First Letter from the Philippines!

My dearest pamilya,

how are you?? i am loving it here. i wrote you a letter while still at the mission home that will likely take a good couple weeks hence to reach you.. or a week and a half. .anywho. it'll take a bit. BUT WE"RE HERE. I'm safe. i'm healthy. i hope i don't get sis. gupta's sore throat thingy. apparently she was really sick just before i got here. bless her.

my trainer is sis. gupta. she is from india (I KNOW, RIGHT?? :D alam ko, di ba?) yeah. she rocks. she's from north india and we have a couple other sisters i've met from india as well, but definitely from south. she said their skin is darker the further down ya go. who'da thunk? well, she is very skilled at the language (magaling siya sa tagalog) and is teaching me to teach and converse. i listen A LOT. it's hard to focus on something so foreign, but i'm doing a lot better. i'm understanding more every day. i just need to be more confident in using what i know. i'm still very hesitant. it makes me feel better that br. may didn't understand everything and speak comfortably til 6 mo. i am already understanding most of what is said based on context and vocab that i pick up.

no huge spiders (mga gagamba) yet. but saw my first cocroach sa apartment namin early this morning when i got up to get a drink.. ick! freaked me out. but i'm not as afraid of them as spiders. i don't think we usually have them in our apt. i started my clothes soaking so i can wash them later. fun! :) we have a kind of balcony in the front corner of our 2nd story apt that can be accessed thru our bedroom or study room. we have running water and a filter attached in the kitchen! we have a flushing toilet and shower that works!!! we have a bucket and ladel in case. they take good care of us. and in this busy city of makati, where i've been assigned to the makati 3rd ward, we have regular electricity. we are spoiled. i feel so blessed. and we have fans... very very handy. love it!

you know, in our orientation thursday, president said at the end of the 12 week training program, the goal is that we're prepared to turn aroundand train if asked. wow. it makes sense, but the thought is absolutely overwhelming. the language and unfamiliarity with where things are--including investigators' homes--and how things work here are really the scariest parts. teaching doesn't scare me. taking the lead would not be a huge deal for me--i don't think--were i more comfortable in communicating with ppl. but they are such sweet ppl. you would not believe what they live in. well...you would. but it would break your heart. they are incredible. but sharing the good news of the gospel with them is easy. they are very loving. they are patient with my choppy language skills. and i'm so grateful. my favorite are the children. every baby here is adorable. they can't help it. and there are a couple children we teach whose father works most sundays but is a member and they are the dang most sweet and cute ppl in the world. divine and juan carlos. my heart nearly burst with God's love for them yesterday as we taught. i tried to help them teach (we had a sister fromt he ward with us) and i stumbled and said some things in english, but the Spirit was so strong and sis gupta explained what they didn't understand. that's another thing-- a lot of ppl are at least partially familiar with english here. and many ppl just have common english words that they throw in all the time, so that also helps with my understanding. they just use english words for some things. but sis gupta said that on Palawan, which is the island part of the manila mission, ppl don't use english. it's pretty much all tagalog, so missionaries come back speaking very well. she served there 6 months. everyone kinda wants to go there from what i can tell. everyone loves it. but they only have sisters in the upper puerto princessa half, not the narra half. i guess down there there's only electricity part or half the time and stuff. it's very province, or provincial... ? i dunno. but the city has access to a lot of things.

we'll get me some rubber shoes today. i'm excited cause my black ones have no support or cushion, so it will be really nice. my dark brown ones have been helpful the last couple days. i've ridden in jeepneys and tricycles. they're pretty crazy. i don't get how they work, but i understand that for jeepneys you have to find one with your destination written on the side and hop on when they stop. the thing is, i don't know how you tell which of the destinations on the side it's going to next or how long it will take before they go to yours, bc each has several places it goes to. with trikes you just tell em where to go and then you pay them accordingly. on a jeepney, the fee is universal. it's 8.5 right now. and pesos.... it's so weird. i don't know how to gauge how expensive things are, yet. but i'll get it figured out.

i get a whole hour to email you now! how sweet is that?!?!? i think that's awesome. what else did i want to talk to you about???

i wanted to thank you for the awesome update :) and thank aaron for the pictures! and tell gma and gpa and gma that i will be writing them back asap! today, i hope. they'll be the first. and thank everyone who's been so helpful and supportive. i got a letter from angus when i first got here... i forgot that dearelder still works here! haha it just goes thru the mission office, i believe. something like that. and i can pouch mail for cheap--- within the P to other missionaries for free! the rules for my mission correspondence are pretty much just like i expected. as stated in the white handbook, plus only email to immediate family ( or thru you, i suppose) and... yeah. that's all i can think of. i think other ppl can email me, but i'm not clear on that. i can't email others, tho. pretty standard. obviously i checked out aaron's sweet pics and uncle gary's email, so i hope that's okay. and for E Tumanuvau, he does have a cousin named lauren, but i left the paper with his parents' and gparents' names at the apt. sorry again!

lou's bday is coming up soon! i don't know if a letter will get to her in time, but i wanna do somethin special for her! 16 and you're SOOOO BIG! :) i'm so excited for and proud of you, Lou!

I love you and think of you all every day. all the time. i love telling ppl about you. i love bearing our name. i love knowing that you will be so blessed for your sacrifices for our Heavenly Father's work. i think all the time about how i owe my very best efforts to Him and to these ppl and to you. You deserve my best! I never want to have to regret giving anything less! and to this point in the field, i know i can do more and do better, but i also know He knows i've been trying my very best to improve and He's so patient with me.

haha i was thinking all week what i'd say to you and i was gonna tell you that my body still thinks 7 30 is beyond bedtime, but i have no problem getting up in the am, so that's a big plus! it's very nice :) i'm trying to drink lots and i'm sleeping well. better than the mtc.

i think i gotta go :( but i want to testify that it's true that the cure for everything is work! the less i think of me, the happier i am--- and i have a long way to go,but you are teaching me!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! more than ever!

mahal kita! sis r