One year in the Philippines

Elder Williams has officially been in the Philippines for 1 year now. Last year he left the MTC on Labor Day and had a 2 day journey to Angeles City.  Sometimes it is hard to believe we only have 10 1/2 months left of his mission and other times it feels like he will never come home.  We would not want him anywhere else and love the journey of the good and bad.  

Hello!

We are way early today because we aren't going back to Gobaldon later this evening. We have Zone Conference tomorrow, so we're just going to stay in Cabanatuan instead of spending money going back and forth. Later this evening we have a Family Home Evening with the zone in Kalikid (one of the areas in Bongabon Zone) so we want to get everything done early today.

School started already? That’s weird... Christmas started here in the Philippines! We were in the mall for a few minutes and they played Christmas music the entire time we were there.  No we didn’t get flooded here, I never even heard about the earthquake. I feel like the entire Philippines is just getting destroyed except for my mission.

I am putting pictures in the Gobaldon folder. I made a folder that says sep 2.

Remember how I told you the water sucks here? And we just have a tank that sometimes has water and sometimes doesn’t? So when the tank is full it’s like 200 gallons and lasts for about 8 days. We haven’t had water in about 9. We get like little bits of water every day, and we use that to wash dishes and clean and stuff. I only showered at my apartment twice this week. (One day we showered at the ZL's home after a meeting and one day I didn’t get to shower. The other 3 days we showered at the church) 

What do you have for the package already? Here's a list we made last night:

a few (4 or 5) boxes of mac and cheese

Granola

two pairs of long sleeved garments

two pocket sized book of mormon

anbesol

Oreos

Oh btw I dropped our cell phone in the river last week.  We never got it back. It was night time and the water was deep. We have to pay like 3 or 400 pesos, so it’s actually not that bad.  I am trying to think of things to email I don’t know what to say... I forgot my journal and can't think of anything worth writing..

 

Monday we had zone goal setting and I realized why I hate p-day. We get together as a zone and nobody can make a decision. We wanted to find a place to email together, so the zl's said we should go to the place near their apartment. Then someone suggested Cabanatuan, since we were going to the mall anyway. But hey, Cabanatuan has tons of great Computer shops (and each missionary has his own favorite), so which one do we choose? But the elders in Bongabon were going home first, so we should just stay in Palayan and email together. Super nakaka-asar (frustrating).  Tuesday was a good day,  We visit this less active family  and they always say they'll come to church or have family prayer or read the book of Mormon, but they don’t. The parents basically don’t care anymore and honestly it breaks my heart. I just want to take away their free agency for one Sunday morning and make them come to church. How could they have gone so far away they don’t want to listen anymore? We always teach their children and its great, but they won’t come to church without their parents.

Wednesday we worked with nanay, she came with us to teach a family.  After that we visited this part member family.

Thursday we had a meeting in Palayan, and showered at the ZL's house because we don’t have any water in our apartment. Then we went to Bugnan and it was weird. I feel like nobody wanted to talk to us.

Friday we had weekly planning, and then taught Tatay. This week he asked how the book of Mormon and bible would become one 

Saturday the branch went to Manila and took one of the members to the MTC. She is serving in the manila Philippines mission. We worked in Bungan and got a ride with President Riparip in his tricycle, on the way home it was raining and he ran out of gas (the way home is sort of uphill) and then he got a flat tire. So that was a good day

Sunday we went on splits and I worked with President Garcia, the second counselor in the branch presidency. We visited the less actives and told them about the temple preparation class and committed them to come to the temple in December. Then we defrosted our fridge and packed for today and tomorrow.

We have a baptism on Sept 15, the two kids we've been teaching for a few weeks now.   I don't know what’s going on with the water, nobody will tell me anything. we buy drinking water (25 pesos for 10 liters, I don’t want to make jokes but that’s dirt cheap).

 thanks for your help. I have to go now. man it feels like no time passes when I email. I love you!