Mabuhay San Clemente!

These are my favorite things about my 2nd area in San Clemente! This was my last day there before I was transferred to a neighboring town. Just about everybody came to say goodbye to me and it was a pretty emotional night. Someone had the great idea to play a "game" where you pass a ball around and say anything you want to say about me and then you pass the ball. I remember someone confessing that the whole time I was there they didn't understand what I said, they just nodded there head and pretended... haha thanks for telling me now! The worst was when they passed it around the Dela Cruz Family. Me and the Dela Cruz' are basically family because of their love and kindness they showed me. I hope I returned the favor to them. I was the missionary who got to witness their baptism as a family. We had a lot of trials that we passed through together but everything worked out in the end and their lives changed forever. So did mine. When they passed the ball to Lynn Dela Cruz, she started to cry and of course I was holding back tears and about to burst and then she passed the ball to me... I really couldn't handle it. I couldn't imagine leaving the people that I had grown to love with all my heart! I don't remember what I said but I sure do remember how I felt. We had a connection that you can't find anywhere else. We still do. Even though I am back home and so far away from them, they are still my Filipino family and I love them. I truly miss San Clemente!

Adjusting

I have a lot of catching up to do. Before I post more about events that happened in my mission, I'd like to keep you up with whats going on in my life right now. When I was on my mission about ready to come home, I set a lot of goals for myself about how I am going to stay a missionary even when I'm home. I didn't think about how hard it would be to keep those goals! My first couple weeks as a return missionary were just a little hectic and I had a lot of catching up to do with just about all the people I've ever known. My brother Mark set me up on a date just a few days after I got back... He even called me when I was on my way back from the airport to tell me that I had that date coming up... It was just a little awkward since I had been avoiding girls like the plague while on my mission! Not so anymore :). Speaking English has been a problem even until now! I still cant pray in English...

It's been a lot harder than expected to try to live the life that I lived on my mission. There are so many temptations and distractions that it has all been rather overwhelming. I've been trying to keep myself busy though by going to singles ward activities and institute. Since most of my friends are still on their missions and everybody else is either at college or married... I've been able to make a lot of new friends. It's been good to socialize and get out of culture shock. Funny enough, I actually have more culture shock coming back to American than I did going to the Philippines. Funny how that works.

Life is still really good though. I'm finding purpose to my life every day and trying to become the person that I've been striving to be even though there has been quite a lot of speed bumps along the way. I think about my mission everyday and I wont ever stop thinking about it. However, I'm starting to find that I was always missing home a lot more than I even knew. It's good to be back!

Uncle Bob

This is us with the Orbello family (minus dad and baby). When we first started out visiting them, they didn't hold back with telling me how horrible I was at Tagalog! After all, I had only been there for about 2 months! So, every time it got to be about 7:00pm, I started to think to myself, "Alright, time for another Orbello onslaught..." And it went on like that for a couple weeks but eventually they got used to my terrible Tagalog and started to see me for who I really was. I learned to love this family and a few of them started coming to church.

Then one dismal day, I found out that I was being transferred to an entirely different area. I had been in the field about 4.5 months now. I had to break the bad news to the Orbello family. When we first arrived to their humble home, the girls weren't back yet so we decided to wait. While waiting, I noticed a man outside that was very different from what I was used to seeing in the Philippines. It was an American! An old drunk American... and he was starting to come into the house! He looked at us for a second and then focused on me and said, "I'm Roman Catholic, who are you!?", in a slurred voice.....

I thought to myself, "Oh, no..... This couldn't be good." and said, "I'm a Mormon!" He was actually the first American I had seen in the Philippines other than other American Missionaries. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be a happy reunion with my same race. He started yelling at us (when I say us i mean ME, the only other American) and saying that I don't know anything about Filipinos and how hard life is and how poor they are and that I just walk around in my white shirt and tie and blah blah bleep blah... At this point I am just sitting in shock wondering wondering how such a thing was taking place.

"How long have you been in the Philippines" he asked. I told him 4 months. He then asked my companion and the members that were with us (who actually were Filipino). They looked at each other and said, "Our whole lives..." He responded, "No! How many years!" They replied (in a very scared way) about 20 years or so. He then stated very matter of factly, "I've been here for 25 years!"

He then proceeded to tell me that I didn't even know the Orbello family. "Okay old nasty man", I thought to myself, "That's the last straw!" I told him I knew and loved this family and he said "Bull s***! You don't even know their names. Who is that?" He said, pointing to the baby.

"Thats ChingChing (the babies nickname)", I said. He points at me and screams "NO! You're wrong!" We all look at the mother and she said that it was.... Apparently this man is their uncle! He is married to their aunt and his name is Bob. Anyway, eventually we had to just leave which was so sad because it was the last time I was going to see them!

We went over to their relatives house where the girls were at and decided to say goodbye there. We walked them close to their house (so that we weren't seen by Uncle Bob) to say goodbye but one of the girls wanted us to go inside really badly. No way! She was pleading me to come back in but there was no way I as going to go back for some more verbal abuse from Uncle Bob. So she decided to snatch my name tag and run into the house! Ouch! No one takes my name tag! I didn't know what to do so we just waited for about 10 minutes on the street and eventually she came back, let me have my name tag back, and we left. I never got to go back. Till we meet again Uncle Bob... I will have my revenge! :P

Lets Get Started

Okay to get stuff going, I'd like to tell a very interesting story of one of my very first dinner appointments! Let it be known that my mission was not all about this crazy cultural events that took place and more focused on spiritual things, but this should be a nice eye catcher.

Alright, picture yourself in a foreign country. You've been there about 3 days, have little or no understanding of their language, are in awe every second of the day with so many alien things happening around you, and totally clueless to where you are going, just following your trainer (my absolute best friend) like a lost puppy. So now you enter into a house that is semi familiar and you realize you've been there before. It's the Bagalay family house. Nicest people in the world! Not to mention they have prepared dinner for you even though they probably didn't eat at all just so you could. The food is a little different but you pick out some chicken and some sticky rice(the best!). Then you notice a green soupy looking "thing". You dip your spoon in it and smell it.

"Woah... smells like poop...", I cautiously think to myself, but willing to try anything, take a sip.

"Yup.... tastes like poop...", you put it back down, still wondering if it is what you think it is.

The next day when you are walking down the street you see an odd sight of a man butchering a goat right on the side of the road. Interesting. You notice a pile of green "stuff" and ask your trusty trainer what it is. He responds, "Thats from the goat intestines." Then you ask, "why are they saving it? Shouldn't they toss it?" And he responds, "Nope, they use it to make a soup. Actually you tried that last night!"

.........

Yes. You just ate goat poop soup. Welcome to the Philippines!

You're Real Mission Begins...Now.

Welcome to my blog "Lose2Find"! I've been waiting a long time to be able to start this blog. This is where I am going to release everything about my mission in the Philippines Angeles Mission (best mission in the world) and my life as a return missionary. If you didn't already know, my name is Eric Butterfield. I returned home from a 2 year mission as a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I spent 2 years of my life since I was 19 until now (I'm 21) spreading the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to my Filipino friends and bringing hope and change to their lives; the greatest benefactor being... myself. This is my story.