Week 10 - 4/8/2013

AHHHH!! Chicago??? (Our brother Mark got his mission call to Chicago - Julie) That is SO exciting! And insane. Like mother like daughter, like father like son, that never happens! Different languages and areas too, but crazy nonetheless! Markie! I am super excited for you! This week has been pretty excellent though I don't really know why. I've been trying to pay attention to all the little details that you might enjoy. Funniest thing ever, we were riding by on a pedicab and this little girl and boy (12 ish maybe) saw me as we were passing and she said, "Ah, mahusay!" (beautiful) so she asked my name, but we were riding by so I didn't really have time to respond so I just didn't say anything, but then I hear running behind me and a turn and they are chasing us down, literally!! When they caught up to us and were running next to us, they asked again and when I told them and they confirmed it, they stopped running and she screamed "AH!" As in "I'm so excited!" It was hilarious!!! And every time we pass they yell my name with excitement and chase us down and shake my hand through the opening while we are still riding! hahaha I have a legit fan club! And I took some pictures with random girls yesterday. And every time I speak Waray-waray, people are just astounded. It's basically the best. And when members find out this is only my first area, they are really impressed. Then I asked my companion and she said when she left her first area, the members rated her a 1 and she rated me an 8... after 3 weeks. Crazy! I love it though. I'm feeling so much more confident in my speaking skills and teaching skills, the other day I taught like half the lesson! I felt so great! Sundays after church are probably the worst because you realize that almost none of the investigators or people you have been working with showed up to church and you realize that you have a LOT of work to do. But that lasted for like a second and I just felt grateful to be teaching so many investigators! We have like 10? and many inactive that we visit on a regular basis. We teach 12 full lessons in a really bad week haha We really are blessed. I told my companion that Dad only taught 2 lessons his entire mission and zero baptisms and she was just shocked. She didn't believe me! haha I really feel grateful that I even have 11 people people to disappoint me for not coming to church haha. Perspective. On Friday, we had Zone interviews so we had training with President Andaya and we got snickers!! Which is basically the highlight, Sister Somera has literally been talking about it for weeks. We didn't get to watch general Conference this weekend, but we will next weekend. But I don't think we get to watch the Saturday sessions but I'm so excited! General Conference has always been my favorite. Today, we had a zone activity of Basketball, volleyball and frisbee and it was so fun! Every chapel I've seen is super nice, gated, bars on the windows, all tile floor inside with full court basketball where the parking lot should be. But there are no parking lots! Most people have motorcycles, get rides (sakay) or walk. Since is was all outside, I got sunburned so bad! But I was in heaven. I love sports!! 

Some cultural things I noticed, when you don't hear what someone says and you want them to repeat it, you open your mouth really wide. This was confusing to me at first because it makes it look like what you said was really shocking haha but I'm so good at it now. Ano pa... Tons of little kids are always playing in the streets and one game that I see most often is they put their flip flops in the middle and through other flip flops at them trying to hit it. I'm not really sure... We always take our shoes off when we enter a house and we sit on the floor about 25% of the time. When we meet someone really old, we touch their hand to our head to show respect and we always call them Nanay or Tatay. That's been hard to get used to. This past week we went to a restraunt that had American food and I ordered waffles. They gave me a fork and a knife and literally didn't know what to do with myself... haha seriously! They always use a spoon in the right hand and a fork in the left and you only used the fork to shovel the food onto the spoon then you use the spoon also as a knife. It is SO much more efficient. If I was that clueless after only 3 weeks, just imagine after 16 more months... haha it's going to be hilarious. I really hated trying to eat with a fork and knife. Without it realizing it, I tried to pile the food on my knife to eat it...didn't work out so well. Filipinos are super blunt. They don't ever call me big or anything, but another member did tell another Sister she was fat... haha At first when people would compliment me about being really beautiful or really smart for picking up the language so fast, I just thought oh they're being nice. But this week I learned that they are so honest and only say what they really mean. Something else cultural I've noticed that they are really committed in relationships. Even though marriage is not super common, when they live together or she gets pregnant, they are family and it means the same thing. In fact, they call them the same thing as husband or wife and it makes it way easier for those we are teaching because they basically are married and just as committed, they just need the legal document. And so far I haven't heard of any divorces.   

The other day, we visited a house that was crazy to get to! I really want to take a picture when we go back! He was our pedicab driver and we talked to him and he was interested in learning more. He told us the general area where he lived and we asked around and usually that's pretty typical except no one knew who he was! Finally like the 10th person knew (that's another thing is they are SUPER nice about giving directions and they will go out of their way to help you) so we followed her. We weaved between houses (huts really) in the mud, then we walked along these planks over mud and sewage, then we walked along like a 2 in. wide concrete wall and on one side was swamp and the other, a foot of sewage, for a while and then through mud and then we had to jump over two stream things, it was a pretty hard jump. I loved it, Sister Somera barely made it haha it was crazy! No wonder no one knew him! I was just laughing the whole time thinking, I can't wait till the others hear about this! It was great. And then he was busy so we had to go all the way back but it was a pretty legit little adventure.

Oh and Sister Somera's Birthday was on Saturday so we celebrated! The other sisters got a barbie cake for her but it was SUPER dense and so moist, it was crazy! It literally looked like it was just slabs of chocolate but still marasa (delicious) nonetheless. I feel like my emails are so random! haha One all the gospel, the next culture, you never know what you are going to get! I love it here. I hope you all can enjoy my adventures too! It has been pretty darn hot lately. Always humid but I never realize how humid it is until we meet in the bishop's office on Sunday which is aircon then walk out and the humidity hits you like a brick wall. Oh and I tell people I'm pretty used to the hot and humid because I'm from Texas and they are just shocked. "I thought it was only cold in America!" haha, that's funny. Until next week! 

Gugma,

Sister Pike