Lizards, Spiders, and Dogs... Oh My!

Hi friends! 

The Philippines is absolutely wild! I cannot believe that I have only been here for one week! So many things have happened, and it feels like I have been here for so long already! 

There are so many fun things that happen here. Starting with the lizards. There are soooooooo many lizards! They are everywhere. Luckily, I am not afraid of lizards otherwise that would be a challenge. But…something funny happened this week with the Lizards. Sister Esponilla (one of the missionaries that lives in our apartment) dropped a lizard off the stairs and it almost landed on my head! It was a little scary!

The next “exciting” thing here are the spiders. I saw my first real spider this week! It was so big! Here is the story: My sweet, patient companion was teaching me how to do laundry (it is very different here) and she goes, “Oh there’s a spider.” I looked at “said spider” and it was massive!! It was at least the size of my palm, but I guess that is not that big here. Anyways, I ran out of the area we were in as fast as I could! I wanted to kill the spider, but my companion said that we couldn’t because it might have a family. So, they took it outside and let it go. I am still a little sad about that because it could always come back and attack me!

Now, for the dogs. There are sooooooo many dogs here. Dogs aren’t like they are in the United States. In the Philippines, dogs can be super aggressive, and many of the dogs have rabies. Luckily, my companion is teaching me how to deal with them safely. If a dog looks like it might be aggressive, we take out our umbrellas and open them for protection. We must be careful with the dogs so that is an adventure!

Even though these things are a little tricky, it is so good here. 

Here are some of my favorite things about the Philippines:

1. The people are soooooooo kind! The members feed us all the time. We went to visit the Elders Quorum President and Relief Society President (they are married) and they found out I hadn’t tried Pancit yet, so they went and bought me some! It was so good! We have also had a lot of free tricycle rides from members. They give so much to us and are so willing to help. It is a real blessing!

2. I LOVE the food here! I have had the opportunity to try a lot of weird things and good things. I still don’t think I like squid, but it was fun to try! I am loving the rice with every meal! And the Ulam (what goes with the rice) is always amazing!

3. I have the best companion and the best kabahays (roommates)! They are so patient and kind. They teach me the things that I need to know how to do, and we always have fun conversations at night before bed or at mealtimes.

4. Laundry here is actually kind of fun! It is a lot more work, but it makes you appreciate your clean clothes because you had to work for it! We start by putting the clothes in the washer and it goes for like 10 minutes, then we take the clothes out and put them in water, wring the clothes out, then rinse again and wring them again, then put it in the spinner, then hang dry them! It is a whole process, but it is fun!

I love the tindahans (store), the tricycles, the love of basketball, everything!

It is not always easy being here. I think I have 100 mosquito bites and it is very hot, but there are so many good things here that it outweighs any difficulties.

 We already have a lot of people that we are teaching! We have three people on baptismal date which is so exciting! I love having lessons to help them prepare for their baptisms. We are teaching an older woman, Nanay. She is so kind and sweet. But she doesn’t speak any English and doesn’t really speak Tagalog either. She mostly speaks Ilocano…so I cannot really communicate with her, but she is cute. Our other friend is a 9-year-old little boy. He gets a little distracted in lessons, but he is sweet! Lastly, we have Tatay Pascual. He is nice and loves Jesus so much. He is struggling with the Word of Wisdom, so please send prayers in his direction, so he can be ready to be baptized.

We found a few more friends this week too, which was so exciting! Two of the new people seem excited to learn more, so hopefully they will continue to progress! 

It is really funny here. I am soooooo white. Everywhere I go, people call out to me, or wave to me. I have been called puti (white), barbie, celebrity, beautiful…the weirdest one was that someone told me they wanted their baby to look like me. All of this is very nice…sometimes it goes over the top though. Especially because most of the time I am a complete mess. But it is nice to know people think I look good even when I don’t think I look that good :).

It is for sure a learning process being in the Philippines. I wish I was better at the language, or that I could understand more. Sometimes I get discouraged, but I am working on reminding myself to be patient. I have only been in the field for a week! I am not supposed to be super good at anything yet!

Something that I studied this week that helped me remember these things was a talk from Elder Bednar. He gave 5 suggestions that I love:

1. You Are Better Than You Think You Are

2. Serve Others

3. Ignore the Devil’s Derision (Recognize when it is Satan and when it is God. If you are feeling discouraged, it is Satan.)

4. Replenish Spiritual Reserve (Spend time in prayer and in the scriptures.)

5. Draw Near to the Savior

As I have focused on these things this week, I have been a lot more patient with myself, and I have felt better. I love the reminder that we are supposed to become more, but God doesn’t want us to be discouraged as we are growing. He wants us to believe in ourselves and know that we can become more through Him!

I have learned so much and it has only been a week! I am so excited to keep learning and becoming the missionary God wants me to become!

IMPORTANT: I just learned of a rule for my mission. My mission has a rule that I can only send one correspondence per person on each p-day. That means that I cannot respond to any of you if I send you my weekly email…. It makes me really sad, but I know that I will be blessed as I follow this mission rule. I love you all and I love your emails! Please keep emailing me even if I cannot respond. I read your emails and I appreciate them! They truly help me in my adjusting. I can try and respond to any questions that you have here on this group email, if you have any!!

I love you all! Thank you for your continued love and support. I can feel your prayers strengthening me in the hard times. I have such a strong testimony that this is where I need to be right now, even when it is hard.

 I love you!
The Church is true, God loves you!
Love,
Sister Miller

 

Pictures:

Teaching appointments! 
Members feeding us, and other member appointments.
Riding in a tricycle.
Hanging out with my kabahays.