"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." (D&C 84:88)

Monday, June 30, 2014

FHE at Chan's

Banapple!
 
This is the cutest little sandwich/cheesecake/pie shop ever!  It feels American
Dilan and Bebe


New flip flops for Bebe
Yum!  Langka!  (jackfruit)



One of the girls in our ward is so talented!  She wrote and illustrated this book.  She's doing a project for her thesis about the old traditional Filipino games.


She painted this too!



Fun at the Barlow's before they leave (senior couple)


You can't see it very well, but there was a bahaghari! (rainbow)
 



Marilou, Sharon, Rhose


Playing with Sister Tingey




Tings, Acostan, and Maricell (ward member)

Nanay is leaving :(

We love her so much!
 
 
 

Barefoot Boys and Fans on Fire

KAMUSTA!

How is everyone??  I miss you all.  Sister Tingey goes home next week, and it's making me think about home a little more, ah!  I realized though that yesterday was my 5-month mark!  Can you believe that??  I can't. It's going too fast, I don't like it.

So, there's this holiday here in the Philippines called Saint Juan Day (celebrating John the Baptist).  It's on June 24th, and guess what they do?? Haha, actually it happens more in the province--the tradition is kind of lost here in the city. But everyone splashes each other with water.  People will just have buckets of water and when you walk by, douse you!  haha they'll throw water on tricycles driving by...all day. I thought it was so funny!  We actually had Zone Interviews all day, so I wasn't out that day to see if anything happened in the city, but Sister Acostan told me about it. 

We had an Australian Band come to church this Sunday...haha. They were on tour here, and most of them were members.  The one who wasn't was off getting a tattoo ha, but the rest came to church!  It was so weird to see other foreigners!  I talked to them, they were so nice!  Their band is called Mayan Fox I think...haha but they were awesome people!

So, remember Ronald?  The awesome, progressing investigator with a baptism date next month?? Well..he moved. :(  He's over in Manila Mission boundaries now, so he'll be taught by other missionaries.  I was kind of bummed. He was awesome.  Aw, and remember gangster nanay Elvira?? She moved too! I was soooo sad!!! I love her so so so much.  She's like my little Filipina grandma over here. 

I'll send more pictures in another email.  Man, I miss her. 

So our potential baptism is gone now. But, we have been teaching this cute girl, Erica!  She's 14. We are teaching her and her aunt, Princess.  But her aunt goes to the province on the weekends so Erica has been progressing more than her.  She is so smart!  And she is just soaking it all in.  She just gets it.  I love her!  We just asked her to be baptized our lesson and she said, yes!  She has a date in August, so we'll see how her progression comes!  Hopefully we can get more of the family living there on board too :) 

So the other morning as we were working, we started talking to two cute little boys.  Here...there are a lot of little kids whose jobs are to push around these wooden carts and look through trash for things that could be of value.  And actually, their situations are really bad, often times, these kids have no parents and they are under harsh control from someone who sends them out to get things.  They also send out kids with envelopes to beg for money from people, and if they don't get enough when they get back at the end of the day, they get beat.  It makes me so sad. We are not allowed to give money to anybody, but one time I gave all my groceries to one little boy back in Pateros.  It's kind of hard though because sometimes, they are faking it too.  Anyway...sorry that was a tangent.  Well we saw these boys and started talking to them.  Bebe and Dilan.  Bebe had no shoes and as we talked to Dilan, we found out his dad had died from being electrocuted.  Sister Tingey gave them some water and they chugged it....we felt so bad for them. We walked with them and their little cart, and they went by the place where they were supposed to return all the things they had found.  We watched from a distance as the boys pushed the cart into the junk place area.  One of the men took a look inside the boy's card and grabbed a little pink recorder whistle that Dilan had found. He looked at it... and shouted something at him and lifted it in the air to hit him with it.  I was so angry and probably should have thought before I did anything... but I took a step forward toward them, I was not about to let that man hurt him.  The guy caught sight of me...I don't know what my face was but he dropped the recorder when he saw me and walked away.  Long story short, we ended up buying them some mangoes and oranges and went to an Ukay-Ukay (...kind of like a super cheap thrift store, they are everywhere) and bought Bebe some flip flops and Dilan some shorts--his other ones were so threadbare and had holes all down the front.  They were the cutest cutest kids and were so grateful.  Dilan even shyly asked if he could get a dress for his little sister.  We asked her what would fit her..he held up his hand and said "I think she's this tall..." and picked up a little dress and held it under his hand to see if it would fit her.  I just wanted to take them home with me so bad.  It's hard sometimes, the lives and things we witness here...especially when it comes to the children.

So, Saturday night, I had a scary/funny experience. We were all winding down in our apartment and getting to bed.  I brushed and flossed my teeth, set my alarm, turned my fan on by my bed, said my prayers, and laid down to sleep.  I'm always exhausted at the end of the day so sleep usually comes pretty fast.  I had already fallen into a superficial sleep, and was just at the point of going completely out when....BOOM!!!  MY FAN CAUGHT ON FIRE!!
There was a popping noise and a spark and suddenly, my fan was up in flames!! I sprang up out of bed in a total panic!! and then my half-asleep self started stumbling frantically around the room, "My fan's on fire! My fan's on fire!!" ha and the only thing that my sleepy mind was thinking was water! where's water?!  Sister Acostan, on the top bunk, hadn't fallen asleep yet and shouted, "Turn on the light!" I ran and flipped on the light and flew the door open.  Then suddenly, the flames died and went out and the fan was stopped.....
Sister Acostan was upright in her bed and I was standing by the door, my heart beating a million miles a minute...both of us just staring at the fan.  Then we looked at each other.....and burst up laughing! 
Sister Acostan started making fun of me, throwing her hands in the air--"My fan's on fire, my fan's on fire!" hahaha. We were laughing so hard.  I carefully unplugged the fan...it was hot to the touch...we moved it out.  Luckily we had just received an extra fan from the senior couple missionaries who live above us.  They're leaving to Mindoro and gave us a fan.

This was kind of a miracle though..because while we were getting the new fan settled...we noticed that all of us had forgotten to lock and bolt our front door. Ha, had my fan not blown up, we would have slept all night with our apartment unlocked.
Also, another miracle in itself...my fan is just a short floor fan and for these past weeks, I've been sleeping with it sitting directly on the foot of my bed so the breeze can reach me.  But just these last few nights I moved it to give me more foot room, and set it on a plastic chair by the side of my bed. If I was still sleeping with it like before....my bed might have caught on fire too! 
I know as missionaries, we are so very protected.  I'm confident that I've got crowds of guardian angels watching over me.

There are so many miracles every day, I never cease to see them.  I love this work, it's going too fast for me.  There are times when I really miss back home...times when it's hard to be here on the other side of the world.. working in these hot, humid, sticky, tiring, and often disappointing days.  But most of the time, I get scared thinking about how fast it is going in reality.  I want to see home, but I don't ever want to leave here.  I love being a missionary.  I love here in the Philippines.  I hope the times starts to go slower because I am not ready for the end.

I love you all so much.  I hope things are going well with all of you.  I love hearing from everyone!  Keep sending the emails, they make me smile.  Keep looking for miracles in your lives too. It's easier to see the trials...it's easier to notice the hard times, how tired, how sad, how un-perfect we all are. 
 
But forget that.  Look for the good. Look for the light, look for the blessings.  I promise you they are there.  The quiet, tender mercies that He gives us because He loves us.  Take time to notice them, there are more than we will ever realize.  

And I don't know if any of you are perfectionists like me...but that's something I'm struggling with. Perfectionism.  It sucks.  You always fall short.  You are always not good enough.  You are always in the wrong, even when you are doing right.  

Don't let this drag you down.  It's been getting a good grip on me.  Focus on the strengths.  It's okay to have weaknesses.  We can't do it all...especially all at once.  I know each one of you are doing better than you realize.  Focus on the little "drops of awesome" that we do everyday.  Even if it's just small. It matters. Because everything, big or little, about YOU matters to Him.  And He loves you..even with all the imperfections.

MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO LAHAT! 

Sister Oyler

Monday, June 23, 2014

FHE at Jocelyn's

We played a game...with baby powder...I'll leave it at that :)

 I look huge laying across everything...
Bishop and Jill before I left

My new area




 
There is a rehab for disabled people near by and we see some of them riding these little cart things! They look so fun!

 
Nanay Elvira!

Sister Tingey and nanay
 

#thugalogswag :P

We seriously love her so much!


Sister Tingey riding one of the rehab carts
 
The new apt. (and Sister Tingey sleepin on the couch :P)


Welcome to lunch

 
Working with Rocky--a recent convert.  She was just baptized in April.
FHE at the Cabang Family (investigators)

Cabang Fam


haha crazy Sister Acostan :)




 

haha! I thought this was so funny. (translation: peeing here is prohibited. are you a dog?) Actually these "Bawal umihi dito" signs are EVERYWHERE here in the Philippines...people will just pee anywhere. It's kind of gross.

It's raining so hard today! floods...