ATTACHED VIDEO IS ME EATING BALUT, A BOILED FERTILIZED DUCK EGG. (Didn't attach the video in the blog, but still thought I'd let you know what we do for fun here.)
Hello po! Kamusta po kayo? (Hello, how are you?)
This week has been interesting to say the least. I had to say goodbye to my first trainer, Sister Bagalay, and hello to my followup trainer Sister Hermosa. The work was been hard this week, as we adjust to working with each other and discovering how well we know the area. Luckily we have not gotten lost yet but there have been some meandering paths.
Sister Hermosa is an English Teacher for Koreans. She decided on that career to help her overcome her fear of speaking, and I truly admire her for her courage. She has a sweet soul and a caring heart, we get along quite well. We have similar interests, ranging from drawing, similar movie tastes and general outlook on life. Sister Hermosa likes to say that I will be fluent by next cycle (By the end of this 6 weeks) so we will just have to see how well I keep speaking my language. I'm honestly surprised by how much I know, since Sister Hermosa is soft spoken I have been talking more in the lessons and just in life in general. I have been improving, but I feel like it's more me trusting in the Lord and less me actually knowing the language! The Lord truly can do wonders once we show our trust in Him!
Fun language fact, in Illocono (the village language here) Apo Diyos |(meaning 'our God') is pronounced 'ah-po d-yo-s' or "apple juice." That's basically the only work I know in Illocono so it'll sound like gibberish with the word apple juice mixed in every now and then. At first it really threw me off hearing apple juice over and over.
This week, while we were meeting with our Investigator Lorenzo we realized that we had written the scripture wrong! The scripture we had written down didn't exist! Luckily we had prepared and were able to find a different scripture that fit his needs. It was quiet funny as we just sat there in shock that we had both written the scripture wrong!
It's fun teaching lessons, and I'm learning new ways to teach, as well as teaching Sister Hermosa the acronyms I've learned like SAKIT. (tagalog for sickness)
S-sigarilio (ciggarets) sig-are-rill-lee-oh
A-alak (alcohol) a-lack
K- kape (coffee) ka- pay
I- Illigal na druga (illigal drugs) illigal, na droh-ga
T- tsaa (tea) cha-ah
Patience is going through trials with a cheerful attitude and trust in God. Patience has been my biggest trial this week, mostly with myself. Apparently I have a low red blood cell count and that coupled with not eating enough green leafy veggies (I have been eating veggies just not green leafy ones because I'm not good friends with salad) has led to me being quite sick this week. Luckily we have some amazing Elders in our area and I was able to receive a blessing of healing. In the blessing I was told that I would be healed. The next day I felt better, I wasn't sick, but i still felt weak. By the afternoon I got sick of being sick and decided that if I was going to get better I needed to go and do the Lord's work. Trusting in the Lord and in the blessing I received made it so I would teach, go to church, and now- Monday- I feel one hundred percent better. I'm truly blessed to be apart of this gospel and to have the true power of God (the priesthood authority by which I was blessed) to bless and guide me in my life.
This Sunday we had 71 members present, which is more than any other Sunday last year! Its exciting to see the ward strengthening and progressing. We are blessed to see many less active members become fully active again and to see some investigators progressing in their faith. An example of this growing faith is Tatay Leonardo. (tatay meaning a respectful name for an older male) The first time we met with him he was struggling in his faith and in keeping the commitments he had made at his baptism back in the 90's. This week when Sister Hermosa and I visited him we saw him in the window of his house and he was reading the Book of Mormon! It made me so happy to see that he was reading on his own, despite how hard it is for him to see.
This upcoming Thursday- our Zone conference- is our Zone leader's birthday so we are trying to sneakily set up a quick party for him. The STL's, Sister Hermosa, and I are splitting the fare for a cake and our district leader (our district is us, the DL, his companion and the two ZLs)
All and all it was a hard week, for me personally, but I have grown so much and will continue to grow, as will this area.
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