Stories

Holy cow, bombardment of emails but I loved every second of it! Apparently everyone hates Nigerians and everyone loves Ghana? Sounds like it. haha, Funny just to see the cultural tensions that you'd just have no idea about unless you experienced it. Ry emailed me and I know exactly what he's talking about. It's like you're stranded all the sudden, stripped of everything. He'll adjust. Our prayers are with him.  Keep sending Ryan's emails. Then I can send him a quick update or encouragement if I need to. Salams!

So I have like 10 minutes to whip this out, but I’ll do my best of course. First for questions: Girl from Washington is now in the MRC (the missionary medical center) with severe clinical depression and may just be headed home yet. We haven't got any updates, so we'll see what happens this week. So no running companion. Ha. Least of the problems there. And do I have Justin Beiber...please. Of course. pretty sure almost everything he's produced (had to put that in there for twit :). but none of his new stuff obviously.  Today's been a super irritating day. My zone leaders are driving me crazy. Have been for 6 months now.  Blugh. I'll get over it though. I just need someone to vent to. Sister Shumway and I could vent and we didn't judge each other. The people I’m with in my house right now and my companion, anti-venters, they just judge. I think Americans just have this philosophy of "speak your mind and it's ok", whereas the philippino mind set is, "just sacrifice yourself and don't say anything". Drives me crazy…makes me feel like I'm reverting back to my high school self where I have no opinion or don't say anything. Grrrr…enough of that. Time for story telling! 

I don't know if I’m gonna get this all in, but I'll try. 

1: Lady with the purple lace bra. Bahaha. so we're in the jeepney the other day and this old lady, probably 75 ish, totally grandma age, is wearing this purple lacy bra. And I know this because her shirt is baggy and draping down so you can see everything. And this is an OLD granny, ps. saw it and didn't even think of thing of it. Then it hit me about a minute later how ridiculously funny and totally not normal that is. Bahahaha. But normal here. Seriously the funniest thing ever. I'm just used to it now I guess.

2: So there's this 80 year old Tatay that was just baptized last July and seriously he's the funniest thing ever. He works with the missionaries, usually about 4-5 times a week just because he loves sharing the gospel. And he works the whole day too; no breaks, just hiking up mountains and no complaints from him. But He has quite the past....6 wives, "wife" meaning live in, he was never married to any of them, and 30 children! Yes, you read that correctly, 30 children. Haha. When he told me that, I just about died…also had almost every vice in the book. But the cool part of this is, when he was 79, he met the missionaries and changed his life around. Just a huge testimony that the Lord doesn't give up on ANYONE. When you see those people where they've been like that their whole life, I always think, there's no way they're changing now. Wrong. Just a huge testimony, if you don't

believe someone can change, then you don't believe in the atonement. God doesn't give up on anyone. Also, he carries around a sniffer stick, you know, that has the mentholatum to clear your nostrils. Bahaha, reminded me of our trip to Nauvoo with Grandma Bennett. I just started laughing. 

3. So our investigator, Bro Andy. just found  last week. He'd really been struggling with his life and he's knelt down and prayed to ask God to know what he should do. About an hour later, we showed up at his door. Not even kidding you. And you wanna know the funny thing; when we went there, there was never a moment of, ok, knock on this door, this is the right one. Just made me remember a talk from Elder Bednar where he said, "most of the time, you won't feel the spirit guiding you. Just be a good boy or a good girl, and you'll be where you need to be when you need to be there". So true. He started the BofM a few weeks ago. He's in Alma 30. Yep.

4. So this area has been the area of water issues…broken faucets with water flooding the apartment (haha, that was hilarious), broken filters, and just simply not having any water. Let me just tell you, we had a day without water, just one day, and wowsa, never so appreciative of the fact that we can just turn on a faucet and have water on-demand. Definitely not something I've ever though to appreciate before. I appreciate it now. 

5. So this just in this week. Did you know that the 10 commandments they teach with the Catholics is different from the Bible? Yep, new to me. But they worked it out so there's still 10, so no worries. How does that even work? Haha. The devil is so sly. 

Ok, that's all. I gotta write a letter to pres. now and I have no idea what to report on. Shoot. Ha. I love you all and I'll talk to you soon. Have a fantastic week!!!