Week 5: Snow Much Sadga (Fun)

Kamusta pamilya kag mga abyan (family and friends),

Ini simana, may damo nga nieve kami (this week, we have a lot of snow). Pero, may damo nga sadga man (but, we had a lot of fun too)! 

[Abaw (Wow), I was matugnaw gid (so cold)]

Being a Cali girl it's been interesting for me to be in weather that is so cold that my feet feel frozen (Elza is Frozen haha), but honestly it's another part of God's creations that I really learned to appreciate. Even though I really don't see myself living in a place that snows in the future, I am such in awe at how beautiful snow is! Also my companions crack up and laugh so hard every time I slip because of the snow. In other news, I think I'm forgetting how to English. I never thought that forgetting how to speak English would be a good thing but it just shows how invested I am in learning Ilonggo! It's really funny actually because my companions are learning Tagalog and so it's just a mix of Tagalog/Ilonggo on a daily basis. Also in class, I frequently accidentally say words in Tagalog because my companions speak Tagalog and also because my mom usually e-mails or sends me letters in straight Tagalog.. so yeah it's been interesting! 

Sige, seguro ini simana ang favorito ko (this week was probably my favorite) so far!

[Me and the Tagalog district!]

Saturday - 

This day was ayos lang (just okay) at first. I was feeling a little discouraged about a lot of stuff but one of my classmates was very encouraging and told me that everything happens for a reason. I knew that that was exactly what I needed to hear because I was reminded that God doesn't give us anything we can't handle! The day ended well because I was just so happy to be healthy, haha!

[Mga Kaupod ko (my companions) and we're literally chillin']

Sunday - 

I absolutely LOVE Sundays. I feel like last week I was just like not trying my hardest (probably because I was weak/sick) and it just wasn't as fulfilling as the times where I work the hardest I can. However on this day, my class and I discussed how this week we really want to work hard, so we chose the Christlike Attribute of Diligence to concentrate on. Then, we had the president of the MTC (the person the runs the place where I am training for my mission) speak to us about missionary work. I really enjoyed what he spoke to us about because I learned how as I'm out on my mission, I may not always see the effects of what I do, but I will affect more people's lives than I think. It made me understand the importance of telling everyone I come into contact with about what I believe in and also how I should try to help everyone I can with anything that they need. After we had choir practice and I always love going to choir as you all have noticed in my previous e-mails haha. This day we practiced a church hymm called "Praise to the Man" and abaw (wow) even though we are not professional singers, we always seem to sound like really good!

[Studying in the warm building lol]

Monday - 

This day I learned the importance of how when I teach people, I need to understand who they are as a person (beliefs, what they love, what they dislike) and really care about them. So basically I need to be a friend to the people that I teach. It's not enough to just tell people about my church when I don't even know who they are and what they are passionate about! Later in the day the Elders from my class and I started an "English Fast" and so basically we spoke as much Ilonggo as we can for 24 hours. It was really hard at first because we aren't fluent yet, but it did push us to use what we know and search up words we don't know. 

Tuesday - 

On this day, I spoke only Ilonggo until 6pm! I found it most difficult during meals because the people learning Tagalog don't understand me, haha! Oh yeah and then ELDER HOLLAND WAS OUR DEVOTIONAL SPEAKER THIS EVENING. Elder Holland is an Apostle of my church and basically speaks to many people about who Jesus Christ is and what He did for us! It was such a spiritual-filled day. When he spoke to us it just made me realize how I cannot afford to waste a day on my mission. I need to make everyday count! Just like in high school when I played basketball, I couldn't afford to slack off a second I was out on the court. I also realized that before I teach anyone about anything, like having faith in Jesus Christ for example, I must have experienced it for MYSELF first. Another thing that he said that really stuck with me was that I should "start out my mission with the end in mind." I need to imagine how amazing I'll feel when I come home having served other people for 18 months!

[Manami (Beautiful)]

Wednesday - 

Something I was struggling with lately was waking up, I literally feel so tired every morning. Lowkey missing how when I was in Isolation, I had the opportunity to sleep for the whole day. Joke lang, pero indi joke lang (just kidding but not really), haha! I hope I never get into Isolation again. Anyways, my family and my college roommates know this about me that it's SO HARD to wake me up. I'm the type of person that wakes up and then says" few more minutes please." Haha, yeah it's been a struggle pero I've been doing better and getting up right away has been so much easier than staying in bed for a couple minutes so that I can try to get only a couple minutes more of sleep. 

[Me and one of my companions, Sis. Holman]

Thursday - 

This day they gave Pho for dinner! I know that's something really small to get excited about but I really missed Pho, haha. I think I lost a lot of weight being here because I'm not eating rice 3 times a day with Filipino food. Haha, I've noticed that almost every e-mail I talk about food. Oh and speaking of food, I learned that there are EIGHT TYPES OF RICE in the Ilonggo language. 

Different types of rice:

1. Kan-on: cooked rice
2. Bugas: raw (dry) rice
3. Bahaw: day old (cooked) rice
4. Talamnaw: growing rice in a wet field
5. Humay: growing rice in a dry field 
6. Dukot: burnt rice in the bottom of the pan (MY MOM'S FAVORITE! HAHA)
7. Kala- kalo: fried rice
8. Puto: rice cake

Overall, it's been a good week. I am trying to not forget English, but I think it'll be fine haha.

Hope you are all doing well and continue to do well in everything y'all do!

P.S. I have some never before seen deleted-scenes in my blog. Joke lang, pero I'm just promoting my blog and I have some videos on there (Check blog post from Feb 16, 2018) 😊

Damo nga Palangga (Much Love),

Sister Ventura

Send me an e-mail: 

elza.ventura@myldsmail.net 

Written letters and packages: 

Sister Elza Ventura 

Philippines Iloilo Mission 

Osmeña Street, 

Arevalo, Iloilo City, 

5000 Iloilo 

Philippines

*Some names have been changed or omitted to protect the privacy of individuals.