I love the Filipinos they are the sweetest most kind people they're so welcoming so receptive and they're always willing to help other people around them and they're always giving you food always giving you food every house you go to there's some sort of snack or full-on meal if they can they just they love to help other people that are so generous even though they have so little they because they have so little when they have they give what they have they give to other people and they're just so concerned about you and they're so cute they're so shy they are terrified to speak English and mess up but they they're so friendly especially to Americans they love Americans they love the white skin the different hair colors they're fascinated by freckles I don't know how much now like because Americans have been there for a while but they're just they're so cute and friendly I love them so amazing definitely like one of the best parts of the mission is getting to know the people and the culture there and really embracing the culture that's there because I feel like sometimes it's easy to just want to like no I have my culture you have yours and try to keep yourself separate but I personally loved that my chain there was like no you need to really try to adapt to our culture and like try to take on our culture and I think that helps me a lot because I understood my investigators at a deeper level and I was able to help them more because I was willing to really understand and live the way that they lived the Filipinos and their culture I I love the the culture in the Philippines the the first thing everyone says and it's true is that they are happy people they smile even though they have a there are a lot of people with a lot of problems they know how to smile they know how to laugh they know how to keep pushing on through without you know just complaining and that's something you learn quick as a missionary and you learn from their example is you know you're thinking all you know it's hot this is hard at another language and you learned that you can do hard things and still be happy and still enjoy yourself that's something I love about the Filipinos is their ability to laugh and the smile it's unlike any any other people I know they can just smile no matter what situation they're in another thing I love is they're very just a very welcoming people they treat you you know you could something that's nice about the Philippines is you don't have to attract in the sense where you go knock on doors and say hi I'm no there Peck I'm a missionary from the church you just walk on the streets and you can just talk to people you can say how was your day how's your family and just start conversations with someone you don't know and it seems like after a minute you can feel like you've been friends for a long time they just are very open you can ask them things you know that people would think you're crazy in America you can know someone for a minute and ask how many kids they have and what their kids are doing and where they live and who their mom is and who that is and what they like and what they do in life you know you can get to know someone very quickly and it's awesome you know here in America sometimes I wish that we were more open just saying hey what's up who are you where are you from what do you like to do unfortunately we don't do that quite as much here but the Philippines you really can talk with anyone and I love that they're just a welcoming people I also love just the faith or the Filipino people how they're able to kind of like I said get through hard times and do a heart of things knowing that they will make it and believing in God believing in his hand to be there to help them and they have the faith to make that happen it's a country where you can promise someone that if they do something they'll get the there were those blessings and they will get those blessings because they'll do it they'll have their faith they'll make big sacrifices that something else is about Philippines they'll they'll sacrifice so much for you they want to make you feel at home so when you're visiting members or even people you don't know who just recognize you as someone visiting and a servant of God bill you know they'll give you the food they had for their family and they'll put it in front of you and make you eat they won't give you the choice they'll they want you to feel at home they want you to feel comfortable and it's incredible to see how much they are willing to give up for for us as missionaries and for other people they have charity in that sense unlike really anyone else I've known so I really love that the Filipinos are so giving there's anything I've learned from the Filipino people it's friendliness they're really friendly really friendly sometimes overly friendly like you're walking down the street anybody will be eating like if you see someone eating while you're walking down the street they'll call out with you on that counter they want you to come eat with them thank you just be polite mm-hmm that's a game of it but they're very friendly um everyone says hi everyone greets you they're smiling all the time so yeah just learn how to be friendly because the Filipino people are friendly Filipinos are so friendly and so loving like they are so kind and so welcoming it was such a different culture than I was used to here in America and it surprised me at first how willing people were to talk to us to let us into their homes and to feed us they're so polite if you go into their house and they're eating they will offer you whatever they're eating just because that's the nature of their culture they're also very sensitive and can sometimes be easily offended but they always do everything to try to like save face so they will to let you know that they're offended and they'll kind of like closed off from you and that's that's just kind of their culture so you have to learn to be sensitive to that and just love them despite that difference because I feel like here in America we're very straightforward we're very direct and sometimes if you're like that with the Filipinos they get offended because they're not used to that directness and their culture because they are so coy and so formal with each other but I love Filipinos they're so funny they have this this really funny sassy sense of humor that it tastes a little bit understand and to like find that their jokes are funny but after you start to understand it they are hilarious and they'll make you laugh and they love making people laugh so that's great the culture is great the Filipinos are the best I think in the world they have because they're third world country they're very humble and very nice and because they're also humble and they live in such humble circumstances they're willing to share the world with you and even though the world may not seem like a lot to somebody coming from out of their country it's a lot to them one of the cultural things is Filipinos will never eat the last thing on the plate like if you have a some food out they'll never eat the last rice they'll always leave it for somebody else because they're caring and they're thinking of others same thing if you come into their home and you look thirsty even if they don't have like juice or something they'll go out and buy some juice with like whatever they have and share it with you they're just they're the nicest people there they're an Asian country so of course they have a lot of respect to their elders and I've got a lot of that Asian culture but they're also third-world so they're very very humble and very respectful and all they do they're just the nicest people ever you you don't really get your door slammed in your face ever because they're so nice you will have people turn you down and especially in the city it gets a little bit more people are a bit more busy so they're a little bit more edge and they're a little bit more harder to get into the home but with Filipinos you almost always get a first appointment like when you knock doors you almost always be able to walk in there the problem is the second and third time they are so concerned about your feelings and how you feel they don't want to turn you down so they'll either just hide or avoid you and try to like not make contact rather than tell you upfront like hey we're not interested in the gospel right now they'll just be like oh yeah that's cool but I got to go to my grandma's or whatever and they'll make excuses they'll be very polite so sometimes you have to kind of feel that out and kind of feel where they are and just kind of understand where they're coming from because they're they're too nice to say no basically they're just really happy that can be a really good thing for missionary work because sometimes like they're just so like easygoing that when you set appointments you can Co and you can have those appointments in they're great but sometimes that becomes a bad thing because then they commit like if you ask them like Oh will you read the book of one and they'll be like yes of course I'll read the book of Mormon you're the best don't read everything and then you come back the next day you're like so did you read and they're like oh I totally didn't and they're just committing basically to help please you and help you feel better about yourself not because they're actually committed to doing anything which is very nice and very polite but also kind of what makes it a little bit harder to read them and understand where they're coming from and their point of view so it's they're really nice really good people but sometimes you just got to work with them and kind of beef just straight and be like hey look we know like your person you have feelings how do you feel about this and they'll be honest they're really nice like I said no I've literally seen Filipinos like stop what they're doing and come help the missionaries a lot of times they'll get people who don't even know you out in the countryside and they'll be writing you'll be walking down a long country lane trying to get to your next appointment somebody would pull over and elders jump and you're like all right so you get on their little farm tractor or whatever it is they're driving at the time and then yes I'm like so are you a member like how did you know well there's like none of them the others just taught me once back like four years ago and they were really nice so say guys walking I thought it's too hot to walk huh and like they're just super nice that way so super super hospitable in all ways possible you know the Filipino people are do not rich by any stretch of the imagination and they don't have much they have their family and their health and a job that'll give them just enough food for the day and so like being around that for two years it really humbled me in you know how much extra crap we have and you know how unnecessary so many things are and so now looking back at it you know since being home I found that personally just like my budgeting skills are better than they were before my mission where I would just buy stuff to buy stuff and now I kind of look at it and say well is it necessary or is it you know I want and you know that's a huge life lesson that those people were able to teach me just being generally humble in both personality and in like living within my means are huge lessons that they taught me one of my favorite things about the Filipino people is that when you're walking down the street and you say hi to somebody they respond immediately without even thinking here if you go walk on campus at BYU even and you say hi to somebody they might like look up at you and smile but you know they might think you're a little weird for you know trying to start a conversation or something but in the Philippines it's just you know normal friendly thing is you just talk to people you just say hi or you just ask them where they're going or like and it's not rude it's just you know being a friendly neighbor and being concerned for your fellow man I guess so that's one of those things that I still catch myself thinking all the time like as I'm walking on campus I'll think in my head like good morning or good afternoon and I'll think it and fill up you know and I'll just kind of laugh to myself because you know if I was there I'd probably say it but here I huh I it's just a little bit different maybe I should start doing it the culture is extremely different from American culture I learned that really fast the first time I noticed that probably is well in the MTC they teach you you don't just knock on the door like any normal missionary would you just stand out like let's say there's a fence or something you stand outside and this is what everyone does they just yell Tao pull and it's just a towel means people and such a respectful way of bicycling topo2 out for people people and you wait for them to come outside and then I'll say so you know again and then that just means who who's that who's there and you just tell them over missionaries and one thing I just adore about the Filipinos is their even though they're really shy they're shy to like meet new people or they're shy and sometimes in conversation but they're not shy when it comes to eating you'll walk by a group of people or a family eating dinner outside or whatever meal and they'll say my sister's cutting tayo which means coming and they'll just keep like being super persistent like coming it could mean we're like no really we just ate fine and like now come on come eat at sister's come on and I love that because that just shows like how much they really love and their fellow beings it wasn't just with missionaries they would say that to anyone where if we come in to teach a lesson and part of the families eating dinner still where we're gonna go teach an investigator they would say that they're like Oh sisters cotton tayo we're like we're gonna teach it's fine and so I love that about them and one thing you don't do definitely when you're sitting and eating dinner if they offer you more just accept it they love it when you eat even if it seems like there's just a little bit of food there they're very big on hospitality and giving that's what they're really known for is their love and their charity towards other people and so definitely just accept it and thank them so much for the generosity you'll come across a lot of different holidays in the Philippines they are predominantly Catholic country so there's a lot of Catholic traditions that they follow you'll see a lot of Saints everywhere obviously as a missionary you won't be able to participate and things like that but it's just neat you'll be educated on that you'll see some things probably that you wouldn't expect like we would see parades all the time of just a ton of people walking with like candles and I'm like what is what is today what's so special about today and it's some like Catholic holiday or something and let's see Christmas oh my goodness Christmas is huge so Christmas don't even plan on buying food that whole week because they just feed you you walk around on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day even New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and we'll get to that later but it's just so much food and it's it's just so funny because like there's such small little people and they're so skinny that you wouldn't expect them to like and just be so obsessed with food but it's everything to them and so on Christmas I remember we would hop around our president told us to just go and kind of meet members meet new people you know try to use the food aspect as a way to get into people's houses and get to know them help them feel comfortable with missionaries and so I just felt like I ate so much that day I probably gained like 12 pounds and one day we could go house to house and because they're so generous they're like oh sisters we save the best or Oh come eat this come eat that and it was so fun because you're just going around meeting new people that you've never met before and yet they're inviting you into their houses like coming eat with us Oh how's your Christmas and we'd offer to share a message after and they loved it they absolutely loved it and except for sometimes they'd be drunk and then you kind of really share a message because they were just partying for New Year's Eve in New Year's you're not gonna get any sleep especially if you're in the city like I was because there are fireworks everywhere it's so fun and I remember so the the bedtime is 10:30 but we didn't get to sleep probably two like two or three in the morning and even then you could still hear like fireworks in the background and that's just another experience a tradition that they have and they'll go and do fireworks until the point like where they're like getting hurt like we saw this one guy he like did fireworks and it shot into this person's house and then the next thing we know like five minutes later there's an ambulance coming and they haul people out and we're like oh my gosh and those just right across the street from us so you'll get fun experiences like that too okay so it's a little different than other missions cuz you're sweating all the time it's humid and I know as sisters we like to look our tip-top best all the time and it's good to try and look good obviously but I wouldn't worry too much about full-on makeup and just something simple because it will end up melting off your face by the end of the day you'll sweat it off pretty much and your hair is gonna be crazy no matter what they have something called rebonding in the philippines that chemically straightened your hair because it just like turns into a frizz Bahl and just put your hair up you'll rather have it up to keep you cooler and clothes wise so this is where I've heard a lot of contradicting opinions before my mission a lot of different sisters tell me like over this for this it really is up to you I've heard cotton is good because it's more breathable but it also when you sweat it just stays it doesn't dry off of cotton until you take it off and so I didn't like that personally there are some days I prefer to wear cotton but it's hard because you just feel wet all the time another one I liked a lot of sheer things so I'm trying to think I don't know how to explain shear just you know sheer material and the problem of that is it's see-through so if you could find something I went to the sister missionary mall and I got stuff that weren't as see-through which was really nice and but share material is nice because the sweat just rolls right off and so it's not staying on you the only problem is that does feel a little bit tighter and so sometimes you might feel a little bit hotter learning that skirts be careful your skirts I had moments on my mission where I got like really light skirts because as like oh okay it's gonna be hot so lighter skirts are good no they're not because there are what are called storms or Baguio is that the Philippines and the wind will just come and lift your skirt up it happened me a couple times and that was pretty uncomfortable I had to throw those skirts away um let's see yeah you want probably about calf length skirts anything higher than that I know it can be to the knee but you have to take in consideration that you're gonna be writing on jeepneys and tricycles and so when you do that and you're climbing in the Jeep knees and stuff if you bend over it it like goes up higher and you can see stuff so I was always most comfortable with calf length skirts and then as for shoes when you're proselyting depending on what mission you go to even in the city I preferred to wear rubber shoes so anything from like good ballet shoes from Crocs that those were my favorite because they're breathable you don't some sisters wear stockings or like socks I didn't like that just because it's really really hot in your feet smell awful by the end of the day but rubber shoes are really good and you need to bring other shoes that are good for them like conferences because you'll have General Authorities like apostles coming and speaking to you so I had a pair of nice like leather shoes and those are actually nice sometimes during the rainy season because your feet do get kind of cold when they get wet so a good place for that would be next to the missionary mall I got my shoes there and there's a shoe store I think to the left of it and those lost I mean my entire mission even when dogs came and ate them up and they were really useful let's see one of their tips bringing a lot of mosquito repellent sisters tend to get eaten a lot more than elders do I don't know why that is but yeah your mosquitoes will definitely attack you and I think that's it