The Good, the Bad, and the Funny (March 21, 2016)

The Good, the Bad, and the Funny

WELLLLLLL!!!!!!

Another week gone by. 

Good times:

Our investigator passed her baptismal interview. She's getting baptized!

*Do a dance*

Bupbupbupbupbumbumbubudybup

Yeah!

She also found the blog you guys made of me. I know because of the fact that we were in a lesson, and then she asked a question and talked about my brother. 

She said NIKOLAI.

I had never mentioned Nikolai's name, so that's how we found out. Anyways. 

Also, she's lived in Spain a lot. I actually considered asking Mama to look for her on Facebook and maybe add her, but then I realized one problem: language barrier!

So yeah. 

I also ALMOST solved a 5x5 Rubic’s Cube... only two pieces mixed up. Papa would probably do some quick math and figure out what percent completion that was. Doesn't really matter, though.

Gotta get my head back on and focus a little harder on missionary work!

Anyways.

Bad times:

Definitely have some difficulty getting on in my companionship. We have disagreements every once in a while. 

To make it clear:

They are great people, and great missionaries, and want to do the right things. That being said, there will be culture clashes where people of completely different personalities are made to work together. It's inevitable that I will act different than what they are accustomed to, and so will they to me. So yeah, that'll cause misunderstandings. But it's never amounted to more than tension. 

Funny times:...

Well, there was that puppy.

We get into a lesson, and there is this puppy here being very excited. Then I'm asked to pray, so I begin saying my prayer. 

Then the puppy grabs my leg. 

It was a male.

And he was excited in entirely the wrong way. 

So I'm busy trying my hardest to both pray respectfully and peacefully and honestly. 

While also fighting to keep my legs from being used to satisfy his animal desires.

There's also the fact that I'm in a computer shop right now, where there are several very young Asian children playing online games. Unfortunately, as happens with an online community not tempered by gospel standards, they have integrated English swear words into their language. Unfortunately, by two principles, it is utterly ridiculous. ONE: as happens with such young and fairly lacking in understanding minds, they use the words with complete flippancy, and with entirely too high a frequency, in both pitch and instances in time. TWO: They have an Asian accent which makes the words, though clear, sound ridiculous. So as much as it disgusts me to hear it, it also makes me laugh a little at the ridiculous usage thereof. 

The Boring:

I got stuck in the house for 4 days...because my ROOMMATES thought I was too sick to work.

And being stuck in the house as a missionary ends up being a very, very, very boring experience. 

There's not much to do but sleep, study, and eat. 

So, yeah. That sucked...

But now I'm okay, because it turns out that a piddly little cough IS NOT ENOUGH TO BE QUARANTINED! So yeah. There we go. 

Anyways, out of time now. Talk to you next week.

Sincerely,

Elder Streeter

Area

Las Pinas City

Companion

Elders Eteaki and Calixto

A Typical P-Day (preparation day) -- (March 14, 2016)

Date

March 14, 2016

Area

Las Pinas City

Companion

Elders Eteaki and Calixto

A Typical P-Day (preparation day)

(Answering questions)

Have you written actual letters to Lala? Grandma? Or Grandpa Streeter? Even my dad?

Oops...not yet. I will, promise...

Have you received the packages?

No, not yet either. Hopefully they weren't stolen. I don't think so, because someone else's mail is also taking a long time, but still. You did put Catholic stuff all over the outside, right?

Do you still have the same companion?

Yes. Elder Eteaki remained with me from last transfer. But I also obtained a new companion, so we are a threesome. 3 missionaries, one companionship.

When will there be transfers and do you know where you might be sent?

You never know where you'll be sent, honest to goodness. However, though anything could happen, probability points to the idea that I will be going somewhere else next transfer. That won't be for several more weeks however. It will happen on a Wednesday, and I won't know till the Tuesday before. So you won't find out until it has happened.

How do you like sharing the apartment with all the other missionaries?

It's all right. Mostly they are not my personality type, so it's tough. I wade through sarcasm, and being the naive and literal mind that I am, I often fall prey to it. But they are teaching me, slowly.

Does it remind you a little of BYU?

Eh...sort of, but not really.

What do you mostly eat?

Rice, to be honest. That's the staple here. What I eat with it changes from day to day, but mostly, it's rice.

Now of course, if you send me some recipes, that could change...

Do you cook at all?

Yes. I've learned some Filipino recipes (adobo) and I also cook some old goodies (croquetas, pancakes) but everything is done from memory, using what I have available, so it's relatively limited.

What has been a spiritual moment?

Um, I'll say just every time I actually know what to say in a lesson, or an OYM, is probably the most spiritual. It's kind of funny. When you start speaking, you have no idea what you are supposed to say. Then you sort of feel funny, and your mind clears, and you say something you never would have thought of yourself, something you've never said or practiced saying before.

What has surprised you?

Um...
Nothing but the happy surprise that toilet paper is available, and the sad surprise that disobedient missionaries do exist...

That's all I really have time for.
Oh yeah, p-day activities: 
Wake up
Exercise
Study
Shop for groceries and other goods
E-mail, to you and president
Report numbers for last week and goals for this one
Check referral manager
Read all the emails from the office
Read yours
Read president's 
Eat a tasty, but within budget, lunch (hehehe)
Clean the bahay (house)
Hand wash garments, and maybe other clothes (ugh...)
And rest and relax (if there is time.)
Then at 6 (on a normal p-day, today was weird) go out and work like any other day.
Get home
Plan for tomorrow
Get ready for bed
Sleep.
So yeah, there we go.

Also, I recently learned how to solve a Rubic’s cube from my kabahay, or roommate. I was super psyched. And then I solved it for the 50th time, and now I'm bored of it...
I even solved it so it wasn't the natural pattern, with weird sides and everything, but really, there's only so much you can do.

With love,
Elder Streeter

Sore Eyes! (March 7, 2016)

Sore Eyes!

First, answering questions:

The attachment was amazing. I want to know where this is and what happened. I also want to be the old guy in the picture one day. Those are pretty cool pants. (reference: http://jalopnik.com/adorable-old-couple-flip-honda-take-best-selfie-in-his-1596022719) 

I haven't received packages yet. Now, if they came in recently, I might get them tomorrow, but I don't know if they came in even. I will say that the mission recently told us that if you send something by express it will take longer than if you send regular... so yeah, don't send express. 

Of course, I will say that I lost Cola Cao, so some more of that would be delightful, but Manila is pretty good when it comes to opportunities. I can get mostly anything I need here, just when it comes to malls you have to get permission, and that can be iffy. That being said, I'm generally not lacking. I actually have a working substitute for Cola Cao right now. I just take alkalized cocoa powder and mix it with sugar, and it tastes pretty close to the same. Of course, if I put too much, it just takes like the chocolate that you have with churros. 

Funnies are fun, and music is fun. You could send me either and I would be happy. I've asked a while for the Gods of the Copybook headings, but if you are sending it, then it doesn't make it through...

Looking at the compass, I can't decide. I'm pretty sure I have no magnetic pole, because I feel like I fill each of those roles pretty randomly. Sometimes I just decide to go do, which developed only now on my mission, sometimes I like to take time aside to plan first. When I plan, sometimes I like to just look at the general big picture and make big plans without detail, and sometimes I just like to make sure we know exactly where we are going when and who we are going to talk to about what. I'm south sometimes, but not in an active way. I think a lot about how we are all feeling, but I don't usually say anything unless there is obvious contention. The reason for that though is because I know the spirit won't be there if we are busy hating and judging each other. (reference: http://schoolreforminitiative.org/doc/compass_points.pdf) 

Elder Eteaki is more of a North guy to me, and Elder Calixto... He doesn't seem to me to be on the compass. I'm not sure how that works, but I can't seem to classify him. Is there some way he cannot be on the compass? Or perhaps, are the traits only manifested in a certain situation, which we haven't been in yet?

Anyways, I actually don't have a ton of time, sorry, I'll work on that. I got distracted a couple of times. But I will give updates:

I have been on a serious of crazy exchanges. The first:

I offended (by accident, of course) some investigators in Pamplona B, the neighboring area. Thus, we had emergency exchanges of a sort on Wednesday to let me apologize to them. Good news is they accepted my apology, and continued coming to church. Yay!

Then I had exchanges again on Friday. What happened is that Elder Eteaki got pink eye disease, so now he can't work because people will get infected by him. 

I went with our kabahays to their area while Elder Calixto stayed with Elder Eteaki. Basically, they were exchanges that would never happen in any other circumstance.

Then the Zone Leaders had exchanges with our roommates, so we were literally three different areas worth of missionaries all working together. 

Finally, we worked out some Exchange schedules on Sunday so everyone could attend their own church (Except Eteaki).

So yeah, I've worked with 6 different missionaries this week alone...

Anyways, one last thing:

We ran into a hard lesson when the Zone Leader was with us.

We walked into the house and the first thing we noticed (kind of impossible not to) was the baby with the giant head. 

I don't know what the illness is called, if it can be deemed an illness. All I know is that it was three years old, but its body, mutated as it was, was the size of a new-born baby. The head, however, looked like three skulls in one in size. The face was stretched out, so it couldn't close its mouth or its eyes, the forehead extended at least as tall as the head itself. Then it extended sideways a little, with an extra protrusion on the left side that looked like an extra, slightly bent skull with no face. Most of it couldn't move. It couldn't even cry. All it could do was breath. And cough. One arm would move every once in a while, but not in the way any normal arm moves. To be frank, it didn't quite look human.

The mother was 24 years old. She had no living close relatives. All of her brothers and sisters were dead, her grandparents were dead, her parents died when she was 6. She had no idea what to do with it except love it. 

Her husband works ridiculous hours, and most of the money from it simply goes to medical bills. 

All she could ask us is, “Why?”

Why was her life like this? Her baby? What had she done to deserve this, why wasn't God giving her blessings?

I think we all cried. I could say hardly anything. My personal last words were simply: I know that God loves you, with all my heart and soul I know this. But I cannot answer your questions.

I'm pretty sure I said it in English too. My Tagalog had fled.

I'm out of time.

I love you all, and so does our Heavenly Father,

Elder Streeter

A Threesome, a "Spaniard," and the Disappearing Step-son (Feb 29, 2016)

A Threesome, a "Spaniard," and the Disappearing Step-son

I did not go anywhere for this transfer, but I have a new companion. His name is Elder Calixto, and he is a funny Filipino who is almost done with his mission and a really good teacher.
But I didn't lose my old companion. I still am companions with Elder Eteaki. 
So yes, we are a threesome. Three missionaries, one companionship.
We are getting a little better in the new house, being more organized, mostly getting to studies on time. However, even though its previous inhabitants were sisters, they did a crummy job cleaning it. We found a random skirt and shirt in a closet with tons of other trash, garment packages (not the garments), and even a pack of those tissue things for women. I scrubbed the bathroom and took off a layer, in every sense of the word, of dirt, grime and dust. I don't think they even tried to clean it...
But that's all right. 
We do have some progress right now. There's one lady who actually lived in Spain a long time and is now back in the Philippines. She's 49, and she actually has lots of pictures that are similar to Mama's. She wore the same style clothes back then, had the same haircut. It was weird. But she has been coming to church which was amazing! She has accepted a baptismal date, and I am excited to try to help her meet that goal. 
We have another investigator who is absolutely eating up what we give him. He is flying through the book of Mormon, taught himself the word of wisdom from the pamphlet, and answered the questions in the pamphlets. The only problem is they haven't come to church yet. They keep saying they will, but there is nothing yet. It's tearing me apart...
By the way, did I tell you what happened to the first investigator that I actually thought had potential? Well, I guess I'll just say this:
He was the step-son of our less active, and left a long time ago because of an enigmatic argument he had with his father. We never found out what the argument was, but when he disappeared, our less active also stopped coming to church and started visiting him. Then one day, she disappeared too. We found out after that the two of them had been having some serious law of chastity problems, and are now live-ins somewhere nobody knows...
So yeah, there went that candidate. 
But it seems to me that these are now progressing. Hopefully we can get Valentino, the fisherman who loves what we are teaching, to come to church. Hopefully.

Anyway, I'm out of time. I love you all

From,
Elder Streeter