Ako si Sister 'Big Head.'

June 25, 2012

Epistle from the Philippines #9 - Ako si Sister 'Big Head.'

Wingapo! That's not Ilonggo, that's Pocahontas language for hello!

Thanks to Mom, Dad, Kalenn, and Gil for emails! Much love to all of you! Kalenn asked for more info about the work and the people we're working with, so here you go!

This week has been exciting! On Saturday we had a baptism! The Barrios family, a mother and her two kids were baptized. Sister Rosina and I, and now Sister Rondina have worked very hard to teach them, and now they are happily members of the church! We hope the father will come around though. On the same day we had a child-of-record baptism, the 8-year-old daughter of a less active family we've been teaching. The father baptized her and everything. I was so excited. We're still working on the mother in helping her regain a testimony.

We do a lot of that here. We visit people and remind them of God's plan for them. Some people hide. Some people pretend to be asleep. (THAT one was funny. We can see the woman of the home lying on the floor napping, and we announce ourselves, but she just doesn't move. Then her daughter starts poking her and trying to wake her. Nothing. She just pretended to be asleep.) People lie about who they are. (Real life example, changed name: "Excuse me, where is the house of Melody Pond?" "Oh, she lives over there." We go over there. "Excuse us, where is the house of Melody Pond?" "That house." He points at the house we just left. "Are you sure?" We ask. "Yes." Sigh.)

Many people like to practice their English on me. One particular little boy in our Ward recited the following to me this week. He's seven.

"Yellow, your hair.
Your eyes, blue.
Your nose (whispered) big."

Later he continued.

"Your hands, big.
Your shoes big.
Your feet too."

Thank you, little boy. Thank you for pointing out the obvious? My body is bigger than yours.

Let's talk about my nose. Although I thank my lucky star everyday that I did not inherit my father's nose (sorry, Dad), I've always been a little self conscious about my nose. Here, the people love it! They envy my nose because it is long and not flat in any way. I think people have beautiful noses here, but most people wish theirs were more like mine.

This week a bunch of kids we walked by stared at me (nothing new) and they all started saying "Dako!" which means "Big." One of them was nice enough to say "Dako ulo" which means "Big Head." Thanks kids.

Okay, here's a story. Two weeks ago today, Sister Palai (our housemate from Kiribati) and her comp Sister Boncales went to Bacolod because Sister Palai needed to have surgery in Bacolod. She's fine, but they had to stay there for a little over a week. For the time they were gone, Sister Rondina and I became responsible for their area as well as our own. We visited some of their less active members, recent converts, and investigators. On that Sunday, which was Father's Day, we attended both church services, and we were speakers in both sacrament meetings. We went to both ward council meetings. It was a long day. Sister Palai came back, but President Tobias decided to transfer Sister Boncales out, and give Sister Palai a new companion, Sister Malana. She's very nice, and tall for a filipina! She's from northern Philippines, and she's a very nice housemate thus far.

I taught Sister Rondina about solstices this week (since Midsummer Night just passed, and there were fairies abound). She'd never heard of it. I explained that in places not near the Equator, the sun rises and sets at different times depending on the time of the year. On the longest day of the year, the sun went down here by 6:30... like it always does.

I'll be honest, sometimes I miss things like being able to listen to popular music. I amaze myself with the music that comes to mind. Today it was The Music Man.

English words and phrases I've contemplated recently.
- Cowlick. (Origin: Your hair looks like you've been licked by a cow.)
- Firewood. (Wood that you use for fire. Descriptive.)
- Fly. (An insect that flies. How original.)

Love sincerely,
Sister Kelli King