day that we do not need God's words in our life because it will make us hungry -- our souls. Just think about it, when your stomach is hungry you get angry easier, you are sad, you have no patience, you are weak, you lose focus on the more important things...it's probably the same with when our spirits are hungry. Feast upon the words of Christ:) Okay, that's my sermon for the day, I love you all bye.
Sister Landrum

January 18th, 2009

2009-02-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

So, no email again...I considered not writing anything because I'm trying to write a hand written letter and I have no email to repond to and then I thought -- and if I had one last thing to say what would it be -- and why why would I give up the chance to say it, and so even though this is no last chance as far as we all know (all meaning anyone that might possibly read this, my family, my friends, the random people who look at that blog page dad keeps up, I think...) I decided to write and make sure everyone knows that I love them. I remember my years of writing "monthy Britney emails" to anyone who ended up with their address on my sender list. I wrote about whatever pleased me and I guess it was my version of a blog before they existed -- and I always ended by telling them all to remember I loved them and that however long it had been since we'd talked or seen on another that I was there if they needed anything. I figured it was my way of making sure no one was missed. Well, this is my "weekly missionary email" rather than my "monthy britney email" and I'm here to tell you all that even though it's been four days short of a year since I've seen any of you and today I got no email and the past month I've had no mail -- I love you all (and that thing about the email and mail had nothing to do with my chastising but maybe I'm just feeling it a little more because it's been a while since I've read your words and a year is quite the point to reach all at the same time!) I'll be sending you pictures of Sister Racquel's baptism in my letter today. She amazes me, her faith...she prayed us to her and informed us that she's continuing to pray that we'll never leave -- who knows I might end my mission here if her faith keeps up :) Of course we know, and according to my last email on faith, that it doesn't really work that way. She will understand and I will too when or if I am transferred and I hope to find all the people in my new world that are praying me there also.
Thank-you to all of you and could you send me Ike's address because I don't think I have it anymore or maybe never did.
Love from the Philippines
Sister Landrum

Email January 12th, 2009

2009-02-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hello -- this will be real quick because we're running late today. We did an activity of sorts...more like we rode a long way away to another area and then ate and took pictures...because transfers have come again and some of our zone is leaving the island for main land. I am however not a part of that and neither is my companion so all is well in the land of Pola. As for my mail, our post man resigned in Pola so I have once again not been able to send any of my letters. In them includes a letter to Amanda so maybe you can tell her; and the others include birthday cards for my old sisters -- so I'll just say happy birthday here and hopefully you'll get letters from me within the next month or so, like around Mom's birthday, haha! I haven't gotten mail for a long time, we get it rarely here on the island anyway and the post office was closed for Christmas I think even on the main land so they weren't receiving mail to give us. Hopefully we get mail at transfers and hopefully Dad's letters are with it, I'll tell you next week.
Well, besides that all is well. I'm having a hard time thinking of much else to say; probably because I'm in a hurry to write so nothing is coming even for my short time here. I'll write again next week I guess -- untile then good bye, good luck with the snow and moving and school and work and Love from the Philippines - Sister Landrum

Email January 5th, 2009

2009-02-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

Britney emailed a few times around Christmas but there wasn't much content due to our amazing and enjoyable 1.5 hour phone call with her for Christmas! Trying to use AT&T prepaid cards to call the Philippines proves to be an interesting experience! But, we were successful and had a great visit with her. At the end she read 1 Nephi Chapter one to us in Tagalog. WOW!

January 5th:

Speaking of cold weather -- I have been SO cold lately, I'm wearing layers and socks to bed every night and even in America I never wore socks to bed...but of course I had quilts and such there and here I only have one sheet. It's really funny because I'm sure it's not that cold but I have been nice and cold so I'm wondering if my body will be very angry with me if I return to the world of snow, at least it's still summer when I come back. I figured something about the moving had inhibited the emailing, it sounds like the weather is crazy. I recall last winter driving from Provo to where you live and it was no fun, I got caught in a terrible snow storm and remember praying as a clutched the steering wheel and ignored my phone ringining as mom tried to find out where I was -- "I'm about to go a mission, I thought, I shouldn't die yet and not like this!" Well, I eventually made it home but I'm not sure I'll quickly forget that and I'll probably try to avoid driving when it snows. President and Sister Anderson came to our branch on Sunday and sister Anderson said they talked with President's sister for Christmas and she told them they have a new family in the ward, "The Landrum's," haha -- I live in a very small world. I forgot, and figured I should give this advice in an email and not in a letter so it will get there faster but I had an idea about the applying to BYU thing for Savanna (no, I don' plan to give up any time too soon :) haha) I mean she could at least try to go to UVU although I don't know what the programs are like there but at least it's in the Provo area right? Well, since she's not in school anymore this would be fairly easy and I think would have to be done right now so get on the ball is all but I hear it's easier to get in spring and summer terms and then if you just take a few classes and do well in them it's really easy to get accepted for that fall semester following even if you didn't get accepted before that. Since she'll have time to work and then to even find a job somewhere else and start working there she could maybe do that, even just summer term, but I don't know. I guess in the end it will be wherever she really wants to go to school or whatever she really wants to study, right? I still say doing the costume design would be much better at BYU though, I know the program and the techers and it's a good one :) Alright, enough about school.

Two of my companions, including my mother in the mission (trainer or Nanay) go home on Sunday! I can't believe it. We'll find out next week about transfers. Since my current companion goes home the next transfer I don't expect a transfer this time either but I've been saying that for the last couple of transfers so I guess we'll just wait and see, right? We have a baptism this Saturday and I am very excited about it. She's great, and she came and helped us clean the church on Saturday and plans to be the official meeting-house cleaner if they'll let her because she want it to be clean and a nice place to attend church, she's very hard working. We're still working on her family -- her husband is just very shy so he avoids us and her children vary in age and some of them had baptismal dates but now don't for different reasons (friends that are teasing them etc.) so we'll just keep working on them too but she's taking the lead and like president said, once she has the holy ghost as her constant companion it might help her to do the things and say the things every day in her home that will help her family follow her example and great faith. Less than twenty days and it will be a year, I guess that is a really long time ultimately but it doesn't feel like I've been away for that long. Maybe because I do have email communication every week so I feel somewhat a part of everything, but i'm sure i'll be shocked all the same at how different everyone is once I return (if i return, haha! :)) Speaking of faith -- I don't remember if I ever related to you my story, maybe in a letter (maybe in an email) but I have a couple of specific instances where my faith has been strengthened which I probably noticed more or was looking for because I have been trying to understand and develop faith. Well, did I tell you that my luggage decided to completely break on me. Maybe on the phone, haha. Well, when I was transferred to the island I packed all my stuff up and we were headed for the mission home but as they loaded my things onto the bus taking us there the zipper started ripping open and everything started falling out. The bus was about to leave so they just shoved it in there telling me that my things would be all right until we got where we were going even if they fell out. We got on the bus and I started thinking about what I could do becaus I would still need to get myself and my things to wherever I was being transferred and then I just prayed and asked if when we got off the bus my luggage would shut for me until I was able to make it to my new area. The interesting thing about faith is the doubt that wants to sneak into it. I sat there on the bus considering my faith and if this was faith for me to say "my luggage will shut for me and all will be well," now if my luggage didn't shut would I end up saying my faith was not strong enough, that God wasn't really there or didn't really hear me or would I see in it some other plan God had for me? Then again, if it did shut would I say to myself "well even if I had not prayed it would have shut anyway so God or my faith and prayer really had nothing to do with it in the end..." and as these thoughts entered my head I decided to push them out, I didn't even entertain the different ideas and I simply thought to myself, "this is something I need at this moment and God will help me to get to my new area so that the work there can quickl progress and my new companionship will start well..." and then we got off the bus in Alaminos and they unloaded my luggage. I took someof the things that had fallen out and i put them in my other bag and then I zipped my zipper one way and then the other and then it was shut again and never again have I had a problem and right then and there before we left I said a prayer of thanks in my heart and continued on without giving anymore thought about why or how it happened.

Wow, now I share my birthday with someone in the family -- I feel a little selfish about it, hmph!~ Haha Just kidding, I feel bad for her it's a crazy time to have a birthday and it sounds like that very day was a crazy day, it's good that everything worked out in the end and I'm glad they have another girl although I wouldn't have minded another boy because baby Cole is all big now and I will miss his oh so cute baby-ness. I'm glad my painting is doing well -- and all the other things. Hopefully I'll get a frame for my very large painting one day and take it off to my own house if i ever have one, but until then it will probably live there in that room in your house becuase it's so big. Did you also put all of my boxes from your barn in that room? Anyway, thanks for the "things" update.

Did you really send me a ten page letter Mom? That's crazy! Haha, I figured you would have less time to write such letters now that you're moving all over the place and everyone is starting new schools etc. I still haven't gotten any of the letters that Dad sent but it sounds like the post office here has been closed for the last little while so I hope that's why. You know what I did for new years? I slept -- fell asleep before eleven and didn't wake up when all the fireworks went off, which is what they do here at midnight. My companion said she woke up when it got noisy but I didn't flinch -- very tired also I guess. It is a new year, however...last year I knew what would be happening to me within that year although I knew very little about where I would be going or who I would be meeting -- this year I have a lot better idea about what will be happening to me, at least until August and after that I have no idea again...but I have a goal to write in my journal every single day. I miss some days, sometimes...so we'll see if it lasts and it will probably be a very interesting journal at the end of this year. I've done well so far, five days and only 360 to go :)

I'm glad you like your new relief society president. We were very happy here in the Pola branch to have our relief society president return after the last two months of being on vacation in another part of the Philippines where her son lives. We had a semi-more organized meeting for our third hour unlike the rest of the time I've been here, it was so great! It was actually a really good first sunday of the year and I hope it sets a better standard for the rest of the years meetings. Our ward mission leader also attended church for the first time since I've been in the area and our ward council meeting was almost completely with all the people who should attend as they handed out all the new pamphlets and books for this years lessons. I haven't heard many of the lessons from the Joseph Smith book and have only read a few of them through my time here so maybe that will be something I do from September - December before the two years of using that manual are over, read it all! I enjoyed the challenge my singles ward gave us to read the lesson before Sunday, I would often read it to Andrea sunday morning as she fixed her hair, it was great! I love that we must seek for our own knoweldge and learn from the seeking almost more than anything, the time given/sacrificed and the pondering the focus of our minds etc. Speaking of mind focus, when we went to clean the meetinghouse I ended up playing ping-pong with some of the youth for a little while and I was rusty. I was never that good before but I got pretty good for a while there. I got more into it after a while and realized Ir eally love doing things like that, like going just by myself and shooting a basketball until I have it down sothat I know how hard, in what way to what area I must throw or hit something so that the deisred result comes from it. That is also why I enjoyed dance, I like the mind control and control of body that activities like that require -- mindless activities and conversations are very difficult for me to endure for very long.

Tell Grandma Grandpa and anyone/everyone else hello from me also. My time is nearly up now so I will close here. Oh, and in closing I read most of the priesthood session talks from last conference this morning. Funny as it is they are always some of my favorites and I never get to go to the session itself since it is for the Priesthood. Well, my mission has been a great time for me to recognize how grateful I am for the priesthood and those who are worthy to exericse it, I hope that all men and young-men will take their council to heart (dibdibin nyo iyan!) because it is the most wonderful thing to have worthy and powerful preisthood leaders, I very much want to become more worthy of the priesthood blessings in my life.
-Sister Landrum

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-11T18:00:00.001-08:00

Life is very hectic for our family right now. I could not be more excited because for Christmas I get exactly what I want! My family will join me in Idaho the day after Christmas! I have missed them hugely for the last 3.5 months! It will be good to be a family again. And then, come August, we will have our sweet Britney back too. Of course, until then, we are more than thankful to be able to share her with the people of the Philippines. We know that both she and they are blessed for it.

We truly hope that our family and friends have an amazing and spiritual Christmas season this year. Please pray for Britney, her companion and those that she teaches.

God bless you,

The Landrum Family

Email December 8th, 2008

2008-12-11T17:50:00.000-08:00

Hello, so we guessed wrong :) Haha...my companion is Tongan but from Hawaii and I love the way that I've learned to be relaxed in my life because of all these different cultures. We work hard still, I mean for the few days that I've been with her, but I don't feel the tension that was there with two American's (not meaning it was bad at all just tense sometimes because we were stressed about work) and the stress and worry I brought when it was just me at the beginning still being very American/ just Me. I may still be a stress case but I'm pretty sure I'm relaxed now a lot, go with the flow culture. I love that our mission has so many Tongan's and it wouldn't be the same without them at all. Her name is Sister Pasi and she turned 25 in October. My district leader and an Elder in the other district in our zone are Tongan also so today when our entire zone got together it was quite the mix of English, Tagalog and Tongan -- nobody would have understood what was going on if they just showed up. At transfers I got the package with the garments and other things, thanks. I'm not sure if it's a lot more expensive to use a box but sending the yellow envelopes is maybe not as safe, they keep getting ripped and they come to me in new plastic from the post office and tape and all of that, I think the little boxes for sending things arrive safer. I did get the star ring and now a necklace :) As for the American from Rupert(?) Well her name is Sister Wilson, if it's the same one, and she goes home the same time my last companion does, in May. Today at interviews President asked me which ward I would be in, probably knowing I could end up there where his friend/sister? is...but I still didn't know. That's pretty funny, small world I live in, I tend to know everybody or be connected in some way. Well, it's good to hear that Casey and her baby are safe...I can't imagine just having a baby and -- well it just seems wrong and now how I would picture having a baby but I hope she's happy and knows how much God loves her. I've had companions who teach about families and about the ten commandments and honoring parents etc. and they seem to focus on that and I know it's important and I could use a lesson in it or could have even more back in the day, haha... but I find myself teaching parents about how their children are God's children and they are their "Kayamanan" or wealth in this world and should help them learn the things of God which is what will truly help their futures more than anything. God teaches us the way we should honor each other as a family and as people and as his children, respect comes from giving respect and love first and that is a place where learning can occur and we are taught by the spirit and grow together understanding one another and being edified daily...I've had this conversation with some of the other missionaries about questions they have or I have or just discussions about parenting, and I really like what Elder Oaks said to the people in the Philippines in their district conference broadcast, that as parents you are missionaries and your children are your investigators so to one question an Elder brought up and said, "well what do you do when your investigators right now act that way or do that...maybe that's what you can adapt to be what you do with your children?" I saw Sister Mabalot for the last time before she goes home, it was kind of a sad parting but I really hope to see her again some time in this life. They go home in January, her and Sister Victorino! It was weird because Sister Thompson and I were talking about that and then we said, “oh and Elder Iongi next” he was my first zone leader and is now AP and the next transfer my current zone leader and our other AP and a lot of people actually…they go home then it’s Sister Thompson then my other Zone leader who was just transferred and then me! What! That’s so crazy. I’ve spent half of my time in the Philippines now. Sixteen months her and eight are over, eight left. I sure can split my mission in half in a lot of different ways, haha. I got a wedding invitation from Andrea’s little sister. I also got a letter from Amanda and she has some news about a certain current boyfriend, but it wasn’t very detailed at all so I really have no idea. She’s about to graduate though and life will be so strange, all my best friends form high school and junior high are done with school and married and things like that. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like anymore if I hadn’t served a mission. It was so much not a part of my plans for my life and yet it was clearly exactly what I needed to do in my life. I can’t imagine returning to where I was, back to my apartment and to school and my job and people that I was with before even who are still there at he same apartment and jobs…because I feel so different and I don’t think I can place myself back in it properly, like I don’t fit anymore but I don’t know where I fit. I can only imagine life here at the moment and like it will continue on like this forever or something. As far as the testimony meeting thing goes, I wish everyone would read Elder Oaks talk about bearing testimony and the recent talk by – I don’t remember maybe even Oaks again, about sacrament meeting. If everyone read those and internalized in and decided to live by it going to church would be a lot more sacred, less awkward and a good place for investigators! I guess that’s a lot of why I wasn’t so into the idea of being a missionary that spoke, it just seemed weird, I don’t want any focus to be about me in such an important meeting where people already have a hard time remembering the part that is important. In one of my wards here the person conducting would always get up and say “Welcome now to the most sacred part of our church service, the sacrament, please observe reverence.” I heard that over and over again every week and I don’t know how much anyone else heard it but I thought about it even more because of that. It sounds pretty appropriate to be celebrating my birthday by moving – I’ll be celebrating by tracting, it’s a just a regular Tuesday, no meetings or anything. It sure has been the season for new apostles. They were all the same for so long and now it’s just time for all of them to be done and we’ve nearly lost the bottom six and started over within the last couple of years, strange. I appreciate getting closer to the leaders than I was before and hearing their words and learning from their lives. Sister Thompson and I were talking about Sabbath day observance which I think I wrote about in my last hand written letter, but I was thinking that right now is really the time in my life and all others like me (meaning not married etc.) to decide what will be important to you and how you will live your life. If you don’t decide certain things then there is a good chance you will marry someone who won’t make the same decision you might later and then it might not happen, it will be hard to change. Of course, we all need to make changes our entire life and if married you have to start making them together to stay equalized but I think there are certain things you need to have decided if they are important enough to you and start living them first or you might just be influenced back into another way. I was thinking about this because of my own Sunday activities throughout my life. They changed a lot between my first year of college and my next then before my mission. I can see how if I don’t decide to have that set and be a habit for me and truly how I live that I could be influenced by whomever I marry to change it again to maybe a lower standard, and we aren’t meant to lower our standards for anything, and not any kind of standard. There are a lot of things I expect and probably idealize (and realize it’s idealized) about my life but I know that if I don’t first learn to live it then I can never expect it out of anyone else or of myself for later in my life and so now is truly the time to decide and the better off my entire life will be. I wonder if I will be “too picky” as mom calls it, who knows I don’t know what will happen but sometimes I worry about getting trapped in something that I would be unhappy with or that it’s easer to just fix things on your own and be who you should be but I realize that’s not really the plan and it doesn’t work that way, you can’t save yourself in the end, you have to give it all to Christ who already did the hard part, suffer with him but sacrificing all you have now and drag others along with you and push them sometimes and sometimes maybe they’ll drag and push you but if nobody is doing that and you don’t walk in together – well nobody will walk in. Now is the time to be one, if we are not one we are not his because he suffered just the same for all of us and we are meant to build upon that, forgive one another because we have been forgiven – have you read Elder Holland’s talk in the December Ensign or New Era – he talks about the great sacrifice of forgiveness and I’d never thought of forgiving in that way, it is us doing what Christ did and bearing their sin through our forgiveness to him. That statement makes more sense if you just read the way he said and explain it but anyway it was a really good talk.Anyway, I’m just kind of rambling now and my time is probably almost up so I will end here. Hope the month of December is going just great for everybody, one week in now. Maybe tell me the new address so I can start sending letters there and they don’t miss you? I don’t really know what to do about that and am not sure how long my letters always talk to get there. I will also need all of our new stake and ward information for the mission. I’ll be getting my “trunky letter” in January I think and they will ask of my address or stake president changed so I’ll need to give them the new information. Oh yeah, did you sell the house you currently live in. I guess I really just don’t know what’s going on with all of that but that’s okay because I can’t do much about it, haha…and did you ever buy another car? Does Savanna know what she’s going to do with school now, graduating, working now, which college? I still say she goes to Provo, art program at BYU, yeah! That’s the safest place to study art, that’s all I have to say about that. And, where there’s a will there is a way! We could even take a dance class together or something, yeah. Of course, I’m all old and out of shape and not flexible now, hopefully that doesn’t last once I return to normal life with clean floors to stretch on and a good place to run or something but I don’t really know that I’ll do much more with dance in my life, maybe that time is beyond me – anyway now that more rambling has been accomplished in my email I wish you all a great Christmas month and will talk with you again next week (over email that is) Love from the Philippines form the Island of Mindoro (or Kingdom of Mindoro, haha).Britney (aka Sister Landrum for now)

Email December 1st, 2008

2008-12-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

Hello to my family on the first day of December 2008. My birthday is in 29 days now and I will be 22 – that’s kind of old…especially when I consider that I will quickly be 23 after I come home to real life and continue on with wherever my life takes me. Today we found out about transfers again and I’m following Elder Winn’s theme these days – since his first companion he’s only been with any of them for six weeks and Sister Thompson is being transferred so my last companion was six weeks and so is this one. In some ways (meaning only in learning Tagalog) I guess it’s better but it makes time seem to go by even faster when we’re always going to transfers and getting new companions and new areas etc. One of my companions also went home today and next month two more will go home, crazy. Sister Mabalot was still really new to the mission when she trained me and now she’s going home! This week will be busy again with travel and I’ll have news about who my companion is on Monday. This week was productive, however. We didn’t have anything significant in the way of our teaching and so we got around to a lot of our areas and we ended up with a lot of people committing to baptism which was really exciting. As for the “family” mom keeps asking about there wasn’t one particular just that week we taught a bunch of full families and it was odd to me because I’d never taught a full family before. There is one family we continue to teach. They are catholic and active for the most part and we taught them the word of wisdom last time. It was funny because when we asked what they had problems with the mother pointed to her husband and said alcohol then he said coffee for his daughter and their children pointed to mom and said cigarettes and then they all pointed to their younger son and said “DRUGS” which was a joke, entirely…but it was funny because they were all pointing out each others vices. We committed them to make goals to stop and gave them a lesson about the power of Christ in our lives. We’ll see what happens with them. There is another woman we are teaching and some of her older and younger daughters. Classified her as older and younger because she’s about 38 I think and her oldest daughter who has daughters and a husband is 22 I think and then her youngest daughter is the same age as her daughters daughter…that is rather frequent here however. She came to church with her children and their neighbor who is 22. She said she used to have a very hard time remembering anything from the bible that she studied but she used to be catholic and then she was iglesia ni cristo but she doesn’t like any of them and disliked the gossip and attitudes etc. and she’s been praying to find the truth and one day she said “I’ve been remembering things better and I think you are the answer to my prayers.” There are two girls that are cousins and the first time we taught I asked the one what she felt about Joseph Smith’s story and she said “I’m just happy he has found the true church!” In our later visits we asked if they had prayed and read to know if it was true and they both very simply said that it was true and we taught about baptism and they both agreed to prepare for baptism…neither of them have come to church yet because it came so fast so the baptism is far in the future but it’s amazing how some people progress to that point so quickly and seek and find an answer immediately, they truly have the gift of the spirit to believe the truth that is within the testimony of others.As for money – I could attempt getting pearls if that’s really what you want but the couples that used to buy them went home this weekend, their mission is over. Sister Victorino might be able to for me once she goes home she said so I’ll see, andI had this one other thing I planned to try to get just for the family. As for me using my pearls, I just have them kept away because I wouldn’t wear them here. The problem is – it’s still really hard for me to get cash meaning impossible actually because the ATM doesn’t work and these are all things that require cash and I’m in an area where I can’t use my card frequently to buy my food like before and that way was kind of hard anyway and I don’t think always worked out evenly. If you could accomplish sending me even ten dollars at a time in cash in letters I don’t think anything would happen to it or in a package you could send some cash then that would help me pay for some of those things and I don’t know that I’ll be using my card that much more for a while – and it is good to have non mold shoes and hopefully they stay that way. My scripture cases and covers also have mold but I’m just getting new covers for them, sigh! Haha…all is well besides that. As for you not coming when I come home, that seems best to me for now also but I still think coming back in the summer will be hard and if we came back at all it would be best and most meaningful six months after I come home over Christmas break – but I won’t plan for anything at all at this point and that’s always best because we have no idea what will happen. I get the feeling all my money and any you want to help me with when I very first get home will go to school. All I would need help with at first was paying for an apartment before I started getting paid at whatever job I find and then I’ll start up full time classes once I have enough money or a good job but I’ll need an apartment and maybe will take one or two classes – like a religion class and a tagalong class. I still don’t know and have a few months before I need to be more serious about it though so that’s all for now.I did finally send a letter and so hopefully that will get to you and I did get one hand written letter from dad a little while ago and if I have more mail I will get it again on Friday because we go to transfer, hooray! I’m running out of time now and can’t remember everything I’ve written about or need to, email is kind of crazy like that sometimes. Thanks for all the letters and good luck with the travel. I bet I travel as much as dad does in a week because our area is so far and when we go to email, to shop, to district meeting, then to zone interviews, to transfers it’s a good couple of hours or more in vans, tricycles and on a boat! Haha – I love you all bye! Sister Landrum

Email November 24th, 2008

2008-12-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

Anyway...it's probably better Dad couldn't email me, hearing about the loss from mom was a little bit easier to take. The pressure thing, it must have really gotten to them :( it was a Utah home game and that's always hard, and they were undefeated and so I guess it was our year to lose but hopefully it will pick up again once I get there, haha. Anyway, my companion told me to "lock my heart" from BYU football, hehe...she was just joking.As for my bank account, I have about $90.00 in there...the sad mold story meant I really needed to buy myself some shoes. The mold attacked my shoes and I attempted cleaning them really well and it just got worse so I bought myself some new shoes, nice ones for conferences and church and plastic ones for rain, and hopefully the nice ones will be good for when I come home too so I won't feel so bad about spending that much money. We also were in Lipa (the city) for zone conference so we bought ourselves some chips and salsa and found real cheese and things like that for our own little thanksgiving smash on Thursday...since nobody else cares that it's a holiday (at least my companion is American for the holiday's haha). As for your letter, that you still don't have...I've had real issues sending it. Pola has its own time system and I can't seem to catch the post office man in his office, ever! It's not like I can just sit around there either so we just keep trying different times of days, today a letter will get sent if I do have to sit there, though...beacuse it's p-day so I'll find a way. Also, I got the letter with the dried leaves and some of the filipino elders really enjoyed smelling them, something I didn't even think to do at all...haha. I say you stay frumpy and in sweats (it fits the Idaho scene, hehe, just kidding) and give me all of your cute clothes so I don't have to try to shop at all the rest of my life. Also, you still have a nine year old so you won't be free of girls for a really long time. Does Savanna know if she can graduate yet? Tell her I think she needs to try going to BYU. I say it's worth taking classes she likes such as art if you're going to be at school even if it's not your focus, like my dance classes. Don't worry, I feel pretty bad I don't have any pictures of our great costumes from the musicals also...life is different when you have a digital camera, I became the picture taking queen in college and before that it was just a bother plus my face always looks gross and then I get depressed when I have to look at the pictures, haha. Our people choosing names or being given names again for Christmas? I was just wondering if I would be a part of it or just discounted now that I'm on a mission and far away. Maybe I should just be left out actually, haha. I got a letter from Jenny the other day and I'm going to try to create some kind of Christmas card to send everyone but I can't make any big promises because my time on Monday goes by really fast here since it takes so long to get here and back from the email place. As for Church...it's only a branch here and we teach all three hours because nobody else is there to do it sometimes, or nobody else make a plan for doing it and so we've been going around trying to get people to Church -- but you have to balance finding new strong members and helping the ones who are already there so that's what we do. We did laundry with the second councelor in the branch presidency. His wife is the relief society president but she is on vacatio nand doens't know when she can come back yet because they don't have money to come back. She's staying with their son in a different area of the Philippines and he has stopped coming to church, it was before she left however. So, we went down to this stream place where he washes clothes and spent all morning washing clothes with him, and the next day he came to church. He only stayed for one hour but he came...so that's progress. It is really hard for people to get to church sometimes, our meeting house right now is kind of far away from a lot of the areas in our area and from the main city so they have to walk. It's possible but the rain keeps a lot away and sometimes a lack of desire to walk in general. We did however have ten investigators come to church on Sunday and were pretty excited about it because that is a lot compared to the normal 1-3 hopefully. It doesn't feel like it's November or almost December or close to my birthday or holidays or anything here -- which is maybe a blessing. I don't remember if I told you but Sister Ganir (they are couples in the mission) said she wants the sisters to stay at her house in Lipa after zone conference in December, which is the 24th of December, and then we will spend Christmas eve baking cookies, becuase she has an oven and can buy the stuff for it and she might get permission to watch a Christmas movie also and then we would maybe call you the next morning whcih would be your Christmas eve..but we still don't have that worked out. Christmas zone conference is also just a party...we even do a gift exchange. If Sister Thompson is still my companion next transfer I hear her mother sent her companion presents, bonus for me, hehe! So, I think that's about all from me for this week. It was another week ofl ots of travel. In fact, after zone conference we missed the early boat and were on the slow boat out on the ocean until about ten at night (way past curfew but it wasn't our fault and were with our entire zone) and the ocean is kind of dark and scary at night but it was really cool to look at the stars from the deck because usually you can't see many stars here. Then the Elder's had to drive us home so we drove all in their truck for another two hours and poor them had to drive home. We went to bed after midnight and I realized how much of a not night person I have become...it might come back to me or be forced to at times but I just like going to bed now. Anyway, that's all for now. Bye, Love from me Britney

Email November 17th, 2008

2008-12-11T17:41:00.000-08:00

Hello to all of you. I've been trying to copy some of the pictures that you've all been giving me to print some of them for myself but that took up a lot of my time, sorry. This week was full of travel and this upcoming week, meaning tomorrow I guess, we travel more! Zone conference when you're on the island is a three day adventure of sorts and going to Manila was quite the adventure. We were in the bus all day long in terrible Manila traffic and a rain storm, but we got to watch the Testaments and we got to go to the temple. It was amazing. I think I wrote about all of this in the letter I was writing while not sick on the bus so I guess I apologize for the repeat. Sometimes it's hard to think of what exactly to write or how to write it even though a lot happens. We talked with the husband of a member, whose family is also members, but he is a born again preacher. He wants to understand the Book of Mormon, he wants to know if he can be a member without believing in the Book...because he feels it contradicts the bible, he is a firm believer in the bible and his big hang up is on the fact that it says "God is spirit." You can tell he really just wants to know, but he's very hung up on intellectual things and so it's hard for him and we were late getting home so the conversation stopped, we actually only talked with him at all beacuse we were dropping by their house to get my shoes which they had graciously glued back together for me, haha! Anyway, tomorrow we go to zone conference again, but it's actually Wedenesday. We saw the hugest spider that either of us have ever seen and it's probably still wandering around in our closet because it hid from us in the room with no light and it was night so we missed killing it. As for monkey's...I really never see them, only a couple of times and it happens to be that one of the times he decided to pull my hair. The children here don't seem to play with bugs as much, or I just don't see it because they are in school now and in my first area they were on summer break. It also depends if that kind of bug is in this area. They do spider fights also though, they catch these spiders and keep them in little containers and will get them out on a stick and try to make them fight and let them crawl all around on their hands and things. We made a record possible on Sunday...I played the piano, we both spoke for sacrament meeting, we taught the lesson in Sunday school and then we helped to singing time and a sharing time story in primary -- the difficult thing here right now is a lack of people fulfilling their callings an thus we fulfill them for them. It's winter of sorts here also meaning it rains for than other times in the year (so they say) and it's been raining almost every Sunday so a lot of people don't come to church. We'll just keep trying to get them to church, to stay once them come for all the meetings...and read their scriptures other days :) We've both been talking about how our missions have helped us want to magnify all our callings because we see how hard it is for others who make up the difference if you don't, or when nobody is there at all to do it and the church prog rams suffer and the edifying of the poeple suffers and we become disunified and disconnected and fall away from important truths that were once in our lives. Well, I'm about out of time so I guess I'll end there. I'm excited to go to Zone conference and maybe get more mail and to try to send off my letters to you -- they'll come I promise! Love Sister Landrum

Email November 10th, 2008

2008-12-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

I don't understand Garyn's question...why did I choose to be obedient? When? I can give you a missionary answer? Mosiah 2:22/41 and Haring Benjamin or King Benjamin that is explains that God gives us everything even our lives and all he requires of us is that we are obedient...the blessings are great too, the happy state of the obedient in this life of troubles, temporal and spiritual blessings and a promise of life in a state of never ending happiness after this life. As for Elder Holland's answer, obedience is not only the first law of heaven, it is the first law of EVERYTHING. Now, if we had not chosen to be obedient to the plan of God in heaven none of us would be here, now we just have to keep choosing obedience. From my lesson on Sunday in church, it was about faith and they there is no faith where there is no obedience "walang pananampalataya kung walang pagsunod." AS for my personal words on the matter, I sure am not always obedient nor strictly obedient as the two thousands stripling warriors but I've never in my life had a desire to be rebellious, too much...and I like the safety in obedience. My patriarchal blessing also advises me to develop my obedience and that in so doing it will be a blessing to my younger sisters.As for letters from my and not emails, life is a bit far away in my new area so I'm sorry that you might be waiting for your next letter and it sounds like you've gotten all the ones that I've finished sending. WE are also having a couple days of craziness because we all have to travel to Manila and have our fingerprints taken for our passports and it's causing mayhem so I apologize that hand written letters are in scarcity right now. I was able to print pictures today though so hopefully some of them work out nicely and I will send them also. The funny thing about your thinking look really fresh and such is that we really are sweaty and gross and my face breaks out like crazy and stuff but that's just life and pictures seem to capture a better side often, maybe it's because everything around me is so beautiful.I'm not sure which elementary school it is you're seeing, Dad, but we live right below an elementary school in a home that used to be a doctors office. Sister Anderson really doesn't like it, Elder Homer (one of the AP's right now) told us that she really feels bad for us, haha...we are surviving quite nicely however. Pola is extremely remote, but it might get a little busier in the summer time because they do have a beach here...it's not an extra fancy beach either though and it is hard to get here so I don't really know. We were a little afraid for our work because the area is large but the main area where we should work and easily can is kind of small...and people from far away parts of the area never go to church so they dropped all those areas and have been focusing here. We spent all week finding, however, and I have never taught more families in whole before in my whole mission...it was amazing. It's really different to teach when there are children and a mother and father and all are listening and participating to some degree even if that means the teenager is secretly texting until her father takes it away (it made life seem really real again or something) I've really never taught full families before like this and so that was a fun experience for us this week, we were really surprised. People are also really kind about our Tagalog handicap and try to help us out, I just hope they are understanding the message, especially the vital parts of it, well enough. I've recently been praying for more of our extended family also and I really hope that they are reading the Book of Mormon or will find a way to do it again because I am teaching people every day that their salvation depends upon it. I have a scripture chase I created as I was reading through and would underline in purple all of the traits or qualities of God, verses that were more specifically about Father in Heaven that is because there are many that refer to Christ or to them as one...and in the Book or Mormon you learn many of His traits, you learn the importance of belief in Him and his great power and knowledge and love and long-suffering and all those traits we are meant to require here in order to become like him...my mission president pointed out that if we plan to create a word don't you think that takes knowledge and patience if we plan to be parents of many it surely requires love and long-suffering and if we are all powerful you must have humility to check it etc. anyway I really like Mosiah 4:9 also "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend..."Well, I think I'm running out of time again and I'm going to email Savanna so thanks for the emails and good luck with everything, love from me. Sister Landrum

Now I'm going to add to this letter because I realized I had a lot I still needed to address. I did get the shirt and it is a bit not missionary but it's cute...maybe I'll find a good occasion that I feel comfortable wearing it and if I never do it's not a waste because I'll wear it when I come home, haha. Thanks. As for coming to the Philippines, I never talked about that last week I realized. In some ways I think it would be good, just come home, see everyone at the airport, it would take away some of the stress there at the end of hwere to go and who I want to see again and where you'll be etc. but the down side is you wouldn't get to meet Sister victorino, Sister Abad, Sister Hill or my mission president...also I would probably not want to come back in another year if we did because I have no idea what I'll be doing at that point, if you didn't come now I would say plan for Christmas break only a couple of months after I come home and then it's still not too long after I've left my areas and things like that and there is less prediction happening about where I'll be job wise etc. I also keep hearing some strange rumor about how the missionaries from the philippines are all going to be invited back and even helped to go back to the philippines in 2011 because that is the mission here in the philippines 50 year anniversary and so maybe I'd be coming back or trying to then. Anyway...just tell me what you have continued to think about it. It's kind of sad because I never bought one of the cool bags in my last area but maybe I can have someone buy one for me I just won't get to choose and it's more about the people anyway and not the cool bags that they make, right? I think there were other things I also forgot to address but this is all I'm remembering for now so I'll close once again and leave you with this for the week. My week is all travel and the next week is more travel because of zone conference so these shoudl be a couple of interesting weeks -- anyway take care (ingat poh kayo lagi Doon sa malayo!!!) Sister Landrum

Email November 2nd

2008-11-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

Hi, so I suddenly realized that my email last week didn't make lot of sense. Sister Mabalot and Sister Abad would like five tops and five bottoms each of garments -- I figure you did understand that because I continued on by explaining sizes best I could and that they want the silky ones but I just thought I'd make sure. I also thought that I really need some sticky notes, not the pad of big ones but the little ones that are square that I can use to stick in people's books to mark their assignment -- I can't find any here and I'm running low. I made an amazing discovery, there is such a thing as slips in shorts style -- I'm wearing Sister Thompson's right now and it's AMAZING, I'm not sure what makes the slip so much better like this but I'm a fan. I'm wearing hers because my one and only one is being washed right now. As for Sister Thompson, we get along too well maybe, haha. We have to be careful not to talk too much (especially in English :) hehe and get everything else done we need to. Of course we're different people but it's really easy to get along with someone that understands everything you say, haha. I miss Sister Victorino and I miss having someone who always understood everything going on but we're learning a lot and we feel really strongly that something about our companionship is going to help our struggling but humble area. As for the area, it's Pola not palo and I'm not sure if you just typed it wrong or what but maybe there is a place palo that you've looked up that is
that tourist place you are speaking of because although I'm sure there are tourist places somewhere on the island Pola is not one of them -- furthest thing from it. It's really hard to even get there so I doubt many people go there unless they have to. There also really isn't anything to do there at all including work so many people are split families with one working abroad or they work in a field an then eat what they grow or sell it to try to make money . Our Branch President for instance doens't work at all, his wife does, and he focuses entirely on his
calling. He couldn't find work before and every since being called has lots of offers that would force him to leave but they've decided they need to stay here and work it out, he acts as branch clerk too and his counselors don't always come -- they also don't have a compute or printer or anything here so our records are really fun to try to keep -- and I have no idea where my apartment is in relation to what you described...sorry. There is a huge cemetery on a hill and we live a little further down the road and to the left of it but that's the best mark I can think of.
Something really fun that recently started happening is that everything I own contracted mold, I'm trying to salvage it all but I wish I could just throw everything but my scriptures and one dress away -- that would be the life. I felt inspired by mom's email to tell you something I don't think I specifically did before. It was kind of interesting and I didn't think too much about it
but back a while ago when Elder Teh was here and he interviewed me he asked me a lot about my family and school and what I planned to do after my mission and something about our conversation lead me to say something to him that I hadn't vocalized or thought much about and is really a simple statement but I had thought about it a little at the MTC but in a different sense and about more the entire family - I guess I started realizing how your entire family is blesses if you sacrifice to serve but it was just a realization and then here actually on my mission and mostly during my interview when I said it -- well what I told him was "I think one of the biggest reasons I'm here is for my mother...and for our relationship..." kind of like that and then I told him it was interesting because dad was the one who always really wanted me to go and I knew it and I knew you'd be so excited for me and had all the reasons and had also served and hopefully our family would be blessed spiritually with callings etc. and financially which all seemed to relate to Dad. Mom, on the other hand, may have liked me to stay home and get married and have a baby boy or something, not that she was against me going but I guess I never thought it would affect you so much that I did rather than didn't -- who knows. I realize this paragraph is a mess but I don't have time to fix it and am choosing not to delete it, haha! As for leaving my mark, I hope I'm leaving the gospel mark, I hope we're planting seeds and at least for a moment helping people know that God love's them even if they never progress while I'm here or ever from that point on but I feel less and less like I have anything to do with it and that anything about me has anything to do about it every day, so I'm not sure what mark I specifically would make of my own. I have a very AMERICAN mark on them because they all love Americans and it's really difficult to speak or express or explain how I might in Tagalog and so instead I say what I can or what I have a little help from the spirit saying about God's message to them but I'm having a great mark made on me which I'm leaving here and will bring back with me and that is a mark cemented deeper than it was, but one that was already there. I love this gospel, I know it's true, I have a desire to not doubt and to improve and to help others and to not falter and it do what I am meant to even if I don't always understand why and that is the kind of mark I have at this point. By the way, Sister Thompson is from Smithfield near Logan not Smithville - retraction from my last letter. As for our apartment -- President and Sister Anderson came
to visit and Sister Anderson really wants us to find a new apartment, but I don't think we'll find better here and it's hard to move. As for water, we often don't have any, depends on the time of day. There are frequent burn-outs so sometimes no electricity. We hope it continues but our one great success story from this Sunday -- well there is a family of members but the father is not active, the older son is recently act ive again and one of the older daughters is married to a born again preacher. They have been the focus family for the last three months Sister Thompson has been here. Their daughter is about my age and the young women president here, she's kind of spunky and really funny to talk to, she wants me to leave my blouses with her, haha. We visited and taught them once and then Saturday we were in the area and we talked to him again and told him to come to church with us and I told him jokingly (because it makes more sense in Tagalog and doesn't sound as weird and it's their personality) that I would give him a prize if he came and I knew his family would be happy and something like that... well the next day he was there at Church and Sister Thompson was so surprised, it is the first time he has come to church in basically forever and his wife shared her testimony and said that it's amazing because that morning she had been tired and was having issues getting to shower
and almost didn't come which means he may not have, oh how the adversary works in all ways to stop progression, but then she found out he was going and quickly changed her ways and was again an example to her husband and as a family they came to church, because he'd promised the sisters he'd come, haha. We taught them and their born again preacher, it would be so much easier to answer his questions if I could speak English, haha! Well, I'm sorry but i'm going to have to close right now. We're emailing kind of late and so we have to leave early. I'll try to finish up answering questions and stuff later and tell Savanna that I'll reply to her email another day and thanks for the pictures, Elli is beatuiful! and they're all so big, wow. I love you all, bye
Britney

Email October 27th

2008-10-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

Something "Tricky" did end up happening. It must be because it was the October transfer. I mentioned the few things I thought would happen to me at transfers and then I said if that didn't happen something tricky might and that's just what happened. I had it all worked out,who might be my new companion and where I would be going and then the names kept getting knocked off, there seemed to be no places left for me and I was a bit confused... and then I was going to the "other" island. I thought there was a chance at the one but I knew the other was not possible -- oh was I wrong. So here I am in Pola Mindoro with Sister Thompson, an American! She hasn't really been here that much longer than me. Ten months meaning she's at her one year mark if you include the MTC. Life is definitely different on the Island, and if you end up not getting an email one week don't be too worried. I don't think it will happen but the email place is now really far away and who knows, so just to warn you ahead of time so you don't call the mission or anything. I also don't think i'll be sending pictures quite as often as I used to because only when we go off the island is that possible, but who knows. I talked about how the spiders are also huge here but I didn't know huge until I got to the apartment on the Island. My first night there was a nice big one crawling around on our ceiling with something white attached to it. That would be its egg sack so when we knocked it down from the ceiling and smashed it all the little spiders went all over and I started spraying the floor as we stepped on them all. Later there was another large one by my bed, I can't smash the big ones it completely grosses me out so I'm pretty glad that Sister Thompson has no problem with it, anymore. She's from Utah, Smithville, and turned 22 this October. She went to Utah State University before her mission and we both just kind of struggle with the language, we both have no idea why we were put together since there are only five American sisters in the entire mission -- but maybe we'll get some insight as time goes on and maybe from president tomorrow at our zone interviews. The branch here is what you call starting out and President called STP - Same Ten people... they just trade around the callings every year and have multiple ones and try to get everyone else to help out. I played the keyboard for sacrament, shared my testimony and then taught one of the classes later that day as Sister Thompson taught another -- they are good and patient with my language skills, for now. I get the feeling I'm going tobe forced to teach myself for now and it's going to be good, yes it will be good we just keep telling ourselves it will be good, right, good? Haha, I was so shocked at the meeting that when I stood up to greet her and move seats my legs were shaky and I felt a bit hot. As for you coming here again-- I need to tell Sister Victorino something about what you think about having her be your tour guide and what your plans are, I don't really know what's going on with that for you. As for the package -- I think I sent a letter talking about some more things I would appreciate and don't know if you got it get or what I said in it for sure and also the official best thing to wear here on a day to day basis, especially on the island where it is not easy to wash my clothes and dry them and be hot all the time -- Jody Dresses -- I have two but if you want to send me another it wouldn't hurt my feelings. If they are super long, well I had the ones I bought altered to be shorter just because it's easier here anyway Sister Abad and Sister Mabalot would like 5 tops and 5 bottoms each, meaning 20 pieces total and I'm pretty sure they want caranessa bottoms and the silk tops -- and that they don't really understand the sizes because sizes are different here. Sister Mabalot and Abad are about my height, not super short like others, and Abad is a little bit bigger, if you have pictures you can compare her to me. My bottoms are the hmmm... XS 24/26 or something i that is a size or maybe the S also, I'm thinking that's more what sister Abad would need and then Mabalot is tiny so maybe more like Mom's size or a little bit smaller as for tops I don't really know -- :) how do you like that information? I'm glad Maddie enjoyed her birthday and dad survived the movie, truthfully those are not my favorite either :) I remember the first time I saw it was because I was trapped on the couch after jaw surgery and the girls were watching it over and over again, haha. As for speaking when I come home, am I really going to end up speaking in your ward?Hmmm, and don't expect anything from me that might just disappoint you, haha a talk just comes out as it does when it does kind of like teaching does sometimes here, and not to mention if I do speak it would have to be pretty quickly if I end up going back to Provo and it's strange to teach in straight English right now, because you express life different in Tagalog and that's what I'm around all the time -- who knows. Anyway, if you haven't noticed about my personality I don't really like to have people have expectations of me, it's kind of a bad personality trait and makes me try to avoid letting people know much about what i'm doing, or feeling like I have to live up to something because it stresses me out and then I feel like I'm doing things for the wrong reasons, well I can'texplain this but anyway that's how I feel and probably part of why way back when I didn't really want to speak when I left either, but I did, and now you're moving so I'll never see those people again. I'm kind of excited for the moving part to be over and hear how everything is going, it's like limbo right now but I'm here so life is going fast fast fast -- half way like you said, but some days are still slow slow slow. Thanks for the letters and the emails and the package, yes i got the package at transfers and already ate all the licorice and the american Elders were really excited to eat some starbursts for the first time in forever also -- they've been here longer than me. As for that necklace from your letter way back when, when I got it there was a huge hole in the envelope like it had been ripped through then taped again and there was a chain, a small chain necklace and that's it and I wore the chain for a while until the sweat make it irritating to my skin like all the necklaces do if I wear them here and then i put it away in a safe place but if there was a vile attatched I never saw it, it probably didn't travel well in just a normal envelope. I don't have too much more to talk about because life has been full of travel and unpacking and cleaning and that's about it for now and I'm feeling a bit crowded at this internet place because there are tons of little boys crowded around the chairs to the side of me playing internet games and it's kind of hot so i'll try to write more about things, maybe you can ask specific questions about something you would like to know so I'll know what you want to know and good luck to everyone with everything else and that's about it for now, love Britney

Email October 20th

2008-10-29T17:36:00.001-07:00

Well, we really weren't expecting it to happen but I am being transferred! Ugggg, that's just how it works, things start picking up and you find this fabulous family you've been praying for your entire mission and you love your companion and you only get one transfer with them and no time to see the family progress haha! Neither of us were expecting it really and both cried right when we saw my name, so it's to Alaminos I go on Friday and who knows after that. I have very few options actually, I'll become the companion of Sister Hill's current companion in San Pablo or go to the island -- or something tricky might happen and I'll be in a threesome who knows where. It's kind of funny because all three American's in our district are being transferred out at the same time. As for BYU -- since Utah didn't lose it just means they have it coming at our game and we'll be tied, one loss and one loss but their loss will be worse becauseit will be against their rivals :) Who knows but I guess we all require humility even in football -- Elder Bringhurst will be very upset (one of the couples) and he watches all the games on the internet, haha. As for your visit here, what are you current and continous thoughts on it because we've had some fabulous revelation. Sister Victorino is from Manila so she said she could be your tour guide, you can pay for her transportation to Alaminos with you as payment for guiding maybe and she'll lead you to the mission home then we'll all go together back to our area here in Lucban and when finished take her back to Manila at the temple and fly out from there. If you get here Monday early Philippines time and we stayed only until Thursday or Friday that would probably work well, anyway tell me what you think. I'll have to work it out with her from a distance now because I'm being transferred, blah :( haha transfers are what life is all about I guess but clearly I'm taking this one hard, I like Lucban and my companion and the other sisters here and our investigators and I'll love all my new ones too, right? I'll miss the baptism coming up also but that's not the important part I suppose, it's that it happens and the retention after even if I never see any of them. As for Christmas cheer, there is plenty of it here, rainy, green style beause they have no other holidays in the way, christmas lights and jingle bells right now, wow. What is it Maddie had to say about me in her talk? They finished their primary program here, the best part was that the Bishop sat up on the stand still and the children were behind him, he lip sang or really sang all the songs with them while he sat there, it was great. I noticed something about Alma this week that I really appreciate. He's consistently telling the people that he hopes they do not think he knows the things he's teaching of himsef, then teaches them of his study, fasting and of the spirit which is how he knows all things and they can know it also. As teachers of the gospel we must consistently acknowledge how we know, all comes from God through His spirit and that is how others will know also. As for your sale and the selling of all my belongings, I bet you'd make a lot off of Carin's painting and all my journals, it's all art :) just kidding but when you first started listing items I thought you had seriously sold my things-- you really can't sell the computer it contains all my life information, hundreds of dollars of music and pictures and journals et. very important to me :) good luck with the moving, with the scrapbooking, with the house remodeling and the new job and the finishing school before break and I'll keep trying to learn Tagalog and tell you abut my new area next week. Love from me, Britney/Sister Landrum.

Wait, although there are many dogs they usually don't chase me but we have a great story about our ROUS's here, rodents of unusual size such as the mouse that ate all my shampoo! It ate a hole in our door then ruined all our bathroom supplies, but was never caught. So one day we came home for lunch and I opened the door only to scare a mouse or rat the size and fatness of a slightly grown up puppy! It was so huge and scared to death of my screaming. I sat there and yelled at it in Tagalog while Sister Victorino stood on the stairs away from it trying to think of what to do. Finally we heated up some water to throw on it but I told her just to get the neighboor to help us. Ferdinand came over and locked himself in the bathroom with a stick and killed it. We made him clean the blood with our hot water then we both cleaned it again a couple of times and still didn't want to use it. That night there was a nice large cockroach in our bedroom even though I sprayed after the rat experience -- so we sprayed it and it started flying around the room as I chased it out the door and finally it went on the floor where sister. Vic smashed it a couple times before it died as it continued to leap around, they are so strong it's ridiculous. Well, I enjoy my rodents of unusual and terrible sizes. Everything comes in huge size here, rats, cockroaches, spiders but the dogs are all small, just diseased. All right, sorry that ended up being my closing I had forgotten about it though. Good bye for real this time - Britney

The Philippines from an outsiders view

2008-10-29T17:32:00.001-07:00

I saw this posted on the internet and thought it was very interesting to read. Therefore, I thought others might gain insights as to where Brit is by reading it also. Hope you enjoy.

And there I was. Not on a white sandy beach. Not in a funky Filipino hotel. Not prepping to dive the coast of Palawan in the morning. But instead, sitting on the faded blue seatcover of a lazy old couch in the living room of this Filipino family in the town of Pola 3 Hours from Puerto Galera, my intended destination, with the sun long gone behind me, and the sound of tropical insects buzzing outside the screen door. Kathy's mother was extremely surprised to see her daughter hop out of the tricycle with a large white girl in tow, but graciously accepted me into her home. I must admit, I was a little stunned to be sitting there. Kathy's 11 year old brother was insanely shy, and although he learns english in school, you would have thought he was mute. When her father came through the door he was also somewhat shocked. "Dirty!" he said in english. "Our house is very very dirty!" They felt very sorry for my having to stay with them in their poverty. Me, a rich Canadian girl out to travel the world... having to stay here... in a town consisting of one street. I was so happy to be with these people though. When would I ever have had this kind of chance if I had stayed at some ridiculous all inclusive resort?? After explaining how thankful I was to be there, they wanted to serve me dinner, and disregarding my calls of "im not hungry", we jumped on a tricycle to buy a roasted chicken from their neighbors down the street. Alas, it was just wasted gas, as the chickens had been sold out. We settled instead, on canned tuna from the tiny shop run out of someones home near the road. Tuna and rice, and it was time for bed. This house has three rooms. A dusty living room with 2.5 couches, a small table, a scratchy tv, and 3 kindergarten graduation photos of the children. Next, around the corner, is the kitchen. which has a sink, a table, and a pantry cupboard. This room also has a plastic children's mirror sitting above a box with some toiletries on it. (Bathroom? I thought?) Next, pass under a curtain and you are in the bedroom. Yes, thee bedroom. There is only one. This house has 2 parents, and three children, 2 boys and a girl. and ONE double bed. They offered it to me, with no chance of my declining. Fortunately Kathy accepted to sleep on the other side of the bed, but that meant that Mom, Dad, and little boy slept somewhere in the living room... probably on the concrete floor. The fan blew all night, but it was no contest for the humid air that covered my face in about an inch of sweat and grime by the time I awoke early the next morning. With little boy off to school, Kathy and I went to the "store" to get some instant coffee. Breakfast was luxurious with our coffee, some fried eggs from their chickens, and these little sweet buns. I had two buns with half an egg in each. mmmmm... dee-lish. One of the greatest things I can say about living with these people was that you could see where all of the food you ate came from. The eggs from the chickens, the rice from the feild out back, the soy sauce from a fruit on the tree in the backyard. The milk from the coconut tree out back. The fish from the fisherman at the market. All local. All organic. All full of vitamins. No processing. No packaging. Food - the way it should be. To provide nourishment. Momsies had to go to work, she works at her sisters store in the nearby town, so we all hopped on the tricycle to drop her off. "Later Mom!!" Next, over to the gas station for 100 pesos of gas ($2.50ish) and then on a tour of the town. Since it was Holy Week, the whole town was out and about for the Mariones festival... where big dudes dress up in elaborate costumes to scare kids and parade through the town. We stopped to watch, but suddenly the crowd closed in around me, and I became the attraction. This group of little schoolboys was tugging at my arm while the Mariones dudes stared at me and shook my hand. Walking through the nearby park, a group of older women yelled out to us and Kathy translated, "They want to touch your nose. They are pregnant and want their babies to have a nose like yours." The little school boys could be seen hiding behind trees as they followed... it was all very very strange. I don't know the words to describe it. You might think the attention was great... but I felt guilty... that these people were attracted to something I had. Something inherent in me that came not from my knowledge or learning, but was owed to where I was born, and the colour of my skin. My skin as a symbol of a life full of opportunity. We left the park shortly after. Stopped for some pritong sagging (fried bananas with brown sugar), and headed back home. The kids next door played marbles and Pops worked on the tricycle... the sun shone, and the chickens made chicken noises. A day in the life. To an extent - it reminded me of metchosin. Except it would be basil and strawberries in place of rice... and hiking through devonian park in place of marbles... and now im just rambling again. Anyway, it was really neat to be in Pola. I learned a lot (I hope!). Kathy is 19 and all she wants is to go to University or college - but has no idea how to find a sponsor to fund her - and wants to be able to support her family. Things we take for granted at home. The rest of my trip played out pretty safe... Their older son Roosevelt and I took some vans and jeepneys up to Peurto Galera and I found that funky hostel, met that old fisherman who chartered our boat to a private piece of sand, scorched my body (got a crazy fever and will NEVER tan without sunscreen again!), ate some halo-halo (dee-lish filipino treat), ate some pig blood and organ stew on rice.... , woke up with black nasty mouse eating peanuts out my purse, and wandered some streets carrying a watermelon in my shawl. If anyone wants to head back to the Philippines with me, at any time *and potentially this JUNE for 3 weeks?!* I am down. But instead, we can learn to dive in Palawan, and hike trails in Romblon, and head to the rice terraces in Banaue and Baguio.... OK? cosmic love and photosynthesis, Gala

Email October 13th

2008-10-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

So, we had a super busy week of travel and then they had a zone activity with the assistants today for p-day so I've had hardly a moment to think about or de-jumble any of it. We have another transfer coming up and that happened super fast... and we have no idea if i'll be transferred now or not so I guess we'll just find out next Monday what my fate is. Snow! Haha, sounds kind of like last year because I have pictures at a football game early in the season where it snowed like crazy on us -- oh the diligent fans who stayed to the end :) and the crazy pre-mish freshman who took their shirts off and turned red and then had to leave so they wouldn't get sick, haha. Wow, wow...that's so exciting that they are doing so well it's going to be an absolute nail biter I'm sure the last two years of Utah BYU games were ridiculously close. AS far as work goes I don't have a lot to report because we were so busy with other things. We've been working on really using the Book of Mormon earlier and better in each principle we teach and our study sessions have been so uplifting just as we search for them and consider how each verse might improve our teaching and the lives of our investigators. We tried it out this week in some of our tracting lessons and it worked so beautifully, ha!

At zone conference we performed our fancy version of Praise to the Man and everyone thought it was really great. I was thinking about how we really did work hard at it but I'm not amazing pianist despite trying to make it a little fancy and they're not professional singers by any means..however we were singing about truths of the gospel and missionaries are promised that as they share messages of truth the spirit will make it stronger, it was a strong performance. Then came conference, the general one :) The tabernacle choir makes me home sick-ish, haha and I noticed in all of the talks, most particularly of the twelve and first presidency that they were like missionaries, they would testify of the last to speak then start, they would leave commitments of sorts at the end, they share testimony of what they teach, missionaries. Their messages definitely focused on holding on to hope, gaining hope, being hopeful and cheerful in a world of despair. I was thinking that without all of that and the great fulfillment just listening and considering their words brings my life would be rather empty and wondered how other people survive and how they can hear those things even and not see how important it all is. Elder Bringhurst mentioned that for us we are so used to the spirit in some ways we forget that others don't have it as a promise to be with them always, constantly teaching them and bringing those things to them and making them clear. Then I also considered how i do have it all and yet much of what they talk about I struggle with and am not perfect in following, and yet I know that if I would just do it and let go of my sins and not give into my weaknesses that I would be happier, I know it and I still fail...maybe that means my knowledge is not yet perfect but that's why we develop faith first and our faith brings us knowledge bit by bit until the day that we can be perfect. By the way, according to my time it's Dad's birthday so happy birthday again! I'm glad to hear the card got to you before your birthday...which for you is tomorrow still but maybe that's when you'll read this anyway. Okay, well I'm going to finish off here and not forget to give mom my small list that I have come up with so far so I'll do it now becuase I almost just forgot

-Stephens hot chocolate (for christmas) and either the mint or raspberry...those
good flavors
-Another white undershirt (yes I know another one) xs fits me best
-Blue Red and black BIC pens and a notebook of normal paper for writing letters
on.
-Crest blue paste toothpaste, they only have colgate here or filipino style and
I miss crest
-As slip to go under my skirts...I only have one and would like two

I cannot currently think of anything else, thanks!
I love you all and hope you are following all the counsel from conference.
-Britney

Transfer day

2008-10-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

Brit is now on the Island of Mindoro which as you can see is across the sea below the main Island where she served in her first 2 areas. She is now in Pola which has white sand beaches and thrives on tourism. It is quite interesting to look at using Google Earth. She has her first American companion (from Utah) and her email discussing this transfer is quite enjoyable to read.

Family and friend challenge!

2008-10-14T06:30:00.001-07:00

Hi.

Yes, I love my missionary daughter and on her behalf I offer you a challenge. With Christmas and Brit's birthday (December 30th) on it's way I would appreciate any extra effort you could make to send Brit a letter or even a small gift box so she doesn't miss home during this time. As you can see they are already in the Christmas season over there so no need to wait until December. It would be great if she receives "stuff" between now and her birthday. It takes packages up to 8 weeks to get there. Letters usually within 7 days. Thanks for loving and supporting our amazing daughter!

October 12th 2008

2008-10-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is just really quick because according to this letter Savanna was still going to send me something which means she might still be working on it or gave up on it because I do not yet have a letter from her. As for me here... no snow but it's already Christmas. This referring to your last question about Halloween. They don't seem to have that holiday like we celebrate it but there is a "day of the dead" kind of day where people go and sleep out at the cemetery and pray for their dead. Then there isn't a Thanksgiving either meaning it's Christmas season now here... they have decorations already and we sing and hear Christmas songs all the time. Yup, yup, very different. I haven't gotten any letters from Garyn yet. Maybe I will soon. Okay, well, I'm going to send this really quick in case you're still all on right now.

(then, we received another email from her)

So, we had a super busy week of travel and then they had a zone activity with the assistants today for p-day so I've had hardly a moment to think about or de-jumble any of it. We have another transfer coming up and that happened super fast... and we have no idea if i'll be transferred now or not so I guess we'll just find out next Monday what my fate is. Snow! Haha, sounds kind of like last year because I have pictures at a football game early in the season where it snowed like crazy on us -- oh the diligent fans who stayed to the end :) And the crazy pre-mish freshman who took their shirts off and turned red and then had to leave so they wouldn't get sick, haha. Wow, wow... that's so exciting that they are doing so well it's going to be an absolute nail biter I'm sure the last two years of Utah BYU games were ridiculously close. AS far as work goes I don't have a lot to report because we were so busy with other things. We've been working on really using the Book of Mormon earlier and better in each principle we teach and our study sessions have been so uplifting just as we search for them and consider how each verse might improve our teaching and the lives of our investigators. We tried it out this week in some of our tracting lessons and it worked so beautifully, ha! At zone conference we performed our fancy version of Praise to the Man and everyone thought it was really great. I was thinking about how we really did work hard at it but I'm not an amazing pianist despite trying to make it a little fancy and they're not professional singers by any means. However, we were singing about truths of the gospel and missionaries are promised that as they share messages of truth the spirit will make it stronger. It was a strong performance. Then came conference, the general one :) The tabernacle choir makes me home sick-ish, haha, and I noticed in all of the talks, most particularly of the twelve and first presidency that they were like missionaries, they would testify of the last to speak then start, they would leave commitments of sorts at the end, they share testimony of what they teach (missionaries). Their messages definitely focused on holding onto hope, gaining hope, being hopeful and cheerful in a world of despair. I was thinking that without these things and the great fulfillment that is brought to my life by just listening and contemplating their words, my life would be rather empty. And, I wondered how other people survive and how they can hear those things even and not see how important it all is. Elder Bringhurst mentioned that for us we are so used to the spirit in some ways we forget that others don't have it as a promise to be with them always, constantly teaching them and bringing those things to them and making them clear. Then I also considered how I do have it all and yet much of what they talk about I struggle with and am not perfect in following, and yet, I know that if I would just do it and let go of my sins and not give into my weaknesses that I would behappier. I know it and I still fail. Maybe that means my knowledge is not yet perfect but that's why we develop faith first and our faith brings us knowledge bit by bit until the day that we can be perfect. By the way, according to my time it's Dad's birthday so happy birthday again! I'm glad to hear the card got to you before your birthday...which for you is tomorrow still but maybe that's when you'll read this anyway. Okay, well I'm going to finish off here and not forget to give mom my small list that I have come up with so far so I'll do it now because I almost just forgot:

-Stephens hot chocolate (for christmas) and either the mint or raspberry...those
good flavors
-Another white undershirt (yes I know another one) xs fits me best
-Blue Red and black BIC pens and a notebook of normal paper for writing letters
on.
-Crest blue paste toothpaste, they only have colgate here or filipino style and
I miss crest
-As slip to go under my skirts...I only have one and would like two

I cannot currently think of anything else, thanks!
I love you all and hope you are following all the counsel from conference.
-Britney

The long road back home

2008-10-05T13:18:00.001-07:00

With the difficulties of the economy and the irresponsibilities of the lending industry and government, last year was catastrophically damaging to my business. As a family we were faced with a very difficult decision. After requesting and receiving a blessing and after much prayer an opportunity presented itself to us. I recognize in my heart that the Lord has protected and looked out for our family. I have chosen to take a very exciting position with a generous and stable company in Idaho. I know that if we simply stay faithful during our tribulations and do what we have power over, God desires to bless our lives and guide us in the paths He asks of us.
That path has led us to Burley Idaho where we got our start! We will greatly miss our family and friends in Utah but look forward to the opportunities that await us in our home town. We look forward to establishing a new home there for Britney to be well received come August 2009! We love and miss you sister Landrum!

September 25th, 2008

2008-10-05T13:17:00.001-07:00

Hi, so I probably won't get that letter for a while now but I'm looking forwards to hearing more about the play. Your statement about your sisters reminded me of something I've said sometimes. I tended not to notice when my friends were not quite as zealous about being my friends as I was about being theirs until you or someone else would say “why don't they do this or shouldn't they have done this?” In the screw tape letters C.S. Lewis talks about how one of the devils greatest weapons is self-sacrifice. He loves it when we sacrifice for others. Something as simple as you wanted to watch this movie this time so I let you even though I didn't want to. When you sacrificed that movie you didn't really sacrifice it. You expected that the next time it would be your choice and then are disappointed if it doesn't work that way. Because, we then build up in ourselves a mental list of all they owe us while at the same time they are doing the same. But, neither recognize this list and both are noticing only what is done for the other and therefore, what they owe you. Forgetting what they did in their own way until someone explodes. And, of course, the other has their own list to throw back at you so nobody wins. It just becomes resentment. Even when we try to have very pure motives our mortal state causes us to do that. And so, since reading that I try to make sure I expect no return. Even the return of thanks or of being noticed sometimes doesn't happen. But, that should not be what motives us rather a true love for others gained only through our knowledge of the Savior's love for all of us and His great sacrifice. And, then we can expect the greatest return because God's blessings in our sacrifice are sure and eternal. Well, I read dad's letter too, of course. Good luck in your search and in your move and adjustments. I came to a point where I tried to stop being surprised when we moved. I didn't feel like I fit in anywhere but it helped me realize that the church is always the same. That was one great blessing. Then I went to college and created my own stable little world with my same job and apartment andFriends. But, it's funny to create a stable world in such an unstable one. It was bound to change and always did. I found myself disconnected from my family however. I didn't feel like a part much but separate and not sure how to change that since everything seemed more to be pushing me away and into my own life. I realized early on at the MTC that my mission was a chance to become connected again. It forced me to. When I return you'll live somewhere new again that I have never been and further away from where I will be. But, Savanna will be on my level now. I've had all this time to write letters and share great amounts of my life and experiences and feelings more than I ever would have or did at college or in High School and it's just a good blessing. Not to mention I learned again that in a world of unstableness the church is the same. Even here, it is the same. It is cool, I speak Tagalog! And, I realize in my last email I was a bit excited about that realization but don't get too excited because I'm still millions of miles away from fluent. It's such a SLOW process despite how fast it is. It is strange how life is contradictory. Well, I'm going to leave talking about Sherwin's baptism for my letter so I have something to say in it and that's about all for now. Love much Brit

September 19th, 2008

2008-10-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Dad! Wow! I just can't believe it. Three straight years of amazing football at BYU! If we win against Utah I will probably just be out of my mind that I missed it! Haha. I never knew I'd become such a football fanatic. I still vividly remember you dragging me off to the big crowds where we'd search for ticket hackers and watch the game. I think I just liked to be with dad and tell my classmatesthat I went to the game. I didn't much appreciate football. I'm also fairly positive that's one of the few things I knew about BYU. That's how I knew BYU and from that wanted to attend that school and only that school. I feel so blessed to have attended a school where we pray before we study biology and we talk about how the founding fathers were inspired by God to help bring in the restoration of the gospel. I'm also very glad that my new companion likes to work hard and likes to study. When you're not equally yoked in trying to do both of those things, everything starts to fall apart, it gets a bit depressing. Elder Teh not only interviewed us but he sent us all letters. They were personal letters. He told me my heart is in the right place. How nice... I'm glad at least my heart is where it should be. It's amazing how distracting your own thoughts can be but as long as your heart is where it should be it makes it easier to control wandering thoughts. To football games and weddings and families that are moving to a placeYou have never seen before... all of that. I started a list of the places in the scriptures where it talks about learning line upon line, light for light etc. Knowledge being added upon itself or taken away as we live according to what we're given. As we're true to it or as we are not. It's an eternal concept that the scriptures frequently touch upon and I found in it such a great lesson about the mercy of God because He says that He will not give a higher law to those who can not yet live by it. For those who transgress a higher law will be accountable for it. If we truly want to become as God, know of His mysteries etc. we must become someone who can live by that greater knowledge. And, that takes proving it to God every day because each time we choose the dark the light is taken away from us. It is in fact taken away until a day when you have less than what you started with. We cannot stand still. We are always moving forward or moving backwards. I forgot that for a time in my life until I realized my complacency was taking me to a place I didn't recognize because I had less than I knew before. Don't go through the motions of life, live life! When that became my motto things got better and I learned to truly repent. To change every day. That's still a struggle and we'll all still go back and forth but Christ will make up for it if He is our path. I asked about the whole coming here thing. Transfers are the week of August 12. Meaning, that Monday is when I can leave and they said you could also come Sunday night. This means you'll have to figure out what day to leave your time to get here Sunday or Monday morning our time. Or, maybe you could come Friday? Also, what you have to do is buy two - two way tickets and one one-way ticket for me. Then the church will reimburse you. I don't know exactly how that part works, they just told me to tell the office Elders. At that point I can stay here until the flight home. That puts us late in August and I will probably want to head straight to Provo. My plan would be to find work immediately and I guess depending on Savanna I'll need you to rent us an apartment sometime in April. Hopefully, at campus plaza again. But, that could also change. Sister Hill and I might be roommates. I don't know. And, I'll maybe want to take just one class and work full-time so I can try to start school. School will start very soon after I get home so that's hectic. But, anyway, it's the plane tickets that we have to worry about now I can worry about getting ready to go to school and work and coming home in general in a couple more months. Good luck with the house buying and new job etc. and tell everyone I love them. Brit

September 12th, 2008 #2

2008-10-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

Hi, so I just got another email. I don't know if it just didn’t show up before or if you jut sent it at the same time I sent mine. As for Brandon and Ivy I suppose I would like to write to them if you could get me an address. I would like to congratulate them and encourage them to continue forward. I'll be trying to write and finish you a letter in response to all of your letters and this email later. My time is up after having written my other letter. Good luck with the shoe collecting. It's too bad I can't see the final product (referring to the footloose play our family is in). Good luck with the house hunting. So, thanks for the mail. Sister Victorino says you are very diligent after she saw all the letters I got. I am glad you like the small pictures too. They aren’t just smaller but they are also cheaper. J teehee. And, they weigh less so they are easier to send and cheaper to send. All right the end now. Brit

September 12th, 2008

2008-10-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

We're probably going to email earlier from now on. I don't know if I don't have mail from all of you because it's still early or if just dad wrote. But, I got his two about Idaho and about BYU football. J Haha. I'm just fine withthat though because we just had transfer day and I got mail. Lots of letters from mom but still not that one dad said he wrote and sent about the whole new job moving thing. I also got another letter from Becca and her companion who is from here in the Philippines and from ANDREA! Finally! Haha. As for transfer day, Sister Victorino is my new companion and she is of course good at Tagalog since she's from here and is also very good at English. She is very hard working. Being in a companionship teaches you a lot. Different people’s personalities, strengths and weaknesses and seeing how in their own way they leave the area different and they leave you different. But, I do believe in one thing. Just do the simple things and submit yourself to God and follow the rules and the commandments and give yourself up to something and you will be happy. You will overcome obstacles and you will feel the spirit and you will help your area. Sister Victorino goes home in January so we're not sure how long we'll be together. They could go off and decide to leave me in this area forever and I'll stay until she goes home and until I train someone new on the area -- March Yikes. Or, we could only have six weeks together so that she'll get two more to train someone new on the area before she goes home. Or, we'll get two transfers and then she'll have only one transfer to train someone before she goes home. For now, I have each day of hard work and continuing to learn this language before me. We had a fun surprise and Sister Hill was at transfersafter all because they were put into a three-some. Elder Cheney was also there because his companion was transferred so our entire batch was together again. Elder Cheney is senior now and district leader, he looked a bit worried! As for going home, I don't really know about that. If you need to book flight now I can try to ask about it early. I think they send you "trunky letters" throughout your mission and I could be getting one soon or it might be far away still. They send them to help us plan for things like this. All I know is that there is no transfer at the end of July so I would either come home three weeks early or 3 weeks late. Maybe, Aug 12th transfer. Rules change a bit if your parents come though and I would most likely leave earlier than transfer then we would fly home on the same scheduled time. Wow, I have no idea with that. I’ll just have to ask if you need me to right now. Strange to talk about it and even more strange that I was thinking I have just one year more. But, now it's not one year it is less. Man, I need to improve my language skills! I do feel a lot more confident all of a sudden. But, I'm sure that something will help me feel a bit humbler again soon J. Actually, I always feel humble with language here so no worries about that. I still frequently don't understand what's going on and can't fully express myself but I speak Tagalog! Isn't that amazing! Even if I went home right now, I can communicate with people in another language to a pretty good degree. It's just amazing even if it's lacking. Amazing! As for Elder Murdock, I've heard the name but am not sure I've met him. Sister Victorino says she knows him. There could always be more than one Elder Murdock in the Philippines but if it's him it will just go well with my "Iknow someone no matter where I am in the world" story from all my different moves and activities. I'm really curious about when you actually plan to move everyone and how the girls all feel about it with school and all of that. Maybe I have letters coming that will inform me better. Living in a hotel and traveling so much does not sound like so much fun though so I hope it all gets worked out soon. Don't forget to do the simple things every day. Don't forget to put God first and He will take care of everything else for you. That doesn't mean everything will be perfect because we're in a fallen world. But, in the end that will all be worked out because Adam fell and Christ was risen up so we all will be also. Christ makes it all fair again and fixes the consequences of sin. We will have to look towards that, follow that and allow it to be in our lives because we have that agency. But, that understanding brings so much peace. You can rest easy now. J Well I have to go now. Love Brit

September 5th, 2008

2008-10-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

President approved an activity for us today (P-day) before transfers so we all took a boat out to this beach of white sands. We spent most of the time taking pictures which I'm printing to send to you all and eating food. The water was so amazingly clear and warm I wanted to swim so much! Haha -- Bawal. We also found out today who will be transferred on Friday. Sister Odo is being transferred and I'm left in the area. I'll know who my new companion is next Monday. We have a lot of work to do in this area so I hope she's ready and willing to work hard :) I also hope she's really good at Tagalog, teehee... we'll see. Sister Hill is still in her first area and her companion goes home next transferso she'll be in her first area for most of her mission, I'm glad to move around but sad I won't get to see her at transfer day, I was sure she'd be transferred and we'd get to see each other. Does this fabulous new job mean you'll be able to come pick me up in about a year? :) Is there vacation leave, Haha. I realize that would be extremely expensive and who knows maybe I'll marry someone who served in the Philippines somewhere and we can all return together. I guess if I marry someone who didn't serve in the Philippines we could still return. It would just be cooler if they had. Also,more likely to happen. I'm still really curious about how everyone else feels about moving and what plans are for when you will move to Burley. Maybe I'll find out inmy mail this Friday. As for the card, the card has always worked as long as I'm at a store that accepts cards -- but I still can't get myself cash at the ATM's to use for places that don't accept cards. I might just be able to work it out so I don't need cash ever, though. Even though, cash would be easier. I just buy my food and dish soap and stuff when I can with the card and feel okay about using my mission cash for things like material for skirts. I also bought myself a Christmas/birthday present -- whatever you want it to be. It was our last chance because the couples buy them for you when they go to Manila and they are going home soon and who knows if the new couples would do it. They sell strings of real pearls for about 40 dollars. According to Sister Bringhurst they would be a couple hundred in America. I love pearls and they are really very beautiful. You didn't mention anything, or I forgot, about a package. At this point you may as well just get a good Christmas/birthday package ready for me, Haha. I don'tknow how you feel about trying to send cash in a package but I hear it's good to hide it in some way if you do and maybe if you do that I could have something just in case I ever do need cash but I think I'm a-okay. Also, you have to be careful about sending food because first off it's hot, second it could sit in the mission office for a long time and we have cases of bugs getting into packagesand destroying things. So, it has to be packaged and re-packaged if you decide to try that. Australian licorice maybe J. Anyway, here in the Philippines once you're into the BER months meaning September, October until December you sing Christmas songs so Sunday I played Christmas songs for sacrament meeting. I guess they don't have Thanksgiving to get in the way so it starts extra early.It was funny to me because we get frustrated when the music starts even right after Thanksgiving sometimes and here they have two full months before. They do have Halloween here however so that is kind of strange to me. It's okay. It always seems like Summer anyway. Well, because of our long trip I actually don't have much time to email and have to leave soon. I'll have lots of new news for you next week after transfers and hopefully will write some good letters next week also if I receive your mail. I love you all -- good luck with the play and finding a house and doing school and having your back get better! Love always again. Britney

October 2nd, 2008

2008-10-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

We sat in the front of the jeep we rode home in the other day. Sister Victorino was watching as he worked the clutch and asked me to explain it all. And, I got to thinking about driving. Especially from your last letter all about selling my car. Funny how I really have SO many memories attached to that car. I wish I could be there to drive for you all those miles because I kind of miss driving. But, my day will come again. For now I'm a passenger in the most interesting of transportation methods. Although, I'm not sure this makes me as healthy as I should be and am excited to start regular exercise again (very difficulthere, haha). So you don't plan to every do any remodeling to the house? I feel like that will change but who knows? I am sorry I didn't do a better job of packing up all my things in the office for you. I think all of my "things" are in that office. I guess there are the boxes in the barn. It willbe fun to go through it all when I come back and figure out what to throw out, what to pack and what to take again to college or wherever I go. So were John and Felicia busy with school so they didn't come to the blessing? What are they all up to these days? I don't seem to hear a lot about the younger generation.Grandma Lois also, I think your mention of seeing her at the temple was also the first I've heard about them in a while. Well, be sure to tell everyone hello from me even if they aren't really getting letters -- I expect whoever really wants to is looking at that blog site, I don't know if it's been updated at all but from almost every letter I get someone mentions looking at it so it makes me feel less bad that I don't write to many people unless I get a letter from them :) Speaking of Aunt Terry the new graduate -- and Gabby being all grown up, how are Becca and Kate also? And uncle Shawn? Hmmm, anyway, I like news about the family even if it's only a little bit. Some sister’s skirts are just a little too short in my opinion. I prefer a little bit longer than too short especially because it's hard to sit comfortable especially when traveling. As for blouses, a collar is not mandatory. It just needs to be nice and it's not supposed to be TOO flashy or too informal. The idea -- the focus is not on our clothing but we need to also look nice, basicallythat's it. I've been through the process of having almost everything I brought with me altered, shorter sleeves, to fit better because I lost weight or it was just baggy and long etc. and bought a couple more short sleeved shirts while here like the one you mentioned with the cream tie. If you could send me some more simple headbands, black also... that would be nice because I wear a headband almostevery single day and braid the rest of my hair -- it's all I can do :) As for my skin... it's just as annoying as ever but the pictures do seem to not show it off very well which is nice. This week I've had a particularly sensitive skin week :) Most of the American's I've seen/talked to say their skin doesn't like it here either. We've all broken out at times then gotten better, etc. just because of the pollution and the heat and sweat. It pulls the gunk out of the pores because of the humidity anyway this is a bit long for talking about skin and as for my soap, I use whatever I can find. I'm not sure what will happen with this but my old companion Sister Mabalot and sister Abad are now companions and they both asked me the other day how hard it would be to have you send them some garments from America because here they only sell one kind and they both really like mine, the dry silk tops and the caranessa bottoms. Maybe you can just tell me what you think about that or how hard it would be. I expect they would just pay me in pesos and so you'd never get any extra money for it. I'd just get some cash :) haha. If the package really does only take six days I will get it at zone conference which is October 6th or something like that. But, last time it clearly took longer so I won't be looking forward to it :) I got a letter from Shaela and Jake is going on a mission. That's exciting. I also heard from Andrea and Heidi is getting married in December. Maybe I told you that last week. As for actual gifts for Christmas and my birthday I can think of nothing in particular and already count the money I use on the card as my gifts even though the money on the card is actually food. That's because I use my cash to buy things like material to have a skirt sewn. I also use it to print pictures and send expensive letters because my allowance money doesn't fit for that either and dad said to keep printing pictures so that's what I'm doing. So, I printed the pictures from Sherwin's baptism and will write a letter later today about it. We had a super busy week with travel to Lucena and service projects because in the Philippines it was Family Week. We visited the jail and the children's center. I'll probably write more about that also. I can't believe September is over and neither can my companion. October seems like it will go fast also because we have Zone Conference, General Conference, Stake Conference and then another transfer. And, we're not sure if I'll be transferred now or next time but likely one of them since she'll need to train someone new before she goes home in January. Well, good luck with all the parties coming up and keep me updated. Tell everyone hello and that's about it for now. Love, Brit.

August 30th, 2008

2008-10-05T12:38:00.001-07:00

“Lilipat Kayo!” That means you will move again -- the subject that is. I'm pretty impressed with myself, I will have been interviewed, set apart and now released by different stake presidents. I'm pretty sad that my poor car will be gone, lots of memories (thinking -- pondering -- done) and does that mean Savanna has actually taken my advice and decided to live in Provo with me? I bought some material today with the card so I can have our ward mission leader make me some skirts and pants -- if he does a good job I might do more because the material is SO cheap to buy here and they custom sew it! Anyway I'm pretty excited all the Elders have reallyfancy pants sewn for them so I figure I can get in with the action and get myself some good clothes -- some of my skirts are already starting to look a little shabbyfrom sitting in dirt and riding in trikes etc. What's funny is we are emailing super late so you probably didn't need to rush to get the mails off to me. I'm pretty anxious to hear more about how all this moving will go (and my things sitting there on that book shelf of mine, posters journals etc. I'm really sorry now I didn't pack them up better for you but yes please be nice to them :) it sounds like dad is moving up there to work before everyone else and funny as it is I actually had that very thought about buying Grandma and Grandpa's old house and it would be extremely funny -- going back to your roots! I want to hear how everyone is feeling about it, when will everyone else move, I guess that depends on when you get a house? I feel like I don't have much to say -- I wrote letters to the girls earlier and from what I wrote last week in emails and letters that you should be getting there just isn't much else. Mostly I have questions now but I guess I'llfind out at transfers (because that's the next time I will get mail from all of you). Transfers are September 12th now and I expect we will have one still but even if we don't those who go to transfers will bring back our mail. Last time they brought us mail it was my smallest amount yet, only one and from mom – Mom always pulls through for me :) I was also thinking about BYU -- I'm missing the reign of Max Hall, what a shame :) I was there for two amazing triumphs over Utah though so I'm pretty sure I can't complain. I mentioned BYU football starting at our last district meeting, last Wednesday and Elder Collins was pretty happy for me, that I like Football that is. Do you know who you plan to vote for? Maybe someone who can help the gas prices go down (do presidents have those powers?) They are high here also which means it costs us more to ride trikes and jeeps/busses if we travel far. The president here is a woman. I have noticed that women in the Philippines often take one the strong position while men are more easy going; they have a lot of female leadersand often their leaders are also actresses and actors. The most recent Philippines "myth" that I won't listen to is that if I wash my face at night I will go blind/get blurred vision -- I already can't shower at night ever without getting in trouble, I'm not going to stop washingmy face , haha. I will be working with Sister Abad tomorrow, we are doing an exchange which they allow once a transfer. Sister Abad is my same batch to go home and Sister Odo, my current companion, trained her. Sister Matapule is from Tonga and is a go home batch with Sister Odo so they want to work together also -- exchanges and zone conferences etc. are always a nice change of pace and to learn something from the way others do things. Alaiza was baptized Sunday. I don't know how much I've said about Alaiza. I will write more later I think but we've been teaching her the entire time I've been here. She is Olivia's age almost exactly and comes to church alone every week -- although her parents are members they aren't active at all. We had the baptism all ready and no here still so we went up to her house and she was not ready at all and didn't say much to us just looked at us with sad eyes kind of and went and changed then came back crying. Her father had gone to look for people to drive around, he's a driver and that's his work, her mother was washing clothes and wasn't going to come because she's ashamed to go to church or something -- they aren't much support to her and she was very upset she really wanted them to come. Her mother followed us there after waiting and we did the baptism. Michael baptized her. He is a recent convert, one year now I think and often helps us. He is the only member of his family also and wants to serve a mission but is a bit older now for boys and doesn't have much money to do it so he's frustrated. He did such a good job, he'd memorized it all perfect and I just felt really peaceful and calm, like a clarity of happiness as I watched and then I realized that feeling was the spirit now present and that's when my heart sped up a bit and tears came to my eyes for only a moment. The feelings of the spirit were the pure happiness the clarity of thought and the calmness throughout my body but recognizing that it was the spirit brought the rush; it was an interesting realization of how the spirit feels to me. Alaiza shared her testimony after and cried -- and so did her mother. She said she knows this is the church that will help her make her life better and it's Christ's Church and he lives. Well -- that's all for now I'll write again next week. Love - Britney

August 24th, 2008

2008-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

Hi Family… So, I’m doing what you told me to and typing this in word so I can just paste it later. I can look at the pictures but this computer likes to shut everythingdown as I do so, thus going through all of your letters plus the ones I didn’t get last week before checking has taken up a lot of my time. Everyone looks pretty fancy and ready for school and Savanna’s bangs are fabulous… I never figured out the bangs thing…they were always so cute on other people and I just couldn’t get the hair-do thing right for myself. Right now my hair is just long and funny layers and I braid it every day. I probably will need to get it trimmed at least before another year is over but I’m kind of afraid to for some reason, haha. My honest reaction when I first read about the possible move was to cry – probably out of habit since that’s what I did every other time. Maybe out of empathy for Garyn who it sounds like took it hardest, since I fully understand what she’s going through. By the time you read this you may have made a decision but whatever happens assure her that she’ll live through it and something good will come from everything. I could have done a lot better at that. Of course, I could have done a lot better at a lot of things as is the truth with all of us. I don’t feel like I’ve given so little detail about this area as your emails make it sound like. Maybe, like you mentioned about getting used to your surroundings, thePhilippines in general are more familiar to me and so I don’t feel there is as much to say or I don’t notice it. I don’t know, I guess I don’t know exactly what you want me to describe or say about it. Also, we’re not supposed to go into detail in our letters about struggles per-say so maybe I’ve been “distant” in my letters because this area has been a struggle. Of course, you know that because I did mention it slightly. I feel like I’m realizing a lot of things I never knew before or that I used to think were one way and they just aren’t. For instance, learning a new language. I was grateful for something Luke said in his last letter to me about how he learned the language, about how before you do it you feel like it’s either you don’t know it or you’re fluent but it’s more gradient and you hardly notice it. And, then he mentioned things he had to do like writing down words he didn’t know and rephrasing things back to people and then he said, “And I had to do it my whole mission.” My grammar is terrible, my vocabulary is lacking but I can communicate and I can share my testimony and I can understand basically what people are expressing when they talk. I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting. The last time I gave a talk was when I was not quite three months into the field, right now I’m not quite five, and I had just come to this area. The talk was pretty short and shaky but I only said one thing in English, and it was after I said it in Tagalog first. The second counselor told me after that my Tagalog has really improved. That’s about all I can go off of. I have at least improved while here. Something I’m learning much more acutely right now is how destructive it is to say anything bad or destructive about anyone else. As I was pondering this idea and some of the examples of that I’ve encountered I read the beginning of Alma. You just finished it and I just started it. In Alma 4-5 the people of God have just finished a battle in which they should have lost but they used the strength of the Lord and thus they won. And yet, they still had many losses once peace was restored and had great cause to lament. However, what happened is that their losses woke them up to their need to continue establishing the church and after this, many more were baptized. They were already God’s people and he even helped them through the battle. But, it was because of the battle and their losses that they were able to further establish the Church, we can never sit still or think the word is done even if we’re already members, already active, already being good and being supported by God. We need more baptisms. These same people one chapter later in five begin to be prideful, as you know is the cycle, and what it says is that they began to scorn those in the church and persecute those that were not. And thus, the wickedness of the people of God became a stumbling block for those who were not me members yet. They destroyed themselves from within and then there was no place for those outside to come unto. Thus, nobody became members and the Church was destroyed. I felt that this was exactly the time I needed to read this chapter to fully press upon my mind and soul how the Book of Mormon teaches truths that continue to occur in our day. I’m seeing that happen right now and am caused to ponder on how to turn it around and help others develop love for one another, and caused to remember times where I may not have been the perfect example of doing this myself. I am going through a very repentant time. As I am forced to seek comfort from the only sources left possible to me, prayer and scriptures, I have remembered my own sins from the past which I never truly sorrowed over even if I left them behind to some degree. It is a time for me to change so that when I return and no longer live the missionary lifestyle I will not do again those things I simply shouldn’t. So often we repeat our own mistakes over and over. The other night was a night for cockroaches. They were huge. They were as big as a small mouse or even a good medium sized mouse. Maybe it was because it rained a ton the other day but suddenly all the cockroaches were in our apartment and I was running around spraying them with our pemethrrin. It’s way too disgusting to me to smash them but Sis. Odo is just fine with it Haha, she smashes them all. They started eating her notebooks the other day so she was pretty mad. I have this fear that my journals or notebooks or whatever will be destroyed at some point in my mission – it’s highly possible actually so I think I might try to find a way to send some things home at some point. Well, back to the whole moving thing and trying to decide about a job. I didn’t touch on that much before but this brings me back to it. I also considered that you’ll have to move all of my things, particularly my not really packed all over the place and covered with a blanket things that are in the office. That’s not the most thrilling idea to me but far from being a reason not to accept a good job. Just a random thought. Don’t be mad at me for it, Haha. You have been very prominent in my prayers, particularlyabout decisions for a job and so I know that whatever you are supposed to do you will be helped in doing it. It will be a bit of a longer drive to get home from school and I am sad there are no mountains in Idaho. As you can see a lot of my reasons are not so important. I have full confidence in you and am glad we have the example of great leaders who have gone through life and been men and women of God through it all like President Eyring. Our attachments should be to what God’s will is for us and not to our homes or wards or schools etc. Consider a mission president. Well, President Anderson and Sister Anderson sold their home of twenty plus years with its beautiful yard and many memories. Sister Anderson recently told me that she’d just redone her kitchen and that it was sad for her to leave it but they sold it and made themselves a path to which they can serve God better and they left their 30 grandchildren and came to live in the Philippines with all its troubles and discomforts so they could grow closer to God and come to love those that are hardest to love. And so that they could become more unified in all they do as a couple. Those are some of the great things I’ve heard about couple missionaries and they truly sacrifice everything. Then there is President and sister Uchtdorf and they had to move from their own country and leave their family in Germany as they spend their life in service. We are called upon to sacrifice all and our leaders do that. So, I wrote about the things from my email last week in some of the letters I sent but I’ll try to repeat some of them here to give you some substance and especially since my main letter last week I sent to Savanna. I was attacked by a monkey. We have this contest going one between Elder Cheney, Sister Hill and myself. Elder Cheney so far gets best disease, mumps. Sister Hill gets best package, her parents sent her a full sized toilet seat! I get best attack by an animal. We were walking under this doorway after a lesson to someone we had tracted and suddenly I had some pretty intense pain on the top of my head. I was wearing the head band that Aunt Jenny made me and I guess the Monkey that was swinging up above the door liked it as much as I do so he swung down and grabbed it along with a lot of my hair and then swung up and yanked it all – array! (which means OUCH!) I fell on the ground out of shock and pain and I think someone from behind untangled the monkey’shands and retrieved my headband – bad monkey. It was quick and surprising and I stood up fast and started to laugh because the people we had just taught looked so ashamed. We also had zone conference and Elder Teh and his wife came. They are from the Philippines and he is a member of the seventy. After lunch they asked me to go play some prelude. I started to play and then the Elders started to push the huge white board back behind me and the piano so I scooted forward for them on the little bench I was sitting on and it collapsed! I was underneath the keyboard in my skirt with the elders staring down at me. I tried to push my way out. They kept staring and finally Elder Teh came over and helped me up – Haha. The best part was I didn’tfeel embarrassed at all – I must be really humble now I have no pride to lose, Haha. Well, afterwards he chose some people to interview. I think I mentioned this in myletter in more depth. All three Americans from my district were interviewed and Elder Bench was sure we were getting sent home. It was more like a good chat than an interview to me and I became strangely shy. He asked about family and plans for after my mission and schooling etc. and I was surprised both at what I told him and about his very sincere support of all my unrealized dreams. He also mentioned that his mission was the best for him and mine will be for me. Others have said this also but it’s good to hear it over and over again. We don’t always realize the importance of something within it and maybe I won’t know exactly why this was the mission for me for years but I want nothing more than to do what I’m supposed to. Well, our time is quite up and I haven’t really finished writing about all I would like to but still have a hand written letter to finish so you’ll have to be patient with me. Good luck with school everyone. I love you all, bye.

Brit's address!

2008-10-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

Britney loves to receive mail as does any missionary. I just realized that we have never posted her address to eliminate your potential excuses for not writing her! Sorry.

Sister Britney Landrum
San Pablo Philippines mission
Brgy San Juan
Alimino Laguna 4001
Box 38
Philippines

Write to her often!

August 10 Email

2008-08-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Family - So the internet died here at this place and we are waiting for it to start working again. I decided that while I was waiting I would open up this notepad and type your letter so I can paste it later. We are in Lucena because the AP's called us and said they were going to come here for an activity. Lucena is about an hours jeep ride from Lucban but we went...and then they weren't here and we don't know the way to where they went so we're just here in Lucena where it is much hotter than Lucban although not that much further away. My area is one of the coldest places in our mission they say -- that's a blessingsome days :) The week has gone well for the most part. We have a mission tour right now so our six week regular schedule is kind of messed up and we're having zone conference all over again, thus I'll be driving to Lucena again tomorrow night and waking up early Wednesday for Zone conference with Elder Teh of the seventy who is coming to speak to us and our emails from the mission for the last couple of weeks have been wear your best, come and be quiet, don't bring cameras etc." haha...we also just had zone interviews last week so we were in Lucena. Zone interviews were really good for me. Getting to talk to president was a good thing and helped relieve me of some of my concerns. I was definitely not enjoying being accountable for the work we were/weren't doing and it was giving me a kind of anxious attitude. I feel bad for president and Sister Anderson, they have a lot of adjustments to make and I think President is trying to fix everything he doesn't like about how the mission is going with the zeal of someone new but he said himself in my interview that Sister Anderson told him, "you can't just change them, so accept them." How true is that sometimes? As for not mentioning people by name all the time, that probably has in part to do with the lack of names to mention, it's true, but besides that I don't know why I haven't. Kalvin is one of our investigators -- we both discussed the other day the fact that we truly believe he will be a member of the Church one day but we don't know how far in the future that will be. Even Brigham Young took years before he decided he was going to join the church and he became prophet so I have hope and pray for him every day. Kalvin stretches my language abilities. I'm sure I've mentioned this to you somewhere. Maybe in a hand written letter or in an email but I want to explain to him and understand him so much that I have to stretch my vocabulary. Our ward mission leader is Kuya Eddy.... Kuya is a word they use here that means older brother and Ate is for older sister (and the pronunciation is not like the word for eating but a softer A at the beginning like ah-te) but you attach it to peoples names all the time basically so anyway Kuya Eddy Sews for a living and right now they are close to festival in Lucban so he has a lot of work to do. He is our ward mission leader but he's going through a tough time right now. He diligently comes to church still and teaches the new member/investigator class. We went to his sewing shop in the evening after church where he was sewing -- Sister Odo was talking to him in a somewhat joking but serious manner about keeping the Sabbath day holy. He chuckled a bit and seemed exasperated-- he wants time to read more, to do what he should and improve in the gospel but he's overwhelmed and he said to us "this is a blessing from God, I have so much work now I need to do it and make sure these customers come back" he works over time, he sleeps there sometimes instead of at their house and wakes up in the middle of the night to keep sewing -- reminds me of someone else who works overtime and sleeps over :) As Sister Odo was talking with him he finally looked over at me and said "What do you have to say" and all I could think was that sometimes God gives us the desires of our hearts or the things we ask for etc. and blessings and those same blessings become obstacles to our own happiness. It says that in the scriptures, that God will grant unto us what we want if we seek after that rather than what He wants for us and although we will see it as a blessing and a prayer granted at first it will become for us a stumbling block so we must be mindful of that and humble ourselves before we are made to be humble. I was also impressed by the article about Elder Eyring’s life and the strong impression he was given one night after his wife brought up "is this really what you should be doing with your life?" and he was quite happy and successful where he was -- the thought came "never take another job without coming to me first" and he knew there were many jobs in his past that he did not ask theLord about but decided fully on his own wisdom and no council from the Lord. Soon after he was called by people from Salt Lake to take up a job which lead him eventuallyto Rexburg and then to being an apostle -- a life of service and as much as it may have seemed like he was sacrificing he knew he wasn't and this was God's will for him and his life has been greatly blessed. I hope, Dad, that the desires of your heart will be fulfilled, but most that you will know the desires of God because I know they are far greater and you have somany talents and have helped so many people already that there is surely a path meant for you where you can continue to do that. I was also thinking with Brother Eddy about how sometimes we are meant to learn to sacrifice -- if blessings always came immediately would we ever learn the greater joy of sacrifice? I know that as parents you have learned sacrifice, I know that I'm learning more what sacrifice is now and it comes in many forms and it is a great covenant that we made to sacrifice all we have as Christ did, all to the will of the Father so that he might make more of our lives, give us greater joy, expand our vision and build up friends (that last part is a portion of a quote from someone, Benson I think, and thus it has authority more than my own words :) I know this is true. As for the card -- it is a pin problem, but not really. At the MTC the ATM told me my pin was wrong so I called in to the bank and used that same pin and it worked, they told me it was right and thus I still don't know what the problem is because I have no other pin to use and the bank said I'm using the right one but the ATM doesn't care! Haha...as for the 400 I don't know what they do with that they put it in with all the mission money. I think the money you pay for the entire time will cover my plane tickets and not much more, the Church pays for a lot and thus we are given an allowance in accordance with what they think we can live off of and we can use it for food, electricity, shampoo etc., and transportation and sending letters to family -- if we run out that's our own fault :) haha it works well but if I want to buy souvenirs, clothes, have clothes repaired, print pictures etc. I have to use my own money. Wouldn't McKaylee have been 19? I thought she was two years younger than me? It is interesting how that works, I always wondered what it would have been like to have someone closer and I'm strangely excited to return andhave Savanna by quality of graduation be "closer" because you're basically the same age from 18-28 when in college and there are the 18 year olds that act mature and the 28 year olds that don't and vice versa... then you get married(some do) and that makes you grow up hopefully no matter who you are and thus in college you're all in the same pool :) I have run out of time -- I plan to send at least mom a good reply to her last couple of hand written letters and I promise to get to Savanna and you dad another time if I don't know. You'll be getting a letter from me with only pictures and a page of explanations so don't get too excited and then a good letter will come -- I just need to steal away the time to do it! Thanks for the emails and your testimonies and great examples to me – I love you all Brit

August 3rd

2008-08-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Pala is a word that simply expresses surprise, kind of. There seem to be a lot of words like that in this language. I keep trying to think of words in English that do the same kind of thing, and don't have an exact translation. But, I can't think in English very well right now. Yesterday, Sunday, I went with two of the older sisters in our ward to teach the visiting teaching lesson to some less active sisters. The lesson was about our divine qualities as daughters of God and two of the five we taught to ended up in tears with the rest of us... I really felt the spirit with those sisters and felt like it was easier to teach in Tagalog than it had been all week. My health seems to be mostly better now... it went from being a strange head ache and fever to being a stomach issue with some LBM and now I am off the soda (hoorayfor a good excuse) and only eat very little but more frequently if possible... that seems to help the most. If it doesn't keep getting better I might have to go see a doctor, but hopefully I just got some bug and now I'm getting it out of my system. Thanks for the stories, some of which I remember slightly and others not so much. It's too bad more people can't try to look for the good in people always, if we were all striving to do that more often and not think of ourselves at all the world would be a lot better place, but we all tend to take time to think of ourselves and see bad in others. We all have that bad to notice also... but we all inherently have divine qualities also that are just in an infantile state (as it says in the visiting teaching lesson) so that potential needs time to grow up and we can't be the cause for someone’s lack of growth -- no stunting of spiritual growth :) I want to be very focused on our work, I want to do my very best and find all the people hat need to hear us right now even if right now is not their time to be baptized maybe in ten years it is but they need to hear it from me now... but in my concern for that and my concern for our lack of doing that sometimes I had the thought come to me that my companion needs to be saved just as much. There are enough returned missionaries here in the Philippines that go inactive that I should be very aware of her spirituality and how to love her no matter what -- easier said than done when I already think I've done a good job of not losing my temper like I might have not very many years ago... even when she does. I see in her a lot of things I know I used to do and still fight against (and now I feel like I'm Dad saying, it hurts even more because I see in you what I don't like bout myself). You know, kind of like that. It makes me feel even worse about my short temper, controllingattitude, slow to forgive kind of ways. There is no room for pride even if you are right, even if you have been wronged. There is only enough time and room for being Christ-like. Investing in any other emotion is just a waste of time. Sometimes before I go to bed I try to read Jesus the Christ, it's so good but kind of deep sometimes. I wish I had taken time to try to read it before and study it a little more but maybe I wouldn't have appreciated it quite as much before. I'm reading about an interesting concept. Talmage is talking about the miracles of Christ right now and in relation to science. Sometimes I find myself confused about faith, about priesthood and miracles etc. and I don't worry too much about it realizing my brain just can't grasp it but the one thing that really concernedme was that I have a strong testimony of the fact that God works by natural means. I eventually realized that idea was going against some other aspects like faith that I don't understand. Talmage explains it so simply I feel ridiculous for not having put it together myself that of course Christ turning Water to Wine was still within natural law, but it's a higher natural law than our science understands, than our brains grasp, but it's still natural. He explains a similar thing with the conception of Christ being part of God's higher law -- and necessary of course for him to obtain the characteristics to die from his mortal mother and the characteristics to live from his immortal father. So many more of Mary and Christ's actions from the bible, the small stories we have make sense the way he explains them... about Mary's slow realization and reminders that she was raising the Son of God and Christ's growing line upon line as anyone else and coming to understand his own divine role and what he must do to follow his Father's will... his time in the wilderness alone to prepare for this fully and even his explanationof the temptations Christ overcame and what that all means. Remembering his mortal social life and understanding it better helps to realize the true perfection within him but the choice to be that way and what things are regular aspects of life that we will all, including Christ, experience. I can't really explain that but I feel close all the time to Him, not making less of who He is but it makes Him to be even more to realize how human he was, what he submitted Himself to as the rest of us did and we all must slowly grow in stature and develop understanding of who we are and what mission we need to fulfill... then submit to doing it and do all we must to make sure it happens. Anyway, this keyboard is really terribly difficult to type on I think I will not come back to this store again :) You should try reading Jesus the Christ if you have not and enjoy all the other things you are doing. I will hopefully send a letter tomorrow with pictures that I am printing right now. Not very many and they seem to be all about food here :) But, they are pictures :) In the middle of my sickness last week we were walking home and someone was playing music -- someone is always playing music loudly here, and footloose came on. My reaction was impressively fast, the first couple of chords only had played but I knew what it was and I was crying because I miss you all. But, I don't think about it unless taken off guard :) haha. I hope your play goes well, "sayang, I will miss it!" The word sayang means waste, kind of :) haha it's all a “kind of” when I try to translate. Thanks for everything. Love from me -- oh and here I have no choice if someone wants to walk down the street (meaning one of the women from relief society) and hold my hand the whole time or rub my back as we sit there or play with my hair. That's what happens so I think I will suddenly become a more touchy person when I come home because I just have to be used to it here. Britney

July 21st

2008-08-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad...sorry about the lack of information. It's true, last week there was just the one email from you. If you wait until Sunday night you might miss me because it's always different when we check here Monday. Tomorrow is Zone conference so hopefully I will be getting real mail again :) That will make it easier to write back to all of you. I really do apologize my letters this last transfer so far haven't been so fabulous but it's been a kind of hard transfer for me and it's hard to come up with things to write all the time. I guess that's how life goes, up and down and you take it all the best you can even if you're on a down. Being transferred quickly was difficult and not normal but we had some problems that made it necessary, my new companion doesn't know much English and had a bad experience with her other American companions, and this area is also struggling so just some different things have been my "refiners fire" experience lately. Sounds fun to live in and remodel a cabin. I'm kind of confused...what does the missionary do? We report to the high council in our home wards or were you just talking about the talk they'll have you give in sacrament meeting? I finally finished my letter to President Griffin and have the address so I will be sending that as soon as we get back from Zone conference. Where would you keep a horse if you did decide that? Maybe I just don't remember the back yard but it didn't really seem like there was a place for a horse? Just a swamp right? So, I was thinking about what kind of work everyone does in this area. There are three male leaders, bishop, ward mission leader and another who all sew for a living.They make uniforms (everyone who attends school at any level here wears a uniform) or they sew special pants for men...the Elders all love them, they have Filipino style dress pants of every color and pant width. My umbrella (yes that really expensive one) had some issues and died but we took it to this man who sits on the side of the road all day and fixes umbrellas...and in about two minutes he had fixed it for only 5 pesos. A few days later it died again for a different reason and I was rather annoyed, it topped off a really good day :) haha, it got rusted or something I don't know but now it's snapped and I'm just going to buy another one. The thing was, that man makes a living all day fixing umbrellas. Umbrella's are very important to people here, rain and shine because they hate the sun, they don't want to be dark...they really want to be white, they advertise that all their soap and lotions will make you white that will get rid of melanin etc. andthus everyone has an umbrella and there is a man who makes a living fixing them for very cheap. I figured that i wouldn't have even known where to go to get it fixed in America and it would have been expensive so i would have bought a new one straight off! Lots of people have little shops in front of their house where they sell personal single use size of everything...shampoo, toothpaste, detergent etc. and also little bags of crackers and soda, very popular here. There are ladies that sit and make pancakes in the morning and wrap them in banana leaves and sell them for 5 pesos each and others who fry banana's in sugar etc. and sell those on a stick. If you walk by people and they are eating they will announce it to you, "kain na" which means eating now, kind of. Kain is the root for the word pagkain which is food and the root for kumain or kinain etc. which are verb forms, eating, ate, will eat etc. Na means a lot of things and in this case refers to how it's happening now but wasn't before and won't be again once they're done. A greeting for all of them is to ask where you came from or where you are going, they don't always expect an answer or at least not a specific one. I told you that they graduate really early right? High school is over around 15 or 16 years old and many people graduate from college by 19 or earlier if they can afford it. Being able to afford it is very important because they all seem to understand thatgetting an education will be their way to get a job and make money and live a better life than their family did, but it's all a big struggle here -- I don't think I ever appreciated my education like I should have though. Time is nearly up so I'm going to switch over to Mom's email now, love you. Brit

July 13th email

2008-07-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

So everyone that reads the blog knows officially... I don't ever go to the blog but it's nice to have you forward their comments to me! (I will forward any comments made on the blog to Brit and as you see she enjoys them) We got a warning today in email from the president because lots of people are breaking the email rule, going to other cites and such so we might lose the ability to email... pray for obedience in this mission so all the Americans will still get to email their families :) For now however, here is my weekly email again. (only having met Jodi’s husband once Wendy and I couldn’t remember who the Sparks were until Brit helped us out) You know Jodi Sparks (Hansen) from the rental house on Antelope ward. I think the last time you saw her was at a concert at the High School right after they got engaged. (Wendy and I went to Great Harvest Saturday morning prior to hiking the Bonneville trail above Ogden and told Brit about it) Great Harvest Bread sounds wonderful. They didn't have scones at the great harvest in Provo -- it was sad. Sharing a car and being roommates would be great (minus having no money for those high gas prices) but Savanna will need to decide to go to Provo before that idea will really work :) Try subliminal message maybe to help her make that decision, haha. I finally sent off a letter so you should be getting more pictures. There are some included that I only have one copy of because someone else took the picture so make sure to save them for me :) Who knows what will happen with me and school -- work first I suppose so hopefully I find a good job :) Good luck with your school and work plans for now. Maybe I'll just write a book and make tons of money off it (like we've plannedsince I was five or something) and then we can both live off that while we pursue our true dreams and help people along the way. The problem with me writing a book is it would be the type that would be rejected by my own and become a classic long after I die :) I think that's just my style, not really a pop culture person - fast and flashy etc. teehee. So, hopefully my problem with the card can be resolved because in my new area there aren't really stores that accept a card so I need the ATM to work. I will send you the numbers this week, I finally remembered to write them down...so you can try to activate it or whatever the problem is. Shawn's question will take more writing and thinking -- about the culture and what they do every day and what they really care about. I am excited to learn their language better so as to understand that very thing. It's amazing how much culture really is within a language and here every small area of every city has its own "language" the dialects are hundreds and I wonder how anyone everunderstand what's going on. Something I found interesting though... we ride jeeps everywhere and you all sit on the benches, packed in and everyone passes their money forward and the driver passes the change back etc. and you say "Bayad Po" first and sometimes where you're going or how many you are paying for. Then you say "Paki-abot" and everyone passes...that means please pass then as you pass others money you say "Bayad Daw" and Daw is a word thatmeans "That's what was said, that's what they said, it was said" then to stop you say "Para na po!" Para is really a Spanish word that means For and they use it the same in Tagalog except on the jeep it means to stop. All right, so this is something you pick up and begin to mimic etc. and the other day I saw a group of little girls playing "jeep" and one was the driver and the others were saying "Bayad po' Salamat (thank you) para na! etc. it was so intriguing to me because I realized I was learning just like them, but as children it was a game until when they get older it becomes what they due, culture passes on and they will forever pass the money that way and stop the jeep that way because the children see their parents do it and they play at it until one day they grow up and they do it too... Anyway that's a thought for the day. I still haven't read your other email so I'm going to move on to that now. Love, Brit

Hey - I just realized there aren't actually two emails but you just sent the one twice so I guess I'll write some more here. Actually -- I don't know what else to write at this point so just I love you and am trying to do my very best. I recently read Mosiah 3 again -- it is an amazing chapter on the atonement. It's funny to me how my studies always tend to get me really anxious to do more study! I love to find more and read and hear different ideas on a topic and relate one thing to another. One speaker at the MTC gave a talk on the atonement and he said "the burden of the scriptures is the atonement" and as I read through the Book of Mormon again that statement becomes more and more true -- it will take a lifetime and then some to come to understand it fully but I love to study and apply that topic to my life and help others do so also. This was definitely the mission for me though because I get to teach people very simply and suddenly the beautiful simplicity of the doctrine has been brought to me -- I like to concentrate on the complexities of things but I've learned to notice and teach the basics and realized how personal deeper study benefits us -- it's still necessary to continue our personal growth but it's something you must do entirely on your own and choose to do so. I think we're leaving now so I guess I'll end now - bye! Love, Brit

July 7th email

2008-07-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hi! Thanks for the address (she asked for the Stake President's address). Hopefully, I'll get that off soon. Speaking of letters, you might not get one from me for a while but I'll hopefully be sending one tomorrow... it might not be very long but it has pictures. The last couple of weeks have had very busy Monday's and I don't have much control over that with it being a new area and a new companion etc. It's quite the adjustment just having language barriers. It takes us a long time to understand each other sometimes, but it's getting better.

(I was eating fruity pebbles when I last wrote her and randomly asked if they had them in the Philippines)

There are no fruity pebbles in regular areas and at the SM which is the big mall they have in really big cities (areas where we usually have zone conference) I haven't seen any either but last time we were there I did find some fruit loops and I bought them! haha, kind of expensive in pesos but it was a splurge I don't take often, haha. I think what I miss the most is chex with bananas and BYU creamery chocolate milk. Pretty random but it was one of my favorite treats at school. Of all the wonderful fruits and vegetables they have here they seem to eat only meat! It's crazy to me.

(I had commented on the simple and in many cases poverty level living the people have there yet they seem so happy)

I see nothing wrong with making money, having money... but then you have to remember that we really SHOULD be living by the law of consecration although most people are not ready for it so instead we live the law of the tithe etc. As we try personally to follow the law of consecration we live in a medium level with all by giving our extra to others in some form or another... sometimes that form ends up being by serving a mission. This thought was lead to me once again because of my new Mission President. They are both originally from Burley, the Andersons...hmmm? They had a nice big piece of land in Farmington with beautiful trees, a beautiful home, lots of children and 30 grandchildren now who would have parties there, their ward would come also etc. So their story goes they were serving at the Bountiful Temple every week but started to feel like they needed to do something more and so they put their names in at the temple and a week later (in the middle of a bad time for selling homes as you would know) someone just showed up at their house and asked if they could walk around (the house wasn't for sale either) and after he made an offer President said he couldn't refuse. They realized this was an opportunity to be free of the large land and serve a mission! They sold their home of 20 plus years and bought a smaller home that would be easy to maintain and rent while gone, near to their daughter, and received soon after a mission call as a couple to Africa. Not long after that he got a call and they were asked if they would be able to come in for a preliminary interview and were told that their names had been put in the temple. Later Elder Eyring’s secretary called them and they went in to meet with him one stormy day. He informed them that they would be serving a three year "English Speaking" mission -- and they both accepted. At the time they were not told which mission! They were told that a regular letter, similar to my own, would be coming with the exact assignment. Well they had booked a cruise a year before and during the next three weeks that's where they were. He said he was not much fun on that trip and wished they didn't need to go :) They were anxious to know where they would be going and he had it down to London, California, Arizona etc. as the openings in "English" speaking missions. Finally he was so anxious he called home for five minutes, costing thirty plus dollars on a boat, and his daughter opened the letter for them. They couldn't believe that they had been sent to the Philippines. They don't speak English there do they? Haha. “They” might not but the President does :) Thus, they are here. He is an older man, he misses his 30 grandchildren and Sister Anderson said her great trial so far is getting used to carrying around a cell phone all the time and learning to text, it made me think of mom :) Texting is very important in the Philippines so she'll be a pro soon.

We actually had interviews with them on the 4th of July. Elder Queathem was very excited to show me his Flag tie -- but we were really the only ones that cared it was the 4th of July. Besides that the day went just as normal. I also received the letters with pictures from Andrea's wedding. How pretty! It seems kind of not real that they are actually married - it wasn't quite so strange with Shaela for some reason. Maybe in part because I know Luke also and I went through all the years of their relationship growing and changing etc. I was also there for Shaela's wedding and not there for Andrea's so maybe it won't be real until I get home. I really can't imagine what my life will have to offer me after so it's good I have a long time left to NOT think about it :)

I will probably get your written letter at Zone conference. I don't remember when that is -- a couple of weeks more. This mission of mine has given you the great opportunity to graduate before me – haha. If that's the course you end up going for. My emails probably seem odd and mixed up sometimes. I always read them all then respond so I answer some stuff from what Mom said here but I'm going to write another quick email to catch anything from hers I missed. Everyone just reads all of them right? Right, okay, good, whoever wants to.

Want to know what the most random food was I suddenly missed the other day? Grilled cheese and tomato soup - let's just scream college student diet :) Of all the great foods to miss. I didn't miss food too much until I was put into a district with two other American Elders who like to talk to me about the great foods they miss, haha. Elder Bench was sent some bit sized twizzlers! We all really enjoyed them and our companions though they tasted like medicine -- fine with us, more for us!

My last district/zone was very "together" you might say and just a great hard working group -- a lot of them at the end of their missions and still working really hard, really good examples etc. This new zone is a bit rowdy you might say so that is an adjustment I'm trying to cope with at the moment and move forward happy in the work. The work in my area right now is kind of slow so I feel like I don't have many fabulous stories. I'm still really enjoying my scripture study and as for language -- the magic veil has not lifted, it's still hard... but it's getting better. Everyone says you really just have to suffer through sixmonths of confusion - hopefully sisters go a bit faster :) Already I think I'm a little bit faster but six months -- ask me again at your birthday and hopefully I'll be beautifully fluent. It's funny how all who do not serve missions foreign really just think it's magic to some extent, I sure did... I thought it would come so fast and I don't know I just remember how I felt when writing to my friends who served foreign missions, they probably laughed at my letters when I would say things like "you're probably fluent now!" It's truly amazing how much we Americans have learned already, Elder Collins is only a transfer behind me so we're going through the same stages "Sabay Kami" which would mean at the same time. Anyway, it's still a miracle but all of us sent foreign have something to learn and sometimes maybe it just comes slow so we can struggle through, be humble, learn to be happy in confusion :) learn to rely on others instead of being "independent" that one of course should ring a bell for you as rather difficult for me.

I love you all

Brit

June 29th email

2008-06-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Family: I have some questions that you have answered before possibly but I need to ask them again because they are either lost or I forgot, sorry. This type writer is fabulous... I have to really PUNCH every key for it to work.

1. What is the full name of the stake president so I can send his letter to him? Ummm, I actually can't think of any other questions... ha-ha... maybe later.

I'm pretty sad I won't get to see this fabulous play, it sounds like it's going to be pretty good. I like river rafting, don't so much like 17 year-old boys that pull you in but that's always a part of it, and I like 4-wheeling, and camping, and hiking. Then there is that other side of me that loves dance concerts and being refined to some degree and clean and dressed up... that part of me will come back one day after my mission, for now the camping side of me is useful :)

We will meet our new President this week, I'm sure he will have some great influence on my mission since he's in charge of it, but I wonder what the impression of yours implies :) Hmmmm, only time will tell as with most things. I don't have a lot of fabulous stories right now. It is just a slow and continual process of trying to have more patience in learning the language and getting used to new-ness of all things all the time and making slow but important changes to the way some things are done so that baptisms will happen! I printed some more pictures today that I can send you along with a hurried one we took so you can at least see the face of my new companion; we don't have many pictures yet though.

I will finally remember in my next letter to send you my card numbers so you can try to activate it so it will work at the ATM's because I really need to just get out some cash and use that... nothing major important but it would be simpler for a few things. Guess what we did for service the other day? We dug holes in the ground for the poles of someone’s new home since theirs was destroyed in the storm. I dug dirt out with half a coconut shell... amazing!

Here is something insane... at the end of this next month I will have been gone for half a year! That's so fast. Thirteen months still seems far away so I don't feel like it's all going TOO fast yet, but isn't it mean how life works. It will go slow until I feel comfortable speaking and then it will be gone! I was reading the Liahona in Tagalog yesterday during part of ward council (that was a-okay with everyone, no worries...their meetings aren't altogether formal to say the least) and it got me so excited about school and working with Church publishing. I don't know that it is something I will end up actually wanting to or even being able to do but just having for once an actual purpose for my studies really add to my desire to learn. I also really love language, we communicate a lot without it but I was in the book store getting myself a small Tagalog bible and saw some books/authors I love and remembered they existed and how much I love to read and write and although I love non-verbal communication through art and danceI LOVE language and learning a new one really helps you appreciate your own and how amazing language is. I also understand English better than I did before.

So, the Stake Pres said something in my blessing when he set me apart that I wonder about sometimes. It kind of scared me thinking about it that night after and still has me wondering in what way, dramatic or more subtle etc. that it will come about. But, he said that there will be times on my mission that I will feel like I cannot put another foot forward, take another step etc. but my strength will be in pulling others with me... anyway, that's the gist of it. I don't think I've experienced something where I just don't think I can keep going -- not everything is pleasant but it's all bearable.

Sometimes we get really set in a schedule and pattern of how things should go and will go and we visualize our future that same way to some degree... I feel as though I can picture what my next year of life will be in some way because we do the same basic things every day but really a lot of things I can't imagine or expect will happen and people will come into my life that I can't imagine yet it's just an odd thing to think about actually so this really isn't going anywhere, sorry :)

Well, I'm going to write some hand written letters now because I'm really behind and I don't have much to say in email, sorry. I'm glad your hot summer seems to be going well and I love you all too. Even though times are hard and won't get easier, but harder, we're awfully lucky to have the proper perspective and proper place for trust through the true gospel.

Love,

Sister Landrum

Brit's 2nd area; Lucban

2008-06-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Municipality of Lucban (Filipino: Bayan ng Lucban) is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Quezon, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 38,834 people in 8,422 households. This municipality had the mountain named Mt. Banahaw.

History
Legend has it that the town derived its name from Lucban or Pomelo fruit tree. Three hunters from Majayjay, Laguna named Marcos Tigla, Luis Gamba and Lucas Manawa came upon a plain at the northeast foot of Mount Banahaw after they lost their way following the trail of some wild game. Resting under a tree, they saw a black crow or "uwak" up on a tree, and believing this to be a bad omen, they moved to another location and rested once more. While resting under a large shady pomelo or lucban tree, the trio were attracted to a couple of kingfishers (salaksak) singing. Fascinated by the lovely rhythmic chirps of the birds, the supertitious hunters took the incident as a sign of good fortune and decided to settle in the place and named it "Lucban." The people of Lucban accepted the story as true. Marcos Tigla was the first gobernadorcillo in 1596, then Lucas Manawa took over the responsibility for four years. Today Lucban is a thriving community surrounded by its pristine environment and retaining its historic beauty.

Pahiyas Festival
Lucban celebrates the Pahiyas Festival every May 15 in honor of the patron saint of farmers, St. Isidore. This festival showcases a street of houses which are adorned with fruits, vegetables, agricultural products, handicrafts and kiping, a rice-made decoration, which afterwards can be eaten grilled or fried. The houses are judged and the best one is proclaimed the winner. Every year, tourists roam the municipality to witness the decoration of houses.

Brit's 1st area: Lemery

2008-06-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Britney's 1st area is Lemery. Lemery is located west of San Pablo and slightly south near Balayan Bay in the South China Sea. On the map it is underlined in red.

Lemery is a 1st class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 66,528 people in 12,709 households. The current mayor of the municipality is Eulalio M. Alilio after the ouster of Raul Bendaña in 2007. The vice-mayor is Geraldine Ornales with eight councilors.

Lemery is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Batangas, Philippines with major commercial establishments fastly occupying the streets of Lemery. Lemery is also known for its ideal terminals of travel to Manila and other cities due to its proximity.

June 22nd email

2008-06-23T05:45:00.000-07:00

Huwag Kayo Magalala means don't worry :) We did have a Typhooon...well actually it wasn't a typhoon where I am. They had a typhoon in the mission very far north of our mission and the sisters are sleeping in the chapel, exciting eh? We had a baguio which means lots of wind and rain. They have levels 1-5 or something and I think that measures the wind level. Here in my new area, Lucban we got to about level 2 during the night and didn't have electricity for a day and a half but no major damage. We till don't have power for cell phones or internet so right now we are in the area of the Elder's to email our families etc. I don't know how it is in Lemery, I hear it was worse there but the sisters are safe. Lemery is on the sea and it floods easily plus there are many homes there that would easily be destroyed so I'm a little worried about some of our members and investigators that I know will have suffered. My new area is in the mountains and not near the sea. It is COLD here...haha. I went from the hottest mission to the coldest and I'm sure my body has changed because you would probably not think it was cold, but I do know. We have to heatup our water before we shower so I heat up a pot of water while I eat, dump it in my bucket fill the rest up with the ice cold water and use that small amount to bathe...it's exciting. My new apartment isn't as new or nice as in Lemery. We have lots of cockroaches and mice but I spray the pemethrin frequently :) My first Sunday here was an interesting experience because of the storm. Nobody showed up at first so we only had two meetings in the end and about 30 at sacrament meeting. The bishop made me speak...not just share my testimony, haha. I think this area will make me STREEEEETCH myself. Sister Odo is my new companion and she knows deeper tagalog than Sister Mabalot did, she's also not as good at English and talks VERY fast so that will hopefully help me to learn faster. It's nice to have a start over with meeting people because when I met all the members in Lemery I didn't know how to say anything basically and didn't understand them...I was also very shy to try speaking if I knew it was wrong. I've been praying to be bold and just talk to people. It's hard to leave an area...especially so fast. We had a lot of upcoming baptisms and I finally felt comfortable, I'm once again lost but that's okay. This area is also not progressing as well although we seem to have more support from the leaders than we did in Lemery. As for helping the people here, we're actually told not to have our families send help, etc. for problems here. As we take care of things here you can focus on things at home. As for at home, the news doesn't make me very excited to return indeed...it sounds like nasty times to return to and try to finish school, find jobs and start a family in. It really will take strong youth to live faithfully through these upcoming times. Sister Odo's teaching skills are very good...it's interesting how you give and take with each different person. I may have mentioned my pondering about this before but it's interesting how it's both easier to be obedient and disobedient on your own, when not watched and also when not hindered by others. However, we can't be saved alone, we know that...and you must be together in a companionship of marriage to have eternal life so it's ultimately not good enough to be the best you can be, you have to also help someone else be just as good because you're only as good as the worse of the two, you have to do it all together. Thus, we can only save ourselves by saving someone else...everything comes down to some kind of service and even if it seems selfish it leads you to sacrifice and unselfish actions. I don't have much money here at the end of the month of money and after transfers because that takes extra money so I haven't printed pictures and probably can't send a letter this week. For sure I will next week...and I'll start writing them all now. Ay Pala! I received the package along with a lot of mail at transfers. Except, mom said in her letter that there were skirts in the package and there were not so maybe you sent two or I don't know what happened. I got pictures with your Tagalog phrases, they are cute... the only problem with them is grammar :) The plan of salvation props are great also, they are the same as Sister Mabalot's which were given to her by an American so that makes sense. I had another letter from Amanda and it sounds like she still hasn't received any of my letters... hopefully she'll get at least one of them soon and if not I'll try sending mail again next week, like I said before. Also, once again if you could give me the name of the stake president, you may have actually but I think I accidentally erased some of your emails, sorry. I'm kind of annoyed with myself for that. Hmmm... what else about Lucban, here it is less Americanized than Lemery was and the people seem to be a little better off... or there aren't any who struggle as much it's all kind of middle ground. It's also a little more how I think I imagined the Philippines, here in the mountain Jungle area and the Tagalog is very deep in this area and the culture is seen more, like for the old, you "bless"them by putting their hand on your forehead. Have I ever told you my fabulous idea? Well...if I ever end up getting married I want my gifts to be food storage supplies. It would be somewhat difficult to fully supply yourself with the proper food and safety storage right at the beginning of a marriage so if that's what you were given for your gifts it would be great! Before district meeting last week I read a little bit of John I don't spend a lot of time in the New Testament these days and as I read just a few chapters the Savior's life and ministry came alive to me again. It's amazing how all I have to do is read about it and I know it all happened. That faith for me has always simple and exists but sometimes I have to realize it again. I know that Christ lived, that his life was essential and central part of a great plan for all of us, the Father's accepted plan, that Christ also gave honor to his Father who sent him and in return the message of the Father to all of us is always of his son and to listen and follow him because he is the means provided for us to return to the Father and become like him obtaining all he has -- which is his Work and Glory, I know he lives even now and our lives should be spent in coming to understand the miracle of his sacrifice in our lives and learning to use it to its full extent while sacrificing all we are in return -- Romans 8: as we suffer with Christ we become Heirs with him, we fulfill our work just as he fulfilled his...doing all the Father asked of him. Well, I have to go now, bye. Love Britney

p.s. I'm sure there are many adventures to come in my mission but don't spend too much time worrying -- I probably won't tell you about them all now anyway just so you won't; and they will be great stories another day :)

Typhoon Fengshen

2008-06-22T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today we learned that a terrible Typhoon has hit the Philippines and has caused widespread flooding in the Philippines including the general area that Britney is serving. It for sure flooded the Province she was 1st serving in but she was transfered last Thursday and we have yet to hear where she is now.

We have not heard anything from her mission so we assume no news is good news. We may not hear from her for days due to the power problems and basic life interruptions that this type of devestation can cause. We anxiously wait and pray. We appreciate your prayers on her behalf and for the people of the Philippines.

Some of you have posted comments which I appreciate. However, you should know that Britney is a strict missionary and follows the rules entirely because she desires any blessings she can receive to help her learn the language. Therefore, she does not view anything online including taking a "peek" at her blog. We post her emails for your ability to stay in touch with how things are going for her.

I do hope to have this site serve as a type of journal so any comments posted are very appreciated and will make Brit's viewing of the site that much more enjoyable when she returns. So, we encourage you to post.

We will post further information as soon as we have any.

The Landrum Family

June 15th email

2008-06-15T21:31:00.001-07:00

So, first news is that I'm being transferred on Thursday so next Monday I'll tell you all about my new companion, new area, etc. I'm pretty sad to be leaving our progressing investigators, Leondard's family who will soon be baptized also and especially the children but I'm sure the new experience will help push meto a new level of ability in all aspects, especially language. Still no package but maybe Thursday :) The pictures worked! There was only the one with the family and I had to open them as an attatchment...but that didn't work at the MTC so maybe it's because here there isn't a filter like at the MTC. So, we had zone interviews on the 12th and Andrea's wedding announcement came, that same day she was getting married...it was kind of unfair that way with everyone there and I couldn't help but cry but it wasn't until I woke up Friday morning that I knew all of my friends and family would be there at the reception...but I went right to reading my scriptures in Tagalog and didn't think about it again :) Hooray for me, haha. Probably the boy was Steve, darker skin, tall :) I've written to Amanda but I think she hasn't gotten them yet because she keeps moving :) haha, I'm glad she's been able to hear news of me now with the great internet technology. Shaela and Tyler are nearing a year of marriage now, crazy. It sounds like it was great and I'm pleased to hear the pictures I gave them were included in the video and that they had pudding on the rice which was a "US" college thing and Becca told me that she was planning to do it. Hey Garyn, thanks for the email and I'm glad to hear you're experiencing the heat now also, although I'm sure mine is wetter heat :) Good luck with finding a job, it's great that you're so dedicated to working hard, hopefully that transfers into all areas of your life, especially gospel related. I always wanted to work really hard and do everything but often that pushed aside time I could have spent on religious things and it's only now that I realize how much time I maybe wasted, even as I was doing things. My thought for the week...my stake president said something to us before our missionary interview. He asked all of us why we were serving and afterwards told us that we all have good reasons to serve missions, or sometimes we don't...but our reason should become to baptize, ultimately that is the goal and the purpose, to baptize, baptize, baptize and pres Hinckley added...retain! We can do good things for the wrong reasons, or even for good reasons but not the best ones and we will need the best reasons and the right reasons to become ours so we remain... they said to go on a mission for whatever reason but stay on your mission for the right reasons. Okay, so all these thoughts put together got me thinking about why it is we do everything we do, why do I write a letter, why do I smile at someone, why do I wash my clothes or prepare a lesson or anything at all and all of these have good reasons, and sometimes not so good and somewhat selfish reasons attached but as we strive to have all we do be for the ultimate reason; that we love God and in loving God we also come to love others because he loves all of us, then all we do will have greater purpose, we will discover what we were meant to complete while here on earth, remember what we promised God we would do as we left his presence to come on this journey, and it will become easier to give up entirely the things we shouldn't do and prioritize the others. We had district conference broadcast from SLC yesterday, Father's day, and it was wonderful to hear from both Elder Oaks and Uchtdorf and members of the seventy, especially to hear news specific for the members of this country. President Hinckley's gifts were nice to read, thanks... especially gratitude for parents/family or people in general really. The thing is I've always been concerned about my pride and often it rules my actions, my thoughts first which lead to my actions and it is frustrating. I have a hard time understanding humilityand have spent a lot of time in the scriptures researching the topic. The most amazing realization, for me, came early on while being here which is that Humility and Gratitude are linked especially close, all virtuous things and traits are but as my gratitude grew for all of my blessings and those in my life, or as I came to realize my gratitude in new ways, gratitude that was already there, I began to understand humility and it became easier to be humble. Back to conference: Sister Mabalot's favorite quote was when they were talking to the members about being the parents of the rising generation and he said "you parents are the full time missionaries and your children are your investigators! "This added to my thoughts about my patriarchal blessing and wondering if a mission was really where I was supposed to end up -- and I realize that there is nothing about a mission that isn't preparing me to better do the missions I will be called to do after. I see in myself the potential to get stuck in mission mode, and have a hard time going back to normal life so I try to remember that I must do the best where I am and fulfill what I can here then leave it to someone else and find joy and fulfill my duty in other areas later and one is not greater or of more importance than another, just different. When we view another calling as more important or essential it limits us from truly magnifying the great call we have and doing all we must to strengthen the whole from where we are placed at any given time. Adventure hour now: WE were walking home from an appointment, it was near to our curfew and suddenly we had a flash flood or sorts, rain like crazy and then all of the electricity in the city went out so here we are running down the middle of the street, darkness, holding hands and not even bothering with the umbrella...it was rather exciting. We then used candles in our apartment to try to plan for the next day and find our dry clothes :) We took pictures first, however...we couldn't pass up the opportunity to photograph our sogginess. Sadly enough, but really happy, the electricity came back so we had light to finish our night but the candle discovery has been great since we have no light in the bathroom now and we're too short to change it, so now we use a candle in there when we shower, or bath, or dump water on ourselves or really it sounds best to say it in Tagalog now..."Maligo ko" All right I think this shall be all for today we have much to do, especially since I'm leaving Lemery, the city by the sea for another unknown land. I love everyone, so tell everyone that for me...thanks! Brit (known to all here as Sister Landrum).

June 8th email

2008-06-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

All right...thanks for editing my emails :) picky ako eh? Please tell grandma that I got her email and thank-you for sharing the experience. We played basketball with some of the sisters and Elders in our zone today...it was SOOOO HOT! haha...but really fun. We don't usually do activities all together because it takes away all our time for other things in the day like writing letters :( but Elder Figuracion and Sister Nielsen are both going home next transfer which is June 19ish I think? They are our zone leader and one of the sisters...I will miss them both. I'm sure I was supposed to meet them and wouldn't have if I had stayed to do EFY and see Andrea's wedding. Elder Figuracion has a great story about his father's re-conversion story while on his mission etc. that he shared with all of us at Zone Conference...he got everyone crying. It was a sad zone conference because our MissionPresident is going home July 1 and President Anderson will be here instead, changes changes. We won't know until next Monday if we are transferred and the package wasn't here yet but we have zone interviews on Thursday so if it comes before then I might get it then and then for transfer Sister Antonio could maybe pick it up for me if we aren't transferred and it's there then...I've heard some crazy stories about packages though, sometimes getting here months and months after they were sent and after going all the way around the world with lots of stamps on them first. Sister Ganir (one of the couple sisters) told me to ask if you sent it by boat or air...if it was sent boat it will take a long time to get here.

Anyway, we've been a little bit sick...my stomach and Sister Mabalot's throat...she has no voice haha...that makes teaching really exciting. We had two baptisms on Friday. Usually we do them Sunday but it was his birthday and the other one just followed suit so we didn't have to plan two. Leonard's family all came to church on Sunday! Hooray, we've really been praying and fasting for them to find a way to come even though everything is against them to do so. Thankfullythey live really close to the chapel so they can walk because they definitely don't have money for travel. As for Andrea's wedding, I have to force myself not to think about it. I kept wondering when she would go through the temple, she probably has by now etc. and it's really hard not to in some ways because I spent so many years helping her plan it that I can imagine it so well and in another sense I can't imagine it at all. She asked me to give her your address before I left so she could send you an invitation so I know she wanted to, but I can't remember if I actually gave it to her and she's likely been busy and occupied so if you still have not received one I need you to try to call her family or something because I really want you to go and say I love her for me etc. take a picture you know all of that. I want a first hand account if possible. I expect she will eventually get around to telling my herself which will be great so I guess if it really can't happen I will understand.

What else happened? Lots of travel because of zone conference...a lot of drunk men that wanted me to marry their sons. It was the week of meeting maraming Iglesiaand maraming lasing....lasing is drunk and iglesia means the members of the iglesia ni cristo Church who are either really mean to us, won't let us in or they try to convert us....I think everyone we talked to one day was iglesia. We talked to one little boy, asking him some questions so we could understand them a little better. If they are born into the church they don't have to be baptized...and if they marry someone outside their faith they are excommunicated! Interesting twist of doctrine that is, born into the covenant and marrying outside the covenant and somewhere along the line they lost the real purpose for baptism and for the covenant of marriage and sealing of families together. We also taught the plan of salvation to this older lady, she was smoking and used to be Catholic but now is an inactive member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo...her grandfathermaybe or great grandfather was LDS...lots of different faiths in her background. Well Sister Mabalot usually asks, after teaching the three kingdoms, where they would like to go and she said "Kahit Saan." "wherever" so she explained a little more thinking maybe her lack of caring meant she hadn't understood well enough but really she seemed to not care. Then comes the challenge of tryingto help people really understand what we can't comprehend, we have to believe that God is, that he was and that he is all powerful and his ways are not our ways and trust that following his plan is what will make us happiest. It is an interesting challenge to teach these concepts to all different people with different religious backgrounds, education levels, desires and family situations etc. I think I shall enjoy it far more once I understand what they are saying better so I can fit our lessons to their needs and really teach for understanding, language muna, languagelanguage :)

Okay... Well, I can't think of much today so I'll leave it at this I think. Olivia probably didn't get her birthday card yet so tell her happy birthday for me here and hopefully the card will come soon and Happy Father's day Sunday...thatone will for sure be late. I didn't get the package but I did get letters from mom and another from Grandpa Jim...mom and Grandpa are officially the best at writing to me, I'm not sure I would have guessed the second but he's really risen to the occasion :) Love, Britney

June 1st email

2008-06-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have to get all the smiles in I can since it is such an expensive one! Haha... I don't usually even think about the numbness in my lip... it's almost gone now that it's been nearly two years since my surgery, wow that's a long time now!

Don't worry, the names are all very interesting to me too :) Sister Mabalot's first name is Glazier-Gay...the other thing is most of them don't go by their real name, they all go by nicknames. I'm constantly confused between what is a nick name, a first name, a last name etc. so I'm rather bad at names. Princess and Angel are very popular names and twins are often given the exact same name but labeled #1 and #2... I think I actually wrote this in a hand written letter so sorry:) Those same little boys... well we went there in Saturday and after teaching we told them it was time to practice testimonies again, they usually do at the end of our lessons but then we told them the next day would be the day they get to share. Monsmith jumped up off his chair and said, "YEAH!" Then yesterday in Church as the first woman was sharing their testimony they all stood up together and marched up there, courage in numbers :) Raymond, the oldest of the four who went up, will be baptized this upcoming Friday along with JP whose birthday is Friday June 6, which is why we're having it Friday instead of Sunday. Leonard's mother, sister and "adopted sister" of sorts who lives with them and is a single mother now...she's 26 and has a couple months old baby, her husband left her at the beginning of the pregnancy though... well they all committed to a baptismal date. They've all committed to a baptismal date and Leonard has the Priesthood now and blessed the sacrament on Sunday. The problem is that it's hard for his mother and sisters to come to Church because of the two babies. They don't have enough money for babies milk for the baby so they use the rice water instead and they don't have diapers so it's really hard for them to take the babies away from the house. They are examples of truly humble and happy people. We always love our visits with them and our "gratitude in prayers" activity was a great experience. On the wall of the room in their home where they have their water bucket and rice cooker they have a picture of a kitchen... it's a nice tile kitchen with wood cupboards etc. I noticed the picture one of the very first times we went there, in fact I might have told you about it before because like you've been talking about that picture in their home so very far from that standard made me too think of all the beautiful homes you build and how great the workmanship is... and I wonder how much we can feel okay with just living according to standards of where we are or how much we should worry about the lack of good standards of living in other places. Well... because we want so much for Leonard to keep doing the things he needs to be active in the church, serve a mission, be an example to his family etc. we decided to donate a set of scriptures so he has the full set and a journal of our own so that he has one. When we gave them to him on Sunday he was so surprised and so grateful -- they were both things he would never have had enough money for of his own and will significantly help him with Church activity and preparing for a mission so I'm glad we were able to do that for him. Thanks for all the stories and updates -- sorry I'm not always the best at responding about each thing but I do enjoy reading it all etc... time is just limited on here.

Love, Brit

Photos

2008-06-01T16:29:00.001-07:00

Photos

2008-06-01T16:25:00.001-07:00

May 11 to Savanna

2008-06-01T14:51:00.001-07:00

Ugggg...I did it again. This time I ac cidentally erased everything while trying to be smart and save it! Well...I'll try to start over buti t's going to be shorter. The most important things

College: being roommates at college will be way different and that doens't mean easy because roommates still have issues sometime sbut different and i think good and fun and we'd learn a lot about each other now that we'll kind of be in the same stage of life, strange. We'll see what happens later though. Also, like I said before lots of people lived at Campus Plaza that went to different schools or just worked etc. so it doesn't really matter. It's BYU approved housing which means students attending BYU can live there (we'reo nl allowed to live in approved housing because of the honor code) but anyone else that wants to can also live there and they do.

As far as patriarchal blessings go...mine tells me something that I interpreted in part to mean i shouldn't serve a mission. It was something I de bated about when trying to decide to come and it's amazing that after I realized I needed to come and then did I learned very quickly how serving a mission actually helps me to do the very thing my patriarchal blessing says to do that I thought wouldn't happen if i came. Kind of ambiguous but maybe you understand. Sometimes we just have to move forward. It also tells me kind of what I should study...but it's not specific so I wouldn't expect that, who knows though eh?
Here it is already summer. They're school is about to start and the hot season will be over, but I think it will still be hot here no matter what season it is. It's funny you are all just getting out of school andt hey are all just starting.

WE did a service project cleaning up trash! Super trashy in Ogden is probably nothing compared to here but I'm glad you're doing service and that people like to try to be clean there :) I enjo clean :) haha.

I do love babies...but I'm not allowed to hold them etc. here. It's against the mission rules. They have lots of babies here also, i think it's baby breeding season everyone seems to be pregnanat. They all have very large families here, though. For Mother's day one of the men in the ward said to us "Happy Mothers day...soon :)" and grinned really big...I looked at hima nd said "ha, a couple years or more still, that's not soon!"

It's too bad Becky is having a hard time in life, I have a lot of friends who have struggled witht heir lives and families and i've seen how they can be happy within a hard situation or they cannot, some of them including Amanda, Carin, David, Kathy, anyway etc.

Okay so I'm going to finish here...this keyboard is driving me batty the keys are all sticking really bad so it's hard to type, especially to type fast...I love typing! Hehe. Goodl uck with everything and all of your decisions.

Brit

April 27 to Savanna

2008-06-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, so I sent a letter that will probably be the next to arrive which is addressed in large part to you, haha. I informed you throughout the entire thing what your plans for the next couple of years should be, but a patriarchal blessing might be a good source to add to my fabulous payo (or advice that would be) :) haha. I can't believe you haven't gotten it yet, silly girl. I guess maybe I was fifteen or maybe sixteen even, I just felt like I was older. I think it was my first year of high school for sure, actually...the very beginning of it so I was only fifteen.

It's true, I'm not a big fan of all the soda they drink here, but I'll survive for sure. Well, nothing is really for sure but I don't think it will be that, that kills me if I do die :) Maybe baptisms are frequent, a lot of children are being baptized lately is partly why. We currently have most of our progressing investigators working toward baptism which means we really need new investigators. Finding them is definitely the hard part.
Also, if it wasn't the first letter it must be the same one that addresses what you should do in your life that talks about the temple. I'm glad it seems you all go more than I ever did, I talked about that in the letter also. All my news really does come to you in an odd fashion because the emails will get there sooner always and then similar or different news in a different order comes with the hand written letters...just try to sort it out why don't you?

The closest temple is the Manila temple, which for now is the only operating one in the Philippines, they have another about to be opened. I think it takes about four hours to get there from where I am...but I'll never get to go during my mission, only Manila missionaries.

My ACT score was 22...I think. Not so fabulous but it never improved. My reading score was really high but my math was about 17 also I think.
My companion is fine, she's pretty good at English so that helps/probably doesn't help with learning Tagalog...we speak in an interesting taglish language most of the time.

Interesting people? I guess everyone is interesting in their own way. I'm going to write in a little more detail about our days and stuff in my other emails and letters so read those also and maybe in a future time I will have better things to say to you individually, haha. Well good luck with that picture of the Philippines, make sure you buy lots of green paint for it :) Maybe you could draw a rainstorm at the ocean...the rain comes down HARD here and then the streets are all flooded and muddy...it's fabulous to try to walk through. Okay well that's all for now I'm going to read the rest of my emails and respond to them.

Brit

May 26th email

2008-06-01T14:23:00.001-07:00

I would say fast...it seems slow in the sense that I can't think of any work (being busy) that we did particularly to report on but I think it's because the week happened so fast it feels like it's still last Monday and I can't think of anything particular to report. The relief society lesson on Sunday was about that same talk, except I didn't understand most of what they talked about, sigh :)

I remember something about that whole story, but sometimes I get all the different people from your different stories mixed together so you end up with one person who hit the girl, ran away, stabbed the car chair, ruined the business, never paid you back, had a heart attack, struggled with drugs, decided he was homosexual on and on and I think they're probably mostly all different people. Sister Mabalot and I have been talking about anger a lot lately also, but more like tempers etc. being hot headed or "init and ulo!" haha or matigas and ulo. I understand her a lot better after she expresses the changes the gospel brought to her life in the last four or so years since becoming a member. She said her family would call her the princess always ordering people around and they tell her now that they miss her loud voice yelling for things through the house :) haha... it makes her laugh and she said that her mission has been good for her because it taught her that she can be a nice person! Amazing :) It's funny how it's just the same for me. I was always very good at getting my way, very good at being angry and holding resentments etc. hard headed and even if I was right about a situation the right way to go about it would not be to be angry when others didn't agree or do thing my way. I definitely have/or had a very prideful disposition and that made it hard to change even when I wanted to. It's easy to continue being how you are even if you know it makes you unhappy and isn't who you should be when everyone seems to expect it of you and I didn't like attention it brought if I changed because in my mind it almost didn't count to be nice if you were acknowledged for it, so I just wallowed in my bad attitudes while everyone around me expected it to be that way. It got a lot easier for me once I moved away and could start over in a sense but even my roommates the very first year I lived completely alone in our apartment acknowledged a change between my first year living with them and my second. That second year of college was full of big changes and growing up. I was overwhelmed and unhappy with the lack of progress I felt in my life spiritually and even mentally... I was in a rut that required some big sacrifices, sacrificing my pride mostly and realizing like Sister Mabalot that I could be a nice person. Carin even said to me one morning the second year we lived together "Brit, you really have changed, you always smile at me in the morning now." Mornings may still not always be my favorite, I may have to force myself to smile but I woke up every morning and the first thing I thought was that I was grateful for another day to progress and become more like Christ and I would kneel down and tell my Heavenly Father that. My morning prayers became more focused rather than sleepy and hurried and the rest of the day was better for it. It's not just imagined that as our lives become more Christ focused they become better, happier, we change and sometimes that change is hard and scary even though we know it's what's best for us and it makes us an others happier. It's even funny to me that I still considered myself a very hot headed, quick tempered, somewhat mean person. I said something to one of my male friends who had met me well after a lot of my changes about how I kind of had a temper and he looked at me incredulously... just that look made me realize that I had changed it wasn't just that he had only seen my good side...he'd seen me in many situations etc. and I knew he knew me very well...the new me that I didn't even know yet because I was still figuring out who she was and holding on to who I had always been told I was before by Satan, by friends who had seen me that way, by family who expresses frustration at a difficult teenager and that that is 'just how they are', but it's not how we have to be ever. Oh, that doesn't mean I don't still lose my temper or get frustrated, but I feel like my spirit that wants to be good and patient and kind even in pain and frustration has far more control over my natural tendencies now and it's a beautiful and relieving feeling. I only hope it will continue to be better through the future challenges I will face in life. I like the confidence to know I can choose to do whatever I can to enjoy the company of anyone, any companion or roommate and even have a good relationship with them. Just after Sis. Mabalot and I had this discussion one of our investigators who has taken all of our commitments very seriously and is reading straight through the Book of Mormon, every day and whose prayers are really becoming more sincere and he now attends Church every week "nourished by the good word of God" basically and has given up word of wisdom problems etc. well in only the short month or so of doing this he told us he noticed that it's easier to not be angry, his desire to fight with those that hurt him has gone away. He has more patience and sees situations differently and he was thanking us for bringing that to him. We told him that when you fortify yourself with the gospel you become more like Christ and thus become like he is beginning to. All the things he is doing, following the commandments, reading the Book of Mormon which is all about Christ, attending Church where we share testimony and teachings about Christ etc can't help but change you if you open your heart to it and let it take over your life. It's too bad that so many hard headed people can't open their hearts to it. We can even go through the motions of it all like I did for a lot of my life, with moments of progression etc. and basically doing all I should having learned it since I was a child but until you really give yourself up to it you can't be truly happy and truly have control, the freedom to choose eternal life rather than eternal damnation. So, a really sad moment for me... but kind of happy in a way was when we were teaching in Sinisian, Br. Boyette's family. All of the children ages 9-17 go to Church every week and most of them have been baptized now so we're teaching new member lessons and preparing a couple for baptism still. Raymond who is 12 right now is next. Well, Minandro who was most recently baptized and is soon to be 10 is the one who asked the question. We had taught them, then they asked me to teach them how to make paper balloons so I did quickly and then they all practiced sharing their testimonies to all of us for next Sunday in Sacrament meeting. After our prayer Br. Boyette was talking to Sis. Mabalot about transfer date and when we could potentially be leaving. They are thinking of bringing Elders back into our area so we might both leave when we are transferred so that more Priesthood can be here...Minandro caught onto the conversation they were having and that we would be leaving, an idea that I think hadn't crossed his mind... he probably thought we would keep coming every Saturday, Wednesday and being there at Church on Sunday. He looked at me and asked, in Tagalog of course, "...but if you're not here who will teach us?" The part that is sad is... I don't know for sure! The missionaries can't keep coming as frequently as we do now... although hopefully they will continue to visit with them since they are such a large family of new members but who knows what the future missionaries will do that is out of my control. BenWoodgie (17) older cousin of MonSmith (9) who was recently baptized was excited to tell us that the other day Monsmith reminded him that they needed to pray before they ate because that's what the Sisters had taught! That's so great and Woodgie having not been very active before we started teaching them all is active again now and excited to have learned something from his young cousin that helped strengthen his testimony about prayer. I want to take all the children in the world and take care of them. Right now we have at least four little boys who want to serve missions and are excited about it but without strong examples I wonder what the next couple of difficult years will bring them when they are teenagers and faced with money issues, the hardships of life especially the life of the poor here in the Philippines... when the careless life of a child goes away will the teachings we gave them be something they can turn to even without anyone else continuing daily in their homes? It's good they have the habit to go to Church. Monsmith -- well he's my favorite I think even though he's kind of naughty and likes to throw the big bugs at me because I'm afraid of them -- the other day when it started to rain he ran outside where his nice clothes were hanging up and grabbed them saying "oh no my clothes" because they needed to stay nice for Sunday the next day. Okay so we've got them all wanting to serve missions and I want them to continue to want to and do what they need to do it but I know Satan will thwart it and we can't seem to get their families to help them and I can't stay here forever! Errgggg... anywayI will pray for them for the rest of my life I think, my prayers are awfully long just of people now to give them strength to overcome addictions (a major problem here) give them faith to come to Church instead of go to work, give them a desire to pray, give them the spirit to know the truth of what we teach help them understand the importance of preparing for temple marriage give them strength in pains of sickness and disease in the face of death ahhhhhhh on and on. If Leonard was taller I would pray fervently that he serves a mission stateside, learns English and would then marry Savanna...haha! He's just so great and sobraaaaa Magaling siya! Very talented. We gave him his baptism pictures and the next time we came back he showed us his little notebook where he has all of these drawings and then he had a couple pages of scrapbook he'd created with our pictures and little captions and drawings etc. all around them, it was really good. He also sang for us a song he'd looked up on the Internet. He's been searching for LDS religious music but most of it is in English so he wanted me to tell him what some of it meant. It was a song about the "Potters Hands" and uses the clay to let God mold us was the gist of it. He has a good voice, loves music, plays the guitar and piano and is excited to use all of his talents to help the Church -- what more could you ask for? Anyway -- Leonard's family is very poor and they work very hard. He also cleans their clothes in the river etc. and takes care of his sisters baby while she has to go to work. We love visiting with Marie and her baby and Leonard and his other sisters baby. The babies are so adorable. Right around when I'm going home Leonard will be old enough to go on a mission and Sis. Mabalot and I both want to make sure he gets to. Even help him in some way if we can. Sometimes I wonder about my faith a bit though, it's rather weak and that makes it hard to learn the language, it's coming so slow when I just want it to be easier. I feel sometimes like I would have been a better missionary and better able to offer my talents if I was sent English speaking, I feel so inhibited here-- and I have a hard time with our investigators. It's hard for me to really let myself be excited about them because the retention rate is so low here, so many people have gone inactive and I'm almost set up to expect it and don't want to deal with that disappointment after seeing the great progression in lives like Leonard's and the other children I was talking about earlier. Well, I'll press along like always, though, and try to learn from everything and do what it is I was meant to do. Maybe it's time for me to learn that I have different talents to develop that the people here need and to develop my faith mostly to learn the language like I wouldn't have had to if I was speaking English. I'm afraid of failure though, I can't envision the day where I can do it and I see myself being so sad and disappointing everyone by never having reached my potential for helping and speaking and teaching but I fight that also because fear is against faith. Fear has always been a big theme for me in my life. I've always loved all the scriptures about not being afraid and trusting God and I've seen in small ways how I've done that better all through my life and become less afraid of things that used to cause me great anxiety and waste my time with worry. Well, progression always isn't that nice? As for the package -- Wala Pa. Hmmm...some things are so much easier to say or come more naturally so say in Tagalog :) I may not be fluent by any means but it's true that some things just become natural and it's strange to try to say it in English now... Wala Pa basically means, none still? Haha, that sounds so strange in English though you just wouldn't say it that way I guess I would say, I still haven't received a package. Zone Conference is Jun 3 I think so maybe then if it has arrived, that's when I get mail :) I got letters last Wednesday though because President came to our District meeting, two from mom I think and Maddie and then one from Amanda, one from Andrea who is totally excited about her wedding and... that was all I think. Well, my time is up now. I love you all and hope you are making good choices :) teehee. I pray for you every day "Pakibasbasan po ang Pamilya Ko, lalong-lalona habang malayo mula sa kanila."

May 19th email

2008-06-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hi to all of you again! Okay...so the cards, remember how I renewed the cards right before I left mom? That's probably why they think I have two working but I only have the renewed one with me, maybe that means I did not activate it so that's why the ATM doesn't work but when I use it at stores it still can go through. There are very few places where they accept my card so what I've done is use the card a couple times to buy food etc. in order to pay back for the things I've had to use my cash allowance from the mission for. The way the money works is we get an allowance every month... this money comes from the $400 you give but that doesn't mean I actually get $400 dollars. They distribute the money given by families all throughout because say I was in Europe... I would need a lot more money to survive the same way than I do here in the Philippines or maybe in America so every missionary gives the same amount but we all get what it is we need to live a fairly modest lifestyle in the area we live. The money is only to be used for food and toiletries, utilities, transportation which is a big one in our area we have to pay for lots of transportation, getting our clothes washed and postage for letters home which is rather expensive and more so if I send pictures etc...if we buy clothing, get pictures printed etc. it needs to come from separate funds from home. I don't expect to have to use that too much but I did need to get some of my clothing altered, I bought English Tagalog dictionaries that are better and I need to buy a smaller bible in Tagalog still which will be cheap...also the sheets I bought because I only had one set. It sounds like you would like me to give the information to you in a letter so i'll send it later. It's not too big a deal right now and maybe won't matter at all. So, dad wrote "Mom had a heart attack" referring to sending the package which scares me... because there still is the chance it won't get here! I really don't want you to spend lots of money sending me things, I can survive without packages... maybe one more for Christmas/birthday and that will suffice :) Anyway...when I read it I really thought he meant she'd had a heart attack and I nearly did... it took my brain a while to figure out what was really meant by the words. Today we had a district activity for P-day. We sent to fantasy world again which is just this place where they have lots of trees and paths and flowers and a big castle. We went there before with some members because it's in our area but the other missionaries wanted to go also and we thought it was open now so we'd be able to eat and go bowling. It still wasn't open, though, so we just walked around taking pictures and then it started to rain, and then it was raining really hard! Haha...we ran through the rain and were pretty soaking wet. We took refuge in the castles cathedral for a bit but then it wasn't letting up so we continued our trek to the street to catch a jeep to go back home. It was pretty exciting, haha. So mom, I just want to let you know that you're probably a lot stronger and braver than you seem to think you are. So Aunt Amy and Aunt Jenny are pregnant? I thought Amy was done with four? Hopefully she'll have a girl and then Chloe can have a sister with all those brothers :) I wonder if I'll have boys or girls or both etc...or any children at all! haha... I used to think I could never have boys because I'd have no idea how to raise them or anything about them since I only had sisters but I continue to have lots of experiences that help me understand the life of a little boy on up and I probably wouldn't mind havinga little "mommies boy" :) haha. All the little shops have put out their school uniforms and backpacks etc. because school is about to start here. It makes me feel like I'm in a different dimension of time altogether because you're finishing school but they're just starting school, so strange. Sister Mabalot and I decided that when I go home you have to come pick me up so we can go to Baguio where she lives and see it there. It's a really beautiful area of the Philippines with water falls and rivers etc. and then she'll come home with us to see Utah in the fall... a season she's never experienced :) She's actually going to try taking the exam to get into law school at BYU but isn't sure how that will work, especially being a foreigner and with money etc. Yesterday in Church I understood basically everything that was going on. Church is always very Tag-lish... but I understood a lot of the Tagalog parts of that Taglish. Understanding is coming a lot faster though.

The little boys were catching these huge bugs that they like to play with, I think I talked about them before. They were throwing them at me, it was very unpleasant :) They thought it was a great game. Minandro was being a little kinder about it all and kept telling his comrades "Huwag!" Which means "Don't" basically. Then they would say, "Sister Landrum, Sister Landrum, Kailan Kayo pupunta sa amin?" Asking me when we would be returning to their home to teach them. We're teaching Raymond, their 12 year old cousin, lessons to be baptized and the rest of them who are 9-10 have been baptized recently so we're teaching them new member lessons. We'll return Wednesday and they want me to teach them how to make paper balloons. Well, I can't think of much more to specifically talk about right now. I hope all is going well and am excited every week to find out the every day happy events of your lives. Tell Ike congrats for me eh? Funny, all of the males in the family go state side and I'm here in the jungle!
Love from your missionary, Sister Landrum!

May 12th email

2008-06-01T14:19:00.001-07:00

Since I taked to you earlier today I'm going to try to type this journal entry from April that I tried to send before...the keys are sticking on this keyboard so sorry for the mistakes. It was great to talk to all of you and next time I do I promise it will be in ALL Tagalog...bwahahaha (SANA!) which is an expression of hope.

"Today should be my day in the life of story. I rather enjoyed all of it. Due to washing my clothes tonight I don't have time to write everything today I'll finish tomorrow. It rained a lot today so I was never overly hot which is always nice. We woke up and did regular study time. I read about the tree of life in the book of momon and we studied word of wisdom and how to teach it in Tagalog. After we did email. With a whole hour I feel like i'm writing my family a novel. After Sis Mabalot got her hair relaxed at a salon. That took a long time so I wrote a letter to Andrea while sitting in the nice air conditioned salon. We ate lunch then went to Ate Ludy's to text our numbers to the zone leaders. That's when the rain really started up, so we just stayed there while I wrote my letter to my family. It was rather long you might say especially after my long emails, kanina. We went grocery shopping after that and then returned to our apartment where I labled all the pictures Im sending home...with high hopes that they will actually make it there. Our planned appointments for the night were Leonard and the Dillion family. They have many children, cousins mostly, and then Christian and Mary Jane and their baby usually join with Lola peeking out sometimes. The neighbors are always very intrigued by what is going on and will wander around near us lingering a bit. We invite them all of course. Well, here in the Philippines it gets dark early all year long. WE walked to Leonard's in the mudd streets. I can't sufficiently decribe his home/neighorhood for you in words to get the right picture. They are down in a swampy kind of area with little streams and all the homes are raised up. The floors are made of these thin slats placed next to each other and space in between. Sis Rochell's home is the same and while there and sitting on the floor the little kids will go under and poke us! So, we sit on their porch and have rope strung all above us with their clothes draped over to dry and Leondard drags out a a table to sit between Sis. Mabalot and myself. In the center he places an old bottle with something corked in the top that they light so we have small flame and now the evening is getting dark so it's all we have to read with. We set the scriptures open to the section we will study next to the bottle on the table and begin. His mother and sister are also with us on the small porch. With our small flame we read about those things that bring light into our lives, into us and it continues to be such a great experience as revelation comes to them, commitments are made and kept and their humble lives become opened to all the riches of eternity waiting for the faithful. Taal is very far away, up the hill and across the river from Lemery so we chose to take a tricycle to make our family home evening appointment. We wave one down, my newest description for it is a bike cart for children but on the side of a motercycle instead of behind a bike. We ride up to Taal then walk up the dirt stairs and along a small path of green to their home. They have a nicer home, tile floors and a large porch attatched. All of the children start gathering as the first sees us and starts yelling "sister, sister!" The neighbors peek out at us and Nanay will join for a moment. I sat and wrote out the words to "A Child's prayer" while Sis Mabalot does her chattering that I still don't understand. We've decided to teach them prayer in families. We begin with a prayer, all kneeling together on their tile porch and then start. She always asks how we communicate with God, texting? maki pag text as they would say. One little boy answered, "Hindi ko alam, siguro!" Which means i don't know, maybe...Mary Jane laughed and her baby was rolling around in a baby walker exploring everything. We have Br. Christian read the verses in third nephi 18 about praying in families and addressing them we tell them their family will be stronger if they pray together and for each other. Then we sang. I sang it for them first and then had them try with me. "A Child's Prayer" which has always been a favorite of any group of church members I've associated with. Their English is a bit broken up but I feel the spirit there. I know it's true and hope that the message can come to them through it even in English. In song we pray, and I feel like all the cildren, with me, were praying to our Heavenly Father. Then it was time for games! We played Handa Kilos with the funny monkey actions. Everyone laughed...then Sis. Mabalot's game of slow elimination and the first three out have a punishment. The punishment is the best part of the game. The first out has to face the wall and in a splattered position as we yell questions out she has to answer. The first was "what is the name of your boyfriend!" All the other children answered for her! And the adults laughed. The next punishment was that they had to do a dance for us. The other children joined, however, not wanting to be left out of the fun. The others sang and clapped to the beat. It was a well known dance and fun to watch. I wanted to join / wanted to go home and see Maddie and Olivia dancing to our fun music... both the same age as these little girls. We left soon after. At home we planned for the next day. I washed my clothes...filling our bowl in the sink with water and suds I soaked the clothes and rubbed them together creating more suds and dipping and ringing out and sweat rolling down my brow as I hummed the children's hymns from earlier that day. After hanging the now rinsed clothes to dry I showered off the sweat... dumpig ladels of water over my head. Time for bed, we pray. I pray. And, soon fall asleep only to be awoken early the next morning to sounds of the motorcycles zooming past below and the sticky heat of the day. Roosters also...of course! I wait for the fan to turn to me again as the air hits my toes and I twist a bit so it will go up my now sweaty back and neck. After some stretching I'm up and the day begins again with prayer. The frustrations of learning a new language and wanting the faith to know I will while enjoying the new and now familiar scenes of Lemery. Like chickens with one leg tied to a house or post etc. The people are the same in ways deep inside. Their babies all naturally dance to a beat and sometimes to the music playing in their little growing brains. They smile when smiled at and their eyes light up at attention. They are curious and sensistive and have inner strength they don't even know of yet but will need to face the challenges that will surely come as they continue to grow and are faced with the outward learning that will come to them from environment, from circumstances from others...they need to remember those things they already know, remember those ways that they already naturally are that make them want to dance and sing and laugh and rejoice and smile and make their eyes shine."

Okay, time is very up now that was kind of my journal entry. I'll write again later.

Love, Brit

May 5th email

2008-06-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hi, so as far as political things go we are advised not to talk about it all...especially as Americans and not in emails or letters that others could come across and get the wrong idea from. I don't really hear much or know much about it at all. Sometimes i hear little things, especially from Sister Mabalot because she's interested in government. She wants to be a lawyer and her father is a police man...but they live in the northern Philippines while what you are talking about is on the other end so I still just don't know. I haven't noticed any specific difference between people older or younger...or anyone who is really anti America (Anti us teaching them, yes...) but anti me not so much. Very interested in me they all seem to be. When they hear me speaking Tagalog to Sis Mabalot as we walk along the street they will say "May Tagalog?" In suprise... which means something like, there is tagalog, she knows tagalog etc. Anyway...I did just talk to you all about a second ago and it seems you still haven't responded to me. I'm going to read the rest of my emails now and then maybe type my journal entry that i tried to send before when it disconnected me.
Love from me

May 5th email for Dad

2008-06-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Dad, sorry I've been really delinquent at writing to you in response to what you write to me. I'll have to fix that in a written letter for this week because I'm a bit out of time. Of course everything I write is really for everyone although I address specific people sometimes. So, your Tagalog is very interesting :) I actually still don't know a lot of the words you are trying to use, sad as that is. I understand Gospel terms and our lessons a lot better because that's what we do all day and what I practice and hear over and over, culture and every day stuff will have to come later. Also,the grammar is a bit different. It's fun to try to decode though :)

Our name is Landrum in Tagalog... it's a name so it just stays a name. Dumaong does mean something but I'll have to look it up, Sister Mabalot can't fiture out what the English equivalent is. Kapatid is sibling and na babae, babae is girl so sibling that is a girl. They also just use Sister... some things they just say in English. Couldn't would be "Hindi Puwede" Hindi is no and Puwede is one of the words for "Can" I had my preach my gospels bound so that cost a bit of money but they were falling apart a bit so that was important. Sending heavy letters and printing pictures is also expensive and I have to use funds from home and not our missionary funds for it but if you want me to I'll keep sending them sometimes. Just make sure to keep me updated about what money is on my card still so I don't go over, k?! I'm glad you liked the pictures. They all do look very young, until they get old...then they all look really old. People always react to me very interestingly and from what I hear from Sister Nielsen who is soon to go home, it never really changes. The other day some man whose friend we were teaching just kept staring at me and then he tried to court me, he wants to marry me etc. and it was a bit hmmmm just uncomfortable for me but harmless thus far so we're having members from the ward come with us whenever we teach them. I also have to be used to people just touching my hair sometimes or grabbing my arm...it's interesting. More about leadership and the youth later so I can discuss it better, maybe in my hand written letter. That is definitely why we need good missionaries and presidents etc. to help the areas of the church in the word where it's still not established. Help them not corrupt doctrine simply because they don't know any better... it'seasy to see how doctrine becomes corrupted very easily also. I talked with the mission president about how to cope with some of my concerns, of course I can do nothing to change them but they cause me concern anyway so that was good to discuss with him. Gas is so expensive! Sheesh...I hope it goes down before I come back. I guess I probably won't have a car though so it might not directly affect me in that sense. Thanks for the "world update" I don't even know who I would vote for if I was there to do so... I think the most I can do for our country and for the world in some cases is just pray that the best for us will turn out and that we can overcome it. We live in the time when our country has rejected a lot of truth, though...and the book of mormon clearly states that because it is the promised land a curse will come upon it for those who do not follow the commandments of God. If fact, I've started keeping track of how many times that exact thing is said. Maybe I'll send all the references when I find them all. Anyway have to go, sorry...
Love, Brit

May 5th email to Garyn

2008-06-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hey, sorry your responses back are short. This one is going to be also but it'saddressed to JUST you, aren't you special? I don't have very much time,really, to read and type all the things I would like to but that's for a goodpurpose. Is it your queen of hearts play that is soon? Hmmm...so I think I getto talk to everyone next week so you can just tell me about how it all was then,if the whole crazy phone business works. Actually...I'm going to end this here,haha...almost not worth having done but I need to respond to dad real quick and then be done for today with Email. How is everything going with finding a job? Im sure wherever you end up you'll learn a lot. Random as it is, I left homefor College and needed a job for the summer to help me pay for everything in lifenow that I was along "kind of" Iw asn't really ever along everyonealways helped me and I was living with Julie but the first job I got was janitorial,cleaning bathrooms...really nice ones though in a brand new building. The hourswere late at night. I wanted a different job, I wanted the job I ended up gettingat the end of the summer at the counseling center but my experience all summer cleaningrestrooms, the people I met and learning to really enjoy it was a such a blessing. I even chose to return to that job the next summer to earn a little extra moneybefore going to boy scout camp. Then at the MTC our service each week was to cleanthe bathrooms and I LOVED IT. Everyone thought Iw as so funny but it brought goodmemoreis and just cleaning hard nad getting wet and sweaty felt good. My adviceis to enjoy whatever work you do. My Branch PResident, PResident Lant, at the MTCsaid to use frequently..."Whatever I do I do it unto the Lord, and I do it happily, if i'm called upon to be the man who dumps the trash every day thenI do it in the name of the Lord and for him and happily because that's how hewould do it" I really liked that. Anyway now I'll be done. Love youBrit