Greetings from Olongapo City!!
The one the only. I have to much balita but no time to write it all. I have had a wonderful week.
First things first, I love you all and thank you for everything.
I have been transferred to Olongapo Zone. In my area is Kalaklan, Mabayuan, and Filtration. We live in Gordon Heights, I think. We are really close to Subic. It is a big city out here life is awesome here I really feel home here I had a feeling I would come here one day actually. I feel at home for sure. I really like my new area already. It is absolutely beautiful in every way. There are lots of hills and big mountains that we get to climb up to go to the investigators houses and such. It is truly made for me. I really love it. My new companion is Sister Tuimaseve. She is so sweet, she is a foreigner just like me she was born in Samoa full Samoan siya, but she moved to Utah when she was 12 years old. She is only 2 transfers ahead of me.
I believe in the gift of tongues. I truly do. Everyone is chismissing or gossiping about how we are going to do it as 2 foreigners in this new area and not very good at Tagalog. I have been given a new and exciting challenge, each step that I take I have to take with the Lord. He is the only way that I can do this. My companion rocks. She has an awesome sweet spirit about here, she is just full of love. I know I can learn a lot about Charity and Love and Service from her. But I really have to get my chops going with the Tagalog if we want our investigators to understand the lessons. It is definitely a challenge, but we can do it. I feel an odd sense of comfort-ability here. I know we can do some damage out here.
Their accent out here in Olongapo is more straight, its more clear and beautiful. I like it. Mas Maganda dito kaysa sa Abucay. joke. Maybe I've been given the gift of tongues, I don't know but I am being richly blessed.
I have learned so much out here already. I feel like I am finally in the right place. Masaya. Natutuwa ako.
--Sister James
4.27.2010
4.05.2010
whhhat?
We are going to watch General Conference this weekend at the church. I am pretty excited for it. You are so incredibly lucky to be able to go to General Conference LIVE. Not many Filipinos have the chance to see that. Be grateful for that wonderful opportunity to be able to see and hear them speak the word of God for us in this time of history.
We had an awesome experience this week at sacrament meeting. I got to experience my first investigator get up and bear his testimony. It was awesome. I don't understand him very well, but what I did understand, he is sobrang astig . Astig siya talaga. This is Brother Romel. He is rad. He has had many trials in his life and it's wonderful to see him change and to actually smile. Natutuwa ako!
Learning to love is something that takes a lot of my soul. I still think in the back of my mind that I'm not going to see these people ever again, but I can't remain in fear, I have to just bear the pain that will come and just be open. It's worthless to keep on going if I don't become more like my Savior. He is the only way to live a happy life. true discipleship comes when you are able to change your desires. This is something that I will continue to work on my whole life. I'm excited to see the result.
This week was awesome. And super gross. It was Mahal na Araw this week the Filipinos are so festive they will use any excuse to party. It's awesome. But for holy week, it is so gross talaga. They whip themselves sa likod on their backs until they bleed. Some of them pinako sa cruz. I truly can't think of the real word. OH--crucify themselves in their hands. Luckily I didn't see that. I got some pictures of some of the men doing the penetentia. Crazyness. We talked to an investigator and he said that he was paid 10 pesos to beat the guys on the back with bamboo sticks. Wow. hahawefwae fsdf. That's all I can say. I'm still in shock. It was truly shocking. This week we get to see the residue of the penetencia. There is blood splattered all over the front of peoples houses. It's so gross.
I'm beginning to crack my heart open to these people and my life is so much better because of it. I'm learning to really think of Tagalog as an art, I love art... language is an art, culture is an art, everything around me is evidence of the art of God. speaking of...
Look up manuel 'bobot' bagtas sa internet. He is an awesome guy. I got to meet him today. He is an artist here in the Philippines. He is so AWESOME. I love him. He is really talented. He is so creative. He has the coolest house ever. Everything is just art & art collections of others' art. Awesome. He is a teacher as well as his wife in the arts. He is just so awesome. I love him. It was really refreshing to meet someone that has something in common. I felt at home in his presence. He is so awesome . One more time--awesome. I can't speak English. He was talking about how difficult it is to find materials for this work & there just isn't much available for him and if there is it's really expensive, so he uses garbage. He is a junk artist. His work is so awesome. But we got to meet him because I have the awesome opportunity to be in a play/parade thingy for Balanga city days. It is going to be awesome I play an American nurse and we are reenacting the death march that happened here in 1942. He created everything for it and the missionaries usually get to act it out every April for the parade. (Here's a link that talks about it).
http://artbobot.multiply.com
This is his website. The creativity that he has is admirable--use your resources to create something.
This one is great.
I love you all. Seek balance through Jesus Christ.
Be good.
Sister James
We had an awesome experience this week at sacrament meeting. I got to experience my first investigator get up and bear his testimony. It was awesome. I don't understand him very well, but what I did understand, he is sobrang astig . Astig siya talaga. This is Brother Romel. He is rad. He has had many trials in his life and it's wonderful to see him change and to actually smile. Natutuwa ako!
Learning to love is something that takes a lot of my soul. I still think in the back of my mind that I'm not going to see these people ever again, but I can't remain in fear, I have to just bear the pain that will come and just be open. It's worthless to keep on going if I don't become more like my Savior. He is the only way to live a happy life. true discipleship comes when you are able to change your desires. This is something that I will continue to work on my whole life. I'm excited to see the result.
This week was awesome. And super gross. It was Mahal na Araw this week the Filipinos are so festive they will use any excuse to party. It's awesome. But for holy week, it is so gross talaga. They whip themselves sa likod on their backs until they bleed. Some of them pinako sa cruz. I truly can't think of the real word. OH--crucify themselves in their hands. Luckily I didn't see that. I got some pictures of some of the men doing the penetentia. Crazyness. We talked to an investigator and he said that he was paid 10 pesos to beat the guys on the back with bamboo sticks. Wow. hahawefwae fsdf. That's all I can say. I'm still in shock. It was truly shocking. This week we get to see the residue of the penetencia. There is blood splattered all over the front of peoples houses. It's so gross.
I'm beginning to crack my heart open to these people and my life is so much better because of it. I'm learning to really think of Tagalog as an art, I love art... language is an art, culture is an art, everything around me is evidence of the art of God. speaking of...
Look up manuel 'bobot' bagtas sa internet. He is an awesome guy. I got to meet him today. He is an artist here in the Philippines. He is so AWESOME. I love him. He is really talented. He is so creative. He has the coolest house ever. Everything is just art & art collections of others' art. Awesome. He is a teacher as well as his wife in the arts. He is just so awesome. I love him. It was really refreshing to meet someone that has something in common. I felt at home in his presence. He is so awesome . One more time--awesome. I can't speak English. He was talking about how difficult it is to find materials for this work & there just isn't much available for him and if there is it's really expensive, so he uses garbage. He is a junk artist. His work is so awesome. But we got to meet him because I have the awesome opportunity to be in a play/parade thingy for Balanga city days. It is going to be awesome I play an American nurse and we are reenacting the death march that happened here in 1942. He created everything for it and the missionaries usually get to act it out every April for the parade. (Here's a link that talks about it).
http://artbobot.multiply.com
This is his website. The creativity that he has is admirable--use your resources to create something.
This one is great.
I love you all. Seek balance through Jesus Christ.
Be good.
Sister James
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