San Marcelino, San Antonio Zone
Companion: Sister Hynes
August 4, 2013
Family and Friends,
Wow I have officially experienced what it’s
like to be homesick. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions kind of week. It
all began on Monday when we started off on our journey. We flew from Salt Lake
to San Francisco, our flight to San Francisco was delayed so as soon as we got
off that flight we walked right onto our next flight which was from San
Francisco to Japan. That being said, we were unable to eat lunch because we had
no layover. Things were very hectic and stressful, but we all made it onto our
flight. That flight was extremely long, 13 hours. I wasn’t able to sleep at all
so I just studied the language and read my scriptures the entire
flight-everyone thought I was crazy..now I do too, I wish I had slept! When we
got to Japan we had a thirty minute layover so all of us exchanged some money
and then bought hi-chews, how could we not? They’re amazing, especially in
Japan! The flight from Japan to Manila was four hours.
We landed at 1030 pm Philippines time, and then
finally made it over to a hotel. By the time we got into our rooms it was
midnight and we had to be back up at 3 to go on a four hour bus ride to
Olongapo. Needless to say, we were all extremely exhausted, we had been
traveling a day and a half and only had a few hours of sleep under our belts.
We got up and traveled to Olongapo where we would meet our Mission Presidents
at their home. On the way we stopped at the Manila MTC and picked up a batch of
15 missionaries and we were able to see the temple which was beautiful! We made
it to the Mission Home around 8 and they had a huge breakfast waiting, we were
all starving. We took pictures with the Mission President and his wife and then
we ate and talked with one another.
We had a mini orientation about the areas we
would be serving in, rules, and all that good stuff. Then our trainers all came
over, that’s when things started becoming real. It hit me that I would be
leaving all of my friends that I had made and be going to a foreign part of the
Philippines to serve. We headed over to the chapel where we had a testimony
meeting and then our kasamas were announced. Such a surreal feeling. My trainer
is Sister Hynes, she is from Boise, Idaho! I’m the first American companion she
has had the whole mission and she has been here a year. Everyone calls her
Filipino because she is so fluent in the language and even has their accent
down, she’s hilarious, but very strict as well. She is exactly what I need, she
has taken me under her wing and teaches me all that I need to know, but she
also expects a lot from me and pushes me to my limits. She will be training me
for three months and then I will most likely become a trainer, so we will be
together until about November.
Sister Wagner is from my district in the MTC,
and we live with her and her trainer in this cute little house. We are spoiled
with how nice our house is compared to where we live. We have a family room,
kitchen, two study rooms, a bathroom (bathrooms are scary here, really nasty)
and then our bedroom which has air conditioning but we barely use it because
it’s so expensive. As far as the food, I’ve eaten pig tongue and Pig neck but
that’s the worst things so far, and they actually taste good. Sister Wagner’s
companion Sister Almaras is Filipino so she makes us amazing food, we help her
of course, it’s great!
Now let me paint a little picture for you about the place I am serving in. I am
in a little town called San Marcelino. It is an extremely extremely poor area,
I’ve never seen a place much like it before. It is very green as it rains
a TON, the roads become rivers when it pours, it’s actually a lot of fun when
it rains. A lot of our investigators live in little huts about the size of two
twin size beds put together and there’s at least ten people living in
each hut. There’s no such thing as a bathroom, or a kitchen. An average home
here is made of cement blocks stacked on top of each other with a little bit of
cement in-between holding it all together. The roofs are made of tin, clothes,
or any other material that they can find, sometimes bamboo, to keep the rain
from coming in.
It’s casual to see rats, HUGE spiders, and all
sorts of bugs running around. I am constantly fighting the flies and the
mosquitos to get off me during the lesson as well as wiping my face of the
sweat I am drenched in. The United States has NO IDEA what hot feels like. We
have the luxury of air conditioning and fans at home, here—no such thing. The
people live in such humbling circumstances, it is a constant struggle for them
to put food on the table. The problems in America aren’t even relevant here.
The people here are struggling to survive. It makes me so grateful for all that
I have, never again will I complain about my circumstances.
I’ve only been here five days but most of my
investigators have been wearing the same clothes all five of those days, they
have pretty close to nothing, it makes me feel so sick for them, I just want to
give them all that I have. Many of them have no teeth, or all kinds of
diseases, yet they are always wearing a smile. They are so grateful to have
their families and to even have a job. The common jobs around here are selling
vegetables, being trike drivers, or working in the rice fields.
I have
gotten a little glimpse of what it feels like to be a celebrity. EVERYWHERE we
go, the people know that we are the Sister Missionaries, and they LOVE us. Jaws
drop everywhere we go when they say hello to us and we respond speaking
tagalog, they think it’s just the coolest thing. The little kids especially get
a kick out of it, I’ve talked to lots of them and they call me their big
sister, it’s so adorable. I even had a 69 year old man yesterday ask me to be
his girlfriend, my kasama and a member from our branch got a kick out of that.
I love the people here, even though they have close to nothing, they still
ALWAYS offer us food, drinks, or anything that they have. They are so extremely
humble.
I have already had so many awesome experiences
here, but I will just share a few since I am short on time. We have quite a few
progressing investigators, one of our investigators that we are working with we
are trying to get to marry her boyfriend/father of her kids, so that she can be
baptized. She had an experience Saturday where they were driving their little
trike to the market on an extremely busy/dangerous street. (If you have ever
been to Asia you know how bad the drivers are, it would never be legal in the
states). They were driving along and all of a sudden one of their wheels got
caught and swung them across the road into oncoming traffic, our investigator
Jenny said it was as if someone froze the traffic while they were going across,
and as soon as they got across all the traffic began going extremely fast
again. That is the second accident that has ever happened on that road where
someone didn’t die. People die there everyday, literally. She turned around to
see that her mom had been thrown off the trike and was laying on the ground,
she thought that her mom was dead-but she had just been knocked unconscious.
She said it was then that she realized that God really does have a plan for us,
his children, and that she knew she wanted to be baptized into the church and
get married to her husband, she has never been to church before, and she came
for the first time yesterday, I am so excited for her.
The next experience was with our investigator
Jeffrey, his wife was baptized about a month ago and we are working with him to
get to that point, he kind of wants to but he’s really shy so it’s hard for us
to get him to open up to us about the gospel. We invited them to church
yesterday, they walked two miles bare foot, with their new born baby, three
year old, and six year old and came to church. They show so much dedication, it
was fast Sunday which was the perfect day for them to be there because we all
bore our testimonies. Since Sister Wagner and I are new, they had us bear our
testimonies to the branch. The entire time I was looking directly at Jeffrey
and his wife Rodita, Jeffrey was looking down the whole time, but finally at
the end he looked up and smiled. We went and visited their family after church,
and Jeffrey looked at me and goes, I felt the Spirit so strongly at church, I
want to be baptized Sister, so he is getting baptized August 31! We are so
excited for him.
Sorry
this email is super scatter brained, but know that I love you all and am soo
excited to be here. I love this gospel with all of my heart. I’m still having a
ton of culture shock, and have really realized that a mission is not easy,
especially in another country, speaking a language that I barely know. But I
know that through the help of my Savior, I can do all things, he won’t let me
fail when I am in the service of Him bringing souls unto this gospel. I love you
all, and am grateful to be on a mission.
Mahal Kita!
Sister Pilkington
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