What My Son Learned About Filipino Life—and the Power of Online Work

Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing to the Philippines. This is episode 301, my son in the Philippines, explaining Philippines culture and economy. So this is going to be one of my favorite episodes of all time. I have mentioned before that my son is on a mission in the Philippines for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, which we are members of that church and dedicated active members and. And my son has been serving a mission for the church which a lot of you will know that people in our church serve two year missions when they're younger. So my son got assigned to the Philippines, which was crazy considering my relationship with the Philippines, and he got assigned to a tiny little island called Marinduque, which he sends me pictures and videos and we talk to him once a week and it's amazing. So the reason that this podcast is going to be one of my favorites is because he sent me a number of videos talking about a specific person in the Philippines that he knows and then talking about the economy of the Philippines and what he has seen and why there's so much struggle where he is. And it's poor there. Like it's really poor. Like so poor that my son is part of his mission is going door to door giving people food and other necessities because a lot of people living on this island just don't have the means of supporting themselves there. He says, I think he says this in the video, but in the US if you really want a job, you can go out and find a job on this island where he is, there just are not jobs. Jobs don't exist. You can't go just find a job because there aren't jobs, there aren't businesses. And so people don't have the means of supporting themselves. And then in comes onlinejobs. Ph. Marinduque has a really good Internet connection and not just not like it's not like a slow Internet connection. We do FaceTime calls with him every week. Actually my Internet was the slow Internet causing us to not have great connections. As soon as I fixed the WI fi in my house, we had perfect quality video calls with him in this little island, Marinduque. So imagine that there are no jobs. And instead of going into work to find a job, you could use that Internet connection to have a job, which is the whole basis behind onlinejobs. Ph. So I'm gonna let my son tell this story, but he knows a guy, his name is Mark Jem, and we actually helped Mark Gem find a job after Austin sent me this video. But Marc Jem was really, really close to having to leave the island to go work in Manila, leaving his wife and kids for six months or a year and having to go make money to support himself and send the money back to them to support them. It's really a tragic situation and yet it happens every day thousands of times over across the Philippines because of the island culture that exists there. So now, without further, I'm gonna let my son tell this story and hopefully if you're listening to this, you can hear him talk through it. If you're watching it on YouTube though, this is gonna be really, really great because it's such a good video that he made and it's so interesting to see the culture on the island and the poverty and the beauty of the island. It's so amazing.

Hi, my name is Elder Jonas and I'm a missionary in the Philippines for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Right now I'm living on a small island in the heart of the Philippines called Merenduki. And some people know that the language they speak in the Philippines, in a lot of the Philippines, their national language is Tagalog. I am learning Tagalog. Matuto akon non Tagalog. I love it. I love it here. Right now we're taking food to people that are in need. Here's our friend. His name is Nathan. We're teaching him a little bit about Jesus, which is awesome. And his uncle is a member of our church here in Marinduqui. But he lost his job recently because his eyes were having problems. But he got his eyes fixed now so he's able to get a job again. Where my friend Mark Gem lives, he lives in this hut with his wife and newborn baby live here and we teach them and we love them because we're close friends with them here. We have food packs we're going to take to people just down the street that are starving. They're sick and hungry and they're not able to work. And the reason there are people in need here is because the economy has gone to crap here. But Mark Gem here is very talented. He has a four year degree and he's worked for a graphic design company. So he's able to work for people. Mark Jem. Right now, Mark Jim is finishing his application for online jobs and he's taking the test he needs to take to have a good profile, which is awesome. My camera won't focus, but say hi to Mark Jem. Marc Jim's looking for a job and he's gonna get one. Isn't that right? Yeah. We're gonna bless his life. Okay, so here's his house. It's simple. This is where him and his wife live. This is where they keep their baby, and this is where they love their life. Here in the Philippines, most people just drive scooters around because it's way easier and it's always warm, is beautiful. The reason the Philippines is in such an economic issue right now, and there's many reasons, but the biggest reason in my mind is because especially on little islands like this, there are families and they love. They're loving families and they're good, honest people. But they're buying and importing products from the mainland and other mainlands like China, and they're not exporting anything. So they do, they send their money out, but they don't receive any money back, if that makes sense to you. And because of that, they're not. They have a deficit of money. So what happens is, Filipinos, in order to make up for this lack of money in the economy, there's no jobs. So what they have to do is they have to move abroad. You know, the parents have to leave their kids here with their grandparents and destroy their family and go and work just to help feed their kids in another land. And you know, you might think like in America you can just look and find a job. Like you just had to work hard enough to find a job. But like, there's legitimately not jobs. And I've lived here long enough to know that I speak the language and I know the people and it's hard. But you, you can help. And that's the amazing thing is while I'm literally physically here helping people, you can help by going to onlinejobs ph and hiring people to work for you and for your business and help bless these people's lives like I am, because I really care about these people and you can too. And not only will you bless their lives, they'll bless you. Because these people are honest and hard working. Let me tell you, these talented people like Mark Jem, who are kind and amazing, are living in little tiny houses like this and they have computers and they're able to do competent and diligent and good work. I've seen it the morning after a typhoon, they're out there working their jobs, doing what they're supposed to do, even when there's floods. So go to onlinejobs ph and help bless these people's lives and they will bless you back.