Palompon Week 5 (7/26/10)
Hi family!
The week has gone by as usual it seems.
I included some pictures. (You better appreciate that! It takes so
long to load it. :S) That is me and Sis. Farnworth and the other one
includes our BML, Jetro. He's working on his mission papers right
now!! :D
We did have some investigator children sing a song for us yesterday.
Hahaha. We were really happy because it means that they think about
us when we aren't even there. Their family was really open from the
beginning, but now they're just like friends. This family, the Alayon
family is actually one family and lots of the neighborhood
youth/children. They are sooo welcoming and all love to listen, week
after week. Usually the kids would get tired you'd think, but they
come every time! And some of them actually read their assignments. :P
We had one investigator FINALLY BAPTISED AND CONFIRMED these past two
weeks. Joselyn Hylo. Her first baptism scheduled (The day after I
arrived here in Palompon), she forgot to come! Her second one, the
week afterwards, she was all ready and dressed up and she even arrived
2 hours early so she wouldn't forget. But it didn't go through
because we had missing priesthood! One person to baptize, and one to
witness, but no one else to witness! Agoy! So two weeks later, her
baptism goes through! But her fellowshippers didn't come because they
were doing laundry. Agoy. Then she didn't come to church on Sunday
because she said she didn't have a skirt. (she would always wear pants
before) So this last Sunday, she was FINALLY confirmed and given the
Gift of the Holy Ghost. Whew. She's had a lot of trouble getting
that to happen.
There's this philippino culture that I really don't understand.
Filipinos are really SHY. The word they have for that is ulaw. It
can mean, embarrassed, shy or ashamed or anything like that. You
invite them to read, or pray during the lesson and they say: Not mee,
I'm ulaw. Or this week we asked a youth to come with us to a lesson.
She was fine saying hi to us and talking, but as soon as we asked her
to come with us, she attached herself to a wall, wouldn't look at us
or say anything and busied herself with drawing on the wall with her
finger! ?! Then as soon as we found someone else was coming and she
didn't have to come, she came off of the wall and walked away like
normal. It's so umm... DIFFERENT. And the general populace of the
Philippines tends to just be ulaw. America is just so loud in
comparison. haha.
Haha I want to do a short term mission (One transfer) in California
when I get home. Just to see what it's like in the States on a
mission. :P
KK, I hope that your Book of Mormon reading is going well. Tell me
all about it. :)
It's been hard recently. Those ups and downs of the mission are really
starting to become clear to me. But I know that I'm supposed to be
here in Tacloban mission. I could feel it right as I read my mission
call letter. There's more to be done. I have a long way to go before
I become like Christ. Thanks for your support and love. I miss you
too and think of you. But I also know that I need to be out here for
the people here, for you, and for myself. Everything in it's proper
time frame. :)
Love you all. <3
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~the end~
Palompon Week 4
Hello my family~ :)
What's the price of the normal hymnbooks that you see in the church? Haha.
I hopefully will never take washing machines for granted AGAIN!!
It takes soooooooooooo long to wash by hand. :S
We had our Zone conference this week. One of the members of the area presidency, Elder Teh came and attended. He actually spoke at the Temple dedication last month. The only part I remember him saying is how when he was young, he didn't know why his family was dressed up in white around an alter in the temple. But later on in his life, he knew exactly why he was kneeling at an alter with the "most beautiful girl in the world" on the opposite side. :P We got to meet his wife at the Zone conference. The Zone conference was different than usual. We came fasting to the conference, and overall I think everyone was a little more well-behaved. The catering we had for conference was COMPLETELY different too. There were tables and goblets and tableclothes and it was all really pretty looking! Ahh! It was funny to see the effect the atmosphere had on the missionaries. It was a lot more quiet than it would normally be.
I also got to have some one-on-one time when Elder Teh interviewed me for a bit. He asked about my family and I told him my connection to the Adduru family. :) He knows you! Hehe. One thing I really noted was when we talked just for a little bit about understanding the Spirit. He looked over to the side, paused for a bit and then said: "Yea, it takes practice." Haha!
Justin, our investigator is sooo good! But we didn't get to see him this week. :( He wasn't there when we had our return appointment, but we actually saw him going home on our way to another appointment. We were all riding put-puts though, so we couldn't really stop and talk. Just pointed and yelled a bit acknowledging that we saw the other person. And then we were sad because he didn't come to church, but later on that day we went to the Hospital to visit the child of a member who is in there. Justin was at the hospital because his 2 month year old baby is sick. His family was grateful that we stopped by. <3
The members are so poor here. But they all want to go to the temple!~ The 2nd counselor and his family are sooooo good. They don't have a lot at all, but they're saving money, little by little! Sometimes they don't have any food to put on top of their rice, or no rice at all. Our BML too, Jetro, wants to go on a mission so badly. He's trying to save up money, but his sister always "borrows" money from him so its really hard to save!! Even though he moved, she still shows up at his house and "borrows" his money. He says he can't refuse her because she's his older sister. (That's just how kind he is :[ ) They sacrifice so much! I really admire them. And I think how lucky and blessed I've been all of my life...
How's Book of Mormon reading? I'm in 1st Nephi again so I can re-read it again. :)
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~the end~
Palompon Week 3 (7-12-10)
Mom~
I got your email. :) I got all of the pictures too. It just takes SO long to even get close to looking at them. It'll probably take me a really long time to even look at them.
Eva~
On that note of bugs, I saw a cockroach fly for the first time this week. I knew that they flew, but I had never seen it before! It's so weird because I imagine them as creepy crawly things, not flying things. I killed one last week. The thing is, I don't mind if they are there, as long as they stay out of sight (Ignorance is bliss in this case) and don't bite me. (I'm pretty certain I've been bitten a few times in my sleep! GRR) But to actually kill one is... urgh.
~
We have no TIME!!
We always have things to do and not enough time to do it! Including email! ahhhhhh. :S And the cafe we're using today is really slow too.. agoy.
Sis. Farnworth is always stressed, and this no time thing is starting to get to me toooo!
We had a golden investigator come to church on Sunday! All by himself!! His name is Justin and he's a dancer. He does choreography and his brother has been an investigator for a bit already. He ended the second lesson by saying: I want to go to church, I want to go on a mission, and I want to go to the temple.
WOW! By the way, that was from no prompting from us. Although we had just taught him about temples a bit. :) We are now teaching the temple in every lesson we have because of the advice of President Malit.
We're so BOOKED this week. If we make any appointments, they have to be like, for next week! Yay!
When I speak English now, sometimes I say things funny, because my brain is thinking Cebuano ways to say things. Like, I said yesterday: "I asked that of him"
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~the end~
Palompon Week 2 (7/5/2010)
Dad~
WOWWW. I'm so proud of you!! :) I'm so happy to read your email. How many emails have you sent before that one?! Am I one of the very first people to get to receive an email from you? :)
We had a very eventful fourth of July. It was stake conference. So all of the members who wanted to go rented a bus and driver and the whole bus was full of us members heading to the stake center. (We are in a stake, not a district, but the area I am in is a branch.)
We had a pretty bad week actually! Sis. Farnworth and I don't understand it. We were punted pretty much three days in a row. Lots of things happened that were unexpected. o.O But we got a couple new investigators, so we're happy. :) In a way, I feel this is a step up in my mission experience. I've had much more ups and many more downs in the first week here than before. Hahaha.
There are still put-puts here. But there's a different kind of put-put here, but the idea is the same. We are still near the ocean, but it feels like a lot more of Hilongos was really near the ocean. Only a community or two is here near the ocean. Palompon seems bigger than Hilongos. There also seems to be a much bigger difference between the rich and the poor here. :S There are a lot of nice houses in one area, but the other areas are all bamboo.
This seems to be the order of poorest to richest houses here in the Philippines:
Bamboo
Cement
Cement with PAINT!
Even the nicest houses are made with cement, but then they have lots of stuff that makes it look really nice. Like paint and plants and a car. haha.
My companion is Sis. Farnworth. She's from Utah. :P She has a fraternal twin back home.
My mission president is President Malit. He's from Luzon, the top islands in the Philippines. That basically means that he speaks Tagalog. He doesn't know very much Cebuano. :P He and his wife served in the same mission, so I think that's where they first met each other. He's going to be my mission president for the whole mission. His mission ends in July 2011, which is the transfer after I go home. We had a meeting with him on Sunday, and he was such a joker! He tried speaking ghetto American because he was teasing an Elder. I'm a lot taller than him and his wife. :P haha.
How's your Book of Mormon reading!?
AH GOTTA GO. TIMERR. :S
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~the end~
Palompon Week 1
Eva~
I got my scriptures back! They're SO COOL LOOKING!! So neat and nice and book-ish. YAY.
Emily~
I have foot tan lines! It looks really weird!
Do well in school!
Jessie~
Cafe rio is amazing. :P The best one to eat there is the pulled pork burrito. YUMMY!
Katie~
I'm so happy for you!! <33 :)
Mom & Dad~
How's your Book of Mormon reading? :D:D
So we're in the internet cafe now and I have some news. I transferred! You could probably tell because of the title of my email. Hahahaha. I am now in Palompon, which is Sis Dustin and Sis Malicdem's previous area. Sis Dustin was actually transferred and so I arrived here. I'm with the missionary that she was training. ;) Her name is Sis Farnworth. Sometimes members call her Fireworks.
Palompon has some definite differences from Hilongos. One is that there is a brown out in the area pretty much every single day. The only difference is how long or when it will occur. This email is actually a day late beeeeeeeeeeeecause we had a brown out from about 2 pm until about 9:30 pm. So we wanted to email earlier today after our missionary meeting/reporting on Tuesdays.But there was another brown out. haha. And actually while we taught a lesson today. I was just thinking how loud the neighbors were with their music and how difficult it would be to feel the spirit during a lesson. About 5 minutes later, a brown out came on. Hahaha. The lesson went well. Then during the closing prayer, the electricity came back on. :P Hahaha
Sister Malicdem was actually talking a lot about Palompon when she first arrived in Hilongos. She made it sound like a magical place. And then Sis Dustin at the transfer meeting just kept talking about how she didn't want to leave. And that she wanted to be able to transfer back someday. :P (Even though she's been in that area for 7.5 months already) So basically, I've heard myths and legends and now I am coming to see if they are really true or not.
We have a LOT more investigators here than I was working with. There are a lot that are on different levels on their "spiritual journey" so to speak. Our neighbor Sherma, is actually a GREAT investigator. She feels that everything we teach is true. She asks so many questions so she can understand and she wants to be baptised but she is getting persecuted to the max from her Born Again church. Her pastor has told her this week that he wants to join in on the lessons, but we're not sure if his intention is to learn or to try to attack us. (He's been pastor for over 50 years... so that's intense hahaha) :P But Sherma is really smart, so she understands that he might have a ulterior motive. Hopefully we'll be able to meet him as a person willing to understand and be understood.
I've felt the spirit SO much more during lessons now and during the day. Part of it is being the senior companion I think. The other part is because I'm trying to be more obedient as well. I'm getting on really well with Sis. Farnworth. She's actually really good about being an example of a good missionary. I feel like she's helping me be my best. :)
KK, I gotta go. Love you all!!
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~the end~
Hilongos Week 24
Hello my family and friends!!
Eva~
I didn't really notice anything about the de-worming pill. Life just went on as normal.
I'm so HAPPY you have a room fixed up for me. It might get dusty from waiting for me to visit it though. :P
Daddy~
Happy Father's Day!!
Other news~
Our investigator, Floramae got married this week! :D Beforehand with the other missionaries, she had wanted to be baptised, but didn't want to get married. So now after we followed up, they planned to get married! =O I took pictures of them. :) It was simple, but sweet! She actually works at the computer shop that we're at right now.
We also had that companionship exchange that had me so worried. :P It was actually pretty fun being the "mommy". I taught everything that I could to Sis. Schnider about grammar that I learned in the mission field, because her companion now is a native, so she probably doesn't get a lot of correcting.
Is it true that Obama instituted social medicine? o_O Sis Schnider was rather enraged about it.
The attitude here in the Philippines is very different than America. Usually you are invited into their house if you knock on their door. Back home, if missionaries knocked on doors, it would be very rare that someone would let you in! So as a matter of fact, it's not too difficult to find new investigators. We just don't know who's just being kind, or is really interested in what we're teaching. :S
Our Mission President, President Malit is instituting a new program in each area. The missionaries are to organize a "Branch Mission!" So instead of only having 1 missionary companionship in each area, there will be lots! Starting next week, we're going to have trainings every week for the branch missionaries. So we'll have to come up with something new every week to teach them about how to do missionary work. :)
Transfers are this week! Now they're going to announce who is transferring tomorrow at 5 pm. Gaah! They keep delaying it every transfer! The suspense it the worst part. I've been here 6 months in Hilongos, so I will probably transfer. But who knows, I might inherit Sis. Holden's record of 8 months in one area. She was my mission mommy after all. :S
I got my scriptures rebound, so I'm waiting to get them back from the APs (Assistant to the President). So now I'll have Old Testament, New Testament, Triple, and Appendix/Index and Preach My Gospel in separate books. :P It'll be great for studying without having to turn pages all the time from cross referencing.
Love you all~ I started the BoM again while I'm waiting for my scripture set to come back from the office. So now I'm in 1 Nep 15. :)
How's your reading going?
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~the end~