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!