hello! sorry we're late we had Zone Goal Setting this
morning then ate lunch at Sister and Elder Lutz's house
So a monster storm came through last week, did you hear
about that? I am uploading mostly
videos but pictures also, I won’t delete them until I know they're okay so let
me know. Did you hear about the storm this week? The Dingalan elders got
flooded.
Monday
Today was the least busy P-day I've
had since DDM got moved to Wednesday over 1 year ago. We emailed at 9:30, did
laundry from 12 to 2:00, and nothing else until 6. The worst part is I wasn't
even tired at 2:30. Any other day of the week, it takes all the will power I
have to not sleep through the heat of the day, and today I wasn't the least bit
tired. We taught Topher today, it was the best. Every time we teach him or he
shares his testimony, the Spirit hits me so strongly. I hope he goes on a
mission soon.
Tuesday
Today was great. We had a CSP in
Dupinga, a kind of faraway place on the bank of a river. We helped a classmate
of Ruth, one of the members here, build a house; it was way fun and tons of
people showed up. We carried rocks from the river bank to lay the foundation,
and then put a nice later of sand over that. For lunch, we laid out a banana
leaf on a table (like the video from last year), put rice through the center,
and at adobong paa ng manok (adobo cooked chicken feet) for our ulam. I wish so
bad I brought my camera, but I totally forgot. Afterwards, everyone but us took
a swimming break before we finished the rest of the house. This evening we
taught Julie, Topher’s cousin (I don't know why his name is Julie, he’s a boy).
Then we taught Nanay Catalina, and her friend was there again, naku! She talked
sooo much! I don't know what we're going to do if she's there every day we
visit
Wednesday
This morning we had DDM in Dingalan,
so we went there around 6:30 to play baseball. The elementary school by the
chapel has a big field, and the kids don’t have school this week, so that’s
where we went today. Elder Tumala and Rabino played basketball, because the
guys who had the baseball never showed. While they played b-ball, Elder
Montierth and I made ourselves look like fools on the volleyball court and
softball field. But man it was a lot of fun! I forgot how much I miss baseball.
At first we didn't want to go because it was on an elementary school field; Elder
Montierth said "If we did this in America, we would go to jail!"
Which is true, would you be suspicious if two Elders were playing volleyball
with kids at an elementary school? But they don’t really have parks here , so
almost everyone goes to the elementary. This evening we taught Nanay Catalina's
friend, it was great! We taught her what happens to us when we die; it wasn’t
too bad!
Thursday
I don’t have words sufficient to
describe today. It rained on and off all day, X worked with us in Bugnan. We
ate lunch at ate Marivi's home, because her daughter Gilla is X's girlfriend,
so obvious choice, right? Imagine if Landon was going to work with the
missionaries for a day and they ate lunch at your house, that’s what it was
like. We had boiled sabang saging and dipped them in Milo and sugar for desert,
super sarap! (delicious!) Around lunch, the rain was as strong as I've
ever seen. Nanay Bibot picked us up in Bugnan and the wind was blowing so hard
she almost couldn’t make it home. On the way home Elder Tumala said
"parang pinagdigmaan" which means "It looks like a
warzone", because there was so much debris blown across the street. The
roof of the restaurant next to us was completely blown off today.
Friday
Naku po! (good heavens) The wind blew all through the night Thursday
and into Friday morning, we hardly slept. At one point it was so loud I
thought someone was trying to break into our apartment. We couldn't work today,
nakaka-boring! (frustrating) Sometimes
the rain would slow down, but never completely stop. There was a guy who worked
the entire day in the rain just to fix the roof of the restaurant. Also, our neighbor’s
apartment got flooded because the wind blew the rain onto his deck, and somehow
the drain in the corner got flooded, so the rain piled up and went into his
apartment, but he wasn't home so he didn't see it until it was too late. Around
9:00 the rain started to pick up again.
Saturday
Around 1:30am the Dingalan Elders
called me and said their house was flooded! I told him there was nothing I
could do for him, but I would call the Lutz's in the morning. The rain was so
loud I couldn't hear Elder Tumala talk to me if I was on the other side of the
room. They called again at 3:00 and said the branch president let them into the
chapel and they were safe, but I couldn’t sleep so I just read books by
candlelight until 4:30. I have never ever seen rain fall so heavily before in
my entire life. It didn't rain the entire day, but I called the Dingalan Elders
periodically, President Martino told them to stay at the chapel all day, they
just played basketball. It sucks that their house got flooded but it sounds like
they had a good time. We tried to go to Bugnan today, but the river was so deep
it cost 100 pesos per person to get across (it really should only cost 5 on a
regular day, that's how deep it was)
Sunday
Today we only had 45 people come to
church, that’s almost half of what we usually have. Then we spent most of the
afternoon fixing reports for Monday, because it’s the end of the month.
Afterwards we had sopas again at our branch president’s house.
Well a bunch of 'riff-raff' (I read
that in Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith) just
came in and started playing games so now the internet is incredibly slow, why aren’t
these kids in school right now?
Anyway, thanks for emailing me
I love you!
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| repairing the roof of the restaurant |
