Kamusta (hello) Lahat (everyone),
A lot has happened this
past week, including a few funny stories! I first have to tell you about jeep-nee
drivers and how crazy they are. Here in the Philippines traffic is very
different. You pass people who are slower, it doesn't matter if there is
oncoming traffic, or if there are 3 other cars in front of them, you just pass
them. And the thing is that people here don't seem to get mad! They are totally
ok and there isn't any road rage. However, this past week we were in a jeep-nee
in the town market area and it was really slow traffic because of a funeral
procession. Well, our driver had places to be and riders to drop off so he
decided to drive around the big sign and barrier saying "Welcome to
Alaminos" and then drove in the left lane, passed the funeral procession
and pulled out again in front of the hearse. It was one of the funniest,
scariest driving moments I have ever experienced.
Walking around the areas
where people live is also a different experience. Everything is pretty open and
people are hanging out in the street or on their porches. People here love
Americans and are very generous. All of the men on the weekends are usually
drinking so everywhere I go they yell "Hey Joe! One shot?” I just say no thanks or it’s bawal
(forbidden) and walk away. But this week I decided to be bold so with one guy I
said "Actually I don't drink and this is why" then I gave him a Word
of Wisdom packet asked him to read it and to talk to me if he wanted to know
more and then I walked away! My companion was stunned but afterward we got a
pretty good laugh out of it. Who knows maybe he will get baptized one day!
People here also really like American music, but only 3 songs…One by
Pink, “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars and another one by One Direction.
Everywhere you go it seems people are listening to one of those 3 songs on
their phones.
Buying things here is also
very interesting. I had to buy a side bag to use during the day so we went to
the only shopping center around here. I told them I needed a side bag but
wasn't sure exactly which one. I was surprised when 7 employees all went and
got different side bags, stood in a line and all tried to show me what they all
had to offer "how about this one sir?" or "dito has marmaring
zipper"(many zippers). I found a good bag and then they all walked with me
to the checkout and I bought it. It was pretty funny but very different at the
same time.
The food here isn’t too
bad! Some of the stuff is weird, but I mostly eat fruits and rice. I had to eat
pork liver this week and that was gross but not terrible. There are a lot of
different bananas and other fruits that are really good. Every morning I have
either a mango or some bananas and the other day I had a dragon fruit that was
really good!
We have several families that we have been
teaching. One of them, the Giaz family, is doing really well. They have several
kids and a few nieces that live with them. They seem really interested in the
gospel but we are having trouble getting them to come to church. There was also
are guy who just showed up at church and then said we could come teach him
later on that day. We were really
excited so we went and taught him the entire first lesson, he was doing so well
that I extended the baptismal challenge and he said that we would!! We thanked
him and got ready to go. As we were walking out he said he was really excited
to get baptized again! We stopped and asked "again?"… turns out he
was confirmed a member in 1992 and has just been inactive since then! It was funny because we were so excited to
have a baptism and a golden investigator just to find out he was a less active.
I miss you all and hope you have
a good week!
Elder Merrill
P.S.
I've attached pictures of a cool looking lizard and also what most of my
area looks like.
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