Questions Answered:)

kumusta!!!

 holy hannah, this key board is awful and falling apart so the spelling problems are probably going to be multiplied this week :) Anyway, how are you all! I've finally figured out how I want to schedule my time with this thing so hopefully I can get it all in.

So last time after I emailed you I realized I totally didn't answer any of your questions. So that's first....question answering time. Yes, we live with another set of sisters. There's 4 of us in the house in total. Only one of us is Philippina, sister Lorente and I stinking love her. She's hilarious. The other one is sister Nielson from Orem UT and she's so great too. We have way too much fun together :)

The temple session is in English. Everything is in English here; well, a lot of it anyway. Which is really annoying when we have investigators come to church and then they can't understand anything because it's in English. It drives me absolutely crazy. If I'm called to teach in Tagalog, then church should be done in Tagalog. It's hard because there's a really big economic gap in the wards. There's a lot of really really rich people and then a lot of really poor people. So it makes it really hard, especially with investigators, because a lot of the leadership are the well off ones so they are all magaling in English. It's weird how it works.

Yes, we have a fridge. You have to have a fridge in this place because everything that you open has to go in there because if not, it's so humid that it ruins your food. So bread goes in there, flour, sugar, even oatmeal. Anything that can collect moisture has to go in the fridge. Crackers, cookies, you name it. I have no idea if things ever really get stolen from people's houses. It doesn't seem like that's a big problem, but I have no idea. As for the number of lessons per day....our numbers have been really off for the past couple weeks with me being sick and then temple day and then transfer week for the first week. But usually, it's about 4-5 lessons. Lessons are longer here because people just like to BS. They definitely sent me to the right place :) our numbers have been really low lately though. It's been hard because it's my companion’s last transfer and she's working on planning her wedding right now. Yep. so she's not exactly the most gung-ho if you know what I mean. And I don't know the area or the language well enough to do anything about it. It's super annoying but I'm trying to work on it. We haven't really done much tracting. Most of the people we teach we find through less active members or from member referrals. Which are both great avenues. I want to do more OYMing (open your mouth) but I'm still so horrible at the language. I can spit out what I want to say, it's just really slow and really simplistically worded. On a good day I can understand about 60 percent of what they say to me.

Support money: we get 4000 pesos every 2 weeks, which is about 80 dollars. Most of our support goes to transportation for jeepneys and tricycles and such. It's funny though because when you convert it into us dollars, everything is so dirt cheep here. Five apples is 50 pesos, which is about a dollar. Or a pair of shoes is 100 pesos, which is about 2.50. But we operate on a peso budget, not a us dollar budget, so we still don't have oodles of money.

Yes, we have a cell phone. The philippines is called the texting capital of the world and it's so true. Everyone texts here because it's so much more expensive to call and texting is dirt cheap. We use to remind investigators about church, set up appointments, communicate with other missionaries, etc. it's really nice to have but kind of weird to have one after not having one for 2  months.

I asked about using the picture sight. I was told it was bawal. So I'm trying to upload some pictures today. Hopefully they'll send. It's hard to take pictures here because they tell you not to look like a tourist and I already stick out like a sore thumb so that doubles the problem. I'm trying though, promise.

As for sending things....really the only thing I can think of is more hydrocortizone anti-itch cream. I've been needing to use a lot. All of us in the house have this weird thing going on where there are bumps all over our skin that seriously itch like crazy. I can't even tell you. They're all over my feet and it's spread to my hands now too. And I just noticed yesterday that the bumps have these little puss bubbles in them and if I scratch hard enough they burst and become like little sores. Talk about weird. Don't worry, we went to see the doctor after 5 days of this and the only thing he could tell us was, don't scratch. Why thank you, that's genius. So glad I consulted an MD for such great advice. Haha. It was frustrating. But I’m hoping it will go away soon because it's talking all the self control I possess. So yeah, that's about all I can think of.

ok, spiritual moment for this week. So on Saturday we were able to take our investigators to a temple tour. We rented a jeepney and drove us all to the temple and it was so great. They have stations there where they talk about recommends, forever familiies, ordinances and such and it was just so great. It was fun to explain to our investigators what they temple is all about. I love showing them how much happiness they can have. It makes my day. One of our investigators friends decided to come and afterwards I was asking her how she liked it and she said she just started crying and she didn't know why. Yes, that's the spirit :) it was awesome. We just started teaching her yesterday and we're going to go meet her family tomorrow so hopefully....

So I've decided I'm totally going to get fatter, not skinnier in this place. Everything here is meat, carbohydrates, or sugar. Oh, and everything's fried. It's disgusting for my body. So much for loosing weight here. haha. I tried my first halo-halo this week though. The name literally means, mix mix. This is what's in it. crushed ice, sweet and condensed milk, jack fruit, a weird ice cream thing called uve-uve, coconut, bananas, jello, these weird jelly things, beans (like, as in black beans), and a wafer stick. Weirdest combination in the world. haha. but surprisingly, actually pretty good. But it's sugar and since when have I ever been opposed to sugar? :)

So there are 2 sisters here that are from Pakistan, how freaking cool is that. They read my palms for me and predict my life. It's the coolest thing ever. Today they taught me a song in Urdu. One is from Islamabad and the other is from southern Pakistan close to kashmir. I told them if they didn't think I'd get killed, I wanted to come visit them in Pakistan. They said, perfect come visit after the mission! They're so great. The one from Islamabad said there are about 3,000 members in her area. How freaking awesome is that. I was surprised, but so cool. I've been just picking their brains :)

So one of the families we are teaching is called the Puod family. The mom and dad are both members but inactive. This is the weird cultural note for you....the mom is in Dubai for the next 2 years working abroad. That happens all the time here. One or both of the parents will just up and leave to get a job out of the country. It's the saddest thing ever. These kids need a mom and you can tell brother puod is just lost right now. She only left a month ago. Last night we taught our investigator that is deaf. We figured out what his church was and he starts signing about purgatory and 666 and all this weird stuff. I felt like I'd stepped into a dan brown book. Needless to say, we taught him the plan of salvation :) They have some really weird church beliefs here and such. There's one church here called "iglesia ni jesucristo". Spanish. But, this is the weird thing. It started here in the philippines....so iglesia, is church in spanish and if you translate the rest of it "ni jesucristo" means 'without christ' in spanish, but in Tagalog "ni" means of, so it would be "of christ". So I can't figure out what their name is even. But they're really popular here and they have some weird beliefs. They're taught not to talk to mormons though. And they even have a temple here in the city. It's huge. Another weird church situation. we have a recent convert who's house was donated by another church, but in order to stay in the house they have to go to church at that church at least 2 a month. So they can't come to church all the time. And then there's another church where you have to pay a fine if you don't come every week. It is honestly the weirdest thing.

One problem that I've had is that people are religious here, but it's a complacent religiousness. They want to be members, but they only want to go to church if they want to, not all the time, or they only want to follow the word of wisdom if they feel like it. It's so hard. And it's also hard because a ton of members are inactive. So when you're teaching someone with inactive parents, it's like there's this precidence that's been set that it's ok to half-a it. pardon the french. I don't know how else to describe it. It's so hard because I don't know how to get across that they have to endure to the end. That's just as important, if not more important than actually getting baptized.

It's really hard.

Cultural insights for the week:

1- there is no cheese here that is actually real cheese. the only kind of cheese they have is processed. So picture the little cheese slices that grandma has you know, and squish it all together into a block and that's what cheese is like. Pretty much disgusting. I feel bad for them that they have never known the joy of sitting with a block of real gossner's cheese. mmm. Don't you worry though, I have been faithful in taking  my  calcium pills so I haven't been craving dairy like at all. Good thing because it's not really an option here.

2- rain here is nuts. When it comes down, it REALLY comes down. like pouring rivers in the streets that are 6 inches deep and pounding so hard you can't hear anything. Yes, we've technically had one typhoon while I've been here. They call them bagyos. They basically just really hard rain though for a lot of day and wind. nothing even that bad at all. it's weird too because you can tell when it's going to rain....it will get SOOO stinking hot, and then it will just dump. so crazy.

3- they have whitener in all their skin products. You have to be really careful when you get soap so that it doesn't have whitner in it. Weirdest thing ever… don't they know people lay in tanning beds and get skin cancer to have skin like theirs? One of the ironies of life I guess; we all want what we don't have.

4-  the telephone wires and electric wires are out of control here. Haha. it's hilarous. Just picture a big knot of string hanging between poles and that's what they look like. absolute mess. They have people called "jumpers" too that will steal electricity from other people. Wouldn't be that hard. There's no way you could sort through all the cables to figure out where they all go to.

Ok, to answer the missionary work blesses everyone thing.....I feel like missionary work has blessed me because for the first time I feel like I really am starting to understand what's most important in life. The most important things are just becoming a better person, loving those around us, and our families. It's hard because I feel like my emotions totally ride on someone else's agency, whether they'll decide to come to church or read the Book of Mormon; but when they actually do, it's the most rewarding feeling in the world because I know that it's something that will bring lasting happiness. So I feel like I've been blessed just to see how it's blessing the lives of others.

I'm going to try and upload some pictures now. We'll see how it goes. oh yeah! and this is how mail works....we have mail runs every 2 weeks so anything that you send with dear elder or through snail mail we get then. So we had mail day today and I got your dear elder and the one you sent snail mail. So I'm thinking dear elder would probably just work the best because then it's guaranteed to be there within the 2 weeks where as you never really know with snail mail. That's what I’m thinking, but who knows. so our next mail run is Sept 19. That's how it works. ok, out of time and this thing is LONG. yes, I got it all in :) Love you all so much. I'm so grateful for your support and love, you have no idea. Talk to you next week. Mahal na mahal kita!!