Week 13 - 4/29/2013

Hello my beloved family! I get to call you in two weeks! Yay! I'm excited to describe some things more in detail about my life. There is just not enough time! I get to skype you and I guess on p-day?? which is your Sunday night. I should be sending the details next week. If I had a title for this week, it'd be limpyo na semana- week of cleaning. For real! Not much missionary work which was really weird but lots of work. We actually got fed twice which like never happens, but I love it! We had two CSP's this week, (community service project) and for one we helped our investigator's tatay clean the whole bus terminal (5am) and the elders in our district helped out then we ate breakfast- we ALWAYS eat after. Then the elders were moving apartments so we all went over to help them and clean it. I didn't bring very much money and I was worried that we wouldn't have enough, but we did! It was awesome. Where else can you ride to two places round trip and buy breakfast for two for 60 pesos (just over a dollar) Crazy, no? And it was a good breakfast too! Hot chocolate and 2 freshly baked bread items from the bakery. I'm gonna miss that. Then on friday we were in a trio with Sister Nelson because her companion was in Tacloban for transfers and it was super fun. We fit 3 of us in a pedicab, that was a challenge, we did it! And we did a half day mission with the youth in her ward in UEP which was fun. We gave the training then they went in companionships to visit less active members in their ward and share a message, it was really cool. 

Saturday was CRAZY! We had CSP #2 at 5 am with our ward because it was national day of service so we cleaned up the park and they fed us breakfast which was noodle soup with rolls. I LOVE that breakfast here is like any other meal, I already did that anyway and people thought I was crazy! not here! It's great. Oh and the new sisters arrived from Tacloban at 2 am because it's an 8 hour bus ride. So they slept in, then we chatted. We don't have new elders in our area yet, but they added sisters to Catarman 1st ward and they're our new apartmentmates! So we moved to our new apartment which is an adventure for sure. I'm going to miss our little house, but I love a challenge. Our new apartment is just one big room with a table and 2 dressers. To sleep we just lay our mattresses on the floor and it's like a sleepover! or camping! And for the past two days we haven't had water... and we live on the second floor. So we had carry buckets and buckets of water and store them in giant containers for washing dishes and showering. And, it was super dirty and we were trying to clean without water, we hadn't gotten the buckets yet and there was a brown out (no power) for like 6 hours. Mapaso oraora siya! (It was hot!) I told my companion, this is basically like camping except we actually are expected to look presentable haha. Luckily that night we got to go to a members house for dinner and they had SALAD! What??? I was so excited! I did not even close to realize how much I missed it until I ate a whole plate full and they gave me some to take home. There are seriously no fresh vegetables here ever, to eat fresh that is, unless you count tomatoes which I love. They are kinda different, more greenish, but I love them. The members asked me if I missed beef, and I thought why would I miss it. Then I realized I haven't eaten it since I got here! Didn't even realize. But I said, If I had it, I would probably realize how much I missed it, but I don't think about it ever so no. They do have hamburgers, but I'm pretty sure it's not real. Then when we got home (Sister Ariola and Sister Karagdag are the new sisters. Yes, I lived with S. Karagday before and she transferred one area over haha) They had cheetos and starbursts given from another american's package earlier. Man, they tasted so good! Once again, I had no idea how much I missed it until I ate it. So feel free to send me tons of packages of American junk food haha especially chocolate. So now I'm living with 3 pinay's and I love it. Last night, they were trying to teach me how to Asian squat and they laughed everytime I fell over. It was a good time. And they talk Waray-waray all the time so that will definitely help me learn even faster. My goal is to be fluent by the end of this transfer (6 weeks) we shall see. Oh and now I feel ginormous. Before I had 6 ft. tall Sister Nelson around but now I am definitely the tallest. Oh and in our new apartment, I experienced the Filipino cockroach for the first time, it's huge! And it's flies! And I see spiders in our shower, but they're tiny. And our toilet doesn't flush (you need to pour a bucket or water in then it flushes) and there is no toilet seat. It really is what I was expecting when I first came here, but our other house was seriously so nice. Pretty small and infested with ants, but very nice. And that's about it. Pretty exciting stuff! I hope we get to see all our investigators this week. We only had a few in church on Sunday, which helps us realize that most really need a visit from us before church each week (cause we visited like one investigator, no time, for real) so they are all pretty far from baptism. But we'll continue working with them of course! Seriously the weeks go by so fast, it's crazy. I'm doing great, I love you all. The end.

Gugma, Sister Pike