Sister Eveland...Your Prayers Must Have Worked!!

So this week started off better than the last.. Even though we had appointments that feel through we still had 5 lessons and FHE by weds. More than we had last week. So we decided since our last appointment on Weds fell through and we hadn't had dinner yet we would treat ourselves to some ice-cream and fries. We went to bed and the next morning when we woke up both Sister and I weren't feeling too good. We had a lot of the same symptoms that all of our investigators have had for the last 3 weeks. Fever, headache, sinus infection, etc.. We didn't work Thrusday, friday we were both still sick so we got blessings. I started feeling better, sister was still pretty sick. I was going to go out and teach some of our appointments, but we couldn't find two women that could work with me and stay with sister so I stayed inside for another day.. Sunday we did go to church it was good to get out! But it wore sister out so we went home for the rest of the day... In the first two days I went through our stack of 75ish Liahonas/Ensigns/New Eras..Saturday I started over.. I wasn't bored at all!! I didn't get a lot of letters written though so that was fun.. As I was going through the New Eras it was fun because I came across a few issues that were about people that I know.. Small "mormon" world we live in.. even when you are on the other side of the world!!


Today, I woke up with a sore throat, I am kind of loosing my voice. And sister is slowly getting better. We are just hoping that the same thing that happened to most of our investigators doesn't happen to us.. They would get better for a day or two and then crash again.. We can't afford that, there are TOO many people to find and teach, and little time as it!! But your prayers must have worked because it never hit me as bad as it did my companion, which I am grateful for!!

Transfers are this thursday, I don't know what to expect. I very well could get transferred so sister can train again.. or she could leave and I could stay.. or we could get pulled. It will be interesting to see what happens!!

Sorry, the last few weeks haven't been exciting to write to about.. We have just been doing our best to laugh at everything, especially when we get discouraged, many times a week we find ourselves laying on our kitchen floor laughing either right before or right after we pray.. It's great.. there is a song that we have adopted as our theme song, "A Call I hear" it is on one of my EFY cd's. You should find it and listen to it.. it is my mission..so far..and I am pretty sure the rest will come with time!

Oh yeah, we were teaching a lesson earlier this week.. first of all this family that we are teaching has these cool wooden chairs but the one that my comp usually sits in has holes that mice like to go down. I have seen them go down in these holes during a few lessons there, but I don't tell sister until after we leave.. well on tuesday when we were teaching I saw it again, but I just sat quietly, laughing inside..then when I was teaching a principle, I trying to focus on my Tagalog and simplifying it so that the 8 year old and the mother as well as the other two kids would all understand me. All of a sudden my companion starts to squim.. I had forgotten about the mouse.. Then she starts to mumble something, I think that I had said something wrong.. Then she starts to get out of her chair and the kids start to laugh.. the mouse had crawled across her and landed in her bag for a few seconds... Yeah I totaly forgot what I was saying at that point in the lesson..

Then there was Sunday school.. Our branch mission leader was teaching, the Cauilan's were there as well as two recent converts.. anyway, the lesson was tithing.. this is what I learned from his lesson:

1. The prophet Elijah caused a drought for 3.5 years. After the 3.5 years the people still had plenty of food, but they didn't have water..so he built an alter to pray to god and if the people would all bring 5 tubs of water to pour over the alter their faith in god would stop the drought. But then there was a down pour and problems because there was too much water.

2. They were talking about rice and and ulams that Cain and Abel brought as sacrifices.. it was funny it was like a Filipino twist to the Bible..some how it got on the subject of how Abels father (not Cain's) was Jacob.. Yeah that was our Methodist investigator...

Have the time we weren't even on the subject of tithing.. Sunday school is always a suprise when brother Raffy teaches!!!

Well I better go! I love you all. Thank you for your prayers, the Lord really is looking out for me!!

Love,
Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...Look at me I carry

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/face-of-the-day-7.html

by Patrick Appel

Kumusta po kayo?


Ayos lang dito.

This week was, well I am still here and working hard, that is all that matters right?
I don't really know what to say about this week so I will just share some of the things that my companion and I said..

"I wish we would be cute sister missionaries too, and not look like we have rubbed ourselves in butter all day"
-I said this to sister Resendes as we took a 10 min break in front of the fan with ice candy, having been out for two hours, having walked and walked and panted with no lessons. I had been looking at a picture that sister Babb had sent me from NY, they looked cute and here we were sitting our couch looking like we had literally rubbed butter on our faces..We looked greasy and were sweaty like non other..

-Me "Looking at my legs you would tink the hair would be a lot longer than it is seeing as I haven't shaved in 11 weeks"
-Sister (after looking at here legs) "you would think mine would be.."
-Me " Sister you just shaved two weeks ago.."
-Sister "yeah and give it another week and a half and my hair will out grow yours for the third time"
No joke, this all true....

"How hot does it have to be to have the things in your freezer start melting before you even really get them out?"
-Sister Resendes.. No one here ever knows how hot it is. But it has to be some what hot because if we wait more than 30 seconds to break our ice candy it's too late! So if you want to know what I could use, it would be a themometer!!! It has been SOOOOOO hot!!

No time but I loev you all. Thanks for everything!!

Love,
Sister Eveland

This girl cracks me up.  No reserve does she.  Maybe if she knew that I was posting her letters for the world to see she would choose otherwise.  Maybe not cause she is just totally Bailey.

Sister Eveland...Aso, chicken feet, lahat!

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

To start things off for the week, how is everyone? Healthy and happy, I hope! As for now I am up to par, no weird sicknesses, despite the weird things I have eaten this week!! :) I think you all need to read LEV. 11:27...I am unclean.. Because I ate aso and they have paws... And I ate chicken intestines... Yeah I am gross I know. I should have you all guess what aso is before I tell you. The taste was actually pretty good. I may have eaten more of it if I didn't know what it was, but I did..


The weather here has been a little stormy, not TOO many rain storms but windy and over cast a lot. There has been a level one Baugio, but that is nothing, a few weeks ago it got up to a level three. To answer you question mom, there is somewhat of a raining season. Right now, until about Novemeber. Baugio season starts in September and thats when it can get bad. Typhons and all that jazz. But don't worry I am safe... at least that is what they tell me :) haha

Teaching has been rough. But it is good. I have learned so much here. There is still a lot that I don't understand about the people or the culture, but I am learning everyday. Right now I just want to teach people the importance of keeping commitments and what that word actually means. We are still working with the Cauilan Family but we are going to change their baptismal date, which is a good thing. They didn't come to church yesterday, except for Precious, the 12 year-old and her 7 year old cousin. My companion and I were so excited to see her get out of a tricee!! Sister Resendes and I had some great times this week despite the frustrations we were having with some of our investigators. We love them all and want them to understand, but it is hard for two Americans to really understand the cultural things at times. And I am having a hard enough time trying to learn the language. I am still kind of quiet in the lessons but everyday I am learning precept by precept!! I love the work, even days like yesterday when we wake up at 5:30 walk to all of our investigators to remind them to go to church, go through all of our meetings, cook lunch, study, and then walk around in circles for the next 5 hours panted because all our appointments fell through and the less-actives or other investigators we went to visit were busy or not there. It is all worth it!! Especailly yesterday because the Delos Reyes (a couple who we have dinner with every sunday) made French toast!!! They usually make us filipino food but they decided that this week would be american style, so we had french toast and dorritos.. yeah a weird mix but it was great!!

Some random things that happened:

1. we have a dead butiki on our stairs.. we don't know how it died but my companion and I have gotten some pretty funny pictures of it. (a small geko)

2. This morning I was reading the Book of Mormon and I companion had gone up stairs to get something, when all of a sudden she started screaming because there was a bird in our bedroom. Haha

3. I almost stepped on a HUGE rat the other day. I was less than two inches away and I didn't see it at first. Those things are so gross.

4. We found a new investigator this week and they have a talking bird. It looks like a crow. And it speaks Tagalog. It is hiliarious. Someday I will get it on camera and show you!

5. This isn't random but ants run this country. I also have ants crawling on me, or they are all over our apartment, the church, EVERYWHERE!!

6. My companions leg hair has out grown mine 3 times since I have been here. This is gross but I haven't shaved. Good thing my leg hair doesn't grow very fast and it is blond, and I am not in America. Here it is normal to have leg hair, it is actually preferred. WEIRD I KNOW!!

Okay for all of you that have waiting to know what Aso is.. It is DOG. yes I ate someone's pet. Right outside the kitchen door was the stream of blood to prove it.. SORRY mom.. Jason I don't think you have to worry about me coming home and trying to cook Bella or Madden! haha

Well have a great week!! I love you all, and I pray for you everyday!!!

Love,
Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...Two months in an unfamiliar country...Wow!

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

Time is going by so fast. The work is great. Hard at times, but if it was easy then it would not be the Lord's work.


So for those that do not know, we have to do our own laundry by hand twice a week. It usually takes between an hour and 1 1/2 hours. I am not very good at it, and Philippinos always make fun of Americans when they do their laundry... Well one of our investigators says she didn't have time to read because she had to do laundry, so we told her we would come help her. She thought it was a joke, but knew that we would still come over, she just wasn't going to let us help her. But Saturday came around and we showed up in our b-ball shorts ready to help.. She had already started and was almost done, (she actually started it on Friday so there wouldn't be very much of it) but we got to help her rinse it at least. You have to rinse it 3 times to get the soap out. It was fun to help her. Later that day as we went to our other appointments we learned we were the talk of the neighbors. They were all say that Sister Cauilan had two american labanoras that worked for free. They couldn't believe it. Gossip here spreads faster than a wildfire, not even kidding.

Well I don't have much time left, I was having too much fun chatting back and forth to Alisha.

But I love you all. I hope you have a great week! Remember that there is a Missionary in the Philippines that prays for you everyday!!

Love, Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...First Cycle is Up

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

So this week was once again not what we expected!! For starters we were sick. Mostly sister, so Weds we stayed in all day, and we had another sister stay with us and she was sick too. Thrusday was transfer day, WE ARE STILL TOGETHER!! We thought we would get pulled because we were the only companionship in our district that didn't have a baptism date, and they were putting Office Elders in. But tuesday when we got the transfer list we were the ONLY companionship who didn't get pulled in our district besides the APs. Shocker to us. It was funny because we were the only ones who had made sure everything was updated and made new maps for everything. haha. It is great though because now we have six more weeks to help our investigators.


One thing that I think is so funny about the culture here is that the people are so scared of the rain, that no one goes out. Well saturday we got in a tricee right as it started to pour he ended up pulling into a gas station and we had to wait 10 minutes for the rain to let up a bit before he would go again. Then Sunday when we got up it was raining, we got up an hour early again so we could re-remind everyone to come to church. Most of them used the excuse that it was raining. haha yeah no joke. We went to one family and the youngest was sick with a slight fever (everyone has fevers right now, including a lot of missionaries), so none of them were going to come to church. When we asked the oldest daughter if she could come and bring the other two siblings she said they didn't have an umbrella. We knew this wasn't true, but I followed along with it and told them that they could have my industrial size umbrella. (it really is big, but it is going to last my whole mission, unlike the umbrellas here. haha) We handed it to them and then just said that we would wait at the door for them at the church, and left. As we waited for everyone to come, we saw this little family walking in the gate of the church all under this one umbrella, it was my umbrella, they came, even the mom and the sick little boy, the other son didn't come though :( But even the members didn't come to church yesterday because of the rain.

I really am having a hard time thinking of what happended this week. Nothing too exciting. Oh actually we had a really good lesson with brother Helle. Sister turned to me for a part of the lesson and I just started talking in Tagalog, like I normally do but this time I was saying things that I haven't really said before and both my companion and Helle and Leah were looking at me like yeah, keep going. It was really funny. But I know that is the spirit working through me. The Lord's hand is in everything!!!

Well Time is up. I love you all. Thanks for everything. Have a great week, hopefully next week I will have better stories to tell!!

Love,
Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...What a crazy week!

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

This week was crazy!! Nothing went as we had planned. But the Lord knew what He was doing and it turned out to better than we could have hoped for.


Starting Monday though our schedule was wacked. First of all we got home late from getting everything we done on P-day and as we were getting ready to leave the neighbor girl walked in asked for our help with her english assignment, we couldn't just say no so that made us an hour late getting out the door. Our FHE plans fell through with the same family for the second time (hopefully it works for tonight). We went to our only appointment to see if they were there, but wala ( no one), and no one at our back up either. By this time it was pouring, but we decided to stop one family who have been investigators on and off for three years, they haven't been baptized because they didn't think they could get married, (BUT NOW THEY CAN!!) whenever we stopped by before they were never home. But we found out that they are home every Monday, we were able to teach them and set up an appointment for tonight. AND the husband and two daughters came to church yesterday!!!

Later that night we found out that district meeting which is usually here in Cauayan on Tuesday mornings was changed to tuesday afternoon in Ilagan because president wanted to do interviews with our zone. There went all our lessons for the afternoon. We got to teach of them in the morning before we left but it through off our fellowershippers and the rest of our lessons for that night. And we had to take the hour plus van ride each way, I am not even kidding when I say this, there were 23 people in a van at one time, no AC, yeah and they aren't even very big vans they are meant for maybe 9 people. We actually did have a really good lesson with one family (the Manaog's) we tried to set a Baptisim date with sister but she hasn't set one yet. The lesson was so good though, the spirit was really strong, AND all four kids were in the lesson and participated. THEY CAME TO CHURCH for the first time since before I got here!!!

Weds- No bayawak :( apparently they don't just go to the palangke and buy one. They shoot them themselves, out of the cauayan trees (bambo trees). You can buy at the palangke but I guess it is hard to find them for sell. They are still on the look out we hope that we will get to try it before we get transfered. all of our lessons/plans fell through this night too. But we ended up finding a less active member who usually isn't home when we have stopped by. She came to the activity on saturday but not to church, hopefully next week. Most of all fellowershippers fell through that night too because it was raining (no one works with us when it rains).

Side note-- it is funny when it is pouring and my companion and I are walking to appointments with our umbrellas just soaked, while the Philippinos are hovering under the smallest over hang or shelter they can find to wait it out because they hate the rain, they think everyone is going to sick if they walk in the rain. They always yell at us to get under covering and most of our investigators try to get us to stay at their house until it stops raining. It's actually pretty entertaining.

Thursday, again most of our lessons fell through. We didn't teach at two appointments that day because they didn't read. They are investigators that we have trying to see if we should drop. We told them that we would come back on Friday (the next day) and if they read we would share with them. We had another good lesson with Manaog, again they were all in the lesson!!

Friday, we went back to sister Evlynn and sister Angelita, not knowing if we would share with them. BUT both had read, and both were REALLY REALLY good lessons. We were not expecting to see that change in them over night. Nothing else really happened this day, except weekly planning... And we updated EVERYTHING because we have no idea what to expect on thursday with transfers because there is a possiblity we could get pulled out because of changes that need to be made in the office... We are so lost..

Saturday, we had branch FHE. President and sister Carlos came. It was actually a pretty fun night. I really like them. Later my companion and I are going to the mission home to help sister Carlos make brownies and cookies. She has to bake for all the missionaries coming in and going home this week and asked for our help. Not going to lie, there are a lot of perks to living close to the mission home. No one here has ovens so we never get baked goods. So I am excited!!

Sunday morning we got up at 5:30 again so that we could leave by 7:00 to remind our investigators to go to church.. We woke most of them up..haha Most of them said that they were coming to church. Church starts at 8:20 now and classes are first (which is a good thing), we waited outside until 15 min to nine when our first investigator showed up..after that they dragged in up to over an hour late..Okay are you ready for the best news of the week...Drum roll please....Guess how many investigators were at church?!

TWELVE!! that is the most that my companion has ever had at chruch, and that isn't counting any of their kids that who are too young or haven't sat in on the lessons!! Our efforts are paying off. The funny/odd thing is is that all of our investigators who came to chruch last week or who have been progressing didn't come. And all our investigators that we weren't sure would come actually came. We have seen a big change in a lot of investigators!

I love this work. Sorry no more time. Love you all. Thanks for you love and support!!

Love sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...Happy Belated 4th of July!!

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

Kumusta po Kayo?


What a week. Some much happened. It was HOT like none other, but yet we still had a few good rain storms at night. Are you ready to hear all of the crazy things that happened?

1. We went to contact referrals that the APs gave us. After OYM (offering our message), teaching a brief lesson one, setting up a return appointment, and looking for the referrals we found out that it wasn't even our area, it was actually the Elder's who gave us the referrals in the first place. Yeah..So our day we were hoping to get investigators ended up be a day of getting investigators for them instead. We later did some contacting kind of by the mission home so we stopped by to get some cold water and give the referrals back to the Elders. President and sister Carlos arrived a few hours earlier so we were able to meet them and talk to them a bit. They are way nice. I am excited to get to know them better. We should have interviews in the next few days. Also Sister Villanueva came back with the baby, so we got to see her as well. The baby is SO cute!!

2. The other night we came home from our appointments and I looked in the Bathroom, next to the toilet there was a rather large spider. But when my companion looked it was gone. We didn't see it again.. until about two nights later when we standing up from saying our prayers for nightly planning and I looked up and it was on the ceiling by my companion. She didn't believe me at first. She told me I had to kill it, so I grabbed the bottle of permethern and just started spaying it. It ended up falling on the ground and I kept spraying it. It got slower, but where ever it went I just kept spaying. Finally it got in corner, it had no chance. Before it could plead one last time the poor thing was dead!! The next morning we had dead cockroaches and bugs on the floor. Permethern is some powerful stuff!

3. Okay this is what we ate.. Palaka..or in english FROG! We went to the palangke Thursday morning and for about 2.50 we got aprox. 25 frogs! Then we took them to an investigator's house to teach us how to cook them. They were actually really good. at least the legs, they really do taste like chicken. My companion told me to eat everything. This was the first time she ate it too. So I tried the stomach..Yeah not a good idea, I picked it apart and there we crickets in it.. I didn't really eat that part but my companion did. Her's was smaller than mine though and didn't really have bugs in it.

4. This week we are having an investigators mom buy Bayowa, you buy it live but you can't get it here. So she is bringing down. Oh yeah in english that is a rather large lizzard!! They sew the mouth shut so it can't bite you. So we get to see them kill and everything. I will send pictures from the start to the finish. It is really hard for two Americans to find a service project so we have started once a week finding an investigator who doesn't have a lot of money and telling that we want to try a certain food and ask if they can teach us how to make it. Then we pay for everything. It actually works out well for all of us in the end. They get a meal and we get cool pictures, experience, and fun stories.

5. BROTHER HELLE AND SISTER LEAH HAVE AGREED TO GET MARRIED!!!! They are trying to set a date. We are hoping that neither of us get transfered in 1 1/2 weeks so that they can get married in Aug and we can both be here. Because if they get married he can get baptized! We are praying for them. Even though sister was sick on sunday they still came to sacrament yesterday. We had the most investigators at church this week since I have been here. And the most RCLAs as well. We found a lot of Less actives this week and we got a good amount of them to come to church. Sacrament meeting attendance was the highest it has been in this branch since the first part of the year. The work is progressing!!!

Well this week was a good one for me. I hope it was for all of you as well. Thank you for the e-mails. p.s. Alisha I sent a letter to you, it is in the same envelope with mom and dads so they will have to get it to you. But, I did get your e-mail today. Thanks!!!

I love you all. Good luck with everything this week.

Love,
Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...Almost a month!

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

Time goes by so fast. Before I know it it will be avacado season..August.. haha


This week was pretty good. We were panted a little because we had meetings and it was raining pretty hard during the late afternoon. Weds we had a meeting at the church for all the new traniers and trainees. The church isn't too far, it is next to the mission home/office but it is our area. When we left our apartment at 1:00pm it was really hot and we were just planning on finding one girl after the meeting who lives down the street from the church and then we would go home and drop everything off. So we decided we should probably be safe and wouldn't need an umbrella. Well at 4:30 30 mins before the meeting was going to be over it started to POUR. My comp and I just looked at each other and started laughing because we knew we didn't have an umbrella and we were going to have to walk to find our referral. I was leading the music and the whole time I was looking out the windows of the chapel and couldn't help but laugh. By the time we found the girl we were both soaked. We literally could ring out our clothes. it was great.

Then the next day it was so hot again. And there was a brown out so when we were studying and stuff in the morning we couldn't use the fan, and I had to shower in the dark, but that is beside the point. No one had ice candy that day and our water bottles were warm within the first hour of tracting. So we decided we would go to one of the two resturants that had a generator and get a cold pineapple juice to cool down. 45 min later when we were getting ready to start our first lesson it started to rain. not just a light rain like we are used to but a pouring rain. By the end of our lesson we were screaming so that they could even hear us. As we walked to our next appointment the path that we take that is normally dry was like walking through a running stream 4 inches deep. No joke it may have been even deeper and that only after maybe 30 mins of the storm. We had to go to all of our appointments and tell them that we would come back if it stopped, because most of them have tin roofs and you can't hear unless you yell. By the time we got to the last house it started to slow down so we went back to the first and started teaching for the night. We had umbrellas but they were use less. I was able to ring my clothes out again. It was awesome though how fast the rivers were created!! haha

The work is so different here. One referral can take over 3 hours to find because all we usually get is a name and Burangay (a burangay is like a community, like sunland for example) if we are lucky we get the purok (which would be like San Juan or some where around the 16th hole) and we get to walk and walk and walk asking everyone we see if they know that person. It can take a long time. Well we got 12 referrals in one day and we get to try and contact all of them!!! It should be great fun!

President and Sister Carlos come on Weds. Sister Villanueva already left because she had the baby in Manila two weeks ago and just stayed down there. I am excited to meet them. p.s. Mom and Dad, did you guys get a letter from them my companion said her mom did.

Well I don't have anymore time. I love you all. Thanks for your support. If you find yourself with a little extra time you can write me a letter on dearelder!! OR even hand write. (hint hint) Have a great, there will be more stories next week I promise. we are already planning on eatting something. But I will leave that as a suprise for next time!!

love, Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...Hot and Humid all the time

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

This week was different from last. It rained monday but then didnt rain again until last night, and at that it lasted maybe 20 mintues. It was around 30-37 degrees at night here this week. I don't even know what it was during the day. Oh yeah that is around 100 F. HOT HOT HOT. It made the days long and tiring. But we still had a lot of sucess despite everyones schedules changing because school started this week, the heat and everything else. It was a good week. However with this heat I have a hard time sleeping. I fall asleep way fast, which for me is amazing, I just dont stay asleep. I wake up all sweaty and sticking to my pillow, and my sheet, and other body parts. And that is with two electrical fans. Haha it's great! Then I wake up to dogs barking and roosters at the crack of dawn, 4:30am. I love it here!


Actually I just looked out the window and it is pouring outside.

So I must admit, Mom I'm sorry. You can skip this paragraph if you want, I will understand. I DID eat the BBQ chicken head. I actually recorded it. There was nothing to it really, just the brain and eye socket haha. It didnt really taste like anything. But then I ate this other thing at a dinner appointment, dinugan (sp?) it is chicken in chicken blood. It was actually pretty good. It had a lot of flavor. I know I know, mom you are probably praying your heart out that I don't get sick. I hope not either. I havent gotten sick yet. They expect every american missionary here to get sick in their first 2 cycles.

This week was pasok, when all the kids go back to school. So everyone schedules are changing and a lot our appointments have fallen through, but we still almost reached all of our goals.

Our investigators are all doing great. We have commited sister Manaog to set a date to be baptized, she is giving us the date tomorrow. And her husband who is a family driver in Manila was home for the weekend, he only comes home once a month, so we shared with him and are referring him to the missionaries down there. Brother Helle is progressing, we taught him last night and gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon even though the family he lives with already has a bunch. Sister Tocoyo, (the mother of the home where Helle leaves) came to church again this week!! She is amazing, I wouldnt have thought she was less-acive before I got here.

We had one follow up appointment this week with a lady who the elders referred to us. She didnt seem too interested the first time we taught, she said that she saw the elders and wanted her nephews to join a group that. haha anyway we went back this week, she didnt sit in on the lesson but she had 10 college (17-21 year olds) listen to us. One actually is a member in Alicia, but they are all boarding there while they go to school. We are going back tonight. Hopefully we will get a few investigators. They all participated in the last lesson so we will see.

Oh yeah I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was based on a conference talk. I gave it all in Tagalog and afterwards one of the ward memebers that works with the missionaries came up to me and said he was impressed because all the other American sisters who were new would always give there talks in English, even if it was there 5 talk. He told me that in three weeks my tagalog has really improved. That was a BIG compliment coming from him. I struggle everyday with the language, somedays I want to give up and speak just in english, but I wasnt called to speak English, and even though the spirit can speak in every language the people can understand Tagalog a whole let better!!!

Yesterday was crazy. We had three tricee drivers and all three were very different. The first was not a legal tricee driver, the second was this old man who was trying to set my companion and I up with his 23 year old son, and the third I am pretty sure just wanted to kill us, I don't even want to know how fast he was going. But since there arent any laws here he was in and out of traffic, even on coming traffic. When we got to our appointment both sister Resendes and I were dizzy. Haha and we had some pretty interesting lessons.

Missionary work is so different here than it is in the states. But the church is true no matter where you go. I know that I have been called here to become humbled, in more ways than one. But I love it everyday!

I love you all!!

Love sister eveland

Sister Eveland...What a week

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

Grabe! Wow. What a week. I don't even know where to begin.


I am always either hot and from sweat, or hot and wet from the rain, or both, or at the church I am freezing cold because of the Acon. There is no between here in the Philippines. Electircal stroms every night are ordinary, which is awesome. It is so pretty. I wish I could capture a picture of it. Especially when it's not raining but the thunder is so loud that it sounds like the whole sky is going to come crashing down. It's crazy. The other night we were out walking from appointment to appointment and it had been really clear and hot during the day which is normal and all of the sudden it just started pouring. Actually that is normal here. Anyway, it got really muddy, my companion and I were talking and she was saying in one of her areas she totally fell in the mud. Right then I stepped in this sticky thick mud, we just laughed as we kept walking and my foot was so heavy with mud that I couldn't walk very well. It was great.

The language is coming. I just try to do a little more everyday. And as for the rumors of speaking in English and not in Tagalog that is not true for the Isabela Providance, where I am. It is like that in Manila and some other areas. But we have a lot of people we teach or talk to that are Ilocano speaking which is a different dialect of Tagalog. The members speak English, church is in Tagalish, somethings are done in tagalog others in English. But it is good for me. As hard as the language may seem and even though in some lessons I don't know how to everything that I want to and I have to speak in English and they have no clue what I am saying, the spirit is still strong. It just goes to prove that the Lord speaks every language.

On Friday we had some really cool experiences. We had weekly planning that morning, and we had some contacts and less active members we were going to try and contact later day, I had been praying that the Lord would lead us to those He has been preparing. Later when we went out we stopped by the home of the sister of the second counselor in the branch presidency, their father had just died and we he asked us to try and teach her. We left her a lesson two pamplet about the Plan of Salvation. I didn't really know what was going on. But there was another lady, in her 30's maybe, who had asked if she could have a pamphlet too. We started to talk her and found out she went abroad to work for a year in Sinagpore, she had lived/worked for a British family who were members, the husband was actually the Bishop. She had gone to church every week with them, she even has a copy of the Book of Mormon. We had an appointment to teach her last night but we were early and she wasn't home from work yet. So we are going to stop by her booth at the palankie, the market when we go shopping later. She seems to be interested. Then we contacted a less active. He wasn't home but his wife was, she isn't a member. But he wanted her to get baptized but she got pregnant so she never went to church, and her husband is now a police officer so he hasn't gone to church in a few years. She told us that they got the Liahona and she really likes to read it. We have a return appointment for this week. That was just two experiences that day. It just goes to show that there are people the Lord is preparing. I love it!! Oh and there is another family we are working with. The Tocoyo family. They are less active. They have three girls that live at home still, and one the daughters has a live in partner (that is not unusual for here, we work a lot of people who aren't married). Anyway, the saturday after I got here, so like my second day, we went to teach the family, I gave the spiritual thought, 3 Nep 18:20-21, about family prayer and then my comp answered some questions that the family had. Helle came out( the live in partner, the sisters before tried to teach him but he wasn't interested) we commited them to come church, of course they said yes. Everyone here says yes to anything we ask them, but then they hardly ever follow through. Well the day we were sitting in Sacrament meeting and the Mom and Leah and Helle all walked in. It was awesome. We talked to Leah and she told us that before he didn't understand what the missionaries were teaching him, but the night before he started to understand, even though we were teaching to him. Sunday morning Leah got up and said she was going to keep the promise she made this time and before she knew it he showered so he could go to church with her. We have taught him two times since, and he actually reads the pamplet and writes down questions for us. It's awesome!!! I was getting ready to teach him the first vision and of course as soon as I started we had a brown out. (a black out) Satan does all he can to stop our work from progressing. But the spirit was still really strong! I hope he continues to learn.

We work with a lot of less-active and part member families here, there are a lot of them. Sadly.

Okay so some crazy things about the culture:

1. A frog, the size of the one mom and dad brought home that one time. But it was fried to the side walk with one leg up. It was really funny looking.

2. We have a mouse in our apartment.

3. Our pets are little lizards, lots of them, they even like to shower with us. haha

4. Shower buckets aren't TOO bad

5. I haven't eaten anything weird yet. But I reallywant to. When we get BBQ next I think I am going to try pig ear or Chicken head.

6. It rains, thunder, lighting storms everynight. And when I don't have my umbrella is when it likes to down pour the most. No joke

7. Everyone rides around in tricees. Motor bikes that have a little cart thing attached. It cost 16 pesos for my comp and I to get to any place in our area ( 35 cents)

8. Everything is cheap. a peso is worth about 2 cents, but you can by a lot for 5-10 pesos. for example my lunch today cost 65 pesos.

OH yeah, the Cebu temple dedication was yesterday!! It was awesome, we watched the broadcast. But president Monson, pres Erying, Elder Oaks, Bishop Burton and some others were there. President Monson even played this childish song on the piano on his way back into the temple after the cornerstone sealing. It was so funny. He kept cracking jokes, but it was just him being him. I don't think anybody in our branch has ever seen a temple dedication before and not very many of them have been to the temple, it made me grateful for where I leave for that opportunity that I have to go often. If you are close to the temple, make it a priority to go OFTEN!!! I promise you, you will see blessings in your life, even if it is just to do baptisims.

Well mom and dad thank you for raising me to enjoy the outdoors. It makes the no make up, constant walking through mud, trees, over bridges made from bambo, TONS AND TONS of bug bites, from masiqutos to flees, to ants to everything else in between a lot more bare able!! So thank you!!

I love you all! Never forget that a sister missionary in Cauayan Philippines prays for you everyday!

Love sister Eveland!

Sister Eveland...47 hours later I am in Cauayan, Philippines

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

A week ago, actually not quite a week ago because it is only sunday night back in the States, I left America for a country I know little about. We loaded the bus and waved goodbye to our teachers and fellow district members who had to stay back. As we got off the bus at SLC-airport we gathered our luggage and headed for the doors. I was worried that my bags were going to be over. However, Elder Merrill was a life saver and let me but some of my heavier books in bags, which was a good thing because my bags were 51 pounds each, (blessing- they didn't charge me). We said our goodbyes to the others who were flying into San Fran and all we could say was see you in Taipei. However once we found our gates we went looking for payphones to call family and food to eat and we hooked back up with the others. It was so good to talk to everyone at home, I wish I would have had more time to call Matthew and Austin. Anyway, by the time we got to LAX I was exhausted, it was 11:30 provo time, an hour and half past our bed time!! We had about 1 hour by the time we got through customs before our flight load at 1:00am.


It was the longest flight of my life. Over 13 hours, it was a nice plane though, they treated us well, feather pillow, blanket, 2 meals, however one was at 3:00 in the morning and they did not taste very good at all. I think I got like 3 bits down. Good thing I got those packages of snacks right before I left. I couldn't sleep though on the plane, I kept waking up and everytime I did I realized I had onl y been alseep for 30min, maybe.

Finally we arrived in Taipei Tiwan. It was really pretty landing. It was so green outside, lots of farm lands. Again we rushed to find phones, and phone cards.. and sister Bruington and I bought Ice-cream (I got mango, it was really good) and REAL potstickers!! SO GOOD.

We talked the Elders in our travel groups to switch us spots on the plane so that they could all sit together and we could sit together. It was a fun plane ride. However when we got to Manila the plane went in circles like 6 times no joke. I have a picture of it because the screen infront of me showed the flight path!

This is what happened next:

Step off the plane in the Philippines,

where it smelt like beer and b.o.

Starting to get sweaty we went through customs and gathered our bags.

Said our goodbyes as travel groups began to depart.

Met up with everyone again outside were the Brother who is over all the missionaries was waiting for us.

Some missionaries were picked up by members of their MIssion presidency.

NOT ME!!

The missionaries going to Cauayan, Ilangapo, Naga, and Bagio, had to wait..and wait and wait..

In the mean time there was no where to sit down and we were sweating like crazy.

maybe 1 1\2 after we landed we loaded vans , took the two sisters who are going to Naga to the hotel because they had a flight leaving early in the morning.

THen we drove in INSANE traffic, where no one knows how to drive. Seriously they have lanes but no one uses them . there are usually more than one car or jeepni trying to use the same lane as people cross through traffice.

We went to the MTC. We were so tired by this point. We did get to shower though, which was good. Sister Jensen and Sister Brown and I went to the Temple and took pictures while Elder Merrill and Elder Mitchell slept.

Finally the missionaries that were going to Cauayan left at 7:30pm. We got to the bus station found our bus and for the next 11 hours tried to sleep on a uncomfortable cold bus. It was only supposed to be 8-9 hours. President and his wife were waiting for us since 4:30 and we didn't get there until 7:30. We then went back to the mission home and did orientation, and had breakfast, which consisted of Spagitti and a cheese burger. Wierd? YES!

Then I met my companion. Sister Resendes. She is from Utah. She is nice. I think we will get along okay. I have no idea what I am doing though. I try to teach in Tagalog and I feel like I am making no since. It is so hot here. I drip sweat on face. haha everyone here carries around a rag to wipe there face with. I am constantly sticky, because of the heat and humidity. I don't sleep with a blanket or anything, just on top of a sheet and I wake up in the morning wet, and that is with two electric fans on us.

It is really pretty here., and the people are way nice!! I am excited to become a part of the culture.

Oh yeah I am in the city of Cauayan, our branch is right behind the mission home/office. I hope that I will be able to serve farther away sometime!!

I tried mangos. ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? THEY TASTE EXACTLY LIKE THE DRIED MANGOS FROM COSTCO, ONLY FRESH!!! They are SO good. Sad part is the season is ending! The food so far is pretty good. I haven't had a problem with anything that I don't like. But then again we haven't really eaten anything totally unusual yet.

We were teaching an appointment last night, most of our appointments are outside, and I saw this thing crawling on the ground that looked like a crab/spider but I couldn't figure out what it was. My companion later told me it was a crab. I didn't expect to see crabs here.

Okay well I should end this. Sorry it is so random. It is hard to type on this keyboard and my thoughts are all over, I cannot think straight.
I love you all though.

A few notes:

1. I cannot send or recieve emails from anyone but family ( this may change next month with the new mission president)
2. Send letters through the pouch (to salt lake, there are directions on Facebook)
3. if you ever want to send a package and wonder what I might want, here are a few ideas: propel/gatorade packages, bottom sheets (they don't have those here that I have seen)
4 light wieght night gown.

Okay I have to go, five mintues left.
I love you all, thank you for everything!! I am excited to send pictures for you to see what it is like here!!

Love sister Eveland!

Sister Eveland...Ngayon gabi mabuti!! -"Tonight's gonna be a good night"

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

FIVE HOURS!!! I can't believe this day is here. I feel like I am going to wake up from a dream and still have another few weeks in the MTC.. But that's not the case. Five hours from now I will be loading the bus for SLC and be boarding a plane for LAX where were we will call home and wait patiently until 1:30 to load another plane for Taiwan. I can't wait, I am so exicted.


This week was good. It went by really fast for me. I have some sad news though our zone will be creating a new district for all of the gimps.. Yes those who have gotten hurt and have or will be having surgery. For far there are five of them. Two already got surgery on their knees, one got surgery and on his shoulder and then Elder Tangi (Tongan from N.Z.) and Elder Teo (from Samoa) both are getting surgery on their knees on Weds. They are both in my district and should be leaving with us today. I am bummed for them. Elder Tangi is actually serving in Cauayan with me, so now on our 8 hour bus ride to Cauayan it will just be sister Brown and Elder Merrill and I. It should be fun still. We found out from our teacher on Friday that when he traveled to the mission (he served in Cauayan) he had to go to the MTC in Manila for a few hours and then they took the bus at 8:30pm that night and didn't arrive at the Mission home until around 6:30am. So that is what I am preping myself for. A total of 3 days of traveling. It will be an exciting adventure!! You better be excited for the letters all about it in the next few weeks.

Speaking of letters. I was thinking about it, the best way for you to write me for now will be by e-mail, bailey.eveland@myldsmail.net. Some missions only get regular mail every six weeks. But I will let you know once I get there how often we will get snail mail.

Anyway, Brother Itri was showing us pictures on saturday of his mission and I can finally picture myself on those same streets. There are some pretty interesting stories that he had. Lots of bugs there, like spiders the size of your hand and cockroaches that are like 4 inches long. Then you get the rats, but they are more like the size of a larger mouse. Yeah it will be an adventure. I am so glad that I am not in the city though, or at least Manila, he said when he stepped out of the airport they instantly started sweating and it spelt like beer and b.o. NOT EXCITED FOR THAT. But Cauayan is beautiful!! There are mountains there that we can hike on P-days and all shorts of things. I can't wait to experience all these things for myself!!

I am so grateful that the Lord called me to serve in the Philippines. I love the people already, and despite the difficulties I have with the language I love speakig it, it's a fun language. And I only hear good things about the people there. I know that I am called here for a reason and I cannot wait to find out what that reason is. I know that this gospel if true, there is no way that it cannot be. I know that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to young Joseph and that through him the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. I am excited to share this message with everyone that I meet!

I love you all, I pray for you everyday! Whenever you get down or discouraged know that there is a missionary in the Philippines who loves you and is grateful to have you in her life!!!

I hope you have a great week. Look forward to some exciting news next week!!

Love Sister Eveland,
p.s. My addresses are all on Facebook or my mom has them!!

Sister Eveland...To the tune of Popcorn Popping

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Snowflakes falling on the MTC.

I took my umbrella and companion

Together we said this could not be.

But 4:00 came and what did I see

the sun was shinning and teh grass was green

It wasn't very so but it seemed to me

Bipolar weather at the MTC!

Yes this really happened today. They even how to make an announcement telling all of us not walk under tree limbs because some of the trees had broken due to the heavy snow fall. But now, it is sunning and the snow that once covered the ground is no longer there and the grass is green once again.

Okay so drum roll please.. The biggest news in the past 8 weeks is about to be released!

FLIGHT PLANS HAVE ARRIVED, the two dictricts of Branch three will load the busses and wave goodbye to the MTC. ONe week from today prayers will answered, tears will be shed (both happy and sad) goodbyes will uttered, hand shakes given, and passports returned to rightful owners. District A will become the lonesome district of Brance threee. But no need to fear because soon there will new missionaries arriving to learn from teachers, sleep in our beds and do their best to fill the shoes and continue the legacy of Districts C and E.

A day of my life is going to be taken from me as I board the plane at LAX at 1:30am on the 1st of June and land in Taiwan at 6:30 am on the 2nd. That day of June 1st 2010, I will never really know. But that is okay, because I promised the Lord I would give up whatever He asked of me, even a day of my life. (Don't worry, I will get two of the same day in October on my flight home.. WHO KNOWS MAYBE I WILL GET TWO BIRTHDAYS!! HOW SWEET WOULD THAT BE?!!) As we arrive in Taiwan we will be reuntied as our two districts meet up from LAX and SanFran, and after spending 3 hours in the airport with 10 obnoxious Elders we will all board the plane together for the 4 hour flight to Manila. Don't worry, we have made a plan. We are going to convert the whole plan, we'll have the pilot land in the ocean as one by one all 10 Elders begin leading the passangers off the plan into the ocean to be baptized. They are our missions start as soon as we leave the MTC, so why not have baptisims that first day?! We thought it was a good idea.

This week has been another ordinary week in the MTC. Meal, Class, Meal, Personal study, companinon study, MDT, Meals, Gym, MDLS, Class, Meal, MDT, Planning, singging, Lights out, GOOD NIGHT!!!

However family, remember when I got set apart and you all asked me to sing, because for some silly reason you thought maybe becoming a missionary would change my voice. Well, I was told this week that I need to sing louder because I have a good voice... Funny? I thought so too. Maybe it's the calling but I think it's just easier to sing in Taglog. Just kidding. However I did sing with my companion, Sister Burton, Sister Nethercott (Both from BYU-I) and Sister Harvey during Scarament on Sunday! Big step for me I know!!! I thought you might enjoy that.

Well, I should get going. It's almost time for another meal, meaning P-Day is almost over and my 30 min of e-mail time is down to six! But I love you all and I hope you have the best week ever!!

Love,
Sister Eveland

Remember to pray everyday, I promise your prays are answered!!

p.s. Family I will be thinking of you this weekend. I hope you all have fun at the Lake, I can't wait to talk to you on Monday!!!!

Sister Eveland...This isn't Burger King, we don't get it our way! -Elder Holland regarding missionary work!

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

Maganda hapon!!

What a beautifull day outside. The weather is beginning too look more like spring. We were able to enjoy our sack lunch and some study time outside this afternoon, it was awesome!! I love P-days and I love having them on Monday, who would have ever thought I would be excited for Mondays! And they are followed by amazing Sundays in the MTC. I think yesterday was one of the best Sundays yet. First of all we had Relief Society and Sister Cook and Sister Dibb of the YW General Presidency came and spoke to us about virtue. It was way good. Sister Dibb is the daughter of President Monson. At the end of her talk she did a question and answer session about whatever we wanted to know about her dad. One sister asked how he met Sister Monson. He saw her at a Dance at the U and wanted to go talk to her but she was dancing with another boy and before he could find her again she had left. A few days later he saw her at a bus stop with of his friends from grade school, he thought perfect I'll go ask them to introduce me to her. And so he did, he got her name and get this:

This is to all my Roommates and BYU-Idaho friends: He went home and looked her up on the student directory of the U. found her number and where she lived and the rest is history.. IF PRES. MONSON CAN USE THE DIRECTORY TO FIND GIRLS HE THINKS ARE CUTE I DON'T FEEL BAD USING STALKER NET OR F.B. haha sorry that isn't very missionary like but I thought you would appreciate it!

After Relief Society we had district meeting, Lunch (which included ice cream!), Sacrament meeting, temple walk (sister Burton, Sister Jensen and I found a nice grassy spot away from everyone else and we took pictures and enjoyed the sun, it was so relaxing!), Dinner, Fireside (which was awesome) and then an hour and half of language study with Sister Jensen. With study time thrown in between those things. I felt like it was a very productive and some what relaxing day.

This week for Devotional Elder Holland came and spoke to us!!! I just love him, I know we can't have favorites but he up there on my list. :) He is just a powerful speaker. It was awesome because he was telling us how he just returned from visting missions on the east coast including NY and I was wondering if he went Sister Babb's mission. Well today I got a letter from her and sure enough he had been there too!! I love the small mormon world. Speaking of small mormon world, Sister Burton and I have known each other for a while now, but yesterday we found out that we went to high school an hour away from each other. She went to Olympic in Silverdale. We had played sports against each other's schools and were at some of the same leadership conferences. We got a kick out of that!

Thursday we taught the first lesson in Tagalog. 5 min before we were to teach our appointment we had been planning for with our companions our teacher told us that we were going to be with other members in our district. I taught with Sister Schardt, it was actually a really good lesson. And it prepared for what could happen in the field! This week we teach the Plan of Salvation sa Tagalog. I am excited. Only two more TA's and we are done, this thursday and next!

WE GET OUR FLIGHT PLANS THIS WEEK!!!! I can't believe it. We leave two weeks from today. It's so crazy. Everyone in our Zone keeps getting hurt. We had four missionaries who were supposed to leave last week end up staying. Two elders got surgery on the knees from playing volleyball, one got surgery on his shoulder from basketball, and then Sister Jensen had stay back as well. It has been fun having her here still.

I am ready and excited for a new week. I was sick last week with a cold, fever and I kept loosing my voice. But now I am feeling better and ready to conquer the MTC, because I can't get out into the "world" yet! haha

Oh we found out this week that most of our chruch services in the Philippines are going to be done in English. I found that kind of strange since we teach in Tagalog. Also where I am going they speak a dialect called Illocano, it is way different. Sister Brown and I had a TE with a teacher who grew up speaking it so he taught us a few words. It was awesome.

Well I am out of time, but I love you all. I hope you have the best week ever!! Thank you for all of the letters!!

Always remember, "With prayer you never get a busy signal!"

Love,
Sister Eveland

Sister Eveland...Halfway through the MTC

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

Kumusta!!


This week has been the best one so far in the MTC. Everything that has happened or that I was working with my companion on the past four weeks has been totally worth. I have seen a huge change in her and in our companionship. We had an awesome TA on Thursday night. Even though it was just practice the spirit was so strong and I think that if it were a nonmember we had been teaching I am pretty sure they would have felt it. I love my companion!! She is great. She has been good for me, and has taught me a lot about patience and has made me realize that everything I have been taught here about how we are not only missionaries to those we teach but we are even greater missionaries and teachers to our companions, this is true!!

I cannot believe I hit my half way point in the MTC this week. It is so crazy to think about that in in four weeks from today I will be making the 34+ hour trip to the Philippines and I will be thrown into the language 100%. Right now I don't think I am ready for that. We start teaching lesson one: The Restoration in Tagalog this week. My companinon and I are pushing ourselves to learn the verbs/congugations/vocab everything so that we will be prepared. We are also trying to memorize the First the Vision sa Tagalog. I am almost half way there!! Next week the districts that came in 3 weeks before we did leave and we will now be the "oldest" district here. I wish our whole zone were going to the same mission! We have all gotten really close since being here. I am still having dreams in Tagalog. I just wish that they would make more sense, and I wish that in them I were actually in the Philippines because then I think it would make the fact that I will be there soon a little more real than it seems right now.

This week two of the other sisters in my zone Sister Bruington (she is from Virgina, hiliarious, and goes to BYU-Idaho), and Sister Jensen (she is from Canada and she is in the district that leaves next week), neither one of them are going to my mission. But anyway we decided that we were going to cut back on sweets, which is hard when they always have desserts at every meal, and we have been getting up and going to the gym every morning at 5:55. It has been so much fun. We do circuts were one runs two laps while the other two are working on arms or legs, it depends on the day, and then we do ab workouts for like 10 minutes. I have seen a big difference since Weds. I feel like I have so much more energy throughout the day and on Sunday when we decided to have ice cream since we fasted for two meals, I couldn't even eat it all. I just feel healthier and happier!!

The weather here has been so weird. I think it has snowed or rained at least once a day. Which means gym time has been spent running around the residence hall or doing some kind of exercise in our rooms, or some days in the actual gym when it is opened. I am hoping that this week it stays nice so we can go out more!! I feel like when we don't have gym outside we are locked up and can't get out!

What else.. Oh yeah, L. Tom Perry came and spoke at Devotional on Tuesday. It was pretty cool. He talked about the book. I love hearing from general authorities every week.

Everything is going really well though. Thank you for the letters and everything!! I love being a missionary. I know that the gospel is true. Last night we watched Joseph Smith a Prophet of the Restoration again and I do not know how someone can deny it. I know that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. That this is Christ's church restored on the earth today. I am grateful for this knowledge. And for a loving Heavenly Father who blessed me with such a great family who I can be with forever, and friends who have supported me and have been examples to me!

I love you all, thanks for everything! Keep the letters coming. I promise I am writting letters but I haven't had much time the last two mondays, but they are coming!!

Love,
Sister Eveland

p.s. Alisha, will you let me know if you are forwarding these e-mails on yet. Thank you, love you!!

Sister Eveland...Week 5 in the MTC

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently. I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now. Bear with me and read as you please. There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well.

First of all Mom, I want to tell you Happy Mother's day!! I hope that you had the best day ever. From your e-mail this morning it sounded like you all had a long but very fun weekend. I bet the kids had a blast at the baseball game on Saturday, especially Espn! I can't wait to see pictures. I want you to know though that I love you, I am so grateful for you and for the love and support that you have always had for me!! Thanks for being the BEST mom EVER!!!


I cannot believe that another week in the MTC has come and gone. Three weeks from today we leave!! It is going to be a bitter sweet day, I can tell you that much. I am not sure I am ready to be summerged in the language quite yet, I feel like there is some much more I need to learn, and it going to be hard saying goodbye to everyone in my district and the other district that came in with us. We have become like a family! However, I am excited to meet the people in the Philippines and share the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. I am excited to become part of the Philippino culture. From the e-mails we have gotten from the Elder's who left the MTC three weeks ago, things there are a lot different, such as no toliet paper in some areas, and showers taken with buckets of water!! As weird as the food and the everything may be I am excited to experience it!

Okay well, back to life in the MTC, District B leaves today and tomorrow. It's so crazy, we aren't getting a new district either so we will be down to three districts until we leave. Next sunday we will be the missionaries who have to translate during sacrament and everything, it's going to be weird, but it will be good for all of us! This last week we taught in Tagalog for the first time. I am not going to lie I was a bit nervous, actually a lot. But as I began to teach I realized that I know more than I think I do, and even if mess up and use the wrong pronoun type with the wrong verb type they are still going to understand what I am trying to say. Besides, I know that D&C 100 is true, and the Lord will get me the very words that I need at the very hour in which I need them. I know that it is not what I say or how I say it that will affect someone, but rather it is the Spirit that testifies to them. It is my job to make sure that I am teaching with Spirit and after that it is the investigator who can choose to let it touch them!!

I am not going to lie, missionary work is not the easiest thing I have ever done, having a companion is not my favorite thing, but learning the gospel and having the Spirit with me all the time IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD!!! This week was another rough one, but we made it through, Sister Brown and I are learning everyday. I have come to find that being patient, having love, and the real desire to help someone is the most important thing I can do for myself and for others around me.

I have a confession, so last week I said that a few of the sisters and I were getting up every morning and working out and watching what we are eating.. WELL....about that.. we haven't done as good this week. All of us have let ourselves slip. It was just a bit rough this week with things that are going on in zone, with compainons, and then trying to learn how to teach in Taglog. Besides we have decided that maybe we are quite ready to give up on all the good sweets, since in the next few weeks we will be without choice really!!!
Well I should get going, but I love you all. Thank you for being so great!
Alam ko na nabubuhay ang Diyos at Jesucristo. Nagpanumbalik ang Diyos ng ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo pamamaitan kay Joseph Smith. Alam ko na totoong propeta si Jospeh Smith at nagsalin siya ng Aklat ni Mormon pamamagitan ng kapanyarihan ng Dioys. Mahal ko kayo!!

Love,

Sister Eveland!!

Sister Eveland...Week 4 in the MTC

I have neglected to put any of Sister Eveland's emails up recently.  I am so behind, but am going to put them all up now.  Bear with me and read as you please.  There are a bunch. You can also just look up the label Sister Eveland and her letters will be there as well. 

Kumusta!!


I can't believe that this week I will be starting my 5th week in the MTC! It's crazy how fast the time has gone. This week was a bit rough at times, it was kind of stressful for a few days with my companion but things are so much better now and I love her a lot.

This week for Devotional Elder (President) Pearson came and spoke. It was so good. It reminded me of either my Junior or Senior year in High School when he was the WATAC mission president and he spoke at Stake Conference. I don't remember exactly what he told me but I remember talking to him about Zack and how we were working with the missionaries. It made me a bit home sick. Speaking of the WATAC Mission. WHAT THE HECK, Sister Gainer got transferred? We thought she was going to die there. Who is the new sister? And where did Gainy go? I met one of the sisters that actually left for the field today, she seems way cool. Her name is Sister Fox.

Anyway, this keyboard sucks. Dad I did get the packet of letters from the ward. Thank you so much. And I got your dearelder already from today, we get them early on P-days so we can write back. I have a letters that I wrote last week but didn't send to you yet because I was waiting for my pictures to get developed but they didn't get done until Friday you should be getting it in the next few days! I got the package from Aunt Kay, thank you!!!

I had a few more dreams in Tagalog this week. They are really funny because I end up saying the same thing over and over. Friday night I dreamt that I was teaching someone about prayer and I kept saying alam ko na.. and then I would through a few other words in there too. (Alam ko na means I know that). The language is comming more and more. I had to write my first talk in Tagalog this week for sacrament meeting, it was about the Book of Mormon. I did most of it on my own and when I went to the tutor I found out that I did it right for the most part. I was proud of myself. But thankfully I didn't get called on to speak. They announce the talks right after the sacrament and you have no idea that you are speaking until then. So everyone has to prepare a talk every week just in case. I gave the lesson in District meeting on Sunday, it was on hope. I showed a video on Mormon messages called "The Infinite Power of Hope" by Pres. Uctdorf, it was really good. You should watch it if you get a chance, you can find it on LDS.org. There was also another one called "Choose this Day" by Pres. Eyring.

This week our zone got a new district, there are three sisters in it and I know two of them. One is Jaqi Burton a friend from BYU-Idaho that I new was going to be coming in, and the other is Michelle Nethercott, who I worked with on campus. It was so crazy when I saw them on Weds. It is nice having a familiar face and a friend to talk to who kind of somewhat knows who I am, and not just as Sister Eveland. Although every once in a while we will slip and call each other by our first names and it is so weird to hear "Bailey" now.

The weather in Provo is just as bipolar as Rexburg it was so hot, like to the point to where I was breaking out because of the sun and got a tan and the very next day it snowed. I don't get it. It's clearing up again so I am excited about that. It is so nice being able to leave the MTC on Sundays to go on temple walks. It's like we are part of the real world for a few hours every week!

This morning in Personal study I came across a quote by Elder Stapley "IF we are not ashamed fo the gospel of Christ, then we should not be ashamed to live it. And if we are not ashamed to live it, then we should not be ashamed to share it!" I know the gospel is true. I love it. I love learning and growing in it everyday!! If you get a chance read Alma 37, by small and simple things.. I know that it is those small acts of service or small testimonies that will bring so many into the chruch and bless the lives of those we share it with. So, this week don't be ashamed and share what you believe!!!

I love you all. Keep sending letters.
Love, Sister Eveland

p.s. a reminder from last week!

One more thing. Days in the MTC can be rough. When you feel like the language is kicking your butt and nothing else seems like it is going well, you feel defeated. At times you might feel like you want to give up. But you keep going because when 9:30 comes and Elder Tangi gets out the big yellow folder you know there are letters in there and you are hoping and praying that at least one of those are for you. When he hands you one, you get excited. And as you are walking back to the residence hall reading the quote of the day from Dad, or the day to day task of Dr. Judd, and the occasional letter from Mom and Alisha, sometimes you are even lucky and you get one from some you least it expect it from. But those are the 50 min that I cherish. Because I am reminded that even though times might be tough there are people out there who love me and are supporting me the whole way. It is those 50 minutes each night that I let myself think about my family and friends. The other 23 hours and 10 minutes are dedicated to the work. SO PLEASE LET ME HAVE THOSE 50 MINUTES. WRITE ME LETTERS!!!!

p.s.s. What happened to Rachel's call?! Tell her to write me!

Sister Eveland: Week 2 in the MTC

We got another letter from Sister Eveland Today.  Looks like we should get one every monday.  This is her p-day.

Kumusta, pamilya at mga kaibigan.

The things people have said about the MTC are true. The Days are long but the weeks go by fast. The food is alright, I pretty much stick to the soups and salads, they aren't too bad. The Spirit is the strongest I have felt it in a very long time, and it is only by the gift of tongues that we are able to learn a new language!

This week was mostly spent working on Lesson One: The Restoration of the Gospel. Also working with my kasama and helping her on her teaching skills and how to ask good questions when meeting with an investigator. I am so glad I had all that practice with Sister Gainer and Sister Stradling. I feel like I am a bit a head of the game which is really good, because this way I have been able to help my kasama out a lot and help her get over come her quietness. We had our first Wika(language) Task this week. I totally blew it, I forgot everything in Tagalog that I had learned about getting to know someone and testify to them. But I have worked on it and it is coming now. We also taught our first 30 minute lesson on the Restoration (in English), I think Sister Brown and I did a pretty good job. I was proud of her because she used some of the techniques we had been working on during companionship study. We have to teach the same lesson on Thrusday and I think in abuot three weeks we start teaching 30 min lessons in Tagalog. It's still kind of crazy to think that I am going to become fluent in this langue. I am so glad I took Spanish last semester at BYU-Idaho, the two languages are similar and it has helped to have a basic knowledge of spanish.

Sister Schardt got back from isolation on Weds, I'm not going to lie it took a bit getting use to going back to just the two of us. It was a bit rough for a day or two, but things are looking up! I had an interview with my Branch President yesterday, he gave me some encouraging advice and shared a story with me from his mission. He is a great man. Everytime I see he tells me, "Sister Eveland, you just shine". Everyday when I get out of bed I hear those words and I try to live up to them.

I love this work, I love learning another language. (Dad that little quote you put in one of my letters this week. I needed that the day you sent it!)

Nothing really exciting happened this week that I can think of. We are growing closer as a district, we have a lot of fun together. It's neat to hear everyone's stories about coming on a mission, and where they are in life. We have one Elder in our district who will be turning 23 in May. I have met a lot of Elders that are older, it is really cool to me that are here now. It just goes to show that they are here because they want to be!

Well I love you all, I hope you had a great week!

Napakahalaga ng mga pamilya sa Diyos. Alam ko na babibiyayaan ang mga pamilya ng ebanghelo. Alam ko na puwede walang hanggan maga pamilya sa pamamagitan ng templo. Totoo an ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo at ang Aklat ni mormon. ( Families are very important to God. I know that the gospel blesses families. I know that families can be eternal through the temple. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon are true.) These phrases are simple but I know with out a doubt that they are true!!!

Love,
Sister Eveland
Please write!!

Sister Eveland: Week 1 in the MTC

It has taken me awhile to get this posted, but here is the first letter we recieved from Sister Eveland.  I will post all her letters on here so that family and friends can hear all about her mission.  If you would like to write her take a look on her facebook or leave a comment with your email and I will give you her address. 

Kumusta, Pamilya ko! (and friends)


I still cannot believe that I am here at the MTC. The past few days have been so crazy, but I love it here. The spirit is amazing. I am going to use numbers so I can keep my thoughts together better. I only have 27 min left to e-mail.

1. I love my district. We are all going to the Philippines but not all to the same mission. My companion is Sister Brown, she is from Virginia. She is really nice. Then there is Sister Schardt and Sister English. They are our roommates as well. All of the Elders are from either Utah or Idaho, except for two Elder Tangi is from New Zealand, he is Tongan, and Elder Teo is from Samoa. They are really cool. There are 10 of us total.

2. Sister Schardt got sick on Friday, she had flu symptoms. They take this stuff serious here. She was tested for the flu and the results came back negative, however she is in querintine until later this week and they had our whole district go down to the health clinic to get some antivirus medicine called TamiFlu. It is $100 dollars a box and we have to take it for 10 days, but the church is paying for all of us to take it. I couldn't believe they would spend $1000 just as a precaution. When we were there the Elders gave her a blessing, it was amazing, non of them had given a blessing before!

3. Friday after lunch Sister Brown and I were leaving the dinning hall and we ran into two Elders that are serving in Italy. It was really cool because I was actually told by Elder Matt Gammel that an Elder Packer had something for me. He just happened to be the Elder that I ran into! Matt had boughten me a tape recorder and blank tape, but inside the tape recorder was a tape from him. It was cool. So if you want to send me a tape you can. However it is a small tape recorder. (Smaller tape than Jason's)

4. Our Distict leader is the only one who can pick up our mail and we don't get it until 9:00pm every night. However if we get packages he is supposed to give us the slip right away. Well friday we got done with dinner and went back to class and Elder Tangi told me that I got some DearElder letters and a package. However we just happened to have a sub that night, I told him that I could wait to go get the package. But then everything happened with Sister Schardt and I had to go with Sister English to dinner because she hadn't eaten yet. By the time we got back to class and had a break, Sister Brown, Sister English and I ran to the Mail room. Much to our suprise they close at 7:00pm, it was 7:04. I didnt' think I was going to get my package until monday because of conference. However they were opened between sessions. SALMAT mom, I appreciate it. I went to take a shower on Thursday and realized I must had left my shampo and stuff in the shower at aunt Kay's. (p.s. Salmat means thank you!)

5. Wasn't conference SO good. It was awesome watching it with over 2000 missionaries! During the first session I kept thinking that my family and friends were doing the exact same thing. Isn't that so cool. Even though we are all over the map we can all recieve the exact same messages from General Authorities?!

6. The language is starting to come. Because of conference this weekend though we haven't had much language class. Our class for everything just consists of our district which is really nice because we get a lot more accomplished I think.

Sorry this isn't really a lot. But know that I love you all. I am grateful for this opportunity. I know that the church is true, that I am doing the Lord's work. He loves each of us and He wants us to return to Him. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that he, through the Lord, restored the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that he saw God the Father the and our Savior. I love this gospel and there is no where else I would rather be at this moment in time!!

Love you,
Sister Eveland

p.s. Send letters I love hearing how everyone is doing!