...or magandang dzien, guten hapon... Whatever...
Or, good afternoon. :D For all you boring English speakers out there. ;P
Things have been going pretty well. Still stressful, but alright. I've been struggling a bit to keep our work up and going, but our numbers have been a bit low this last week. One of the reasons is that Elder Campos likes to work a lot more with the members--going to their houses, meeting with them, sharing scriptures with them, etc, in order to gain their friendship and trust--which is good, but it means that our number of lessons to investigators, new investigators, etc., suffers a bit. But really having the trust of the members, I think, will work to our advantage in the future. It's a short-term loss for a long-term gain. Hopefully.
Two days ago, we had zone conference (which is why I'm emailing you now instead of two days ago). Usually, zone conferences are alright, but this during this one, they taught a ton of things that were extremely helpful, and they showed us videos that give real examples of missionary teaching skills being demonstrated. I learned a lot.
Since I've really started focusing on listening and understanding, I've found that I've been getting better at it. It's happening less often now where someone will say something to me, and all I can do is stare at them. More often now, all I need is for them to repeat it once or twice, louder and slower, before I can finally catch it. Writing down random words that I don't know and then looking them up later helps a lot, too. What's annoying is sometimes I won't understand someone the first time, so they'll repeat it in English (which, depending on the person, is sometimes even harder to understand than Tagalog...), which is not what I want. It's like, "No, say it again, slower, in Tagalog, not in English! I already know English.. It's the Tagalog I'm trying to learn." :P Also annoying is when they say, "Just say it in English!" "No! I refuse!!" :P
On another random note, there was one time that we met an Australian. We just talked to him for a bit (Don't speak Tagalog, don't speak Tagalog), then at one point asked him,
"So how's the Tagalog?"
..."Is that some kind of food?"
It was amusing.
Glad to hear Darcy's having a good time back at home. :D And that she survived finals.. I guess things were just as stressful there has they've been here. Have a great summer, everyone! :D
Ah, home.. hoooooome... hm... Wait! Stop! Don't get homesick now! The airplane is much too far in the distance for that! ;P
...Speaking of airplanes, sometimes whenever one flies overhead (they do that a lot around here), we ask each other, "How far away do you think that airplane is from here?" "Oh, about seventeen and a half months... Sigh..."
But anyway, enough of that. ^^''
In other news, I looked at my package that you sent me a month or two ago, and realized all the skittles I hadn't eaten yet had melted. D: They still tasted good, and I decided I'd better eat the rest before they got any worse... Om nom nom...
The Starbursts have all melted, too. But I haven't eaten all of those yet. They're a little harder to eat since they're still in the packages.
Looking forward to my birthdaaaaaayy.. :D ...Even though I don't get a day off or anything. I do get some kind of snacks from the mission president, though. Yaaaaay. Plus, Bonifacio 4th ward is a good place to have a birthday. They're really nice here.
It'll be hard to leave this area once I finally get transferred. This is a really good ward, and I've made all kinds of friends here. All the more reason to go crazy with Facebook when I get home.
...Anyway, I'm running out of things to write about now. Hope all is well in Oly-land.
Mahal ko kayo! Ingat! :D
Love,
Elder David Jones
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