hi po fam ko and
friends --
Well, I
turned 18 mission-months old this week! Oh man, I don’t know where the time
went. I feel like I was just an inexperienced young missionary only a few
months ago and now I am the oldie that's about to "die." Unfortunately,
everyone here keeps reminding me about this fact - haha. I have outlawed these hymns:
"the time is far spent," and "God be with you till we meet
again." My dad tells me that we use missionary jargon that may require
some definition. There is a missionary word called "trunky" which
means a missionary has her trunks packed and is ready to go home - emotionally. It
is generally a negative term because it means you don’t focus on the work anymore. We
are so busy I don’t have time to think about what is ahead of me .... I asked
sister Pal when my trunky day was and she told me it was on the 20th when I am by myself
in Manila waiting for the flight to Tokyo haha. But we have been very busy and the days and weeks seem to blur
together but it has been wonderful.
On Tuesday we
were in Naga for Mission Leadership Conference and at the end of the meeting President had those of us going
home share our testimonies. The missionaries that are going home with me are
all Filipino and there are 5 of us. The 2 elders are zone leaders and there are
3 Sisters – all of which are Sister Training Leaders (Responsible to work with
a regional group of female missionaries). We all stood and shared our testimonies.
President had me go last which was a horrible idea. It was tough
listening to some of my closest friends share their simple words and faith and then for me
to try to speak without waterworks... I was able to keep it under control
luckily. Then at zone training all the new and departing missionaries
bore their testimonies. I remember all those months
ago struggling to piece together a scrambled-bad-tagalog testimony
and now, somehow through the process of time and constant effort, the words came naturally. My mom is
reminding me to talk slowly when I get home because Tagalog moves very quickly.
It is beautiful to look back on the way the Lord has helped me every day for 18
months. I prayed this morning thanking my Father In Heaven for the 18 months he
has given me here; for the hours and hours of studying and praying and the
tears and the struggle to learn a new language; for the people I have met and
the stories they now represent for me. I got a stack of Christmas cards from a
family in Goa this week - the perfectly cut paper shapes and the scribbled writing
of small children reminded me again of the joy I have found here in the work of
the Lord.
During one of
our exchanges we spent the entire day knocking on doors. This can
be incredibly exhausting but it is also enjoyable. People here open up to us
easily. They tell us of their trials and of the ways they know God. Each
person on this earth has a story and I love hearing these stories and seeing
how God is a part of all of our lives.
I have been
receiving a lot of really good advice about this time of transition. The most
common advice is to remember everything and to take it in and enjoy the
'lasts.' I was thinking about one of the classic FM 100 Christmas Songs "do
you see what I see?" Here is what I can now see and the things I want to
remember:
·
Being
the whitest, tallest, blondest person everywhere I go.
·
Being
called Joe,
·
The
looks on tiny children’s faces as the giant white lady passes by
·
The
small shops connected to houses that sell candies and chips
·
Fresh
bananas, mangoes and pineapple
·
Buying
groceries from the market,
·
The
rows of crates and barrels of vegetables and fruit
·
The
miles and miles of rolling coconut trees
·
The
woman on the side of the road holding the leash to her grazing caribou
·
Men
on the bus in worn shorts and flip flops with a well used machete around their
belt.
·
The
man with black hair to his shoulders that sells us quail eggs on the bus
·
Colorful canoes that
row up and down the rivers.
·
Walking
through the muddy rice fields
·
Always
having a minimum of three insect bites on my skin
·
The
shock of a freezing bucket shower in the early morning every morning
·
Always
carrying an umbrella
·
The
humble smiles and laughs of my friends
·
Teaching
by candle light
….and so much
more
I feel so
grateful for the hard and wonderful last 18 months of my life and for the way I
have come to know and understand my Savior and for the way I can step back and see how this has changed my life and the lives of people I love dearly. I am grateful for the Christmas
season and I am grateful to be here, teaching about my Savior. I know that this
gospel points us to happiness and joy. This
week we were asked the question: “what will you give for Christ? This is my
last full week in the Philippines. I hope I can reflect the light of the Savior
to his children that need him dearly.
I love you
all,
From the Pines,
Sister Meish
ps. start
looking for a place to hang the hammock up in the house... don’t worry Bug. I
bought another one so we can both swing together
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