Thursday, January 14, 2010

Hello wonderful family!

Hello family! I tried to upload some pictures but they disappeared. I guess there's a time limit or something. I'll try again if I have time after writing this email :) Thanks for your updates on everything. I love hearing all the fun stories. I love you :)

This week was great. On Wednesday I got to go to the New Missionary Training in Baguio! It was very exciting to see all of my MTC batch mates again and to catch up with them! Also, on Wednesday I received dearelder letters from you and Sister Balinski! Thank you so much! Those made my day so happy. I am excited to have some new nephews/nieces when I return ;)

Wow, Christian is in the MTC already! That is cool that Emma is living in Wyview. If she has a bus pass, I wouldn't be surprised if she met her special someone this year! :) haha. Sister Garma tried to get me to eat Balut yesterday. I told her "Hindi pa! Hindi pa!" (not yet!) and so she is teasing me that she will cook it for me for my birthday dinner. We'll see about that ;)

Some fun facts:
Jeepney fare is 7 pesos per ride. We take the jeepney several times each day. My address is as follows: "Gueset next door to the Letty Aler Salon." Funny eh? Many of the people here are fascinated with Americans. When we are walking down the street I'll often hear little kids saying excitedly, "amerikano! amerikano!" Also, for some reason they all think I look like a barbie doll. Parents will summon their children and say "Come! look and see the barbie doll!" It makes me feel so silly! ;)

So I figured out why the language is so different than I expected. They don't speak pure Tagalog here - it's a different accent, like New York as opposed to the rest of America. And they also speak Pangasinan, another dialect. I had a cool experience this week. We were teaching a sister about the Book of Mormon and she had some concerns about how it related to the Bible. Well I couldn't understand hardly anything she was saying (the older people are really hard to understand when they speak) but I had an impression to turn to 2 Nephi 3 and find where Joseph in Egypt prophesies about the restoration. Well before I knew it, Sister Garma was reading those exact verses in answer to the sister's concern! It was so neat and reaffirmed my testimony that the Spirit truly knows what people need, even when we as missionaries may not know.

Well, I love you very much. Some days here are pretty tough but the only way we grow is by meeting resistance. I am happy. I will try to upload a couple pictures really quick and send it in another email. We'll see.

Love, Rebecca

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