11 months....Lost Camera

Are you still there? Sorry we're late, someone thought it would be a good idea to get a bunch of missionaries from other zones together and play basketball, and then they all decided to shower at our apartment because it was so close. Then Elder Lozano went to the hospital because last week he got his pigsa (i don’t know the English of that) removed, so today he got the stitches pulled out.

That is crazy about your companion is he doing okay?  Was it his appendix? 
Right now I have Heather and Maddie over here at our house.   So have you grown at All?

haha no not his appendix. It was on his face. Not a zit, the bigger one.

I don’t know if I have grown, I don’t really have a way to check that at all. I lost tons of weight the last few weeks because I was throwing up and had diarrhea. What are Heather and Maddie doing there?

p.s. I withdrew about 3000 pesos last week. Not because I need all of it but I needed a little personal money and I get charged 200 pesos to withdraw so I took out a bunch

I’m not sick anymore, I’ve been fine since about Wednesday, but I think I’m getting lactose intolerant, which totally sucks. This has been a good week, but I feel like it dragged on forever.

Tuesday we had DL/ZL meeting with President Martino, it was super awesome. I love meetings with President Martino. They fed us super delicious lunch, but I don’t know what it was called. Then later that evening I threw it all up during nightly planning. Wednesday was super cool; we were teaching this less active in our ward that is like 22 and wanted to talk to us because he is having some word of wisdom problems. He lives in the only bukid (Field) area in our ward boundaries. So we had a lesson in the middle of this field, because he wanted to be away from everyone. It was super cloudy and I was worried our lesson would get ruined by the rain. Just seconds after the closing prayer, it starting raining harder than I've ever seen in my time here. probably the coolest thing that happened this week.

Saturday we had a one day mission with the youth and some relief society to reactivate the inactive, and I got paired up with the first counselor in the bishopric, he's super rich; we drove around in a car. it was weird, I haven't been in a car in almost a year. then we ordered food at this super super nice restaurant to take back to the church, that was also a bit weird, like I wasn't in the Philippines anymore.

I wont upload pictures for 2 reasons:

1. I sent a package last week with the memory cards in it

2. I think I lost my camera

 

I have no idea what happened to my camera, I can’t think of anywhere I could have left it or anything I could have done. One day I went to get it and it was just.... gone. But there weren’t too many pictures that I lost, because I sent all the memory cards home and had the new card in the camera.

I can probably buy one here, but I’m not sure how much they are or how good of quality they are. I will try to find a rechargeable one if they have them here.

well my time is up i will talk to you again next week.i love you!
Elder Williams

May 27

I got an email from Rowland today, he skyped his family two weeks ago for the last time. I can’t believe he is almost going home. He also can’t believe I’m almost at one year, he said it feels like I just started. Are there really tons of people moving in the ward? Where is everyone going? How is the ward doing? Its okay here, our bishop doesn’t really do much, and he rarely even shows up on time. I don’t know why the church is so different here compared to America, but if the missionaries were pulled out most wards and branches would just fall apart. That’s so weird that school is out. I feel like time has stopped because the seasons have been generally the same for the last 12 months of my life. It's... weird...

That’s a good idea to have a big backyard for the dogs when you move . Man I miss the heck out of Star Valley.  The new senior couple got here this week, The Lutz's from Weston, Idaho. Elder Lutz told me his grandfather is buried in the Lincoln Cemetery. The Lutz are great but man they seem so old.  I actually got all those letters from February! The one with grandpa’s letter! What happened is they got sent in Feb, so arrived here in March. In March I was still in Camiling zone, so they got to Camiling in April. By April I was in Cabanatuan, so I got them last week. 

My stomach is feeling better, I think the problem was I was just thirsty all the time so I’d drink cold water, and then not eat because I was so thirsty. Then I’d throw up because my stomach had no food but it was full of cold water. Things are better now, but not yet back to normal.  No I won’t upload pictures; I sent the package last week with the SD cards and have no new pictures to send from this week. Friday was incredible, Elder Nelson came to Angeles to speak to us, it was the coolest thing ever. He shook every one of our hands, and as I walked towards him, if felt... something. It would be like if they made a space heater that just radiated the spirit, that’s what it was like walking towards him. Seriously the coolest thing ever. also there’s this really cool member,  who helps us out a lot. He felt bad that I was throwing up and not feeling well so he bought me a bunch of apples (they're not cheap here, either). Friday we went to Angeles and when we got back to Cabanatuan I was super thirsty so I drank a bunch of water and ate some food then threw it up like 20 minutes afterwards. But things are good now, I had a hamburger this morning (super delicious) and it’s just fine.  I also decided we should come another time to the Philippines, I think by the time my two years are up I’ll want to come home so bad I won’t want to stay any longer. I would love to keep talking but my companion said we have somewhere to go I think we're gonna visit a less active member so I'll just talk to you next week. I love you!

sick

Sorry we're late today, we went jogging and Elder Lozano fell asleep as soon as we got home. 

Well I didn’t really run today. I actually didn’t do much work this week either. I have been feeling incredibly sick. I have diarrhea for sure and I go to the bathroom like every 20 minutes. Thursday we didn’t leave the house because Elder Lozano and Ralph (our ward mission leader) told me I looked really sick. It’s only been a week and people have already mentioned I’m losing weight. Now I feel okay and yesterday wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t run, I just walked around the track a few times. I hate walking; I don’t know how old ladies do it all the time.

Did you eat something that made you this sick?

Yeah things are better. I don’t know what made me sick but it sucked. Did I tell you about the Indian guy I met this week?  He just walked up to me and elder Montierth on the street and starting speaking incredibly well in English, but he was super sketchy. He said things like "I'm a behind the scenes kind of guy. I am faceless, but priceless." and "So let’s cut to the chase. Do you catch my drift?" He told us to come to his house but gave us vague directions and said he doesn’t have a cell phone. "I have no cell phone, I'm a drifter." We are definitely not going back. I wonder if things like that happen in America?  This would be the best country ever to be a drifter. Things are dirt cheap, and if you were in Baguio City or Aurora Province the weather would be perfect year round. Plus nothing is regulated here; you can do basically anything you want.

I won’t download pictures because I put all the sd cards in a package and I’ll send it later today. 

So this week our Ward Mission Leader left on his mission to Cagayan De Oro, we had a big party for him at the church and his mom cried the whole time. She asked if he could wait until next year to go (this was the night before he left for the MTC.) I kept trying to tell her how fast it goes but she was having a hard time. Can you believe it’s almost been one year?

 hey my time is up so i will talk to you again next week. start looking for the package in a few weeks/ i love you!