When Language Fails

Magandang Umaga po sa inyong lahat!

This week we saw the full effects of the storm and the flooding that we had last week. When we traveled down to Naga this week for a meeting, the fields had turned into a small ocean for miles. 

As you can see in the picture, people are using canoes to get from place to place and have to wade through flood water to get food. We spent New Years Even preparing thousands of kilos of rice and canned goods for the families stranded because of the flooding. 

I thought I would give an update about the language because I haven't talked about it in a while. 

My trainee told me on the first day that she was so shocked when I would teach. She told me that when she felt the spirit in the lesson, flawless Tagalog would come out of my mouth. (Those are her words, not mine.) She was shocked because my conversational Tagalog was still struggling badly and I don't use memorized sentences for lessons. She was right about the spirit though. I try to let the spirit teach through me, and I dont even know if what I am saying is the correct grammar.  I do know for sure that my mouth is being filled and the people are understanding.  

But of course I have had some pretty bad language fails so I thought I would share those too:

When I first got here, I was learning a lot of new vocabulary, and I had heard someone use the word buntis (pregnant). So the next day I tried to describe one of our investigators who is pregnant to someone and while trying to remember the word I said "Bundok siya" which is "She is a mountain."  That's basically the same thing, right?

A few weeks ago, we were walking to a lesson, and I saw a person that we are teaching walking toward us, so I tried to greet him by asking "are you going home now?" = oowi ka na ba? but I pronounced it slightly wrong and said "aawi ka na ba?' = "are you going to sing now ?" He was VERY confused, and my companion was dying of laughter. 

This past week we were getting to know a family we are teaching, and the conversation turned to Bicol which is the other language spoken here. My companion asked what "spouse" was in Bicol. In my defense, there were a few people talking at once so when one of the members across the room asked me if I knew what "pangit" meant, I assumed we were still taking about Bicol. It sounded a little bit like the word for child in Bicol that I heard once, so I confidently answered "Anak."

Pangit isn't Bicol. It's Tagalog for "ugly" (which I totally knew. It was just a dumb moment! haha!), So  this is what happened:

"Sister Gray, do you know what ugly is?"

"Yes. Children"

I get to laugh about my language skills because I know that when language fails, love speaks through the Spirit to the heart of the recipient. I know that all my success with the language has been given only through the power of the Spirit. My tongue has truly been loosed, and therefore I have connected with many people and have been able to share the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Thanks for listening. Until next time!

-Sister Gray