February 22, 2010 Week 7 Hilongos

AHHH! I lost all of my email because of... circumstances. Halaaaaaa. D:
Oh well. Time to start over.

Hello my family and friends<3

I am still in Hilongos as you can see by my email title!
As for my title, I'm not sure if I should call it week 7 or week 16?
to include the weeks I was in the MTC.

I INCLUDED PICTURES! HOORAY! Rainbow, me and the church, my first
zone, me & s. holden in a put-put, etc etc.

S. Taunan is my new companion. She is such an enthusiastic
missionary. She also speaks English well, so we don't have problems
communicating. (It's still hard to listen to Cebuano! They speak so
fast / have so many words!) Nanoy said that the there aren't jokes in
the Philippines? It makes sense to me though, because I tried telling
them jokes a couple of times, and they didn't laugh. I don't think
they know about the concept of a punchline. But S. Taunan's really a
joker in her own way. She says things that aren't true, and then ends
with "just a joke!" Like, that she's from Utah, or that I have a twin
sister at home (who is the one in my family pictures :P) or that she's
only 16 years old. She's fun. :)
She's also really hardworking. She hurt her foot a couple of days ago
but is still limping about. I forced her to go back home last night
to rest her foot because it was night and there wouldn't be any more
put-puts to drive us around. She said "Endure to the end!" and I
said "Do not run faster than you have strength!" She was saying
"ouch" every 10 yards or so, so I took it upon myself to be the health
enforcer for the evening.

On that note I wrapped her foot up in a elastic bandage because she
said it would start swelling, and told her to elevate it. She did so
with no comment, but when I tried to give her a cold compress she
said: "What are you doing?!" I said it helps to keep it from
swelling. She said she didn't need it because a member had put some
herbs on her foot. I gave her a disbelieving look and she laughed.
This is where Philippino and American medicine clash.
We have a lot of fun though.

I keep getting ripped off because I'm white. D: Some trike drivers
(The picture of the street has a trike on it. A motorcycle with a
frame for passengers to sit in) like to overcharge when I pay because
I'm white, so they assume I'm american and rich and its okay to
overcharge when they're rich, right? >_< Same with buying things in a
market. I think for the most part, people are honest though.
What makes me feel really bad though is the people who assume that I'm
rich so they put out their hand to ask for a hand-out. It's usually
really old people or young children. So I feel really bad, but I'm
not supposed to give out money as a missionary, and personally I would
rather give them food than money.

Feliciana came to church! But she left after sacrament. :(
Christopher and Janice are still really good investigators. They're
so buotan. (kind) and they look forward to our appointments.
This week I want to focus on finding investigators through members.
Our best investigators that I've been talking about are all from
members! Feliciana is an exception, but real missionary work and real
progress comes when the members are involved in teaching their
friends! I feel like I know how to be a much better member now than
ever. I can see and understand the reason behind home and visiting
teaching, and how missionaries need the help of members! It makes me
want to become BETTER. AH so excited. :)

Alma 26:27 And when our hearts were depressed, God promised to give us success

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~the end~