Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Happy to Serve.

Magandang hapon po pamilya!
This past week has been well, not as crazy as the others. And probably for the first time here in the PI, I don't really have much to say.
Late on Monday we finally got our new companions. My new companion's name is Elder Realin from Pangasinan. He is Ilocano so he's been teaching me a little bit. I can understand enough, but found that I've been losing my Ilocano ever since I've been learning Tagalog. He's actually going home at the end of this transfer (next week) which is crazy. So I'll be "killing" him and getting another new companion next week. That's the mission for ya.
Tuesday we had "mission tour" which was a nice experience. We had Elder Teh of the First Quorum of the Seventy come and speak to us (for a really long time) and then had lunch with them and the mission presidency. It was a really spiritual experience and I was really impressed with his English accent.
This week otherwise wasn't anything out of the ordinary. We probably worked harder this week than I ever have though. I was so tired when we got home every night that I barely had enough energy to pour that bucket over my head to shower. Elder Realin has been really helping me learn Tagalog to which is great but not letting me speak any English. It's kind of nice to be in a country where people understand English as well here but doesn't help me learn the language.
Thanksgiving was well, just any other ordinary day. I'm actually glad they don't celebrate it here because that would have been really hard. We studied in the morning, worked, and then had two great dinners. The first was with Brother Jonathon and Sister Betty who are basically American. One is a banker and the other a business woman so they are very wealthy and take many trips abroad so they speak English really well. Of course there is no turkey here so they prepared pork instead which was really good. I also had salad for the first time since I've been here which was really, really good. I was really grateful for them and their willingness to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for a Filipino-American. I also explained to them the story behind the holiday and just the things every family does like wake up early to cook, watch the Macy's day parade, watch football, eat, and then prepare for Black Friday (definitely missed that). Afterwards, we went to Sister Jen's since they're basically family to me now, and had dinner with them as well. Sister Jen just happens to know all my favorite food now so she made sure to make a great meal. She even made a chicken Thanksgiving style which was really special to me. It wasn't home, but it was probably the best it could've been all the way across the world.
On Saturday we had the chance to help someone move and was a great opportunity for service. We were pretty tired afterwards but it was really nice to help them move into their new house.
Yesterday we had the opportunity to go on splits and I went with Brother Anton from Bago Bantay ward and is a returned missionary. It was pretty intimidating being with him because he was an "Assistant to the President" in his mission which is the highest leadership calling. Our last lesson we taught we also had Sister Grace join us who also served a mission so I was basically the green-new kid stuck with the experts. It was a lot of fun though and I learned a lot from them.
Anyway, that's really all for now. Transfer day is next week so I won't be able to email until Wednesday. I don't think I'll be transferred but we'll see. Regardless, like they say at the grocery store here:

Happy to serve!

Love,
Eric