Life in the Philippines

My first area is called Pena Blanca. It is in the very Northern part of my mission. If you've ever heard the phrase "out in the boondocks" you've heard Tagalog. Boondocks is the Tagalog word for mountain, and that is where I am. There are mountains on all sides of me. There are also a lot of rice fields and corn fields. We often times have to go through corn or rice fields to get to the homes of many of our investigators and recent converts. There are also animals everywhere. Dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, cows, and calibaus (water buffalo).
The people here are so humble and very hospitable. It is neat to teach here because we will sit on our investigators porch and teach, and all of the neighbors will gather around to listen. So many are willing to hear our message. The little kids are the best! They absolutely love it when Americans speak Tagalog. It is so great. When we teach the families, they often offer us crackers and soda. Sometimes they will even serve us dinner! They say "kain tayo" which means we including you, you are eating.
They live in very humble homes. If you like the sound of rain on a tin roof, the Philippines is your place. I've seen homes with just a tin roof and four beams of wood to hold it up. I've also seen fully furnished that look like homes in America. There is a wide variety, but most homes consist of a tin roof, bare wood for walls, and a cement or dirt floor. A lot of these homes have Tindahans, or little stores in the front of them.
The food here is really good. We eat a lot of fish and rice. You have to be careful where you buy food though because you might be eating dog or horse meat. They eat balut and eggs too. There are a lot of crazy fruits and vegetables, like siot, or jack fruit. The water here isn't clean, so we have to carry around filtered water. My favorite food here is sopas, which is the filipino equivilent to chicken noodle soup, or pancit, which is noodles over a fried egg. (not balut). There are some brands of American foods here, but not many. There are also some restaurants here like Jollibee, and McDonalds. The McDonalds here sells hamburgers, fried chicken with rice and spaghetti. Kind of different.
There are few actual holidays here, but the people find every excuse to invite all of their neighbors over for a party. They make a lot of food and even those from neighboring areas show up. At the parties they visit and sing karaoke. The best part of karaoke is that most filippinos sing loudly and badly. It is very entertaining and it is fun how excited they get when singing.
The culture here is a mixture of traditional filippino, spanish and American culture.Filippinos love Americans and often practice their English by speaking to me.
The craziest part about the Philippines is definitely the traffic. They are crazy drivers. There are lanes, but the lanes are treated as suggestions, not law. It is routine to be driving and have more than one car cut you off from more than one lane. I'm so glad that we don't drive here! We mainly just take Trikes everywhere. There are also no speed limits, cross walks or traffic lights. Even stop signs are absent. In the city there are a few busier intersections that are guided by traffic cops, but that is it. It's crazy.
We don't go tracking door to door. We mainly teach referrals and part member families. Just as important as our investigators is our wards less active members. We teach a lot of people who have fallen away from the church. We've only had one baptism so far, but we have returned many families to the church like the Ballad family. We are constantly asking for referrals and looking for opportunities to find people to teach. Teaching is a lot of fun, and the people are very welcoming and receptive of our message.
So here is a little bit about the Philippines.
Love,
Sister Lewis