Elder Tiegue Hennessey

This week was one of the longest weeks so far. I don’t even know why because it was a fun/ productive week, but it feels like forever since I've emailed. But I do have some cool little stories and 1 big news.

We were walking through a sandy part of our area after teaching some lessons and 4 guys came towards us, 3 of them had knives. They stopped before we got to them under a Mango tree where we all rested for a little bit (they weren’t gonna stab us or anything haha). They started looking around for rocks or broken pieces of cinder blocks to throw up into the mango tree to knock down the ripe mangoes. We soon joined them. Imagine that, 4 people in sandals and tank tops then 2 guys in white shirts and ties all hucking stones into the upper reaches of a huge punong manga. We figured that we could either spend 20 pesos a piece on soda and some chips or peanuts, or take the same amount of time and have some fun at the same time. I bet that never happened in any American mission field.

Later we sat down with a member outside with a bunch of other ladies who were paying one girl to do their toenails. Nanay Esperon was teaching me inappropriate Ilokano (old language of Philippines) haha when a lady joined us and shrieked as she sat down next to me. "She’s insane" said nanay Esperon to me. I thought to myself “Thanks for letting me know, but won’t she get mad for you calling her insane right to her face??" When we were all done, I went to shake everyone’s hands as usual, and out of politeness, I offered my hand to this ”insane" lady. As she grabbed it, she growled, put her war face on, bringing her other arm back and winding up to swing on me as she pulled me in. I got away super fast and put about 5 yards in between us right away cuz I was genuinely freaked out. After that we continued as normal.

Lastly we were teaching Brother Conrado and Eugene (who both have dates set for their baptisms on June 10!) when his wife speaks to Elder Dosdos in Bisaya (the Cebuano language). I only understand that they’re talking about a big delicious chicken. Later Eugene climbs in to a nearby tree and grabs the before discussed "big delicious chicken" and tatay Conrado ties his feet and wings and hands him to Elder Dosdos. They literally just gave us a live Chicken!!! We brought it home in a Jeepnee just like it was a perfectly normal thing to do. The next day we ate him for lunch. MASERAP!

And lastly there is a possibility of me being transferred to a different mission in another country because ISIS has entered the Philippines. Mostly they are in Mindanao but have also entered Luzon. I don’t know a lot of details because we don’t watch the news but my companion and 1 other elder in my house are from Mindanao. It is a very serious and scary thing because we don’t know how bad it is, or what even is happening exactly. We do know that Martial Law has been declared so basically that’s like war combat? Sorry I don’t know specifics, but just the fact that it’s so close is unnerving. We have been told not to go to the mall in the nearby city as it would be a possible bombing target if ISIS were to come this far north. Sooo please keep the people of Mindanao and the Philippines in mind and in your prayers that their families will not be separated or harmed.

Thank you all!!! Have a great week :)

Elder Hennessey

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