9/5/2016
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| My New Apartment (WITH SCREENS & NO BUGS OR WILD CATS) and my new companion. |
9/5/2016
Well, Howdy do?
I'm slowly but surely running out of catchy ways to begin these letters, but here goes. This has been a week. obviously, as it has been 7 days since I last emailed but... ok. So the Rainy season is officially over but no one has told the sky that and I hope no one does as it is still hecka hot. We've officially entered the 'brr' months (septembrrrr) so its supposed to get cold but it really just gets cold when it rains or when its dark. Or when its dark and raining. There is a phrase here in the Philippines that made me laugh. In America its 'fun in the sun' and here its 'comfy in the rain.' because it is much MUCH more habitable when its raining. Speaking of rain we had a terrific storm that tore branches off trees and I had a grand old time watching the storm while studying. It made me think of a question I got from Rochelle "What is the difference between a hurricane (or a typhoon) and a thunderstorm? I have to say thunderstorms are much more fun and typhoons have much more water. but that is besides the point.
The point is I thought I knew peanut butter. "We were raised together, I saw peanut butter just last week, same old peanut butter not a care in the world." (see if you can name that quote- and replace peanut butter with Ian) But the peanut butter here is AMAZING. Ya'll know the peanut butter girl scout cookies? the peanut butter tastes like that. I swear i'm gonna get fat off of it, its so good. When Sister cope (my MTC teacher said she got in trouble at the airport because she was trying to bring peanut butter home i thought she was crazy. Now I'M crazy. obviously i'm crazy, i just spent 7 sentences talking about peanut butter. I also apparently don't know how to spell peanut butter as the computer is putting little squiggly red lines under it so i can see how many times i wrote 'peanut butter.'
Ok so onto the actual week. I have no time. ever. its exhausting and we are working our tails off to get this area to progress. *Any RMs with ideas to help investigators want to go to church that already have fellow shippers and like taking lessons will be greatly appreciated* But I am simply loving it. I am as tired as a dog by the end of the day and almost fell asleep in my spaghetti the other day but its the best. Its truly me giving my everything to the Lord. I also happened to meet another American this week. He is Filipino by decent so he was visiting his family and just walked right up to us like "Ya'll are the Mormons aren't you?' in English and i was so taken aback and I realized how I cant speak English on demand. Apparently I keep speaking rapid English to my 3 Filipino housemates but i cant speak English to the actual fellow american. *face palm* He sadly wasn't interested he was just surprised to see an american and apparently his boss is american and his two sons have both served (one in the Philippines and one in Germany) Don't ask me why i found that relevant information to remember but i did. Its probably filed next to the name 'aglet' (the little plastic thing at the end of shoe laces) somewhere in my brain. But it was fun, for once, to be the one who knew what was actually going on in the conversation- afterward Sister Gabut asked me to translate what he had said.
This week we also went on exchanges. When you live with the STL its a little fun as they just tell you over breakfast that you'll be working with them. We also go on splits a lot with the members here and I am beginning to realize how very much I need to step it up. I'm studying the language even harder and trying to not speak English. So now whenever I speak rapid English my housemates just do the Filipino 'please repeat that' facial expression (raised eyebrows and open mouth) so I then translate what I said in Tagalog. I know I can say it in Tagalog (sometimes) but English is still my 1st response. It doesn't help that most of the members here are actually quite fluent in English. But they are all being Super helpful with me learning and are patient as I struggle to remember words. If I had a super power it would be 1) the ability to eat as much as the mother wants me to so that she isn't offended when I get full so quickly and 2) be able to understand and speak all languages.
We have this one Nanay in our ward who is an INCREDIBLE chef, and runs a sewing shop in town. Every time she invites us over we are waddling away as we eat sooo much. The food here is sooo good. But i'm not a fan of raw seaweed. It tastes like a California beach: dying fish, salt and decay. good stuff. Luckily I've only ever eaten that once and that was within my first few weeks in Sarrat. (I still eat it when its offered.) Our bishop also just so happens to look like my Uncle Denton. Maybe i'm crazy but he does.
All in all i'm loving it. This has been a great week and I hope this upcoming week will be even better, and by even better I mean eating more peanut butter. hahaha I'm kidding. I'm also trying to teach myself how to tie a tie but so far whenever I do it turns out backwards. That is what I get from watching so many guys tie ties and not trying it myself. OH! I forgot to mention! My first Zone leader, Elder Pace is my Zone leader and in my district again so that's news i guess.
From the city slicker,
Sister Eldredge
I love it!
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