Geeeeze. I am a tad in shock of those pictures. First off- how is it possible for us to have that much snow? Second off- how is it possible that snow is not still on the drive way?
I'm sure Dad wasn't do much about that , so Mom- kudos on a nice black drive way! And third... that trapeze picture was ridiculous , ahah. I wonder how scared you were , Mom , and how hard Courtney was laughing. That's not something everyone can say they've done , ha. I doubt I'd do that.. I'm not a big fan of heights.
Quick Note- tell June she better write me soon! No letter two weeks in a row isn't acceptable , and please tell her to let Dagan know that I can't write him back through email :\ but if I can get his address I'd love to send him a letter.
ALSO! New Segment I'm installing in this week's letter.. maybe next week's too.
BACKWARDS CULTURE TIME!
- First this week. Fun Fact- The word " ho " here is incredibly respectful. I kid you not. It's like a step down from po which is equivalent to sir or ma'am.
So that was BACKWARDS CULTURE TIME!!
Sooooooooooooooooo about my week. Today I'm in San Carlos with a Zone Leader because my companion and his companion are going home next week and so they're at a "career workshop" in Dagupan. I guess learning how to get a career when they get home, not really sure. So we've been hanging out here today and I've bought some cool stuff for the family. I'm going to amass a lot of stuff and then send it home in a few months. I've already got some stuff I'm excited to send home.
So highlights of the week- not too too many. We've had a crazy busy week , like I said last time , so didn't have that much time to work. Still got a lot of lessons in and a few New Investigators which is always awesome. Tuesday was District Meeting , so we didn't get home until like 4 or 5. Wednesday we had to leave the area at 3:30 to go do Baptism Interviews for Bayambang in Bayambang. Thursday we had Weekly Planning Session until 2 , Friday we had to help the Warding Elders move in until 12 and then I went on splits in San Carlos with the other Zone Leader. And Saturday we had to attend a wedding and two baptisms , so didn't get home until 5. So... so much time spent not in our area. The lessons we did teach , though , went pretty well- as always. Really , we haven't had that many investigators lose interest in us.. only progress , ha. It's been a blessing. But the best part of the week came last night. So our baptism we had at the beginning of this transfer was Rafael Tulagan. He was found because originally his wife was referred to previous missionaries. So they had taught her a few times , and then she lost interest and didn't care for the lessons anymore. But her husband was kind of listening and ended up being the focus after she stopped being there for the appointments. So they taught him for about 6 weeks and then we baptized him. So after he was baptized , I was in the area now , we went back a few times to visit him and see how he was doing , because you need to do that obviously. And his wife was there for the last one or two times of us teaching and she really started to like us. So, our focus then switched to her and she allowed it. She kept being there for appointments and eventually started giving us marianda , which means like snacks or something polite you serve to people when they come over. Which is crazy , because my comp says he's never gotten one there before. So we taught her about 4 times and everything was so positive and we committed her to baptism a week ago and she said yes. That was awesome. Then we came back a few days later and she wanted us to push up the day into February , because her date stands at March 5 right now. So we were like if you meet the requirements , there's no problem with that- we just wanted to give you a little time. That was awesome. But last night, our appointment was at 7 , we get there and she already has dinner for us.. ha. She's so nice. So we eat dinner and then we only had like 20 minutes left before our next appointment , so we were like um what should we teach. Elder Lefler goes , "bahala ka". Which means like you're the boss. So I'm like umm maybe faith , so I look through Ether 12 real quick , thinking I'm going to share 12:6 , which.. Mom + Dad .. common verse. As you know , obviously. But I read a little further and was like woah Ether 12:12 is waay cool. Show my comp , and he's like wow I'm writing that down. And so as we read it and he's talking about it and entire flood of thoughts come to my mind about what to say. So , as the missionary I am , I wrote it all down as fast as I could before I forgot. And then after my comp spoke I did as best I could to translate all of my thoughts into Tagalog and they came out waay clear. Very , very clear. Because Ether 12:12 is about the correlation between miracles and faith , I said something along the lines of reading the book of mormon is a miracle. Because as we read it we feel the spirit. We have feelings from READING A BOOK. I didn't yell that , ha , but that was my point. That our body triggers emotions because of something external telling us what we are reading is of God , is of a power outside of our comprehension. Now my words could never be that deep , so I phrased it much differently. But I was saying how we must first have faith. Because as it says in 12:12 , there's no way to see a miracle if we lack faith. That miracles ARE free but REQUIRE faith , and all of that plus much much more came all at once to me as I was reading this verse and trying my best to write it all down. So. That was awesome. But not even the best part. We then finished our lesson and as we were walking out and thanked them a million times and told them magandang gabi and all , as we are about to get on the tryke (because me and E. Lefler had to head to San Carlos last night to sleep at the ZL's house because of the career workshop they had to leave way early in the morning) , their little son runs out and goes 'Elder White, sulat para sa iyo' which means , Elder White here's a note for you. So I told E. Lefler because we figured it was for both of us and we're like oh that's awesome , we'll read it when we're on the bus. So as we're waiting for a bus by the highway to pick us up I remembered it and opened it up and started reading. And I was just blown away by it. Here I'll write what it says.
Elder,
Thank you for everything!!!
Thank you for walang sawang pagtuturo niyo sa akin , tungkol sa Book of Mormon...
I thank God because naging masaya ako this past few days...
Thank you because of you, Elder White. Ang nagbigay ng liwanag sa aking isip!!...
Ngayon ko lang nararamdaman na ang Book of Mormon ay totoo...
So again and again... , thank you and God bless!!!
-Mayette
It was the highlight to my week! Haha. I'll translate. Roughly says.
Thank you for everything , thank you for not giving up on teaching me about the book of mormon. I thank God because I have been so happy these past few days. Thank you because of you , Elder White. You have given light to my thoughts. Now I feel that the Book of Mormon is true. So again and again , thank you and God Bless!
I was so so happy! Hahaha. I've wondered so much lately even what our relationship was , because when my companion goes home next week I'll get a new companion and if there's not a strong bond between me and the people I'm teaching the ties can be unloosed so easily. But when I read that I was so so so happy. Oh man , I LOVE missionary work. Nothing , nothing , nothing is more joyous than this work. I think about stuff back home all the time. How good life is back home. How much I miss hot showers , and driving , and different food , and my friends and family. But nights like last night are just thousands and thousands times better than home. Just seeing the change in somebody from a BOOK and from a couple of americans explaining what that book means to them , is just incredible. In the end it is just a BOOK. But because that book is true , that means every word inside the blue covers is true. Which means every promise and every story and every event is true. And when they hear that and really really UNDERSTAND the significance of that , true true change occurs. Pure doctrine changes everything. It kills me when people here ask us to not meet with them or don't show up for appointments because they're not interested. But when I get a note like that and see the change in somebody it makes everything worth it. Every sacrifice. I feel like the motto of my time is Alma 26 , because no chapter in the book of mormon hits me harder than that. But the last few verses especially. The last 3. But when he says "there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we." Oh man! I'm convinced that is an impossible scripture to understand without the experience of missionary work. Without being able to witness the joy in someone's eyes when coming unto the gospel and the joy you feel when you bring them there. I think she's going to be the first person I baptize here , and I am so happy for that chance.
The people here are just incredibly humble , and I love every minute of my time. Every spider I have to hunt down and kill in my dungeon of an apartment , every mystery meat I see staring up at me from a member's dinner. This work exhausts every bit of you mind body and soul , but I would feel so empty without it. Mom and Dad , THANK YOU for not letting me be stupid , hahaha. Thank you for always pushing me in the smart direction.
I need to get going , but here's the last couple things I wanted to add. I heard this talk last night that is absolutely incredible. Please search it. Youtube , google , doesn't matter. But listen to it , don't just read it. It's called The Mortal Christ by Jack Christenson. Odds are you've already heard it or read it , but if not go search it out. Wow. I've grown a testimony of too many things to count , here on a mission. But if there was a top two it would be the Book of Mormon and Christ. Together that can change the life , mind , personality of any person on Earth. When someone truly understands this message and His Gospel... miracles occur. And no book can bring about more meaning to our lives than this book. It shouldn't be compared , but it really is so so so much better than the Bible. The Bible has caused so much trial through other religions in this world , but the Book of Mormon is so simple and so unique , that there's no way people can sit down and change doctrine and meanings to their liking. This Gospel is simple , and people have distorted it into the most confusing thing possible. That's a shame.
So that's all I have for this week. The rest of my week just didn't really compare to last night so I didn't feel like writing too much about it , haha. Mom and Dad , start sending me your favorite verses in the Book of Mormon. I'm way curious what they are. I already told you that Alma 26 is mine. Specifically 12 and the last three.
Love you all and miss you all.
Talk to you next week!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Hello hello hello hello hello!
So I past my three month mark last Wednesday. Very strange feeling. And I've been away from the MTC for one month today.. it definitely does not feel like that. It felt like I had been in the MTC for about 2 years by the time I left , so a month having already gone by is pretty mind blowing. Mom- I'm gonna answer your questions first , then write. So that way I don't repeat anything , ha.
1. I think I'll send home my planners after a little bit , not sure yet , maybe I'll just keep amassing them. But it's fun to keep your planners because it fills up after one transfer. But a regular day.. I'll try and map it out because everyday is different. Wake up at 6:30 , exercise or just breakfast until 7:15ish , shower , get dressed , at the desk by 8. Personal Study from 8 - 9 , Companion Study from 9 - 10 , Language Study from 10 - 11. Lunch at about 11:30 , then usually try and be out the door at noon. Now that's a day with no meetings or anything else , and that is SO rare. This next week we only have one of those days , and that's Friday. But then from Noon until 9 it's scheduled appointments , OYMs (just random talking to people) , following up on past commitments with people , so just dropping by their house , and whatever else we need to do. We try and work from noon until 9 , come home at 9 , plan until 930 , then dinner until 10, then asleep by 1030. You're exhausted by 9 because you're walking alllll day long and our area is big.. by foot at least. So that's a regular day! Well.. regular as in without meetings and stuff. It's hard to describe what it's like with meetings but for this week , today we have Pday until 6, tomorrow is district meeting which takes up half the day because of travel and then the meeting, wednesday we have baptism interviews to do in bayambang- so that's a half day, thursday we have to do weekly planning which takes up 3 hours after lunch, and saturday we have a ward reactivation thing and a baptism in bayambang.. so another 1/4 or 1/2 day. and sunday is church and meetings so work doesn't start till 3... It seriously is so annoying. It takes a lot of patience because meetings cut out half your week and it kills you because you just want to work because your numbers look so pathetic. So you just kill yourself during the time you do have to work.
2. Companion's name is Elder Lefler- as you know- and he's from Washington but his family moved to Orem, UT this past August. He's really nice and we get along really easily. He goes home at the end of this transfer, which we're starting week 4 right now and a transfer is 6 weeks long. So he has about 2 weeks left in the mission.. crazy. He works hard in the field and when we push each other we get really good numbers and do some really good work. So it's been going really well.
3. I'll be in Malimpec for at least another transfer, probably two more. So a total of 3 or 4 1/2 months. I'm pretty excited about that , because when I came in I really couldn't understand anything or say anything. And now I still can't say much but I can understood most everything... so it'll be way exciting to leave the area having a decent ability to speak the language. And for the most part the people are awesome. There's a few families that are so so awesome and the rest love us too. Also this area is so beautiful. Sunsets are ridiculous and just the surrounding is so so cool. I've described it for you a bit , but it's hard to say what it's like. I'm just in the boonies , ha. A long dirt road , lots of trees and dirt , lots of really really really really poor houses and just super humble people. It's pretty incredible. Like I think about our house and our area back home , and honestly after two years that is going to be so so so hard to adjust to. Much more difficult I know that it was coming here. ha.
4. Yeah , me and Tanner usually say something every time we email so we still keep in touch. And yeah , he's family so I'm allowed to email him.
5. Just tell her I sent her a letter last week , and they said it takes 10 days to get to the states. So tell her to expect it , probably a week from today!
6. People are good for the most part. A good number think they're really funny and yell 'Hey Joe!' at you , which is the most obnoxious thing in the world. It's supposed to be like demeaning or something , it's just teenage stuff.. but adults do it a lot too.. so.... It's fine though , and it just gives you an opportunity to walk up and talk to them and they're shocked when you do.. ha. But for the most part the people are really sweet. So poor , ha , but incredibly humble. The members too. There's a couple that I don't particularly care for, but as my understanding of Tagalog has gotten better there's not much they can find anymore to be annoying about. The bishop is a really nice guy but he expects us to spend such a ridiculous amount of time rescuing less actives , so I asked my companion if I can have a talk with him tonight or some time about my time here in the area.... Kindly explaining that I wasn't set apart to just go do the ward's job. So that should be good because I would like the bishop to have a good image of me, seeing as I'll be here for a while , and he says he respects good missionaries. So , I'm taking his word for it. The ward is so so funny , though! It's funny because the meetings are just like back home... but so different. That's what's amazing about this church is that you can go anywhere in the world and get the exact same doctrine , opinions , meetings , as anywhere else. It's not one guy preaching his human opinion on doctrine he's spinning.... It's so so hot during church though.. ha. Fans don't do anything. But the meetings are similar to back home just with a pinch of chaos. I love it.
7. No! I have not lost weight, haha. I've put on weight. Tinapay is death. Tinapay means bread in Tagalog. Kindly inform 30 Rock that bread DIRECTLY translates into Tagalog as Tina Fey. Because they have no F's in the Tagalog alphabet so they replace them with P's. Hysterical. But it is so so so so so so good here. I can't describe it. But it costs about 20 pesos to get so much bread, which is less than 50 cents , and it's delicious. I need to ween myself off it , but as soon as I start running in the mornings again I'll get back down to what I was... ha.
8. Money from back home? Not at all. That's for you guys! Ha , I didn't work all summer to pay for my mission by using it on stuff in my mission.
9. I might be able to print off the emails, but I don't think so. But maybe. haha.
10. Oh yeah- we all have filters in our homes and I have a filtered water bottle. The Church invested a lot of money into research for these filters so I think they're patented by the church. I'll take a picture of it , it's these three (maybe 18" tall) towers that sit next to the sink , and it filters the water through the 3 filters before coming out. So it tastes just fine- but you've gotta replace the filters every so often.
TIME TO TALK ABOUT MY WEEK!
Not too interesting , but some highlights were awesome. So last week was suuuuch a bummer. Our numbers were so low because all of our investigators were gone. So I've made us OYM (Open Your Mouth) every day so much and just ask for referrals from everyone and so they came in a plenty. So this past week we got a ton of lessons and new investigators , and that's an amazing feeling. Last Tuesday an AP worked with us , and so that was really cool. He just worked with us when we got back from Zone Interviews (Pres. Jensen comes to each zone about once a transfer or every two transfers and interviews all the missionaries to see how they're doing) <--- and that's one of the meetings I'm talking about. We have to leave in the morning to get to Bayambang and didn't get home till 5. So only 4 hours to work that day. So that was a cool experience. Wednesday........ oh , regular day. Regular lessons and stuff - nothing too exciting. Thursday we had weekly planning we had to do which took until 2 , but worked for about 6 hours after that and got some good lessons in. We had to leave at 8 though because we had to head to San Carlos and sleep there for the night. I had to catch a van at 6:30 that next morning from San Carlos for Baguio. So that next morning me, Elder Solesbee , and Elder Jolongbayan all got up and caught a van to Baguio to finish our New Missionary Training. In this mission Pres. Jensen likes having the missionaries come back up after 3 weeks to ask questions and explain more stuff. That way we're a bit knowledgeable about what the mission is like and have other questions from what we've experienced. So it was so so fun to see my batch again and be up in Baguio. IT WAS FREEZING. So cold. Compared to the low lands at least (where we are). It's called that because Baguios on this huge hill , so everywhere else in the mission is referred to as the lowlands. But we got some great food too , and were back on the road at 3 to come back. Got back to San Carlos at 8:30 so had to spend another night in San Carlos. Came home that next morning and worked like crazy until 9:30 to make up for lost time the past few days and had our best day in the mission so far. Such good numbers (I keep saying numbers not because the lessons or stuff are numbers to us AT ALL , but because it shows really how hard you work. The more urgent you are with your work the faster you work and the more you can get done in one day. As opposed to being lazy and taking a lot of breaks and just sitting at members houses and stuff.) So that was an awesome day. Yesterday was church and a couple lessons afterwards, but nothing exciting. EXCEPT! We got an IBD yesterday. We baptized bother Tulagan the first weekend this transfer , and his wife was sometimes present. But over the past couple weeks she has started to love having us over and we've turned out attention to her since he was baptized. So we've taught her now a bunch of times and asked her to be baptized yesterday and she said yesssss. So stoked.
That was my week! I apologize but I'm all out of time! I'll answer more questions next week and try and have more time then! The snow looks ridiculous and I'm so jealous. Tell Brandon I still see no news on Apple's stuff, and that's not gonna fly.
I miss you all a lot , but this mission is so much better than being home, ha! Honestly though , so much better. It's going to be hard to come home in 21 months , but I think I'll be ready at the same time. If I keep working at this pace I'll be ready to drop dead by then, ha. Love you all and I'll talk to you next week!
Oh Mom- for what you said about sacrifice.. funny you said that. Helaman 12: 1 - 3 . Just read that the other day.
Love you again,
-Elder White!
So I past my three month mark last Wednesday. Very strange feeling. And I've been away from the MTC for one month today.. it definitely does not feel like that. It felt like I had been in the MTC for about 2 years by the time I left , so a month having already gone by is pretty mind blowing. Mom- I'm gonna answer your questions first , then write. So that way I don't repeat anything , ha.
1. I think I'll send home my planners after a little bit , not sure yet , maybe I'll just keep amassing them. But it's fun to keep your planners because it fills up after one transfer. But a regular day.. I'll try and map it out because everyday is different. Wake up at 6:30 , exercise or just breakfast until 7:15ish , shower , get dressed , at the desk by 8. Personal Study from 8 - 9 , Companion Study from 9 - 10 , Language Study from 10 - 11. Lunch at about 11:30 , then usually try and be out the door at noon. Now that's a day with no meetings or anything else , and that is SO rare. This next week we only have one of those days , and that's Friday. But then from Noon until 9 it's scheduled appointments , OYMs (just random talking to people) , following up on past commitments with people , so just dropping by their house , and whatever else we need to do. We try and work from noon until 9 , come home at 9 , plan until 930 , then dinner until 10, then asleep by 1030. You're exhausted by 9 because you're walking alllll day long and our area is big.. by foot at least. So that's a regular day! Well.. regular as in without meetings and stuff. It's hard to describe what it's like with meetings but for this week , today we have Pday until 6, tomorrow is district meeting which takes up half the day because of travel and then the meeting, wednesday we have baptism interviews to do in bayambang- so that's a half day, thursday we have to do weekly planning which takes up 3 hours after lunch, and saturday we have a ward reactivation thing and a baptism in bayambang.. so another 1/4 or 1/2 day. and sunday is church and meetings so work doesn't start till 3... It seriously is so annoying. It takes a lot of patience because meetings cut out half your week and it kills you because you just want to work because your numbers look so pathetic. So you just kill yourself during the time you do have to work.
2. Companion's name is Elder Lefler- as you know- and he's from Washington but his family moved to Orem, UT this past August. He's really nice and we get along really easily. He goes home at the end of this transfer, which we're starting week 4 right now and a transfer is 6 weeks long. So he has about 2 weeks left in the mission.. crazy. He works hard in the field and when we push each other we get really good numbers and do some really good work. So it's been going really well.
3. I'll be in Malimpec for at least another transfer, probably two more. So a total of 3 or 4 1/2 months. I'm pretty excited about that , because when I came in I really couldn't understand anything or say anything. And now I still can't say much but I can understood most everything... so it'll be way exciting to leave the area having a decent ability to speak the language. And for the most part the people are awesome. There's a few families that are so so awesome and the rest love us too. Also this area is so beautiful. Sunsets are ridiculous and just the surrounding is so so cool. I've described it for you a bit , but it's hard to say what it's like. I'm just in the boonies , ha. A long dirt road , lots of trees and dirt , lots of really really really really poor houses and just super humble people. It's pretty incredible. Like I think about our house and our area back home , and honestly after two years that is going to be so so so hard to adjust to. Much more difficult I know that it was coming here. ha.
4. Yeah , me and Tanner usually say something every time we email so we still keep in touch. And yeah , he's family so I'm allowed to email him.
5. Just tell her I sent her a letter last week , and they said it takes 10 days to get to the states. So tell her to expect it , probably a week from today!
6. People are good for the most part. A good number think they're really funny and yell 'Hey Joe!' at you , which is the most obnoxious thing in the world. It's supposed to be like demeaning or something , it's just teenage stuff.. but adults do it a lot too.. so.... It's fine though , and it just gives you an opportunity to walk up and talk to them and they're shocked when you do.. ha. But for the most part the people are really sweet. So poor , ha , but incredibly humble. The members too. There's a couple that I don't particularly care for, but as my understanding of Tagalog has gotten better there's not much they can find anymore to be annoying about. The bishop is a really nice guy but he expects us to spend such a ridiculous amount of time rescuing less actives , so I asked my companion if I can have a talk with him tonight or some time about my time here in the area.... Kindly explaining that I wasn't set apart to just go do the ward's job. So that should be good because I would like the bishop to have a good image of me, seeing as I'll be here for a while , and he says he respects good missionaries. So , I'm taking his word for it. The ward is so so funny , though! It's funny because the meetings are just like back home... but so different. That's what's amazing about this church is that you can go anywhere in the world and get the exact same doctrine , opinions , meetings , as anywhere else. It's not one guy preaching his human opinion on doctrine he's spinning.... It's so so hot during church though.. ha. Fans don't do anything. But the meetings are similar to back home just with a pinch of chaos. I love it.
7. No! I have not lost weight, haha. I've put on weight. Tinapay is death. Tinapay means bread in Tagalog. Kindly inform 30 Rock that bread DIRECTLY translates into Tagalog as Tina Fey. Because they have no F's in the Tagalog alphabet so they replace them with P's. Hysterical. But it is so so so so so so good here. I can't describe it. But it costs about 20 pesos to get so much bread, which is less than 50 cents , and it's delicious. I need to ween myself off it , but as soon as I start running in the mornings again I'll get back down to what I was... ha.
8. Money from back home? Not at all. That's for you guys! Ha , I didn't work all summer to pay for my mission by using it on stuff in my mission.
9. I might be able to print off the emails, but I don't think so. But maybe. haha.
10. Oh yeah- we all have filters in our homes and I have a filtered water bottle. The Church invested a lot of money into research for these filters so I think they're patented by the church. I'll take a picture of it , it's these three (maybe 18" tall) towers that sit next to the sink , and it filters the water through the 3 filters before coming out. So it tastes just fine- but you've gotta replace the filters every so often.
TIME TO TALK ABOUT MY WEEK!
Not too interesting , but some highlights were awesome. So last week was suuuuch a bummer. Our numbers were so low because all of our investigators were gone. So I've made us OYM (Open Your Mouth) every day so much and just ask for referrals from everyone and so they came in a plenty. So this past week we got a ton of lessons and new investigators , and that's an amazing feeling. Last Tuesday an AP worked with us , and so that was really cool. He just worked with us when we got back from Zone Interviews (Pres. Jensen comes to each zone about once a transfer or every two transfers and interviews all the missionaries to see how they're doing) <--- and that's one of the meetings I'm talking about. We have to leave in the morning to get to Bayambang and didn't get home till 5. So only 4 hours to work that day. So that was a cool experience. Wednesday........ oh , regular day. Regular lessons and stuff - nothing too exciting. Thursday we had weekly planning we had to do which took until 2 , but worked for about 6 hours after that and got some good lessons in. We had to leave at 8 though because we had to head to San Carlos and sleep there for the night. I had to catch a van at 6:30 that next morning from San Carlos for Baguio. So that next morning me, Elder Solesbee , and Elder Jolongbayan all got up and caught a van to Baguio to finish our New Missionary Training. In this mission Pres. Jensen likes having the missionaries come back up after 3 weeks to ask questions and explain more stuff. That way we're a bit knowledgeable about what the mission is like and have other questions from what we've experienced. So it was so so fun to see my batch again and be up in Baguio. IT WAS FREEZING. So cold. Compared to the low lands at least (where we are). It's called that because Baguios on this huge hill , so everywhere else in the mission is referred to as the lowlands. But we got some great food too , and were back on the road at 3 to come back. Got back to San Carlos at 8:30 so had to spend another night in San Carlos. Came home that next morning and worked like crazy until 9:30 to make up for lost time the past few days and had our best day in the mission so far. Such good numbers (I keep saying numbers not because the lessons or stuff are numbers to us AT ALL , but because it shows really how hard you work. The more urgent you are with your work the faster you work and the more you can get done in one day. As opposed to being lazy and taking a lot of breaks and just sitting at members houses and stuff.) So that was an awesome day. Yesterday was church and a couple lessons afterwards, but nothing exciting. EXCEPT! We got an IBD yesterday. We baptized bother Tulagan the first weekend this transfer , and his wife was sometimes present. But over the past couple weeks she has started to love having us over and we've turned out attention to her since he was baptized. So we've taught her now a bunch of times and asked her to be baptized yesterday and she said yesssss. So stoked.
That was my week! I apologize but I'm all out of time! I'll answer more questions next week and try and have more time then! The snow looks ridiculous and I'm so jealous. Tell Brandon I still see no news on Apple's stuff, and that's not gonna fly.
I miss you all a lot , but this mission is so much better than being home, ha! Honestly though , so much better. It's going to be hard to come home in 21 months , but I think I'll be ready at the same time. If I keep working at this pace I'll be ready to drop dead by then, ha. Love you all and I'll talk to you next week!
Oh Mom- for what you said about sacrifice.. funny you said that. Helaman 12: 1 - 3 . Just read that the other day.
Love you again,
-Elder White!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
THanks so much for those christmas pictures last week- I think I forgot to mention those. I laughed so hard looking at those, and seeing the house felt sooo weird hahaha. Courtney's dog wearing that little coat was hysterical and I'm glad clementines are still going strong. Trevor- I'm glad you and mom can now swap clothes whenever you need, I always thought you dressed a little femmy! So thanks again for those , I love looking at those when I email!
love you all!
-austin
love you all!
-austin
First off- this keyboard is horrible. The R button sticks every time I hit it , so if some words like Rs , I apologize. But it's diving me nuts. Yep , there's one.
SO! This week has been difficult work wise , but that's okay. Heads always up and always looking on the bright side. We only got in maybe 10 lessons this week because every single person in this area EITHER knows who we are , has been taught by former missionaries , or is already a member. And already being a member is the worst situation- because of previous missionaries who go for stats only decided to baptize a ton of people without actually converting them. Thus we get baptisms and then the person never goes to church afterwards. And when we teach them they're like oh it's okay , I'm already a member.. but they clearly have no belief in anything we teach. It's obnoxious. The work goes on, however. I ate goat last night... that was... interesting. It's about 90% fat 9% bone and 1% organs. I'm positive there was no meat in there. The rice is always good though, ha. One second- someone just emailed me.
It was Andrea. So that's crazy to hear about the snow we've got. I do miss it a lot , but I'm quickly getting used to this weather. Andrea for the last time it is not 50 - 70 degrees where I am. For one - your app is for Baguio... I'm NOT in baguio. That city is the coldest city in the Philippines , and two - when you look at your app is when I'm sleeping and that's the coldest time of the day.. hahaha. So stop believing that I'm in some type of tropical resort weather. Humidity is pretty bad , but it'll get worse when I transferred somewhere closer to the water. One second, Andrea emailed back. Oh- also. There are puppies everywhere. I'm just starting to realize this , but there are soooo many dogs around and they all mate so much. There's really no holding back. So I've got a bunch of pictures with adorable little puppies. It's awesome. Haha I really don't know what to say this week. House is still a dungeon, but it's all good because any nicer and I wouldn't feel like I'm in the Philippines. People here are crazy poor and it makes you feel horrible , but they're still so happy. Dang our house is big. Ha. If you've got tile in your house you are welll off. If you have a fridge you are well off. Nobody has hot water , except maybe the super rich - and even clean water is hard to get. Oh- no I'll still be in this area after my comp goes home. It's very rare for both missionaries to be new in an area ( white washing or shotgunning ) and so what will happen is my follow up trainer will be transferred to my area most likely.
Oh, here's some news. After district meeting last Tuesday we went to Shakey's which is this little Italian Pizza type chain here. And a zone leader has a card that gets you a buy one get one free deal. so 8 or 10 of us got 6 very large pizzas for 200 pesos each. That's about 4 - 5 dollars. Oh my gosh I miss music. ahaha , I hear little bits everywhere and they're playing a song I loved before the mission right now in here. It's funny how time lapses work. Like I'm hearing all the songs that got popular the month or two before I left. Even from back in June and July too. Anyways- back to pizza. So there's like 5 of us americans and 5 pinoys and we out eat them by sooo much haha. But its crazy to have american food every once in a while. McD is common but pizza is a bit for spendy. Worth it though.
HEY! Did you ever get my ties? I still need to find some. My mission president gave me a couple , so I've been cycling through 2 ties every week because I don't want to use the other one he gave me , it's really nice.
I went on splits to Bayambang again this week and their building is crazy cool. The chapel is upstairs and you go up stairs and then like out on a balcony and then enter into it. then a small little dance floor / stage combo tihng is behind it. I love the set up , and classrooms and offices are downstairs.
that's awesome that you guys are down in NC right now. How's their house? any spiders? I've got plenty if they want some. And not just daddy long legs. Killed two the other night that could jump , and they were biiiiig. Okay I gotta email my mission president now , so I'll catch you guys next week! Love you all , take care.
-ElderWhite
SO! This week has been difficult work wise , but that's okay. Heads always up and always looking on the bright side. We only got in maybe 10 lessons this week because every single person in this area EITHER knows who we are , has been taught by former missionaries , or is already a member. And already being a member is the worst situation- because of previous missionaries who go for stats only decided to baptize a ton of people without actually converting them. Thus we get baptisms and then the person never goes to church afterwards. And when we teach them they're like oh it's okay , I'm already a member.. but they clearly have no belief in anything we teach. It's obnoxious. The work goes on, however. I ate goat last night... that was... interesting. It's about 90% fat 9% bone and 1% organs. I'm positive there was no meat in there. The rice is always good though, ha. One second- someone just emailed me.
It was Andrea. So that's crazy to hear about the snow we've got. I do miss it a lot , but I'm quickly getting used to this weather. Andrea for the last time it is not 50 - 70 degrees where I am. For one - your app is for Baguio... I'm NOT in baguio. That city is the coldest city in the Philippines , and two - when you look at your app is when I'm sleeping and that's the coldest time of the day.. hahaha. So stop believing that I'm in some type of tropical resort weather. Humidity is pretty bad , but it'll get worse when I transferred somewhere closer to the water. One second, Andrea emailed back. Oh- also. There are puppies everywhere. I'm just starting to realize this , but there are soooo many dogs around and they all mate so much. There's really no holding back. So I've got a bunch of pictures with adorable little puppies. It's awesome. Haha I really don't know what to say this week. House is still a dungeon, but it's all good because any nicer and I wouldn't feel like I'm in the Philippines. People here are crazy poor and it makes you feel horrible , but they're still so happy. Dang our house is big. Ha. If you've got tile in your house you are welll off. If you have a fridge you are well off. Nobody has hot water , except maybe the super rich - and even clean water is hard to get. Oh- no I'll still be in this area after my comp goes home. It's very rare for both missionaries to be new in an area ( white washing or shotgunning ) and so what will happen is my follow up trainer will be transferred to my area most likely.
Oh, here's some news. After district meeting last Tuesday we went to Shakey's which is this little Italian Pizza type chain here. And a zone leader has a card that gets you a buy one get one free deal. so 8 or 10 of us got 6 very large pizzas for 200 pesos each. That's about 4 - 5 dollars. Oh my gosh I miss music. ahaha , I hear little bits everywhere and they're playing a song I loved before the mission right now in here. It's funny how time lapses work. Like I'm hearing all the songs that got popular the month or two before I left. Even from back in June and July too. Anyways- back to pizza. So there's like 5 of us americans and 5 pinoys and we out eat them by sooo much haha. But its crazy to have american food every once in a while. McD is common but pizza is a bit for spendy. Worth it though.
HEY! Did you ever get my ties? I still need to find some. My mission president gave me a couple , so I've been cycling through 2 ties every week because I don't want to use the other one he gave me , it's really nice.
I went on splits to Bayambang again this week and their building is crazy cool. The chapel is upstairs and you go up stairs and then like out on a balcony and then enter into it. then a small little dance floor / stage combo tihng is behind it. I love the set up , and classrooms and offices are downstairs.
that's awesome that you guys are down in NC right now. How's their house? any spiders? I've got plenty if they want some. And not just daddy long legs. Killed two the other night that could jump , and they were biiiiig. Okay I gotta email my mission president now , so I'll catch you guys next week! Love you all , take care.
-ElderWhite
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Kumuuussttaaaa.
So I need to talk about the driving here before I forget. So so so funny. There are no rules here on the road , so anything goes. Which means , and I'm serious , everyone is actually such a good driver. They pass all day long. Maybe I'll take a video of it , but these HUGE buses are like threading the needle as they pass by trikes and jeepneys. Oh man , tricycles. I need to introduce this form of transportation to the US. It consists of a motorcycle attached to a side carriage with a roof on it. Maybe google it. It's amazing. And they pack these things full to get the most money they can. Same with Jeepneys and buses. But they are so good at estimating how much room they have before the oncoming collision happens. Anyways! This week has been pretty good. Not too much to report , really , except we had a baptism on Saturday. I hope he sticks with the church.. he's kind of old. But he wanted to be baptized and has never had any problems with the teachings so.. hopefully! Haha. OH! I confirmed him on Sunday. Haha so I got to confirm and bless him during Sacrament meeting yesterday , in english luckily , but it was way cool. And when we asked him who he wanted to confirm him last saturday he like immediately goes Siya! Which means him , and we were like woah uhh okay haha. Cuz I rarely say anything during lessons , I just bare my testimony or add a quick 2 or 3 minute thing at the end because it's so hard to keep up with the lesson. It takes literally all my mental energy just to listen , understand the words , then translate , then not miss the next thing they say. So because of that when it gets to me to add my 2 cents at the end I have to try and think of what to say and translate into tagalog at the same time... which is so hard. So often times what I say comes out as very broken , haha. But that's okay , I'm learning pretty fast and my ears are getting adjusted to the accents and speed of speech here. Um the memorable things last week... Wednesday was District meeting , so we went up to Bayambang and I got to see Elder Solesbee whose from my batch in the MTC which was a lot of fun. Then bought a sheet so I'm not freezing at night anymore (we have a fan blowing on us , and believe it or not it gets cold because of that ) . Then just taught a bunch of lessons throughout the week. This one family we've been teaching , the Coronia family , I really wanted to progress. It's a mother , father , and two daughters we were teaching. They have a son whose out on a mission right now - so we tried to teach them a bit. The daughters were really interested but the father really didn't want to hear anymore past the first lesson. Problem is , though , that the two daughters had to go back down to Manilla for work so that leaves just the Mother to teach. Which will be hard because she likes the visits , but I'm not sure how much she cares for the lessons. And now it can't just be me and my companion that teach because there needs to be another member or someone else present.
But other than that we're pretty much back to zero for investigators , because everyone here has either been taught or is a member. So finding is really challenging. We spend a decent amount of time trying to get these 75 - 80% inactives back to church. It's a pain because they're always like yeah yeah we'll be there , then come sunday , .... yeah. It's a bummer. But right now I'm just trying to work as hard as I can progressing this language so that I can actually contribute something. My vocab is increasing like crazy , but that doesn't make a bit of difference until I can use that vocab to form sentences that aren't riddled with little mistakes. Again , a bummer.
As for the other details , the Philippines is awesome. The food is pretty good - rice with EVERYTHING , but good thing I love rice. A lot of mystery meats still , but me and my companion mostly just cook gulay (vegetables) meals , so it keeps things really good tasting. Oh man , there's so much cool stuff here that I want to send home haha. But it's crazy expensive , so I may just wait till the end of the mission and carry em all home. Wow I want to ditch these two other suitcases, haha. I realize that I don't need any of this space, haha. Just one suitcase for clothes and that's like it. Vitamins are supplied here (but I use the ones we bought) and you can get meds so cheap that cover anything you need. I can't believe we had to buy all that junk before I came out. A pair of shoes out here is roughly 4 1/2 dollars... so gah. Dad we're going into business when I get back to build homes over here. People need actual homes haha. I'm still waiting a little while to fill up my memory card , so I'll probably send it home at the end of this transfer. OH man - thank you for those christmas pictures , ahahahah. Trev - you still look like a hobo, but I'm jealous haha. The haircut they gave me at the mtc makes me look like a drill sergeant and I hate it ,haha. Oh! and can you tell June and Caitlin that I can't email them :\ sorry. I can only email family , but I can write letters , obviously.
Courtney - don't go to south america , come over here. You'd love it. People love white people, ahaha. Thought hearing "Hey Joe" every time I go into a city is so annoying. They call all americans joe.. because they think all americans are named joe. But these people are so awesome , and insanely nice. And if you can speak their language they adore you. Especially the cultural languages like illokano and pangisinan. The weather has been okay , but it is not 60 - 70 andrea.. hahaa sorry. Humidity + heat = ... sweat all day long. My shirt is soaked by the end of the day , especially since we walk miles and miles all day long haha. Why do I say haha so much? I dk. But I'm in an internet cafe today in Dagupan because I need to come to a national book store to get some things. Lots of stuff to get today.
SO MOM! Um , you can send a package if you want- BUT I won't get it for a whiile. Because they only bring packages down at transfer meetings , which happens every 6 weeks. So if it gets to the Phillies by then (4 weeks) I might get it then. But that'll be so expensive. And there's really not anything I need , thanks tho. Even food , like , ... there's so much food here. I can always use money :P but even that I don't really need. Stuff is so so so cheap. Every week I can get by on 250 pesos of grocery shopping. That equates to roughly 5 - 6 dollars. So , if you want to send feel free - but it will take a while , be super expensive , and may be cheaper over here. I wonder who still works at the market. Oh man , I bet your ipads are so sweet, haha. HEY! If you can , can you sign up my email or Apple email updates about new products and stuff. Just so I can read a little bit about them. I can't print anything off so I would just need like a little update. If you can do that that'd be awesome - OR if brandon can just email me what the specs are and stuff. Tell brandon I plan on living at his apartment after the mission to catch up on movies , and mom I very much want you to teach me how to play piano before I go back to school. But that's all so far away, haha.
Okay. I think that's everything. Thanks for everything you guys , and I miss you all. Seeing Christmas and snow made me incredibly jealous , but not homesick (haha sorry).
Oh , my companion - real fast. He's really nice and a pretty good trainer. (between me and you he's a little trunky) but that's okay. Also he may have found his wife over here , and I hope it doesn't interfere with the work.. but .. I'm trying to keep him in check for his last transfer. It's hard to talk about that with him so close though - so I'll elaborate some other time.
Love you all , and talk to you later!
So I need to talk about the driving here before I forget. So so so funny. There are no rules here on the road , so anything goes. Which means , and I'm serious , everyone is actually such a good driver. They pass all day long. Maybe I'll take a video of it , but these HUGE buses are like threading the needle as they pass by trikes and jeepneys. Oh man , tricycles. I need to introduce this form of transportation to the US. It consists of a motorcycle attached to a side carriage with a roof on it. Maybe google it. It's amazing. And they pack these things full to get the most money they can. Same with Jeepneys and buses. But they are so good at estimating how much room they have before the oncoming collision happens. Anyways! This week has been pretty good. Not too much to report , really , except we had a baptism on Saturday. I hope he sticks with the church.. he's kind of old. But he wanted to be baptized and has never had any problems with the teachings so.. hopefully! Haha. OH! I confirmed him on Sunday. Haha so I got to confirm and bless him during Sacrament meeting yesterday , in english luckily , but it was way cool. And when we asked him who he wanted to confirm him last saturday he like immediately goes Siya! Which means him , and we were like woah uhh okay haha. Cuz I rarely say anything during lessons , I just bare my testimony or add a quick 2 or 3 minute thing at the end because it's so hard to keep up with the lesson. It takes literally all my mental energy just to listen , understand the words , then translate , then not miss the next thing they say. So because of that when it gets to me to add my 2 cents at the end I have to try and think of what to say and translate into tagalog at the same time... which is so hard. So often times what I say comes out as very broken , haha. But that's okay , I'm learning pretty fast and my ears are getting adjusted to the accents and speed of speech here. Um the memorable things last week... Wednesday was District meeting , so we went up to Bayambang and I got to see Elder Solesbee whose from my batch in the MTC which was a lot of fun. Then bought a sheet so I'm not freezing at night anymore (we have a fan blowing on us , and believe it or not it gets cold because of that ) . Then just taught a bunch of lessons throughout the week. This one family we've been teaching , the Coronia family , I really wanted to progress. It's a mother , father , and two daughters we were teaching. They have a son whose out on a mission right now - so we tried to teach them a bit. The daughters were really interested but the father really didn't want to hear anymore past the first lesson. Problem is , though , that the two daughters had to go back down to Manilla for work so that leaves just the Mother to teach. Which will be hard because she likes the visits , but I'm not sure how much she cares for the lessons. And now it can't just be me and my companion that teach because there needs to be another member or someone else present.
But other than that we're pretty much back to zero for investigators , because everyone here has either been taught or is a member. So finding is really challenging. We spend a decent amount of time trying to get these 75 - 80% inactives back to church. It's a pain because they're always like yeah yeah we'll be there , then come sunday , .... yeah. It's a bummer. But right now I'm just trying to work as hard as I can progressing this language so that I can actually contribute something. My vocab is increasing like crazy , but that doesn't make a bit of difference until I can use that vocab to form sentences that aren't riddled with little mistakes. Again , a bummer.
As for the other details , the Philippines is awesome. The food is pretty good - rice with EVERYTHING , but good thing I love rice. A lot of mystery meats still , but me and my companion mostly just cook gulay (vegetables) meals , so it keeps things really good tasting. Oh man , there's so much cool stuff here that I want to send home haha. But it's crazy expensive , so I may just wait till the end of the mission and carry em all home. Wow I want to ditch these two other suitcases, haha. I realize that I don't need any of this space, haha. Just one suitcase for clothes and that's like it. Vitamins are supplied here (but I use the ones we bought) and you can get meds so cheap that cover anything you need. I can't believe we had to buy all that junk before I came out. A pair of shoes out here is roughly 4 1/2 dollars... so gah. Dad we're going into business when I get back to build homes over here. People need actual homes haha. I'm still waiting a little while to fill up my memory card , so I'll probably send it home at the end of this transfer. OH man - thank you for those christmas pictures , ahahahah. Trev - you still look like a hobo, but I'm jealous haha. The haircut they gave me at the mtc makes me look like a drill sergeant and I hate it ,haha. Oh! and can you tell June and Caitlin that I can't email them :\ sorry. I can only email family , but I can write letters , obviously.
Courtney - don't go to south america , come over here. You'd love it. People love white people, ahaha. Thought hearing "Hey Joe" every time I go into a city is so annoying. They call all americans joe.. because they think all americans are named joe. But these people are so awesome , and insanely nice. And if you can speak their language they adore you. Especially the cultural languages like illokano and pangisinan. The weather has been okay , but it is not 60 - 70 andrea.. hahaa sorry. Humidity + heat = ... sweat all day long. My shirt is soaked by the end of the day , especially since we walk miles and miles all day long haha. Why do I say haha so much? I dk. But I'm in an internet cafe today in Dagupan because I need to come to a national book store to get some things. Lots of stuff to get today.
SO MOM! Um , you can send a package if you want- BUT I won't get it for a whiile. Because they only bring packages down at transfer meetings , which happens every 6 weeks. So if it gets to the Phillies by then (4 weeks) I might get it then. But that'll be so expensive. And there's really not anything I need , thanks tho. Even food , like , ... there's so much food here. I can always use money :P but even that I don't really need. Stuff is so so so cheap. Every week I can get by on 250 pesos of grocery shopping. That equates to roughly 5 - 6 dollars. So , if you want to send feel free - but it will take a while , be super expensive , and may be cheaper over here. I wonder who still works at the market. Oh man , I bet your ipads are so sweet, haha. HEY! If you can , can you sign up my email or Apple email updates about new products and stuff. Just so I can read a little bit about them. I can't print anything off so I would just need like a little update. If you can do that that'd be awesome - OR if brandon can just email me what the specs are and stuff. Tell brandon I plan on living at his apartment after the mission to catch up on movies , and mom I very much want you to teach me how to play piano before I go back to school. But that's all so far away, haha.
Okay. I think that's everything. Thanks for everything you guys , and I miss you all. Seeing Christmas and snow made me incredibly jealous , but not homesick (haha sorry).
Oh , my companion - real fast. He's really nice and a pretty good trainer. (between me and you he's a little trunky) but that's okay. Also he may have found his wife over here , and I hope it doesn't interfere with the work.. but .. I'm trying to keep him in check for his last transfer. It's hard to talk about that with him so close though - so I'll elaborate some other time.
Love you all , and talk to you later!
Monday, January 3, 2011
He arrived in the Philippines!
Heeelllllooooooooooooooo
Okay. So. I'm going to start off by saying this is the craziest place I've ever been- ahaha. Also this keyboard is so hard to type on.. I have to like smash down on the keys in order for them to type- so I apologize for mistakes. Alright. I'm in the Philippines. That is NUTS! But this place is awesome, seriously. It's been hot- but not Philippines hot. I have no idea what the temperature is, but today was the hottest day so far for a little while.... I'm in an internet cafe right now in San Carlos, which is South West a couple hours from Baguio. My area is Malimpec and I'm in the Bayambang zone, so not the Baguio zone. Like I said before, not many missionaries get assigned to the Baguio zone- but they did just open up a new area there.. so maybe in the future. But odds are that I'll be here for 2 or 3 transfers. And one transfer is 6 weeks, so I'll be in Malimpec for a while. So my area.. it looks quite literally like most vietnam movies I've seen- ahah. I am in the boonies , like the middle of rice and corn fields in the woods. It's CRAZY. I'm so glad my first area wasn't in a city. It's pretty quiet there and the people around us are so so nice. The area is mostly members, but 75% of which aren't active. It's so funny too, I'll take a picture of it, but there's just a dirt rock road and tons of trees and poor little shacks.. and then BOOM a huge chapel looking as nice as any other. It's hysterical.
I'll tell you about the trip though. We flew from SLC to LAX [as you know] then LAX to Hong Kong [which the airport was so cool] then Hong Kong to Manilla. Manilla wasn't all that hot [I think because it had rained that day and it was still cloudy] but it was huumiidd. To be honest I mostly liked it though.. coming from dry dry Utah it felt kind of good. So at the airport we get through customs and are like alright.. what now. Walk outside and down a ramp and there's the mission president from the Manilla Mission and he gets us a couple drivers. There's 9 of us in this group. The drivers drive us to the bus station.. and we're like okay now what. We thought a missionary was coming down to meet us , but we were wrong. So we finally get on the bus after so much confusion and head up to Baguio. The bus broke down for a couple hours, and Elder Evert ripped his pants on the butt, but we finally made it up to Baguio at like 10. IT WAS COLD OUT. Not really, but definitely cool. So President Jensen met us there with the APs, and we loaded up and went back to the house. After some intro's went to bed. Next day woke up, ate breakfast, and hung out mostly until the Filipinos in our batch got there. This is Thursday, now. They just rode on a bus from the Manilla MTC. We met them, had a little initiation thing with mission stuff, testimony meeting, then dinner and bed. So tired. So jet lagged. Wake up the next morning and load up into a Jeepney. This is a small bus.. basically. Maybe google it, aha. Ride down to.. I forgot, and have the transfer meeting. And I saw FABER! I was stoked. Talked to him for a while then had the transfer meeting. And got my new companion! Elder Lefler! He's from Seattle , so American , and way way nice. Such a nice guy. So then loaded up another jeepney and headed to our area. First stopped at a MacDo (Mcdonalds... its what they call it) and ate , then went to the house. Got to the house, which is just mine and elder lefler.... ahahahaha wow. First thoughts were just like oohhhh my gosh. I took pictures. It's like awesome and scary at the same time. spiders and bugs everywhere, and everything is dirty, ahaha. But it's liveable and that's all that's important. I'll send home my camera card soon for ya. Also the bathroom... ahahah. It's a tiny dungeon. No shower, toilet is creepy, and cant use the sink. to shower you stand up and poor a bucket of cold water over your head. wow. so cold. Anyways, again.. I'll send home the card soon so you can see. Anyways that night we went out and met some members. TAGALOG IS SO HARD. I can't hardly understand anything people are saying, but I expected that. The people are so nice. Saturday we woke up , studied , and had a meal aptmnt with the bishop, but he wasn't home so we ate next door. Rice and.. I think some type of chicken? Basically the fundamental meal everywhere is rice and then some type of ulam. Now ulam is anything on top of rice, usually some type of meat cooked very strange and in strange sauce. After that we walked down the road and this other sister insisted we eat again. So we had rice with lupa. which is sheep. I ate sheep. It wasn't good.. ahaha. The key is to drink water right as you put it in your mouth and swallow it like a pill. Friday and Saturday we had to be indoors by 6 because it was New Years and it's not safe to be outdoors really after that. Alcohol + Fireworks.... Anyways , we taught a lesson after that and it actually went really well. It was this family who has a son on a mission but they aren't members. It's a mom , dad , and two daughters. the lesson went really well, and we asked them to come to church the next day. The oldest daughter couldn't but the mother and daughter said the would. Anyways went home that night and studied and went to bed. Sunday. Woke up and got ready and went over to pick up the family , but they couldn't come [kind've expected] so we walked to church. It's only about a 4 minute walk away. Get inside and the first counselor asks me to introduce myself before the testimony meeting starts. Ahahahahah wow... that was nerve racking. Stood up there and just kind of stumbled my way through introducing myself and bearing testimony for a couple minutes. Went to the meetings and after church had a couple meetings with the ward counsel and ward missionaries and stuff. After church we walked to Lepa which is about 25 minutes away and taught some inactive familes. A couple ward missionaries came with us who are the funniest kids I've ever met. 18 year old kids that are hopefully preparing for a mission. Taught a few lessons [I can't contribute too much yet because I don't have much idea what people are saying! but that's okay]. Then went to the bishops. He made us the filipino equivalent of rotisserie chicken with rice, of course, and it was so good. It's a good thing I love rice and I can stomach most foods or else I'd be in trouble. Talked to him for a while (he's such an awesome guy, and so funny with the elders) then went home. He's probably the wealthiest guy in the area too, which is saying too much though. Poverty is eveerrryywhere here and it's so sad. But people are really happy. So today , woke up , played basketball with some ward missionaries and other kids , then came home , showered , and came to San Carlos. we have to do some shopping here today. And when we went to the bank I saw Elder Solesbee and his companion! Weird , but he's in my batch and came from the provo MTC. Anyways that's been my crazy crazy weekend.
I have an hour to write emails every week , but I have to save 15 for an email to the mission president every week and can only email family :\ . But it sounds like Christmas was awesome and I hate you all for having iPads, ahaha. Oh man. You cannot imagine how different it is here. Maybe you can , you guys went to India. But this is just a whole different world. But little things always bring you back , like when I hear american songs being played. I'm like oh yeah , life outside here does exist. It's crazy though that time here in the field actually goes so much fast. This week has blown by. Also I apologize , but I don't have my address here. It's just the mission home address and then they send letters and packages and stuff down to me from the mission home every weeks through pouch. I think that's all the time I have now , but I hope I answered all your questions - I'm gonna go check right now to see if I did. If i did I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!
Okay. So. I'm going to start off by saying this is the craziest place I've ever been- ahaha. Also this keyboard is so hard to type on.. I have to like smash down on the keys in order for them to type- so I apologize for mistakes. Alright. I'm in the Philippines. That is NUTS! But this place is awesome, seriously. It's been hot- but not Philippines hot. I have no idea what the temperature is, but today was the hottest day so far for a little while.... I'm in an internet cafe right now in San Carlos, which is South West a couple hours from Baguio. My area is Malimpec and I'm in the Bayambang zone, so not the Baguio zone. Like I said before, not many missionaries get assigned to the Baguio zone- but they did just open up a new area there.. so maybe in the future. But odds are that I'll be here for 2 or 3 transfers. And one transfer is 6 weeks, so I'll be in Malimpec for a while. So my area.. it looks quite literally like most vietnam movies I've seen- ahah. I am in the boonies , like the middle of rice and corn fields in the woods. It's CRAZY. I'm so glad my first area wasn't in a city. It's pretty quiet there and the people around us are so so nice. The area is mostly members, but 75% of which aren't active. It's so funny too, I'll take a picture of it, but there's just a dirt rock road and tons of trees and poor little shacks.. and then BOOM a huge chapel looking as nice as any other. It's hysterical.
I'll tell you about the trip though. We flew from SLC to LAX [as you know] then LAX to Hong Kong [which the airport was so cool] then Hong Kong to Manilla. Manilla wasn't all that hot [I think because it had rained that day and it was still cloudy] but it was huumiidd. To be honest I mostly liked it though.. coming from dry dry Utah it felt kind of good. So at the airport we get through customs and are like alright.. what now. Walk outside and down a ramp and there's the mission president from the Manilla Mission and he gets us a couple drivers. There's 9 of us in this group. The drivers drive us to the bus station.. and we're like okay now what. We thought a missionary was coming down to meet us , but we were wrong. So we finally get on the bus after so much confusion and head up to Baguio. The bus broke down for a couple hours, and Elder Evert ripped his pants on the butt, but we finally made it up to Baguio at like 10. IT WAS COLD OUT. Not really, but definitely cool. So President Jensen met us there with the APs, and we loaded up and went back to the house. After some intro's went to bed. Next day woke up, ate breakfast, and hung out mostly until the Filipinos in our batch got there. This is Thursday, now. They just rode on a bus from the Manilla MTC. We met them, had a little initiation thing with mission stuff, testimony meeting, then dinner and bed. So tired. So jet lagged. Wake up the next morning and load up into a Jeepney. This is a small bus.. basically. Maybe google it, aha. Ride down to.. I forgot, and have the transfer meeting. And I saw FABER! I was stoked. Talked to him for a while then had the transfer meeting. And got my new companion! Elder Lefler! He's from Seattle , so American , and way way nice. Such a nice guy. So then loaded up another jeepney and headed to our area. First stopped at a MacDo (Mcdonalds... its what they call it) and ate , then went to the house. Got to the house, which is just mine and elder lefler.... ahahahaha wow. First thoughts were just like oohhhh my gosh. I took pictures. It's like awesome and scary at the same time. spiders and bugs everywhere, and everything is dirty, ahaha. But it's liveable and that's all that's important. I'll send home my camera card soon for ya. Also the bathroom... ahahah. It's a tiny dungeon. No shower, toilet is creepy, and cant use the sink. to shower you stand up and poor a bucket of cold water over your head. wow. so cold. Anyways, again.. I'll send home the card soon so you can see. Anyways that night we went out and met some members. TAGALOG IS SO HARD. I can't hardly understand anything people are saying, but I expected that. The people are so nice. Saturday we woke up , studied , and had a meal aptmnt with the bishop, but he wasn't home so we ate next door. Rice and.. I think some type of chicken? Basically the fundamental meal everywhere is rice and then some type of ulam. Now ulam is anything on top of rice, usually some type of meat cooked very strange and in strange sauce. After that we walked down the road and this other sister insisted we eat again. So we had rice with lupa. which is sheep. I ate sheep. It wasn't good.. ahaha. The key is to drink water right as you put it in your mouth and swallow it like a pill. Friday and Saturday we had to be indoors by 6 because it was New Years and it's not safe to be outdoors really after that. Alcohol + Fireworks.... Anyways , we taught a lesson after that and it actually went really well. It was this family who has a son on a mission but they aren't members. It's a mom , dad , and two daughters. the lesson went really well, and we asked them to come to church the next day. The oldest daughter couldn't but the mother and daughter said the would. Anyways went home that night and studied and went to bed. Sunday. Woke up and got ready and went over to pick up the family , but they couldn't come [kind've expected] so we walked to church. It's only about a 4 minute walk away. Get inside and the first counselor asks me to introduce myself before the testimony meeting starts. Ahahahahah wow... that was nerve racking. Stood up there and just kind of stumbled my way through introducing myself and bearing testimony for a couple minutes. Went to the meetings and after church had a couple meetings with the ward counsel and ward missionaries and stuff. After church we walked to Lepa which is about 25 minutes away and taught some inactive familes. A couple ward missionaries came with us who are the funniest kids I've ever met. 18 year old kids that are hopefully preparing for a mission. Taught a few lessons [I can't contribute too much yet because I don't have much idea what people are saying! but that's okay]. Then went to the bishops. He made us the filipino equivalent of rotisserie chicken with rice, of course, and it was so good. It's a good thing I love rice and I can stomach most foods or else I'd be in trouble. Talked to him for a while (he's such an awesome guy, and so funny with the elders) then went home. He's probably the wealthiest guy in the area too, which is saying too much though. Poverty is eveerrryywhere here and it's so sad. But people are really happy. So today , woke up , played basketball with some ward missionaries and other kids , then came home , showered , and came to San Carlos. we have to do some shopping here today. And when we went to the bank I saw Elder Solesbee and his companion! Weird , but he's in my batch and came from the provo MTC. Anyways that's been my crazy crazy weekend.
I have an hour to write emails every week , but I have to save 15 for an email to the mission president every week and can only email family :\ . But it sounds like Christmas was awesome and I hate you all for having iPads, ahaha. Oh man. You cannot imagine how different it is here. Maybe you can , you guys went to India. But this is just a whole different world. But little things always bring you back , like when I hear american songs being played. I'm like oh yeah , life outside here does exist. It's crazy though that time here in the field actually goes so much fast. This week has blown by. Also I apologize , but I don't have my address here. It's just the mission home address and then they send letters and packages and stuff down to me from the mission home every weeks through pouch. I think that's all the time I have now , but I hope I answered all your questions - I'm gonna go check right now to see if I did. If i did I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
week 9 (2 emails from him!) Mon Dec 27
Haha thank you , and I forgot my planner again! but I guess that'll just give me more stuff to talk about later onz. Um, I think I'll call June at some point tonight, so that's okay- and I think I have more than 30 minutes, so I won't be too too pressed.. but I can't be on there all night, haha. I wonder how much time the calling card you bought me gets. Hopefully enough. So this is my last email from the MTC... I board a bus in less than two hours to take me over to the Philippines. This is quite crazy. I'm so incredibly stoked though. We just finished all our packing and cleaning and what not, so we're just hanging out for the next hour 1/2 before we hop on that bus. I was going to send home the memory card today, but decided to just wait till it was entirely filled. Also I figured you would want my first shots of the Philippines sooner than later. Ah, I'm excited. The heat.. woow pinakamainit. Talaga. But I'm just so excited to be able to study for like 20 straight hours. Gonna put some sleep in there, but the best parts of my day is reading from the Aklat ni Mormon and to be doing that for the next day 1/2 will be awesome. When we land in Hong Kong we then take a flight over to Manilla, then a bus like 8 - 10 hours up to Baguio. Soo I am a long way from my destination, but I'll get there eventually. That's pretty insane that the next email you get from me will be from an area of the world soo far away in a language that I hardly speak, ahaha. Anyways I'll just end so that there's more to talk about later. Hope you all had a really great Christmas, sounds like some bumps, but christmas is christmas when it's with family. also the Ipads helped, I'm sure. My grammar is still decently well...I'm proud of myself. Okay- well talk to you guys later, miss you all
Elder Puti (I keep changing from puti to white.. I feel bipolar)
Elder Puti (I keep changing from puti to white.. I feel bipolar)
week 9 - ready to leave Mon Dec 27
Hello Family.
I'M LEAVING FOR THE PHILIPPINES TODAY! It's kind of hard to imagine, but they tell me it's actually happening- so I think I better believe them. Christmas here was pretty awesome. I'll be honest, it didn't feel like Christmas AT ALL but part of that was really good, because it was centered totally on different things. And I liked that- but very much missed the family. Christmas Eve was so funny, we had a devotional at night and the MTC Presidency spoke to us. During which one of them seperated the entire auditorium into sections and we sang out a 12 days of christmas MTC style song. At first is was kind of strange, but toward the end everyone was screaming and President Smith who is usually really stern started laughing so hard that he started crying. It was so so funny. Doesn't sound like it. But was. Then on Christmas Elder Nelson came! Wow, that man is so so smart. He gave a talk at 2 and then came back for this little Christmas Carol play that these two men put on for us. Then gave a small remark afterwards, then came back on Sunday! But what else for Christmas- the food was pretty bad, haha, but that really can't be helped. Just a lot of packing and study time + I got to start reading the Jesus the Christ- which even the first 15 pages are so good. I'm in Alma 49 right now, so if I can get through Helaman or 3 Nephi by the time I get to the Phillies I'll be so so happy. It takes me forever to get through a chapter though. Oh, also we took so many pictures Christmas Eve and Day, and yesterday- so you'll have a ton of pictures from my friends here at the MTC when I send the Memory Card Home. Yesterday, Elder Nelson spoke to the men in a Priesthood Meeting in the morning, and it was amazing. He spoke about what it means, scriptually, and literally to be an Elder of Israel and his insights were insane. I love takin notez. Anyways, then the rest of yesterday went pretty well and we just had our regular meetings and took pictures with our Branch Presidency and what not. All real good.
Okay: important stuff.
I forgot my planner which has everything I meant to tell you in this email, and my flight plans- so I may write back again in a couple hours. But here's what I remember.
1. THANK YOU BRANDON FOR THE GLASSES. So nice if you and they're awesome. Fit really well. Haha, no one could tell the difference between these and my old ones for a while though. Also- tell him he better start sending me Apple news as soon as he gets it. I heard about the iPad gifts, and I got quite excited. So once again, thank you thank you. And thank you mom for all your packages and everything, they've seriously been so awesome.
2. Yes- I got Courtney's DearElder last week, just forgot to respond. And I was leaving today, so thank you anyway for the food but I'm about to go to a country with amazing fruit and rice finally, and I am so excited for that.
3. Vicky sent me a package! That was so nice of her, and I didn't get her email or addres so please thank her for me.
4. Flight Plans- I leave the MTC 4:30 Utah time, plane leaves SLC for LAX at 8:11 and I think I get into LAX around 9:30'ish? My plane leaves LAX at midnight sooo just do out the time zone differences and that's when I'll be phoning home. I might have a change in SLC for a small convo- and I might have more than just 30 minutes. So maybe expect one at like 7pm utah time and maybe 10pm L.A time. GET EXCITED.
5. I can't remember much more, so I'll probably write another email later on today. Did you all get my package I sent home? Probably not- that sucks, but hopefully it at least comes today.
I really can't believe I'm leaving today, but I'm so excited. I know the language an okay amount- but I know when I get there everything I learned will amount to nothing or at least the first month, haha. Also the heat.. oh my the heat. They say with humidity on most days it feels about 105 - 115. Soo... yeah. hahaha. But I'm so excited, such good spirits, so ready, so stoked, AH!! Can't wait to board that plane. Alright well I'll write home again in a little bit- catch ya later familioooo!
-EldaWhite
I'M LEAVING FOR THE PHILIPPINES TODAY! It's kind of hard to imagine, but they tell me it's actually happening- so I think I better believe them. Christmas here was pretty awesome. I'll be honest, it didn't feel like Christmas AT ALL but part of that was really good, because it was centered totally on different things. And I liked that- but very much missed the family. Christmas Eve was so funny, we had a devotional at night and the MTC Presidency spoke to us. During which one of them seperated the entire auditorium into sections and we sang out a 12 days of christmas MTC style song. At first is was kind of strange, but toward the end everyone was screaming and President Smith who is usually really stern started laughing so hard that he started crying. It was so so funny. Doesn't sound like it. But was. Then on Christmas Elder Nelson came! Wow, that man is so so smart. He gave a talk at 2 and then came back for this little Christmas Carol play that these two men put on for us. Then gave a small remark afterwards, then came back on Sunday! But what else for Christmas- the food was pretty bad, haha, but that really can't be helped. Just a lot of packing and study time + I got to start reading the Jesus the Christ- which even the first 15 pages are so good. I'm in Alma 49 right now, so if I can get through Helaman or 3 Nephi by the time I get to the Phillies I'll be so so happy. It takes me forever to get through a chapter though. Oh, also we took so many pictures Christmas Eve and Day, and yesterday- so you'll have a ton of pictures from my friends here at the MTC when I send the Memory Card Home. Yesterday, Elder Nelson spoke to the men in a Priesthood Meeting in the morning, and it was amazing. He spoke about what it means, scriptually, and literally to be an Elder of Israel and his insights were insane. I love takin notez. Anyways, then the rest of yesterday went pretty well and we just had our regular meetings and took pictures with our Branch Presidency and what not. All real good.
Okay: important stuff.
I forgot my planner which has everything I meant to tell you in this email, and my flight plans- so I may write back again in a couple hours. But here's what I remember.
1. THANK YOU BRANDON FOR THE GLASSES. So nice if you and they're awesome. Fit really well. Haha, no one could tell the difference between these and my old ones for a while though. Also- tell him he better start sending me Apple news as soon as he gets it. I heard about the iPad gifts, and I got quite excited. So once again, thank you thank you. And thank you mom for all your packages and everything, they've seriously been so awesome.
2. Yes- I got Courtney's DearElder last week, just forgot to respond. And I was leaving today, so thank you anyway for the food but I'm about to go to a country with amazing fruit and rice finally, and I am so excited for that.
3. Vicky sent me a package! That was so nice of her, and I didn't get her email or addres so please thank her for me.
4. Flight Plans- I leave the MTC 4:30 Utah time, plane leaves SLC for LAX at 8:11 and I think I get into LAX around 9:30'ish? My plane leaves LAX at midnight sooo just do out the time zone differences and that's when I'll be phoning home. I might have a change in SLC for a small convo- and I might have more than just 30 minutes. So maybe expect one at like 7pm utah time and maybe 10pm L.A time. GET EXCITED.
5. I can't remember much more, so I'll probably write another email later on today. Did you all get my package I sent home? Probably not- that sucks, but hopefully it at least comes today.
I really can't believe I'm leaving today, but I'm so excited. I know the language an okay amount- but I know when I get there everything I learned will amount to nothing or at least the first month, haha. Also the heat.. oh my the heat. They say with humidity on most days it feels about 105 - 115. Soo... yeah. hahaha. But I'm so excited, such good spirits, so ready, so stoked, AH!! Can't wait to board that plane. Alright well I'll write home again in a little bit- catch ya later familioooo!
-EldaWhite
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