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!