Sister Museus, August 9th 2010

Hey Everyone, I'm really glad that you all had a fun time in the Philippines. I have to admit that I was a little worried knowing all of you would be in a different country, but then I realized that I stupid that sounds because you all probably feel the same way with me. I knew our great relatives would take such great care of all of you. I'm also glad to hear that mom loved Green Hills shopping area. That was also one of my favorite places to shop because it has EVERYTHING you need from clothes to pearls to culture items. It was really funny to hear that mom and probably the majority of you had to sing for our relatives. I bet you all sounded very good compared to our cousins, haha. Tell me more about the Philppines, provide more details of what you did each day as well as several pictures (just upload them on the computer and email them to me). Today, my companion and I got up early (6 am instead of 6:30) so we could go on an amazing hike. The bike ride took us 2 hours to get to our destination. However, we could not find the trail after basically carrying our bikes all the way up a mountain. We finally called the elders since they took the hike not too long ago, but they were no help (never get directions from an elder). We decided to find it for ourselves, but it was not working out. We were completely drenched from head to foot in sweat from the humidity here in Taiwan. We decided to head back down since it was getting late and we still needed to shop for food and email. We ended up being for over 6 hours, but we were able to take some great pictures in the mountains and found a great restaurant that looks like it's from Holland since it has dutch looking pictures and a gigantic windmill next to a waterfall. I will have to take you there and we can eat dinner there. The scenery was amazing and it smelled so clean, fresh, and flowery. The pictures I'm sending with this email are all from our hike. On the way back my companion got a flat tire so we ended up walking her bike for another half hour until we found a bike shop. We both ended up getting really sunburned and we hurt everyone. I was very tempted to get a massage, but I will wait until I see you all here in Taiwan before I get a massage. However, I have to admit that I have gone to a salon twice to get my thoroughly washed and my head, neck, and arms massaged while they're washing my head. Since my hair is up pretty much every day, it feel nice to get really clean and done nice. (Whit, I actually do my hair like you do it when you put your hair up. I got the idea from the great pictures you sent me when you were in Atlantic City with Lexi. It is a lot easier to do this way because my hair is out of my face and not on my back and I don't have to put a lot of hairspray in it). Things are going pretty good in Huwei. We actually have a few great progressing investigators who are getting ready for baptism. I just hope and pray that we can have some baptisms during this move call. Of course we have plenty of people who could get baptized any minute, but we still need parent permission for them. One of our great progressing investigators is named Ellen (she is in her late 30s and won't have family issues since many of her family members are in different religions. On Saturday night she took us out to dinner. I was pretty nervous to where she was going to take us since there are so many different places to eat here in Taiwan that don't look very appetizing. However, she took us to a place that was vegetarian (which it is really easy to be a vegetarian here since most of their meat is disgusting to me. I really miss eating grilled chicken and of course mom's great homemade dinners and goodies). We didn't have to worry about the kind of meat they were serving because they were pretty much serving only different kinds of vegetables. The restaurant was a hot pot places were you pick your own broth for your soup and you put whatever you like into your soup to cook up. It was really neat because they had a train come out that had all of the different things you could put into your soup and they were also playing many different Disney songs sung by good musicians such as Celin Dione and such (I have to admit it is always nice to hear good music like that and not only church music). We also had some yummy fruit and some ice cream (my first time eating ice cream here in Taiwan....it was delicious. Anyways, I will have to take you to this great restaurant and John will some how have to survive without having meat for a meal. Yesterday, my companion and I had a neat experience with a Filipino. There are many Flipinos, Indys, and people from India that come to Taiwan to earn money for their families. It sad to see them here because they are almost treated like slaves because they work all day and all night with very little time off. However, most only stay for a certain amount of time and then go back to their home country. Well, we ran into a Filipino and started sharing the gospel with her. When she asked about our church and if we had a bible she started to cry. She was Christian in the Philippines and missed going to church and reading the bible. My companion gave her a hug before we left and she just melted in her arms and clung to my companion just crying. It melted my heart to see this Filipino miss the gospel in her life and probably her family back in the Philippines. Luckily, tonight we're going to visit with her and bring her a bible and the Book of Mormon in Tagolic (her native language, though her English was really good). I give you more updates on how it goes. I hope it goes really well because (like I said) the hardest thing about a mission is to see so many people have so much potential and seem to be the most golden investigator and then they seem to have fallen off the planet because you cannot get a hold of them or they just stop wanting to progress and there is no good apparent reason for it. I hope this weekend wasn't too hard for all of you. I know it was a little for me because we were all probably thinking a little bit more about dad. Please continue to do what is righteous and I promise we will be with him again real soon. I know he would be very proud of all of you and the choices you have made such as keeping his great business running. I'm sad to hear that Jolene quit. I hope it won't be too hard for all of you to find a replacement, but in the mean time I know Alex will do a great job in keeping things up and going as well as the rest of you. It was really good to hear from you mom and John and Whit. I'm glad you all understand somewhat now of the humidity that I feel each and every day. It sounds like were all still keeping in shape by going exercising in the Philippines, I guess I need to do the same....though they make me do it here each and every day with our 30 minute work out and bike riding all day. It brought joy to me to hear you Mom speak of the importance of wanting to do Mama Norma's genealogy. We should both work on it when I get home. Aunt Bonnie already wants me to help her when I get back and then we can take their names to the temple together. John, your emails always make me laugh. Thank you for sending me an email this week. I hope Sadie is doing okay without me :). I'm glad you liked me letter Mom, I meant every word....just remember how great you are as well as everyone else. I know I don't express it enough so I will make sure to work on that. Alex, I haven't received your package yet, but I guess they take longer than letters do. I'm still really excited for it, especially to hear how you are doing and about your great new store, to see pictures from it, and to receive some goodies! I love you all very much and I hope to hear more about the Philippines. Thanks whit for checking my email accounts. Maybe Alex can help you with it because I swear that is my email and facebook account. Mom, let me know more about Skylar's condition and try to get me my credit card password for the ATM and I will use that than my debit card. Love and miss you all very much. Just 13 and half more months to go! Love you Always,Sister MuseusI will send more pics next week from the hike