Blogging from Baguio: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Everyone was drunk. Super drunk. Even at two in the afternoon. Tatay Memerto was already totally wasted. We started teaching Nanay and Errol outside and even though Tatay was inside he kept chiming in, “Where are you from again Sister Jackson?” “I have cousins from that place. I bet you know them.” The best was when he said, “Errol…Sister Apin, you look the same.” (Here that’s like saying, “You’d make a cute couple.) Nanay asked Errol, “What do you have to say to that?” Errol just blurted out, “I ACCEPT!” SO FUNNY! I love that kid.

Errol passed his baptismal interview!! And he told Elder T that he wants to be a missionary someday. He is going to go back to school in June (that is the beginning of the school year here), graduate, and go on a mission!

The whole Ordinario family made it to church! Tatay kept his New Year’s resolution.

On New Year’s Day everyone was hung-over, or drinking off the hangover. Even though Sister Apin and I didn’t go partying we were still totally exhausted because our next door neighbors rented a videokee machine and put it on the front porch in between the two houses. They did videokee, fireworks and blew horns from the afternoon of the 31^st until the afternoon of the 1^st. On man, I was so tired. I started nodding off in a lesson, and the people we were teaching weren’t hung-over. #offtoagreatstart

We found Less Actives again! Two guys, 19 & 18 years old. Their mom, 14 year old brother and 11 year old sister have not been baptized. The mom’s parents are members and the two oldest boys were baptized when they lived with their grandparents for a couple years. Christie, the mom, cried, telling us she isn’t doing her job as a parent because as a single mom she is working Monday thru Saturday, 6am to 8pm, and feels like she has no time to “guide” her kids, which is “the most important part of being a mom.” Wow, what a great lady! Mark (19) and Loraine (11) made it to church this week. The others will come next week.

We went “finding” (rather unsuccessfully) all day on the 2^nd. Everyone was busy catching up on everything they had been neglecting for a while. One neighbor kid, when he saw us knocking on a gate and yelling, “Tao po!” said, “Just go in there. There are lots of houses behind that one too.” Nice! Thanks kid! We opened the gate and walked through it. Then he said, “Be careful. There are lots of dogs over there.” Haha #atleastheshonest

My companion and I saw a lady in labor. A big, giant pregnant lady about to have her baby. It looked awful. It was 8pm. She was walking around the compound. Her family told us she had been in labor since 6am. Oh my gosh. Ouch!! Her mom and sisters were sort of just sitting there watching her. Her two year old kid was following her around as she was pacing crying. Her husband wasn’t much help either. It looked so terrible. *shutter*

I have been thinking lately how lucky I am right now. Not to just be serving a mission, but to be serving HERE! Ah! So lucky. I can’t even write about all of the great investigators we have (partly because I don’t want to jinx it; partly because there are so many!) The Fangonilos want to be baptized together – it will happen in February. It’s so good! I’m so happy for them! I realized that’s the first thing that I’m planning right now that I won’t be here for. (I’m probably getting transferred in a couple of weeks.) I just really hope the next missionaries here are hardworking because this area and these people really deserve hard working missionaries! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Love you all!