Have I really lived in the Philippines for 1 month

Dear Family,

Time is flying by for me.  It feels like I just emailed you yesterday and now I have another P-day.  Its crazy I have really been living in the Philippines for a month now.  It still sometimes amazes me that I am on the other side of the wold learning a language I never knew existed before.  Its so cool!

Haha one thing I definitely need to learn more about is the culture here.  I am so ignorant.  For example we were tracking at night because a family we were suppose to teach couldn't hear our "AYOs" (that is how you let people know you are at there house, there is no knocking or door bells), because it was so loud, which is normal here.  Anyways so we were talking to these people about how we have a message about Jesus Christ, and as soon as we said that they were like sit down join us.  In my mind the whole time I was like this is great they are so interested.  Then after we left I was talking to Sister Davis about it, and she said "Ya they weren't very interested, it probably isn't worth returning." What? Haha I am still use to america culture...

Another really cool thing that happened this week was something one of our investigators did.  John Paul, who is 13 and scheduled to get baptized on March 22 rode his bike for an hour to get to church because his father has been sick all week and so their family had no plete (that is the word for money you use for transportation.)  I was so amazed.  He is such a good example of the importance of coming to church!

One cool thing that makes me feel like I definitely fit in here is everyone loves basketball.  Every night there is a game around where we teach, and every night the place is full to the brim.  It is just like a junior high level game too.  But everyone gets so into it and is so loud the whole time.  Its like a Utah State game crowd excitement, with a less amount of people.  One time these kid asked us if we want to play, we didn't, but I did shoot the ball really quickly.  I air balled it... I am blaming it on the fact that I was wearing a skirt rather then the fact that I haven't played in a very long time

Anyways I love it here, I hope you are all happy and your lives are wonderful!

Sister Hancock