Bogang-banga

Hello everyone!
    Happy St. Patrick's day! Luckily, SIster Dial a very american missionary here reminds us all of the American holidays so that we can recognize them even though no one else here does haha. I realized that last week I don't think I defined the word that was in the header of my email oops. The funny thing is I'm still not sure what bali means. The thing about Philippinos is they are so good at English, but they are pretty terrible at explaining their own language! I remember a missionary telling me this one of my first weeks here and I thought "well that's a little rude to categorize them in that way." But now I can testify, that is the truth. Philippinos do not know how to define some of their words and bali is one of them. They just throw it here and there but they can't describe exactly when or why. So oh well! I won't be using that word much. But bogang-bonga is a way fun word that I learned that is kind of the equivalent to fantabulous or one of those words that is just over the top. 

     So the magangang moment for this week. We have a new investigator! Well we have a couple actually but I want to share about one in particular. His name is Quirino Abarca. We met him as we were trying to find new investigators and we were literally talking to everyone we passed. He was sitting on the side of the road and we started talking to him and found out that he lives next door to Lolo Lorenzo the old man who gives us candy. He lives and works at the vulcanizing shop next door. Is vulcanizing a word? The first time I saw it was here in the PI so I'm not sure, but it's pretty much a repair shop. These are very popular here because most everyone owns a motor bike of some sort so there are multiple repair shops just on one street. Anyway he is very catholic. In our first lesson we asked him if he prayed the night before and he said "Yes, three Hail Marys two Our Fathers" or something like that. He has all of the catholic prayers memorized and religion is a big part of his life, Get this, he has 3 sons and their names are Lazarus, Jesus Christ Elijah, and Emmanuel. We were like, "is that legal?" but God has played a big role in his life, and as missionaries, we can't complain about that :) We actually extended an invitation for him to be baptized on April 27 and he said if he knows the gospel is true, he will get baptized then. We are so excited to continue teaching him. He has a tonnnn of questions and we love answering every single one of them. 

     Our sayang moment is probably with our investigator Hesa. Her husband has had to go to Manila to look for a job and her son got very sick. So she had to take him to her parents home a couple of hours away because she cannot take care of him at the moment. Her daughter Rhianna is graduating this week and she has to be at the school for rehearsals with Rhianna and really has no money to care for Raven. The thing is that after her husband left her faith seemed to be stronger than every and she really appreciated us missionaries being there for her and her family while he was gone. She was even reading the Book of Mormon every day! She hadn't been before! But then after Raven got sick, she was way discouraged and because of having to take him to her parents home, she got to the church right as it was ending :( she is also just really sad in our lessons with her because everything reminds her of Raven and makes her really sad.
But we continue to do our best to be there for her. All in all this really isn't much of a sayang moment because Hesa is still continuing to progress. Slowly but surely haha. Everything is happening in the Lord's time and I am just grateful for whatever part of her progress I get witness.

      Well considering about 50% of our work, Sister Galera and I are laughing, once again there are many giggle moments to choose from this week but here's one for this week. It is the first picture. This is Brother Miranda, the first counselor in the Bishopric and he looks just like dad! haha. The thing is that when I showed him a picture of dad and everyone agreed, he turned to me and was like "well now when you get home sick you can just call me daddy." hahahaha. He was saying it out of complete innocence and really just out of love but I felt bad because I just felt so uncomfortable after he said that! And now everytime he sees me he calls me anak (child) haha.

      So the work continues to move forward in San Juan. I didn't realize this but apparently the San Juan wards especailly ward 2 is just ridiculously weak and like the entire stake and even our mission leaders are focusing on this ward. So although the task is a little intimidating, I feel honored to be able to be a part of building up the area and hastening His work. I absolutely positively love this place and I hate the idea of ever leaving. I could serve a San Juan 2nd ward mission and be completely happy. And it's thanks to the things that we can continue to learn even if we are walking the same streets each day, talking to the same people, riding the same jeepnys, and being called at by the same drunk men each night, the thing about this gospel is that we can still learn and grown because we continue to be imperfect people and our Savior can be with us each day to teach us what we can do better and grow in our relationship with Him. I just love it. We are so lucky to be living in this time. Let's all continue to do our best to be the best people that we can be and to recognize that there is always something more for us to do, learn, and be. Have a great week everyone! Take care and choose the right!

Love na love,
Sister Sawada

 Picture 2: We had an FHE at bishops house! There's lots of us. From left to right is Heber (panganay ni bishop (eldest child of bishop)) then Mark, a recent convert who is already doing missionary work with the elders :), marion (anak ni Brother Miranda), Helaman (another anak ni Bishop), above him is Harold (another anak ni bishop), then kasama ko sister Galera carrying Hyrum the bunso (youngest child) ni bishop, us missionaries, kathleen and josh, brother joseph another great ward missionary who was actually less active when I first got here, bishop and his wife and brother miranda. It was tons of fun and delicious foods haha.