Letter 14: The Beginning of the Apostasy

Dearest Panimalay kag mga Abyan,

It's been a week? Didn't I email you yesterday? Where is the time GOING? It is going way too fast! (Sobrang ka dasig na!)

This week we had Trainer's and Trainee's Meeting! When Sister Massé had it with her training, it was back in the first few weeks here in the field and it consisted of a lot of, "Don't go Home! What can we do to help you? This is how you cope with Homesickness." For me it was more of a "Well, You're almost done with training. So here some things you should remember." Kinda like any normal type of training.  Elder Stacey (one of the APs) had us do a trust fall, he made our trainers step back. Let's just say Sister Massé and I are a bit shorter than S Jenkins/Nonu and S Quent/Paul, and I got a bit closer to the ground than I might have liked. . . BUT Sister Massé caught me, so that's the important thing. And I think Elder Stacey got his point across about needing to have trust in your companions.

You know what's fun about only having two other sisters in your batch? Our meeting was fun and small! Complete with breakfast and lunch!

President Aquino is so GREAT. He was very careful about getting food that Sister Massé could eat (No Gluten allowed!) which means he couldn't just order MacDo. So of course we got onto the topic of allergies during lunch, but instead of focusing on all the things Sister Massé can't have, it was all about the things I'm allergic to instead! Apparently it's very hard to believe that if I see at cute little puppy I don't have the urge to pet and play with it. And everyone was surprised that I really shouldn't use the laundry soap here (but do anyway, because how else am I supposed to clean my clothes??)

Speaking of food. I tried Ube icecream. It's delicious. I also tried Cheese icecream. It's definitely. . . Filipino. Well, I'm sure it will be my favorite flavor by the end of my mission. (Jokes. Mango icecream is the best. and Ube is hard to beat.)

Sister Massé hit her 'One year Left Mark" (and my 1 year and 3 months left mark) last week and we Celebrated with Halo-halo! Which broke Sister Massé's month without sugar and my trying to eat sugar discreetly in support of her. So basically we've both been buying from tyunggis for the past week, and when we hit 1 Feb we decided to have an Apostasy of Sugar (For we will not be hungry for bread or water, but for the words of God . . . I mean, Sugar.) We're going Sugar Free for a week together! Which is going to be really hard, because EVERYTHING contains sugar here.

I'm also going GLUTEN Free for a week! In support of my Companion's allergy. She's excited to see if I can do it. Which means no more SkyFlakes (crackers I normally eat as my daily snack) for me! Yep, this is gonna be fun :)

One of Sister Massé's and my investigators are having troubles. :( She had a baptismal date, but because she's 17 she needs permission, and her parents won't give it. It's been very sad for all of us, because she really wants to get baptized, but when she turns 18 and chooses to, it will most likely create problems between her and her parents. :(

But on a happier note, we had a man who came to church last week and said, "I want to be baptized." Well brother, I'm sure we can arrange something! Basically he's taken the missionary discussions before, and then he moved, and decided he wanted to be a part of something solid and important. I'm sure we can help him see that this is the most solid and important thing in the world, the Church of Jesus Christ :D

*insert a frustrated face here* We just had a brown out at the last computer shop we were at. We were super worried that our emails hadn't saved. And annoyed at the woman who made us pay money for the email time we might have just wasted. So we just went out to lunch (Gluten and Sugar free!!) and are now in a different shop. *Insert Happy face here* BUT My email saved automatically, and I don't have to rewrite any of it!

Yesterday was a . . . Holiday? Well, basically there was a parade celebrating all the barancays and no jeepneys, so we had to walk to our area. Not fun, as in, there aren't really sidewalks, so we were these two Mormon American Sister Missionaries trying not to walk with the parade, but going in the same direction of the parade where there are no sidewalks. Oh. I should probably mention that there were speakers blasting a Hiligaynon Catholic prayer (at least that's what it sounded like to me.) So Sister Massé and I may have accidentally walked along a Catholic parade. .. . Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what happened.

Well, lets just say is Pretty Crazy in the Philippines. (Buong gid sa Pilipinas.)

Well, Kabalo ako nga matuod ang simbahan. Magbugay ang ebanghelyo sa atom tanan. Palangga kita sang Dios, kag Gusto niya para sa atom nga mangin pinaka malipayon diri sa kalibutan. Ini Obra, ang obra sang mga missionaries amo ang obra sang Dios. Sa ngalan ni JesuCristo, Amen.

(I know the church is true. The gospel blesses us (all), God loves us and wants us to be the happiest here on earth. this work, the work of missionaries is the work of God.)

Palangga ko kamo gid!

- Sister Smith

Also, THIS is Halo-halo. Basically it's Shaved Ice and Cream, with whatever they want to put on it. Generally there is gelatin (They like just gelatin. . .without any flavor.) and Ube Paste (The dark purple stuff). There can be Bananas, coconut, or mango. A piece of flan. They even put corn and beans in it :) I don't mind the beans and corn, but this is my favorite kind I've found. It's massive for a good price, and comes with Ube Icecream AND flan. To eat it the right way, you mix it all together and just eat! It's great!

The Inside of a jeepney! (And my new skirt from Ukay-ukay shopping)

Ps. There is no purpose to this goat, other than he is ALWAYS in the road.