And God caused the rains to come upon Manila
Okay so - I've always seen on the news back home (whenever Mommy watched the Filipino channels) videos of places flooding here on the mainland. I didn't think it'd be possible...until this week. Our area FLOODS and I'm not even kidding. The pictures don't even do justice to what it was like. At one point Sister Pamesa and I had to cross the road to get to the other side and we got stuck in the middle of the road and we were freaking out (okay, I think it was just me) because the water was so dirty and I'm SURE that there was rat poop in that and all sorts of other gross things from city sewage...long story short, we got soaked by the rain, and I have officially experienced when the flood gates open here in Manila. Story for the keeps!
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Carol
I'm not quite sure how many times I've written home about Carol, let alone if I even have, but if I haven't it is because Carol's conversion experience is so sacred and so beautiful to watch that I don't know what to say about it. Carol is 28, Filipina, but was in New York for ten years for school, so she's basically American. She is dating one of the members in the 4th ward here and that was how she got introduced to the church. If I could apply the words "change of heart" to any of our current investigators, it might have to be for Carol. She has come a long ways and I cannot tell you how heartwarming it is to be a missionary and to watch these people change their lives.
We're not even doing any of the changing.
God is.
And it is beautiful to sit and watch His hand in their lives. Carol has a baptismal date for October 17, right before Sister Pamesa goes home. Let's help her get there!
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Jerry
Haven't talked about Jerry in a long time! His mother was just here in Manila (visiting from China) last week and so we weren't able to meet with him because he was spending time with her...BUT this man is hilarious! He took a sip of Chinese tea this past week, but not the kind of iced tea in a bottle that you get at 7/11. It was tea in one of those tiny little tea cups, you know, traditional Chinese style, and the poor guy drank it and only realized later that night when he got home...that small teacups of tea...is still tea! He honestly forgot at that time that he shouldn't have drank that. Ohhhhhh Jerry. He has a new date for October 17, too. Will keep you guys updated!
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African Time
Before coming here I knew that there was such a thing as "Filipina time," where everyone shows up about...an hour AFTER the agreed upon time? Yes. Okay. So I thought that Filipina time was as good as it got. Ha-ha-ha. Try African time! I say this with all love in my heart, though, so don't get me wrong! This last week we tried to pick up two new African investigators from Rwanda (Oliver and Justin) and had set a dinner appointment at a member's house for 6:30 pm.
They got there at 8:30 pm.
And the other African brother that had referred them to us (he has glasses in the picture) (he's a member) (his name is Samuel and he was baptized last December) even laughed about it and told us that African time is worse than Filipino time! That was something new I learnt this week! In the end all that Sister Pamesa and I could do was eat our dinner and then leave because we had to get home before curfew. Oh wellllll. We are going for round two this week because we set two more new appointments this week with them. Lets see how it goes :) I am so glad that I get to teach people from ALL AROUND THE WORLD!
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The First Chapel
The chapel where we currently meet at each Sunday - the Buendia chapel - was the first ever chapel to be built here in Manila. And there is something special about that chapel, I'm telling you. People flock to this building like I've NEVER seen in my entire life. Investigators just show up on their own (not kidding), our teaching pool right now is entirely made up of member referrals... I know that God blessed that building and that somehow, a special kind of spirit is leading people to it. And I attend six hours of church in it every SUNDAY! + + + + + + + + + +
The -BER months are here! And we are already almost halfway through September! I have no idea where the time goes. Some other miscellaneous things:
1) I am part of our mission's choir group that's going to sing on TV this Christmas season and Brother Tai (yes Mom, Eruption) said that he could try and put us on SHOWTIME?!??!?!?!? Not sure yet but that would be BIG if he did.
2) Yesterday at church (4th ward, expatriates), we had three celebrities in attendance. All three of them were members, too. Brother Tai, Sister Lawyer (Melanie Marquez's name), and then Jairus Aquino, whom I have never heard about but is apparently a 15-year-old celebrity. I think that the teenagers from the 3rd ward (Filipino ward) were a little too star struck!
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I love you all! I think I've been here long enough that sometimes members/investigators/strangers think that I am Filipina but has just lived abroad for too long because they can pick up that I don't sound like a native. I'd take that any day over all the "Are you Korean?"s that I get!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With love,
Sister Teo
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