October 9, 2023 WEEK 9 Cold in The Philippines ❄️

It has been getting so cold here a lot of days I wear sweaters and jackets proceliting and at night the gaping hole in our door makes our appartment freezing! 

We have had some friends progress and I have loved being able to teach these people! 95% of them are nanays that are super elderly and I love them!

HIGHLIGHTS
- The weather actually stays pretty much at room temp all the time and just gets cold when it rains and at night, I'm so blessed to be in this area
- To everyone who thought I would get tan: I dont think I have ever been so pale, I havent seen the sun in three weeks because it wont stop raining
- We get cat called by little boys and middle aged men everyday and saying things like "wont you teach me bible study? Just for a minute?" "Why dont you ever come here and spend some time with me?"
- There are hardly any white people here at all I saw my first white person who wasnt a missionary a few days ago so sometimes we catch people taking pics of us
- I learned Ewoks from star wars speak Tagalog
- There is never not dogs barking, pretty much everyone has at least 3 dogs 
- Everyone here speaks Illocano more than Tagalog and I have already learned some
- Ive also learned some ASL for a def friend we are teaching
- Hiking up and down mountains all day- no where here is flat so I physically have been super exhausted from literally hiking for 8 hours daily sometimes in the jungle 
- Three tatays saying that they thought I was 15 years old and thinking I am too young to be on a mission... not really sure how to feel about that haha
- The food is so good and I have learned how to make a lot of Filipino food
- We played frisbee with some white elders at the park and we literally got a crowd of people watching us and taking videos 

CULTURE 🇵🇭
- Theres usually not cross walks you have to just put your hand out and start walking in faith that the cars will slow down and you dont get hit
- Jeepneys come from WW2 Jeep transportation in the Philippines and they have just used them ever since
- The cities in my area are still named what they were in WW2 (Camp 7, Camp 8, City Camp, Military Cutoff are some names)
- You call everyone old enough to be your parents Nanay (mom) or Tatay (dad)
- Theres no addresses and it makes it really hard to find people

ESPIRITUAL NA ISIP
Isaiah 41:10
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

PICS
For some reason I can only put two pics on this email, Ill propably send another one with more 
- Halo Halo and its a desert there with everything they could think of mixed together but its pretty good!
-A cool family who lives in the jungle part of the mountain

Love you all have a great week!




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