Hello Mom, Dad and Hayley!
Thanks for the emails! Thanks for the pictures Dad ha ha that was “The Bubble Boy”. I really miss Seinfeld ha ha and wow those gas prices are incredible! Glad you had a good time at the Palisades party. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was talking with Brad about Parker being on his mission to the Philippines—I can’t believe that was 2 years ago. Now I’m the one in the Philippines….that is a weird feeling!
Tell The Fuzz I say hey and give her a belly scratch from me:) I get teary eyed thinking about her looking for me in my room! (Note from Michelle: Our dog Izzabelle [aka The Fuzz] was acting really strange Sunday a.m. She kept staring at Michael’s bedroom door and whining and scratching to get in. When I opened the door for her she ran around his bed jumping up on the side so I lifted her up on the bed and she began sniffing all around, under his covers and the pillows. I think she was convinced he was in there somewhere!)
I’m glad your week was good. My week went by quick like it always seems like it does after SM day (Note from Michelle: SM is the big Walmart type store in Iloilo. The Missionaries on Guimaras Island are only allowed to travel there on their first “P-Day” each month). On Monday I was able to get all of the American food that I wanted in Iloilo and I also bought some really expensive doughnuts at the Krispy Kreme store (45 pesos/approx. $1 each) but it was so worth it! I haven’t had a doughnut in a long time! And of course we also went to the McDonalds and hit a few other stores. On Tuesday we went to our recent convert’s house to teach her the lessons again and she always feeds us a snack or something. We met a 90 year old "spring chicken" lady who seriously acted like she was in her 70's! She was way cool. On the way back from there the Jeepney stopped to pick up several big bags of coconuts so I got out to help them load them. Everyone thought it was strange that the “big, tall white boy in church clothes” was helping them haha it was fun to show off a little bit of my Illonggo too. When we arrived back home to our road, the jeep conductor would not accept my money for the fare. It was cool and made me feel really good!
The next couple of days were a little slow with work especially Friday where we were "punted" all day long, so that made for a long day.
We have to return back to our smaller area (Buenavista B) this week because the ZL's are moving back to Buenavista since the new senior couple missionaries are coming in on the 15th. Our area is much more difficult and doesn’t have much member support, so hopefully it goes ok. It’s been really nice the past couple of months to have the whole Buenavista area to cover as it kept us really busy, which I like. There are only 2 more weeks until the next transfer and I don’t want to jinx myself but I’m really hoping to move on to a new area. I love the members here in Buenavista, but I thinking I’m ready for some change. I’ve been here in Buenavista/Guimaras since I arrived in the Philippines, and even though I feel like I just got here, it still seems like I’ve been here forever haha.
Yesterday during church we got a text that there was a region broadcast in Jordan so we travelled there after church. On the way there we had to take a trike because there wasn’t a jeepney and I sat next to a girl who was very good at speaking English. I spoke as much Illonggo to her as I could and she replied in English, so we both got to practice. She told me she loves reading so when we got to the church I told her to wait and I hurried into the church and frantically looked for a BofM. She wanted English but all I could find was Tagalog. It was another great OYM experience for me [OYM=open your mouth] :)
We stayed in Jordan for the night with the ZL's and got fed an awesome dinner at a members house here. He had a huge piece of pork and covered it with salt/sugar then fried it in oil :) Yah, super healthy! haha It was way good though! And he made us smoothies which were very good too.
We got up really early for a
zone activity we did this morning. I went running and then we played basketball
at the church and did some games and stuff. We bought 2 pizzas (Filipino pizza)
and some treats and things. It was fun. We are still in Jordan now and we will
head back to Buenavista after we finish email’ing.
Here’s answers to your
questions Mom:What is your favorite Filipino food so far? That fried sugar/salt pork meal we had last night. I’m sure it was way unhealthy, but it sure tasted good :)
How many members are in your Branch? I think there are around 60
What was your favorite teaching moment this week? Teaching the Bingco family. They’re getting very close to Baptism and I’ve been with them from the start!
What made you laugh this week? It wasn’t really a funny “haha” laugh, but more funny/intriguing "whoa! That's intense" laugh…I was studying in Moroni Ch. 8 where Mormon talks to Moroni about little children being alive in Christ because of the atonement, and I was shocked by how serious it gets about baptism of little children being an awful wickedness and evil abomination. We teach a lot of Catholics here, so it’s the first time that really struck me.
What was your favorite service moment this week? Helping the dudes load the coconuts.
How long has your companion been out? Is his family LDS? Elder D has 1 more transfer than me (so he’s been out 6 weeks longer than I have). His parents joined the church when he was 4 years old.
Sorry I was only able to upload 1 picture. More technical difficulties on this end and I don’t have my SD card reader with me so I’ll have to wait until later. Sorry. I’m sure they will show up in Dropbox eventually.
Love you lots!!
Elder Michael
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