20 September 2010

Hey!!
This week was another tough one for me, but luckily I had some sweet epiphanies at the end, so don't worry!
This week all the zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers went to Iloilo for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday for training, so I got to work with a native here in Roxas, Brother Toto Antioquia. It was probably pretty nice for me because you know, people tell me I'm lucky I have a Filipino companion, which I am, but people tell me I am because I'll learn the language so much faster. You know that might be true, but my companion isn't a native speaker, which is the hard part, so it was nice to work with brother Toto. We worked the first day and taught like twice as much as we usually do, probably because we taught a lot of shorter lessons, but I like that because I feel it is a lot less boring for the investigators and like it's easier for them when they don't have to take in too much information.

The funny thing is with brother Toto I had to cook him lunch on those days. So one of the days I cooked Spagetti because I was able to buy some noodles, and he told me it's one of his favorites. I didn't really know how to make sauce but I bought some canned sauce from the brand Ulam King (ulam is Tagalog for like "rice topping"), I liked it, I thought it was okay, but I'm not sure how much Bro. Toto liked it, since he tried to give me some of his. After we ate he told me he was craving rice though. That kind of shocked me. I didn't realize like everyone here at rice because they craved it really bad. I just thought they ate it because it was less expensive and you know, nutritious or something. So I thought that was funny. Something else I noticed with Filipinos is they're not very adventurous with their foods. Like, yes, they eat dog, and chicken feet, and chicken blood, and I ate these weird Tilipia (the fish) 'chips', but they seem to be scared to try new kinds of food, like I still can't get Elder Tiamzon to try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's kind of funny to me.

So Brother Toto is a returned missionary from one of the southern missions in the Philippines (where Foreign missionaries aren't allowed to go to because they could be kidnapped or something like that, it's more dangerous). But anyway, that meant that I was his first foreign companion. He told me, "Elder Burton, I'm going to add you to my Preach my Gospel. " He wrote in big letters that I was a foreigner, so that was kind of funny. I 'added' him to my PMG too. Another funny thing is like in Tagalog/Ilonggo they have the word 'siya' which can mean he/she/it. So when he speaks in English and he's talking about a boy sometimes he says she and most of the time he always says they when he is talking about one person, it confuses me. Same with Elder Tiamzon, he was talking to me about one of our investigators kids and how we just saw the person and I asked who it was. He said, "He is the one wearing the blue dress?" I asked, do you mean she? And he said no, the boy wearing the blue dress. I said, "Boys don't wear dresses!" Then he realized it was a shirt, but it was a boy in the end, so just things like that are confusing.

What was hard this week was teaching and language. After teaching a lesson with Brother Toto I did my best to bear my testimony on the subject, and tell them how I really felt, with the limited vocabulary that I have. When I finished and said amen one of the girls called me a Robot, which really hurt my feelings. I mean, I guess I understand how I sound like a robot, but I'm trying hard to say how I really feel about it. And it hurt. Then Bro. Toto told me after the lesson that its so hard for him to express himself in English, and I have no idea how he feels. But you know, I'm just one person he has to talk to in English! And I have to talk to everyone in Ilonggo! And I can't say anything to anyone. But after being frustrated for a while I read Doctrine and Covenants 68:6, and I decided that I would go back to that person and be able to explain to her why I was on a mission in Ilonggo. So I did. This week I found myself thinking a lot about home and about what life was like before my mission. I've been thinking about where I was 2 years ago-starting my senior year of high school. I can barely remember that. I can barely remember who I was then. I don't think I realized how long 2 years was. But I got a good reminder Sunday morning as we talked to an investigator. We finished teaching a lesson and as usual Elder Tiamzon asked, "Do you have any questions?" She said she has a question, but it's for Elder Burton (that's me). She asked, "Don't you miss your family? Why did you choose to be religious?" It was something I really needed. Because of course I miss you all, of course it's hard for me to be here, doing this. But I choose to come here for a reason. It was really nice to be able to share that with her, and reminder for me that I am here for a purpose. I don't know how much of what I said affected her, but it really gave me the help I needed.

You know, it feels a lot like I have barely any time for language study. During study time, I'm always studying doctrine and scriptures and how to help the investigator, but still, I feel the language coming. The thing that worries me most is later this week, Bro. Toto, I, and Elder Tiamzon all taught together. When Elder Tiamzon was talking sometimes, Elder Tiamzon was teaching and Bro. Toto says, "wait, what does that word mean?" Elder Tiamzon tells him and Bro. Toto says, "No, it's actually..." So I'm just worried that a lot of words he teaches me might not be the correct word. And I don't have a dictionary to figure it out! So I have to put all my language learning trust in this. So hopefully it works out.

So on Sundays our Church is a 2:00P.M. every week. And this week we really wanted to get investigators to church. We got our ward missionaries and went on splits so we could pick more people up. I went to one area (Punta-tabok) with Bro. Toto and Elder Tiamzon went to Cagay with Bro. Vermi. Bro. Toto and I went to 7 different peoples houses and tried to pick them up for church. People at the houses told us the people already left to head to church, which got me excited. Then in the end with no body with us, we went to one less active/ part member families house. We invited them to church and the mom said she didn't want to go, but the 2 daughters, like age 9 and 13, said they wanted to go. It was exciting because they seemed to have a really good time at church. One of the young women at church immediately befriended the 13-year-old girl. And the ward is just so welcoming. The 9-year-old girl is really funny too. She always has the biggest smile on her face and me and her connect through facial expressions, which is weird. It's hard not to smile around her. All the kids here are so cute, and they are my favorite to talk to, though when it comes to teaching kids, it's really hard for me so if you have any advice on teaching kids, let me know! It was nice at church, but I was still worried about our other investigators who weren't able to come. Hopefully we can help them realize the importance of coming in the next week. So during priesthood I also had to teach the lesson, which was tough for me. The hardest thing is when I ask questions and nobody answers. I taught though and things worked out in the end.

I haven't bought any pants or any like personal souvenirs yet. I haven't even like taken any pictures. (By the way, how do you want me to do the pictures thing for you?) But that's okay! I am getting faster at laundry. I asked my zone leader about laundry and he told me about a method he uses where he like uses a butter churner. It works pretty good. And it's a lot faster, so I've been doing that. I try to do laundry twice a week though. And I do appreciate washing machines. :D

That's all I really have to write sorry! I didn't get any letters this week, no one did, because the package from iloilo didn't come. but I did get the package, so thank you so much. It's hard I'm trying to budget eating that delicious looking food. But anyway, I love you all so much, I can't believe transfer announcement is in 2 weeks from today. Thank you for your prayers and know I pray for you too. I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Joshua Burton