Also, last week I forgot to mention a little story. So anyways, while we were out working a member of the ward stopped on a tricey and had a little conversation with us. My companion talked to him a little bit in Cebuano and this random guy said something about having known some Cebuano sisters a few years ago here. We started talking to him a little and like everyone else here he said "Wow, you're VERY tall. How old are you?" I said "I'm 18 but I'm turning 19 on November 17" After that he told me that that's HIS birthday and he insisted on proving it to us with his license or something.
Basically, the fact that we had the same birthday got us into the conversation with this guy named Edmond. It turns out that he had been taking lessons with some sisters that were in this area a few years ago, but was diagnosed with breast cancer, which I take is rare for men. Anyways, he said it kind of got in the way of his learning but he's been reading the Book of Mormon again more recently and might want to learn again. So I just thought that was a short cool story from last week that I forgot to mention.
Monday -
After the zone activity we did our normal schedule of washing clothes, cleaning, etc. and that was all.
Tuesday -
This Tuesday we had our district council in the morning. For this council, both the Zone Leaders and STL's also came. I guess they rotate which areas they visit weekly and we'll see them like once a month. Also the STL's were super slow and late which is funny because they're both Filipino. It was a nice way to reinforce the "Filipino time" stereotype.
After that, we had another lesson with our investigator Carmelita about the word of wisdom and luckily she doesn't seem to struggle with the standards very much either. Also, this is the same investigator that we've had potential baptism issues with because she's "remarried" but not legally remarried. We talked to the mission president about it and apparently in the Philippines divorce is illegal, so if people separate from their original spouse and have been with a new person (even if they're not legally married) for at least 5 years they can be baptized. So, as of right now, there looks like there might be a good outlook on the situation.
Following our lesson with Carmelita we went and shared another lesson with Renzlly Pasucal. It was about the 10 commandments and it was good because she was familiar with some of them and very open to following them.
Once we finished that lesson as well, we met up with the other elders and headed over to the house of some members that offered to cook for us. They made adobo (chicken that tastes pretty good but has a ton of bones so it's actually pretty hard to get much meat out of it), fish (which neither Elder Butler or I are fans of ), pork something (it was basically strange cuts of pork that I didn't recognize that was cooked with banana; I ate a banana cause they told me to and I was being nice and it tasted gross lol), bananas (which I eat a ton of every time I get the chance because it's one of the few healthy things we can regularly find, and okra (the vegetable that's green; I also ate a ton of this because we rarely have vegetables and I feel like I'm missing out on calories and nutrition). It was a pretty good time I guess and we talked to them for a while.
Wednesday -
On Wednesday, we woke up and left by 9:00 to go help with some service we volunteered for during church on Sunday. Us and some of the elders were going to help with a house that got the roof ripped off by the typhoon. We got there and in all honesty, for us missionaries, there wasn't much for us to do. All the men of the ward were doing work on the roof which we aren't allowed to do. We basically were hanging around there until like 1:00 and during that whole time only lifted up like 2 pieces of wood and talked a lot to the father of the family.
Finally when we got home, both Elder Butler and I really badly needed to go to the bathroom. After we went, we both just needed to go around every 15 minutes. There was no way either of us could leave the apartment to get back to work. It was really bad. The rest of the night we "rested" and tried to stay near a bathroom.
Thursday -
This was basically a complete sick day. We did pretty much nothing but stay at the apartment. Also, the symptoms that I had increased over night. I didn't just have diarrhea but had a headache, fever, vomited, had a rash, and overall just felt weak and light headed. We also never really found out what caused the sickness of both Elder Butler and I.
Oh also a little later in the day we went to the church and saw a lot of the YSA and youth. Out here we shake hands ALL the time. Now I'm not just saying like the normal amount that missionaries do, but it's excessive. Before church on Sundays we legitimately shake every hand in the congregation because our Filipino trainers do too. Anyways, as we were talking to some of the members on Thursday night we asked them about it and basically they kind of think that handshaking here is something you do if you're a member of the church. It's funny because I think that they're under the impression that it's almost required and Elder Butler and I told our companions about how we don't necessarily need to shake every single persons had before church if we're not going to even talk to them.. but I don't think the practice is going to be stopped any time soon.
Friday -
This is our final sick day.. we did absolutely nothing truly. The mission nurse (I guess is what she doubles as) Sister Snyder kept checking up on our symptoms through text. She basically had diagnosed us with a "cold" even though our symptoms don't seem to align with that assumption.
Saturday -
This was the day that we started doing a little bit again. Also we watched the Saturday of session of conference this day, but before, Elder Viador and I went out and did a little work with our investigators since we've been away for so long.
First, we gave a lesson to Joylene and Renzlly about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. Apparently Renzlly like to drink coffee but she's content with only drinking milk and this chocolate drink called Milo and Joylene is all good too.
After the lesson we went to the church to watch conference. It's so nice there because we have A/C now. Anyways, conference was really good and it seemed like the Saturday session had a lot to do with family and families. It seems a little hard to apply it's teaching since I'm leaving my family for two years, but it was good. Also, it was so nice to hear the gospel in English rather than a language I still don't understand at all.
Once conference got done at around 4:00-ish we headed back to the house of Renzlly because she invited us back over for her Aunt's birthday kind of. So it was nice and we got food there. After that, we went and caught up with the recent converts Trickia and Rhea, and that was basically the day.
Sunday -
Once again we watched conference much of the day. All of the talks were really good and for some reason I really liked the one by Elder Neil L. Andersen about trials. Another cool thing was that we had a pretty decent number of our investigators attend the conference session, but yeah.. that seems like that was it.
Also, later after we were back at our apartment at like 8:30 Elder Butler screamed loud cause of a bug (like usual) but our neighbors threw a rock across the fence towards us. Everyone here goes to sleep super early and apparently throwing a rock is a way to tell your neighbor to be quiet.. which I think is kind of funny.
Monday -
Today's p-day has been pretty active and crazy already. We woke up at like 5:30 to meet up with all the other members of the zone in order to go caving since our zone leader Elder Willoughby is leaving back home in a couple weeks. We traveled like an hour away and went and "explored" a cave with a "tour guide."
Basically, we showed up to this place and payed them some money to guide us through the cave. We went to the back of this place and we all hopped in these little canoes to go into the cave. I was sketched out because all the other canoe experiences I've had in my life usually have them flipping over, and I wasn't super excited to flip into a Filipino river with my camera. Anyways, we rode in the boats (and didn't flip) and went back into this cave which was really pretty cool. There was also a ton of bats and bat poop. Anyways, we got to the entrance and started the journey.
To summarize this, I'm just going to say that this little hike thing probably wouldn't be legal in America. It included lots of climbing on slippery rocks, climbing through very claustrophobic tunnels and crevices, not seeing very well in the dark, and getting super muddy. There were some places that I'm even surprised I made it through. Often it was so dark and we were crawling up and around touching the muddy rocks and everything we couldn't see. I don't even want to think about all the spiders and centipedes and things that I touched. Anyways, near the end, there we all went through this exit call the "cave challenge" and it was a super tight space that got me super dirty, gave me a couple cuts on my knee, and was just kind of sketchy. I kind of regret doing it a little to be honest.
Anyways, the caving experience was cool and very scary, but I'm glad that I did most of it. I probably would have been sketched out to do a lot of stuff like this at home, but I'm sure it's a once in the lifetime opportunity I can't miss in the Philippines. Afterward, the whole district ate at this abnormally decent pizza place, and now I'm about to continue on with the rest of my preparation day.
Pictures -
The pictures should include our district council with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, pictures with me and a monkey that was a little scary to get next to (which is saying a lot considering all the crazy angry dogs that bark and run towards us on the regular), a tricey picture, a Filipino "hamburger" (it's also like the size of have of a index card), a picture inside a Jeepney with the zone, and then a whole bunch of pictures from the caving experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment