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