"Day of Justice"

Hello Family,

That is awesome! Man I cannot believe the race was this weekend, it doesn't feel like the race should be this weekend, that’s gone by way too fast.

Monday was the best day ever. Elder Owen (an elder from Alpine, Utah) and I had what we called a "Day of Justice". Sister and Elder Lutz were nice enough to let us come over and bake the cake at their house, and she made us some lunch. So me and Elder Lozano, Elder Owen and Elder Cadizal, and Elder Hernandez and Elder Alpon all went to their house. She fed us bread and beans with cheese, baby corn, and tamales. Super-sarap! She didn't make us rice, and I loved it. All the Filipino missionaries were having a hard time eating, they straight up hated the food, lalo na because they had no rice. Elder Owen and I relished in the experience. We were just happy that all the injustice of our missions was made right in that day: 

When I first got here, it was hard having to eat rice for every meal. And the ulam was just as bad, sometimes we ate some really sketchy stuff, like pig intestines and chicken feet. But all of my companions have basically said "suck it up, you're not in America anymore. Eat like a Filipino." (But I understand them, I was the same way with foreign exchange students in high school.)Since then, I've wanted nothing more than to take a Filipino and leave him by himself in the middle of New York City so he can experience something of what every missionary here experiences. So as we were eating, E Owen and I noticed the expressions on their face go from surprise to discomfort to disgust. E Alpon didn't even finish his tamale, he gave it to me when Sister Lutz wasn't looking. Then we explained to them that this is how we felt for the first few months of our missions, and we didn't feel one bit of sympathy for them, but we understood entirely how they felt.

Tuesday wasn't anything special, but we visited this less active who said his wife is coming home on Monday (she's been working in Dubai for the last two years). She was supposed to come home in January but they kept having problems with her job and in the embassy and everything, but it’s finally figured out and she's coming to manila this afternoon. The less active guy is in his 50's or 60's and his kid is in elementary school. They are as poor as the people in my last area, but I love them so much, they are seriously the best.

Wednesday all the DL's had a meeting with the Zone Leaders because everyone's work has kind of sucked the last few weeks and we needed to fix it. So now we have a weekly meeting to keep each other accountable because people are just getting lazy (us included, but we are fixing that.) Also today, I got the letters about the new house, it looks awesome!

Thursday was a pretty regular day, nothing happened except E Lozano overslept and i got annoyed at him, he blamed me for not waking him up and I said "our cell phone has an alarm" and then he said "the cell phone alarm doesn’t wake me up"

Friday I worked with Elder Palmer, he's from Canada. It was seriously the best day I’ve had in a long time.

Saturday we had a baptismal service. We were supposed to start at 5, but another branch had a baptismal service scheduled for 3 that started at 4, so that put us an hour behind. Then both of the kids getting baptized were super late. Then the people who were going to baptize them didn't show up, so I got volunteered to do it, so we had to go home and get my baptismal clothes. Then some people from the 5th ward showed up and were going to have a baptism for an 8 year old, and the person to baptize him didn’t show up either, so I baptized three people that day. I have never met that kid before Saturday.

it’s been a good week.

I'm getting super fat. I can’t send pictures, the camera wont attach to the computer, I don’t know what’s going on. I feel good though, transfers are this week so Elder Lozano will almost for sure be leaving. I really like him a lot, I wouldn’t mind being together with him for another 6 weeks but I doubt that will happen.

well my time is up, i will talk to you again next week. 

I love you!

Elder Williams