Eating pride chicken

Sister Molina and I during the baptisms in the ocean, in the rain.

The 11 baptismal candidates and their supports, pre-ocean. We're standing in front of the meeting house which is just a house.

This is a pretty good depiction of our area. This is a rice field during a beautiful sunset. The town isn't even a city. It's just a little cluster of neighborhood close to the highway, as well as a few offshoots that go into the mountains and the fields. It's pretty peaceful. The only time it isn't peaceful is between 5 and 6 in the morning. We live close to a Catholic church, and almost every morning they play the same music at the same time, and we always wake up to it. Sometimes someone is also playing rock music at the same time. Disturbance of the peace much?

The mysterious goats chilling out in the shade of our house after having left the yard, but they came back because it rained.

Sent: Mon, Aug 13, 2012 12:38 am

Hello once again! It's good to hear from the people whom I've heard from!

I haven't done a language lesson, so let's do one now!

In Ilonggo, yes is "Oo" pronounces o'o'. When I first learned the word, it sounded a whole lot like "uh-uh" which in English means no. It also sometimes sounds like "uh-oh!" I still have to ask for clarification sometimes, especially if my companion or someone answers non-verbally and merely hums "mm-mm." In my language that's a no. In their language it's a yes.

Likewise, the word "wa'ay" means "nothing" "none" "without" "don't have" and "not here." But at first it just sounded like people were asking me "Why?"

To go along with what I just said, many of the Filippino languages have fewer words than we have in English. This makes the language both more and less effective. For example, the Ilonggos call "today" "subong nga adlaw." Subong means now, and adlaw means day. Nga means that. Basically they are saying "The day that's now." Not effective. But if they want to say "church attendance" they say "pagsimba."

Root words are awesome. The Filipinos have a variety of suffixes and prefixes that change the meaning of the root word. Let's take "simba" for our example. No, I'm not talking about a lion who takes his place in the circle of life. In Filipino (they use the same word in Tagalog, Ilonggo, and Cebuano) "simba" means worship. Mag makes things a verb, so "magsimba" means to worship, or essentially, to so to church. "Pag makes it a thing. "Pagsimba" means the act of worshiping, or in other words, church attendance. -han makes things a place. "Simbahan" means place of worship, or church. -hon makes it a person. "Simbahon" means a person who worships. There are more, but that's just an example.

In many ways, I've sort of had to dumb down my sentence structure in order to learn this language. I constantly ask my companions "How do I say this?" and frequently they'll use a different word than what I wanted to use. But that's how THEY (the people I'm teaching) would say it, and that's more important.

This week, I found new initiative to learn the language. I've been faithfully writing down the words I hear in a notebook. I ask my companion for the definitions later. I don't have an Ilonggo to English dictionary, so I sort of have to ask people for definitions. After several days of flashcards, and writing, I started to get impatient with myself.

Last month, when President Lopez was a brand new mission president, he came to use, and gave us some council from the Bible. Jesus Christ taught that if we have the faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. He gave each of us a mustard seed, and he had each of us write down our "mountains" on a piece of paper, which he then took, and read, I assume. On my paper, I told him that my biggest trial was learning the language. As of just recently, I've realized that my mountain is much greater than learning a language slower than I'd like. My mountain is pride.

I know I am weak, and I pray for help frequently. The problem is not that I can't ask God for help, but that I find difficulty in asking people for help. I also hate to look like a stupid American who can't speak the language. But guess what, people don't think that. It's all me. I'm afraid of embarrassment. I don't want to make mistakes. I want to be understood. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be understood, but there is something wrong with not trying, and accepting help when it's offered. Recently in my weekly letter to the mission president, I told him that my mountain that I need to move was different from what I originally said. I pray that with the help of my companion, my leaders, the people that I serve, and especially Heavenly Father, that I'll be able to move my pride, and experience more success and joy in my work. After we finish with the Internet today, Sister Molina and I are going to eat some fried chicken of behalf of my drive to overcome my pride chicken.

And I am having success, don't get me wrong. I enjoy my area a lot. The recent converts especially are so faithful and fun! We had a Family Home Evening with them on Saturday afternoon (that's when they were available) and we watched the Restoration video, and played games. It was great. I taught them my favorite game from the MTC, "Handa, kilos!" I'll be sure to teach my family that one when I get home from my mission.

I learn a lot from Sister Molina. She really likes acronyms. For example, she tells me that we need to be HOT: Humble, Obedient, and Teachable. I testify that that is true. I need to be more HOT.

Speaking of hot, it's been really hot this week. I don't think it rained all week. What the heck, this place has worse mood swings than I did as a 13-year-old.

Love to you all always! Please keep writing! I love to hear from you!

Sa akong pagpalangga (with my love),

Sister Kelli King