1st week in Paradise

Man I cannot believe it's only been a week since I wrote you last! It feels like it's been FOREVER. Probably because my life has changed drastically in that week. 

So first I want to address not being able to call everyone from the airport! It made me SO SAD but something happened and we were literally running across the airport to get to our connecting flight on time. And then we got to Tokyo and I could not for the life of me figure out their phones. Japan was so cool!!! I definitely want to go back someday. The people were super nice. Tell Gary I didn't have time to eat Sushi and it made me cry a little bit on the inside. I also didn't use the toilet but I got a picture of one!

So I guess I'll start with our trip to the mission home. It was an adventure for sure. One of many that I've already had here. So we got to the Laoag airport and the President was there waiting for us. Then we all piled into Jeepneys to ride to the mission home. They took our luggage in a flatbed truck. Mid-ride it started POURING rain. All our stuff was completely soaked but it was so much fun. Welcome to Laoag! Then we got to the mission home and the power went out almost immediately. They fed us "Mcdonalds" (or so they called it) and it was grand. 

I am convinced that rural Laoag is the most beautiful place on earth. The city (where most of my area is) is rather dirty but the rural areas are absolutely amazing. Part of our area is way out in Lagui. There are TONS of rice fields and also TONS of less actives out there. So I sense a service project may be in order!

The people are SO NICE. They seriously will listen to you and be polite to you just because they're awesome. It's amazing because they literally have nothing, yet they want to give you everything. They are such spiritual people but they have a hard time keeping commitments. I think a big part of it is the relaxed way of life here. 

So the biggest adjustment so far has been the people staring at me. It is so strange. To paint a picture for you: imagine yourself walking down the busiest street in Phoenix and every single person you pass immediately stops what they're doing and stares as you walk past. There are lots of pros and cons to this. Obviously it's a good thing because people actually want to talk to us and are more than happy to let us share a message with them. The problem is that often they are more interested in us than in our message. For example, we were in the middle of a lesson and we were trying to feel the Spirit and everything and all of a sudden we heard the camera on the girl's phone go off. She took a picture of us in the middle of the lesson! Haha especially in the rural areas I think that we may be the first white people a lot of them have ever seen. So it's kind of fun, but also just super weird to adjust to. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's funny because I feel like I have never been uglier in my life but I also have never been told I'm beautiful so many times every day as I have here. So it's a strange phenomenon.

We ride tricycles pretty much everywhere. That's an experience. I don't really know how to describe it. You should Google it if you can.

I've kind of accepted the idea that bugs will be all over me and all my things always for the next 17 months. I've found the trick is just to not look and try to figure out what it is. Just accept that there is a creature and it is crawling on your things and then move on with your life. We have a serious ant problem in our apartment so they're kind of everywhere, always. I don't think they've bitten me yet though. I use that OFF spray all the time.

We're not going to talk about the bucket showers or the bathroom situation. We're just not. It's too soon. Maybe I'll be able to talk about it a little further down the road once I've really embraced it. 

My mission president is absolutely amazing. He and his wife take good care of us. There are 158 missionaries in our mission. There are 64 sisters and of those 64, 27 are foreigners. So we have some good diversity!

My trainer! My trainer's name is Sister Webb. Get this: SHE'S FROM ARIZONA. She went to Highland High School! Mom, she knows who you are! How insane is that?? I come half way across the world and I get the one other girl that's also from AZ as my trainer. It's pretty awesome because she understands exactly what I'm going through with all the adjustments. 

We are opening a new area, so that's been interesting. They pulled out the elders and are putting in sisters now. The elders didn't leave us much of an area book so we're kind of going into this blindly. Luckily our ward members are absolutely fantastic. They are so willing to help us. It's funny they all guess that I'm 16. One particularly spunky less active woman said she thought "Why is she on a mission?! She's 16!" when we first walked in. 

So I would love to take pictures of all of these amazing things but everytime I turn on my camera it says "Error #E45. Please see owners' manual." Do you have the manual? Do you know how I can fix it?

Well I only have an hour to email but I love you all with all my heart! (ps my P-day is on Mondays here, which I believe is Sundays for you).

Mahal kita!

Sister Morris