Broken Eggs

February 26, 2012

Friday was transfer day! This means lots of things changed. My former companion is now training (I'm so excited for her!) and I'm now in a new area! Kalibo 2nd Ward! My journey to Kalibo was interesting. I woke up Friday morning for a 2 hour ride into the city for the transfer meeting and then took a 4.5 hour bus ride out to Kalibo. It was so long. In addition, the road was too bumpy and curvy to read, so it felt even longer. But, despite the long ride, I survived and am now in Kalibo.

Kalibo is the northern-most part of the island, quite a distance away from Iloilo. This means (because we are in the Philippines) that they speak a different language! Isn't it so nice how you can drive for days across America and get out of the car and still understand people. I'm serious- I sat in a bus for four hours and it's a completely different language. Fortunately, they mostly understand Hiligaynon, so I can still teach, I just can't understand them. Either way, I've lost track of how many languages I've learned on my mission, so for those of you who remember, just +1 to my current number. I'm excited to learn Aklanon. The missionaries say it's way hard to learn, but the members tell me it is easy. I'm not sure if I'll speak it very well by the time I leave, but I hope I can at least understand it completely. The grammar structure seems the same, it's just another change of vocab. As a child, I always wanted to be bilingual, thought it would be sooooo cool to be tri-lingual, never imagined more than that. I feel so blessed for this opportunity to learn so many languages. Hopefully I can continue to keep them all separate in my head so and not forget any of them. It's really hard to speak just one language now, I can't do it at all with English, I'll start a sentence in English and finish it in something else. My sincerest (advanced) apologies for all of you who won't understand half of what I say when I get home.

Anyways, something interesting I learned the other day during my studies:

The past few weeks, I've been trying to develop more patience. The more I work on this, the more I realize that it will take much longer than a few weeks. I came across a conference talk that really helped me to see how I can be more patient. The talk is from October 2010 conference and is titled Rest Unto Your Souls by Per G. Malm. Near the end of the talk, he shares a story about his grandmother. She sent one of her kids to the store to buy eggs. The child walked to the store, bought the eggs, and walked home. With the neglect children typically show towards eggs, many of the eggs were broken by the time the return trip was completed. A visiting neighbor advised the grandmother to scold the child for not being more careful. But, responding as wise grandmothers typically do, she said, "No, that will not make the eggs whole again."

That line really hit me as I read it. As I looked back on moments that I felt I was being very impatient, I realized that my reaction did nothing to make the situation better. My attitude wasn't making the eggs whole again. I've decided to make that phrase- "No, that will not make the eggs whole again"- a part of my life. Hopefully, through remembering it, I can better control my reactions, only reacting in ways that can actually improve the situation.

Bukon, bukon imaw obrahon nga manging bilog ro itlog liwan.
isang pang wika bago umuwi ko!