January 28, 2013
How are you guys? I miss you tons! i am
doing great still and loving every minute of my mission. We got a new sister in
the apartment since sister drio left. her name is sister tupa'i. She is straight
from the provo mtc and she is Samoan. She is gorgeous and super nice and always
singing in her beautiful samoan voice. She was really shy and quiet the first
few days and sister villareal was like, "can you please talk to her and
help her feel welcome, she just won't open up!" i felt super bad for her
because she said sister tupa'i cried a ton the first night because she really
missed her mom. It made me really grateful for sister jones. So anyway, we were
eating lunch and i asked her if she had a crush in the mtc and she started
opening up a ton and by the end we were all laughing super hard. Nothing like
talking about guys to help someone open up a lil. haha. So now she is much
happier and her and sister villareal are getting along great and sister tupa'i
has this great samoan laugh that is so loud and cute. I am excited to live with
her this transfer. Me and sister jones are best friends and even made matching
shirts with the lyrics to "black and yellow" on them but translated
into tagalog so no one knows what they say and if they do they don't get it. Haha!
i love it.
So it was like the third day of being
companions with sister jones and we were at an investigator's house and her
sister and new born nephew were there. The baby was absolutely adorable like
every single other baby here so of course i was like, "AWW! HI baby! ang
cute mo!" and telling them how cute he was and making faces, etc. then the
sister went into the back room to put him down for a nap. so we taught irene,
our investigator and were leaving when her older sister came out and was like,
"sister, you can't leave" and i was like, "haha, ok bye!"
and she was like, "no seriously. you can't leave because you said hi to my
baby and called him cute. he might get sick" and i was like, "huh?
he's sick?" and they were like, "no it's a tradition. if you greet a
baby that you don't really know then he might get sick and in order to prevent
it you have to put your saliva on his stomach". (ya. i'm not kidding.
that's exactly what she said). so i was like, "what? are you kidding?
like, you guys believe that?" and they were like, "ya! just do it
please sister. you can't leave until you do it!" so i looked at sister
jones who made a face at me because she had no clue what was going on and then
i said, "ok." and the cute little baby was just lying there
unsuspecting while i gathered up some saliva and placed it on his stomach. and
then they thanked us profusely and let us free.
crazy story huh? but pretty
funny. It's actually really common here. and then the other day i said hi to
another baby (without thinking obviously) and the next day the mom was texting
me like over and over begging me to come to their house immediately because the
baby was crying and it was my fault for saying hi to it the day before. but we
couldn't go because we were in a farther area and even if we were right there,
that's not why the baby's crying ok people? and then like 30 minutes after her
5 freak-out texts she texted me again and was like, "nevermind. the baby's
fine". ya what did you think lady? he was probably just hungry! man. talk
about weird traditions.
Anyway, i hope you liked our pics from last
week! We are super excited because we have 5 upcoming baptisms! They are all
really ready and excited to be baptized and i love going out and teaching every
day. It's definitely raised my expectations for our investigators because I
expect all of them to be as ready as the others but I need to work on being
patient and understanding that everyone is at a different level. But our one investigator,
James, is amazing! He's SO ready and excited to be baptized. He took notes in
sunday school and even answered a bunch of the teacher's questions. i was so
proud of him. we taught him all of lesson 2 and lesson 3 yesterday. i thought
it might be too much but he loved it and understood it and is so ready. he's
one of the fastest paced investigators I've ever met because he's just been so
prepared and is so completely ready to repent and change. When we were leaving
yesterday he was like, all my friends are making fun of me for becoming mormon
and listening to ya'll and not drinking anymore with them but i don't care. i
just want to do what i need to in order to be worthy before God. I couldn't
believe it! his kids and wife are all different religions but he knows without
a doubt that this is the true church and is willing to sacrifice everything and
be completely alone for it. He's so so ready and i'm so excited for him! he's
being baptized on feb 16th.
but before that Malou and Mariz are a mom and a
daughter and they are being baptized on Feb. 7th! and they also are always at
church and participating in sunday school and reading all their assignments and
just progressing so much.
Missionary work is so exciting when the Lord
just places miracle after miracle into your lap and you're not sure why. But I
am so happy right now and couldn't ask for a better companion or investigators.
I've never felt a greater and more satisfying happiness than I have when I've
realized that I've been able to be an instrument in God's hands and he trusts
me enough to send me to his children and help them return back to Him. Sounds
cheezy, but it's true and I don't know how else to describe it. The philippines
might be crazy, but it's crazy awesome! and i'm loving every minute of it!
so
tell me how you guys are doing! i love ya'll have a great week!
Love, Age
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