Monday, February 24, 2014

From the Other Side of the World- Hello!


Week three in the Philippines starts- NOW! Can you believe it? I'm already three weeks in! It feels like a day and a month all at once. Sometimes I try to picture the US. I literally can't. Sorry People. The Philippines is the only real place now. But seriously. Are you all frozen in time, waiting for me to come home? That's what it feels like. Haha- Life on the flip-side.
So I have so, so, much to tell you! Like always. I'm going to do my best to fit it all in. Like always.
First off, congrats to dad for his mission experience and congrats to mom for the clean carpets! Congrats, congrats to Trevor for his papers. Oh and Nathan, my favorite food is mango- of course! But I like their peanut butter and I pretty much eat a jar a week. Not much has changed, has it? I also like this filippino dish called sinigang. Yum, yum. Oh yes, and of course, I can't forget the Tinipay. (bread) We stop at the street bakeries like every day. I just can't get enough of it. They have great pastries! Who knew, right?
So now, Monday. We went to the Palanke! (Market, probably spelled wrong.) It was really fun and I have pictures to show you! They have everything you can think of there. I bought a moo moo- all the sister missionaries have to get one. It's like a rite of passage or something. I actually have the same one as my companion's. Um... I'm not sure how she feels about that. But that's okay. I love her so much and we have the most fun together! I never knew missionaries were allowed to laugh as hard as we do! They probably aren't, actually. 
The best part of the Palanke was getting the fresh fruit and vegetables! Yummy! I made some delicious food this week with our fresh food! The Philippines is a little harder than America to find fresh food, but aparently not if you are at the Palanke! Yes! Finally! Seriously though. It was wonderful.
As we were heading back from the Palanke, we found out that our appointment fell through. Darn. So we were left with a Monday night and no appointment. Monday is a hard day to re-schedule, folks. So after about a half hour of literally sitting there trying to decide who to teach, going through EVERYONE, we thought of this Policeman we met that day at the Palanke. He came running up to us while we were looking around. At first I was a little worried, haha, but then he said, "I'm mormon too!" I love meeting other mormons! Yay! Anyway, he told us that he was baptized about ten years ago, but then two years ago he moved and got a new job. His new job, "policeman" made it impossible to go to church because he was always working. He asked us if we had a Book of Mormon. We felt awful because we didn't! We didn't think about pamplets or BOM's because we were shopping and it was P-Day. Heavenly Father taught us to be prepared, even on P-Days.
We thought of him as we were struggling to know where to go and decided that he was perfect. We took him a Book of Mormon and man- his face. After two years, he was finally able to read it again! Happy is an understatement. As we drove away, we watched him reading the Book of Mormon by the small light overhead near the Palanke. Seriously, five minutes later, he was reading it. Amazing. Heavenly Father knows what he's doing when your appointments cancel.
This week was one long train of canceled appointments, actually. Not always did amazing things like that happen. But we had so many opportunities to OYM. (Open your mouth). We also met some pretty weird people. One- two Americans! They were actually really nice and friendly. We were excited- until it turned out that they were missionaries too, for another faith. Whoops. Um, we couldn't really get anywhere after that. Second- a very crazy lady who followed us for about a mile, telling us all about how she was catholic and born again and Jehovah witness and Mormon and she needed help. She had a letter that she had written to herself, explaining why too. It was really hard to shake her. 
Lastly, a stalker for Sister Williams. We were walking down the street and he called out, "Hey sweet girl! Where you going?" to her. She didn't hear him and was really excited when this guy came up behind us and asked," Going to seminary?" I knew exactly who this fellow was and I could totally tell he was more interested in a date than a missionary lesson. We got his information though and invited him to church. So far so good, I guess. Who knows. Maybe one day this eighteen year old chap will be bearing his testimony about how he was converted because he chased down this cute american missionary. Um, nope. We were half-way through a first-time investigator lesson when he turned up on the doorstep, like some lost puppy. He hung around for a while, staring at us awkwardly. Finally the member shooed him away while the investigator teased us about future dates. Awkward, awkward, awkward. He came to church though. We thought, "Okay maybe." But then when we tried to reschedule a time for us to visit him and teach a lesson he told us that he was ONLY free 9-12 Sunday mornings. Um, yeah right bucko.
We also had 8 boys about the age of ten show up to church wearing Jesus Loves You t-shirts. They were really rowdy in the main entrance for a while and countless members went out trying to get them to behave or leave. (during sacrament meeting.) Finally, a very wise sister lead them all by the hand INTO sacrament meeting and scattered them among the members. She made them stay the whole time, even for primary. She's so smart! They all came up to me afterward and asked, "Can we come again next week?" Wow, I don't think anyone expected that.
As far as investigators go, we have a new woman who lives in the jungle side of our area! Yay! Finally get to see the jungle! This is what the Philippines is all about!  She literally has a bamboo house, with bamboo everything inside. Bamboo chairs, bamboo staircase, everything. They feed us so much, even though they are very poor. Awe, I just love these people.
The other main investigator was really awesome and progressing! He was actually going to be baptized this week. Last week we were supposed to teach him on Friday, but he never showed. Saturday, the morning of his interview he texts us and says, "Thanks for making me a better person. I've moved to Isabella Permanently." Darn. It was really rough. Sister Williams had worked with him for a long time and he really, truly was golden. He did everything he was supposed to and was so excited to receive the priesthood. I think though, he just had some hard times in his family that caused him to move. Darn, darn.
Anyway, I've got to go now. Love you all!!
-Sister Beaumont



























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