kamusta family!!!

(okay the shift bar on this keyboard sucks so everything is going in lowercases)

wow, where do i start??? I'm here!!  its crazy and unbelievable, but i absolutely love it!!!

after a longgggggg day (2 days with time change) of travel, we made it to manila at about 11pm on tuesday night!! sorry mom, that i didn't call you in LAX, but i have good reason!  A man actually approached me and my companion and sister anderson as sister fewster was calling cause there weren't as many pay phones as the salt lake airport. anyway we started talking...and i immediately knew that he was placed in our path.  his name was Simon and he was from australia! he was actually moving to houston to work as an electrical engineer.  anyway he is a practicing catholic and he likes having a faith because it gives him values and he seriously just started opening up about his entire life and rough patches he had with a girl that he ended up breaking up with because she didn't have strong values.  he literally was being prepared in every way i swear!  he doesn't drink, he just doesn't like it, no tattooes, his language was completely clean.  and as we talked, he said that he'd never really tried any other religion before. long story short, I ended up teaching him most of the first lesson and he was so interested!! I wished so badly that I had a Book of Mormon because he was asking a lot about it.  but i gave him a pass along card and told him to visit mormon.org. it was a miracle!!  and right after, we went to go eat, and another man approached us and just started opening up about his entire life!!!  we didn't do a thing.  my testimony has been strengthened so much!  I've got the name badge on now, and this is NOT my work.  this is HIS. and he is placing people in our paths, i can see it!!

anyway, so I'm so sorry mom, we talked to simon for la long time and then grabbed something to eat and had to run and board our plane.  i felt horrible and the whole flight, I was hoping you weren't worried because I told you i would call and then didn't. but im safe i promise :)

well, that first night we finally got in at like 3am.  and boy were we "roughin' it" hahaha.  we actually stayed at a really nice hotel the first night! it was so great :) warm shower. hot breakfast. so good haha we felt like we were on vacation we were so confused.  anyway then, the next morning we were taken to the mission home and met the mission president and his wife. they are awesome! i love them! we all went over to this war memorial place which was really cool!  after, we went back to the mission home and got our new companions!  drum roll......Sister Velasco is my new companion!! my wonderful nanay! She's great!! she is 23, full filipina and from Bacolod.  she's learning english...and im learning tagalog...so it's kind of hard sometimes haha but actually her english is pretty good so it's all good.  during language study, we split it up into her helping me with tagalog and me helping her with english.  i didn't realize how stupid and weird english is until i have to try and explain it to someone hahahaha

anyway, my first area is TAGUIG!!  complete city!! and it's actually kind of small but TONS AND TONS of people.  i love it!  the first night here though, I got sick :( i felt horrible, but we had a dinner appointment with the bishop's family (who live next door).  she had made dinner and i tried so hard to act like i wasn't sick and start to eat, and the food was really good, but i seriously was about to throw up and my head was spinning.  I had to just stop and lay back.  but they were really nice about it when they realized i wasn't feeling well. ahh, bad impression.  but the next day, i was myself again!!

so the philippines!!! it is SO HOT HERE!!!! haha i shower twice a day because im just sweating constantly.  haha but i actually kind of like it...is that weird? haha but the fans in our apartment are like my best friends.  we have no a/c, just some fans, so I'll just plant myself on the floor right infront of a fan when we get home.  there are lots of mosquitoes!!! especially in the evening.  I already have like 20 mosquito bites haha sobrang maganda ;) our shower is a bucket and it's freezing water....but it actually feels really good once you get past the first shock haha. we sleep on the floor on matresses...with fans blowing on us all night long.  the food is really really good!! i haven't eaten anything yet that i don't like!

so let's see. there are tons of people!! tons of jeepneys and tricycles and cars and the driving is crazy!! there is no such thing as lanes here but for some reason there are like zero accidents.  it's completely insane driving but it works perfectly! haha the roads are narrower then america. umm...tons of stray dogs....trash everywhere...everything is dirty and grimy, there are lots of "squatters"--really poor people living in little...shacks? i dont know how to describe it, they're like tiny communities weaved in small alleys. little homes stacked on eachother, different sized, but all small. made out of metal sheets and wood beams and wood panels. umm...tons of people smoking. everyone smokes. i even saw children smoking :( so sad. tons of chickens and roosters...street vendors and shops ...and pollution!! holy cow pollution! i breath in the thickness of it every day there is no avoiding it haa, my lungs will be black when i come home haha im not joking.  oh! they have a mcdonalds! we ate there my first day here haha but it's not the same haha they serve rice and chicken! ...crazy humidity. my hair is like....i don't even know haha. anyway that's the philippines! and i LOVE it!! is that crazy??

oh and oh my gosh.  I feel famous here. I feel like I'm a parade walking down the street. everyone stares! and when i say everyone, i mean EVERYONE! every single person.  tricycles will slow down and turn their heads haha major rubber-necking. i feel like an alien! haha people call me beautiful 24/7. and people will try to say english things to me haha like "goodmorning" or "hellooo" but sometimes it's funny, "whhhats yo'name?" "whhhat yo want?" just smiling and waving haha they say Americanoo!! "hey beybeyy!" "hey huneyyy!" haha it makes my days so interesting.  people call me "artista" or famous person. an entire bus load of school kids passed me and they screamed and pointed out the window! haha i feel like a disney princess...little teenage girls will giggle and point at me so i smile and wave at them and they squeal and jump up and down with huge smiles on their faces! hahaha i'm like whoaa... they call me "ate" or "big sister" and they call me "manika"-- barbie! haha everyone calls me barbie. haha one man said "i have found my true love" haha little kids will follow behind me like a parade and poke me and giggle. haha the brave ones will come feel my skin and touch my hair.  every day this is what happens. hahaha so funny. some girls said i look like taylor swift??....haha what??

oh and when i reply to people in tagalog they are sooo suprised!! they are like pala!!? Tagalog?? hahaha

anyway, i am so happy!! i have had no run ins with bugs yet!! just a cockroach on the street once. there are TONS of ants in our apartment, but that doesn't bother me.  but ahhh so happy! not one spider or cockroach in the apartment yet. :) :) :) seriously an answer to my prayers! i was so scared!!

haha my kasama is so cute.  she asked me one day, "why you put black stuff on your eyelashes" haha i was like...umm idk that's just what we do in america haha and then she looked at me for a minute and said, "can i try?" haha so i let her use my make up every day haha she loves it.

so...guess what??!  I ATE BALUT!! haha i actually liked it!  it was pretty good. kind of freaky. but masarap :)  i ate it at a members house. they all wanted to watch me eat it haha and "baptize me" as a true filipino haha. oh and everyone tells me to eat more. haha they say im too skinny keep eating haha!

the members are sooo nice!! everyone is so nice!! and i am in love with all the little kids! they will come hold my hand and walk with me.  i feel so bad though because they just start rattling off in tagalog...and im like...ummm.....haha i want to talk to them so bad.

everyone talks soooo fast!! oh my gosh!  half the time i have no idea what they are saying.  although, during the lessons, i can usually comprehend the majority of what is said--which is definitely a blessing.  but just talking to people...i am like...huh?? haha my tagalog is so broken..i just keep telling myself it will come eventually...

we've had some great lessons with investigators!  a lot of our investigators fall through on appointments though...but it's okay.  actually me being so foreign is helping us get investigators! haha SYL (speak your language) has turned into OYM (open your mouth)! and it's so easy with me being white and blonde! people will talk and we'll get lots of contacts that we can teach.

last night, we were teaching a family in their humble little home.  as of now, my companion does most the teaching and i say a little at the end.  well we were focusing on eternal families and when it was my turn to say something, I just started to bear my testimony about eternal families and how we can be with our families forever through the gospel of Christ and suddenly the spirit hit the room sooo strongly and i started to cry! what?? but it was a beautiful experience...even through my broken tagalog, they understood and the mom was really touched by what i said.  the dad wasn't being very receptive during the lesson but afterward he shook my hand really sincerely and said thank you.  it was definitely a testimony builder..i didn't realize how strong my testimony was on families until i bore it.

okay well, that's all im going to say for this email.  I'll email some pictures if i can.  but i love you all!   i miss you so incredibly much but know that i'm being taken care of!  and i love it here! it's amazing. the place is incredible. the people are all incredible.  i feel like i've come home! i don't know how to describe it. mahal na mahal na mahal na mahal...ko kayo!!!

xoxo

sister oyler