That’s the best story ever! Well at least you know you're in
the right place! Aren’t things like that the best ever?
So guess what, I got made a Zone Leader this week, did you
get a letter from president? This means I get to do even MORE paperwork on
Monday AND take care of missionaries’ problems. So I will send an email but
probably later.And can you send more
face cream in the next package? Also Oreos?
Yeah I got transferred to Guimba zone, but we live in Munoz
City. I don’t know anything about it because Friday we went to the mission home
for a 2 day meeting, I’ve only worked in my area 1 and 1/2 days.My companion is Elder Garcia. He used to be
an AP, but he's really nice. And I'm 100% sure our house is haunted. Elder
Garcia is a Filipino. I'll never get a
companion that isn’t... He's been there 6 weeks already. We are in Munoz branch
2 and yes we are in Guimba zone.
Sometimes we wake up and chairs are
moved around, and once we heard someone playing the broken piano in the back of
our house. Super sketchy.The senior
couple is Sister and Elder Fort, from Washington DC. Man Elder Fort is
way nice!
Elder Freason and Elder Williams back together. They were companions in the MTC
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?
Monday
after we emailed we went to Bugnan with some of the YSA in the branch and the
Dingalan elders. We spent our entire P-day there and then went to President
Riparip's house at 6:00, it was his birthday. We played silly games and ate
sopas. I asked why Filipino's eat hot foods like gotlog and sopas in such a hot
country, nobody could answer my question. They didn't know
Tuesday kind of sucked, ever since conference I really had no desire to work, I
just wanted to keep watching Conference. RJ worked with us, and President
Harolds wife Ruth worked with us. I told her we would meet at our apartment at 2:30,
then we would go ahead of her to an appointment and she would meet us at their
neighbors home where we would teach another lesson (she's not allowed to work side-by-side
with missionaries because she's a girl, but she is allowed to meet us at
someone's house.) So she texted us at 2:50 and said 'ppnta nq' (I'm on the
way). She showed up at 3:15. We also started teaching Nanay again,
her 102 yr old mother died last week. She talked about what happened in the
days and hours before her mother’s death, it was really kind of scary. She was
telling us that her mom saw weird spirits in the house and all kinds of witchcraft,
but she was 102, there's a pretty good chance her body and brain wasn't
functioning at 100% capacity.
Wednesday Elder Bustillo made the best adobong baboy (marinatedpork)ever, it was
really matamis (sweet)but he added
a bell pepper, so it was a bit spicy. I could have eaten all day it tasted so
good. This afternoon we taught a family about the Atonement and they said they'd come to church this week!
Then in the afternoon I was feeling kind of sick and a bit lethargic, so when
we got home I went right to sleep. Hoy naku!(My goodness) What a day.
This morning we had interviews with the mission president, and now everything
has changed. I talked with him and it was great, but then he asked me about
Elder Bustillo and I said he's great, I love being his companion. Then he said
'how's your district doing? Elder Bustillo might be needed in another area.' So
then he interviewed some other elders, and after everyone he called Elders Bustillo,
Kaanui, Tumala, me, and the zone leaders. He mentioned that an emergency
transfer would be happening immediately, Elder Tumala would be my new companion
and Elder Bustillo would be transferred to Bongabon City.
Also we were the 5th emergency transfer he's had to do this month.
So Elder and Sister Lutz drove us to Gabaldon and Elder Bustillo packed, then Elder
Tumala moved in to be my new companion. Friday was even better. The Zone Leaders
needed me to do an interview in Palayan, so Elder Andrus worked in Gabaldon
with Elder Tumala. I did 3 baptismal interviews in Palayan.
Saturday wasn't too bad, we waiting in the morning for Elders Andrus and Tumala
to come to Palayan so Elder Tumala and I could go home, and the two of us
worked in Bugnan. There was not a person in Bugnan who believed that Bustillo
got transfered, because every time we have an exchange that's what we tell
them. So really it’s our fault. Then Nanay G got mad at me because she just
automatically assumed I was fighting with Elder Bustillo so that’s why he got transferred.
Sunday was Elder Tumala's birthday, and we got punted everywhere we went. Then we
ended the day with sopas at President Someras house, and the 2nd counselor
in the branch, Loreto Garcia, announced that he and Jennylyne DeLosSantos, the
primary president, would be getting married. Nobody that was there believed them;
even now it’s hard to take in. Sa bagay(inmatters), the're
both young and Jennylyne just got back from her mission last march.
Anyway my time is up so I’ll
talk to you next week.
