Also no one has gotten Dengue fever in my area before so I'm safe for the next couple months.
In the Manila MTC I did buy the easy-soft rubber shoes that everyone talks about and they're literally the greatest things ever. They're actually really comfortable and light so they're super nice. There is four beds in my apartment but there's only two of us so we just have extra beds. It's funny because I was actually talking with some filipino Elders and they said that they actually hated the apartment I'm in. Their main thing was just that it smells because we have a river right outside of our house and every river in the city is just filled with trash so they actually do smell really bad, but I personally can't smell it in the balay so I think our house is great. Elder Clegg was explaining to me but apparently filipinos are really picky with where they live which I totally thought it'd be the Americans that'd care more so that was interesting. And ya we can't really use hot water to do dishes because we don't have any hot water period so ya that's not happening.
Last Pday we went to Museo Sugbo which was pretty cool. It's a museum about the history of Cebu. So I guess Sugbo is actually the original name of the island but when the spanish came they asked a person who was just walking by what the name of the island was. They of course didn't understand and they thought they were asking what he was carrying, so he responded with what he was carrying... Zebu, or dried fish oil. So that's how they got the name Cebu.
So as far as getting a hair cut, Elder Stastny wanted to get haircuts at the MTC before leaving and so I went with him and then one of the filipinos working their called me over to get a hair cut and then ya so I got a hair cut. We do have a church building, I haven't taken a picture of it yet so you'll just have to wait for that.
For emailing we just go to little internet shops. It's like 18pesos for and hour so its alright. I think we can print things off at the shop but it costs more money so we generally try not to have to print a ton of things off.
So here in Sikatuna we generally just walk in the streets. Either the side walk is too small or people just extend their balay onto the side walk, so it's easiest just to walk in the street. It's actually pretty great because you just walk across any street whenever and where ever. You just kind of wait until there's a break and then walk. Generally there's not a moment where you can cross the street all at once so you kinda just cross frogger style and just keep moving through the lanes, waiting for cars to pass by, and then moving into the next lane. It's awesome. It's actually pretty safe too, since everyone does it, all of the cars and motorcycles expect it so they just kind of serve around you.
I think I've been blessed pretty much everyday since I've been here. And i mean like blessed by kids. So like there's like this respect thing where if there's an older person like a tatay or nanay (it's like dad or mom but like older so more for like a grandparent but since they're not your grandparent you don't say lolo or lola) then you take their hand and then put it up to your forehead. We live like right next to a school so we walk past kids everyday and ya there's always a couple that take our hands and bless us.
For language study Elder clegg kinda just helps me out with whatever I feel like I'm struggling with most at the time. Sometimes we just take a picture book of mormon that's in english and then take turns translating it into bisaya.
For lessons we have probably taught out of the english book of mormon as much as we have taught out of the bisaya book of mormon. It just depends on the people we teach. A lot of people in the city speak pretty good english and think the english one is easier to read so we just use that.
Right now we only have a few new people that we've been teaching because in the city we really have to work mostly through referrals because on the streets and stuff everyone is too busy to talk. Last night was cool because we had recently taught a former investigator who pretty much never progressed because he felt like there was no reason to give up smoking and that there were no health problems or anything wrong with it, and we shared Alma 32:27-29 with him and just asked him to try pretty much. We went and visited him last night and he was out smoking in front of his restaurant. When we started talking with him though he apparently used to smoke like 3 packs a day (about 60 cigarettes) and now he said he's been able to smoke only 3 or 4 times a day so he's improving and actually trying. He's been taught all of the lessons like 3 times so this was huge. We decided to all just share about family history with him because he had never been taught about it before. He was actually reeeeally into it. He was super excited about it and he actually wants to come to church this sunday to meet the ward family history consultant. I don't think he's ever come to church before either so that's really exciting!
This area is great, I absolutely love the people here.
Amping!
Elder Shirley
Cebu Temple
FHE at the Osumo's house with 2 other District Leaders after District Leader Council
Fish tank outside of our balay
Member's dog begging for food