sooo Filipinos are just like americans in that they are allll different. (Greg also asked Sarah about the Filipino people...) so i can't really give you stereotypical statements. that being said! i have noticed general trends in the people we meet.
1. everyone has faith in God. which is awesome because we're like hey will you pray to God? and they're like yeah totes i do that everyday. and we're like sweet, now pray like this and ask questions and listen for answers!!!! but its can also be frustrating at times because they aren't super eager to change their ways because they already have this faith so why do they need more or other faith. along the same lines a lot of people will be like hey come teach us, we want to hear the word of God. as if just listening to us will bring them salvation. like a loooot of people are like that actually. its a little bit frustrating because we teach them, of course, but they don't do anything when we're not there. but then we come back and they're like yaaaay come back teach us the word of God again! and we're like did you read? and they're like yeaaaah totally! it was great! all the words of God are great! all religions are the same because they're all the word of God and there is only one God so yeah! and we're like ok but no.
2. only rich people care about time. like for reals. everyone shows up late to everything always. its rough. if we go on time to our appts they aren't there. we have to go late. like an hour late. which gives us a big cushion if we want to stop and oym some folks or change our plans buuuut almost everyday we get punted by our first couple appts because they aren't home or they are asleep. at 12. which is a bummer. then everyone wants us to teach them at the same time in the aft/evening. lame.
(anyone know what oym means??)
3. everyone is suuuuuper nice and friendly. mostly because we're americans that are trying (and usually succeeding) to speak their language. but for reals when we are walking down the street if at least 5 people don't say hi to us on every street, its an off day. so that's cool because it's really easy to talk to people and ask them questions and start talking with them and everything buuut it's hard to tell if they're actually interested until we come back three more times because they will just listen to us to be nice for a couple times and then punt us. slash hide. those are awkward. lolz but we really do have some great investigators. and alll the less actives we visit are super nice. except one family that hates us but we go every week anyway... but they're a work in progress.
4. The kids are super trusting and the parents usually are too. like all the kids will just run up to us and hug us and we're like heeeey who are you?? and then they laugh and run away or try to talk to us in english or whatevs. but none of them are like stranger danger!! they all love us right away. sometimes they run up and bless us which is hilarious cuz we try to shake their hand and they insist on blessing us. i love talking to the kids cuz they tell you whats really up. we'll be like hey is your dad home? and they're like he doesn't want to talk to you daw. and we're like sweet. good to know! its so much easier that way. or they will be like what the heck are you saying??? if my tagalog is rough and im like ah heck. i need to learn how to say that! they are very honest. which is also cool cuz when they compliment you, you know its the truth! cuz if they think you're ugly or fat or bad at tagalog, they'll tell you what's up. lolz
that's all i can think of right now.... we did have a baptism this week! sister malou! the mom of sister mariz! and her husband and son came to her baptism! which was sweet cuz they haven't shown any interest really before that! so that went well!
this saturday james is getting baptized!!! he's kept the wow for a month! no problems! he's legit. he comes to church and takes notes in the classes. its awesome/hilarious. and lil andrew is getting baptized too!! he's pretty much perfect. he does all his reading and praying and he's so sincere and honest and accepting. he's ten and his mom and dad are members but they were inactive for a while and his dad has a wow problem. his mom bore her testimony on sunday about how now andrew is the one that strengthens her and always encourages them to go to church and all that stuff. it was so sweet!
also! we have another investigator, maricon. she is way legit, and hilarious. her husband is waaaay less active and they have two super cute lil kids. its kinda awkward cuz we teach her the commandments and stuff and she's just like wow my husband is so disobedient! and we're like uhhhhh yeah but that's why we have repentance! it was so cute, we were talking about the temple and she was like do you think one day we can be married in the temple?? it was like a secret desire. and she honestly didn't think it was possible because right after she asked she was like joke!! and tried to laugh it off and we were like no seriously. you can! you can all go to the temple and be sealed together! and the lil baby that you had that died can be sealed to you forever!! it was a really sweet experience to be able to talk to her about how amazing and beautiful her potential is as an individual and as a family.
she also works nights every other week and because of that drinks coffee like water daw. so last week sister garcia taught her when we were on splits and the member was like hey do you have any vices? (that's why its beautiful to work with members, they're not afraid of straight up asking people things like that, whereas we're a lil hesitant cuz we don't really understand what would offend them and what's ok) anyway maricon was like umm just coffee. and the member was like you should stop. just don't. you can do it :) (we hadn't even taught her wow yet!) so we taught her again yesterday and she was like soo i went from drinking 3 cups of coffee a day to one. and im ready to stop completely. she was like yeah no prob, i'll just drink hot chocolate instead or something! it was so amazing! we were way impressed. she has such great faith!
yesterday we had our ward mission fireside where President and Sister Sperry came. we were a lil bit nervous because we were not in charge of it at all so had no idea what to expect. and President and Sister came to our ward for church before the fireside. and it was fast sunday. and the meeting was right after church. so it turned out pretty well i guess but a lot of things happened that made us reaaaaaally nervous before it was over. for example. starting late, what a surprise. also President had a meeting at 12:30 so we had to finish before then. we started at like 11:30 and then our ward mission leader talked foreeevvvveeeeerr. like until 12:10. we and then there was supposed to be a 15 min break and a musical number and then Pres and Sis were both supposed to speak?? so we cut out the break and did the musical number as the closing hymn. and our ward mission leader did greaaaaat things like made all the leaders stand and told them if they weren't doing their home and visiting teaching they were wicked and they needed to repent.
that is legitimately a big problem here. buuuut for reals? and that would have been fine if he was speaking tagalog and President couldn't understand. buuut nope. he did the whole thing in English. sweeeeet. anyway President and Sister are so amazing. they got up with the 20 mins they had left and gave awesome talks that were so loving and scripturally based that everyone pretty much forgot about the other stuff! hopefully.... they were great though for reals.
then they had us all sing the efy medley as sisters in zion/armies of helaman. aka all 4 sister missionaries and all the youth slash single adults. there were quite a few of us! but apparently no one knows that medley here.... sister garcia and i sang reaaaaallly loud lolz. ps. there are a lot of people here that are tone deaf. just sayin. like more than a couple. i can probs count the number of Filipinos that are not tone deaf on one hand. maybe two on a good day lolz. it was a party. and we had two lolas become self proclaimed choristers whilst we sang! sweeeeet. lolz good times.
anyway the day turned out really well. we're doing great! not excited for sister garcia to leave me next week but we're living life one day at a time like we're both gonna be here forever!!!!!!
the church is true. pray always.
love,
sister jones
I googled OYM. I think it means "Open Your Mouth." Since Sarah totes uses slang, I'm guessing that I got it right :)
ReplyDelete(Like my use of "totes" in that sentance? Sarah taught me that. Thanks Sarah!!)