[I received a facebook message from a member of
Ally’s ward: “sis mortell gud mrng.your daughter was a speaker yesterday
sunday and you know what.. she speak in tagalog fluently. wow i was so amazed!”]
[We told Ally what she had said and here’s Ally’s response] She’s exaggerating. Definitely not fluent yet though. That’s sweet of
her. My Tagalog has improved SO much the past two transfers. I know that the
Lord has blessed me with the gift of tongues in some instances and He has also
motivated me and helped me work hard so that I can learn Tagalog.
Anyways, this week was kind of a rollercoaster as
far as the work goes. But first and foremost, OUR INVESTIGATOR PASSED HIS
BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW! His baptism is next Saturday. I am so so so excited for
them. I love their family with all my heart and I just want them to be sealed in
the temple. His wife is a member and she is totally active and strong now and
they have the best family ever. He has been investigating the church since June.
I have seen him progress soo much since we've been teaching him so it's really
amazing. It’s amazing to see the gospel strengthening their family. Their
family is strong and awesome now and they are the kindest people in the whole
world. haha, I learned that his wife is 2 months older than me while filling
out the baptismal record. Crazy!
Here’s the weirdest thing that happened to me this
week. We were walking through one of the barangays and we see this giant group
of kind of creepy men (they're everywhere here!). Anyways, they were yelling at
us and saying things like usual, then I started to listen and they were saying
"ay, you like this! paniki!" then I remembered paniki.... bat! That’s
right. They were roasting a GIANT bat on a grill thing and a baby bat too and
were going to eat it. So I asked them if I could take a picture and they said
yes. They were just having a hay day freaking out the Americanas with the bat. It
smelled super weird.
I had one of the saddest experiences of my mission
this week. Did I tell you about our investigator that was super interested but
also easily confused with a ton of questions? We went to teach her a couple
days ago and I could just tell something was off. Before we started to teach
she started to tell us about how she had a giant argument with her husband. He
said you have already been baptized in the Catholic Church and we are Catholic.
It turned into a big thing and she decided she would stop listening to us even
though she thinks it might be true. She says she wanted her family to be
united. (You have to understand how rare this is here. Here, if people don't
like us, they just avoid us. No one ever tells us to our face). I just tried to
look her straight in the eyes and testify. It literally was breaking my heart
because I could just see her rejecting the gospel. I could just feel her
basically throwing away her chance to go to the celestial kingdom. We testified
pretty powerfully then I asked if I could just say a prayer before we left
because she wouldn't let us teach her. After the prayer I looked up and my
companion's eyes were watery and she had tears streaming down her face. We were
all so sad for her. It was so painful to watch her throw away that opportunity
especially because we knew there was nothing we could do about it.
Yesterday we were having a pretty rough day. We only
had 4 hours of proselyting because we had church and mcm. In those 4 hours, we
had SIX return appointments. We didn't know how we were going to get to
everyone. Then, literally every single person punted us. They either weren't
there or said they were busy or whatever. I was so sad because we really needed to teach all of them. Anyway, then one of the members told us that he
had a referral for us. It was his nephew. Also, another member came with us
because he is cousins with the wife. We taught the restoration and I’m not
sure, but they may be a golden family! Hooray!! They were super receptive and
the husband is really really interested in the Book of Mormon. I really hope
they can progress. Lately we’ve been having a big problem because we can't
teach men with no other women there. So it means that we usually try and teach
women. Then it turns out that the wives are interested and their husbands don't
like it. That has happened so much recently! So we are so glad that the husband
is interested! In the Philippines, pretty much what the husband wants goes.
Remember
our investigator whose girlfriend is a member? He really wants to be baptized. Anyway,
last week his step dad AND his brother died. Separate instances. So he is
pretty shaky right now. Luckily he's still really interested and progressing. I
feel so bad for him. His brother was trying to get him to go somewhere with him
on his motorcycle. He said no. Then his brother went to the Shell station to
get gas and then he got drunk and drove his motorcycle back and crashed it and
died. Apparently his body was pretty mangled and destroyed. By the way, they
don't have 911 or anything like that here. So, someone saw the crash and ran up
to our investigator’s house to go get him. So he ran down and had to see his
dead brother in the road. We seriously feel so bad for him. But we are so happy
that he wasn't on the motorcycle with him.
The Philippines is actually a really sad country. Sometimes I just feel so sad for the people around me. There are so many broken families because the dads are alcoholics and there is so much sad stuff everywhere. On my mission I have definitely seen probably the saddest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I have also seen the happiest though. I love being a missionary. I am so glad to be here even though I have to see really sad and really hard things all the time.
The Philippines is actually a really sad country. Sometimes I just feel so sad for the people around me. There are so many broken families because the dads are alcoholics and there is so much sad stuff everywhere. On my mission I have definitely seen probably the saddest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I have also seen the happiest though. I love being a missionary. I am so glad to be here even though I have to see really sad and really hard things all the time.
[We asked
Ally some random questions.]
1.
What is the bathroom situation? No
toilet paper in public places, but you can buy it at stores for your apartment.
Fun fact: before I became companions with an American, I just used a ladle. I’m
fine either way, it doesn’t really matter. When we are proselyting we go at the
church if it's open or at the shell gas station (squatty potty!)
2.
What's your favorite Filipino food? GRAHAM
CAKE. pronounced gray-ham. haha. Also adobo, sisig, banana q, pretty much
anything with pineapple, also buko (coconut) shakes, and spicy peanuts from the
peanut man and also mang inasal (the restaurant)
3.
What is your bed like? foam
mattress
4.
How does the laundry lady wash your clothes? hand
wash, hangs them up.
5.
What’s the weather like now? It's
been pretty hot here. But it's actually not too bad. I don't really notice it
that much anymore.
Another fun fact: I met someone whose name is "elldyesse".
Yes that's right "LDS"! Awesome!
It's just a different world here. I have to do
gross things all the time and I don't really care anymore. Everything is just
different! Anyway, you'll be happy to know that I got a shirt and a couple of
skirts that actually fit me. I got them from ukay ukay last week (term for like
a thrift store just on the street). We decided that they were selling all of
the clothes that didn't sell at goodwill in the 90s. They’ve finally made it to
the Philippines! Also, Sister Dial insisted on giving me one of her shirts
because she's sick of seeing my too big clothes.
I'm really glad I’m on a mission. I feel like it's
turning me into a better person (I still have a really long ways to go)... but I
feel really glad. I seriously think everyone needs to go on a mission.
Ok, time to go. Love you all
very much! Thanks for everything and have a wonderful week!
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