Dear Family and Friends,
Well Zion is well in Malasiqui as usual! I finally had to give up polishing my shoes this week becuase they get so caked with mud by the end of the day that its easier and better just to wash them off as I walk through puddles and such. Had a couple instances where I find pieces (yes pieces) of frogs caked to the bottom of my shoes, kinda gross but makes you wonder how they got there and how I didn't notice... Anyways enough about the shoes, I absolutely love the rainy season here, it makes walking to lessons more of an adventure as you have to find rocks and logs to step on in order to avoid the mud, my companion and I have become pros at it now.
One morning my companion came up to me and asked me "Ano tinuro mo kagabi?" (What did you teach last night?). It's starting again, I'm sleep talking again and it seems this time I am teaching full lessons, half in Tagalog, and half in English. My companion finds it very funny.
This week we are finding it to be very fun to hunt flies that come in the house. We are getting good at it now, we can usually rid the house of anything that moves in 15 minutes now. We use a number of weapons now, a spray bottle, rubber bands, flicking, flip flops, etc. Anyone watching us would probably think we are having a pretend war of some kind, but the fight is very real. We now have a term that we use when get one "Boom Panot" the cry of victory.
Now along with what I have said above about the flooding in our area. I'll be honest, it was hard to adjust to at first, I would say "how can we find anyone to teach when we can't get to anyones house?", I would find it annoying when the mud would try to "eat" my shoes, and I couldn't stand mud stains on my recently ironed pants. I found the rainy season frustrating for a number of reasons. But something I learned this week is that there were a number of things I couldn't control, and when it came down to it, it was my choice whether or not to be happy about it. My mom asked me what my "mission statement" was a couple of weeks ago and I quickly answered, "Be happy, its the plan of Happiness after all!". I was watching people today swimming in the flood waters today having a great time (Wish I could join), and it surprised me that it seemed like they didn't even notice their houses had flooded as well (about 3 feet or so). This taught me a lot, have fun even when life is hard. You have two ways to look at "too much water", you can see it as a flood that makes life hard, or you can see it as "the new swiming pool". In both instances they are the same thing, they are the same ingredients, but you can make a mess with it, or a cake. And I don't know about you, but I like cake better.
I hope you know that I love you all! Hope everyone is safe and well at home! Take care!
Mahal na mahal ko kayo lahat!
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson
Well Zion is well in Malasiqui as usual! I finally had to give up polishing my shoes this week becuase they get so caked with mud by the end of the day that its easier and better just to wash them off as I walk through puddles and such. Had a couple instances where I find pieces (yes pieces) of frogs caked to the bottom of my shoes, kinda gross but makes you wonder how they got there and how I didn't notice... Anyways enough about the shoes, I absolutely love the rainy season here, it makes walking to lessons more of an adventure as you have to find rocks and logs to step on in order to avoid the mud, my companion and I have become pros at it now.
One morning my companion came up to me and asked me "Ano tinuro mo kagabi?" (What did you teach last night?). It's starting again, I'm sleep talking again and it seems this time I am teaching full lessons, half in Tagalog, and half in English. My companion finds it very funny.
This week we are finding it to be very fun to hunt flies that come in the house. We are getting good at it now, we can usually rid the house of anything that moves in 15 minutes now. We use a number of weapons now, a spray bottle, rubber bands, flicking, flip flops, etc. Anyone watching us would probably think we are having a pretend war of some kind, but the fight is very real. We now have a term that we use when get one "Boom Panot" the cry of victory.
Now along with what I have said above about the flooding in our area. I'll be honest, it was hard to adjust to at first, I would say "how can we find anyone to teach when we can't get to anyones house?", I would find it annoying when the mud would try to "eat" my shoes, and I couldn't stand mud stains on my recently ironed pants. I found the rainy season frustrating for a number of reasons. But something I learned this week is that there were a number of things I couldn't control, and when it came down to it, it was my choice whether or not to be happy about it. My mom asked me what my "mission statement" was a couple of weeks ago and I quickly answered, "Be happy, its the plan of Happiness after all!". I was watching people today swimming in the flood waters today having a great time (Wish I could join), and it surprised me that it seemed like they didn't even notice their houses had flooded as well (about 3 feet or so). This taught me a lot, have fun even when life is hard. You have two ways to look at "too much water", you can see it as a flood that makes life hard, or you can see it as "the new swiming pool". In both instances they are the same thing, they are the same ingredients, but you can make a mess with it, or a cake. And I don't know about you, but I like cake better.
I hope you know that I love you all! Hope everyone is safe and well at home! Take care!
Mahal na mahal ko kayo lahat!
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson