Kamusta!
How is
everyone? This week has flown by! Next week we host the new missionaries (show
them where they need to go, and meet them when they are dropped off). We
are now the oldest district in our zone, it's crazy we have been here
for 4 and 1/2 weeks already. Next weekend I should get my travel info.
Last
Saturday after p-day was over we went to a weekly meeting we have called TRC.
It’s where we teach a lesson to church members who speak Tagalog. It was a
really great experience. Our member was a BYU student who just got his masters
in social work and is looking for a job, his wife is also pregnant. He
said that he was struggling a lot because it is getting to the time where he
really needs to find work. We had a lesson on the fundamentals of the gospel to
teach him, but the Spirit told me to just focus on faith. It was tough to try
and convey my thoughts and feeling to him in Tagalog so I ended up saying a lot
in English, just about how I know if he has the faith that God would guide him,
he will find the right job for him. I had him read in 1st Nephi about when
Nephi went to get the plates and went into Laban's house without any idea of
what to do, but the Spirit guided him. I did say a lot in English but I didn't
really care, it reinforced to me the idea that the Spirit is much more important
than the language, and that the Holy Ghost is all that matters.
On Tuesday
we went to a devotional in the Marriott center. I guess that is the first
time that’s ever happened. It was crazy to see all the missionaries walking; it
reminded me of the 2000 stripling warriors.
A quick
funny story, during the first two weeks here we taught an
"investigator" who was really just a teacher acting. This past week
the teacher who had played the investigator walked into the class and said
hello. It was funny to see him as a teacher instead of the non-member he
played. We asked him if we had said anything funny or embarrassing in Tagalog.
He laughed and said that I actually had. When we were teaching the law of
chastity (the one lesson where you DON’T want to say the wrong thing) I had
tried to ask him if he had a girlfriend. But I didn't know how to say
girlfriend. So instead I thought I could just ask if he had a woman. Which
sounded normal in my head "do you have a woman?" normal right? Well
it turns out that when I asked him that it translated into "do you own
a woman?"... something that a person might ask a pimp,
nakakaawkward(awkward in Tagalog). We all got a good laugh, and now at
least I know not to ask that in the Philippines.
The more we
learn about Tagalog the stranger it becomes. It’s a big mix of lots of
languages. For example numbers….counting numbers 1,2,3 but in Tagalog it’s Isa,
Dalawa, Tatlo. Time is in usually in Spanish or English and dates or any
number above 100 that isn't a multiple of 100 is in English! So you would
say " Noong Eighteen twenty buhay si Joseph Smith" Joseph smith
lived in 1820.
Mom and Dad
- Happy Anniversary (last week)! Marlee - I am glad you had a fun time at
girls' camp! Riley - Good job working out with weights at the Y!
Ady - Sounds like you are going to be an amazing gymnast!
Also,
Congratulations to my cousin Brock for getting engaged and Happy 75th
Birthday to Grandma Brock!
I miss you
all!
Mahal Elder Hayden Merrill
Elder
Hayden Albert Merrill
MTC
Mailbox #15
PHI-SAN
0703
2005
N. 900 E.
Provo,
Utah 84604-1793
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