Language Craziness

Well. Another week. The time honestly goes so fast. I feel like nothing has happened since I last talked to you. BUT, I'm sure it was a great week! I just can't remember what happened haha.

We got rained on a whole lot, that's for sure! Yesterday, as we were headed up to Manlucahoc, we got ABSOLUTELY drenched sitting in the back of the truck of one of the councilors. It was actually kind of fun! But, boy were we drenched! So, yeah :)

This week has been a lot of preparation for the special sacrament we have been planning. Things are looking good! Earlier this morning we worked on the little canopy-thing that is next to Bro. Dellera's house, which will become our meetinghouse for the sacrament. We had to finish the rest of the roof and started making chairs on each of the walls made of bamboo. The whole time I was thinking, "man, I could make SO many longboards out of all this bamboo!" I am sure dad would have been thinking the same thing. They just have bamboo SITTING around here... It's one of the cheapest materials to build with here, so that's what we used. It's not finished yet, but it's coming along. I will be sure to try and take a picture next week for you all. It's really a must see.

So, I haven't told you much about my companion yet! Elder Averion is from Tarlac, which is in the northern part of the Philippines. The language there is Ilocano and it sounds like aliens talking. Even Elder Averion says that. He says when he's out in public, he speaks Ilocano with people, but when he's at home with friends or just his family, he speaks Tagalog because he doesn't like speaking Ilocano. That's basically how things work here. It seems so weird to me, but that's how it is here. I was talking with a member the other day and she said, "Yeah, even I sometimes can't understand everything people are saying in Ilonggo, even though I grew up here." The only studied languages here are English and Tagalog, so most often, Tagalog is the most "clear" language for people to understand, but not necessarily speak. Elder Averion can understand a little bit of English, but we just speak Ilonggo all the time. Sometimes my mouth gets a little tired, but that's okay. I am also learning Tagalog from him because it will help me out the rest of my mission, probably. If people talk at a normal pace, I can get the basic idea of what they are saying in Tagalog, but it's like I'm lagging behind a bit still. I'm still translating Tagalog to Ilonggo to English because Ilonggo is a lot closer than English. This area is basically the same as my first area because there is a lot of Cebuano here, except I can't get away with mixing as much English because I'm way out here in the mountains, so I have to learn a lot more of the vocabulary. Amat-amat lang ah. :) Elder Averion and most all of my companions read the Book of Mormon in English, but he still looks back and forth to his Tagalog copy for the words he doesn't understand and then writes them in or looks them up in his dictionary. If our investigators can understand English well enough to read, we just give them an English copy because all of the Filipinos say it's easier to understand. If they can't we recommend the Tagalog version over the Ilonggo version because it's a more studied language. If they are pretty old or live way far out in the mountains, we just give them the Ilonggo because that's usually all they will understand.

Talking about all of this language craziness here makes me so grateful to speak English. We are so fortunate to speak a language that is so established around the world, especially because we can understand the restoration so much easier. It's so hard to get people to have personal experiences with the scriptures here because they can't fully understand it all the time! It really takes a lot on our part, as missionaries, to explain things so simply that they can't be misunderstood. It's a great experience because it teaches me how to become a much better teacher.

I finally got to see Meet the Mormons, I forgot to tell you about that! It was WONDERFUL. What kind of reaction was there after the movie was released? That's something I'm curious about.

Well, that's all! Have a great week!

Elder Welton

P.S. Sorry, no pictures... Nothing too noteworthy this week...