Wow...
What a week it has been, it's has only been a few days and it is so epic here on the Isle of Man. Unfortunately my camera's battery is dead, it's really annoying me. But I'll tell you some more things about the Isle of Man, it really is the most Coveted area of this mission and this week I found out why. Just a few things to describe how my week was. First of all, the Isle of Man is a Phillipino haven, second, almost 50% of the island has no speed limit (when you see the national speed limit applies sign, the one with the white circle and a black line going diagonally across it means, go as fast as you want!) and thirdly, the Isle of Man culture is just amazing! They even have their own money, it's really pretty.
Seriously...I'm going honeymooning here, it is just so beautiful! Not that I'm thinking about that (again) but, it is undescribable. Okay here's a picture I want you to think of, it's on my camera with no battery life which consequently wont plug into the computer. The Isle of Man has some really, really, really low clouds. What I mean is that, on some parts of the Island where I would be driving, it looks like the Island is just floating above the sky. The clouds get really low. There is a mountain road connecting the north of the Island to the South, we live on the south of the Island and we had to drive home using this mountain road. The scary part was... I was driving through actual cloud mingled with fog. It was the thickest fog I've ever had to drive through, it was so scary and exciting, and the mountain road doesn't have any speed limits and one wrong turn and you will be flying through the cloud off of a cliff. There is never a dry moment here.
Why I say it is a Phillipino haven, is that you wouldn't expect it, but there is a HUGE Phillipino community here, the biggest I've seen outside of Phillipines itself. They have their own Basketball league, their own Churches, half of the people who we speak to on the Island are Phillipino, everyone on the Isle of Man has a Phillipino friend, I've never spoke more Phillipino than here, this even exceeds the amount of Phillipino I speak on holiday to Phillipines aswell. All the Phillipinos here know each other, I asked one on the street the other day: alam mo pinoy sa area nito? (which means: do you know any Phillipinos in this area?) and he led me 1 minute away to where one lived, and then you ask the next one if they know a Phillipino and he leads you to one aswell. There are some Phillipino investigators here already, and my vision is a Phillipino speaking Branch in the North of the Island. I've never seen so much Phillipinos outside of the Phillipines in one area. My mission president probably didn't know that he was sending his one and only Phillipino missionary to the highest populated area of Phillipinos in one area, revelation at its finest!!!
I've got no complaints about anything, in some areas the shower isn't good, in some areas the travel time is no good, in some areas people are very cruel to the missionaries, the Isle of Man is perfect! Something else I liked was this last Sunday, yesterday. The Douglas Ward ward pianist has been sick for a while now, so it was the first sunday that they were able to have a Pianist. They said "I've never heard that Piano played so loud", "That first hymn really woke me up!" and words to that effect, I sure love playing piano, if you play loud, people sing loud. There is always a balance, but Playing the piano at Church for however long I will be here will be so fun!
This week on the Isle of Man was the TT races, or in other words a lot of tourists come to see a bunch of motorcycles go round the whole Isle ridiculously fast. I got to go on the TT race track aswell. I was fun in a car, I overtook a bunch of Motorbikes and only one managed to re- overtake me. The Car is now called Kathy. She is just a miracle maker, I've gotten used to the Automatic drive, to be honest I think I prefer the Automatic feel than to the Manual feel now. I'm in love with Kathy. One thing I love is that we are always busy here on the Island, we are finding a lot of people and going through some investigators that were taught in the past, especially the Phillipino ones. There is also a bunch of Phillipino shops here aswell. This week I'll think of challenging them to a game of Basketball, if I win they have to listen to our message.
We live like 5 minutes away from the beach, it is so gorgeous! The Isle of Man is just on a higher plane, it has Towns, which have a City feel and it has Villages with a Country feel, it's quite it's own Country. Driving through Douglas (the main town, where we shop and e-mail and go to Church) is like driving through a normal city, it took us half an hour to find one parking space for us! It is just the most exciting time of my life so far here on the Isle and well I apologise again for my Camera battery being dead.
Love,
Elder Sapaden
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