I Ate Balut

Marhay na aga sa indong gabos!

I love my mission! The people! I can't describe how much I love the people who we are teaching! May masarap pakiramdam ako!

In the Philippines, we "bless" people we respect by grabbing their hands and pressing it to our foreheads. Basically anyone over the age of 50 or anyone who needs a blessing (they are sick, struggling, etc.) we press their hands to our forehead. Well-mannered children are taught to do it to everyone older than them. So little kids will grab my hand and press it to their forehead, and I really do feel so blessed. It's so cute.

Some kids intently reading their Books of Mormon

In our mission, you are disobedient if you don't bring an umbrella with you when you leave the apartment. The weather will change from HOT and sunny to drench-you-to-the-bone-and-flood-the-streets kind of rain within a few seconds. 

Here is a picture of my first time eating Balut (developed chicken embryo.) There are street vendors here who have baskets full of them, so we stopped and bought some. It just tastes like an egg but with feathers and veins and other weird textures. Other than that I haven't eaten anything strange. We just eat every part of the animals here. Like with chicken and fish you just pop it in your mouth and spit out the bones. If the fish is small enough, you eat the bones too. Fish heads aren't half bad. We eat crabs by breaking it with our teeth. I don't know if that is a universal thing because I'm not a frequent crab eater.

Anyway, I know that God lives. This is His work, and He is directing us. I feel His guidance every day.

Love you all!!

-Sister Gray