Barugo Week 7

YES! I CAN UPLOAD PICTURES!!! Yay!

So I've included pictures of my companion for the last six weeks, Sis Sacayanan and I in front of the Carigara chapel.

A picture with Mark, who was recently baptised and the branch members.

Our thanksgiving dinner! Sis Sacayanan said 'Thanksgiving is delicious!' haha.

Thank you for the packages and the love that was inside!

In order to form a branch here, we need a minimum of 15 Melchezidek priesthood holders who are full tithe payers. We probably have like 5 active Elders in Barugo area. There aren't even 15 potential, INCLUDING those that are inactive right now. So I am about 100% sure that I will not 'live' (in the mission) to see Barugo actually become its own branch. The next city, Carigara is about 7 kilometers away.

I really need to practice Waray Waray. The first 3 days I was here I just asked Sis Sacayanan how to say this or that in Waray, and I picked up the transition really well. I just am lacking in vocabulary, because I haven't been putting new words in recently.

I'm totally fine with my needs Mom, don't worry. :) In fact, I received FIVE toothbrushes in total from the ward Christmas box. FIVE! That's a lot. o_O I'm totally just going to give them to the Elders. Haha.

Maybe you won't recognize me when I come home! I remember taking a double look at Eva when she came down the escalator from the airport, cuz we weren't sure if it was her. haha. I think you'll all be fine.

Filipinos love basketball. They love it! There are makeshift basketball courts everywhere. On trees, on big poles, or suspended from other things. Most of it isn't even standard sized hoops or basketballs. They just love to play. So when there IS a standard sized court, it tends to be a really big hangout spot. Sometimes if the churches are open, non-members will ask permission to play on the church court cuz it's so nice.

I don't know if I wrote about this. Filipinos love to talk about tall noses. Meaning American/European noses. They say their noses are not attractive because they are short. I just laugh. I tell them we don't care about noses in American, because there are lots of different kinds of noses there.

Sometimes people call me Sister Lovely. And then laugh really hard. I generally don't respond to people unless they call me by my full last name, just so they know that that's important. Sometimes they call me Sister Love, and then I ask: Who's that?

So we have a recently new investigator named Liezel who is pretty awesome. We've only taught her 3 times. The first time, a short Message of the Restoration, the second time a full MR and the 3rd time all about the Book of Mormon and her prayer to know if it's true scripture. I felt like it was TOTALLY guided by the spirit! We asked how her prayer was to know if it was true. We asked if she felt different. She said yea, but it's difficult to describe. So we asked: Well, is it a good difference? She said yes. So then I sat there and thought about what to say next. I thought "I need to know what to say!" So I was silent for about 15 seconds just thinking and I thought: Did she get a desire to read the Book of Mormon while she was praying? I was kind of happy and hesitant at the same time because I thought: Yay! I thought of a specific question that could have some good results. On the other hand, I was thinking WHY would I think of that question? What if she says no? So this inner battle of sorts turned over I should ask the question, because I won't know until I try, right? So I asked her: "Did you get a desire to read the Book of Mormon while you were praying? And she said yes! Of course, I was so excited. I told her that was definitely an answer to her prayer. But I personally, was rejoicing inside because I feel like maybe I am starting to understand that the Spirit IS using me. I still have a lot to learn though about understanding the language of the Spirit. Whew.

We met a recent convert of another religion (Yikes!) that refused to accept the Book of Mormon we offered (haha.) But the funny thing is that when we told him it was our Christmas present, he just looked at us. "Oh. So you have Christmas in your religion." "Uhhh yes, cuz we celebrate the birth of Christ." "You don't need 1 day to be nice and kind to your family." He told us that if we believed that Christ was born on the 25th of December, we were mistaken. We agreed, because we DON'T believe he was born on that specific day. haha. But honestly, I see nothing wrong with spending a certain time of year to celebrate the birth of the Savior. Honestly, this time of the year is a time when all Christians can really unite with one another, regardless of certain doctrines and remember Jesus Christ. And even people who are not religious spend the Christmas season being able to spend time with their families and be reminded to show more love. I feel like if there was no Christmas, there would be less joy in the world and less unity as a people and families.

Christmas conference was lovely! I love how Elder Uchtdorf quoted 'The Grinch' in his talk about the true Christmas spirit.

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~the end~