Elder Turley's Missionary Blog: 1st week in the Philippines (Or well first 5 days)nd friends!

(Bridge to one of the Baranggay's)

Hello family and friends! I am finally in the Philippines. I left on Monday and arrived Wednesday. So far I am loving it. It is so hard though that is for sure. The language is definitely going to take a while. They way they speak with their accent's and what not is going to be getting used to for me. Their tones are different. But anyways I eat rice pretty much every night which I am totally fine with. Our little house is decent, but a typical home for a missionary in the Philippines Bacolod, Mission. We have a "shower" (more a room where you poor cold water on yourself to wash), a toilet with a bucket to flush. Our kitchen consists of a sink and a stove which I'm thankful for. Gotta be able to cook that rice and clean them dishes! But actually I'm really loving it here. I didn't try to except anything while coming here and its been great! Adjusting has actually been easy, weirdly. The Philippines is seriously so amazing! Its green, everywhere! My first area I am in is called Moises Padilla in the La Carlotta zone. My trainer is Elder Gorospe. He is Philippino and from a different part of the Philippines. He's super cool and funny. I'm still getting used to being the only white person in my area but I think its kind of funny at the same time. All the kids are like "Hey! Joe!" and then I just wave at them. Or I'll say "apir" (highfive) and they'll give me a high five. One night while walking home I said it to a huge group of kids and they all just piled onto my arm and I dragged them for about like 10 yards and then finally they let go. hahah. It was funny but I was like "ahhhh!." The work in our area is kind of restarting with us. It has been super slow and no baptisms. In our mission we have a weekly baptismal goal. We have one baptism soon and more to come hopefully now. We are pretty much reopening the area. But anyways its different. There are a decent amount of members who are woman but we need to convert their husbands. In order for the church to truly grow we need Priesthood to spread the church and so that there can be patriarchs of the home. I'm going to teach our Branch President about that today. With the language its different every day. Either I can speak it or I can understand it. But not on the same day. I get embarrassed to speak Ilonggo in front of everyone because its their language and I feel kind of stupid so then I get "brain farts" and just blank in my head. I'm working on getting more comfortable with that though. So far we walk about 10 miles altogether each day, which really isn't that much. We are outside the city so its very rural and tons of sugar cane everywhere and tons of Baranggay's (they are like little communities in a ways with tons of bamboo huts/houses). Our Branch President is President Semulde. I believe that he is the only other endowed member in Moises Padilla and he just came out of less activity in the Church but he is super great. He has a funny personality and is like a grandpa so all the kids in the branch. The Philippines is so different than America. Everyone is like family and they do things here that you for sure would NEVER do in America. So far the only members who's names I can remember on a last name basis is the Silva family, Royo family, and the Mundia family. Sister Mundia was the first member who fed us so far and it was really nice and humbling because everyone is super poor but super loving. They are content with everything that they have. They are hard workers. Even the kids come to work after school out in the fields. They are super smart! I helped count some cut up sugar cane pieces and I had a 4 year-old helping me count and we count all the way to 100! WOW! But anyways being able to see the love and how humble these people are is amazing. They want to help me really bad with the language and I just blank whenever they ask me questions. I can't wait till I'm able to understand what they say and get used to their tones and accents because I do really know a lot that they ask me. Well anyways I hope everything is great with all of you!!! I have 3 pictures that will be on this email but for those of you who can, my sister will put up more pictures on my blog. Have a great week and pray for me in the language!