Sister Museus, August 15th, 2010

Hey Everyone, It was really good to hear from some of you this week. I would love to hear more in detail what you all did in the Philippines with some pictures (just send them through the email). I know our relatives probably took you to similar places, but I would still love to hear it from each of you. I haven't heard from some of you for quite some time. Please let me know what each of you are doing and the fun time you had in the Philippines. Alex, I apologize for still not getting your package yet. It should be coming sometime this week and I promise I will respond to it next week. However, I haven't heard from you for quite a while as well. How is your store doing? Meg wrote me a letter and told me how cute it is and how amazed she was for you accomplishment in opening the store. I am also very proud of you for being able to open up your own boutique. I hope you save some of the good stuff for me because I will be definitely buying a lot of things there since I probably will need a whole new wardrobe by the time I get home. Are you bringing in a lot of business? Are things looking good for your boutique in the future? I know life must be really stressful for you since Jolene just quit and you're still running a store on the side and you'll be starting school real soon....wow you are very busy (as well as everyone else). Whit, it was really good to hear from you. I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday card and rose ring. I apologize that they got to you a little late. I know the ring must be a bit big, but it reminded me so much of you. Mom, I'll make sure to send you something real cute soon since Whit told me you were a bit jealous of the ring. I actually already have something for you, but was enable to send it because it's glass. However, I'm going to one of our favorite stores today (which we like to call the D.I. store because it has about everything and is really cheap); I'll make sure to grab something there for you Mom. Whit, I apologize that the past two emails haven't been going to you. For the past two weeks I've been getting an email that said it failed to send to your email and it did it to Cole this week as well. Sorry Whit I'll try my best to make sure my emails go to you. Thank you for always sending me an email each week I really appreciate it. Getting letters or emails each week actually provide the comfort, energy, and strength I need to get through each week. Every week is always a roller coaster ride so I always need something to lean on such as my family and the Lord. Thank you Whit for everything. I'm glad you're keeping yourself busy with our family, friends, work, and soon with school. See if you have time to start up Mom's scrapbook for her for our grandparents. Also, try my email and facebook account again, you probably can answer my secret questions if my password isn't working. I know it's ladeeda_60@hotmail.com and the password is mydaddy8 for my email account and facebook too. Thanks Whit for doing this for me....love you! Mom, I trust that you and everyone made the best decision about Skylar so don't worry I know he was getting really old. Ash, I appreciate you so much for taking care of him while I was gone to college. Thanks Mom for getting me something from the Philippines I really appreciate it! I would love to get our relative's address so I can thank her for the gift she sent back with you. Let me know what it is and I will write her a letter. Last week is was good to hear you Mom speak about the importance of our family and doing their work for them. I would love to get started on that with you when I get back and do their work in the temple for them as well. I love you Mom and can't help but think how blessed I am for just a great mother in my life. I sent you another card to show my appreciation for you. It should be coming anytime this week. My companions get so jealous when I talk to them about the amazing dinners and home-baked goodies that you make. The majority of roommates and companions I've had always say that their mothers never cooked for them. I'm just really blessed for having such great homemade food each day. Sister Roper (my companion right now) would love to come and visit me when I get back because she has heard me talk about your wonderful food that you make. Remember, when I get back I still want to cook with you each day so I can spend more time with my amazing mom and so I can learn how to cook as great as you do. Thank you Mom for always writing me each week. By the way, how did Relief Society go when you had to talk about my mission or have you not done this yet? Also, please try and send me my 4-digit password for my credit card so I can start using that instead. Today I have to get new handle bars for my bike so the numbness in my fingers can go away. Some of my fingers are still pretty numb and I need to take care of this before something else happens, but don't worry I have no other health problems. I'm sorry to hear about Mark MOm. Know that he is in my prayers as well as you. Things will work out for him and his family, I promise. YOu had great parents and eventually their kids will come back to the gospel. Remember this. Ash, it was really good to hear from you. I will be so excited to get some new drawings from Carter and Boston. I miss you and the boys so much. I now by the time I get home they will be so old and different. I hope they will remember me by the time I get home. I'm glad you were able to find a new nanny for them. Let me know how things go with her. I'm also glad to hear that Boston is getting potty-trained; just keep up the good work and he will come along. I hope things are going okay at work since a few of the employees have recently quit. However, I know the whole family does a great job in running the place and I would love to help as much as I can when I get back from my mission. Please keep doing what is right Ash and I know you will be blessed. Keep being a great mother to your kids and they will really appreciate it (just as I do). I'm glad that you, Paige, and Whit were able to scrapbook together. I would be doing the same thing if I was there....I sure do miss all of you. So I guess you and Paige don't like scrapbooking online....I figured you might go back to the old way since the computer does take sometime to get use to. Finally I will talk to you about this week. Well, it was a lot of contacting, tracting, and visiting some less-active members. We met up with Mandy (the Filipino that I mentioned in my last email) on Monday night and the lesson went really well. We gave it in English, which made it easier for me. She enjoyed all of it and was writing down scripture references that we mentioned that she could look up and read to herself. We couldn't find her a bible in Tagolic, but we were able to give her a Book of Mormon in her native language. After the lesson was over she continually thanked us for sharing our message and was really excited to read the Book of Mormon and especially the part when Christ visits the Americas. We tried visiting with her last night, but the dad of the house wasn't to happy that we were there so we are going to try to visit Mandy tonight. We continually do a lot of traveling on our bike and went to two different small towns near Huwei called Dounan and Tuku. There, we went and visited with less-active members, former investigators, and tried to contact and tract in the two towns. One of our progressing investigators that I contacted named Ellen (I think I've mentioned her before to all of you; she's the one that took us to a yummy restaurant in Huwei), we went and visited with her on Saturday. Her parents were there so we spent some time explaining our religion and what we believed to her parents. The majority of our conversation was in English (since they speak English fluently), which was nice since I felt like I could really express my thoughts, feelings, and the doctrine. I shared my experience about dad and the importance of the gospel and temples and that it's only through this gospel that families can be eternal. They really enjoyed our message (especially since Ellen's mom is Christian) and wanted to learn more, but they live in Taichung and only wanted to hear more of our message if we met with them and not other missionaries. I just hope and pray that Ellen will continue to progress and maybe help her parents receive baptism as well. Before we left they gave us a yummy pineapple cake (which is very different to our kind of cakes...you'll have to try it when you come out here) and some pop stickers. I only ate a little bit of the yummy cake and gave the rest to my companion since I'm trying to lose a lot more weight while I'm out here. On Sunday, we found out that one of your investigators named Chen is ready for baptism and received her answer through reading the scriptures and praying. She will get baptized on the 28 or 27th of August right before our move-call ends. It will be really exciting to finally have a baptism and see that your efforts are working. We have several other people still who can get baptized this week, but we are still waiting for parent permission. I love you all very much. I'm sorry that I didn't send you more pictures of our great hike last week. For some reason this computer isn't allowing me to and I can't really figure it out since everything is in characters (Chinese). I love you all very much and I hope to hear from you next week! Two more weeks of this move-call and then something different will probably happen. Most likely I will be sent to a new area. I love you all! I did fail to mention that we did have another Zone Conference on August 5th with our zone and our mission president and his wife. It was really good and I guess they're coming out with a new curriculum to use with Preach my Gospel for missionaries. Also, tomorrow is Sister Missionary Exchange and I found out that I will be going to Tainan again for the day. Remember to do what is right and the Lord will bless you and I can already see He is blessing all of you as it is. Keep up the good work! I'll be home a year and one week. Love you Always,Sister Museus