Halloween already?? 10-31-11

halloween already?? so that means state cross country is over, huh? Elder casilac at ako pa rin ang buhay, kaya manganda dito! may 2 hours sa email saakin kung mayroon po kayo ng oras 

I dont really have much of a p-day. The missionary handbook says its great to visit zoos or historical sites or other cool places, but we dont have time. we have a district meeting from 8:00am to 10:30 or 11, then we eat, email, buy groceries, and go back to the apartment around 3. Then I clean our horribly disgusting bathroom and our kitchen as best I can, because we have to be back to work by six. I haven't opened your packages yet, i just opened hers because I knew it would be all candy and I had to make it fit in my backpack. I didn't get to eat anything strange this week, but I ran into more than my fair share of drunk people. I don't know what it is about being a missionary, but i feel like the more alcohol a person has in his system the more attracted he is to a missionary. on saturday we found some old guys sitting against a house super drunk. it wasn't even 11:30 in the morning. There's also this family we teach about once a week that I absolutely love, its the family in the pictures with the Coconut Beetle. I brought them some tinapay (bread) because one of the children had a birthday and i have never seen someone so happy in my entire life. One of the kids, Angelo, is the greatest kid i've ever met. He is 4 years old and always tries to impress me with his english skills.

The members usually don't feed us, we generally work from 2:30-9:00 every day. I've only had two dinner appointments with the members since I've been here.

I actually hate basketball, but we play occasionally. The town I live in is small, but its surrounded by barangays (big housing areas, pronounced "brown-guys." when I first heard that I thought it was a racist joke.)I bet there's probably a few thousand people in my area. The funnest thing I've done since being here is Branch Home Evening a few days ago. It was less like Home Evening and more like party time. I watched a bunch of old filipino guys make fools of themselves while singing karaoke. One of them actually looks remarkably like elvis, I think he's in one of the pictures I sent. I have a bunch of videos but I don't know how to send them

I watched General Conference a week late. The church buildings are super weird. Tile everywhere, the benches are super lightweight and slide around in the chapel, and regular chairs are plastic. The main foyer isn't even closed off to the outside, just a giant metal gate with a lock on it. The spirit is generally the strongest in sacrament meeting, it would take alot of faith to be an active member in San Clemente. But roughly 100 people show up each weel, which is awesome. We have A/C in the branch presidents office and the clerks office. It's nice, until you walk out of the room and are reminded just how humid it is here. After every PEC meeting, I leave the presidents office and think "how can people breathe this air??" (they call it aircon here, super annoying. also, a fridge is called a ref. Or a ruff if you're a native). I haven't seen carpet since the mission home, but places get flooded here all the time so now I understand why.

Well I have to go buy groceries, so I'll take more pictures and talk to you next week! I love you!

Elder Williams

 

It's been an awesome week

It's been an awesome week. Wednesday night we visited an investigators home for his birthday, and I found out how easy it is to preach to drunk people. they love to listen to anything about God, especially the Catholics. The investigator is 16, and his sister is 24. Their dad joined us for dinner after getting drunk, as is typical for a Filipino Catholic. We asked about his family (He has 7 children) and he said to us "Wala kong anak" (I don't have any children). His reasoning was that he wasn't able to bear any children, so his wife has 7 kids but none of them are his.

Friday was the first day in 6 weeks it didn't rain. And it actually hasn't rained since, I'm not sure if i'm still in the same place. its so weird not worrying about the clouds overhead.

Saturday was pretty cool, I sprayed some bug spray minutes before we left the apartment to get to work and broke out in hives. We also taught some old ladies who tried to speak Ilocano to us. It would be like if your mexican neighbors tried talking to you. You might pick out a word or two and it may even seem familiar, but you wouldn't be able to respond.

I cannot believe the Filipino people here. Remember last week how I said they just don't care?  There was also a street vendor who set up a stand with some snacks outside the Church, and along with the Elders Quorum, we were probably the only ones who didn't go out and buy a snack. And this is in the middle of church. I saw our ward missionaries, the youth, and several leaders and parents leave to buy what is called "Fish Balls". It's basically a deep-fried dough filled with bits of fish, and you dip it in a sweet and sour sauce. super delicious.

You know all those stories about missionaries saying things wrong in the language and how embarrassed they were when they screwed up? Well, everyone here calls ties 'neckties' and this week I found out why. We were walking between appointments and my tie felt funny, so i tried to fix it. After I was done I said to Elder Casilac and Brother Rodel, one of the members, "How does my tie look?" and they couldn't stop laughing. I found out the word tae (pronounced Tah-E or tie) in Tagalog means "poop." Which is why they say necktie, so situations like that don't happen to them. I did't tell you this Wednesday but Sunday a week ago I was incredibly sick all the way through  Thursday. I had a fever of 38.8 C and a headache that could kill a person. I was also coughing up green and yellow phlegm roughly every 15 minutes. Super gross. But don't worry, I'm over it now and feel just fine, although I thought I was going to die on Wednesday night.

I learned some Ilocano this week: "Papanam?" means "Where are you going?"

I also learned that "Anak nak ni apo Dios" in Ilocano means "Ako ay anak ng Diyos" in Tagalog means "I am a child of God".

Plus i have pictures this week, and I sent a package in the mail, hopefully it gets to America before I do.

Elder Williams

This was our part of our email chat.

Sorry you were so sick!  That is awful.  Do you think it was from the food or water? We know when things are not good with you, it is a parental feeling.


We love the story about buying things during church HILARIOUS!  Dad loves this idea!! he thinks we should adopt it in our culture!  Your email was funny! We love to hear this kind of stuff. 

The pictures are awesome!  I cant believe how big the bug is!  That little boy is SOOOO cute,  is that during church?

yeah the church has a giant gate in the front entrance and kids climb up it all the time.  I dont know what made me sick, but i'm pretty sure its over now. my tagalog is getting better, but its still kind of rough. Some days i talk to everyone and laugh and  make jokes, and some days i can hardly stammer through lesson 1. Tell all the cousins I'll be home next week, because when I do come home it will seem like it was only a few days that I was gone.

That little boy is adorable! I love that this is happening during church

Only a boy would do this

GROSS!

Just the friendly lizard that lives in the apartment