Monday, May 28, 2012
At the market in Sagay.
Thou shalt not kill...dogs.
Message View
Mon, May 28, 2012 2:34 am Epistle from the Philippines #5 - Thou shalt not kill... dogs. Hello again! It is a lovely Monday afternoon in the Philippines as I wrote this. It rained this morning, but that won't dampen my day! (Anyone? Anyone? Dampen? No?) This coming week is the last week of my first transfer. Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao are a bit trunky. I try to keep them here and now. This coming Saturday we have a triple baptism! I am really excited. This is my first baptism, and there will be THREE people joining the fold! Up here! (That's how Filipinos say 'High Five!') Follow ups from last week: The Moon: Kira, thanks for researching moon cycles for me. I saw the moon again this week, so all is well! My theory is that it was cloudy, so I didn't see the moon. Or like Kira suggested, maybe I was just looking in the wrong direction. Angry Birds: I found my answer! Angry Birds isn't merely an app on Smart phones. It's also a computer game that is loaded onto many of the public computers. THAT'S how these people know it... One-eared cat: I forgot to mention the cat last week! He's fine. I saw the cat this morning or yesterday, and he's fine. Another note: Cats here are NOT your usual house cats. My sister, Kalenn's cat, Fritz would be a huge fat lard next to these street cats. They are skinny, bony, and small. Let's continue. This week I saw something that I haven't seen in 17 years: CHICKEN POX. The children of a less-active family we visited have the chicken pox! We only saw one of the kids, a 12-year-old her, and her body was covered in little bumps. It was so fascinating. I had the chicken pox with my siblings when I was five, but since then, most people get vaccinated now, so Chicken Pox is pretty obsolete in America. Not here. I told the girl that she's beautiful, and that the spots will go away. Fast food is not dead in the Philippines. But is it tasty, that's the question. I kid. Sort of. Many of these fast food places sell spaghetti. Also fried chicken. Rice of course. And burgers. The burgers though... are questionable. First off they are "spam" (some parts are meat). No 100% beef here. With burgers I have a don't ask, don't tell policy. I don't want to now what's in them. The burger patties are very thin, and small (I am reminded of that old "Where's the Beef???" commercial). Also, the ketchup is different, and there is no mustard. Eating a real burger is something I look forward to when I come back home. In other food news, I ate squid this week. And more baracuda, but I learned that it's called balu or palu. Now, I know I've mentioned the attention I've gotten here from people. Here are a few stories that might intrigue you. I've heard of cat-calls before, but have you ever heard of literal cat-calls before? Once in my first week here, we were walking along when I heard a LOUD cry from an obviously disgruntled/angry kitty. I turn toward the sound, and... there's no cat. But there is a group of men staring at me. WEIRD. Even weirder is that this happened again, in a different place. o_O Last week after our last appointment for the night, we stopped to get some burgers, actually. This was a little street-side vendor. The establishment had a little bar and stools where you could sit. While we're waiting for our food, this apparently drunk guy comes up to me and starts hitting on me in very terrible and broken English. Drunk guy: "You.... good... uhhh..." [makes gesture that I interpreted to mean 'dancing' but I might be wrong] I proceed to turn him down. He tells me he knows of a place we could go for dancing our whatever where the people are nice. He says it's in Old Sagay. Sister Rosina: Do you know the missionaries there? Drunk guy: Mormons? [shakes head] He continues by trying to compliment me. Drunk guy: You... look... good. [thinks] You... good... looking. Then we ignored him, and he walked away. It was all quite funny. Right now in the Philippines the kids are all on their summer break. In fact they return to school again in the next couple weeks. Their break is like April to June, which I heard is the hottest part of the year? The children and youth of the church have little else to do so many of them come and hang out at the church during the day. No joke. In the cultural hall they set up a ping pong table, chess games, etc. Outside there's a basketball court. If we need people to come teaching with us, we usually just stop by the church and find volunteers. Okay, here's the story that brings us today's email title. This week, we went to teach a family a lesson about the 10 commandments. The Bishop of the ward is a tricycle driver by trade/skill, so he proves to be a very useful member missionary. He comes teaching with us all the time, including during the circumstances I am describing presently. We all went to the lesson, and it went well. We kept it short, and only did the first five commandments, meaning we stopped with "Honour thy father and mother." If we had proceeded to #6, It would have been "Thou shalt not kill." Well, maybe we should have reviewed #6. As we drove away to our next appointment, there was some traffic in the street that all came at us at once: other tricycles, carts, people. We did our best to avoid them all, but when we swerved out of the way... we hit a dog. It went right under the passenger side of the tricycle. There was a bump, and a whimper. I don't know if the poor thing lived or died. Despite it all, I couldn't help but smile at the irony of the situation. Thou shalt not kill. On a happier note, have you ever known how wonderful baby powder is here? It's a miracle product! People love it because it not only helps dry out your sweaty body, but it also makes you look whiter! At a part-member family's home, I noticed a beautiful bottle of baby powder that was called (I kid you not) Baby Anti Monkey Butt. Apparently it's a product of America (God bless America. P.S. Happy Memorial Day!). The slogan of Baby Anti Monkey But is this, "Tender loving care, for your babies derriere." That's all for now! I send my love!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Tastes like chicken... feet.
Hello my lovely family
and friends! How now brown cow? Living abroad has heightened my realization of
the weirdness of American/English language expressions. Darn tootin.' Anyway,
I'm going to spend most of this email discussing things I have observed in the
Philippines. Won't that be peachy keen?
Sister King's Observations in the Philippines:
Fads - The biggest fad that I've seen here is ANGRY BIRDS. I'm not even talking about playing the game. In fact, I've barely even seen any smart phones or iPods here. Nonetheless, I've seen Angry Birds purses, Angry Birds crayons, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds shirts, Angry Birds pencil sharpeners, Angry Birds notebooks, Angry Birds stickers, Angry Bird UNDERWEAR. There's even an Angry Birds inspired TV show in which there are people dressed up as birds. I dare you to look it up. Angry Birds is everywhere. Also, people love SpongeBob and Hello Kitty, but what else is new?
Dress - When a Filipino has a job, they dress the part. This I have mostly observed at the grocery store. The cashiers don't wear polos and khakis, or ugly vests. Cashiers are almost always women, and they are wearing a dress or dress suit of some kind with their hair pulled back in a fancy way, and they are wearing massive amounts of makeup. The security guards at the same grocery store are wearing very official looking officer clothes, and they are carrying huge guns. It's sort of terrifying, actually.
Television - As a missionary, I am not permitted to watch television. Strangely enough, in my not watching television, I've watched quite a lot of television. Why? It's because that's what the people here do for fun. A lot of them can't afford books or computers (or choose not to, I guess) but they have televisions, that are almost always on. The people watch a lot of game shows and soap opera-esque dramas ("BAKIT??????"). Most of their television is in Tagalog or "Taglish." Also, there are a lot of drag queens on the TV. On the news they show dead bodies, but they blur out the faces.
Kitchen Maintenance - I don't know if this is a Filipino thing or just a Sister Rosina thing, but at our house we are very mindful about unplugging things we aren't using. I think it's to save money on the electricity. Sister Rosina gets mad when I accidentally don't unplug the toaster oven after I make toast. We should be more aware of this stuff in America... Also, my companions are very okay with leaving food out. We'll eat our meal, and then they might cover the pan with a plate, but they just leave the food out! They know that we have ants! And every time we leave out the rice, we get ants in it. But instead of putting the rice in the fridge, they'd rather just scrape off the ants.
Whiteness - People here are obsessed with being whiter. I'd heard of whitening products before, and I can now testify that they are real. There are lotions, facial creams, facial scrubs, body washes all devoted to making you whiter! I was quite amused one day when I was putting on sun block, and Sister Rosina asked my "What is THAT???" She'd never seen or heard of it before. Today I explained it to some of the youth in our ward. "This is what white people use to stay white! It's true, but that's not what it's for. We use it to keep our pasty white skin from burning!" They'd never heard of it before either. America, let's bring sun block to the Philippines! They'll love it!
Local Wildlife - My sister, Kalenn mentioned that they are raising baby chicks. Well, there are baby chicks here too! Sometimes they wander into homes while we're teaching. Here in Sagay I regularly see dogs, cats, chickens (male, female, and baby), pigs (alive and dead. I've seen and heard them being slaughtered too), goats, cows, something that the people call "caribo" (sp?), which is like a water buffalo, rats, bats, lizards (that live in and on the houses. I've never seen a lizard not on or in a building), frogs, crabs (in the gutters and streams), spiders, and BUGS. The mosquitoes see me more than I see them, unfortunately. There are cockroaches too. And ants. And flies. And a lot of things I don't know the names of.
Height - I have a confession to make: I'm really bad at guessing/knowing people's height. I'm 5'8. "In my mind, I always assume that all women are a few inches shorter than me, and all men are a few inches taller than me. I'm always really surprised to find out or realize that someone is outside of those zones. If you were to find the average height of all the people in the world (both men and women) I like to think that I'd be very average. That doesn't change the fact that even I have to duck here. I'm not that tall! But alas, I hit my head on low hanging wires and door frames and stuff all the time. Here I don't really compare the heights of people to myself, but to each other, and my height references are the same. For example, sometimes I think "Are there any tall men in the ward?" Then I think, "Yes, Brother Dizon is tall!" So I go stand next to Brother Dizon, and I realize that he's 2 inches shorter than me. Oh. Brother Dizon is tall compared to his WIFE. Gotcha. Then I think, "I know the Bishop is tall. He's got to be over 6 feet tall." I stand next to time. He's about my height. Maybe and inch taller. People are just small here!
The Moon - Last week Grandpa Bell asked me if I saw the beautiful full moon. Yes I did. It was gorgeous. Here's the thing though. I haven't seen it since. The moon was full, and then after that... it disappeared. I'm worried for the waterbenders of the world. But the moon disappeared! I'm assigning homework. Kira. My sister. Tell me why the moon disappeared. Look up when the moon rises and sets in Sagay, Negros Occidental. If you can't find it, look up Bacolod instead. Is the moon too low on the horizon for me to see? Is it rising after I go to bed? Is it out during the day? I know it should be a new moon now, but that doesn't explain why the moon has been missing for two weeks! Help!
Middle Earth - The subdivision/neighborhood in which I live is called Saromar. I'm convinced that this is simply a typo, and it's supposed to say "Sauroman," and I actually live in Isengard (sorry my spelling is so poor), in Middle Earth. There aren't any orcs or ents running around, but you know... I just know. Also THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!
Food - Since I have seen here, I have been introduced to many new and exciting flavors! In addition to the things I've mentioned in my previous emails, I've eaten well, where shall I start? Last week at the market, Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao bought us chicken feet and chicken livers. To my dismay, the first thing Sister Rosina did when we got home was cut off the large talons. We ate the chicken feet both fried and cooked in sauce. And you know, what, it wasn't bad... once I got past the fact that I was eating toes. Sister Rosina kept on trying to gross me out by telling me that the chickens had athlete's foot. Gross! As for chicken liver... I've had bits of it before in fried chicken and stuff, but definitely not as a main dish! It too was okay. I've also been exposed to much fish here. Most of which I don't know the names of. Sister Palai made a delicious Kiribati dish what was Coconut Tuna Curry. I wrote down the recipe, and I definitely want to make it later. The other night I also ate something that I can only call... barracuda. The bishop's wife made us a fish that had a pointy face, sharp teeth, and an unpleasant demeanor. It tasted good though! Being here has led me to the knowledge that I like fish! It's good! People in America should eat more fish!
That's enough observations. My week has been good. We started teaching a 17-year-old sister, and she'll be baptized on June 2 with a group of people. Oooo, guess what? She's from Manila, so we get to teach her in Tagalog. MY SIX WEEKS OF TAGALOG AT THE MTC IS NOT IN VAIN!!! My MTC teachers would be so proud. I'm proud of all the investigators and less active people we teach. I love seeing people make changes for the better in their life. Every time someone we've taught comes to church, I am filled with joy for them.
Today we ate a picnic with a bunch of the young women in the ward at a park called Lady's Circle. It's lovely. At some point the girls hijacked my camera and took over a hundred pictures of themselves. Sigh. There were also some tourists from another town there who insisted on taking their picture with me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I'M JUST WHITE. GET OVER IT.
I've broken my record about not getting caught in the rain. It rained while we were out this week, and I loved it. Most people here don't like rain, but I love it! I wish I were allowed to dance around in it, or run around in puddles and stuff, but such things are frowned upon for missionaries. :( No me gusta.
Well, that's enough for this week! Keep writing!
Sister King's Observations in the Philippines:
Fads - The biggest fad that I've seen here is ANGRY BIRDS. I'm not even talking about playing the game. In fact, I've barely even seen any smart phones or iPods here. Nonetheless, I've seen Angry Birds purses, Angry Birds crayons, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds toys, Angry Birds shirts, Angry Birds pencil sharpeners, Angry Birds notebooks, Angry Birds stickers, Angry Bird UNDERWEAR. There's even an Angry Birds inspired TV show in which there are people dressed up as birds. I dare you to look it up. Angry Birds is everywhere. Also, people love SpongeBob and Hello Kitty, but what else is new?
Dress - When a Filipino has a job, they dress the part. This I have mostly observed at the grocery store. The cashiers don't wear polos and khakis, or ugly vests. Cashiers are almost always women, and they are wearing a dress or dress suit of some kind with their hair pulled back in a fancy way, and they are wearing massive amounts of makeup. The security guards at the same grocery store are wearing very official looking officer clothes, and they are carrying huge guns. It's sort of terrifying, actually.
Television - As a missionary, I am not permitted to watch television. Strangely enough, in my not watching television, I've watched quite a lot of television. Why? It's because that's what the people here do for fun. A lot of them can't afford books or computers (or choose not to, I guess) but they have televisions, that are almost always on. The people watch a lot of game shows and soap opera-esque dramas ("BAKIT??????"). Most of their television is in Tagalog or "Taglish." Also, there are a lot of drag queens on the TV. On the news they show dead bodies, but they blur out the faces.
Kitchen Maintenance - I don't know if this is a Filipino thing or just a Sister Rosina thing, but at our house we are very mindful about unplugging things we aren't using. I think it's to save money on the electricity. Sister Rosina gets mad when I accidentally don't unplug the toaster oven after I make toast. We should be more aware of this stuff in America... Also, my companions are very okay with leaving food out. We'll eat our meal, and then they might cover the pan with a plate, but they just leave the food out! They know that we have ants! And every time we leave out the rice, we get ants in it. But instead of putting the rice in the fridge, they'd rather just scrape off the ants.
Whiteness - People here are obsessed with being whiter. I'd heard of whitening products before, and I can now testify that they are real. There are lotions, facial creams, facial scrubs, body washes all devoted to making you whiter! I was quite amused one day when I was putting on sun block, and Sister Rosina asked my "What is THAT???" She'd never seen or heard of it before. Today I explained it to some of the youth in our ward. "This is what white people use to stay white! It's true, but that's not what it's for. We use it to keep our pasty white skin from burning!" They'd never heard of it before either. America, let's bring sun block to the Philippines! They'll love it!
Local Wildlife - My sister, Kalenn mentioned that they are raising baby chicks. Well, there are baby chicks here too! Sometimes they wander into homes while we're teaching. Here in Sagay I regularly see dogs, cats, chickens (male, female, and baby), pigs (alive and dead. I've seen and heard them being slaughtered too), goats, cows, something that the people call "caribo" (sp?), which is like a water buffalo, rats, bats, lizards (that live in and on the houses. I've never seen a lizard not on or in a building), frogs, crabs (in the gutters and streams), spiders, and BUGS. The mosquitoes see me more than I see them, unfortunately. There are cockroaches too. And ants. And flies. And a lot of things I don't know the names of.
Height - I have a confession to make: I'm really bad at guessing/knowing people's height. I'm 5'8. "In my mind, I always assume that all women are a few inches shorter than me, and all men are a few inches taller than me. I'm always really surprised to find out or realize that someone is outside of those zones. If you were to find the average height of all the people in the world (both men and women) I like to think that I'd be very average. That doesn't change the fact that even I have to duck here. I'm not that tall! But alas, I hit my head on low hanging wires and door frames and stuff all the time. Here I don't really compare the heights of people to myself, but to each other, and my height references are the same. For example, sometimes I think "Are there any tall men in the ward?" Then I think, "Yes, Brother Dizon is tall!" So I go stand next to Brother Dizon, and I realize that he's 2 inches shorter than me. Oh. Brother Dizon is tall compared to his WIFE. Gotcha. Then I think, "I know the Bishop is tall. He's got to be over 6 feet tall." I stand next to time. He's about my height. Maybe and inch taller. People are just small here!
The Moon - Last week Grandpa Bell asked me if I saw the beautiful full moon. Yes I did. It was gorgeous. Here's the thing though. I haven't seen it since. The moon was full, and then after that... it disappeared. I'm worried for the waterbenders of the world. But the moon disappeared! I'm assigning homework. Kira. My sister. Tell me why the moon disappeared. Look up when the moon rises and sets in Sagay, Negros Occidental. If you can't find it, look up Bacolod instead. Is the moon too low on the horizon for me to see? Is it rising after I go to bed? Is it out during the day? I know it should be a new moon now, but that doesn't explain why the moon has been missing for two weeks! Help!
Middle Earth - The subdivision/neighborhood in which I live is called Saromar. I'm convinced that this is simply a typo, and it's supposed to say "Sauroman," and I actually live in Isengard (sorry my spelling is so poor), in Middle Earth. There aren't any orcs or ents running around, but you know... I just know. Also THEY'RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD!
Food - Since I have seen here, I have been introduced to many new and exciting flavors! In addition to the things I've mentioned in my previous emails, I've eaten well, where shall I start? Last week at the market, Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao bought us chicken feet and chicken livers. To my dismay, the first thing Sister Rosina did when we got home was cut off the large talons. We ate the chicken feet both fried and cooked in sauce. And you know, what, it wasn't bad... once I got past the fact that I was eating toes. Sister Rosina kept on trying to gross me out by telling me that the chickens had athlete's foot. Gross! As for chicken liver... I've had bits of it before in fried chicken and stuff, but definitely not as a main dish! It too was okay. I've also been exposed to much fish here. Most of which I don't know the names of. Sister Palai made a delicious Kiribati dish what was Coconut Tuna Curry. I wrote down the recipe, and I definitely want to make it later. The other night I also ate something that I can only call... barracuda. The bishop's wife made us a fish that had a pointy face, sharp teeth, and an unpleasant demeanor. It tasted good though! Being here has led me to the knowledge that I like fish! It's good! People in America should eat more fish!
That's enough observations. My week has been good. We started teaching a 17-year-old sister, and she'll be baptized on June 2 with a group of people. Oooo, guess what? She's from Manila, so we get to teach her in Tagalog. MY SIX WEEKS OF TAGALOG AT THE MTC IS NOT IN VAIN!!! My MTC teachers would be so proud. I'm proud of all the investigators and less active people we teach. I love seeing people make changes for the better in their life. Every time someone we've taught comes to church, I am filled with joy for them.
Today we ate a picnic with a bunch of the young women in the ward at a park called Lady's Circle. It's lovely. At some point the girls hijacked my camera and took over a hundred pictures of themselves. Sigh. There were also some tourists from another town there who insisted on taking their picture with me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I'M JUST WHITE. GET OVER IT.
I've broken my record about not getting caught in the rain. It rained while we were out this week, and I loved it. Most people here don't like rain, but I love it! I wish I were allowed to dance around in it, or run around in puddles and stuff, but such things are frowned upon for missionaries. :( No me gusta.
Well, that's enough for this week! Keep writing!
Friday, May 18, 2012
Gwapa ka, Sister King
Epistle from
the Philippines #3 - "Gwapa ka, Sister King."
May 14, 2012
Hello again, friends and family from the
beautiful Negros Island! It is Monday afternoon now. Happy Mother's Day to
everyone who wants to be appreciated today. Special love goes to me mom. She's
pretty awesome.
This week has gone pretty well. Today is the 14th. I entered the MTC on March 14th, which means that I have been serving a mission for exactly 2 months. It's weird to think that I only have to do what I've just done 8 more times, and then I'm done. Time flies!
I enjoy new adventures every day. Just yesterday my housemate, Sister Ombao fried some fish for us (still with the fins and head on it), and it was delicious! It was a mild fish, sort of like cod, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. When I was about done, Sister Rosina told me to eat the eyeballs. She insisted so... I did it. And you know what, fish eyes are not that bad. It just tasted like the rest of the fish, but a little gooey-er. Yum. Eyeball.
I've found that I sweat less. My body is finally (sort of) adjusting to living in constant heat and humidity. I might also have to attribute this all to the fact that I think the weather was cooler than it has been. We encountered many rainstorms, though I never got caught in any. I was always indoors. A few times while we were home, we had to rescue our clothes that were hanging out to dry. I am getting better at washing clothes. It's just very time consuming. Lots of effort (and sweat) involved. It helps me appreciate the circumstances I've grown up with. I also appreciate 1) Regular and reliable garbage disposal 2) Laws against littering and 3) setting fires. 4) Libraries 5) Safety regulations of all kinds 6) Hot water plumbing. Here they have little or none of any of that, and it definitely pays a toll. Sister Ombao and Sister Palai went to a funeral this week for a 40-year-old man who got in a tricycle accident, because guess what? No helmet or seat belts, or anything. If there were tricycles in America (the motorcycle with a sidecar full of people) I know that the law would require helmets and seat belts. In Sagay there aren't any traffic lights or cross walks. People just drive whenever and wherever. In Bacolod there are a few crosswalks and traffic signals.
I love the sky here. There are gorgeous clouds here that roll in before a storm, clouds that they just don't have in Utah where I've spent way too much time in recent years. The stars at night are beautiful. Fun fact: I can see Orion's Belt and The Big Dipper every night. Other fun fact: I cannot see the North Star. If the land were flatter, and if there were less trees, I might be able to see the North Star, but since I'm so close to the Equator, the star would be basically on the horizon.
The most common comment I get from people here (besides 'kana') is"Gwapa ka!" For anyone who knows Spanish, "gwapa" is like"guapa" in Spanish which means beautiful. "Ka" means "you." "You're beautiful" they say to me. Random strangers. It's such a weird feeling. I turn heads. People stare. Tricycles drivers honk their horns (more than usual) when I'm around to attract my attention so that they get the honor of driving me around. It's ridiculous. I am so average. I know my friends and family would disagree. But in America I blend in perfectly. Here, random strangers want to shake my hand and give me rides. I've noticed that people also take extra care of me. The members of the church will always let me sit if seating is scarce, or they insist that I eat first or eat more. Oh, this is a big one. Everyone is always worried that I'm going to get hit by a car, truck, or tricycle when we walk on the side of the street. Trust me companions and members: People love me here. They are NOT going to run me over.
The white one-eared cat lives on. I saw another white cat with two ears in the yard this week, which led me to consider kitty resurrection, but then I saw the one-eared cat again the next day. The poor cat looks so miserable. It was eating the crab carcasses from our crab meal the other day. I had crab. I'm still not very good at eating it. Oooo, speaking of food, the other day, Sister Ombao asked me to make French toast. So I did! It wasn't bad, I have to say. I told them all that they had to eat like Americans... without a spoon. Fun fact: The most important eating utensil in the Philippines is the spoon. The fork is used to push food onto your spoon. So telling them no spoon was fun. A few days later, Sister Rosina made ME French toast! So sweet! They've asked me to make "American food" and I have plans to make my favorite recipe, Cheesy Noodles for them. The problem? The cheese here is no good. For the most part it doesn't exist. I found some processed cheese slices... yuck. I'll have to keep looking. One thing that I do wish we had in our kitchen is a microwave. Wala. Wala means "none" or "nothing." We do have a toaster oven though, and I use it frequently to make toast. The bread here is the whitest bread I've ever seen. And it has added sugar to it, so it's sort of sweet. It isn't bad, but it sure does make me appreciate whole wheat and multi-grain and the like.
Thanks everyone! I should wrap up! Happy Mother's Day!
This week has gone pretty well. Today is the 14th. I entered the MTC on March 14th, which means that I have been serving a mission for exactly 2 months. It's weird to think that I only have to do what I've just done 8 more times, and then I'm done. Time flies!
I enjoy new adventures every day. Just yesterday my housemate, Sister Ombao fried some fish for us (still with the fins and head on it), and it was delicious! It was a mild fish, sort of like cod, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. When I was about done, Sister Rosina told me to eat the eyeballs. She insisted so... I did it. And you know what, fish eyes are not that bad. It just tasted like the rest of the fish, but a little gooey-er. Yum. Eyeball.
I've found that I sweat less. My body is finally (sort of) adjusting to living in constant heat and humidity. I might also have to attribute this all to the fact that I think the weather was cooler than it has been. We encountered many rainstorms, though I never got caught in any. I was always indoors. A few times while we were home, we had to rescue our clothes that were hanging out to dry. I am getting better at washing clothes. It's just very time consuming. Lots of effort (and sweat) involved. It helps me appreciate the circumstances I've grown up with. I also appreciate 1) Regular and reliable garbage disposal 2) Laws against littering and 3) setting fires. 4) Libraries 5) Safety regulations of all kinds 6) Hot water plumbing. Here they have little or none of any of that, and it definitely pays a toll. Sister Ombao and Sister Palai went to a funeral this week for a 40-year-old man who got in a tricycle accident, because guess what? No helmet or seat belts, or anything. If there were tricycles in America (the motorcycle with a sidecar full of people) I know that the law would require helmets and seat belts. In Sagay there aren't any traffic lights or cross walks. People just drive whenever and wherever. In Bacolod there are a few crosswalks and traffic signals.
I love the sky here. There are gorgeous clouds here that roll in before a storm, clouds that they just don't have in Utah where I've spent way too much time in recent years. The stars at night are beautiful. Fun fact: I can see Orion's Belt and The Big Dipper every night. Other fun fact: I cannot see the North Star. If the land were flatter, and if there were less trees, I might be able to see the North Star, but since I'm so close to the Equator, the star would be basically on the horizon.
The most common comment I get from people here (besides 'kana') is"Gwapa ka!" For anyone who knows Spanish, "gwapa" is like"guapa" in Spanish which means beautiful. "Ka" means "you." "You're beautiful" they say to me. Random strangers. It's such a weird feeling. I turn heads. People stare. Tricycles drivers honk their horns (more than usual) when I'm around to attract my attention so that they get the honor of driving me around. It's ridiculous. I am so average. I know my friends and family would disagree. But in America I blend in perfectly. Here, random strangers want to shake my hand and give me rides. I've noticed that people also take extra care of me. The members of the church will always let me sit if seating is scarce, or they insist that I eat first or eat more. Oh, this is a big one. Everyone is always worried that I'm going to get hit by a car, truck, or tricycle when we walk on the side of the street. Trust me companions and members: People love me here. They are NOT going to run me over.
The white one-eared cat lives on. I saw another white cat with two ears in the yard this week, which led me to consider kitty resurrection, but then I saw the one-eared cat again the next day. The poor cat looks so miserable. It was eating the crab carcasses from our crab meal the other day. I had crab. I'm still not very good at eating it. Oooo, speaking of food, the other day, Sister Ombao asked me to make French toast. So I did! It wasn't bad, I have to say. I told them all that they had to eat like Americans... without a spoon. Fun fact: The most important eating utensil in the Philippines is the spoon. The fork is used to push food onto your spoon. So telling them no spoon was fun. A few days later, Sister Rosina made ME French toast! So sweet! They've asked me to make "American food" and I have plans to make my favorite recipe, Cheesy Noodles for them. The problem? The cheese here is no good. For the most part it doesn't exist. I found some processed cheese slices... yuck. I'll have to keep looking. One thing that I do wish we had in our kitchen is a microwave. Wala. Wala means "none" or "nothing." We do have a toaster oven though, and I use it frequently to make toast. The bread here is the whitest bread I've ever seen. And it has added sugar to it, so it's sort of sweet. It isn't bad, but it sure does make me appreciate whole wheat and multi-grain and the like.
Thanks everyone! I should wrap up! Happy Mother's Day!
Monday, May 7, 2012
Eat more rice
Epistle from
the Philippines #2 - "Eat more rice!"
Monday, May
7, 2012
Hello once
again from the Philippines! I am alive and well, and many things have happened
since last week!First off, I want to thank everyone who has sent me emails this week. I loved them. Keep them coming. Yes, my Pday is on Mondays now, so for everyone in America, it's more like late Sunday night for you. As I write this, it's 4 p.m. In Utah it would be 2 a.m. East Coast, 4 a.m. I hope you are having sweet dreams.
Since last week I have hand washed my clothes for the first time in my life. It is very exhausting, and I'm not really looking forward to doing it again this week. But alas, it must be done. God bless the inventor of the washing machine, and God bless the inventor of the electric fan. That is something they have in abundance here, for which I am very grateful. I've decided that I know what hell is going to be like. It has everything to do with humidity, heat, and stuffiness. Think of a porta-potty/greenhouse. Glass walls and ceiling. No air circulation. Ugh, that would be awful. On the subject of humidity, I had a precious little conversation with my companion, Sister Rosina on the subject. She asked me, "What is humidity?" I really didn't know what to say. How do you explain darkness to a blind person, or wetness to a deep-sea fish? I told her it's when the air is wet. A few days later she had the gall to tell me "It's not humid today." -serious face- We are in the Philippines, Sister Rosina. It is ALWAYS humid. She and everyone else I come in contact with seem particularly concerned at the fact that I sweat so much. IT'S BECAUSE I'M HOT, OKAY? My body isn't used to this.
The money that we use here in the Philippines is called pesos. One American dollar is worth about 44 pesos. When I first got here and I bought my umbrella for P450, I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaa? But then I remembered, "Oh yeah, that's like ten bucks. No problem. In fact, it's a deal!" The cost of living here is low. We get around by riding the tricycles, which are essentially motorcycles with really fancy sidecars that can hold several people. The Bishop in our ward has a tricycle. Last night, we fit 9 people in/on it, and we technically could have fit more, if they were babies or small children. Safety regulations here are none existent. Those things don't have seat belts! The drivers don't wear helmets! And a ride only costs 7 pesos a person, which if you do the math is like, 16 cents. It costs 16 cents to get across town. That's awesome.
The missionary emphasis in the Philippines is not new baptisms. You see, there are just under 650,000 members of the church in the Philippines, but only about 150,000 of them are actively going to church. Those aren't good odds. They (I don't know who they are) are calling it "The Rescue." All the active members of the church are encouraged to fellowship and "rescue" at least one inactive church member by the end of the year. Wards and branches are setting goals to increase priesthood ordinations and number of missionaries going out to serve. It's a lot harder for people to go to the temple here, since there isn't a temple on our island. Luckily, there is a temple in Cebu, only one island away. Our ward is having a temple trip next month. A big group of people will spent 4 or 5 days traveling by boat to Cebu, going to the temple, and coming back. I'm excited for that. Temples are beautiful places to be. Anyway, we as missionaries spend a lot of time visiting people and reminding them that God is their Loving Heavenly Father who cares about them, and wants them to be obedient and faithful. We share scriptures, and we bear testimony. It breaks my heart, really. Something that all these inactive people have in common is that they don't read the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon) anymore. They aren't finding ways to remember Jesus Christ every day. As a missionary, I spend a lot of time reading the scriptures, and I can honestly say that that is my favorite part of the day. I love to learn about the gospel, and I love how I feel when I read the words of God. I just want everyone to be able to feel how I feel. But I can't do that if I don't speak the language.
Here in Negros Occidental (the state/province I live in) people speak Hiligaynon, otherwise known as Ilonggo. The people are Ilonggos, so they speak "Ilonggo." Get it? It's like saying that Americans speak American. Anyway, all I've been given is a simple language book, which is insufficient at explaining the language. I'm very lucky though, because pretty much everyone here speaks English. And Tagalog. And some speak Cebuano (the language of Cebu) as well. Like I said last week, language is more like guidelines than actual rules. Listening to Sister Rosina (and anyone else) talk is so weird. For the most part they speak Ilonggo, but every once in a while they throw in English words and phrases, and Tagalog words and phrases. It kills me. Can't you just keep to one language? That would be much easier for me to stick to. Plus I'll be way less tempted to speak English if you stop speaking English! I spend a lot of time in silence, mostly because I don't know how to speak Ilonggo, and I feel guilty about speaking English. So I just sit there and listen. My comprehension is decent. Even if I don't know the words, a lot of times I'll get the gist of what's being said by the body language and by the English they throw in. The Ward members are very helpful. They like to help me learn words. I'm so impressed with their ability to speak a million languages each, and I can barely speak one. And sign language. I can sign. And I know bits of French and Spanish. But I'm in no way as proficient as these people are in their second and third languages. It's amazing.
I have to tell you about the cat. As I mentioned last week, there are so many dogs and cats running around here. Most belong to people I think, but most of them are also mutts, because none of them are spayed or neutered. It's so easy to tell who the girl dogs are, because they almost all have motherly teats on them. Anyway, a few days ago I notice a white cat hanging out by the garbage can in our back yard. This poor kitty looks like it just recently lost its right ear in a fight. The ear area is all read and ear-less. I felt so bad for the poor thing. No, I didn't touch it or name it, but I didn't try too hard to chase it away from our garbage. It has since found sanctuary in that backyard. This morning I saw it reposing in the shade. First thought: Oh no. It's dead. I can't deal with a dead cat. But we're going to have to move it because it's going to rot and contaminate the house etc. So I walked toward it, and it looked up, thank goodness. I'm afraid it IS going to die from an infection from its ear injury. I just hope it finds its resting place somewhere else, because I don't know what to do with dead cats that are dirty and not mine. I'll keep you posted if anything happens.
We have a secret admirer at our house. Earlier this week we found a homemade Father's Day card in our mailbox, complete with stick figures and hearts. It's a bit odd, considering not a single one of the Sisters in our house is a father. A few days later... we got something else: an envelope with hearts with little slips of paper in them that said things like "I love you so much" "I can't breathe without you" and "I'm lost in your eyes" on them. It was hilarious. I hope this is the extent of our admirer's affections.
If anyone is curious, I'm losing weight. Yes, I'm eating, and no, I'm not starving myself. I just sweat half my body weight on a daily basis. I noticed that my shirts were fitting looser only after being in the Philippines for eight days. Now I have weird fantasies of becoming a swimsuit model when I return to America. Then I remember that I'm me, and that would never ever ever ever happen. But I do want to take better care of my body. It's funny. Sister Rosina and Sister Ombao (the other filipina in our house) have both gained weight on their mission. I guess it's sort of like how Americans gain weight when they serve stateside. I can't help but lose weight here. I'm not trying to, but it just happens because I sweat and walk around and don't snack and stuff.
Best quote of the week: Random guy I met on the street (might have been a Ward member) - "Hey Sister King! I'll teach you how to speak fluent Ilonggo: Eat more rice!" Using that logic, I'd say that there are a lot of people around the world who are fluent Ilonggo speakers. In China, and in Argentina, and in Japan, and in Brazil... I do my best NOT to eat too much rice here. I don't want to gain weight on my mission, thank you very much.
I should finish. I'm getting more adjusted. My cough is sort of getting better. The people here have good taste in music. I love going to the grocery store, because they're always playing the best of 80s rock. I love the people, and they all call me beautiful even when I'm a sweaty mess! "Kana" is a common word. Kana is short for "Amerikana" which is what I am.
Keep writing! I mean you! Yes you! The person who hasn't written to me in a while or ever. Yeah. You should write to me. It's easy. Write Sunday night, and I'll get it within a few hours!
Love always,
Sister Kelli King
Friday, May 4, 2012
My ample body was glazed in sweat
Epistle from the Philippines #1 - My ample body was glazed in sweat.
| |
Date:
|
Mon, Apr 30, 2012 2:26 am
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Hello from the Philippines! It feels so good to be at the computer writing to you after about week!
So what have I been doing since I last wrote/spoke to you? Good question!
On Monday last week our group of 5 sisters and 3 elders heading for the Philippines did just that... we headed to the Philippines. Saying goodbye at the MTC was surprisingly hard. I've said goodbye there before, but this time it was ME leaving! Leaving and knowing that I may never see some of these people again in this lifetime because we are serving in different missions and we are from distant lands. We took a MTC-owned bus to SLC where I got to call my family on the pay phone! I talked to Brian, Farina and little Wesley who occasionally cried in the background, and then I called Mom and Dad who were in the car with some relatives, and they put me on speaker phone. It was all very nice.
The flight to San Francisco was nondescript and uneventful. By the time we left SanFran for Hong Kong, it was like1 or 2 in the morning, and we were tired. I slept relatively well in the 14 hour flight. For the first half of the flight, I took several cat-naps. By about 7 hours in, I guess my sleep had been "satisfied" and I had trouble sleeping after that. This flight was also pretty nondescript. I was fortunate enough to have an aisle seat next to the toilet, so I could get up and stuff. The most exciting part of that flight was that Sister Arnold sat next to a nice Chinese man from the Hong Kong area, and she gave away a Book of Mormon.
The Hong Kong airport required security again. They confiscated terrifying nail file and cuticle scissors that I had in my carry-on. Those items were FINE in America! In this airport I saw my first ever real life Airbenders, aka Buddhist Monks. They were so cool, I wanted to take a picture. Hong Kong has some cool looking mountains outside. Anyway, we flew from Hong Kong to Manila next. On this flight I sat next to a nice Filipino man named Donald. He's a seaman; and he'd been away from the Philippines for 11 months in a ship. He was very interesting, and he also had a very good outlook on religion and tolerance. He loves the Bible, and reads it often. He and I shared favorite verses/stories from the New Testament. He shared the parable of the Good Samaritan. I shared the scripture in Matthew 7 that says, "Seek and ye shall find ... knock and it shall be opened unto you, etc." In the end I pulled out my Book of Mormon and shared a scripture from it too, bore my testimony, and I gave him my paperback Tagalog Book of Mormon. I also gave him a little Greg Olsen print of Jesus Christ (thanks, Kalenn). Looks who's being a missionary now?
Manila welcomed us with hassle. Baggage claim and customs were fine, but at this point in our journey we needed to figure out where to drop off Sister Tioti. While the rest of us had one more flight to Bacolod, she had reached her destination. We took this shuttle bus that took about a million years to load up to the domestic flights terminal. There we did a lot of waiting while Sister Arnold (the travel leader) and Elder Inlayo (actually speaks Tagalog) made some calls to Sister Tioti's mission. We eventually left her in the caring hands of a security guard to wait until the people came and picked her up. In the midst of this, I received my first 3 mosquito bites. Welcome to the Philippines. The rest of us headed up to check-in, which sort of added to the hellish feel we were already getting from the weather. They charged about ten trillion dollars for every bit of your luggage that weighed over 15 kilos (which isn't a lot of weight). The weighing and paying process took forever, and we were lucky this layover was like 4 hours long. We needed every second of it! We didn't get a chance to eat lunch or anything, we had to run onto the plane. We almost missed it. Then we flew to Bacolod. Some slight turbulence caused the guy next to me to spill his coffee before he even got the chance to drink it. I was so tempted to say, "This is a sign from God that you shouldn't be drinking coffee anymore." I didn't though. Finally after all THAT, we made it to Bacolod!
Now, I heard what to expect about a certain lack of toilet paper in the Philippines, but I wasn't expecting it so quickly! Right there, in the Bacolod airport, the CR (comfort room) had NO TOILET PAPER. On principle, I decided that I could hold it until we got wherever we were going. We were picked up at the airport by the Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Tobias, and also the APs (Assistants to the President)! They are very nice. The APs drove us to a hotel. Apparently the mission home is under renovation, so we couldn't sleep there. At the hotel we had some dinner. I ate rice. And fish. In the evening we went to the mission home/church, and had our interviews with Pres. Tobias. That night is all kind of a blur. We were very tired.
Sister Arnold and I remained companions for the next few days which were spent mostly in the church being oriented about the mission rules and stuff. The rest of our "batch" flew in from the Philippines MTC on Thursday. The church and the hotel both had toilet paper and hot running water. Two things I would soon say goodbye to.
Language: It's more like guidelines than actual rules.
The Filipinos here all speak English, Tagalog, and Hiliganon (aka Ilonggo). Our meetings thus far have all been in English. On Friday we said goodbye to the nice air conditioned hotel, and we met our trainers (first companions in the field). My companion is Sister Rosina. She is from the Philippines. She speaks another dialect of Filipino along with everything else. Sister Rosina and I are like the movie The Best Two Years (a movie I've been yearning to watch) in that she is in her last transfer (like Elder Rogers) and I am brand new (like Elder Calhoon). Friday afternoon we went together to the "SM" which stands for "super market" but really it's a "shopping mall." There I bought an umbrella, and a bag for walking around. I got my first real stares and points on this day. More into that later. I rode a jeepney for the first time. A jeepney is basically a truck with an open back. It has benches on the sides like a bus, and it works sort of like a taxi. Sister Rosina and I are serving in a city called Sagay. It's on the north end of the island. Now I won't tell you about how the house that the APs dropped us off is the sort of house that would make my mother cry, because that would be mean to my mother. She'd want to clean it, yes, but she wouldn't cry. Four sisters have been called to Sagay, and we all share the house together. Then we went to sleep.
Saturday morning, I was reminded of the island of Kauai. Is it because there was shave ice? No. Was it because we went to the Smith Family Luau? No. Is it because the roosters woke me up at odd hours of the night, making it impossible for me to sleep? Yes. I started off the day with my first real shower. Seriously though, I enjoyed this experience, and I encourage you to try it. In the bathroom there's a bucket next to a spigot of water. I fill up the bucket with room temperature water, and then I use this red, plastic "Big Dipper" and I pour water on myself. Then wash your body like you normally would. It's quite refreshing. Any of you could do this with a bucket in your bathtub. Save water. ;)
Saturday was National Service Day (like Earth Day?) A group of a few dozen Mormons met up at the church and then went out to pick up garbage on the side of the road. Trust me, it needed it. The roads are so dirty here, Sagay is also covered in dogs and cats. Remember the roosters I mentioned? Unlike in Kauai, these roosters actually belong to people. They are on leashes. The people here love my blonde hair and blue eyes. They sort of look at me in amazement, as if they aren't sure if I'm real or not. I haven't been touched or stroked awkwardly, but I think someone poked me in the back once. Little kids are the biggest culprits of pointing and staring.
Sunday was so great. Sister Rosina is a rock star. At 3 we met up with some of the youth in the ward, and they walked us around to the homes of less-actives, recently baptized, and some investigators. We visited 5 or 6 homes or so, and it was so good. I did my best to understand, but Sister Rosina did most of the talking (since I don't know how to speak the language. They understand English, but I feel so guilty speaking it!) By the end of the night we had 6 baptismal commitments! Hoorah! One sister (who's already seen the missionaries) gets so much love from me. She's 21, married with a little boy about 2 years old, and her husband cheats on her. She willingly welcomes Christ into her life. It just breaks my heart. She's so young, and she's already been through so much crap. In the Philippines there is no such thing as divorce either, so when you're married and you don't like it, you either just live with it, or you leave each other, unable to technically marry anyone else again as long as you both shall live. Yikes.
We just had a "brown-out" here in the internet "arcade" which is the same thing as an electricity black-out in America. It deleted part of my email, grrrrrr.
I'll finish up now. Like one of the church members here said, "When you're in Rome, be Roman. When you're in Sagay, be Sagayan!" I'll do my best, Sister Rose. It's hot here, and the food is weird, and I don't understand people, and I sweat when I'm just standing in the grocery store, and people stare at me, and the heat/bad air quality has only aggravated my lungs further, but that's all okay. I'll get used to it. The work is good, and the gospel is true.
Hugs and Butterfly kisses,
Sister Kelli King
And everyone, keep emailing to kelli.king@myldsmail.net
So what have I been doing since I last wrote/spoke to you? Good question!
On Monday last week our group of 5 sisters and 3 elders heading for the Philippines did just that... we headed to the Philippines. Saying goodbye at the MTC was surprisingly hard. I've said goodbye there before, but this time it was ME leaving! Leaving and knowing that I may never see some of these people again in this lifetime because we are serving in different missions and we are from distant lands. We took a MTC-owned bus to SLC where I got to call my family on the pay phone! I talked to Brian, Farina and little Wesley who occasionally cried in the background, and then I called Mom and Dad who were in the car with some relatives, and they put me on speaker phone. It was all very nice.
The flight to San Francisco was nondescript and uneventful. By the time we left SanFran for Hong Kong, it was like1 or 2 in the morning, and we were tired. I slept relatively well in the 14 hour flight. For the first half of the flight, I took several cat-naps. By about 7 hours in, I guess my sleep had been "satisfied" and I had trouble sleeping after that. This flight was also pretty nondescript. I was fortunate enough to have an aisle seat next to the toilet, so I could get up and stuff. The most exciting part of that flight was that Sister Arnold sat next to a nice Chinese man from the Hong Kong area, and she gave away a Book of Mormon.
The Hong Kong airport required security again. They confiscated terrifying nail file and cuticle scissors that I had in my carry-on. Those items were FINE in America! In this airport I saw my first ever real life Airbenders, aka Buddhist Monks. They were so cool, I wanted to take a picture. Hong Kong has some cool looking mountains outside. Anyway, we flew from Hong Kong to Manila next. On this flight I sat next to a nice Filipino man named Donald. He's a seaman; and he'd been away from the Philippines for 11 months in a ship. He was very interesting, and he also had a very good outlook on religion and tolerance. He loves the Bible, and reads it often. He and I shared favorite verses/stories from the New Testament. He shared the parable of the Good Samaritan. I shared the scripture in Matthew 7 that says, "Seek and ye shall find ... knock and it shall be opened unto you, etc." In the end I pulled out my Book of Mormon and shared a scripture from it too, bore my testimony, and I gave him my paperback Tagalog Book of Mormon. I also gave him a little Greg Olsen print of Jesus Christ (thanks, Kalenn). Looks who's being a missionary now?
Manila welcomed us with hassle. Baggage claim and customs were fine, but at this point in our journey we needed to figure out where to drop off Sister Tioti. While the rest of us had one more flight to Bacolod, she had reached her destination. We took this shuttle bus that took about a million years to load up to the domestic flights terminal. There we did a lot of waiting while Sister Arnold (the travel leader) and Elder Inlayo (actually speaks Tagalog) made some calls to Sister Tioti's mission. We eventually left her in the caring hands of a security guard to wait until the people came and picked her up. In the midst of this, I received my first 3 mosquito bites. Welcome to the Philippines. The rest of us headed up to check-in, which sort of added to the hellish feel we were already getting from the weather. They charged about ten trillion dollars for every bit of your luggage that weighed over 15 kilos (which isn't a lot of weight). The weighing and paying process took forever, and we were lucky this layover was like 4 hours long. We needed every second of it! We didn't get a chance to eat lunch or anything, we had to run onto the plane. We almost missed it. Then we flew to Bacolod. Some slight turbulence caused the guy next to me to spill his coffee before he even got the chance to drink it. I was so tempted to say, "This is a sign from God that you shouldn't be drinking coffee anymore." I didn't though. Finally after all THAT, we made it to Bacolod!
Now, I heard what to expect about a certain lack of toilet paper in the Philippines, but I wasn't expecting it so quickly! Right there, in the Bacolod airport, the CR (comfort room) had NO TOILET PAPER. On principle, I decided that I could hold it until we got wherever we were going. We were picked up at the airport by the Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Tobias, and also the APs (Assistants to the President)! They are very nice. The APs drove us to a hotel. Apparently the mission home is under renovation, so we couldn't sleep there. At the hotel we had some dinner. I ate rice. And fish. In the evening we went to the mission home/church, and had our interviews with Pres. Tobias. That night is all kind of a blur. We were very tired.
Sister Arnold and I remained companions for the next few days which were spent mostly in the church being oriented about the mission rules and stuff. The rest of our "batch" flew in from the Philippines MTC on Thursday. The church and the hotel both had toilet paper and hot running water. Two things I would soon say goodbye to.
Language: It's more like guidelines than actual rules.
The Filipinos here all speak English, Tagalog, and Hiliganon (aka Ilonggo). Our meetings thus far have all been in English. On Friday we said goodbye to the nice air conditioned hotel, and we met our trainers (first companions in the field). My companion is Sister Rosina. She is from the Philippines. She speaks another dialect of Filipino along with everything else. Sister Rosina and I are like the movie The Best Two Years (a movie I've been yearning to watch) in that she is in her last transfer (like Elder Rogers) and I am brand new (like Elder Calhoon). Friday afternoon we went together to the "SM" which stands for "super market" but really it's a "shopping mall." There I bought an umbrella, and a bag for walking around. I got my first real stares and points on this day. More into that later. I rode a jeepney for the first time. A jeepney is basically a truck with an open back. It has benches on the sides like a bus, and it works sort of like a taxi. Sister Rosina and I are serving in a city called Sagay. It's on the north end of the island. Now I won't tell you about how the house that the APs dropped us off is the sort of house that would make my mother cry, because that would be mean to my mother. She'd want to clean it, yes, but she wouldn't cry. Four sisters have been called to Sagay, and we all share the house together. Then we went to sleep.
Saturday morning, I was reminded of the island of Kauai. Is it because there was shave ice? No. Was it because we went to the Smith Family Luau? No. Is it because the roosters woke me up at odd hours of the night, making it impossible for me to sleep? Yes. I started off the day with my first real shower. Seriously though, I enjoyed this experience, and I encourage you to try it. In the bathroom there's a bucket next to a spigot of water. I fill up the bucket with room temperature water, and then I use this red, plastic "Big Dipper" and I pour water on myself. Then wash your body like you normally would. It's quite refreshing. Any of you could do this with a bucket in your bathtub. Save water. ;)
Saturday was National Service Day (like Earth Day?) A group of a few dozen Mormons met up at the church and then went out to pick up garbage on the side of the road. Trust me, it needed it. The roads are so dirty here, Sagay is also covered in dogs and cats. Remember the roosters I mentioned? Unlike in Kauai, these roosters actually belong to people. They are on leashes. The people here love my blonde hair and blue eyes. They sort of look at me in amazement, as if they aren't sure if I'm real or not. I haven't been touched or stroked awkwardly, but I think someone poked me in the back once. Little kids are the biggest culprits of pointing and staring.
Sunday was so great. Sister Rosina is a rock star. At 3 we met up with some of the youth in the ward, and they walked us around to the homes of less-actives, recently baptized, and some investigators. We visited 5 or 6 homes or so, and it was so good. I did my best to understand, but Sister Rosina did most of the talking (since I don't know how to speak the language. They understand English, but I feel so guilty speaking it!) By the end of the night we had 6 baptismal commitments! Hoorah! One sister (who's already seen the missionaries) gets so much love from me. She's 21, married with a little boy about 2 years old, and her husband cheats on her. She willingly welcomes Christ into her life. It just breaks my heart. She's so young, and she's already been through so much crap. In the Philippines there is no such thing as divorce either, so when you're married and you don't like it, you either just live with it, or you leave each other, unable to technically marry anyone else again as long as you both shall live. Yikes.
We just had a "brown-out" here in the internet "arcade" which is the same thing as an electricity black-out in America. It deleted part of my email, grrrrrr.
I'll finish up now. Like one of the church members here said, "When you're in Rome, be Roman. When you're in Sagay, be Sagayan!" I'll do my best, Sister Rose. It's hot here, and the food is weird, and I don't understand people, and I sweat when I'm just standing in the grocery store, and people stare at me, and the heat/bad air quality has only aggravated my lungs further, but that's all okay. I'll get used to it. The work is good, and the gospel is true.
Hugs and Butterfly kisses,
Sister Kelli King
And everyone, keep emailing to kelli.king@myldsmail.net
The best actual address is the mission home:
Sister Kelli Anne King
Philippines Bacolod Mission
Galo St. between Lacson & Mabini
Brgy. 22, Bacolod City
6100 Negros Occidental
Philippines
Ingat! Last day at the MTC
April 23, 2012
April 23, 2012
My companions
and I decided that we better check ours emails before we leave the MTC today.
We are finalizing all of our packing, and doing some last minute laundry!
I'm in this
really weird place right now. For the last few days I've known that it was my
last few days here, but it still doesn't seem real. I mean, I'm packing my
stuff, and I'm saying goodbyes and stuff, but the fact that I'm going TO THE
PHILIPPINES TO BE A MISSIONARY RIGHT NOW still hasn't set it. I bet it will
when I get off the plane and I don't understand anybody. Oh, and when I can't
breathe because of the humidity and heat. That'll be the BEST.
So remember how
I was sick? Well, right around the time I started feeling better, I started
feeling sick again. Similar but different symptoms. Now it's manifested in
headache form. HINDI MABUTI. NO GOOD. I will definitely have pain killers on
the plane with me for now, and when I arrive (climate change is due to make me
unwell). I'm hopeful and excited. The last few days have been pretty good.
The In-Field
Orientation consisted of a bunch of workshops and group meetings teaching us
how to be missionaries, and how to use the planner, and stuff. A lot of it was
really good. Then last night before the regular Sunday Fireside we had a
farewell Fireside that was incredibly sweet. Some words of advice. Spiritual
thoughts. Some good old "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." They
called out the different places people were going and we stood up. A giant
group of 73 missionaries were heading to Japan. I made friends with a bunch of
them. They were in our workout group.
During Relief
Society (the ladies' church meeting) Sister Ann Dibb came to speak with us. For
those of you who don't know, Ann Dibb is not only in a leadership position over
the youth of the church, but she is also the daughter of our beloved prophet
and church president, Thomas S. Monson. She gave her own little message, but
then she spent probably half of her time giving direct advice from her father.
The day before, she'd gone on a drive with her parents, and she said,
"Tomorrow I'm going to the MTC to speak specifically to the Sisters there.
Have anything you wish for me to tell them for you?" She took avid notes
as he gave some wonderful notes of advice about being loving, and being careful
about which spirit you're listening to. The last thing he said was, "Let
them know, I love them." We were all in tears as she wrapped up, it was
all so precious. Then the closing song was "I Feel My Savior's Love"
which got me crying even more. Most of us couldn't even sing along. I loved it.
Mahal kita! I
love you all so much. Thank you for all the support you've sent my way so far.
Continue to send DearElders while I'm in the Philippines. They are free, and
they will be mailed to me with no charge to you! It won't be same-day delivery,
but it'll still be good. International stamps in America cost $1.05? You can
check on whether or not that is sufficient to get a letter to the Philippines.
I don't know when my P-days will be, but I'll be sure to let you know!
Bon Voyage!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
MTC Week 6 - Late last night when I was home in bed...
Hey guess what?
I guess I do get to write to you today. We got a big enough break from In-field
Orientation during lunch that we got to write quick emails home. How is
everyone? Life at the MTC is... life at the MTC. But now my District is getting
more excited as we are only 3 days away from flying halfway across the world to
spread the good word.
Feelings are
bittersweet. I mean, of course we're excited. But we're also sort of terrified,
because we all know that we aren't going to be able to understand people when
we arrive. We aren't going to be able to say most of the things that we want to
say, or need to say (though I DO know how to ask where the bathroom is, so I'll
be fine on that front). But we know that the Lord will bless us as we strive to
serve His people, and bring people closer to Him.
Yesterday we
said goodbye to one of our teachers, Brother Trebas. He was "Lester"
our first investigator that we taught when wefirst arrived. We grew really
close to him, and it was sad to say goodbye. He sent us off with some neckties
that he bought and wore in the Philippines on his mission there. He wrote on
the back of those and he wrote in our journals in Tagalog of course, so we're
probably going to have to wait a while until we can actually understand
everything he wrote. I may sent those ties (I have two because Bro.
Trebas gave me one for my birthday as well) home for my dad and
brothers to wear. I have no need for them right now.
Oh my gosh, I
have to tell you about the Sunday Devotional we had this week! The musical
number was done by none other than... ELDER ARCHULETA! When they first
announced that he was going to sing, there were whispers, and maybe a few
groans. People both like and dislike him, but people kind of got tired of
hearing about him. Anyway, Elder Archuleta got up to sing "The Spirit of
God." First verse: Beautiful. Second verse: He sings in in Spanish.
Equally beautiful. I got chills. Last verse (he only sang 3): English again,
but this time right before he got to the chorus, he started getting all caught
up in the Spirit, and he started to cry! He had to try so hard to keep his
voice from breaking as tears formed in his eyes as he sang "We'll sing and
we'll shout, with the armies of heaven, Hosannah, Hosannah, to God and the
Lamb." It was beyond words. No one who saw or heard that
performance could ever say anything bad about it. It was perfect. Then the
speaker got up to speak. You might have heard of him. It was M. Russell Ballard
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The first thing he said was, "Elder
Archuleta, you're a tough act to follow." He spoke beautifully as
well. David Archuleta left the MTC the following day. I got word that he was
put in the fast-track Spanish program (because he's going to Chile), that is
only 3 weeks long, to avoid having to be in the MTC with all of the
annoying fangirls/boys. I heard he's still struggling with the language though.
I wish him the best on his mission. He'll be great.
Here's a story
to remember. On Monday night I went to bed just like I always do. But then, in
the middle of the night, this really loud noise wakes me up. It's sounds like
an alarm of some kind, so I do what I always do when I hear an alarm that isn't
my own clock: I ignore it, and hope it goes away. Well this alarm didn't go
away. Then I hear my roommate Sister Montgomery yell, "Let's go!" And
I sit up, and I'm like "What, why? What's going on!" And she's like
"It's the fire alarm! We have to go!" I'm I'm just thinking
"Ugh, she's right." So we all put on our shoes and some jackets and
walk outside. I saw no flames, and my guess was that there was just some
electrical problem, but you never know. Soon some security guards ushered us
into the gym building right next to our Residence Hall so we wouldn't be
standing out in the local night air (I wouldn't want to risk it. I'm not sure
if I'm a Borfin that Shlumps or not). So we sit in the gym for about 10 or 15
minutes. That's when I got to look at the clock. It was 1:36 a.m. At the MTC,
that's late, because we go to bed at 10:30. After waiting a little, we got to
go back to bed, all was well. Except the fact that we'd had no explanation as
to what happened, and now we were awake and aware, plus my stomach had woken
up. The next day someone posted a notice telling us that there had been an
electrical problem with a heat detector or something, and it was fixed quickly.
So in the end, the cow didn't kick over any lanterns in the shed, setting the
whole MTC on fire.
I bought a
phone card today. I'll call home (or one of the cell phones) when I'm in SLC
between 8 and 9? My flight leaves at 9:36. I may call home again from San
Francisco, but it'll be after bedtime, but I'm sure my family won't mind if
they get to talk to me, right? If I get my hands on an international phone card
by the time I got to Hong Kong, I'll call from there too! I arrive at 6:30
local time, which I have no idea what time that is back in Utah, but I'm sure
someone will be home!
Tagalog lesson:
Philippinos use a LOT of English. Our teacher Bro Trebas showed us his
Philippines drivers license (he worked in the mission office) and it was all in
English. I heard it's because there is no universal language in the Philippines
that everyone knows (not even Tagalog) so they just use English for a lot of
official documents and stuff. Weird. Joke-lang is a popular phrase, as is
Okay-lang. Lang means "Just" or "only" so you say joke-lang
when you're teasing someone, and you say okay-lang if you are merely okay.
Love you all!
Next time I write, I'll be in the Philippines!
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