Monday,
December 3, 2012 4:11 AM
Hello
Family,
Thank
you of course for your emails. I love them so much. Thank goodness
for technology! :) This week has been great! Thank you for
your prayers with the language, I certainly need them, but I can feel the help
of Heavenly Father and know that I am progressing even if it doesn't feel like
it. I'm so grateful for a native companion that can help me so much and for the
other sisters in the apartment who help me. :)
My
companion and I have set lots of new goals this week to try and help us move
the work along better. I have also set some personal goals. I am
excited about all of these.
We
went and did a service project weeding the back yard of a part-member family
this week. That was fun. We did it with the other two sisters and
another set of elders in our district. It was hard work but felt good to
be outside serving. It was also fun to be with the other missionaries.
We had a zone activity today in which we went to a waterfall and then had
lunch. Then we ended up going to the beach as well. The water was
so blue and green. It was gorgeous. The car trip with the Senior
couple (2 hours) was really fun. One elder brought his guitar and the
other brought his uke. They played and we all sang hymns. It was so fun.
It was great to be around everyone and hear of their experiences before and
during the mission. It is always nice to see the American elders who can
now speak Tagalog because it gives me more hope. :)
We
are teaching a 9 year old of a less active family right now. It's....fun
but also rough because he has (like all 9 year olds) a very short attention
span. So we are trying to figure out how to make the lessons with him
more interactive and interesting. Send any ideas you might have. :)
So
we always talk about how it is harder for those who have money to be humble,
etc. and I've understood why... But I have seen it first hand recently and it
is sad. We went tracting to some of the bigger and more well built houses
to try and find families like we have been encouraged to do. Most of them
have maids that were there and seemed willing to listen but the owners were
almost never willing to listen to us. One man was very abrupt (probably
more like the reaction of Americans haha) and told us not interested
before we had said anything past missionaries. :/ It was such a stark contrast to most
people who even when they seemed not interested at all, are willing to at least
listen. Sayang (too bad). It
is just sad to realize that he doesn’t even realize what he is missing.
He has a car (most of the people we teach do not), he has a job and a
family and he is successful. He is probably relatively happy and doesn’t
realize what he is missing out on. It makes me want to start our message
with, "We have a way you can be happier than you are even now. There
are 3 kingdoms of heaven and in the grandest kingdom we can live with our
families and God forever, and we can teach you how you can obtain entry."
Anyway.. just a little side note.
Thanks
dad for sharing the Philippines in the service of God.... :) At first I
was like, you must have been thinking of me that's crazy but then I thought
wait... fellow beings - it does sound like Philippines!! :)
That's exciting. I was remembering today about when I opened my
call and the spirit I felt when I read Manila Philippines mission. :)
So fun. Now I am actually here doing it... it's a cool feeling. :)
Yes
we do dishes and laundry by hand. It doesn't seem very hard anymore which
is nice. Heavenly Father strengthens me in so many ways everyday. :) We
always have electricity, unless there is a brown out (rolling black out)
they are relatively common (couple times a week while we are home) but
usually last less than a half hour and often are more like 10-15 minutes.
We went to the church for PEC this week and were surprised to find it
dark. It looked empty but we thought institute should have been going on.
As we cautiously walked toward the dark church someone waiting in a trike
out front said brown out (even though all the buildings around were lit.)
Then suddenly the lights came on and the whole church lit up and we could
see that all the institute students were sitting along the side of the bldg.
haha. It was funny and fun to see it all come alive. :)
During
language study I memorize vocab that I have heard in lessons the day before
that I didn’t know. So fun going over that list. haha. The other day out of 17 words (it’s
not that those are the only ones I didn’t understand but those were the ones I
didn't understand that I understood enough to write down :) ), we found one that was a name of a grocery
store, one that was 7 o'clock in Spanish that had sounded like an English swear
word to me :), and one that we couldn't find a word in Tagalog for. I
also read the pamphlets in Tagalog and write out phrases that I want to say
first in English, then in Tagalog. Then I go over them with my companion
and she corrects them and then I try and memorize them so I can use them later.
At first I was hesitant to memorize phrases because I want to be able to
express my thoughts and follow the spirit but not only do I memorize phrases
that are often what I want to say, it also helps me become better at forming
different but similar phrases, so yay! :)
Many
people here are Catholic but other popular religions are 7th day Adventists and
born again Christians. We did meet a Jehovah's Witness the other day.
I
love you all so much! I pray for you every morning and every night.
Hope you are all doing well.
Love,
Sister
Hamm
Good
luck to Josh on his finals and mission prep. Tyler-- your Halloween
costume looked great. Nathan-- keep working hard at school esp. on that
German. Jacob-- I love you. I had
a minty watermelon mento the other day and had a good laugh remembering your
discussion trying to return that pack of mentos. haha. Thanks.
Choose the right. I didn't realize just how important the gospel
was until I came on a mission and now more than ever I hope you are reading the
Book of Mormon and praying every day. Hope you are having a great senior
year. Mom-- thanks for your encouragement and love always. Enjoy
every bit of the holiday season and I will enjoy every little bit of my
mission. :) Dad-- I hope you are enjoying work. Remember that
sometimes retaining the Christmas spirit takes a little work. I always
love how excited and happy you get over the Christmas season.... make this a
great one!
And
my favorite filipino dish is Minudo. :)
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