Week 28

Dear Family,

This letter is going to be full of random stories and fun facts...
hope you're excited.
Last week on P-Day, we were eating in Jolibee in the "mall".  We were
sitting by the window and as everyone passed by, they just stared at
us.  Of course that's not very unusual, but some of them came right up
to the glass, open-mouthed.... I felt like I was some animal displayed
in a zoo, literally.  I imagine that's how animals might feel as
people press up against the glass gawking at them, haha.  And when we
waved or smiled at them, they got WAY too excited.  Oh man, I love the
people here so much.

We love to buy dirty icecream from little kids on the street riding
bikes.  We call it dirty because we don't think they use filtered
water, but we found out yesterday that they use mineral water so maybe
it's good after all!  The kids make the icecream themselves (adults
too)  and they ride around all day selling it.  It's like the icecream
man... and music plays too while they ride.  It's pretty good
icecream.  We ate ubay and mangga flavored icecream. :)

They also have these things called "chunggies"  which are everywhere.
People sell stuff on the streets and through windows in their homes.
We buy snacks and drinks from them all the time.  It's a good way to
talk to people and find new investigators too!

Last night we discovered a lizard skeleton in our bathroom door.  It
looked as though they had been squished when the door was shut and
died and no one noticed them for who knows how long.  I was nominated
to thrown them away, as always because everyone else is too scared to
get close to anything gross.  I always kill the spiders and stuff in
this apartment.  I haven't been able to catch a mouse yet but we know
they live with us.  Their poop is always everywhere.  The other night
even I got a little scared.  As I was falling asleep, something landed
on my head and then I saw it's shadow run across the room.  I turned
on the light and it was just a cockroach, but I had a hard time going
back to sleep, haha.  And the ants here are giants... I've never seen
ants that huge...

So... if you ever wear red here... apparently it's your birthday.  I
have one red shirt and every time I wear it, I hear people call out
"happy birthday!" to me.  It's pretty funny... I don't know why they
do that.  And Filipino people do weird things with their mouths, haha.
 If they don't understand something you are saying, they open their
mouth really wide, like a fish.  I've found myself doing this as well
a lot lately.  They also point to things using their lips.  And they
make kissy noises to get people's attention or to signal a Jeepney
driver that they want to get off.  It's a completely normal thing to
do.  I haven't mastered it quite yet.  There are so many random things
that are so commonplace to me now that I'm sure I haven't written
about. Sorry about that.

Elder Vuiasawa in our district has Dange? Fever.  It's pretty bad. He
was in the hospital for a couple days.  I don't know much about
that... except it's from mosquito bites or something like that...
anyways... tani I don't get it.  We visited him in the hospital and he
didn't look too good.  But he's better now I think.

We have the best stake president in the world.  He and his family are
some of the best people I have ever met. I want to be just like them
someday :D  First, President worked with us all day on Thursday.  He
wouldn't accept any money for the gas or travel.  And when we thought
he was taking us home at night, he took a wrong turn.  He asked us if
we knew where we were going.  I said no... and he said we had one more
person to reactivate.  I said okay!  He ended up taking us to his
house (talking about his wife who is super active)  and feeding us
dinner. He kidnapped us!  And then he and his wife came to drop us
off.  That night we were wondering who would work with us the next day
when their daughter texted and asked if she could work with us... an
answer to our prayer.  They are just so great!

Oh... and what's going on in the East?  I've been hearing stories
about storms and people dying and crisis... is it true?  And
apparently President Obama is still our president... ?

I am getting so excited for Christmas.  They have been playing
Christmas songs for a couple months now... and been putting up
Christmas lights all over.  They don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I
think we will be having a dinner with a member or something.  They do
celebrate Christmas here though.  I don't know what we will be doing
on those days... maybe nothing will be different in our schedule,
haha.  So it could be fun!

Valentino was ordained to the office of Priest yesterday.  I'm so
happy for him!  And Karla gave her first talk in Sacrament meeting.
She did such a good job, even though she was nervous.  JR is still
working at learning to read and he's improving!  And Aillene will be
moving home to her parents soon, who live kind of far away where there
is no church  :(  I hope she'll still be able to make it to church
every Sunday... I don't know how much choice she has though... that's
the only sad news.  But her testimony is still strong and she loves
the Book of Mormon.  They are all so wonderful!

Thanks so much everyone for your letters and prayers, I love you all!
Sister McClellan