Week #28 "Here Am I, Send Me." Abraham 3:27

Hi Mom, Dad and Hayley! Kumusta Ka? Wow that's a heck of a week you've had Mom and Dad! Even though moving all of Granny's stuff *TWICE* doesn't sound fun, I still wish I could have been there to help. I can't believe the weather you are having there! That is just sad for it to be winter and NOT have snow! But if I were there I'd totally be tearing it up on my bike right now ! HAHA I love that picture of Daren! His beard is insane! :) Mom your new bike looks really nice and I'm glad it is working out for you as well. I can wait to take her for a spin!

I got my birthday packages (WOOP!) and of course all 3 showed up at the same time so I have a ton of junk food! Thank you for sending them and for all of the cards I got! I will wait until my birthday next week to open them.

The Twinkies appeared to have survived but they're a little smashed and the m&ms got a little melty too, but I'm not picky! Thanks so much Mom and everyone else!

This week went by really slow and really fast. Weird how that works :/ Elder Meneses is still teaching me how to OYM (Open Youth Mouth!) people and do effective tracting. He has no problem talking and finding people--he is amanzing! President was truly inspired making him my companion. Slowly but surely I'm learning how to tract better and find people that we can teach.

My companion Elder M. and me

On Wednesday our Bishop fed us dinner at his house and it was a typical spoil the missionaries rotten kind of situation. They treat us like kings! They are very nice people. We also have 3 for sure dinner appointments this week, so heck yeah Im excited! Getting fed is the bomb. I ate at Jollybee for the first time this week but It wasnt that good ha I miss American fast food joints so much! McDonalds is truly a high class restaurant as far as I'm concerned.

We had one of our investigators tell us how she knows that what we are teaching is true and that she knows we're real servants of God because we walk all day in the hot sun teaching people for no money. haha It felt good that she appreciates us! 

I'm really comfortable with the members here. They are way cool and love the missionaries. Every one is willing to talk to me even though I'm not the best at speaking Ilonggo. We have a really good relationship with the members. I sat with one of our investigators in sacrament yesterday and she is a really nice lady. She sometimes has a hard time understanding what we are trying to teach her, but she comes to church and is very sincere about her desire to learn and be baptized.  I'm learning a ton about the Bible that I never knew before my mission. People here bring up the Bible way more than in my last area and so I'm trying to learn as much as I can. One guy likes to justify everything we teach him with the Bible, which is fine, but he's like totally wrong every time and doesnt use the King James version, so it can be very frustrating to teach him. Luckily he's a really nice guy, so that makes teaching him easier.

Yesterday our water wasn't working so we had no water all day. Luckily our neighbor had water and so she let us fill up a jug so we were able to shower. I took my first bucket shower last night and I dont know if I will ever go back to the regular shower again while I am here! I love the bucket shower :) We ended up getting the water back this morning so we could do the dishes and I cleaned our fridge, which was disgusting. Later today we will clean the house. I didn't get any pictures of my house like you wanted, because it has been pretty dirty. So today after we clean I'll get pics so it looks good. ;)

Here's the answers to your weekly questions Mom:

What made you laugh this week? Hah I dont really know I cant think of anything... Yeah Ill try and think of something but I cant right now
What was your biggest success this week? 2 investigators came to church which is always good! 
What was your biggest concern? I wish I knew the scriptures better--but I'm getting better every day. 
What was your favorite day? Wednesday was great because of the awesome dinner we had with the Bishop's family. Yesterday (Sunday) was pretty good too.
Who was your favorite person to teach this week? One of the less active families we are teaching. They are really nice people and they gave us saging :) (bananas)

Thanks for the emails and packages again and everyone who sent me letters for the birthday that was way nice! Palangga ta kamo! Love you lots!  Michael 

P.S. Dad, here are pictures of just *some* of the motorcycle shops here! Like I was telling you they are *everywhere*!