I can see it in your countenance

Hi! 

First of all I can’t upload pictures to the server because we are in some sketchy internet shop and it won’t let me get onto windows explorer. But I didn’t take a lot of pictures this week so it’s okay. 

Tuesday I was super annoyed the whole day, but it wasn’t too bad. In the morning we taught two new investigators, it’s hard to explain what I felt while teaching them. It was like I never had to stop and think of what I would say next, and there was something inside of me like it was too big for me. I felt sort of pressure inside me but not so much that it hurt. I wish the afternoon was that good, though. Our branch mission leader came with us and talked about how much he missed his mission so he basically talked to everyone and led all the discussions. He's a great missionary but I just wanted to work with Elder Abuan. Then we taught this lesson to a less active.  It rained SO HARD that night, too. While we were walking home, the rain was about a half inch deep on the highway. The highway reminds me of Iona Road going up the hill, it’s kind of sloped but not super steep, ya know? Imagine that with a half inch of rain and what the low spots must have looked like. Totally destroyed our work.

Wednesday was great; we left at 10am and worked on the other side of the river, in Bugnan. We ate lunch at the a members home the best family I ever met. This guy is kind of old, he never graduated elementary school but taught himself to be a carpenter and supplies the whole mission with beds and desks for the missionaries. Every week he bikes 30 minutes to church, and has to carry his bike across the river because he can’t pay to take a ferry across. Then our work got cut short because a huge rainstorm came in again and we had to cross the river back into Gobaldon before the river got too high.

Thursday we had interviews with President Martino, it was the best. I don’t remember if I mentioned this to you yet but Elder Abuan and I started this thing where we get up at 5:30am and read the BoM for an hour, then personal study and lunch we study again. I study different subjects during the day and it makes me feel like I’m in school, I just never go to class. I mentioned to president how much it has changed me as a person, and he said "I can see it in your countenance." In the afternoon I worked with Elder Bellen (one of our zone leaders) in out area, and I realized I don’t know the area like I thought I did, we walked a lot more than we needed to. The best part of the day was at lunch, Sister and Elder Lutz did house checks. Elder Lutz used his pocketknife to fix just about everything in our house and Sister Lutz was so appalled at the condition of our apartment she almost died. She saw we don’t have a shower and said to Elder Abuan "How in THE WORLD do you shower every day?" and Elder Abuan, in his cute, broken, Filipino-style English said "We take a bucket, sister.... and then just put water to our heads." She also was freaking out because we didn’t have a door on our freezer; I told her just about every missionary here doesn’t have a freezer door.

Friday we met this guy named, he's the coolest. He used to live in some rich place in Manila, then his mom got sick so they moved to the mountains to the cleaner air. He makes gun holsters by hand for the police and people in shooting competitions. Missionary Work is seriously the best.

Saturday we want back across the river, to Bugnan and ate lunch at another family there.  It was super-sarap na gulay, but flip their kitchen was COVERED in flies and it grossed me out, it was awful. we worked until 5 and then came back to the Bayan, and went to a bunch of peoples house and invited them to church

Sunday we went to church, and it was relatively quiet, for a sacrament meeting in the Philippines. Afterwards we had a meeting and I gave a workshop to our branch missionaries about the BoM, taught a the less active guy, then went home early to do weekly planning.

ps did you get my package yet? The pictures I sent were from Cabanatuan, I don’t know if I sent them already or not. 

Last requests:

Summer sausage, skittles, cookies.chocolate. beef jerky daw. (daw is a tagalog word for "he said") Elder Abuan would like some Oreo cookies and beef jerky. Elder Bellen said  "high class chocolates; bars. ganoon." Elder Masterson would LOVE some granola.

Ok well my times up now, I’ll talk to you next week.

I love you!

Elder Williams

I am not sure what is going on.....trying to be funny?