Teaching in Tagalog.: What I Love About Serving in the Philippines....

Hello Po!!

Okay, so sorry if my last letter seemed to end abruptly but I thought I had 15 more minutes and I didn't! Also sorry I wasn't able to email yesterday but as you may or may not know there was a huge typhoon here!

This email is going to have to be short because I don't have a full 30 minutes like I normally do!

But let me just tell you some reasons I know I'm meant to be serving in the Philippines! (And these are in no particular order):

Crocs, Stocks, & Flops!! Those, as you all should know, are my favorite shoes to wear. Add in some cool socks and I'm one happy camper. While it may be too hot to wear socks here, all we ever wear are crocs, stocks, or flops! It's like footwear heaven!!

Music! So its totally normal to celebrate Christmas here from September to January!! And you know what that means... a very jolly Sister Miller!! Also on all of the jeepneys (like a bus) they blast 80's and early 90's rap music! I keep hoping to hear some Jurassic 5 or Salt n Pepa but no luck yet!

The People! Everyone here is so loving and kind....especially to me because I'm white!! It's funny because when we ride around in trikes (like a motorcycle with a side car we sit in) everyone just stares at me as we fly by. Sometimes I pretend I'm in a parade and wave and smile at the people. The best part is they all wave and smile right back!

Service! So with Typhoon Usagi hitting yesterday, all the missionaries went out and did service all day today. I helped clean up debris and clean up members homes. Our apartment was safe because we live pretty high up, but our teaching area was flooded really badly. We stayed in all day but members were texting us telling us the water was 8 feet in some areas!! I also love that we get to perform service on a day to day basis. I love loving the people and serving them!!

The Spirit! I know this isn't a Philippines specific one but I love always feeling the Holy Ghost with me. I know that without the Spirit that the people here wouldn't understand a thing that comes out of my mouth. Although my Tagalog is improving, I know that it is truly the Spirit that is doing the teaching.

I didn't know I would have the opportunity to email tonight so I don't have my camera stuff so next week you will get 3x the pictures!!! Look forward to that :)

Also I am going to try a new method of replying to emails where I print them out and then write my responses throughout the week. So you WILL get a response, it just may be a week or so before you get it.

I love you all and thank you for all the support I have received!

Sister Miller