Unang Week Sa Pilipina

Holy Cow! I don't even know where to begin. Well, I arrived here on Wednesday December 4th, so I skipped the 3rd of December all together which was pretty cool. I feel like we discovered time travel or something. Anyways, we stopped in Hawaii too along the way which was exciting except for the fact that it was dark out and we couldn't see anything except a bunch of lights here and there. But, I can still say I have been to Hawaii which is AWESOME!:) When we arrived here in the Philippines my feet were sooo swollen...I was surprised my shoes still fit haha but so were my companions it was funny. I was actually expecting it to be hotter than it is here. Its hot don't get me wrong, but for some reason I was expecting so hot you can cook an egg on the sidewalk hot and its not that hot...yet. I am actually here in there cold season. Its like 90 degrees haha and thats cold here. I'm not really looking forward to there hot season, I am however looking forward to the rain! The people here are so humble its crazy. Our investigators are soooo cute and soooo nice and soooo yeah. I just love them and I have only met them all like once. But they are just the most humblest people I have ever met, and they are just so willing to listen and learn about the gospel. My companion is Sister Gonzales, she is a local. So, she speaks fluent Tagalog...yeah. The good thing is she knows English really well also. Shes a super great teacher and we get along really well. As for learning Tagalog, I was pretty surprised when I got here and the other sisters in my district told me that I am farther along with the language then a lot of other sisters were when they first got here. Which surprised me because I didn't think I knew anything haha. But, being here and actually having to SYL because I don't have a choice because the people don't understand English very well has really helped me realize how much I really do know. And it's pretty cool. I live in an apartment...its kind of more like a duplex. Our neighbors are another companionship of sisters so its pretty nice. I don't have a bucket shower (thank goodness!). We have a shower, the water is cold though, but I have come to enjoy it because it really does feel super good with the hot and humid weather. Church was great! I really enjoyed it. The primary had their presentation during Sacrament and it was soooo stinkin cute. Just imagine about 20 little madroneros singing primary songs and that is exactly what this was. It was so cute. I had to get up and introduce myself to the ward and I am happy to say that I said more than half of it in Tagalog...oh yeah:) I did take lots of pictures, but...I took so many pictures that I kind of drained my battery. So, now I have to wait to send them because my battery is dead. Oh, and there are sooooo many water buffaloes around here! ITS AWESOME! And dogs, chickens and goats roam the streets like its nobodies business haha. I saw a stampede of goats the other day, they were so cute haha. Oh my goodness, I just love it here. MY first day in the actual field was Friday and that was soooo hard. I just wanted to cry, everywhere I went. The air is so different, everything smells weird, and EVERYBODY stares at me everywhere I go. I don't like it. My companion tells me over and over again that it is because I am white and they think I am really pretty but it still makes me super uncomfortable. Last night, our investigator who is 8 asked me why I had green eyes. It was really cute but I had no idea what to say to her haha so I just said because my mommy has green eyes. And then on Saturday, we were walking down the road and literally everybody was staring at me. People even came to the street from their front porch to watch me walk by. And as we were just standing, talking to a lady, a girl and like 3 guys were like peeking out from behind a gate at me and so I looked over at them and the girl yells to me "Your so beautiful". It was super sweet and all I said back was aww thank you but no, your beautiful haha. It's just a super different environment that I am going to have to adjust to over time. But I am really starting to love it and I look forward to every day to come:) I hope you have all had a super good week and I am excited to hear from you next week!:) Love, Sister Halley Ramsey