Garbage and sewage and sweat oh my!

I love the Malaysians

Hello everyone!  Only 2 weeks left in the MTC! The one downside this week was that the Malaysia group left this week. They usually sneak me candy haha. Well this was a big week for me! We got to go out into the mission field for a day! They matched us up with missionaries that have been here a long time. And we got to go to the Manila mission which is mine! 

      It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. Me and my companion for the day went out and we rode on a tricycle to our area. It was an extremely hot day. We got out and started walking around. It was a dump, it's what the Filipino's call "squatters". Stacked houses of aluminum built on trash. Sewage flowing through the road. Like a slot canyon of houses and my feet would sink into ground, it was rubble and garbage. There were flies buzzing around my face and I can't describe the smell. Naked kids ran around. Zombie dogs were just roaming around the place and nasty cats looked like they were dead! There were countless roosters in cages. I asked Brother Handy, the companion I was with what they were for, because I saw them let the roosters run towards the other ones and then pull them back again. He said they do Cock fights every night for gambling purposes. Then eat them sometimes I guess. It was hard to walk cause if you looked up you would stumble over rubble or sewage but if you looked down, a power line would hit your head or an edge of a house. It was a maze!! I had no idea where we were going but he seemed to know. Many kids ran up to me and grabbed my hand and then put it to their forehead. It's a sign of respect and the kids were so cute!! They lived in this place and were extremely skinny yet smiled all the time!! I saw shirtless men smoking on their hammocks staring at me as we passed. Everyone was napping or sitting by a pile of food trying to sell it. It was like a jungle gym. SO many kids running around the corner chasing each other naked. Smoke, sewage, and sweat was all I could smell. Yet... We found people to teach!

 I walked up to this old man who was staring at me but like always as soon as we start to talk they just kinda look down or sideways. But we asked if we could share a message about God in his house. He said he was busy. "They are always busy", smoking and sitting doing nothing. But we promised it would be short. So he let us into his house. We had to climb this really old wood ladder leaning off the side of the house and we went up there and it was kinda just a floor, but he found some chairs and my companion said to me, "share with him something about God". So I said a couple basic phrases and he looked like he was starting to cry but he was still just staring at the ground. He said we could come back and that was awesome!! 

Later it started to rain.... Hard!! And that wasn't even as bad as when it stopped raining... When it stopped it turned into a steam room, and we began to be steamed. The sun started to dry up all the rain and we began get really sweating and it began to be crazy hot! I wished it was still raining. Anyways we talked to lots of people and it went well. We talked with a recent convert we ran into. A ten year old girl who is so sweet! But very shy. 

People were smoking on the side of allies with pipes. On our way out we saw a bunch of people yelling and running around. All these guys were stabbing into the ground with big poles! There was a giant snake down in the creases. I don't know what this place is yet, but I'm know this where God wants me to be. I saw God's love through the kids running up to me and the old ladies smiling and laughing when I would speak to them, they get a kick out of me speaking Tagalog. I even saw one butterfly. I love these people and I love where I am.

Love,
Elder Roberts

Good friends, Sister Koi from Fiji, Sister Ngakuru from New Zealand, and Elder Roberts squared

My Malaysian buddies

Note my hair goes over not up. . . I guess you could call it a part