IN NAGA!

AHHHH I am in the Philippines! Can you believe it? Where to start? haha so much to tell! So the list of what is the same would be way shorter than the list of what is different in the Philippines lol.

So I am so sorry I was not able to call you in LA Kira! I was dialing your number no joke and using the phone card when some people in our group ran over and said... "THEY are closing the gates!". Apparently they board international planes an hour early. who would have known? So we booked it and ran to our gate and luckily got in.

On the plane I sat in the window seat next to a Japanese couple who spoke no English and that was a BIG realization for me. I kind of had a break down thinking.... how am I going to sit here for 11 hours in silence?! haha then I realized.. well this is what the Philippines will be like. I will not know what is going on or what people are saying (and I was right) haha. But they were nice and when they went to the bathroom I jumped out and went to the back to talk to other missionaries lol. Japan was sweet and I ate at a McDonalds there. And I got some Milky candy (: YUMMM! Just finished my last one the other day.

Then to Manila. Okay so I hardly slept on any of these travels and they fed us dinner when it was like 3 am in the US. It was the weirdest thing ever and my body was shaken up. Haha which caused for a lot of laughing on the plane lol But it was sweet.

Then once in Manila we went through customs.. started sweating like a pig already lol so HUMID! and then we were picked up and taken to this super nice hotel. Manila is very similar to the US. and then didn't get to sleep until 2:30am. We got up at 6 and left for our flight to Naga that left at 9:30! and it was this awesome little plane! When we were landing in Naga I was literally the happiest I have ever been! Like GLOWING from head to toe and my oh my it is so beautiful here!!!!!!

We were picked up by the Mission President, and then spent the rest of the day in the mission home. We were trained a bit, had interviews and then received an orange dot meaning we were leaving that day OR staying the night then leaving the next day. I had an .... Orange dot. aka left that day! So I met my kasama (companion) at the training and we hoped in a van to our area that night. Her name is Sister Morales and she is a Filipina from an island south of here. Her native language is Cebuano! She is so sweet and I just love her!

Woo... long long day. So I woke up to a rooster at 5 am and the at 5:30 by the cow mooing outside my window (I have named her Bessy) and a pile of ants by my face haha then we did the normal missionary stuff(companionship study, language study, personal study, breakfast- which was from a bread cart outside) and we had no food so we went to the market. I witness a tillapia fish be cut up and karate chopped... it was alive... and descaled. AHHHH haha i bet my face was so funny. and then we bought veggies and some necessities at some stores and the market in the street.

Oh yeah so we share a house with a Sister I knew in the MTC, Sister Farnes, and her companion, Sister Christiansen.... haha the girl whose blog I stocked so much before I came. lol I told her about it and she laughed. I love them. So we were at the market with them. Sorry this is such a novel. I have time and I am just telling it all. Or what I can.

Then yeah that night we went in the Bishops tricee (sp?) to an area called Salog which is like a 35 minute tricee ride (a tricee is a motor bike with a cart type thing attached to the side). This area is very poor, but the people are so sweet and I really enjoyed being there. We visited about 8 homes I think and a lot of them are Less active members. A lot of our work is with less actives and helping the ward be stronger. But yeah I cannot say much but I do what I can. The language is really hard.... I have cried everyday lol just because it is so hard to have someone say something and you can’t respond well or you don't know what they said. Sobra mahirap (so difficult). But I can do this... so many missionaries have!

So yeah I really love the people there! (: Our first lesson there were kids climbing trees, rooster and chickens squawking, and they have 12 kids so it was a little crazy but we did what we could. Most little little kids don't wear bottoms or pants here and some are so tiny ): It rips my heart out! But the people do what they can and most of them are able to have food at least once a day... it is so hard to see and it is so humbling.

The days are somewhat blurring together.. but I think you have a gist of what I have been up to haha. I will tell what comes to my mind now.... haha

so we had a mouse in our house.. I screamed when I saw it... haha and a cockroach, and 2 lizards, 100's of ants.. no matter how clean we are. 2 cows outside our window. and so many mosquitoes! I may have like 20 bites right now haha okay maybe only 10 but i still have them lol. OH MY GOSH one time.. like 2 days ago we were walking in the foresty area to one of our members and Sister Morales was like ahhh snake.. I almost stepped on it.......... and I screamed... but it was dead! haha literally though my heart stopped though. I'm pretty sure all the snakes are poisonous here but they usually stay out of the way. Lol Freaked me out... and we run in that area lol. \

Oh yeah so dogs are pets here... but also are not... like people don't really eat them in this area but they are STREET dogs... and cats! Like they are so mangled and nasty looking. They don't do anything to you though and most the time ignore you. It’s the dogs that are pets at people’s bahay (home) that bark. There is this one area where there are SO many dogs haha and we had these little boys walk with us to keep them away from us. Lol they just kept saying don't run.

Hmmm what else! Oh yeah so today I washed my clothes in a basin.. it takes so LONG! haha but it was a fun experience. They said my hands won’t be as raw next time lol. Haha we have so many clothes at our house so the landlord.. they lady next door made us a wire clothesline... it may have snapped and we had to rewash some of our clothes hahaha but we just laughed! So funny! Life happens lol.

Oh yeah I almost forgot... so I am like a celeb here. I have never been stared at so much in my life. A lot of the kids here have never seen a white person! Lol and they all love light skin. This little girl during a lesson yesterday kept rubbing my arm and saying "puti, puti" (white white). Haha ALL ages stare at me though! Like people turn their heads on jeepneys, tricees, when I walk past their home.. and I just smile a lot and say hello or kumusta. SOOO funny/kinda weird feeling everyones eyes on me, but I am getting used to it lol.

So it was service day Saturday and we cleaned up this one area that had a ton of weeds... oh yeah so everyone here just throws garbage wherever and it is so normal. So we were wedding.. around garbage, and kind of cleaning up the garbage, but mainly weeding. Oh my goodness fire ants hurt! haha I got several from pulling weeds, because we tore up their homes. I honestly am just embracing all the bites I have (: they don't hurt now.

Oh my goodness such a neat experience yesterday. We taught this less active family yesterday about eternal marriage and we challenged them to choose a day to be sealed.. and there was silence for a while and the brother admitted he smokes cigarettes. My companion is so awesome and seriously I understood most of what she was saying and gave him comfort and promised that if he would quit the Lord would help him and he would be blessed. The Spirit was so strong and so much was said that I didn't catch, but I know they have a desire to work towards going to the temple and I hope they can receive the blessings of being sealed as a family for time and all eternity.

Sunday at church was awesome! The people are so sweet and I talked/ pretty much got up and bore my testimony and read some scriptures. They all say my Tagalog is good... but I don't believe it haha oh yeah! also they speak A LOT of Bicol in this region so a lot of the time they talk in Bicol not Tagalog.... haha I just laugh and say.... one day I will be able to talk! It seriously is one day at a time and with the Lord. I had a rough few days and still have! It is so hard to be sitting somewhere and be so lost in what is going on and I LOVE talking to people and getting to know them so it has been so hard not to be able to really, but I know that nothing is easy.

I was reading this talk that Sister Christensen gave me to read titled "Teach the Atonement" by Elder Holland and it said:

"It was not easy or painless for the Son of God Himself, of whom you are to testify. And if you are going to be His missionary, if you are going to declare His truth and His church, you cannot ask to avoid completely the pain that He felt, or the tears that He shed, or the sorrow that He saw"

That hit me like a ton of bricks! This is going to be and will always be hard work, but I KNOW that this is the truth that I share with people, I know that because of my struggles and tears, I WILL become closer to my Savior and I will be able to share His truth and word more effectively, even when I am not fluent in the language. It is through Christ's Atonement that we can be made clean, and the impossible can happen. I am so grateful to be here and it definitely is hard and things are different, but I know that the Lord called me here to teach these people and He knows what I can do.

I hope that things have been going well and please know I love you so so much! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and I know that through Christ we can live with our Father and families in Heaven again. I have to get going soon! But please know I send my love and prayers to you! I hope all is going well! Know I am happy and I may have written a lot about all the craziness and differences, but I am so happy and so glad I am here! Love you xoxoxox

A typical meal

The view from her window!

Her first companion, Sister Morales!