Monday, November 10, 2014

“Ponder the path of thy feet” Proverbs 4:26

Hi Mom and Dad - Thanks so much for your emails! and for the pictures. I love reading about what you are doing at home. I knew exactly what was coming when you said you had bad news :( Poor Gertie. So much has changed in only 3 months!! But I knew when I left that she would not be there when I get home. I just still can't believe Maggie is gone too. But we have so many great memories with them. I hope you guys don't get sad and lonely with all of our pets dying! sheesh! But at least you still have The Fuzz (Note from Michelle: for those of you who don't know--"The Fuzz" is our wirehaired dachshund Izzabelle).
Thank you for keeping me filled in. Man how I wish I was there to ride motorcycles with you in the cold :) I so look forward to doing that in the future.
I'm glad you were able to go to Hillary's farewell. It's hard to believe she is already leaving! It seems like yesterday she got her call! Time flies so quick!
Your week sounded a little more exciting than mine was! Monday was of course our day in the city and I was able to get a lot of "American" type foods that will hopefully last me the rest of the month. I spent 2800 pesos (about $62) which is quite a bit but I got a ton of stuff like peanut butter, hamburger, cookies, honey, oatmeal and lots of other stuff. It is really fun to ride the boats across the ocean over into the city. I look forward to it each time.
On Tuesday the Senior couple missionaries on Guimaras made us cherry cheesecake treats for district meeting because they are going home this week. They were so good! and it made me miss home so much and all of the incredible food we eat there! haha little things are a huge blessing here.
On Wednesday my companion and I went out quite a way on the Island towards the Bacolod side in a place called "East Valencia" to find an investigator who has been coming to church. She rides a long way to come to church each week. I am very impressed by her faith and willingness! Our 2 min ride to church in Erda in our air conditioned cars is nothing!! We met another really nice couple down the road from our house that was very willing to talk to us and they were smiling the whole time we were there. I love meeting people like that. Lots of the people we have been teaching have been just down the road from our house on "Sinamay". In total contrast to the really nice people we've met, we also met a trike driver this week who was the complete opposite and tried to screw us on our fare.  We were already so sick of people trying to rip us off, because we had just come from paying our utilities fee (which is a disorganized mess here :)) so we kinda fired back at him which you aren't supposed to do as missionaries, but we had just had it. But it ended ok and we learned a few lessons with that incident!  We also met a family this week and each of the kids were named after brands of cigarettes "Phillip" "Ace" "Love" haha it was funny. That reminded me of Uncle Eddie from Family Vacation--just seemed like something Eddie would do! haha Another lady we met was named "Tuesday". You meet some very interesting people in the Philippines.
So last week I finished my first transfer in the field so that shows you how quickly time moves. It feels so slow sometimes, but then I realize I've been a missionary for 3 months already! The transfer week didn't affect me because I'm still so new. They put us through a "12 week program" with our trainer, so nothing will change until the next transfer. President Aquino says I could be a trainer next transfer which I'm very nervous about, but everything will work out and it will be really good for me.
Yesterday we had Elder Kruegar with us because Elder Walmer went to Manila for Visa stuff. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with teaching lately and the Language really is coming! When people talk sometimes I can't understand a word they say, but other times I can totally understand them. I know it will continue to get easier as time goes on. I've found that my favorite thing to teach has been the Word of Wisdom :) When you tell people the blessings that come from living this commandment its like a slap in the face how obvious it is that our lives are much better when we live the word of wisdom! The people we are teaching have been very accepting of it so far!
So that was pretty much the week. Yes I still feel homesick every now and then but I have come light years from how I felt 6 weeks ago! I'm doing very well and I really hope that you are too. Thank you for the prayers and I hope you always know how much I appreciate my mom and dad and love you!! 
I haven't gotten my package yet but I was told that there is one at the mission home for me. They sent it to the wrong area at first, but apparently they fixed the mistake so hopefully I will get it. I will send pictures when I can. It's just the luck of the draw with these computers whether it works or not. 
Thank you for taking care of my toys (truck, motorcycle) if you can move the propellers on my planes every now and then so the parts move (just back and forth dont force them through a whole piston cycle :) BTW: What do you plan to do with my room? I just love my new room and wish I could have enjoyed it for longer before I left. 
I hope you don't miss me or worry about me too much because I will be home in no time at all! By the time we get there it will be amazing how time flew by. Love you! Stay happy and know that I am doing great and I'm happy! Love, Michael

1 comment:

  1. I came across your blog last week. My son is serving in the Iloilo Mission also. He left just a few weeks ahead of you. I hope you don't mind, but I will be following your posts. I love reading about missionaries in the same area. It helps me fill in some of the blanks that my Dear Elder leaves out. I hope you will enjoy reading his blog too. It Is eldertylerelkington.blogspot.com
    Who knows, they might even end up serving together!

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