hello again family
before i begin let me clear something up about the whole dangau thing..... thats what doctors here say about EVERYTHING ha ha its kinda like when they told mom she has stomach cancer. its just the generic disease people have ha ha.
i still have a couch. and i thik it might be getting worse. it kinda depends on the day but some times at night i have real trouble breathing. its almost starting to get me down cause ive had a few priesthood blessings and im drinking lots of water and took all the antibiotics they gave me to take and vitamin c and everything but still have a caugh. but when i say almost i mean im still happy ha hindi ko alam kung bakit but it just it like the bugs that are always flying around your head you can either let it bother you so much that you get mad about it or you can just keep working and get over it. this is where its crazy i couldnt do that before i hit the field but somehow now i can. so maybe thats exactly the help im getting is not getting anxious about it.
conference out here was great! it was in english, they had a tagalag translation but the majority just watched in english. they probably didnt understand what was going on but they were still watching and i thought that was awesome.
theres a nanay here in santiago, and she is the coolest ever she lets the missionaries eat for free at her little diner place at the palanke (market with a million little shops) every day. and theres like 7 different companionships that eat there depending on the day. she is awesome. she kinda reminds me of grandma hardcastle because she is really kind and/but she isnt afraid to speak exactly what she thinks, or i guess treats you just like your her own kid. isnt afraid to correct you if your out of line ha but so kind. hard to explain but yeah.
im gwettin my first experience with someone that has been taught for a long time but isnt putting in the effort to get a testimony. my companion is getting really frustrated with him cause well he is the one that has been teaching him but im not ready to give up on him just yet. i feel like i can understand these kind of people better than some others cause im pretty hard headed too.
im guessing this is how it is with all new companionships but kinding unity while teaching is been kind of a strougle. he talks kinda long, then when i get my turn my jealous side of me wants to share at least something so i dont evd up bweing just the testimony at the end, or he lets me start and shempre( of couse) im new and im not perfect at teaching in tagal;ag or at the lessons in general, so i dont teach it perfectly and then i dono. hes pretty patient and stuff and he wants to help me get beter theres been a few days i could feel his frustration but i understand it. this whole divine companionship thing is super hard when my vocabs so small! and bein around 3 americans we speak english quite a bit which i dont really like cause thwey all speak tagalag but dont want to to each other.
one thing about phili[pino culture i do love is they looove to serve you and each other. thweres none of this im not gonna wash that because its not my fork or its your turn to do that. well i guess it just depends on the person but for the most part thats how they are here and thats one downside of bein with americans. that dont want to become like pilipinos. i want to become like the people here so i can teach them and help them! how can you if you dont absorb their culture? so hopefully ill get another pilipino comp AFTER i learn tagalag ebough to communicate and understand. maybe ill even get a masipug( industrious/hard working) comp. that would be awesome.
ano pa.... i found out how cheap making pants are, for the most expensive fabric and for a taylor it comes out to be around 15 dollars for nice tailor made pants. im excited to get them done!
something people love here is chareoke, and i think just talkking in a microphone ha. elder riner and i were walking past a birthday and they had a chareoke machine and this guy was singing some cheesy birthday song and all the sudden we hear hey joe! where you going? ( when you are talking to people you just meet or just anybody its just normal to say saan kayo galing, which means where did you just come from, and saan kayo pupunta whichis where are you going) but to hear it in english after hey joe during a birthday some with a philipino accent we couldnt stop laughing. then i caughed up a lung and laughed again. hey joe and saying anything they can to us in elglish is like the coolest thing for them ha it just makes me laugh. we had a little girl flip us off the other day and say F U as loud as she could, like 3 or four years old maybe.... it was shocking and then funny cause she has no idea what it even means. i wonder who taught it to her.
i saw my first little cock fight two days ago it was crazy! they were just training them so it wasnt to the death but wow. the guy said that a lot of americans come over here for cockfights because its legal here.
still havent eaten dog yet but im just looking for the opportunity my comp said its actually way good.
well i dono what else to say! things are great, theres bugs everywhere our fridge was literally alive with mold because we had no power for a week, stray dogs literally everywhwere roaming the streets, never seen so many naked kids in my life, somethings just cause people dont feel the need to keep their pants on but sometimes, the sad times when theyre too poor to afford anything.
if anyone needs the gospel its these people. i just wish they would realize how much they do. most people so far, cause almost everyone is willing to listen just doesnt really care about it. i guess thats where faith comes in. well mahal kita hanggang susundan na lingo, (until next week) elder landeen