Hello po!  Magandang hapon po! 

What a great week here in Burgos! It was busy busy busy.  On Monday, of course, we had P day.  I was feeling really under the weather (haha kind of literally with the heat and all) so after emails and shopping, I just slept for the rest of P-day until we went out and worked in the evening.  The heat was really getting to me, and I think I am sensitive to the water here so I was having kind of a hard time this week with that.  I decided to do what you suggested, and what Elder Bednar talked about in his talk you sent me ( In the Strength of the Lord )I prayed - not to change my circumstances - but to help me adapt to the circumstance I am in.  I prayed to Heavenly Father to help my body change and adjust so that I could handle the heat, to help my body adapt to the water so that I wouldn't feel sick and dehydrated, and to help my body adapt to the circumstances that I am in.  I prayed for days, over and over again for this.  And my prayer was answered!  I have been feeling much better, I haven't been feeling sick or dehydrated, and I have been handling the heat much better. Heavenly Father really answers prayers.

On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference!  I like to think of it as Spiritual Feasting Day.  It was a wonderful day of learning, fun, and feeling the Spirit.  We traveled by jeepny to Ilagan for the conference, which is about one hour away from Burgos.  It was so great to see President and Sister Rahlf!  This was their last Zone Conference with us.  They will be returning home in June, and President and Sister Hiatt will be taking their place.  It is sad to think that that was the last Zone Conference we will have with President and Sister Rahlf.  But, I am also really excited to meet the new mission president in a few weeks.

We just finished our Book of Mormon Reading challenge - where we read the Book of Mormon in 60 days - so the conference was all about this wonderful book.  During our power read, we focused on marking and finding names, teachings, words, and doctrines about Christ.  It really helped me realize that the Book of Mormon truly is "Another Testament of Jesus Christ."  Before, I never really understood how much of the Savior really is within it's pages.  But if you read carefully, it's easy to find Him there.  He's everywhere in the Book of Mormon!  It was amazing to feel the Spirit testify to me again of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as we studied and talked about the BOM at the conference.  In our area, we made a goal to teach more about the Book of Mormon to our investigators, recent converts, less actives, and members.  The Book of Mormon is a great source of strength, and we know it will strengthen our area. 

Zone Conference is also fun because you get to see a lot of the other missionaries.  I was so happy to see some of the people that I have grown to love so much!  I'll send you some pictures of them.  :)  

On Wednesday,  we had companion exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders.  So we traveled back to Ilagan again (two days in a row! haha).  It was so great!  They taught us some great teaching skills.  It's always so fun to work with seasoned, confident missionaries like the sister training leaders.  They always teach me so much by their good example and by their love for this work.  My companion was Sister Mariano, who was my house mate in Cauayan.  We are already such good friends and it was so fun to be her companion.  I love her so much!  She really helped me feel like I am doing good as a missionary.  She always tells me, "Sister Allen, you are the happiest missionary I have ever met!" I've lost count of how many times she's told me that.  It always makes me happier when she says that.  But it's true - I am so happy all the time here!   Sister Mariano is so kind and sweet and I wished she lived in America so that we could hang out after the mission.  

For the rest of the week, we were back to our area, teaching and working like crazy!  I really love the area and all of the people inside of it.  We are continuing to press forward, despite setbacks and Satan's "pushbacks."  This work is really rewarding and I love it so much.  Our investigators are still working towards their baptismal dates and we are continuing to help them be prepared.  It's exhausting work, but I love it! We are trying to teach more about the Book of Mormon to all those that we teach, because we know it will help them so much, especially in gaining a testimony.  We have been teaching that to our members as well, and I think it will help strengthen our little branch.  Great things are happening here in our branch as well.  The leaders gave great talks on Sunday about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and we saw changes and improvements immediately after their talks.  More people stayed for the rest of church classes, and we had a great Sunday service.  We are working towards strengthening our members so that they can help us with the many many less actives here.  

I love you all so much!  I hope you always remember to read and pray every day and that you always remember that I am praying for you always.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Work hard, pray hard, play hard. 

I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!  

xo Sister Allen

P.S. I can't wait for Mother's Day!  :)

Our house!

Our desk area.

Our kitchen.

Our bedroom.

Our laundry area.  The little white box thing is our washing machine.

Our daily transportation!  It's called a "kulong-kulong" which in English is "cage-cage".  Usually it's used for animals, haha.  That's my comp Sister Aguanta, and our crazy but wonderful Branch Mission Leader, Brother Roland.

Zone Conference! Burgos, llagan, Tuguegarao North and Tuguegarao South Zones.

Burgos Zone.

Me, Sister Mariano, and Sister Kibaimoa.

Rejuvenated and ready to head back to our areas.

Magandang hapon po! 

This week has been a good week.  It's been so hot, but we are still working hard here in Burgos.  I am loving it here.  I am excited to continue working and teaching the wonderful people here. I'm trying to learn more Ilocano so that I can better communicate with the people here.  Overall, I am doing wonderfully.

My companionship is doing well.  We are getting better at teaching in unity and we are striving to improve in contacting as we tract.  We are trying to tract more in some parts of our areas that we haven't gone to as much.  We've found less actives and some new investigators, which has been good.  We really want to achieve the standards of excellence.  That is something we are trying to work on. 

Tomorrow is my......eight month mark!  Whoohoo!  Time really flies when you're having fun.  I can't believe my half way mark is so close.  I have been a missionary for eight months, and within those eight months I have learned and changed so much.  

I have grown so much since I first entered the MTC.  When I was at the MTC, about halfway through my six weeks there, I started feeling inadequate.  I felt like I wasn't missionary material.  I felt like I wasn't the "missionary type" and that I wasn't "churchy" enough or good enough to be a missionary.  I doubted my decision and wondered, "do I really need to do this?" and "is this really right for me?"  As I was stressing and overthinking, we watched a talk by Elder Holland that kind of woke me up.  He said that all we have to do is give ourselves - our will, our time, our heart, our mind, our strength - to the Lord, and He will make us worthy instruments.  He will change us into a missionary.  All we have to do is say, "Here am I, send me."  When we do what He wants and don't hold back, that is when we are successful.  I crept to the bathroom after the talk and knelt on the tile floor in humble prayer.  I remember thanking Him, apologizing for not giving myself to Him, and I told Him that now, I was willing to start.  I was willing to give myself to Him.  I walked out of the bathroom, trying to hide my tears and the tile prints on my knees and legs.  Just then, my district leader asked me if I would like a priesthood blessing.  I was so relieved - that was exactly what I wanted.  The elder gave me a beautiful blessing of comfort, one of the greatest blessings I have ever received.  I remember him saying, "you're Heavenly Father wants you to know that He as always been by your side, before, now, and always."  I felt so relieved and I felt such peace.  When Heavenly Father is by your side, how can you have fear and doubt?  You just can't!  From then on, I felt like a missionary.  I felt ready!  Even though discouragements still come, I know that as I give myself to the work and to my Heavenly Father, it will all work out. 

Right now is wedding season in Burgos!  Weddings are similar to weddings in America.  There's a ceremony, reception, white dress, etc.  But here there's an addition....music!  I don't just mean normal wedding music, but super loud, Tagalog, Ilocano, music that plays for 24 hours straight!  All day, all night.  There have been three wedding so far, close to our house.  I like weddings, but I am NOT a fan of the music haha.  I couldn't sleep, I couldn't focus on my studies, I could barely think!  Next week there are more wedding next week.  I am going to invest in some ear plugs this P day. Hahaha. 

It is also so so so hot here right now (it was 98 degrees, but with the humidity if feels like 108).  I was feeling cooler than normal the other morning so I checked my thermometer.  It read 91 degrees!  That's the "cooler" temp here I guess.  A scary thing happened today earlier too because of the heat.  I was feeling sick to my stomach and was just feeling weird.   I realized that I wasn't sweating, even though my companion was.  I was dizzy, my head was pounding, and my skin felt hot and tight.  I was so dehydrated!  I think I had a little bit of heat exhaustion.  I felt like I was going to pass out in the heat.  But don't worry, I drank a lot of water and Gatorade and am feeling better now.   Usually I drink about 3 liters every day.

We have had a good week of teaching, even though we didn't meet some of the goals that we wanted.  It seems that right when an investigator is progressing, coming to church, and preparing for baptism, the problems and distractions come and get in the way!  They move, or they're busy, or they change their mind.  But it's all right.  We are continuing to look up!  There's so much good for us to do here, and we are planting some promising seeds. Our investigators we do have are doing well.  We are continuing teaching and helping them come unto Christ.  Right now, we are planting.  I don't know for sure, but I think I might be the "planting" type of missionary, as opposed to the "harvesting" kind.  But that's okay with me.  I love planting!  There can't be a harvest after all if there's no one to plant.  Of course, I am always looking for opportunities to harvest and I have faith that I am making a difference here.  I am the happiest planter there ever was! 

I love you all so much!  Thank you for your prayers and all of your support.  You are always in my prayers.  

MAHAL KO KAYONG LAHAT! 

xo Sister Allen

*Sorry, the computer I’m using won’t read my camera or SD card. So no pictures. :( Sorry!!!!!!!!

Me, Sister Aguanta, and our tiny branch missionary Janica.

 (No, she's not a child.  We're the same age.)

Hello po! Naimbag na malim! 

I am doing well.  I am so happy to be here in Burgos! It is a bit difficult to adjust to a new area, especially because I am really bad at directions, but I am getting used to it!  We have a great area with a lot of potential.  Sister Aguanta is a great companion and is helping me figure out the area.  She's a great teacher and we are learning a lot from each other. 

To answer some of your questions:  Yes, we will be able to skype on mother's day!  I'll just have to travel to another city to get to a computer.  Only one month away!  Yay!  There are no computers that I know of in our area right now.  There are some people with smart phones and wifi, but most people just have an old beater cell phone that's just good for calling and texting.  That's what we have, and it works fine. 

This week was a wonderful week.  We were busy working, of course and busy helping people come unto Christ.  Busy learning and growing every day.  I am improving a little bit in Ilocano.  Most people here understand Tagalog and Ilocano, but a lot of them can only speak Ilocano.  I still speak mostly Tagalog here, but I am still learning more and more Ilocano. Hopefully I'll pick more of it up soon! 

We had a great week of setting baptismal dates!  Whoohoo!  When I got here, we had no investigators with a baptismal date.  All the ones that had baptismal dates before got baptized already!  Haha, which is great!  But, we really needed to set some new ones in our work this week.  We set a goal to have two investigators with a baptismal date by the end of the week.  We worked hard, extended baptismal dates, taught and taught, and followed the Spirit.  After all that, we were able to double our goal!  We now have four investigators with a set baptismal date.  Whoohoo!!  Their names are Sherell (15), Angelica (15), Gina (30ish), and Carmelita (70ish).  They are all so wonderful.  I am so excited to keep teaching them and to help them come unto the Christ.  

I want to tell you a little bit about Carmelita:  At first when the missionaries tried to teach her, she refused.  She did not want anything to do with them.  Instead of teaching her, the missionaries began teaching her grandson Jason (16), whom she raised.  Jason liked the message and started making some really big changes in his life.  Before, he hung out with a bad crowd and was doing some bad stuff, but he turned his life around after hearing and knowing the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was baptized a few months ago.  Carmelita has watched him grow and change.  After seeing how much good the gospel has brought to her grandson, her heart softened.  In an ironic backwards twist, the grandson became the example for his mother-figure grandmother.  She raised him, and now he is helping raise her in the gospel.  We have been teaching her the lessons and have set her a baptismal date for early May.  She also came to church this Sunday!  Yay!  I have faith that she will follow the example of her grandson and be baptized.  She is so wonderful and kind and deserves the amazing love of Jesus Christ in her life, as we all do. 

Also this week was General Conference!  Before my mission, I was never thrilled at the thought of watching talks for the equivalent of about 10 sacrament meetings.  But here in the mission, I have come to cherish the words of the prophets and apostles and I can honestly say I was SO EXCITED for General Conference.  I learned so much.  I felt the Spirit in my heart.  I had a really great experience.  When it was over, I was disappointed.  I wanted more!  That's how I think we should always be, always wanting more light, more truth, more words of the prophets, and more of the Spirit.  I have so many favorite quotes and talks, but I expecially enjoyed the talk by Elder Holland.  I love and echo his words: 

"Keep trying.  Keep trusting.  Keep believing.  Keep growing.  Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."   - Jeffrey R. Holland

I like to imagine our Heavenly Father, our Savior, and all of the loved ones who we have been lost, standing, watching, and cheering us on with encouragements and shouts of love.  I know they watch over us.  I know they strengthen me every day.  Sometimes it's as if I can hear their cheers, see their smiles, and feel the warm glow of their love.  I'll admit, a mission is really hard at times.  There's ups and downs.  There's times when I can say, "I can do this."  And there's times when I feel like I can't. But I know with all my heart that I can do it, because it's not just me alone doing the work.  I am guided, lifted up, comforted, and strengthened every day by angels and by my Savior.  I know that's true for me, and I know that's true for all of you.  I know that heaven is cheering us on!  There's a lot of people waiting and hoping for our success and for our happiness. 

You are all always in my prayers and in my heart.  I am cheering you on!  

I love you with all my heart, 

xo Sister Allen

I love the saying on the bottom the jeepny...

(the owners of the jeepny are members)

Our Branch President getting some buko (coconut) for us. Yum!

Service project fixing the bahay kubo.  

They use it as a shade while they work in the rice fields.

Hello po! Magandang hapon po!  

This week was transfer day....and I have been transferred:  I am now in BURGOS ZONE in the Burgos 1st area.  Burgos is basically the middle of nowhere.  There's fields of corn, rice, and tobacco, and that's pretty much it.  There's no city, no tricys, no ATM, no places to go out to eat.  I'm in the middle of nowhere!  There are little "sari-sari" stores that sell snacks, soda, things like that, but that's pretty much it.  I got kind of stressed at first to be in such a rural area, but now I love it.  The air is fresh and the stars at night are unreal.  There's so many carabou, frogs, and I've heard there's even some monkeys nearby.  It's SO different then my last area, but it love it already.  I am so happy to be here.

Even though there's not much stuff here, there are a lot of members here.  We have one branch in our area, Burgos 1st branch.  There's also tons of less active members in our area.  If they all were still active in the church, we would have a ward here for sure.  My first day here, we just went around and met all the members in our branch, and taught a few lessons to some kids who were recently baptized.  All the members are so kind and helpful.  I was so happy to meet all of them, and they were happy to meet me.  There's a lot of beautiful, kind people here.  Our branch mission leader, Brother Roland, is awesome.  He drives us around everywhere, always feeds us, teaches with us, and is always giving us good ideas to help our area.  At first, I felt kind of embarrassed that he drives us around so much and does so much for us, but I know he is doing it because he loves and supports missionary work.  Which is wonderful!  All the members here are like that.  They are always offering us rides, inviting us to eat at their house, and making sure we are taken care of.  We eat breakfast at home, and then we eat at member's houses for lunch and dinner everyday.  Yay!  It makes me feel right at home. It makes me feel loved.  One member, whose son is also on a mission said, "I always feed the missionaries because I know if I feed you here, my son will also be fed there."  Haha.  I told her that she was right.  

In the Philippines Cauayan Mission, the Burgos Zone has been at the top of the charts, statistic wise, for the last few months.  Things are going really well here.  Missionary work is booming!  Last Saturday here in Burgos zone (before I got here) every set of missionaries had two or more baptisms....wow!  I am excited to be serving in such a progressing area. 

In Burgos, most people don't speak Tagalog....they speak Ilocano.  So I'll have to learn that as well.  Haha!  I felt like I was finally getting good at Tagalog in all the lessons and stuff, but now I've got to start all over and learn Ilocano.  I feel kind of shy to talk to people here sometimes, because I'm not sure if they'll understand me.  But, I am learning!  All of the little kids are always teaching me Ilocano words.  It's so cute, and I actually learn a lot. I'll teach you some of the things I've learned in Ilocano:  "good afternoon" is "naimbag na malim," "beautiful" is "napintas" and "what's your name?" is "anya ti nagan mu?" Ilocano is very different from Tagalog, but I am excited to learn.

The members in our area said it's been a long time since an American has been here.  People, multiple times already, keep calling me "maliit na Amerikana" which is "little American."  They always ask me, "you're from America, why aren't you tall?"  Haha.  I told them it's because both my parents are short (I'm 5'4).  Some of the recent converts in our area - who are teenage boys - are scared of me.  They won't talk to me and sometimes they are shy to even look at me.  Bro. Roland said it's because I am American and I look like a Barbie, and so they're scared of me.  There are no foreigners here in Burgos, besides missionaries, so seeing a foreigner makes them shy I guess.  Hopefully that doesn't last for long! 

My new companion is Sister Aguanta.  She is from Negros Occidental (near Cebu, PH), is 21 years old, and has been in the mission field for one cycle less than me.  She is really nice.  She has a fun personality and is a really great missionary.  She's the youngest of six siblings and is the first missionary in her family.  She has been a member of the church all her life, just like me.  She's a great companion!  Her birthday is in November, just like me too!  She already graduated college in marketing management.  She has been in Burgos 1st for five months, and it is her first area.  I also have two cute housemates, Sister Velasco and Sister Ruyeres, both from the Philippines.  They are so cute and tiny and I love them.  Our apartment is just as nice as my last one.  I even have a normal bed instead of a bunk bed, which I love.  We have a nice bathroom that's bigger than my last one (still bucket showers of course).  We have a cute little kitchen with just a stove and a toaster oven.  And we also have....A WASHING MACHINE.  My life is changed.   I used it this morning.  Yay!  And my favorite part is....there's no rats or mice in our apartment!  That's really all I care about haha.  Our apartment is actually in the area of Sis. Velasco and Sis. Ruyeras, so Sis. Aguanta and I have to travel, about 3 km or so through the rice fields, to our area everyday.  Luckily, we always have a ride!  

Leaving Cauayan City was easier than I thought it would be.  Although, of course, I love and will miss the people there, I felt ready to go to a new place.  I know also that I will see all of the people I love from Cauayan again someday.  I only cried once during all the good-byes I had.  I cried when I said good-bye to Nanay Editha.  She is so special to me and I will never forget her.  We went to visit her one last time, and I told her that I would be leaving.  She grabbed my hand tight, looked at me, and with tears in her eyes, told me how special I was to her.  It was such a powerful, special, sweet moment.  One that I will never forget.  I will miss her dearly. 

I am so excited to watch General Conference this week!  We are so blessed to be able to hear from our living prophet and apostles, and we here in the PH are so blessed to have the technology to be able to watch a broadcast of it.  We are asleep while General Conference is going on in America, so we watch the sessions one week after.  We are scheduled to watch it just like you would, two sessions on Saturday and two sessions on Sunday.  Priesthood session is early Saturday morning.  There's no broadcast of the women's conference, I'm not sure why.  I downloaded the audio from the General Women's Session to my flash drive and I listened to all of it while I was packing this week.  It was so great!  I loved the message of serving and loving those in need.  I was really touched by the talks that were given.  It is so important for us to reach out in love to all those that are around us in any way we can.  All service is worthwhile, no matter how small.  No effort of love and kindness is ever a waste.  

Because I know you'll wonder....I am emailing you from Roxas, a neighboring city.  For P-Day we have to travel to another city outside of our zone so that we can email and go to the grocery store.  Roxas isn't as big as Cauayan, but it has everything we need.  It's about a 30 minute ride from Burgos to Roxas.

I hope you all have a fantastic, wonderful week filled with joy and love.  I love you all so much and you are always in my prayers.  Thank you for making my week bright with your wonderful emails. 

I LOVE YOU! 

xo Sister Allen

Saying goodbye to Nanay Editha.

Welcome to Burgos!

Me and Sister Aguanta.  I ate a whole coconut! It was delicious.

Our area....the middle of nowhere!

Me, Sister Aguanta, and the family of our branch president at our chapel.

Pretty sunset in Burgos.

Hello hello!  

I am transferred! I found out this morning.  When the text came with the list of people, and I saw "Sister Allen" I started kind of screaming excitedly and jumping up and down because I was happy.  Then a few seconds later I started crying.  Haha.  I guess you could say I have mixed feelings.  I love Cauayan zone and have loved being in my area.  I love each of the sweet people I have taught here and all the friends I have made.  I will miss Cauayan City.  On the other hand, I think I am ready to get to a new area.  I am excited for whatever lies ahead.  I have no idea where I will get transferred.  I will find out on Transfer Day, which is Wednesday.  I am excited and nervous, but also very excited.  Next time I talk to you, I'll be in a new area with a new companion!  Ah!

Happy Easter!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and had a chance to think about the Savior.  I had a great Easter here in Cauayan.  Our District Conference fell on the same day as Easter this year.  It was great to have our District, which is like the small version of a stake, all together.  We heard from our District Presidency, a few District leaders, and President and Sister Rahlf.  It was a great meeting.  After the meeting, the missionaries in the Cauayan Zone - that's us! - had planned an Easter Musical Fireside.  We shared the story of the Savior through song.  We went through His birth, life, death, and resurrection.  We read scriptures and then sang songs all about the Savior.  We didn't have much time to practice, so I was a bit worried of how it would turn out.  To my pleasant surprise, it was a beautiful fireside.  I felt the Spirit so strong.  I sang with all the sisters one song, a few songs as a zone, and a duet with me and Elder Navarro.  It was just one verse of "I Stand All Amazed."  I thought I was going to die.  I was so nervous.  My heart was pounding so hard I thought I would explode.  But it went alright.  I survived, haha!  Music is one of the strongest ways that I feel the Spirit.  Singing about the Savior, and listening to the other songs, really testified to me just how true our message is:  that our Savior lives and that He loves us.  It was a wonderful experience, one that I will never forget.

I am so happy to be serving in this wonderful place alongside with such wonderful people.  I love the Philippines Cauayan Mission! I am very excited for my new area.  Adventure awaits!  

all my love, 

xo Sister Anna Ray Allen

(a cute drawing by Sister Allen)

Hello Po!

Here in the Philippines, schools out, summer's begun, and it is HOT.  My hair is getting blonder and my skin is getting darker.  It's a different hot than at home in Utah.  It's so humid you can feel the air just sticking to you.  Yesterday, we had a brown out - no power - and went all through church and our studies at the apartment without any fans.  I was so sweaty!  Did you know that the Philippines Cauayan mission is the hottest mission in the Philippines?  

This week was a good week.  It was a bit of a slower week, but we still had a lot of great lessons and talked to a lot of great people.  On Tuesday, we had a "specialized training" at our district meeting.  Instead of the district leader teaching at our meeting, our teachers were President and Sister Rahlf!  It was a great meeting.  They always have such inspiring thoughts.  We talked a lot about becoming consecrated missionaries. A consecrated missionary is made up of four things:  good attitude, work ethic, gospel knowledge, and obedience.  We talked about how we can improve in each of these things and how we can all become more consecrated unto the Lord.  It was a great meeting.  I liked the part about good attitude a lot.  I firmly believe that attitude is everything.  Even though it's so hot, we're sweaty all the time, we have blisters on our feet, sometimes people don't want us to teach them, and all the other things that seem to go wrong, if we choose to have a good attitude about everything, all our troubles won't seem so hard.  All the little wrongs in our life will be drowned out by all of the happy and good things.  All we have to do is let the good in!  Don't focus on the darkness, let the sunshine in!  Life - and everything else - becomes so much better when we have a good attitude. 

Our area is still doing well.  We went to a new part of our area that I had never really gone to before, and we found a couple new investigators there that were so open and willing to hear our message.  It made us so happy.  We have decided to go back there and to find more people to teach this coming week.  I am excited to see what we find there!  

We had a good experience with one of our LA’s this week (less active).  Her name is Edith and she is 52 year’s old.  She was baptized a little over one year ago.  She has such strong faith, and the only reason she’s LA is because she doesn’t have fare to ride a trycie to church.  Their life is hard and money is tight, and they live far far away from the chapel.  About a 100 peso ride round trip.  We encouraged her to continue praying and acting in faith to come to church.  On Sunday morning we got a call from one of our members.  She told us that she would pick up Nanay Edith for church.  We hurried and called Nanay Editha, hoping she wasn’t still asleep.  She answered and we told her to hurry and get ready because she had a ride to church.  Her answer touched my heart.  She said, “Sister’s, I am already ready.  I woke up this morning and got ready for church.  I didn’t know why, but I felt that I will go to church today.”  How amazing is that?!?  She was able to come to church.  Her prayers were answered, through the kindness of a member, and through the Spirit that said to her, “Get up and get ready.  You’re going to church today.”  I was so happy to see her at church.  I was so happy that she had enough faith to follow the Spirit, even if her prompting seemed impossible.  Yay!   

Also....happy Easter!  Easter is celebrated differently here in the Philippines.  It's more like a celebration - or a mourning really - for the death of Jesus Christ.  I am so happy to know and share to these people here that Christ lives!  He lived for us, died for us, and then on the third day, He rose and lived again for us.  And even now, He lives!  I really love the Easter video from the church last year.  I echo it's words:  He lives.  And if you call out, He will be there. All we have to do is seek Him.  Find Him.  I hope each of you take a little time to think about the Resurrection of Christ this Easter.  I hope you each reach out to Him this Easter, and always.  I know He will be there.

Here's a link to the video:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-04-1010-he-lives-celebrate-easter-because-jesus-christ-lives?category=topics/easter&lang=eng

I love you all so much!  I hope you have a great Easter week! 

mahal kita and happy easter    

xo Sister Anna Ray Allen

One of our recent concerts, Melanie.  

She got baptized right before I got here.  

She is so cute and I love her so much.  

Me and my companions. :)

Floating house!  They farm fish next to their house

in the lake for a living. 

Our district in a jeepny.  On our way to Magat Dam.

I thought the colorful boats were so cute.

We got to ride around the lake in one!

It was a little bit tippy, but fun!

A fire station! Not quite like dad's firestation.

At Zone Conference 

Mahal ko kayo!

Sometimes, being here doesn't feel real.  It feels like a dream.  I feel like a Disney princess sometimes (hehe).  I am the only blondish, white American girl for miles around in this little Asian city and I am constantly surrounded by new and interesting things.  I feel kind of like an alien here.  People are always staring and me and (trying) to speak in English to me.  Things like, "hello, madam!" or "what's your name?" and "hello America!" (that's my favorite one haha)  are said to me a lot.  They're always surprised when I answer them in Tagalog.  It's fun especially to talk to the little kids in Tagalog.  When they see me, they always shout, "Amerikana! Amerikana!"  and I look around and say, "saan?!" (That means "where?!")  That makes them - and me - laugh.  I stick out like a sore thumb here.  But, as a missionary, it's sometimes helpful!  People often times approach us, and then we get an opportunity to share the gospel with them.

This week was a good week here in the great Philippines Cauayan Mission.  I really do love it here in the Philippines.  It's such an amazing place.  Here are some facts for you:  The Philippines was colonized by the Spanish for many years.  Because of that, there's a lot of Spanish-Asian mix of culture, language, and even religion.  Because of the Spanish influence here, the Philippines is the only prominently Christian Asian country.  Everyone here has heard of and knows about Jesus Christ, unlike other Asian countries.  That is a blessing for us as missionaries!  People are ready to accept the fulness of the gospel of Christ because they already have pieces of it, and most people have a solid Christian background.  All we have to do it fill in the missing pieces: the Restoration, priesthood, temples, etc. 

The entire Philippines Cauayan Mission is doing a Book of Mormon reading challenge.  We are all reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days!  Ah!  (I think I've told you a little bit about it, but I want to tell you more.)  While we speed read, we do three things:  1) Mark every time the Savior is mentioned - Lord, Jesus Christ, He, Him, the good shepherd etc. 2) Highlight in one color all the words that the Savior speaks, like when it says "thus saith the Lord:..." and 3) Highlight in a different color all of the scriptures that relate to the mission of the Savior - His birth, atonement, baptism, crucifixion, etc.  It's so great to do the reading challenge.  I love it!  I am a little bit behind....but I am trying to catch up.  We are already in Alma!  It's really fun to look for signs of the Savior as I read.  I never realized how much of Him was in the Book of Mormon.  The Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.  It testifies of Him on every page.  I read recently  (I don't remember where or who said it) that without the Book of Mormon, we would know little about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  As I have been doing the reading challenge, I know that that is true.  There is so much about the Atonement of Jesus Christ within it's pages. 

It has been a pretty good week.  I started this week to write in my planner each day a "personal goal of the day" and a "miracle of the day."  It's been really fun.  There are usually multiple miracles!  It's fun to look back at the week and look at all the great things that have happened.  Making personal goals every day helps me to be more self aware.  It also helps me to focus more during the day on improving one thing at a time.  It's been helpful and eye-opening.  I have never been more aware of my weaknesses than here in the mission.  I know that weaknesses are given to us to help us grow and become strong.  I want to work on humbling myself so that I can learn to overcome my weaknesses.  Making a "personal goal of the day" is helping me do that.

I am doing well.  I am learning more about the gospel every single day and, of course, am learning to speak more Tagalog every day too!  It's really fun to speak in a new language.  I definitely know that the gift of tongues is true.  I feel like the language has just come to me; it's so awesome!  Of course, I study and learn more each day too.  I also help my companions study English.  That's actually pretty fun.  

Our area is doing well.  Nicole is still coming to church and progressing - reading and praying every day.  We have yet to set a baptismal date, but that is our goal this week!  I'll let you know how it goes.  She is so wonderful.  She really has been prepared to hear the glad tidings of the gospel.  Our area is doing okay as well.  I feel like we are kind of it a rut.  We have so many investigators, but none of them come to church, so none of them are progressing.  It's really hard to help investigators come to church.  But, I know they have their agency.  We can only do so much.  That being said, I want to do as much as I can to help them.  In our area, I want to do more lessons and invitations to help people make the decision to come to church.  That, I would say, is our biggest struggle right now. 

Our companionship is doing better.  We are still here, still working hard, and still trying to improve in our work.  Training is really good.  Sister Recano has opened up a lot more with us.  She was very quiet at first and didn't say much.  But now, most of the time she doesn't stop talking!  It's actually been a great change.  She is finally letting her light shine for all to see!  I can see her confidence in missionary work growing day by day.  

I love you all so much!  Thank you for all your prayers and all of your good vibes.  I can feel them every day, lifting me and strengthening me. 

I LOVE YOU!

xo Anna 

At Zone Conference.