Week #25 - Having trouble with the English language! Lol!

Hello family,

So this past week was fun. Let's see. On saturday, I got to do a baptismal interview... to an 85 year old Ilokana lady who didn't understand english or tagalog. At least I had a translator. That was fun though. Saturday, we also had 4 baptisms. We have some more coming up... children. We also met this one guy from California who's living in the Philippines now. It's weird teaching in English sometimes. I'm just so used to speaking in Tagalog. Even Elder Clark is having trouble speaking English in lessons. It's like we don't know what to say. I think we're going to have to start practice teaching in English instead of Tagalog.

So anyways, on sunday, President Barrientos came back cause he had to an emergency interview for the new missionary. Afterwards, President Barrientos quickly interviewed me as well. He pretty much laid my future out for me for next transfer and for many transfers to come. He told me I'm leaving Bangui the upcoming transfer and going to Laoag to the mission office. I'm most likely going to be in finance. I'll also be driving. That's all I know. I already saw that coming though because President hinted to me last interview. He said, first you train, then you go to the office. So no surprises in my mission. I may be in the office for awhile too... It's okay . I'll survive. I just want to go out and work but without the office, the work can't go forward.

Today, we went to a white rock (kapurpurawan) and we also went to the oldest lighthouse in Philippines and second oldest in all of Asia. We went with an RM. He's pretty cool.

We're going to use him as a fellowshipper for when we work in Burgos. He even told us he has a lot of friends he wants to share the gospel with. We saw that today and he kept introducing us to all the people he knows in Burgos. We told him he could become the branch president of Burgos when they start a meetinghouse there. He started laughing.

Anyways, I hope you are all doing well. Medjo mahirap para sa akin ngayon na isulat ang mga email sa tagalog kasi takes time. Pero susubukan ko next time. Kailangan ko na mag-practice na magsulat sa tagalog. At kailangan ko pa na mag-practice ng Ilocano ko. Walang guide talaga na i-form ang mga sentence. Yung proper structure. Alam ko ang mga basic na basic pero mahirap pa rin. Mahirap na maalaala ang mga word kasi ANG DAMI!!! Kasi... nalipatak!

Anyways, keep me updated! Love you all ken agannadkayo! Ay-ayaten ko kayo!

Elder Morales

Week #24 : This week....Four more baptisms and everyweek a marching band!

Hello inang,

 

So you wish to know how the filipino people learn here. The way I teach is adapted from Elder Polgo. Everything is simplified. Some lessons have acronyms so that things are easier to remember. Halimbawa, the Word of Wisdom. To remember what's bawal, use the word SAKIT.

 

S - Sigarilyo

A - Alak

K - Kape

I - Illegal drogas

T - Tsaa

 

I made a whole bunch of diagrams too using colored paper and had them laminate it. One for the Plan of Salvation and one for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It keeps the people interested. It's really good with children too. And it really helps them see and understand. Teaching tools are super important in the work. We have to find ways to keep them interested as we talk.

 

This week we have 4 baptisms. They're super converted! As we've taught these people, we've seen their progression and we've seen their testimonies grow. It's really cool to see these things. Being District Leader now is kind of exciting but hard too. Not only do I have to train Elder Clark, I have to give weekly trainings to my district.

 

Let's see, did anything interesting happen this past week? It's been raining hard here but no bagyo daw at walang flood dito. This area is flood proof so that's nice. Every week, we have a marching band in front of our apartment because people keep passing away here. It's full of really old people. So we started finally exploring this other part of our area. It's actually a whole municipality. Just like Sta Ana is an area and Bangui is an area, or municipality, Burgos is its own. We are having new investigators there except its malayo. So, we took a bus to get to Burgos, at malakas talaga ang ulan, kaya, for some reason, the bus was leaking from the inside and water would just pour on Elder Clark. Oh yes! We experienced an earthquake! That was interesting. We we're just sitting there and everything just shook. We also had to give a message at a necrological for one of the member's mothers. It was kind of weird giving a message at a funeral service. But I could say I did it now. Elder Gamboa's training too now. Isuna ti puraw. We lost our cook for a whole week so I cooked. Niluto ko ang sinigang. You should try to find santul there as a pangasim. It's more natural than that sinigang package. I'm learning how to make real sabaw with all those packages. Masarap talaga. I can cook paksiw, diningding, sinigang, adobo. And the list goes on. I made kare-kare once. It was good. We're gonna start having breakfast now. I bought eggs and longanisa. We usually have insimada for breakfast or cheese-bread. There's a bakery across the street. 

 

Anyways, I'm still trying to learn Ilocano. Papa told me he's part Ilocano or something hehe. That whole Tagalog Ilocano thing is just like back home with the whole English French thing. Elder Polgo told me that if you ever spoke Tagalog in Bacolod, they'll laugh at you. So I guess it's everywhere.

 

Well, I hope you're all doing good. I still remember when Esa would sing inside the car while we drove. She was always on key. Pretty smart already being 2 years old. Anyways, anything interesting happen lately? There are so many wedding now! It's incredible! There's a lot of missionaries from our stake too! That's pretty cool! Anyways, agannadkayo ken ay-ayatenkayo!

Week #23 -Where's WALDO???

So where's Waldo???
Nope we didnt' receive an email for week #22 and we were worried and couldn't sleep.
Where and what was he doing????
We figured that if something was wrong that we would be notified so we just prayed and ask for peace and assurance that he's ok.
So he didn't email again because he came down yet with another fever.
But here's a picture of their zone conference.
I can't post the letter up. (can't seem to find it boohooo) But there was a lot of pics from this email and didn't bother posting it up because
it took us forever to find Chris.
We both complained that it was like looking for Waldo lol!
Good luck looking for him hehe :)