Wow I am finally here in my first area in the mission field. As you have already been informed my area is the Nueva Valencia A area on the beautiful island of Guimaras. I am convinced I am serving in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm sure I am seeing a little less glamorous pictures than you guys are on the internet, but it is so amazing here, I love it. It has been a crazy and humbling (very humbling) first week or few days, but it has been good.
So on Wed. we got up at like 3am, to go to the airport to fly to our missions. I don't know why we had to leave so early since our flight didnt leave until like 8, but it was nice to have a few more hours with the missionaries that were going to Bacolod mission. It was sad to say goodbye to all of them, we were all so close, but we have a goup email now. After we arrived in iloilo we ate had interviews and went shopping to get things that we needed.
So on thursday I think, we had a nice meeting with all the new missionaries and found out who our trainers are. My trainer, as you know, is Elder Salamatin, he is filipino, and he's from Kulto, Philippines (near manila). He is very good at ilonggo and he speaks tagalog. He has only been learning English for 6 Months, but he knows enough to communicate with me. He is a great missionary and has already taught me so much. After the meeting I took a boatride to Guimaras island, which only took about 15 minutes. When I arrived we took a jeepney(google it) its like a bus kind of, but it was full so we strapped my luggage on top and rode on top of it for about 30 minutes until we arrived at our apartment. I was praying the entire time while on top of the jeepney, it was probably going like 50mph.
- How long did it take to get from the Manila MTC to Iloilo? How about to Nueva Valencia? I assume you went by boat to the island. I bet you are so tired of traveling and grateful to be staying in one place for awhile. (answer above)
- We are all so confused about the Christmas tree that you were standing in front of at Mission home. Please explain :). ( so in the Philippines they start listening and celebrating Christmas in september. They call it the ber months, any month that ends with ber, you can listen to christmas music and start celebrating, its weird.)
- How is the food? Do you like it? (The food has been great so far, they eat Rice every meal, so rice is life now (right eric?)
- How many missionaries are there in your mission? (There are about 167 missionaries in my mission)
- Are you assigned to a ward or a branch? How was your first Sunday? Could you understand any of it? (I am assigned to a small branch. There were about 30 people at church on sunday, so room for improvement. I could understand some of it because they speak like half english half ilonggo at church. It was fast sunday so i bore my testimony, it was short and sweet.))
- How many missionaries are in your apartment? Do they speak English? (we share an apartment with 2 other elders. One is from California (but is filipino) and he speaks perfect english, he has helped me a lot so far, his name is Elder Andres, the other elder is Elder Tereke, who doesn't really speak english.
- What has the weather been like? Have you fully adjusted to the humidity? ( It is HOT, all of the time!! haha but I have started to adjust to the humidity and heat. I'm just going to have to accept the fact that I am going to sweat all of the time.))
So my very first lesson we went to an investigators home, her name is Jenny and her daughter is Jenibe. We taught about the plan of salvation and she started to cry, then we taught about the importance of baptism. I explained in my broken Ilonggo why we need to be baptized and she said that she would be baptized on Oct. 28, We are so excited for her. We have taught a lot of lessons so far and I contribute as much as i can, but it is so hard. Like I said it has been very humbling, I can barely understand one word per sentence of what people are saying. I pray all the time for help, I am working as hard I can to improve.
Today we played basketball, it was so awesome. The basketball hoops were trees with 2 by 4s nailed to it and the rim was suprisingly round. I will have to take a picture later.
It has been challenging, but some great experiences so far! Your prayers and emails are much appreciated! I love hearing about everything going on. It sounds like everything is great.
Elder Degen
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