Yes, that's right.
I'm back with my MTC companion. And I'm still in the Sevilla ward but Sevilla
B, instead of Sevilla C now. So now, Sister Ackerman, Sister Dial and I all
live together now. [MTC roommates] We can't believe it! We’re pretty sure two American
MTC companions have never been put together immediately after their training in
the whole history of missionary work.
Everyone in the Sevilla ward thinks it's the
funniest joke ever to pretend they don't know me now and ask me what my last
ward was like and stuff. Bishop even made me bear my testimony and give a short
talk yesterday in church because I was a "new" missionary. haha.
Sister D’s companion is a Filipina who hardly understands English. So all 3 of
us are going to learn Tagalog really fast because Sister A and I don't have a Filipina
to rely on and Sister D has to use it to communicate. The apartment is fine. It’s
new, but lots of problems--fridge doesn't seal, and is leaking water; sink is
broken so we do our dishes outside in a bucket Filipino style. But it's not
really a big deal.
A couple days ago,
we were walking and we see a dog in the middle of the road. Sister A says,
"That dog is probably going to hit by a car if it doesn't move." Approximately
10 seconds later, when we were pretty close to the dog, it got nailed by a car.
So probably like 20 people witnessed this dog dying in the middle of the road. It
was so sad and so gross and we just closed our eyes and walked right past it.
It had a huge puddle of blood by its head and was floundering around while
dying. So sad and gross!
Also, yesterday,
Sister A and I were trying to contact a referral and we had just climbed up
this giant mountain that was also a construction site and then we almost were
falling down the other side of the mountain to get to this little village thing
where the people live. Then this crazy drunk man came up to us and we couldn't
understand what he was saying because he was speaking Ilocano at first then he
kept touching our arms and saying "sorry, ma'am" "Madam"
"mother" and the member we were with was like "sister" and
he just kept saying "right, sorry madam, ma'am, mother" haha I had to
stop myself from laughing then luckily we escaped!
We are in the
same area Sister A was in with Sister O. And it's actually pretty intimidating
because Sister O is a fantastic missionary. Sometimes we can't fully understand
people's concerns because of the language and sometimes we can't express
ourselves as clearly as we would like. But it's all going to be ok. I'm not too
worried. I just know we need to work hard!
We have a million
investigators and less actives and recent converts in this area. It's the
smallest and most densely populated area in the Sevilla ward. We only have
about 2 barangays and in Sevilla c we had 10 plus. Anyway, my new area is more city. We only have one
little part that has some jungle and rice fields and stuff. Our area is pretty
densely populated and like 80% of the members live in our area (which is quite
a change from the maybe 1% in Sevilla C area).
Also, Sister O and
Sister A would frequently have 8 lessons a day (Sister LT and I had an average
of 3 or 4). So we have a ton of work in this area. The reason Sevilla B has had
so many baptisms is because missionaries have been in this area forever. Sis LT
and I were basically the first missionaries in most of our area for like 4
years. And WAY more people live in this area. In Sevilla C, you would hike up a
mountain and then get to a house finally then walk another 10 minutes and get
to another one. In this area, the houses are all so squished in some parts that
you just walk through like 5 people’s front yard (not really, but area in front
of their house) to get to where you're going.
It's really good because we've
been working with the ward members a lot. There's a family that has 3 girls
(21, 20 and 18). One has her mission call; one is preparing, and the 18 year
old wants to go on a mission too. So they've been working with us and I love
them. The oldest one, Sister Kazelle, made us a ton of flash cards and has been
helping us with our Tagalog.
The Sevilla ward members are great. For example,
last week, between Monday and Thursday, we had 9 dinner appointments. They love
to invite us for FHE [Family Home Evening]. Oh gosh, last week, I lost at a
game at FHE, so Brother Arnold, a member of the bishopric, decided that I needed to
sing “Joy to the World” in an opera voice. So now the whole Sevilla ward has
been watching a video of that. haha.
Oh, and now there's
a Sevilla D in our ward--So 8 missionaries for one ward. And in our zone now, there are a ton of
Americans. Out of the sisters, there are 10 Americans, 6 Filipinas, and 2
Samoans.
The other day,
Sister A said, "We need to learn Tagalog really quick. What would Kolipoki
do?" Then we remembered that he went and read the scriptures in Tongan and
English for like 3 days on a little island and didn't eat. We realized that
probably wasn't possible, but we've just been trying to trust the Lord. For my
personal study yesterday, I was reading in The Book of Mormon and Nephi is
talking about how he has weaknesses but he just trusts in the Lord. So I think
that's what we're going to have to do, because it is really, really hard to not
have a native Tagalog speaker with us. I actually feel pretty calm about it
though, and I know that if we just work hard and try our best, Heavenly Father will help us.
Haha, by the way, a
Samoan Elder in my district was going crazy because he found out I was related
to Kolipoki. Ever since Sister D found that out from looking at my newsletters
from the Groberg clan, she has been telling everyone.
It's not like your mission is just one big
spiritual story after another. I think it's more like just working hard and
feeling the spirit at a high level pretty much always. But it's not like
there's these big, constant fantastic stories. It's hard to become
a good missionary, but I'm definitely improving. I don't hate keeping the
little mission rules that seem silly anymore. I've grown to love a lot of the
people. I'm still having a hard time being an effective teacher because of the
language. So I need to improve my Tagalog really fast, because we're just two
Americans who've only been here for 3 months. Also, trikes are built only for
Filipinos. We can't even fit so we have to sit one inside, one outside, just
like every other companionship without a Filipino, haha.
Please thank
everyone for the packages and dear elders. Dear elders are better than email
because there’s never very much time to email.
Love you very much and
talk to you soon!
Zone Activity at a Botanical Garden
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