Magandang Hapon po!
Kamusta po kayo!?
Happy birthday to me! Not surprisingly, just because its my birthday, not too much has changed! We started off the day by having an absolute blast washing clothes, then moved on to our next exciting activity of cleaning the apartment. We spent a couple hours just cleaning our bedroom alone-to give you an idea of how absolutely disgusting the room was, while we moved everything and swept, we swept up several long girl hairs (hopefully from the sister missionaries.... Haha). Now, the last time sister missionaries were in there was about a year and a half ago. I'm guessing that's probably about the last time the place has ever been dusted or really swept. Not to mention the random trash laying around. We decided to take a break and have lunch and email, then when we get back we're back to cleaning some more. Conveniently, we have apartment checks this week so we didn't really have any other option than to clean today. Nothing that says happy birthday like cleaning other people's dirt and garbage all day! Hopefully next week we'll do something more exciting though to make up for it. There isn't really any special or weird birthday tradition here, pretty much just like at home with being able to pick dinner and stuff like that.
It has been really extremely super uncomfortably hot all day every day. To make it even worse, our apartment is just an oven and traps in the heat and it is colder outside than it is in our apartment. At night I woke up a couple of times because my back was too sweaty so I turned over to let it dry out. Good times. Last night Elder Llorin and I just laughed at ourselves when we tried to go to bed because we knew it was going to be futile trying to sleep. Even all the Fillipinos are complaining about how hot it is-that's how bad it is. But I do have good news-people are actually telling me I'm starting to get fat! Ha! Wouldn't that be weird?
In Roxas there is a place where they make backpacks and fanny packs and stuff for super cheap. There are some just as good as quality as my mountainsmith and can be customized to whatever size and accessories you want, only for about 400 pesos (about 10 bucks). Too bad I paid about 80 for mine at home!
The area here is definitely different than in Cabagan. It is a lot more rural and the people here are much more poor. We teach some people in their grass huts smaller than our living room overlooking their rice fields. Rice fields is the way of life here, and it makes it difficult to find people home to teach during the day because everyone is out in the fields. But the good news is that when people are home, we are super busy and have lots of appointments. People are especially busy now because its harvest season.
Going to church was a little different than normal to say the least. The meetinghouse is probably smaller than our apartment and there aren't any rooms to teach classes in except for the 2 small bedrooms. When church started, there was a grand total of 15 people there, but by the time sacrament started, it got up to a whopping 25 or so. And what a surprise, I was asked to speak over the pulpit. Because all the talks didn't go very long, church was only 2 and a half hours instead of 3. It is definitely an interesting experience, and a lot of the work will be focusing on increasing the faith of members and the less actives.
Not to worry about the eggnog that was sent-it did make it through customs. I will probably chug it later tonight. And it works out well because the last American that was here left his unopened traditional birthday cake frosting here.
About the street cards, you don't need to send anything like that because they are all free here through the mission. And if you can find my credit card, go ahead and use it. I hope you remember where it is because I sure don't! Feel free to treat yourself to a new car or something with it. Haha
Thanks for all your birthday wishes and emails, sorry I don't have time to respond to them very quickly. Happy b-day to Jenna too! Crazy that its already been a year.
Mahal Kita,
Elder Nay
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