Happy Birthday Elder Williams!

They love each other so much!

We still do not have any new pictures because Elder Williams lost his camera.   It is sad not to get fun pictures to see the new adventures he has every week.  Today he will go buy a new camera so hopefully next week we will have more pictures to share.  I am going to post pictures of his birthday last year. His only request last year was to hike to upper palisades lake.  This was 2 weeks before he left on his mission and one of the last family  trips we took before he left.  Friday he will turn 20, to celebrate his birthday we are going to hike the upper lake again. Last year the trail was flooded and we had to wade through freezing cold water that came up to our thighs.  I am hoping for better conditions this year.

A boy and his dog...priceless

 

Dear Family,

School is just starting here, it’s weird because every school in the Philippines requires uniforms and they just look silly. This week was pretty good, I’m not sick anymore!!

Monday I got to hang out with Elder Bell because we had zone conference in Cabanatuan last Tuesday and they came to Cabanatuan Monday morning. It was so much fun. We just talked about how much we miss Camiling Zone and our last area.

Tuesday we had zone conference that was so cool. Tons of missionaries showed up, 5 of the 11 zones in the mission were there, the other zones were Wednesday and Thursday. I also saw elder Casilac for the last time on Tuesday; he goes home on the 25th. I can’t believe he’s already going home, when we were companions he was just over a year

Wednesday was cool, at like 7:45am our water in the entire apartment got shut off. After a small investigation, we realized we hadn’t seen a water bill in two months. So our laundry nanay offered to ask the landlord while we looked in the house. Both times the water company gave it to our landlord and the bill never found its way to us. So we had to pay two months plus late fee. It sucked really bad because elder Alpon (our kabahay) from ward 5 hadn’t taken a shower yet. They told us the water would come back around 4 or 5. As of Wednesday I have 58 weeks left!

Thursday wasn't anything special, literally nobody was home. In the first 30 minutes of walking, we visited 5 homes and nobody was there.

Friday we went running, it was awesome. I love going to the track because I can just go in circles and don’t have to stay with anyone. We also had companion exchanges because we have two baptisms coming up and the elders in Aduas have one also, so I worked in Aduas (the other side of cabanatuan), it was way fun. They have a flushing toilet! But man their apartment is tiny and so incredibly hot.

Saturday we went to Kaingin, that’s the bukid area, its super-layo. We went because there is this old lady out there whose husband died a few years ago on June 9, so they had a celebration. We just ate pancit canton and mangoes, it was pretty good. I love the mangoes here.

Sunday it rained so much our street turned into a deep enough river to sweep away a small animal, so we left the house kind of late after lunch.

P.S. did you get a facebook friend request from Gilbert?  I told him to add you.

Also, what am I going to do about college? I know that’s a long time away but if I remember right I need to submit the application by March.

I didn’t get the package, did you get mine? It should be there any day now

 well my time is up i  have to go now, hopefully you get the package this week! 

I love you!

Elder Williams

Before we left for the hike

Bonding moment with Dad

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