Elder Jakob Van Boerum : September 2013

Every day here I'm getting to see a little bit more of the Philippines. And most of the time it's hilarious. All of the Jeepneys here are painted crazy colors. There's even one I see sometimes that has part of it painted like the Irish flag and says "IRELAND" in big bold letters on it. The driver was definitely not Irish. Even a little. Also I saw my first cock fight. Just a couple of guys on the side of a road holding their roosters by the tail until they wanted to start. Then the other day I had the weirdest meal so far. It's called Dinubua, I think. It's basically pork cooked in it's own blood, and some other stuff. Not as bad as it sounds. Then I also saw some ten year old kid riding one of their water buffalo things they have here. Just going down the road like it was no big deal. All their pigs here are pretty disgusting too. They keep them in little pens with maybe 4 inches of space on each side. If the pig is lucky. That's also the scariest noise I've heard. Some pig screaming when it was pitch black and we were heading back to the apartment. Sounded like it was dying. I also think I've seen more dogs in my 3 weeks here than I have my whole life. There are hundreds, both strays and pets. And none of them are fixed, so they are only increasing. And most have fleas. Lovely.

So this past week was pretty good. Finally had a couple lessons with one of the Less Active families we've been going to every other day. They were an older couple and the husband seems like he didn't want us there at first, but he softened up at the end of the lesson. Then we had to walk through the rice fields to get home and I slipped into a river just calf deep. It turned out to be good though, because when we made it to a road, an old guy asked us why I was holding my socks. We got talking and ended up giving him a pamphlet and he said he wanted to hear what we had to say. So we will follow up with him. Also we gave another Restoration pamphlet to another guy who was just making a fence by choppin some bamboo down and laying it out.

At nights in our apartment, we usually just talk about random things. Elder Esteves is always way interested in hearing about America. He was trying to convince E. McBride and I that pigs are dirty animals and chickens are great, while we were saying that chickens are stupid and pigs are the smart ones. He just laughed and thought we were ridiculous. He also likes to hear about the animals in America, like bears and mountain lions. Here, the only thing to be afraid of is mosquitoes. And the civil war that I guess broke out last week in the Southern part of the Philippines. But no one here seems to be taking it seriously, so I guess it's no big deal.

My quote for the week comes from Les Mis: "To love another person is to see the face of God" I was listening to my music and that hit me. I love all of the people here. Our investigators and the Less actives we teach. Tatay Pastoral still likes having me pray every time and we are wanting to ask him to get baptized this week. I am supposed to ask in Tagalog, so I hope I don't blow it. Ha. Fermin is still doing great. Always loves to see us. He gets such a big smile on his face which is pretty funny to see when a lot of his teeth aren't there. During one of our lessons with him this week, he tried speaking to me in English and I was trying so hard not to laugh. He would start off a sentence, get two words in then say "Ahhhhh, ano ba iyan? ano? (how they say what the heck, Literally, what is that)" Then he looked up to the sky, "God help me!" Then he would say some word in Tagalog or an English word that wasn't quite right for the sentence. He kept going in and out of English and Tagalog. Even Elder Cawit couldn't understand him! We also went to a baptism on Saturday for an investigator of E. McBride's. She was so happy and it was a cool experience. Squidward talked about enduring to the end. He looked at her and said, "It's dangerous to join the Church" then laughed, "but not in a bad way" Then he said it's because we are always tried in all things when we have the Gospel. We may be persecuted, or tempted. But that is how we become stronger. Her husband was there too and he finally has been off smoking for a week so he may have his own baptism soon.

Then, yesterday we were out looking for someone that we got as a referral. While we were walking on the street some guy with six dogs following him came up to us, smoking, and shook our hands. He invited us to come sit down, without us saying anything. He had pretty obviously been drinking though. We told him we were from the Church and he said "Oh I have some questions." We gave him a pamphlet on the Restoration and he said, "this, this is good" He then went off about how he wanted to protect his family. At a couple points he would randomly stop talking and look at me and just smile. He also kept saying "Asamatteroffact..." slurred together like that. We knew we couldn't teach him while he was drunk like that so we told him we had to leave, but then he asked us to stay. We just told him we would come back. So know we have a drunk man as a potential investigator.

It's also weird to think that I've been gone 62 days now. Seems like forever ago, but the time has usually gone by fast. I still miss you all back at home. I can tell Elder Cawit is getting excited to go home too. He only has 8 more weeks. But he did tell me he just wants to get a wife and stay on a mission. He loves being out here. To all my friends, it sounds like you are all doing great whether you're in school, at the MTC, or already out serving. It's been awesome to hear from all of you and your different stories. To family, I can't wait until I get to skype you in just three months! I miss all of you and think about you every day. I love being out here and love all of the people so much. That's why I mentioned that Les Mis quote. There is something so special about the people here. There are always so happy even when they have so little. I've been working on translating Brock's quote about wishing he could tell people to be grateful for what they have. These people here really are so happy with what they have, even if it's just their family and a bamboo hut. I've had my hard times, but I've been praying and reading, almost finished the Book of Mormon again. That's helped a lot. I still struggle with the language, but I'm a little more confident each day. I love you all and miss you so much! Happy Birthday to Anika and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Van Boerum

Here are a few pictures from the week: