Hahah, my companion and Sister Bates' companion have both been sick this week, and so one day when they were both feeling crappy, and the house was a little sad, I just started yelling "Filipinos down!!!! I REPEAT! Filipinos down!" and it was so funny, the sickies (sister acoba and sister suay) were laughing so hard.
first things first... I am happy. I love my companion. I am learning. And my faith is growing a lot.
So PDAY is inspired, I think that phrase every single Sunday night. PDAY!! YES! Haha. So this week was so great. We really are building trust with the members here and its starting to show. We had great lessons and found new investigators. We had a TRIPLE baptism: me + sister acoba, sister bates + suay, and the sisters in Alicia 3 branch had a baptism too. Our investigator who got baptized was Joem. He's 10 and now his family is completed! They are returning to church and ahh, we've seen such growth in their family. It's so great, i love them. I seriously just love them and the baptism day was perfect. It's so crazy how different things are here, but I am so used to it that I don't even realize until like an hour later. So the baptism was scheduled to start at two, butof course filipino time trumps when a program starts. the families of the baptizees showed up at 2:30 and it started at 2:45. Joem was wearing basketball shorts and a matching tank top, but he was freshly showered and smiling, so i didn't even notice that he was wearing that! people looked so nice, and everyone was just so happy that those things didn't even matter and i didn't even register it at first. everyone was in their nicest jeans and hair wet, freshly washed. i played some prelude, and when i came back from taking pictures with the baptizees, a movie was playing on the tv while everyone waited. HAHA i was dying. (ps sorry for the typing, this computer is so slow and sometimes the shift button won't work. ANYWAY.) Joem bore his testimony, only after sister acoba went by his side before he got up and reminded him of what a testimony was. Then he gets up there, says he loves heavenly father and jesus christ, the church is true and that joseph smith suffered for our sins. WHAAA?hahahah I was dying. |It was so cute. his testimony was so quiet, no one could hear anyway, but honeslty i was dying. I played "a childs prayer" while my comp and roommates sang for the musical number. may i just say havin gmy violin is the greatest thing ever. yeah, it is.
So Tuesday night I had a dream that some guy came to our apartment and had me at gun point and then took me for ransom. for 200 pesos. TWO HUNDRED PESOS? THAT'S ALL I'M WORTH? haha. thats like... 4 dollars. sweet.
We had quarterly interviews with president's wife, and then with president, and all i have to say about those, is it felt great walking in and being able to be completely honest and say "I love my companion and I am so happy." I love my mission president and his wife. We just barely stopped by the mission home to get reimbursed for something and it was so good to talk to them for a minute. After all the interviews, we took pictures with our zone and sister rahlf yelled "jump pic!" and all the filipinos about died. They love jump pics. Wednesday was so solid, seeing President, having an awesome district meeting about Our Purpose, seeing everyone, and just having a good time with the missionaries.
Thursday the Sister Training Leaders came to stay with us for 24 hours to do splits. Because this cycle is almost over, we went as 3somes. Me, Sister Acoba, and Sister Tulikihifo went out. What a SOLID day it was, seriously. We didnt have any meetings so we just got to work hard from the beginning of the day until the end. SO SOLID. And Sister T is just the greatest person ever. We contacted someone we just found on the street (OYM- open your mouth) and she really has potential. 31 year old mom with a baby, she was AWESOME and I really have a good feeling about her.
That night we had S.H.E. (get it? sister home evening? like FHE? but for sisters? ......get it? ... yeah? Haha. It was so fun. We all had a sleepover that night and boy it was so great. But back to the point of having splits- I reallydid learn a lot. I have so much to learn in becoming a missionary. I need to develop so many things and become something so much more than I am right now. I have a long ways to go, but I know I am capable. Some days, I really feel like Im never going to be that missionary that I want to be. And sometimes, if im being honest, when we watch the District segments in Comp study, it frustrates me because they are perfect missionaries with perfect situations. When i get frustrated, I just think of what John told me- he said something like "that's not real life. real life is working hard all day, sweating, going place to place with no one letting you and coming home with no investigators." Hahaha. that was refreshing. But in reality, the work here really is progressing. Since our first sunday here, we have gone up 38 people in our sacrament attendance.
The two things I am not are 1. humble and 2. patient. And lucky for me, Sister Acoba is both. I know I was put with her for a reason- she's so patient and ... humble. She is a great teacher and I honestly love her. I've learned so much from here already and am so grateful I have another cycle training with her. She is convinced that I will stay here in Alicia and train immediately after my training. BLEH. I mean, I guess I'm not going to tell my mission president "Nah, no thanks. I don't want to" so I better just prepare.
Miracles are all over here in the mission. Small ones, big ones, you name it. We have been able to find people that are in the area book, run into them on the street, and randomly see them out and about in town. One night,we were walking backf Calaocan (a baranguy in our area) and we tried stopping by the Visperaz family earlier, but Nai (mom) wasnt there, and neither was Marieto, the one who hasnt been baptized that we are teaching. We were bummed cause we couldnt teach the rest of the fam anyting without another adult there, and we really just wanted to see the whole fam. We walk and then boom. We see them down the road. We talk to them and ask them how they are and all they can get out of their mouths is "pagod" which means exhausted. They had beenoutof town working for the past 3 days, and were just coming home. We talked to them for a little, I gave Marieto a bookmark I made him and then we headed off. Sister Acoba said "and that's the hard life of a fillipino." They have to leave town to get work in bukids (rice fields) during harvest season, just to get by. As I sit here in this computer shop in downtown Cauayan, one of 2 white people, motorcycles zooming by outside, while my brain is just running as i review the week, I just cant believe how blessed I am. I get to be a missionary for... less than 16 more months. I have a family at home, a car, food, family, food to eat every day, i can go to the store whenever i want, family and friends who would do anything for me, support all around me, the list goes on. And these people here literallyhave nothing. We watched a clip about Faith and Tithing (look it up, its in the philippines, a little "arise and shine forth" clip) and i saw the town that the story took place in, and then the camera took us to her house. I thought "dang her room is nice" and then the video continued. I then realized that everyting else seemed so normal to me. Then I took a step back and realized that oh my gosh. I am so used to everything here and have become adapted so much, that i didn't realize how crappy her room was and how dirty and poor they were. that only at night when i write in my journal do i realize where the heck I am. These people have nothing, yet they trust in the gospel so much. And when they don't, they are lost. They lose hope and just go day after day, only surviving. Those who trust in the gospel realy do find hope- even when they are coming home to the same shack, the same "house" with wooden benches, mud everywhere, 3 candles, and a water tap outside. I know me trying to explain this is so confusing but I guess the bottom line is, I am in a 3rd world country and I forget that sometimes. I forget that not everyone here is going back to Santa Clara, Utah in a year and a half to resume to their normal life- this IS their normal life.
some things:
-a little girl jumped in my arms off the top of her family's motor cycle and those 4 seconds of a little child in my arms was HEAVEN. i set her down, because im trying to be an obedient missionary :( i miss holding children!
-i understood everything said at our last coordination meeting and even made comments, suggestions, and conversed with the president about what i was thinking. FINALLY THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING. Now just the gift of tongues... come on... haha.
-My companion is an RN. I forgot to mention that before. She's the best, have I said that I love her? Because I do. :)
-the little kids in the ward now ask me like 10 times every sunday "sister, alam mo ba ______________ song? by ____________" haha "do you know (insert the name of a popular song) by (popular artist) on the violin?" its so cute.
-teaching kids and familes are so fun. especially when i can say funny phrases in tagalog and tell stories with my incredible facial expression and hand usage. these little kids were dying a couple days ago when sister acoba and i taught how to be reverent. HAHA. it really is the best feeling when i can just be ME.
-it was pouring rain, we trekked for like 20 minutes to our invest. house, and yep. no answer, the rain was so loud she couldnt hear us knocking or yelling. we walk away, i start laughing and smilig and singing "walking in sunlight!" an efy song we love, and the rest of the night was great.
-I eat so much here at peoples homes, and they just make you eat more and more. But yet I am losing weight- its from all the sweating.
-the best compliment ever from sister bates "the dinner appointment tonight was boring without you. it was so quiet and no one reallylaughed." hahaha.
I love being a missionary, but Satan doesn't. It is so easy to lose focus out here and to let him creep on in. But the greatest part of it all, is I have the strongest people on my side- and when EVER i call for their help, they come to my aide. I am so blessed and am coming to know my Savior more and more every day out here. I swear I have started crying every day this week in companionship study when I talk about Preach My Gospel- its so inspired and I just love it. It guides me and is helping me become the missionary I want to be. I want to be the best misisonary ever NOW, but have had to learn to be patient. Bleh. Life is just good.
I have had so many thoughts this week and have read my patriarchal blessing countless times. I realized that life has ONLY BEGUN for little miss abbey hafen over here. Life has just started. I have had such a good week, but defintely worried about all of you back home. Please be good and please be safe! I never really worried about any of you, just pray for you all every night, but this week I have just been worried.
and the best quote of the week to end the letter:
me: "Ah, okay. That will be perf."
sister acoba: "..perf....
.....What do you mean by, perf?"
Hahahaha, have a great week I love you and all love the emails, even if it takes me one or two weeks to respond.
love,
sister hafen
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