Answers to Questions

Dearly beloved,

So I'll start off by answering your questions, Mom, because that tends to get my fingers typing. :) 

What animals do you see? I see a lot of dogs. So many dogs!! Sometimes the missionaries call them zombie dogs because most of them are not healthy and have no owner of any kind. So many of them are skinny and have sores all over their bodies, barely any fur. Super sad. Some of the members that work with us are afraid of dogs, but I'm not. Still not a dog person, but I'm not scared of them. There are also a lot of frogs. Where there is water, there are frogs. Sometimes we'll see a dead snake or something. Then there are rats. We saw a huge rat at the marker last week. It was being beaten to death by a man hitting it with a sharp broom made out of sticks, which is called a silhig. Yeah.....

What do kids do and say? Kids here just play and play and play. Most of them are really dirty. They shake our hands and then we have dirty hands too! Haha! :) 

Are there typhoons? Yes, there are storms here that are because of typhoons, but so far there hasn't been anything alarming here. The northern islands are the ones that usually get hit the most. The last big typhoon that really harmed Negros Island was Typhoon Ulanda. That did a lot of damage. 

What was something sad you saw this week? The condition of old people here is sometimes really sad. We saw a grandma yesterday who was really skin and bones. She just lays on what is really a windowsill made out of bamboo that she uses as a bed and just coughs and coughs and coughs. But she was really nice and even sat up to talk to us! Then the dental care of people here is really sad too. Rotten teeth galore! 

Wow! Keep the questions coming! 

This week we had stake conference. President Barredo and Elder Pangan (from the area presidency) both attended. Elder Pangan baptized Sister D's family when he was a missionary! But that was before she was born. But he recognized her anyway because she had happened to sign up for institute while he was a CES coordinator a while back. When she saw his name of the sign up list, she went into the teacher's office area and then they met! He was really surprised to see her!

I got news that my package arrived!! I still haven't received it though. But it is at the mission office! :) 

I also finally got Natalie's marriage announcement. She's so pretty! 

This morning I spent most of my personal study time studying about how to "ask the Father in the name of Christ if these things are true" and also about how to receive an answer. Our investigators are great and ask the Lord if our message is true, but it is very rare than an investigator feels right away that it is true, although I have seen that happen many times! Hopefully, Sister Dumapias and I will be able to help them there. I especially liked 1 Nephi 15: 11. 

"Do ye not remember the things with the Lord hath said? If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."

 

Love you all,