"That Pillow is Overdue..."

Yeah, nonsense huh? :D

Dear Family and Friends,

Our whole district are ill. Man, we all have winter flu vaccines but I guess, we're not exempted by this. My companion got sick first and then me (so we pretty much stayed in the flat) and then the poor Elders, bless them!

I have no idea what happened this week. Haha.

Our Filipina investigator and her family who's supposed to be baptised next month are moving tomorrow. Unfortunately, they'll move outside our area! Well, the missionaries there will be so blessed because they'll have a golden referral from us!

I sent tons of letters last week, hopefully you'll get one. :D

Cheerio!

-Sister Ordanza

The tradition of our foreMOTHERS. I forgot that I'm already on my

tenth month mark so that pillow is a month overdue! Fail. :D

(I know it's not missionary appropriate but....)

The Thetford District

From left to right, standing:

Elder Kopishcke (Germany), Elder Isaksen (Norway), Elder Yost

(our ZL, not from our district so I dunno), Elder Van den Broek (Holland),

Sister Fillmore (Washington, the state), Sister Idrizi (Greece)

Sitting:

Elder Darrington (our ZL, not from our district so I dunno),

Elder Duncan (Arizona), me and my companion!

Wohoo. (Wow, what a caption!)

A day of work near the docks

(I told my companion that we have the real ones in the Philippines!)

The Spirit of Elijah

Yes, it's about family history.

Dear Family and Friends,

How has your week been? Mine was absolutely wonderful! :) Sister Ishizawa's family sent me chopsticks and sent us a lot of Japanese food. Oh my days. I'm having a "Japanese" lesson every day. haha She's teaching me how to make origamis! :)

We decided to use family history as a finding tool this week. Para maiba naman. We filled out information about our families in the My Family booklet and everywhere we went we just talked about it.

One particular day, we missed our train. (Yes, that's how huge our area is. In previous areas we just ride trains whenever we go to London.) We went to one of the beautiful and little villages outside King's Lynn and train comes every hour. We decided to do some street contacting but since it's around five in the afternoon (it's as dark as 10pm btw), so chilly, so no one was out. Woah. Scary huh. But we're safe, I promise. :)

Probably 20 minutes before the next train comes, we saw a lady. We stopped her and when she saw our badges she said that she's not interested. (Yeah, we get that a lot. haha. Perks of wearing a badge! They'll look at the nametag first before at your face. :D) She continued walking.

I forgot what we said but she heard the word "family history" enough that she stopped walking and said, "Did you just say family history?!"

It turned out that she's been praying to Heavenly Father for 8 years for help about her family history. And that particular day, she begged Him again on her prayers that He'll listen to her prayers. We arranged a return appointment with her the next day and brought our family history consultant in the lesson. She cried and definitely felt the spirit of Elijah! She came to church yesterday and we will extend a baptismal invitation on her as we have dinner with her and our family history consultant this Wednesday. MEG, SHE'S MEXICAN AND HER FAMILY LIVES IN ARIZONA.

Since it's so dark in here during the evenings, we just try to plan our days better on the evening schedules. On our way to our FHE appointment with Tom, we got lost in the middle of nowhere. We have no idea where we were! No one was out, we can't ask someone for directions even we carry our maps all the time. The only option we can do was to knock someone's door. We did that to the first house that we saw.  A family answered the door! They said that we got off pretty early on the bus and we are destination was too far away. They offered us a ride to our appointment and we've had a gospel conversation with them. They invited us again on their home to share a message and we did the very next day and they came to church yesterday!

I am just so grateful to have the privilege and opportunity to see this mighty miracles everyday.

We've had exchanges with our STL's this week and I stayed here in King's Lynn with Sister Pope and Sister Ishizawa went to Ipswich with Sister Griffith. I love exchanges so much. I learn a lot from the STL's! :)

Thanks for the letters. I'll send something soon.

More pics next week. I'll try to take more photos, that's it! :D

Love,

Sister Ordanza

Yeah, don't be fooled by that sunshine!

I promise, it was so cold on that day!

A Whole Week of FUN

Whale...It depends on your definition of FUN. :P

FUN = MIRACLES

Dear Family and Friends,

Our week has been fantabulous here in King's Lynn! Weather's treating me well as well. So that's a great news. :D

We've seen lots of miracles this past week. One of them is our Filipina investigator and her British husband! Most of A****e's family in the Philippines are Latter-day Saints (she even has a cousin who's serving a mission in Australia right now). When she came here in England around 2013, her family told her to go to a Mormon church here in the UK. She bumped into some sister missionaries, went to church here in King's Lynn  for few times and when she came back to the Philippines, lost contact with them.

Me and Sister Ishizawa decided to review our area book and to contact people who are listed there and we found A****e's record. We rang her number and no one answered it so we decided just to pop by to her home. We tried to knock on her door but no success either. We planned to stop by again another day. We were out talking to people (I forgot what day was it) when we stopped this Filipina lady, and yes, a miracle, that's the lady that we were searching for! We visited her in her home and invited them to church. Yesterday, A****e and her husband along with their little kid attended church and they even accepted a baptismal date for next month! Wow. I really know that the Lord is in this work. He provides a way for His children to be able to receive the fullness of His blessings and I am so grateful to be able to be a part of this work right now. Everyone in the ward, including our bishop, were so excited when they saw that family at church yesterday and they all want to come teaching with us! Wohooo!

Another miracle.

As a mission, one of our focus for 2015 is to work with part-member families. Me and Sister Ishizawa went through our ward's list and with the help of our ward mission leader, identified few people that we are going to work with.

We were invited for a dinner by one of these families, so blessed huh! Tom has been to church few times and is currently investigating the church. Long story short, during the lesson, the spirit was so strong and we extend a baptismal date with him for the 25th of this month. He accepted it and everyone was so happy about it! In fact, he came to church again yesterday and stayed after for a baptismal service. I asked him after that, "Tom, are you excited for this to happen to you as well?" He answered, "Yes, Sister Ordanza! I can't wait!"! We are going to see him again tonight in a family home evening.

I am so excited for these people to take upon themselves the name of Christ.

Til next week,

Sister Ordanza

P.S

So, I gained 20 pounds in the mission field. HAHA.

More pics next week!

I Have Died Everyday...

No, not that song. It's my life here in everyday's negative temperature!

#TheStruggleIsReal #RealLife

Dear Family and Friends,

Konichiwa!!! Woooooooooooh! I love my new companion! Sister Ishizawa is amazing! #AsianFTW

I am learning so much from her. Together, I know that we'll see a lot of miracles here in the blessed land of King's Lynn.

Our area is soooooooooo huge and it's so pretty! #CountrySide

And oh btw, they have almost the same accent with peepz in Kettering so it's good to be back! :D

Ohmydays. On transfers day, we travelled from London to here for soooooo long. I thought that we're going to a different country! lol

The ward is amazing as well! Man, missionaries here are so spoiled. Free groceries EVERY WEEK. Crazy huh? :D

I don't know what to say in this email. haha

Well, first of all, sorry for not emailing yesterday, Mother. :D I know you've waited for me but it wasn't our PDay. We've had zone interviews. Sorry!

We've had the privilege of watching the Meet the Mormons after our interviews yesterday which was so cool!

Church was awesome as well. Members are so nice. Loads of appointments with investigators and recent converts and less-active members. Man, I promise, I'm still breathing. :D

Ohmydays. This email is so crazy. Probably because I'm so hungry. Haven't had lunch yet. lol

Oh, the Filipino Elder already arrived, Sister Maico! Wohooooo! And guess what, they MIGHT open a Filipino branch in Hyde Park in London (not sure when)! And we'll all get called to serve there. Yeah, TAGALOG SPEAKING!!!! Wohoooo!

K. For serious stuff, we started this year with three confirmations! How amazing was that? They were Sister Ishizawa's and Sister Steele's investigators. :)

I am just so excited to talk to everyone here in King's Lynn. EVERYWHERE. haha It feels like home.

Okay. My mind is going to shut down in few seconds so....

SAYONARA!!!!

Love,

Sister Ordanza

P.S

Sorry for the hashtags. :p

Last day together with Sister Quinn and we both want to have McDonalds.

haha #FattyForLife

Norwich zone selfie! Yeah, that's Sister Jordan. ;)

MY NEW COMPANION ♥

Christmas Eve at the Bishop's home with the bishop's daughters!