At home here

This week was great! I feel so.... at home here. I told you my last area was rice fields and dirt floors and homes without electricity. After a few months I loved it. Here they have 2 malls, and cars everywhere. Yesterday we visited a family and they had a personal computer, laptop, and a wii! It’s just weird because I came from a place that was so poor. I’ve noticed there's not really a 'middle class' here, people are either super rich or super poor. It’s so strange still, but I love it.
We live with two other missionaries, I really enjoy it. It’s more fun because there's always someone to talk to and it never gets boring at night.

This week was intense. On Friday the temperature got up to 36.5C in Cabanatuan. We almost died. Saturday we had a baptism, it was so cool. i don’t know if you noticed from my pictures or other missionaries blogs, but we baptize a lot of children here. The reason for that is because people get baptized and then are inactive, so their children never get baptized. Eventually, a set of missionaries comes around and finds a less active family with children who have never been to church, and the parents agree to let us teach them. it happens all the time here. In fact, Pres. Martino wants most baptisms to come that way because the Philippines Area Presidency told him we need to find less actives and bring them back. it doesn’t do any good to baptize a person if they're going to be less active in a month.
I’m having problems using windows explorer. I probably won’t send pictures that way this week.
The city life is weird. I don’t like walking down busy streets, but it’s nice to sit on couches with pillows instead of bamboo stools mad 50 years ago.

Transfer!

Bro and Sis Roberts

So... I got transferred last week. I’m in Cabanatuan right now, it's the best ever. I love it here. Thursday we spent most of the day transferring, but had a lot of time to do some work. I didn’t even get to unpacking until Friday morning. People here are super rich because it’s a big city. We have a small area that’s like San Clemente with the rice fields but not much. We visited one member and he had a huge two-story house with a big screen TV and couches and nice furniture. It was almost like another culture shock, coming from an area where it’s not rare to have dirt floors or no electricity in the house. My new companion is Elder Luzano, he's the best. We spent Saturday and Sunday watching general conference, and last night we talked to a guy on the street and he invited us to come talk to him, so we went into his house and he is super rich also. He had a pet monkey and it was just climbing all over everything, he didn’t even care. I think he paid someone to train it, it was the best.

The barangay I’m in is called Kapitan Pepe.. Other than that I don’t know much about the area. Its sooooo confusing! i still don’t know where anything is. I'll send pictures in a little while, I have to do some paperwork first and write my letter to President Martino. The apartment is sweet, its two stories and way better than the house in San Clemente. The internet cafe here is way better than San Clemente, its super high tech with nice computers and everything. General Conference was the best, I actually saw President Martino at general conference, I don’t know why he came from Angeles to Cabanatuan to watch it, maybe he had a meeting or something

  They don’t know what Easter is here, and they also don’t know what ST Patrick’s day. I forgot to tell you earlier I took all those Easter and St Patrick’s Day stuff on Wednesday night and put them on the thumbtack board and left them for Elder Basilans new companion. He thought that was the best thing ever.

Also on Wednesday night we had a farewell party/fhe for me in San Clemente, it made me so sad to leave. but I'm not as sad as I thought I would be. Its like when I first got to San Clemente, I only missed home when I wasn't working, and so far I have been super busy since Wednesday.

Elder Williams and Elder Roberts

9 months

ang saya-saya namin!! (don't translate that, it will say something like 'fun fun'). it means something along the lines of "we are so happy" which sounds awkward in english but makes perfect sense in tagalog. it actually was the best week i've had in a long time. Tuesday elder basilan started leading the area because it’s our last week together and he is in charge. I did the same thing with elder casilac, it’s a lot more fun as the trainer. Tuesday night we went to the zone leaders house to sleep because i had the meeting on Wednesday in tarlac. I am uploading pictures right now to windows explorer for you to see. Wednesday was so much fun, the meeting we had was a really good time and then we ate at McDonalds afterwards. Around 7 the bamban elders were supposed to come to our house but didn’t show up until 9, I thought they walked but it turned out they worked late and then took a motorcycle. I was seriously worried because they said they were walking but took forever.

Thursday we worked in baracbac, and usually we take a bus but today we walked. I have a couple videos and some pictures of our trek; it was really interesting because nobody really knew where we were going. Today was also the first time it set in that I am actually leaving this week. I might never go back to that place ever again.\

Friday elder bell and I worked in san clemente, and did a lot of work. Then we had a dinner appointment, and they basically got mad at me because we haven't been eating at their house every night. I guess here it is cool if you ask someone to come over and eat, but in America, it looks bad when you invite yourself over to dinner. i wish i would have known that 12 weeks ago, we would have saved tons of money

On Saturday, i thought it was going to suck, but napakaganda pala ang araw! elder bell and i caught a ride with the Roberts to bamban so we wouldn’t have to pay for a tricycle and could hang out while the Roberts did house checks. Elder Basilan was angry the second i saw him, but it had been 24 hours since I talked to him, I could not have possibly done anything to make him angry. i later found out he was mad because one of the members thought he just wanted to go to bamban instead of eating at their house, but we had exchanges planned way before the dinner appointment. So it was just a misunderstanding. he wasn’t actually mad at me, but still in a bad mood. So during lunch i told funny stories and made jokes (like hiding his shoes in our food storage) to make him cheer up. Then I gave a workshop to our branch missionaries, and it went much better than expected. I could be elder basilans companion forever if every day was like today.

Sunday was my last Sunday in san clemente, but I’m not too sad about it, it hasnt quite set in that i'll be leaving. Later on Sunday evening we went to the Narne's for FHE (I’ll send pictures) and it was definitely my last day there. it was hard to say goodbye but there's nothing i can do about it now.

This week wasn’t too bad, I only worked with Elder Basilan one time this week, I worked with the ZL's and with Elder Bell.   But this wasn’t too bad of a week. Nothing special happened in San Clemente, but we had rain 3 days this week (which hasn’t happened since November). I got your letter today about DJ, that’s way awesome for him.  I don’t know why, but the computer won't recognize my camera or the SD cards. I’m trying to figure it out but I haven’t found a solution yet. I’ll work with E Basilan Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week. But because it is our last full week together and he is the trainee, he has to plan every day and teach all the lessons. Transfers are Wednesday April 5, so I’m counting down the days.  I have plenty of food, you don’t need to worry about that :)

I withdrew some money today, but I don't know how much I have total that I can withdraw.  i took out 2000 pesos, so I’m not sure what that is in American money.  i took it out because Wednesday i have a meeting in Tarlac, and we'll probably eat at a big restaurant like McDonalds or pizza hut (that’s the equivalent of sol rio or johhny carinos in idaho falls) after the meeting, and our budget every month doesn’t allow to eat that nice of food. 

It’s for the mission president and all the district leaders and zone leaders in the mission. They have a meeting every other month, but I’m not too sure what happens there, I’ve never been to one.  Elder basilan will work with someone else, I’m not sure where.  Last time they had conference in English and in tagalog, but I might be in a new area by the time we get conference, so I’m not sure what it
will be like there, but I imagine it’s the same. One of our investigators is the younger brother of two of our recent converts, but he doesn’t like to go to church. It’s especially hard because their dad works in manila and their mom is always 'too busy'. But he's super smart and understands everything we teach him. One of our less actives we've been teaching convinced her husband to start taking the lessons, he is super receptive to everything we teach, and he's come to church a bunch of times already.  


Mahal Kita 


Elder Williams

3-19-12 milestone

A year ago today Elder Williams received his mission call.  It has been a year full of bitter sweet emotions.  Looking back we would not want him anywhere else and we are thankful for his success and growth.  I have joked many times I prayed for him to go to Arizona. (I still would have liked that!)

 

This week was a lot better. Elder Basilan and i just needed a break from each other, and we were able to do that this week. On Wednesday we had zone conference and i got to see a ton of other missionaries plus President and Sister Martino, it was so much fun. 

We played basketball with the Bamban elders, that helped a lot because Elder Basilan loves basketball. As of today, I only have 17 days left in San Clemente before transfer announcements, and this week will be just as busy as last week.

At zone conference they taught about faith and shared tons of examples from the scriptures about regular people who moved mountains and rivers and destroyed prisons because of their faith, and President Martino explained there's no reason any of us could not reach that point with our faith. I didn’t really talk to him very much, just shook his hand and said hi.

Church yesterday was pretty good, right before our branch president started the meeting, he told me I was one of the speakers, and it was up to me to choose what i wanted. it was my last opportunity, I wish I would have had more time to prepare to make it better, but it wasn’t too terrible.

Friday and Saturday our work sucked. Generally speaking, the Filipino people are very united with each other, and we noticed that in a bad way this weekend. Friday we went to Casilagan, which is an area that we can teach up to 7 lessons in two hours because there are so many less actives and part members there. This Friday, they had some sort of event at the school, and the former branch president (who usually works with us twice a week and is a huge help in that area) went to manila. so we only taught one lesson in the time we were there. Saturday was opening night for the area basketball tournament, and they had a parade that went through every barangay in the area. Every basketball team had a parade float, and all the sponsors did as well. So we didn’t get a lot of work done on Saturday, we saw almost no people.  

Zone conference sounds great.  What did you talk about at church?  Do they use the Elders often as speakers?   I bet that was frustrating to go somewhere and not get any work done.  They are really into basketball aren't they?  

I talked about prayer. Mostly because I’ve prayed more in these last two or three weeks than I ever have in my entire life.  In our branch, we speak every 3rd Sunday of the month, but they always tell us at least a day in advance what our topic will be. Me and our branch president, President Tabelisma were the only speakers yesterday.

 I thought when I got here everyone would be into soccer, but almost nobody plays soccer. I have heard the reason they play basketball is because in places like Baguio or Manila they don’t have any space to put a lot of soccer fields, but you can play basketball in an alley way. So basketball has become a huge thing all over the country

3-12-12

Thanks to my FABULOUS brother we are now able to get video from Elder Williams.  I love that he understands computers so well.

Elder Williams sent a long email this week, unfortunately I cannot share very much with you.  Enjoy the video and pictures!

How is your foot doing?

It’s great. The swelling has gone down so there's nothing weird about it now. the strangest part is that i never felt any pain in my foot, it just swelled up to an incredible size

I was actually a little worried about it!  Glad it is doing better.  Do they really eat dog there?
What kind of activities do you have planned for this week?  OHHHH!!! Holden stopped by yesterday and wanted us to tell you hello

Tell Holden hi! What is he up to lately?? How is everything with him?

They usually only eat dog if it dies and a bunch of drunk guys think it would be great to cook it up and eat it. But occasionally people will kill and eat a pet dog for a special occasion, such as new years eve.

Tomorrow night the Bamban elders are coming over because we have zone conference on Wednesday, then Thursday we have exchanges with the zone leaders, Friday we have a missionary fireside in Bamban, then Saturday a service project in Bamban as well.  Elder Bell is in Bamban, our district, so I get to see him pretty often. Truthfully, it’s been a very hard and trying 12 weeks, so I’m glad I get to see Elder Bell sometimes. 

I’ve never had dog, and probably never will. I heard a story about one of the inactive members eating dog, and now he's in the hospital with rabies. But I’m sure he was drunk when it happened. 

President Martino will be there on Wednesday to talk to us and I'm sure to teach us something wonderful,  him and Sister Martino are the best. They’re as close to perfect as anyone I’ve ever met.

8 months!

This week has been... better.  I learned this week that elder Basilan used to be a video game tester. Also, Friday night we had a brownout, that was pretty cool. It was so hot we couldn’t sleep that night because the electric fans didn't work. And brownouts are actually very common, that's the second one this week and the 8th since I've been here.

On Saturday I got about 5435436612 bites from an ant, I’ll email a picture in just a second, my foot got all swollen, but I never felt any pain.

I taught 23 lessons this week, which is really low for the area. President wants us to get 40, but we usually average between 29 and 32. The weather here is just hot. I complained about it when I first got here, and in January it was relatively cold, but this is hotter than a human body should ever be subjected to on a daily basis.

We generally eat rice and whatever we bought at the palengke that week. Basically it depends on what they are selling at the market.

Our district usually meets twice a week, once on p-day and once for district meeting. The culture and I get along really well. I actually don’t want to come home because I already almost died adjusting to one culture, I don’t want to have to do that again.

mahal kita nanay (I love you mom)

(p.s. tell McKenzie happy birthday. I sent her a gift).