Mission Comics

During my mission, I would draw little comics about funny things that happened or could happen. Most of them have only been seen by me because they're just in my sketchbook, and frankly aren't all that great drawing-wise--most of them were just quick one-off things that I didn't spend alot of time on. But a couple weeks ago when I was going through my sketchbooks I thought, why not post these? They're kinda fun, and if they're not drawn all that well, whatever.

So. Here they are. I just took pictures of them using my computers camera and fixed them in photoshop by playing with the levels and brightness and contrast, and when that didn't work I just traced over them, so all the bad drawing and sketchiness is mostly preserved. So.

Me:Why don't we tract somewhere really far away so we have an excuse to sit in a trike for a long time?
WALK, WALK, WALK, THAT IS THE SECRET.

This one doesn't need much background. Missionaries walk alot. In the Philippines there are tricycles that will take you places much faster than you can walk there :-).

Our mission song was to the tune of "In Our Lovely Deseret," with the chorus that goes, "Hark! Hark! Hark! 'tis childrens music" but in the mission version we sang, "Work, work, work, that is the secret!" Except walking is actually the secret.

 "You know, hand washing laundry really makes you think about whether you actually got something dirty." 

That looks like its supposed to be Sister Tumaliuan. She could hand-wash laundry much faster than me. Actually, all my companions could.

So no washers for clothes is a problem. But in a hot place like the Philippines, no dryers should be no problem, right? Well, the Philippines has a rainy season, where it seriously rains for days on end. And your clothes NEVER. GET. DRY. And yes, we actually did this.

 "So, whats our goal this week for lessons punted?"

From converstaions with other RMs, it seems that different missons have different terms for things. We said "punted" when an investigator (or whoever) we had an appointment with wasn't there. Or was hiding.

 I drew this one when Sister Marzan was my companion. She had a bunch of EFY music that she would play when we were at home. Most of it I liked. But there was this one song... it was SO ANNOYING. It was pretty much the cheeziest song ever. The chorus went "I'll pray for you and you'll pray for me..." I'm afraid I usually groaned really loudly when it came on. I also might have skipped it a few times.

Computer: Dear Sister Bowthorpe, You will be giving a 2 hour workship in Zone Con next week. Good Luck.

 So one week when President Peterson was still pretty new in the mission, he really liked one of the weekly letters I wrote. I can't even remember exactly what I said, or what he said. I hadn't even ever met him in person at this point. But he replied to my letter, and said (hopefully sarcastically) that I might as well be the one to teach the workshops in the upcoming zone con. Not quite sure of president's class of humor, I didn't know how seriously to take this. All that ended up happening was he made me and Sister Tumaliuan practice teach in front of everybody. But it didn't last two hours, fortunately.

 Sister Tumaliuan: Ayos Ka Lang? (Are you ok?)
Me: Mamatay ako sa init. (I will die of the heat.)

It gets really hot in the Philippines. And humid.

Little Spider: Rawr.
Me: You're not worth the energy.

 Sister Solamillo was was kind of amused by my obvious fear of the seriously huge spiders there were in our apartment. After seeing those, "normal" sized spiders just aren't that scary.

 Sis. Sola: So, what do you want to eat?
Me: ANYTHING but rice.
Sis. Sola: So, who do you want to fast for?
Me: Gnnnnnn

So, Filipinos eat alot of rice. And funnily enough, my trainer Sis. Sola ate more rice than any of my later companions. Rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert. Well, maybe not always snacks. But basically, if you aren't eating rice, you aren't eating.

This is me, trying to figure out how to eat uncut meat with a spoon and a fork--the Filipino way. You mean I don't get a steak knife? How am I supposed to eat this?



There may be more of these to come, since there were some in other sketchbooks that I don't have here right now.