Oh my gulay! How the week has flown. So this week I am in a new area--NAGA CITY--and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT here! Even though that doesn't mean I was any less sad to leave Goa.
I remember laying on my mattress Monday night before I left and my heart just hurt so bad for all the people there I was going to miss. I thought about all of our recent converts and all the investigators we had coming to church. I thought about their upcoming baptisms and was sad that I am going to miss them. We have one investigator that we have been teaching since Sister Villa and I were companions--I found him while we were on exchanges--and he got baptized this past Saturday, so I was definitely feeling a little sad to miss that, especially since I care about him SO MUCH!
On Monday night when I had my last opportunity to share with some of our investigators/recent converts I did my best to let them know how much I care for them and will miss them and left feeling grateful, that I had that opportunity to say goodbye.
So on the ride to Naga City, I was SUPER NERVOUS!!! I was so mixed up with excitement, anticipation, a little sadness for my old area, and nervous to meet my new companion Sister Black. I was especially worried about how we were supposed to teach, since both of us are still learning Tagalog, but as soon as we got to Naga I soon found that everything would be fine.
Sister Black is HILARIOUS!!! and SUPER HARD WORKING, we have had an AWESOME companionship so far and our investigators are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Also, I love our area and living in the city is a lot more fun that I expected... as me and Sister Stackhouse said last week, "I GET TO GO TO SM!!!!" Jkjk (we always joke about the SM here. It is just a mall in Naga, but apparently... everyone ALWAYS wants to go there. To be honest, it's really not that different from any other mall).
Anyways, there are people EVERYWHERE here! It is so different from my last area! For one, I am always feeling super turned around in our area because it is basically a maze of streets and people. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!! And they are all super nice, we have found tons of new people to teach this week and have a few progressing investigators so I think Sister Black and my biggest problem so far has been FINDING TIME to get everything done. But that is alright. We have a big vision for our area and Sister Black is willing to work really hard to get it done.
SERIOUSLY! I thought I was a hard worker until I met Sister Black. Now I feel LAZY compared to her!
So a little bit about Sister Black: She's from Utah, just turned 20 last week, is one transfer behind me and grew up in a RANCH! So she has a HORSE and goes riding all the time! I was so jealous when I heard that. I WANT A HORSE! But that's alright, I'll just go ride her's after my mission.
Additionally, she is an awesome teacher and really gets in to what she is saying. She is still learning Tagalog (like me) but that's alright because the people here are really drawn to her. They like listening to her because she is amazing at making everyone feel loved. I think there is a TON I am going to learn from her.
In addition, our teaching has been awesome! But let me start by saying, be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it... and Heavenly Father has a habit of answering prayers in "mysterious ways".
At the end of last transfer, the only thing I prayed for was that I would really be able to learn Tagalog this transfer. Well... Sister Black was an answer to that prayer. Being the Senior companion and having more practice with Tagalog has really forced me to always be listening and to use all the skills I have to teach! Just in the past week Sister Black and I have gotten so much better at Tagalog and at teaching, it is insane! Also, since we both treasure our language study time, we have been taking it a LOT more seriously than before.
So since I have been here, I've been trying to use some of the finding techniques I learned from Sister Satini and they seem to be working really well! For example, last Wednesday...
We were walking along and everyone was saying hi to us as usual in our area. We were close to the old railroad tracks and there were TONS of kids out playing, as usual. As we were walking, this guy said hi so we said hi back. I really wanted to share with him so I turned to Sister Black and said "we are going to share with him."
We walked up and asked if we could have 10 minutes to share our message and weren't too surprised when he said that he was too busy. So I asked why? It looked like he was just standing to me! He said he has to watch a ton of kids, so I said "that's fine, we can just share with all of you!" So then I had him call all the kids and we all went up on the overpass by the old railroad.
When we got there, I immediately wondered if I had made a terrible error in judgement because there were about 30 of them (ages 8-16) just sitting up there waiting for us to share... and keep in mind: Sister Black and I aren't exactly what you would call "fluent".
By the time we were up there though, it was too late to turn back so we shared our message, answered some questions and nearly got trampled as every single one of those kids wanted a pamphlet at the end (we made them share). So overall, I would call the lesson a success. In addition, we set a return appointment for last Friday which went equally well. More of the older kids showed up than the time before and this time, they all contributed to the lesson, it was awesome! In addition, we got 8 of them to commit to baptism at the end, which was cool.
The only scary thing about Friday was that we brought some small candies to pass out to everyone after the lesson and again, were nearly trampled to death under a mob of children. To be honest, I am surprised I am still alive! It's a good thing Sister Black and I are taller than all the Filipinos, or we would not have survived.
Anyways, besides that... I definitely miss Sister Jimenez's cooking here. As two white Americans who have no idea how to cook Filipino food, we've been feeling a little pitiful here with our canned foods. But that's alright! We told one of the families in our ward (the Isip family) about our dilemma and they invited us over to dinner Saturday night, where they taught us how to cook adobe (I forgot how to do it from our last area) so I wrote the recipe down and now we can officially cook one thing! WE ROCK!
They said we can come back next week and have snails for dinner if we want... I'm not sure whether to be EXCITED or SCARED about that...
So ya... I love my new area, my new companion and all the people here, even though I get lost ALL THE TIME! Oh well, I guess it's all a learning process so I'll just be grateful for all the blessings and not worry so much about the things I can't change. Ya, it's getting hot and people don't always understand us, but in the past week I have gotten so much better at the language, met so many new people, had lots of smiles, lots of laughs and more love than I thought was possible. So overall, I would call this week a success.
I wish you all the best! And hope you all have a great week full of blessings and love.
-Sincerely, Sister Matheny
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