Easter in the Philippines

Wowsa, lots of questions.  So we’ll start with Easter. Oh my goodness, do they have Easter here or what. Except for it’s not just Easter, it’s the entire holy week. The biggest day being Friday where everything is closed…as in, everything! And there’s plays and processions with the entire bayan walking/parading down the highway for miles with a ton of reboltos and statues of saints. Pretty crazy. Pretty much patay sa work. Ha. Definitely a religious holiday though. None of that Easter bunny stuff. Did notice David Archuleta in the choir actually. You pick up on those things when you’re in a country that seriously idolizes him.  There’s still toilet paper here. Just depends on if you want to buy it. Me, of course, would prefer to pay the 20 pesos.

Dina and Anthony’s baptism date is in May. Not for a while. But can I just say, Dina is incredible. You should just feel of her spirit. She has been preserved by Heavenly Father for right now. For reals though. Because of her life and background, she has never had the chance to be tainted by religion. That sounds bad, but here in the Philippines it ends up being a big problem with investigators because their perceptive lens is just too thick to break. Church meetings are of course in Tagalog. Not like the city. Most people here don’t understand English very well like they do in the city.  

So updates for the week. This week was good….holy week and religious holiday and Philippines….pretty much hard to be a missionary. But we made it through and things are still moving along here too. Conference was amazing. I got 2 themes out of it…family and being true disciples. Those were my two themes anyway. Oh yeah, and loved Elder Utchdorf’s, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently from you”. Classic, and all too true.  Also loved Rasbands, “if someone’s drowning, are you going to first ask them if they need help and wait for them to respond?”.  All too true.  I gotta be better at that. Just seeing the need (that’s my hardest part. You know I end up being oblivious and in my own world) and then acting.

 The person on highlight for this week is Sister Joseph. She’s one of my roommates and I just want to share her story with you. It’s pretty incredible. She’s from Pakistan; her family was baptized a year ago and she decided to serve a mission. She got her call to serve and her entrance date for the MTC was December. This is in September. On September 25, she got a call from the district president telling her they moved up her entrance date and they wanted her to be in the Philippines on Sept. 26. Yes, you read that correctly…the next day. So she called her job, she was the branch manager of a huge distribution company in Pakistan, quit her job. Called her family to let them know she had training that night. Went to the training, got home about 1 a.m. Had to leave the next morning to be in a city 2 hours away to get her paperwork and such ready. Still hasn’t seen her family at this point. Gets her paperwork, and everything figured out. They give her a little money to buy 1 skirt and 2 shirts for her mission because of course the clothes in Pakistan are way different. And they drive her straight to the airport. Luckily her family was there so she got to see them for 2 minutes before her flight left. Are you dying, because I was dying when I heard it. And you know what, she goes, it’s ok, it’s my call and if that’s what He wants, I’ll do it. Talk about faith. So crazy. And get this also, she has a fiance. Arranged marriages in Pakistan, right. They’ve been engaged for 5 years now. And he’s not a member. Remember her family are just recent converts. So she’s scared to go back because she has a fiance waiting for her that she has to marry, no choice, and he wants nothing to do with Mormonism. Oh my goodness.  And sometimes we think our problems are big. Reality check for me of how blessed I am. None of my so called problems are even close to that. So that’s the story for the week.  Mahal ko kayo and sana maganda ang spring ninyo doon….nakakasunog pa ako ditto. Haha. Love you all!! Bye!