Transfer!!!!!!!!!!!

Kamusta! Transfers week has arrived!!! 

But before transfers happened, I shipped my companion Sis. Paragas back home! She's totally finish with her mission! It was so cute - Sis. Dala, Sis. Enlacinto, and I did a little send off at the port for her. Definitely melancholy. The 3 of us kind of half wanted to jump on the ship with her back home haha but someone's gotta keep Tag Bilaran running and we do love our work, so I'm happy and excited for the remaining year I have as Sister Lauck (:  

I was companionship-less for half the week because Sis. Paragas headed home, which meant I got to work with my two little munchkins, Sis.Dala and Sis.Enlacinto in their area. The stares we got from people were priceless! We literally looked like a mother shepherding her two little children around everywhere haha

And then the transfer call came! So I'm staying here in Tag Bi for my 4th transfer! Kinda long, but I've come to LOVE this area (: I say "I've come to love" this area, because at first I was not a fan. The people in our area tend not to be the most receptive, so I've spent a fair amount of my mission tracting and getting punted and rejected and having basically no progressing investigators and 1 baptism haha don't you love when that happens! BUT, I really have come to love this area, because my experiences and trials here have helped me learn and grow SO much. It's amazing how getting put through the fire refines and purifies you so much. I honestly set out on a mission because thought that I would be the one helping and serving other people. Yet the longer I've been serving, I've come to find out that the person most benefiting from my service is myself. From my first area I've been able to learn some really valuable life lessons and to especially have my testimony strengthened of this Gospel and my Savior and my Heavenly Father. Aren't missions the best???!?!?!!!!! I really am so glad I have a Heavenly Father who is loving enough to give me handcrafted trials to help me grow and become more like Him!

It's funny though because you know you're in an area too long when you're in the city with a fair amount of people, but everyday you run into all these people you know - like branch members, or that one drunk guy you tracted on the street, or the boyfriend of the older sister of your investigator. Yeah, I basically feel like the Queen of TagBi haha oh, and my new companion.......... drum roll.......... Sister Hatch! My first American companion (: She's 20, from Sandy,UT, a piano performance major at UVU , going home in October, and the trainee of my last companion Sister Paragas! It's a small mission world! She is super great! We laugh, we cry, we try to speak Bisayan, we try to avoid creepy men hitting on us. It's a beautiful thing (: I love this work, I love this Gospel, I love my Heavenly Father, I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I love ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!! Know that I'm praying for everyone!!!!! (:

Lots of love,
Sister Lauck 

the fab 4 before sis.paragas left to go home!

sis.paragas and I posting up by the pier (:

Sister Lauck & Sister T

Typically the blogs that are on this site are all in Sister Lauck's own words, but since she has been technologically challenge due to less than stellar internet service in the Philippines, we thought that as proud parents we would share an email that we received yesterday from Sister Lauck's 1st Companion in the Philippines, Sister Tuipolotu, affectionately known as Sister T! Sister T is from Tonga and had only been out on her mission for about 5 months prior to Sister Lauck. Their area is one of the toughest in the mission and together they faced many challenges including both trying to figure out the Cebuano language together. Those of you who know Lindsay well will not be surprised at the email that her former companion sent to us yesterday, so here it goes.........

Sister T and Sister Lauck

Hello Lauck Family!

First of all I am sister T...

I just want to send you all this email so that you would all know that your daughter Sister Lauck is the greatest companion I ever had in my mission so far! I really love her spirits toward our work.  She is a very hard working missionary and everything that you would ever expected from a representative of Jesus Christ.. She has it all!!!!

I know that who ever will be the one to be her new companion, she will be the luckiest.  Sister Lauck's mum thank you so much for raising her up so that I could be her companion to learn so many things from her.  She will hate me for saying this but I will say it... SHE IS THE BEST!!!! 

This are things that I have learn from her-

- She rely on the Spirit NO matter what happen!!!

- If we are out tracting and looking for people, and I don't even know where to go, she will turn around and say, "Sister T we need to pray".

- She loves talking to people, even if they will laugh at her and even it will make me laugh she will just continue she don't even care..

- She will always focus everything in our investigators.

- She never look at her self, she will always turn to the Lord for his help before she asked.

- She is such a happy person, she taught me how to smile hahaha every time, all day everyday, sometimes our days is ruft but she will always says everything will be fine....

- She is so funny, no matter whats our day will be like, she will always but something that will make me light up.

and last... she is a HARD working missionary...

She has taught me all things and some funny things too but that is between the 2 of us haha, I love her and miss being her companion...

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING that you always encourage her with, maybe she was about to kill me but because she will never forget what you told her .. that's why hahaha 

But seriously she is the best companion ever....

with love 

Sister T   

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!! I guess the Bisayan translation would be: Malipayon nga adlaw sa tatay! But that just doesn't sound right haha

So there's no way I could let this day pass without recognizing 2 people:

1. My Dad! I don't just have a "Missionary Mom", I have a Missionary Dad too (: Get this: my dad is soooooo busy, but despite everything he has on his plate, EVERY DAY he writes me a 3 page letter. Every single day. Which makes me a pretty spoiled missionary (check out the picture - the letters aren't super clear, but you can see it's a pretty thick stack haha) If that's not an act of dedication and love, then I don't know what is. But more awesome than his letters that he writes me each week is his example that I've tried to follow here on my mission , especially during the rough patches. Everyone who knows my dad knows that he's been given a huge trial physically. But despite his challenge, I have never once heard him complain. Despite everything that has been thrown his way, he chooses to focus on the positive, and  place his faith in Heavenly Father and His plan for him. My dad's love for his family and his testimony and love for the Gospel are incredibly strong and he has dedicated his whole life to each. What an example he is to me and to so many other people!He is the best and I love him so much!


2. My Father in Heaven. At this point in my mission, the biggest blessing that I feel like I've been given is a strengthening of my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I have really come to know in a very personal way that I am a literal child of God and that His sole purpose is to help me be happy and return to Him. That's why he's blessed me with the Gospel, a family, temples, friends, this world, and even His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Through sincere and intent personal prayer everyday, I've really come to know Him better and to feel His love for me. I know that He hears and answers each prayer. I know that He is infinitely aware of me and that sometimes His love comes in the form of my trials that He hand crafts for me because He wants me to grow and develop and eventually become just as He is. I know that there is a Heavenly Father and that He lives and loves each of us personally and individually as any father would love his child. We can feel His love through many avenues and blessings, but especially as we pray to Him in faith.

I'm doing great and I absolutely love my mission and my life right now! I am given so many blessings and experiences each day that are like no other. Thanks everyone for always supporting me. I am blessed beyond belief! I hope everyone has a super duper week and that y'all are enjoying your summer (:

Lots of love,
Sister Lauck (:


Oh and in other news:

- We had a zone activity last week and we got to go to the big tourist stop in Bohol: Chocolate Hills (check out the picture). It's basically a cluster of hundreds of hills. They kinda got semi destroyed by the big earthquake last year, but it was still such a beautiful sight! I seriously am in love with my mission and with Bohol. It's gorgeous! Especially the jungle part. Literally like Hawaii!

- Sister Paragas and I were in a lesson last week. Because there was a shortage of chairs I volunteered to sit on the floor. BIG MISTAKE. Because as I'm teaching about Joseph Smith, out of no where this HUGEEEEEEEE rat (literally like the size of a small puppy) scampers across the floor and into my lap!!! AHHHHHH, I almost died haha I definitely freaked out for like 3 seconds. Things like this happen to me everyday and I always think to myself in my head, "This is not what I signed up for." lol but such is life in the Philippines!

Letters From Dad

Chocolate Hills

The Lone Americana

Kamusta man??

More on my new companion, Sister Paragas! So she is from Pangacina (the northern part of the Philippines), turning 23 TODAY, and is almost finished with her mission! She goes home in 3 short weeks. Needless to say, she is so awesome and I love her so much! We have the greatest time together and I'm so lucky to have her! So obviously I live with Sis. Paragas, my companion, but we also share our apartment with two other sisters, Sis. Dala and Sis. Enlacinto. I'm not going to lie - when we're not working our butts off being missionaries, we have a lot of fun in our apartment! It's so funny because if the four of us go anywhere, everything thinks that I'm the mom walking with my three children, just because I'm a solid foot taller than the three of them haha 

So something that has been a little different, but really just a HUGE blessing and so much fun, is the fact that I'm the only non-Filipino in my apartment and in my district. Hence, I'm really immersed in the language and culture, but I absolutely LOVE IT!!!!!! I've also come to find out that the mission is the best foreign exchange program ever! I learn so much from all of the Filipino missionaries, especially the sisters I live with in my apartment, and I even get to teach them a thing or two (:

It kind of goes like this: 

-They help me with my Bisayan, and I teach them English slang words. 

-They taught me how to pick lice out of my hair, and I taught them that the fly swatter was not intended to be used as a back scratcher (which is what they originally thought it was haha). 

-They've taught me to learn all sorts of fun and yummy native foods like canned hash (my nickname for it is "Mystery Meat"), fish head, and chicken feet. And I've successfully got them hooked on imported American food, peanut butter and oreos!

-They teach me the right way to wash my clothes (we have to wash them by hand here, and I didn't know how to do that my first 2 transfers here.Which brings up the question - Exactly how well were my clothes washed for the last 3 months?) and how to go to the bathroom without toilet paper! And it's a work in progress, but I'm slowly helping them understand what it means to sing on pitch haha 

Really it's a beautiful thing! And probably my favorite thing about living with Pinays is that they are so happy, so loving, and giving. There really is such a special spirit here in the Philippines! The people here are so jolly and always celebrating, even if from an outsider's perspective there might seem little to be happy about. They are positive and strong in spirit, and it really is such a blessing for me to be assigned here in the Philippines. I absolute love my mission! And especially for the opportunity I have to be surrounded by so many Christ-like people! I love my calling and I love my work! Hope everyone is doing FANTASTIC!!!!! 

From a super super super happy Sister Lauck (:

P.S. Here's a pic of my companion Sister Paragas and I! Next week I'll send a picture of the 4 of us sisters in the apartment so you can get a good head of the height difference haha

Happy Mother's Day!

I have like zip time, but I wanted to shoot out a quicky for everyone (:

Okay so.... what's been going on with me.... So I have a new companion! Yup, I'm officially done with my 12 week training! Sis. T moved to a new area, so I stayed put here in TagBi. And my new companion is..... drumroll..... Sis. Paragas!!!!!! My first native companion! She is lights out awesome, the full package! We've only been together for 5 days but she already is my favorite person in the world haha more on her and my new Pinoy-style life next week!

Also, last week we had the best zone activity ever! We went to the beach and played volleyball! Does life get better than that? I think not haha of course we weren't allowed to get in the water and swim, but chilling on the sand was the next best thing (:

Also, there was a hopping party over here in TagBi last week! Every May 1st-3rd, there's a HUGE celebration in Tag Bilaran to celebrate and honor their saint aka lot's of street dancing and eating and drinking. Which of course as missionaries, we weren't allowed to participate in haha though we did have a drunk man dedicate a song to us while he was karoaking as we walked by - that was pretty sentimental lol jk actually we did participate in the eating! ISome very sweet members in our branch invited Sis.T and I over for lunch. I had the kiss of death experience where I mistakenly filled my plate with what I thought was beef teryaki, only to find out the hard way that it was indeed not beef teryaki, but cow liver and tounge haha don't know why I thought home cooked Filipino food was like Panda Express lol but I promise that is a mistake I will NOT make again haha

Anyway, Happy late Mother's Day to all of the amazing women in my life! Whether it be friends and family, I'm so grateful for all of your support and love! And of course I'm grateful for my own mom (: Anyone who knows my mom knows she is the most giving, loving, caring, sweetest woman in the world. I know my Heavenly Father loves me because He blessed me with her as my mother. Love you so much Mom (: And I love everyone else too! Hope you enjoy all of life's many blessings each day!

Lots of love,
Sister Lauck (:

Akong primero (:

Kamusta mo!!!!!

I'm doing just peachy keen over here in Bohol! This week was filled of firsts for me, so it was a memorable one! This week I experienced my first:

- Earthquake: That was so fun! No worries, it was a super minor one, no crazy shaking! We were in the middle of a lesson and then just like that, the ground started shaking. Everyone here on Bohol is a little spooked when it comes to natural disasters because a pretty strong earthquake hit last October that caused a lot of damage and death. And then one week after the earthquake, the big Typhoon Yolanda absolutely rocked Tacloban, which is the next island over. Elder Anderson, one of the 12 Apostles, made a special trip to Bohol and when speaking to the missionaries about the recent natural disasters he said, "This is just the beginning." Needless to say, we're all anticipating some kind of gigantically huge storm or earthquake this year, but every missionary has their 72 hour kit ready to go and the protection of the Lord, so there's no fear over here (:

-Lice Infection: Woooooo! Haha it only was a matter of time, considering how much all the kids like playing with my hair. Lice is a totally normal thing here, so it's no big deal (: My awesome companion will just have to spend hours picking out lice in my hair and smashing it with the comb! How fun is that!

-  BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Yup, three months in the field, and I finally got my first baptism! Actually two (: Sis.Tita and Bro.Jake! It definitely did not pan out as I had imagined haha - the baptismal service started at 3pm, but NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE even started showing up until 3:30, there wasn't enough water so the font could only be filled up about knee deep (I'm not going to lie, watching poor Elder Lagahit try to baptize with the low water level was pretty entertaining), and they didn't have baptisimal clothes their size, so Sis.T and I just kinda had to make it work! Haha but the strong Spirit and amazing happiness that I had been hoping to feel for my first baptism was definitely there in full force, which was a huge blessing for me! It was especially neat to see Sis.Tita get baptized because it truly was a miracle! Her mom is strongly opposed against the Church and did not give her permission or blessing for Sis.Tita to get baptized, which had us in a rut for a month or so. But Sis.Tita, Sis.T, and I had a special fast and what do you know, the next week her mom randomly changed her mind and gave her permission. How cool is that! Just one of the many miracles I get to experience everyday here as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I love my calling! It's the best thing I could be doing right now in my life! Thanks for being so amazing and supporting me out here in the Philippines! I feel everyone's love, whether it's through letters or emails or prayers!!!! You guys are so amazing! I love everyone so much (:

Sister Lauck!

P.S. This week's pictures: Bro.Jake & Sis.Tita and Sis.T & I being tarshiers! They're like these creepy little monkeys with leemur eyes that are the trademark of Bohol haha

Easter in the Philippines!

Kamusta mo??? 

First of all, I know this is so like 2/3 weeks late, but I finally got to watch General Conference here in the Philippines and I just want to say - it was SO GREAT!!!!!!! (: I'm so grateful for living prophets and apostles and inspired leaders who were able to deliver messages straight from our Heavenly Father to me (:

Moving on... Wow, my first Easter here in the Philippines! It was quite a fun one! Let's get to the nitty gritty!

1. I thought I'd try to be cute and "celebrate" Easter over here by eating Balut. For those of you who don't' know what balut is, it is a developing duck embryo. Basically like a fermented egg that's almost a baby chick, but not quite there yet. So yeah I ate that. And it was SO.GROSS. Hahahaha it was SO. GROSS. I slipped about half of it into my mouth, swallowed it, then threw it up in my mouth, then swallowed my throw up. No one should ever have to go through what I went through. Lol and the worst part about all of this was that the natives told me my tounge would be loosened and I would become Bisdak (translation: very fluent in Bisayan) if I drank the juice of balut. They lied. They straight up lied haha

2. So balut aside, Easter Sunday is honestly not a big thing here in the Philippines. Sadly, about 70 % of the people we visited on Sunday, didn't even know what Easter was. They just know Easter Sunday as that Sunday after Good Friday where they all go to the beach. But do you know what is HUGE here?? Holy Week! Because most of the population is Catholic, it's celebrated here in full force over here, especially Good Friday. Basically the entire city shuts down and at night they have a big procession of floats with plastic figures of the crucified Jesus and the Virgin Mary. And they believe that because Christ was dead by Friday, the night of Good Friday they can commit any sin they want without consequence. Hmmmmm, pretty sure that's not how the whole thing works, but who am I to judge haha. Oh, and do you know what else they do here for Holy Week. THEY LIVE CRUCIFY PEOPLE!!!! Like exactly the same as Jesus Christ was. Thank goodness I didn't see it for myself, but we heard of someone being crucified the next town over. It's really so sad.

Even though the circumstances were a little different here than back home, I am so grateful for my Easter Sunday that I had here. Though I didn't get to die easter eggs or receive an awesome basket from the Easter bunny, I got to reflect on the most important aspect of Easter: my Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful He loved me enough to not only die for me, but to suffer for my sins, pains, afflictions, and trials. Because of that atoning sacrifice, He can understand me perfectly, and be my best Savior as well as my best friend through all of the ups and downs of life. I'm especially grateful that He was resurrected from the dead and that He lives now. He is real. He leads and guides the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the earth today. He knows me. He loves me. I really am so grateful that I get to be His representative, doing my best to become like Him everyday. Though Easter is gone and passed, I hope we always remember our Savior in our minds and hearts and honor Him by trying our best to be like Him. Love everyone tons and tons! Hope everyone is doing just amazing! Happy days aren't given, they are made!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Gugs!

Sister Lauck (: