Dear Family and Friends,
This week was hot and rainy. I think its has rained almost every day this week! Some of it was big, other times it was small. But I will keep saying there is nothing cooler than standing in a big rain storm or as we call it "isang libreng ligo" (a free shower).
I also picked up a new hobbie this week. This I was watching some kids playing with this top looking thing and some of them were doing it on their hands, and it looked kinda fun. They call it a "trumpo" its a wooden top and they use a long iron nail for the point. They get it spinning by wrapping a string and throwing the top at the ground a special way. I wanted to try and it took hours of practice, but I can do it now! If yo get good enough you can throw it in the air and catch it on your hand and watch the top spin on your hand. I'm not perfect at it, but I can do it occasionally now! Picture of it in the attachments!
This week I also did some experimenting, and made some "sili sauce", basically a blend of oil and super hot chilies. Turned out very well, you can pour it on your food for a super kick of spiciness, or you can use it as cooking oil for the same kick, either way, super yummy! In one of the attachments there's a picture of me wearing a pepper necklace. I made it, and hung it outside to dry, and before I used it in the food, I decided to take a picture with it!
I also received a call this week from the assistants to the president, and found out that I'm pregnant! What does that mean? In the mission we call someone pregnant if they will train next transfer cycle. When you train you are considered that missionary's "dad" and he is considered your son. So yes, I will be training a new missionary this week! I'm way excited! I have no idea who it will be, but I will be finding out on Thursday!
This week I had a hard time with my companion. We haven't really gotten along this transfer at all. It has been very hard for both of us to see eye to eye. But this week we decided to start talking to each other more. This is all we needed, we changed from being Elders to each other, to really good friends, and now brothers. I feel bad that it had taken me this long to see it in him, because one of us will be transferring this week... But this has been a huge lesson to me that we should never take those we come in contact with for granted. I also noticed this week that as we became better friends and started reading on the same page, that we saw changes in our lessons and our investigators, I don't know how to describe it, and I don't know how it works, it just does. I can relate this to our own families. My dad has told me before that sometimes we need to focus on the actual disease, rather than the symptoms in our life problems. We can try to fix the symptoms of the problems in our families, but until we actually cure the disease, we will continue to have problems. Do we often think that we can fix our problems if we treat the symptoms? Sometimes we say "well when I get a better job, my family will be happier" or "when I get ahead in life then my problems will go away", I can promise you, that most hardships in life are only hard because we aren't focused on our families enough, and we aren't giving them the attention they need. When we work on strengthening our families, everything thing else will work out, spiritually and temporally. Something my mission president said high lights this. He said " if each member in a family of five has a peso, and they decide to combine pesos, how many pesos will they have?" Someone in the group replied "5 pesos!", to which President Monahan said "wrong, they would have 10 pesos. This is the math of heaven". To me this said that when we work together as a family, the other aspects of life to better and we become happier.
I hope everyone at home is doing well! I hope you all know that I love you dearly and I pray for all of you! Mahal ko kayo lahat!
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson (TWMYK)
This week was hot and rainy. I think its has rained almost every day this week! Some of it was big, other times it was small. But I will keep saying there is nothing cooler than standing in a big rain storm or as we call it "isang libreng ligo" (a free shower).
I also picked up a new hobbie this week. This I was watching some kids playing with this top looking thing and some of them were doing it on their hands, and it looked kinda fun. They call it a "trumpo" its a wooden top and they use a long iron nail for the point. They get it spinning by wrapping a string and throwing the top at the ground a special way. I wanted to try and it took hours of practice, but I can do it now! If yo get good enough you can throw it in the air and catch it on your hand and watch the top spin on your hand. I'm not perfect at it, but I can do it occasionally now! Picture of it in the attachments!
This week I also did some experimenting, and made some "sili sauce", basically a blend of oil and super hot chilies. Turned out very well, you can pour it on your food for a super kick of spiciness, or you can use it as cooking oil for the same kick, either way, super yummy! In one of the attachments there's a picture of me wearing a pepper necklace. I made it, and hung it outside to dry, and before I used it in the food, I decided to take a picture with it!
I also received a call this week from the assistants to the president, and found out that I'm pregnant! What does that mean? In the mission we call someone pregnant if they will train next transfer cycle. When you train you are considered that missionary's "dad" and he is considered your son. So yes, I will be training a new missionary this week! I'm way excited! I have no idea who it will be, but I will be finding out on Thursday!
This week I had a hard time with my companion. We haven't really gotten along this transfer at all. It has been very hard for both of us to see eye to eye. But this week we decided to start talking to each other more. This is all we needed, we changed from being Elders to each other, to really good friends, and now brothers. I feel bad that it had taken me this long to see it in him, because one of us will be transferring this week... But this has been a huge lesson to me that we should never take those we come in contact with for granted. I also noticed this week that as we became better friends and started reading on the same page, that we saw changes in our lessons and our investigators, I don't know how to describe it, and I don't know how it works, it just does. I can relate this to our own families. My dad has told me before that sometimes we need to focus on the actual disease, rather than the symptoms in our life problems. We can try to fix the symptoms of the problems in our families, but until we actually cure the disease, we will continue to have problems. Do we often think that we can fix our problems if we treat the symptoms? Sometimes we say "well when I get a better job, my family will be happier" or "when I get ahead in life then my problems will go away", I can promise you, that most hardships in life are only hard because we aren't focused on our families enough, and we aren't giving them the attention they need. When we work on strengthening our families, everything thing else will work out, spiritually and temporally. Something my mission president said high lights this. He said " if each member in a family of five has a peso, and they decide to combine pesos, how many pesos will they have?" Someone in the group replied "5 pesos!", to which President Monahan said "wrong, they would have 10 pesos. This is the math of heaven". To me this said that when we work together as a family, the other aspects of life to better and we become happier.
I hope everyone at home is doing well! I hope you all know that I love you dearly and I pray for all of you! Mahal ko kayo lahat!
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson (TWMYK)