For those of you who don't know Ashleys e-mail it is ashley.mecham@myldsmail.net.  Apparently she hasn't been getting her regular mail while she has been on Palawan. send her regular mail also because she may injoy reading then all when she gets then once a month.

Pictures ulit

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Ashley Mecham	12:29 AM (9 hours ago)
to Amanda, me

This is Sister Hunt and I with Nanay Magbanua! She is the best! She sometimes works with us. This was at her 78th birthday party. Oh, notice that she is standing on a huge step and that I am crouching. Yeah, giant po ako. This is the last of the pictures for this week! Love you!

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Ashley Mecham	12:20 AM (9 hours ago)
to me

MOMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! I love you!!!!!!!! I can't get dear elders here. I have only gotten one letter when I first got here at the mission home. All of our mail, including dear elders and packages, goes to the mission home on the mainland. So I don't get it here. But I should be getting everything on Wednesday when President Stucki comes to Palawan. I'm glad to hear that things are okay! Tell Grandma and Grandpa Mecham and Grandma Sherrow that I love them so much and miss them so much and am so grateful for their example to me! 

MMMMM that food sounds goooooooood. The food here is good. I eat a lot of rice, which is okay because it's delicious. Rice and ulam for every meal. Except breakfast, I haven't become a real Pinay yet because I still eat oatmeal for breakfast. 

So, I don't have a lot to report this week. I'm still alive and still happy and still on Palawan! I love it here so much. I finished the Book of Mormon again! Which was happy. And I began again which is the best. I love it so much. The most true of any book. 

Speaking of which, here's an experience:  This week, one of our less active members, Brother and Sister Grajo shared an experience with us that was very inspiring. They have come to church a few times recently, and they seem to be regaining a testimony. We are really excited about them. However, when we visited them this week, Brother Grajo told us about how he was robbed and now he can't afford anything. He sells these shells for a living, and someone in his village stole all his product that he had been collecting forever. He doesn't know how he is going to get by, but he shared with us how he turned to the Book of Mormon and it gave him comfort. He has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and he is such an example to me because, even though he is going through an extremely difficult time, he still knows the best place to go for comfort.  So yeah, that was depressing and awesome at the same time.

Want to know the hardest thing in my area about getting people to come to church? Pomasahe (fair for the tricycle). The people just can't afford to travel there! It's the saddest thing. We have one elderly couple, the Garays, who are just barely on the path to reactivity, but that have literally no money. Nanay had a stroke and can barely walk - but they are so sweet. Last week the WALKED to church. And that is far. And it is hot. And they are old. And Nanay can barely walk. It is such an eye-opener to me because I can't count how many times I didn't particularly want to go to church one week as a child. But I always COULD.I could always afford to get there. Man, I have been so blessed. SO that's that.

I spoke in sacrament meeting on Sunday at Leah's farewell! Leah is one of our ward missionaries who works with us all the time. We don't know who we're going to work with now that she's leaving! So sad! I'll have a picture of her next week. She's the bomb. 

Last thing: BROWN OUTS. Okay, people. Brown outs are not good ever. If they happen during the morning when we are studying - no electric fan. Mainit. If they happen after dark that means we have to go home early because there are no street lights and it is dangerous. No good! So, blessed are ye who have reliable electricity.

That is all. The Church is true! We are SO LUCKY to have the gospel in our lives. I don't know where I would be without it (not in the 'ppines, though...). Seriously, we are so blessed. I am so blessed. I love you all! Thank you for your love and support and prayers! I can feel it every day!

Mahal ko kayo lahat!

Sister Mecham

Ashley Mecham	12:05 AM (9 hours ago)
to me, Amanda

Okay, so these three pictures are of one of our investigator families. They have the cutest twins (pictured). The food is what was made for Beejay's (tatay) birthday. They don't have an oven, but they make these muffin things out of casava and carrot that are SO GOOOOOOD. They, like, steam them or something. So good.

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Masaya pa!

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Ashley Mecham <ashley.mecham@myldsmail.net>	Mar 18 (2 days ago)
to Amanda, me

Hello po! 

A few items of business. Actually, just one, I think. I wanted to let you all know that you can all email me! And if you gave me your email and I have not emailed you, that means I left your email address on the mainland. So... sorry about it.

Here's my week:

Last Monday we visited the memorial they have here on Palawan for the American POWs that were massacred here by the Japanese during WWII. It's an incredibly depressing story but a beautiful memorial. You should research that a bit. It's crazy how much U.S. history is here in the 'ppines that I never knew about. Then I had my first zone meeting which was the best! It just gets you so excited and ready for the work. Our zone is small, and I found out that Sister Hunt, Sister De Leon, Sister Reyes and I are actually the only sisters on Palawan. That means I am the only white sister on Palawan! Party!

So, I have a real story. You're going to love this:

The other day Sister Hunt and I were trying to find a less active member who no one has heard of but we found his name in our area book and felt like we should try to find him. Pero, there was the most ambiguous address (no one here really has addresses, but this one was particularly lacking). So we went to the Barangay Hall for Bancao-Bancao (barangays here are a big thing). When we arrived, we noticed that they were having this huge graduation for the daycare kids - easily one hundred kids and their families - so MARAMING TAO. We pushed through the croud to the hall and asked the secretary if she knew the person. "Oh yeah", she says, "he's right outside at the graduation. I'll get him for you." Alright, slightly awkward to interrupt his kid's graduation to introduce ourselves... but we'll take it. So we're waiting in the audience and we find out that the person we're looking for is actually on the stage - he is the president of the daycare. So we talked to his wife for a bit, and then waiting for a minute to try and determine when they would be finished so we could talk to him. Out of no where, one of the ladies who had been announcing at the graduation came up to me and said, "Special guest! Will you be our special guest?! We don't have one and we need one!" Uhhh... so a grab Sister Hunt and we head for the stage where they asked us to say a few words to the graduates. In my broken tagalog I told them all about the church and how God has a plan for them and such and invited them to Church on Sunday! It was hilarious. Then, as the graduates got their medals and diplomas and such, we shook their hands and they all wanted pictures with us and their kids. Apparently I'm a celebrity now on Palawan. Not really, but not I'm going to be in everyone's scrapbooks. BUT, this story ends in a awesome way. We talked with the LA while we were sitting on the stage, and he invited us to his house later that night. We met with him and he explained how he stopped going to church because he was offended by one of the members, but that he still loves the church and knows that it's true. He said he has still been living the commandments and was just waiting for someone to invite him back! It's been six years and he now has a wife and two kids, but he's taking the steps to come back! Man, it was totally awesome. God wants him back at church, I know it. He led us straight to him. 

Have I told you about Tatay Danilo? Oh man, he is my favorite investigator. He's super old and has been smoking for over fifty years but is working to quit so he can be baptized. He still hasen't quit, but he bore his testimony to us on Sunday and just gets so emotional because he loves the BoM so much and wants so much to be baptized but doesn't feel like he has the strength to quit smoking. It's insanely hard, but I think this week is the week he is quitting! If not, we're going to have to move his baptism date back again, which is mahirap para sa kanya. 

Ay, that's all I have time for! Too many emails to sort through this week. But I have some great pictures for you! The three attached to this email are me and the kids from VRC which is a little fishing village by the ocean where one of our investigators lives. These kids and adorable. The one with the nose was taken because LOOK AT THE LITTLE GIRL ON THE FAR LEFT. So cute she is. She showed me this crazy thing she does with her nose, so we all tried to do it in the picture. So that's that. (Only two are on this email...)

Oh, dear family. I love you all so much! Let me know if the pictures aren't working! The work is the hardest thing I've ever done, but I love it so much and God is blessing my life every minute! I wouldn't be here if I didn't know this gospel is the truest thing there is. I love it so much and am so grateful to be here! Mahal ko kayo lahat!

Sa Pagmamahal,

Sister Mecham the Matangkat Pa

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Ashley Mecham <ashley.mecham@myldsmail.net>	Mar 18 (2 days ago)
to Amanda, me

Here's the nose one, plus one of Sister Hunt and I with the most delicious mango smoothies from Sky Box (which is the best restaurant here because the food is so American- all the foreigners go there.) Sobrang masarap.

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Ashley Mecham <ashley.mecham@myldsmail.net>	Mar 18 (2 days ago)
to Amanda, me

Here is a beautiful view of the bay plus what a lot of the homes here look like. You can't really tell, but huts lang. Also that's me at the memorial I was talking about. New shirt - size large for philipinos.

Oh, also something that I wanted to tell you! I experienced my first Bible Bashing this week! Or at least, the people (an elderly couple) wanted to bible bash, but we wouldn't. Jehovah's Witnesses. They know their stuff! But they refused our Aklat ni Mormons and our Pananumbalik pamphlets, so there's that. It was still an interesting experience!

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Ashley Mecham <ashley.mecham@myldsmail.net>	Mar 18 (2 days ago)
to Amanda, me

Okay, here is Halo-Halo. I talked about it in my first email (maybe second, I don't remember). It is the craziest drink but sobrang masarap. It is sweet, but there are like, beans in it and other mysterious things that I have no idea what they are. But there's a picture for you.

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