Monday, April 12, 2010

Fw: Hey!

 

Ha ha ha... ;P Honestly, I don't even know how I failed to see the bar I ran into last week... It was... Pretty obvious... Afterwards, I was like, "Who put that bar there...?" >.> But I'm okay now.

I actually just watched General Conference this last weekend, since in order to watch the live sessions, we would've had to have been up at odd hours of the night last weekend...  It was really good.  One of my favorite talks was President Uchdorf's in the Sunday morning session, about how "You are My hands," and that (especially as missionaries), we need to strive to be as Christlike as possible in all of our relationships.  It was a powerful talk, as were many of the others (also, it was, fortunately, in English. I doubt I would've gotten much out of it if it was in Tagalog...).

I've ran into sort of an obnoxious issue a few times lately... The ATMs here have the annoying habit of only spitting out 1000 piso bills (about equivalent to $20).  Nobody, especially at smaller stores, has enough change to cover a 1000 piso bill, and they get kind of miffed if you try to give them one... Especially tricycle drivers.  I learned pretty quick that they don't like it much if you don't have small change.  It's like... well, like trying to give a bus driver a $20.  He won't take it.

I've also made... an observation, of sorts... >.>  You know me.  As long as it's not hardcore rap, hip hop, or obnoxiously heavy metal, I'm pretty tolerant of most music, as long as it's well-written and well-performed (not out of tune and without lame Janice Kapp Perry-like phrase extensions and unnecessary deceptive cadences and the like...).  But probably one of very few personal rules I have about listening to music is that under no circumstances should you ever, EVER, put your iPod on "Loop".  I don't know why iPods even have that setting.  I guarantee you that no song in the world is worth listening to over and over again.  ...But the other missionaries in my apartment are guilty as charged. Occasionally they'll find a song they really like, and they'll throw their iPods on loop and play it over and over again until it makes me want to jump out the window... It's... so annoying...

I've also noticed that Air Supply is oddly popular here.

So is Karaoke.  That's not always a good thing.

And.  You remember how David Delimont mentioned that this year is an election year here in the Philippines?  I didn't expect it to be so noisy... They have election cars here with signs taped to the sides and a gigantic loudspeaker attached to the top that drive around and play campaign songs (usually lame renditions of rap songs with the words modified to fit their campaigns) on full volume.  Ayaw ko sila... D:  Especially when they park right next to our apartment.  They're so noisy..

But anyway, now that my rant's over... :P

Sister Tagg, one of the senior missionaries here, wanted me to mention something.  She was at our district meeting / mission president interview last Monday, and while we were waiting for everyone to show up, I sat and played piano for a bit.  She wanted me to tell you that whatever you paid for piano lessons was not wasted.  Thanks, Grandma. :)

Someone said something to us as we were passing by one day that pretty much made my day.  We were just walking by, when this woman shouted, "Hey, Joe!  Your bag is tomorrow!"  At first, I was quite confused, since, well, that doesn't make any sense...

But then my companion explained it to me:  The Tagalog word "bukas" means "open" in English, so "Bukas ang bag mo" means "Your bag is open."  But "bukas" can also mean "tomorrow".  I found it quite hilarious.  XD It made my day.

Let's see.. What do I eat most of the time?  Um... Rice.  I've probably eaten more rice in the past five weeks than most of you will ever eat in your entire lives.  For dinner, we usually eat at members' homes (when we have an appointment scheduled), and on days that we don't, we cook (or rather, the others cook because I don't know how to, though I have learned how to use the rice cooker). We always have rice, along with what's called "ulam," or whatever you put on the rice, be it chicken, pork, beef, fish, etc.  Most of it's pretty tasty, though there are some things I'm... not quite sure about... ^^''  Most days, we don't actually have rice for breakfast, usually because there's not really enough time to cook in the morning, so we go down to the bakery and buy tinapay, or bread.  It's pretty tasty (SPANISH BREAD IS THE MOST AMAZING STUFF IN THE WORLD TELL YOUR FRIENDS), and it's usually fresh-baked, unless they run out of fresh stuff by the time we get there.  Sometimes, I kinda miss cereal and milk, though.  Milk doesn't really exist here.

Anyway, this Saturday two of our investigators are being baptized, Sister Rachel Tabaquero and Sister Joy Famisaran.  I'm pretty excited. :)  After that, on the 19th, my companion will be heading home, and I'll actually spend next Monday and Tuesday without an assigned companion until the transfer meeting on Wednesday.  I'll be working with the Elders in the Bonifacio 3rd area for that time, and then I'll be back in Boni 4th with a new companion next Wednesday.

That's about it for this week.  Love you! Ingat!

Love,
Elder David Jones

P.S. Did you forward those emails I sent last week?  Thanks again.






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