Maliit ang Mundo

Hello Family and Friends!
    What a crazy week this has been. I can't express enough how time is just not on your side when you are a missionary! But the thing that brings me comfort is the knowledge that even when everything seems out of my control, it is all on the control of our Father in Heaven who knows everything that needs to happen and as long as it happens in His time, I don't have to worry about it. But let's be honest, that is much easier said than done. Before I start our little tagalog language lesson this week is the phrase maliit ang mundo! Meaning "it's a small world" or however you say it in English. I have been saying that phrase quite a bit this week and I would love to share about the craziest instance.
    So in the Philippines, cell phones work on this stuff called load. You buy your cellphone and choose your company or whatever. But then to get like "minutes" for texts and calls and stuff, you go to a sari-sari and pay them and they will send load to your phone. Then you can subscribe to certain plans if you want, or just use the load. For example if you pay 100 peso to the sari sari store, and each text costs 1 peso, then you can have 100 texts. Anyway this isn't too important it's just to help explain that Sister Galera and I were going to the sari sari by our apartment to buy load, but they stopped selling load. So we had to go to another sari sari. We had never been to this one before and the lady selling the load was way friendly. We got talking and she has been a maid all over the world! She has been in Malaysia, America, Singapore, and Thailand! And as we continued our tsika tsika (small talk) I found out that she actually was a maid for the Bradford family a way long time ago when they lived in Malaysia. I think Rebecca was like 1 or so at that time. Isn't that crazy?? Anyway Ayo, if you are friends with Rebecca on facebook, you should tell her that I met her maid Terry in San Juan La Union Philippines! Haha talaga maliit ang mundo.
     Sige, so the magandang moment for the week is that Quirino has come to church now 2 weeks in a row! Wait, I don't think I even mentioned that he came to church last week! Well he did! And he also came this week and he really just seems to love it! He is always telling us he feels good in his heart and he is learning so much. We actually had a pretty uncomfortable lesson with him this week because since he is a male, we always need another adult member with us during the lessons with him. We asked Lorenzo, the old man next door who is a member to join us. It wasn't a smart choice on our part. We are supposed to find members who can relate well to the investigator and help us with the lesson but we really just wanted to teach Quirino so we took the easy way out. Unfortunately Lorenzo is somewhat crazy and will say things to get attention so in our lesson we were going to introduce Joseph Smith and the first vision which is always one of my favorites to share. But Lolo Lorenzo started going off about how he doesn't believe in Joseph Smith and he is bakla (gay). Quirino and Mar (Quirino's co worker who joins in on lessons sometimes) started laughing which is kind of understandable if you don't yet know who he is, and this old man is telling you that he is gay. But my heart literally felt like it was broken in half. I felt this heaviness in my chest and it was more than obvious that the spirit had left us. We told them that we would like to close the lesson and come back tomorrow.
    That night Quirino texted us saying he was so sorry for the way that he acted and that he really didn't know why he was laughing. He had read the testimony of Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon and believes he was a true prophet. He was worried that after that lesson we wouldn't come teach him anymore and he said
that he needs us to come back because he is learning so much. We were so comforted to read his text and receive the confirmation that our lesson with Lorenzo was just a trial of our faith. And since then, our lessons with him have been more focused and spiritual and his progression is even greater! Everything happens for a reason so let's just put our trust in God and stop worrying about the rest!
     The sayang moment for this week is probably with Sister Hesa. Again? Sister Hesa? Whyyyy :( So we had a family home evening planned with us 6 missionaries and a few members and Hesa and her family and we were looking forward to it so much! Hesa had come to church last sunday and we felt that Joseph, her husband was getting more and more friendly to us! During one of our lessons he was working outside on their pots (hesa is a potter) and right as we had closed and were about to leave, he was wiping his hands and getting ready to come in. He was like "you're done already? I was going to come join!" We would have turned right back around and taught another lesson for him to join us if we didn't have another appointment we had to get to :( but this is the amount of progress we were making and we were so excited for the FHE! But then when we got there Joseph wasn't there. He had to go meet with his basketball team for something. (It's basketball season in each barangay (community) and they take this stuff real serious) Anyway but we continued on with the lesson and games and food and it was way fun and spiritual so that was good! But right as we were all leaving we were hugging goodbye and Hesa and the kids seemed so happy, but then somehow, we have no idea how because no one was near it, the electric fan fell over and landed on their ipad/notebook and cracked the screen. I have no idea how the got that notebook. It had to have been a present or a huge investment or something because they have no money. But that one crack in the screen broke the whole notebook and pretty much killed any happy feeling in Hesa. She was devastated and we had no idea what to do. We left eventually and texted her saying we were so sorry even though we really have no idea how it happened and there was no response. She also didn't come to church yesterday. But we are visiting her tonight so let's hope everything is okay with her.
      Walang oras (no time) for my giggle moment this week. Wait real quick, on our way walking to this internet cafe this old man came running out to us in the street yelling "birddie birddie!!!" I realized he was actually saying BIRTHDAY meaning it was his birthday. I told him "Happy Birthday!" and he smiled, shook my hand and then ran back to his house. What the? haha okay now time for pictures!
      I hope you all are doing well and choosing the right! I love you all so so much. Take care until next week.
Love,
Sister Sawada