So I needed to whip out that email quick to you Mom , in case you were planning on bringing that package down to the post office at 2 in the morning. But we're in Dagupan today because I needed to buy this dictionary that I couldn't find last week in Rosales , and I decided to look for an ab roller here , despite having looked last transfer and they said they had none , and they had one nowwwww. Only 450 pesos ... so so much cheaper than back home for you to send it. that's about 10 dollars. And it's the exact same thing , not exactly the most high tech equipment out there. So I'm pretty stoked. Also I got my dictionary here , so another reason for rejoice.
Money :: I just wanted you guys to know , so you don't think money is being stolen , that I've had to withdraw a couple times here for different emergencies. The first time I think I took out 1500 Pesos with a 200 Peso transaction fee , and the second time 1000 with a 200 Peso transaction fee. And I may need to do it again soon , because I ran out of the little personal money that I had from the MTC and so now I'm running on support alone , and they don't give you much , ha. Our pamasahe or money used for transportation eats up a good chunk of that support , not to mention we just payed our electricity bill. So yeah - just wanted you guys to be aware of that so it doesn't raise any alarms.
ANDREA ::: So so so sorry for no email last week! I'm not sure how I forgot but I messed up on that one , so you'll have to forgive me. So....... happy birthday! Haha , 30 years old is a big number , but buying yourself a car is a pretty nice treat. Hope you had an awesome day , despite being sick , and I'm sure you are still smiling cuz of that jetta. If you feel like donating it to my missionary cause , please do not hesitate.
Aunt Debbie :::: Just wanted to answer her questions she sent me in a dearelder. Also Aunt Debbie - thank you so much for your dearelders! I honestly have so much reading about what you guys are up to and what Taylor is up to. It's so much fun reading about other Elders in different missions. So please please continue those! Haha. But to answer your questions that I remember , even most of the really poor have TVs. Of course , there are a lot of families here that don't , but I've been so surprised at the number of houses I've walked in to and they have a tv (tiny as it may be) and no floor or sinks or basic essentials. But nobody has more than one here. That would be unspeakable , haha. And as for sports it is basketball and basketball only. They even play basketball with soccer balls sometimes. But I try to get kids to play soccer and when I kick the ball to them they pick it up and dribble ... I will change their culture! But I was pretty confident before my mission that if I got sent out of states I had about a 90% chance of going somewhere where they love soccer. Maybe I was wrong , haha. Also , they do watch American Shows , but only sometimes and only really popular ones I think. Like you would never find the office or sitcoms or comedies or anything being played here. If it's American TV it's almost always a movie or basketball. Though I think once I caught American Idol or something on. OH! They love America's Best Dance Crew , because the first season winners had a lead dancer whose filipino... but that's the only reason. haha. There's not many famous famous Filipinos so they can name them to me pretty easily. Manny Pacquio (spelling on that last name) whose a boxer , lead singer for the Black Eyed Peas , another lead singer , and that's about it. But yep - that's a bit of their culture , haha.
So! I guess my week. Wait , no. First - that's very very awesome about Elder Bednar. He's tied with Elder Holland as my favorite speaker , but they are for different reasons. Elder Bednar came my second or third week in the MTC and was my favorite speaker there. (Elder Holland came on thanksgiving). But he's so direct and educated and a brilliant speaker that my hand was going as fast as it could to take notes and it still wasn't enough. But he spoke to us about similar thing , and I think it's his favorite topic because I've heard a number of talks by him on the same thing , about Doctrine , Principles , and Applications. About how for any Application or Principle we must know the Doctrine behind it. He's a pretty inspirational speaker , and even during the World Leadership Training he talked about doctrine a little more. He's not as heartfelt as Elder Holland , and that's why I like them for different reasons , but you walk away just having been blown away by what he said. His insight and directness in his speaking is really really amazing. So again , you are very lucky for that , haha. And that's right on , that our willingness to act determines everything about us. Attitude and character.
So okay , my week I guess. It's had it's ups and downs , haha. There's things that are hard for me each day , and it's always a struggle to try and get the comp to stay out past 8 oclock. Because even though our area is pretty much asleep then I still want to contact or OYM or something , but he sometimes tries to play the senior comp card. So that's pretty a struggle this past week , but again.. exact obedience is really all I care about so I've been pretty stern about that. Um , there were really only two highlights of the week , the rest was pretty plain , haha sorry. The first was wednesday. We were teaching a lesson to Sister and Brother Tulagan (both the recent converts from my time here) and we were talking about missionary work. Now , my favorite chapter in the BoM is chapter 26 of Alma. Ammon is probably my most favorite person in the book and as he's talking to his brothers , every time I read it , I feel like I can feel his passion. It's simply amazing the words he says. I'm sure there was even more than Mormon couldn't write that I would've loved to read. But anyways , I shared my few favorites from the chapter which are the last three , verse 27 , and verse 12 , and verse ... I can't remember dang. It's on the same page as twelve in the lower right hand corner where he says ... okay I have it in Tagalog but not english. Says ... Masdan, sinasabi ko sa inyo, hindi ko masasabi ang kaliit-liitang bahagi ng nararamdaman ko. Okay nice , that means - Behold, I say unto you, I cannot write a little part of my feeling. Something like that. So when we were teaching her , oh man did I feel that spirit aha , it was so good. And when I do my thoughts and brain like slooowss itself down so I can actually think. Otherwise I fall into this horrible habit of trying to speak fast as usual and end up making less sense. So as I was able to slow down I was able to feel the spirit so good and say exactly what I wanted to. I shared those verses and just told them how much I loved doing what I do. This is an incredible blessing to be able to bring this joy into people's lives each day. And although it's harder than anything I've had to do thus far , oh man is it worth it. So that was an awesome experience this past week and the first highlight. The second! Was yesterday. We get to church , shake the hands of members [ as we usually do to welcome them and keep them active , ha ] , then President Ancheta (first counselor in the bishopric) comes up to me and asks me to speak. Oh man , I was so trapped. Because he asked me last week , but I was way too scared haha to do it on the spot and told him I needed to be able to prepare for at least the night before. So I told him I would do it next week , which was yesterday , but he just said ayos lang which means like it's okay. So I thought he was saying don't worry about it.. ever. So he asks me again yesterday to give a talk , and I couldn't say no again. So I walk up to the stand and used the 5 or 10 minutes I had before it was my turn to speak to try and whip out a subject and talk right there on the spot , haha. I ended up talking about faith and the importance of it in our lives despite burdens and struggles. Found the verses I liked in Alma , Ether , and the Mosiah story in Mosiah 24 , and gave a talk. Oh man was I crazy nervous before getting up there. My tagalog still isn't pinaka the best , so giving a talk on the spot in front of 200 people is a bit anxiety induce arific. Not sure if anxiety is the right word there ... if not forgive me. English is now a third language. So! I gave it , and it actually went okay well. Haha. I was way calm while speaking and again was able to slow down my thoughts and form sentences that made sense.
Anyways , those were the two highlights of the week. The rest of the week is mostly just lessons and trying to learn this language and doctrine to the best of my abilities. To answer your questions mom , zzeeerrroooo bikes for us. Baguio Missionaries do not use bikes , we lumakhad , we use our paa , we walk. Haha. And especially in our area there are no transportation , so some days we walk miles and miles. But! I'm still gaining weight. Because every person in the philippines wants to gain weight because they're all small , so everything is looadded with cals and sugar. I cook veggies for every ulam I use , that or tuna (tuna is not like tuna back home) but I'm getting love handles like it's my job. I need these to be gone , and I need a companion who wants to run in the morning! I wish you guys could see this one path from Minduro to Aliaga we just found yesterday. It's about a 35 minute walk and the most amazing walk , haha. It would be an even better run in the morning , but oh well. But yeah , I'll try to snap more pictures on our next walk. Also it is starting to get a little hotter , but our area is a lot breezier than the areas in cities. Again , I'm in farm land. No buildings , and the houses are... not houses. So pinaka the poor.
So I've gotta go now , but I'm going to attach some pictures first for your viewing pleasure.
1. Remember this picture I showed you of Faber? I went on splits one day to the same area he took the picture in!! So I took the same picture.
2. The baptism of Sister Tulagan. This woman's my best friend , haha , she's way way awesome.
3. After the baptism me sitting with some of the youth and others. Behind my shoulder is President Ancheta whose so so nice and on the far right is Bishop Escano who you got the email from. I did not read the email! Hahaha he speaks english pretty well because he's a teacher. Oh man , he's way makulit but really funny. Also a really nice guy. Makulit means silly by the way. Oh and the kid between my legs in front is Franco. My favorite person in the philippines , and he wants to go on a mission so bad.
4. A sunset from yesterday , not as good as some of the ones on my memory card , but sunsets here are unreal. So much better than the states.
Love you guys! PEACE
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
There's always money in the banana stand
They need some frozen banana stands here. They'd make some way good money. It's starting to get hoott , but still bearable .. for now. So we came to Rosales today to come to a National Book Store because I need this English - Tagalog Dictionary that is legendary. It's part of a set and I bought the other one [ Tagalog - English ] because my trainer convinced me not to... gah mistake. I need it so bad , but they don't have it here! So I'll have to go to Dagupan next week... hold on someone just emailed. Oh .. it was you, Mom , ha.
Wait - Garrett's going to Cambodia!! Tell him to email me and tell me about it. And I can definitely see Mckenzie going to Taiwan.. That's a perfect match. But oh man , there is only one Cambodian class in the MTC and it's small. That's crazy ... that's an elite pick right there. That'll be so difficult to learn , but he'll be fine. Also 3 months in the MTC really is not a bad thing. Tell him that , please , ha. Many people are dying to get out but it's honestly an awesome awesome place.
So , back to the Philippines.
Yeah we're in Rosales right now (RO - SAUL - EZ) so I actually got to see E. Purcell here whose in my batch , which was coolio. Oh wait , I'll do Q's first. Ha.
1. Umm , they're off and on. I haven't gotten like raise my voice mad yet , but I've had to lovingly chastise. Um , I do not tolerate someone being disobedient. I'm not sure where that quality came from , I think I picked it up in the MTC from being companions with Elder Evert , but I do do do not tolerate disobedience. It's the quickest way to seeing someone's character. So when our curfew is 9 and my companion spends 25 minutes after a lesson chatting so that it's 7:30 when we get out , and then insists we go to a members house for 30 minutes until 8 , and then insists that we go home because it's now too late to teach anyone ... I get very angry. But again , not raise your voice angry. I just stated my opinion during nightly planning. But he also sleeps in sometimes , and allows ward missionaries in our apartment ... all things I will change. But... I think he is a genuinely nice guy. Again he's Filipino , and I'm not , so there's a barrier there. And he's not really as good in English as I am Tagalog , so sometimes it's hard to communicate. Because I might not know how to say something in Tagalog , but he doesn't know how to say it in English ... so , yeah. But again , I think he's a honestly nice guy and although he's not the most hard working elder there is.. and kind of trunky (despite only being out 9 or 10 months) I will change a lot of that.
2. Um , More drink packages ... they save me some money , but if they're pricey do not worry about it. Just .. ab roller. ASAP. please. Again , it's like my only exercise. That and pushups. I can't run because my companion doesn't want to run , and some I'm confined to the house. So there's only two things I can do.. effectively at least. But no clothes or anything like that , I'm all set I think. Especially ties , I'm good - thanks so much. OH! Very important. President Jensen says that when you send the package MAKE SURE YOU MARK IT AS ' GIFT ' , or else it's subject to further custom fees and stuff that the mission home will not pay. So yeah. But really kahit ano , just anything.
3. Yeah , our baptism last saturday! I'll get to that in my letter , but that family loves me haha. They're always like one day we'll come to New York and visit you! (I always say Taga New York ago [I'm from New York] because no filipino knows where Connecticut is.. haha. It's much easier , and it's close enough to be justified.) But them and this one ward missionary Franco. I like that kid a lot , the rest are kind of flimsy , but he's so reliable and I want him to go on a mission so bad. He just needs the money first ... :\
4. Um , I only see them on P-Days ( Mondays ) and District Meeting ( Tuesday ). Other than that I am the only American for miles and miles around...
OKAY! So back to my week. OH! And tell June I got no letter from her this week , and she's in trouble for that! But this week has been really challenging , but with a bunch of highlights. I can already tell this transfer will have a lot of ups and downs , and my companion will definitely test my patience. But like I said before , I do not tolerate disobedience. The problem is ... he's prideful .. in that he always tries to justify his disobedience and when he does patronizes me and talks down to me like he has so much experience ... gah. But I know I'll be a lot better for it after these next couple or few transfers (I'm prophesying that I'll be in Malimpec for two or three transfers more , so maybe I'll transfer out in May or June.) But one good thing is that my Tagalog really is improving , so I can thank him for that... because when we talk we talk in Tagalog , so every day I use it so so much. That's another thing , though , it gets me down sometimes. I've got to keep looking up but it really is hard some days. I get in ruts from time to time and it's hard to dig myself out. BUT! It's only temporary.
so.. my week. Um , highlights. Thursday we gave a baptismal date to two girls in this family we're teaching , which is awesome. The father is a less active member , but the mom isn't a member yet. Previously it was difficult to get them baptized because she had a previous husband , and they are not married yet. But the husband died two years ago , so they can be married now ... but they won't. Because they're receiving benefits because her previous husband worked for the government or something? I don't really know , it's not all that clear. But I just know it'll take some serious convincing to get them married. But they have 4 girls and 2 or 4 boys , not really sure some work in Manila. So we are striving to baptize the 4 girls first , then the mom and boys. Other than that Monday - Friday were pretty routine. Nothing besides lessons and headaches from Tagalog , haha. It really is so hard to live somewhere where you have no translator and people are speaking a million miles per hour at you and you're trying your best to understand.... But at this point I can hold a conversation without too too too much struggle and I'm enjoying that. The thing is if they just slowed down I'd understand every word... but my brain is really starting to decipher the different words , so I'm very grateful for that.
But the real highlight was saturday! My first person I've baptized in my mission! And it was awesome. I think I've told you about her before , Sister Tulagan. But previously she wasn't interested , but I came into the mission and BAM! Baptized! She's so so nice and feeds us every time we go over. That's the family that says they want to come visit me , haha. But I'll be really sad to leave them when I do. But the baptism was so awesome. Took me about 30 minutes earlier in the day to clean all of the floating spiders and stuff out of the water , because apparently they didn't really clean the font too well before filling it up. But! I said the right wooorrdsss and it was so so awesome to perform a baptism. Oh man , so so awesome!! Haha. Elder Danao confirmed her the next day , and now she is a member of the truuueee church! So stoked. After her baptism she gave a short testimony and started tearing up so quick into it. This woman is so awesome. Anyways I took pictures , so I'll load those up next week because I didn't bring my cord todaayyy , sorry sorry.
Anyways that's been my week and my update for now. Not too much else has been going on. But a couple more things. First off - I'm 99% positive I saw a ' Vote for Pedro ' Napoleon Dynamite tshirt the other day. Also can you please please email me a picture of the family? As recent as you can , and preferably one that doesn't show off the house or yard or anything. Because ... they already think every American is rich , so I would really love to break down that barrier as quick as possible. Also please tell Grandma that I'm sending her a letter today , so probably expect that in like 3 weeks to a month ... hopefully!
Alright , I think that's all. Love you all! Talk to you next week! Also so weaaakkk on emails this week. One from Mom , I think that was it. Thank ya momma!
- Elder A. White
Wait - Garrett's going to Cambodia!! Tell him to email me and tell me about it. And I can definitely see Mckenzie going to Taiwan.. That's a perfect match. But oh man , there is only one Cambodian class in the MTC and it's small. That's crazy ... that's an elite pick right there. That'll be so difficult to learn , but he'll be fine. Also 3 months in the MTC really is not a bad thing. Tell him that , please , ha. Many people are dying to get out but it's honestly an awesome awesome place.
So , back to the Philippines.
Yeah we're in Rosales right now (RO - SAUL - EZ) so I actually got to see E. Purcell here whose in my batch , which was coolio. Oh wait , I'll do Q's first. Ha.
1. Umm , they're off and on. I haven't gotten like raise my voice mad yet , but I've had to lovingly chastise. Um , I do not tolerate someone being disobedient. I'm not sure where that quality came from , I think I picked it up in the MTC from being companions with Elder Evert , but I do do do not tolerate disobedience. It's the quickest way to seeing someone's character. So when our curfew is 9 and my companion spends 25 minutes after a lesson chatting so that it's 7:30 when we get out , and then insists we go to a members house for 30 minutes until 8 , and then insists that we go home because it's now too late to teach anyone ... I get very angry. But again , not raise your voice angry. I just stated my opinion during nightly planning. But he also sleeps in sometimes , and allows ward missionaries in our apartment ... all things I will change. But... I think he is a genuinely nice guy. Again he's Filipino , and I'm not , so there's a barrier there. And he's not really as good in English as I am Tagalog , so sometimes it's hard to communicate. Because I might not know how to say something in Tagalog , but he doesn't know how to say it in English ... so , yeah. But again , I think he's a honestly nice guy and although he's not the most hard working elder there is.. and kind of trunky (despite only being out 9 or 10 months) I will change a lot of that.
2. Um , More drink packages ... they save me some money , but if they're pricey do not worry about it. Just .. ab roller. ASAP. please. Again , it's like my only exercise. That and pushups. I can't run because my companion doesn't want to run , and some I'm confined to the house. So there's only two things I can do.. effectively at least. But no clothes or anything like that , I'm all set I think. Especially ties , I'm good - thanks so much. OH! Very important. President Jensen says that when you send the package MAKE SURE YOU MARK IT AS ' GIFT ' , or else it's subject to further custom fees and stuff that the mission home will not pay. So yeah. But really kahit ano , just anything.
3. Yeah , our baptism last saturday! I'll get to that in my letter , but that family loves me haha. They're always like one day we'll come to New York and visit you! (I always say Taga New York ago [I'm from New York] because no filipino knows where Connecticut is.. haha. It's much easier , and it's close enough to be justified.) But them and this one ward missionary Franco. I like that kid a lot , the rest are kind of flimsy , but he's so reliable and I want him to go on a mission so bad. He just needs the money first ... :\
4. Um , I only see them on P-Days ( Mondays ) and District Meeting ( Tuesday ). Other than that I am the only American for miles and miles around...
OKAY! So back to my week. OH! And tell June I got no letter from her this week , and she's in trouble for that! But this week has been really challenging , but with a bunch of highlights. I can already tell this transfer will have a lot of ups and downs , and my companion will definitely test my patience. But like I said before , I do not tolerate disobedience. The problem is ... he's prideful .. in that he always tries to justify his disobedience and when he does patronizes me and talks down to me like he has so much experience ... gah. But I know I'll be a lot better for it after these next couple or few transfers (I'm prophesying that I'll be in Malimpec for two or three transfers more , so maybe I'll transfer out in May or June.) But one good thing is that my Tagalog really is improving , so I can thank him for that... because when we talk we talk in Tagalog , so every day I use it so so much. That's another thing , though , it gets me down sometimes. I've got to keep looking up but it really is hard some days. I get in ruts from time to time and it's hard to dig myself out. BUT! It's only temporary.
so.. my week. Um , highlights. Thursday we gave a baptismal date to two girls in this family we're teaching , which is awesome. The father is a less active member , but the mom isn't a member yet. Previously it was difficult to get them baptized because she had a previous husband , and they are not married yet. But the husband died two years ago , so they can be married now ... but they won't. Because they're receiving benefits because her previous husband worked for the government or something? I don't really know , it's not all that clear. But I just know it'll take some serious convincing to get them married. But they have 4 girls and 2 or 4 boys , not really sure some work in Manila. So we are striving to baptize the 4 girls first , then the mom and boys. Other than that Monday - Friday were pretty routine. Nothing besides lessons and headaches from Tagalog , haha. It really is so hard to live somewhere where you have no translator and people are speaking a million miles per hour at you and you're trying your best to understand.... But at this point I can hold a conversation without too too too much struggle and I'm enjoying that. The thing is if they just slowed down I'd understand every word... but my brain is really starting to decipher the different words , so I'm very grateful for that.
But the real highlight was saturday! My first person I've baptized in my mission! And it was awesome. I think I've told you about her before , Sister Tulagan. But previously she wasn't interested , but I came into the mission and BAM! Baptized! She's so so nice and feeds us every time we go over. That's the family that says they want to come visit me , haha. But I'll be really sad to leave them when I do. But the baptism was so awesome. Took me about 30 minutes earlier in the day to clean all of the floating spiders and stuff out of the water , because apparently they didn't really clean the font too well before filling it up. But! I said the right wooorrdsss and it was so so awesome to perform a baptism. Oh man , so so awesome!! Haha. Elder Danao confirmed her the next day , and now she is a member of the truuueee church! So stoked. After her baptism she gave a short testimony and started tearing up so quick into it. This woman is so awesome. Anyways I took pictures , so I'll load those up next week because I didn't bring my cord todaayyy , sorry sorry.
Anyways that's been my week and my update for now. Not too much else has been going on. But a couple more things. First off - I'm 99% positive I saw a ' Vote for Pedro ' Napoleon Dynamite tshirt the other day. Also can you please please email me a picture of the family? As recent as you can , and preferably one that doesn't show off the house or yard or anything. Because ... they already think every American is rich , so I would really love to break down that barrier as quick as possible. Also please tell Grandma that I'm sending her a letter today , so probably expect that in like 3 weeks to a month ... hopefully!
Alright , I think that's all. Love you all! Talk to you next week! Also so weaaakkk on emails this week. One from Mom , I think that was it. Thank ya momma!
- Elder A. White
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
still happy and going strong
Happy happy happy happy birthdaaaay mommaaaa!
( I'll address this later in the letter. )
ANYWAYS! Questions first.
1. I need an ab roller!! I just told ya that in my last email , remember. That's all I need. Please , please , please send one as soon as possible. I can't run anymore because my companions all hate running , and so I'm left with push ups and crunches. And I can't really do crunches because of my dumb butt bone which is still broken / bruised / whateva , so if you can please send one ASAP I'll give you a thousand hugs the day I get home!
2. New companion is a filipinooo. I'm very excited for this. It's very very difficult being companions with someone that can't say everything you want to say to , but I am going to finally finally finally learn this language for realsies. Just in the first 3 days we've been together I've learned more than I learned all transfer with Elder Lefler. I'll discuss Elder Lefler more a bit later. But yeah his name is elder Danao (pronounced duhNow) and he's from somewhere in southern Philippines. He's not the smiliest guy ever , but my goal is to make him laugh by the end of the transfer and I think I can accomplish that task.
3. Momma , do not worry about that. With the old Myldsmail system I could have believed that , but with the new one that's not a problem. All Myldsmail is , is Gmail. It's the exact same client , the church just has a contract with them to let missionaries use it with a different domain name. So don't ever worry about getting the email or not. And the fact that it's coming from the Philippines makes no difference , haha , it's all the same internet. It's the same possibility as not getting an email from Dad sending it from the barn , zero , haha. So if you don't get an email from me it's because I didn't have time for some reason on the P-Day to write.
SO! Time to update you on my week.
Important events last week
Monday : P Day
Tuesday : E. Lefler left , companions with E. Podzikowski for 3 days
Wednesday : District Meeting and worked in my area
Thursday : Worked in San Carlos (E. Podz area)
Friday : Transfer Meeting , I went on splits with E. Moralla in Basista.
So yeah , Monday was P-Day and since E. Miller had just gone up to Baguio that morning to go home , E. Podz was with me and E. Lefler the whole day. Went home later that night and had dinner at the bishops home (spaghetti) (it's what they cook for special occassions and use 'Pinoy Sauce' which is basically a very very sweet tomato sauce. It takes some getting used to). Tuesday morning woke up and did Teaching Records for a while. Let's discuss E. Lefler now. Now I'm a good sport about stuff , especially companions. I realize everyone is different and so I try and see the positive things about people , honestly. But now that E. Lefler has gone home I can be a bit more honest. I really didn't learn anything from him :\ . He was really trunky and prett disobedient. I don't tolerate disobedience. Especially when it impairs the work. So many a time I had to chastise my TRAINER for doing things that shouldn't be done on a mission. For instance , during this last area of his he found a girl , started courting her , and then I caught him texting her the last couple days he was here. He also got members involved. Told so many members he was coming back for her , and got them to text her for him. I was so so so angry. I chastise with love , but I chastise nonetheless. You've got two years of time given to you to work. Not find yourself a wife and tell everyone , including her , that babalik ka para sa kanye. No. Anyways , that along with the fact that he ate all my food (I'm all down for companionship unity , but not when it's because he spends his money on souvenirs for himself and ubos' all of my food.). I'm honestly not trying to vent here- but I'm serious when I say I trained myself. While I studied for 3 hours in the morning he most often organized his things , or was outside talking to the neighbors. Put simply ... I longsuffered. ANYWAYS! I was maybe a biit joyous when he left. Oh yeah- the teaching records. He assured me multiple times we had no teaching records. When I asked could we get some from the zone leaders he assured me they had none too. When out of curiosity I asked the zone leaders one day , they said oh yeah we have plenty. I was annoyed. E. Lefler didn't ask because he didn't want to do them because it didn't affect him. When he was packing to leave we found our teaching records. About 50 blank ones in his desk. Ever more annoyed. But when we finally did them on the day he was leaving , I sat inside for 4 hours doing all of our Teaching Records for the transfer while he talked to the neighbors outside. When I would ask for his help he would do about 2 , and then make an excuse and go back outside. So... yeah. Oh ... and you'll see a short video of him at the end of the memory card... my oh my he's strange. Remind me to tell you stories of the things he told me during my first transfer on a mission.
SO!
After we put him on the van we worked the rest of the night in San Carlos. Their apartment is soo much nicer than ours. But what ya gonna do. Next morning District Meeting , then went to Malimpec to work. Thursday woke up and Wednesday night and Thursday we cleaned the whole apartment spotless. Elder Podz (zone leader) [[[ by the way the stickiness of the keys on this keyboard is killing my fingers because i have to like push down the keys so hard.]]] is so awesome - helped me so much with the cleaning. Anyways when I came into the area the apartment was such a wreck , but now it's spotless. Awesome. It's still a dungeon filled with spiders though .. ha. So then we went to San Carlos and worked there all day. Friday morning woke up and went to Basista , he dropped me off because on the Basista elders were being transferred , and I worked in Basista until they got back at 5. Let's talk about Basista. Do you remember that photo I showed you of Elder Faber like bent over in the bathroom because it was only a 5:8 ceiling? THAT'S THE APARTMENT! It was sooo weird to be in the apartment I had heard about and seen pictures of. But right when I transferred into the BAyambang zone , Elder Faber transferred out. But as I helped Elder Moralla clean the apartment that day I found so many things of Elder Faber's including his old planner which was so funny. So I took the same picture as him and am way excited to send it to him.
So then the elders come back from transfer meeting at 5 and I met my new zone leader and new companion. So yeah , I told you about him a little earlier. He's not the best with people but I'm gonna work on that , haha. He's about 5:2 , pretty skinny , and about as good in english as I am Tagalog. So it's funny when we communicate. But I'm guessing we'll be together for 3 or 4 1/2 months ( 2 or 3 transfers ) , so I'm very excited to start learning this language at a good pace. I took him around to meet a bunch of members and some of our investigators and we taught about 8 lessons the past couple days , so that's been going well. He's a pretty good teacher and throws it to me a lot. So when I teach principles I gotta go slow , but I still am able to say what I wanna say at an okay speed. My tagalog has already picked up , though , just in the past few days. So I'm excited about this transfer.
So that was pretty much my week!
Things before I forget:
1. Grandma sent me a letter! Please tell her I was so grateful for it and will reply as soon as I can.
2. I also got Newtown's big Valentines Card they sent me which was so so nice. Please tell them I was so happy to have gotten that and I'll write them a letter soon , too!
3. How's David Hutch? Let me know how he's doing , what he's up to , and tell him and Garret to write me an email at least!
4. PLEASE SIGN ME UP FOR THE APPLE UPDATES ON THEIR WEBSITE. IT TAKES LIKE 3 SECONDS PLEEAASEEE!
5. Ab roller. Please. Please. Please. Please.
So. That's all for this week!
Now! Mom mom mom , HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The big Seven Oh! (Just kidding , I'll leave that joke to Trevor where it belongs) But momma I just wanted to thank you fo everything you've done for me. It's taken me a few thousand miles and living in a third world country to see how blessed I was as a kid and how much you've done for me in my life. Thank you a thousand times and I hope you had an awesome birthday. It's about 1 AM over there on the 14th , so I just missed the dead line , but I hope you'll forgive me.
So I love you mucho mama!
Nagmimiss ako sa inyo lahat at naisip ako tungkol sa inyo araw araw. Mahal ko and buhay ko bilang misyenero dito at mahal ko kayo. Maraming Maraming salamat para sa lahat mga bagay na ginawa ninyo para sa akin , and makakakita ko kayo malapit na!
Mahal kita!
- Elder White!
( I'll address this later in the letter. )
ANYWAYS! Questions first.
1. I need an ab roller!! I just told ya that in my last email , remember. That's all I need. Please , please , please send one as soon as possible. I can't run anymore because my companions all hate running , and so I'm left with push ups and crunches. And I can't really do crunches because of my dumb butt bone which is still broken / bruised / whateva , so if you can please send one ASAP I'll give you a thousand hugs the day I get home!
2. New companion is a filipinooo. I'm very excited for this. It's very very difficult being companions with someone that can't say everything you want to say to , but I am going to finally finally finally learn this language for realsies. Just in the first 3 days we've been together I've learned more than I learned all transfer with Elder Lefler. I'll discuss Elder Lefler more a bit later. But yeah his name is elder Danao (pronounced duhNow) and he's from somewhere in southern Philippines. He's not the smiliest guy ever , but my goal is to make him laugh by the end of the transfer and I think I can accomplish that task.
3. Momma , do not worry about that. With the old Myldsmail system I could have believed that , but with the new one that's not a problem. All Myldsmail is , is Gmail. It's the exact same client , the church just has a contract with them to let missionaries use it with a different domain name. So don't ever worry about getting the email or not. And the fact that it's coming from the Philippines makes no difference , haha , it's all the same internet. It's the same possibility as not getting an email from Dad sending it from the barn , zero , haha. So if you don't get an email from me it's because I didn't have time for some reason on the P-Day to write.
SO! Time to update you on my week.
Important events last week
Monday : P Day
Tuesday : E. Lefler left , companions with E. Podzikowski for 3 days
Wednesday : District Meeting and worked in my area
Thursday : Worked in San Carlos (E. Podz area)
Friday : Transfer Meeting , I went on splits with E. Moralla in Basista.
So yeah , Monday was P-Day and since E. Miller had just gone up to Baguio that morning to go home , E. Podz was with me and E. Lefler the whole day. Went home later that night and had dinner at the bishops home (spaghetti) (it's what they cook for special occassions and use 'Pinoy Sauce' which is basically a very very sweet tomato sauce. It takes some getting used to). Tuesday morning woke up and did Teaching Records for a while. Let's discuss E. Lefler now. Now I'm a good sport about stuff , especially companions. I realize everyone is different and so I try and see the positive things about people , honestly. But now that E. Lefler has gone home I can be a bit more honest. I really didn't learn anything from him :\ . He was really trunky and prett disobedient. I don't tolerate disobedience. Especially when it impairs the work. So many a time I had to chastise my TRAINER for doing things that shouldn't be done on a mission. For instance , during this last area of his he found a girl , started courting her , and then I caught him texting her the last couple days he was here. He also got members involved. Told so many members he was coming back for her , and got them to text her for him. I was so so so angry. I chastise with love , but I chastise nonetheless. You've got two years of time given to you to work. Not find yourself a wife and tell everyone , including her , that babalik ka para sa kanye. No. Anyways , that along with the fact that he ate all my food (I'm all down for companionship unity , but not when it's because he spends his money on souvenirs for himself and ubos' all of my food.). I'm honestly not trying to vent here- but I'm serious when I say I trained myself. While I studied for 3 hours in the morning he most often organized his things , or was outside talking to the neighbors. Put simply ... I longsuffered. ANYWAYS! I was maybe a biit joyous when he left. Oh yeah- the teaching records. He assured me multiple times we had no teaching records. When I asked could we get some from the zone leaders he assured me they had none too. When out of curiosity I asked the zone leaders one day , they said oh yeah we have plenty. I was annoyed. E. Lefler didn't ask because he didn't want to do them because it didn't affect him. When he was packing to leave we found our teaching records. About 50 blank ones in his desk. Ever more annoyed. But when we finally did them on the day he was leaving , I sat inside for 4 hours doing all of our Teaching Records for the transfer while he talked to the neighbors outside. When I would ask for his help he would do about 2 , and then make an excuse and go back outside. So... yeah. Oh ... and you'll see a short video of him at the end of the memory card... my oh my he's strange. Remind me to tell you stories of the things he told me during my first transfer on a mission.
SO!
After we put him on the van we worked the rest of the night in San Carlos. Their apartment is soo much nicer than ours. But what ya gonna do. Next morning District Meeting , then went to Malimpec to work. Thursday woke up and Wednesday night and Thursday we cleaned the whole apartment spotless. Elder Podz (zone leader) [[[ by the way the stickiness of the keys on this keyboard is killing my fingers because i have to like push down the keys so hard.]]] is so awesome - helped me so much with the cleaning. Anyways when I came into the area the apartment was such a wreck , but now it's spotless. Awesome. It's still a dungeon filled with spiders though .. ha. So then we went to San Carlos and worked there all day. Friday morning woke up and went to Basista , he dropped me off because on the Basista elders were being transferred , and I worked in Basista until they got back at 5. Let's talk about Basista. Do you remember that photo I showed you of Elder Faber like bent over in the bathroom because it was only a 5:8 ceiling? THAT'S THE APARTMENT! It was sooo weird to be in the apartment I had heard about and seen pictures of. But right when I transferred into the BAyambang zone , Elder Faber transferred out. But as I helped Elder Moralla clean the apartment that day I found so many things of Elder Faber's including his old planner which was so funny. So I took the same picture as him and am way excited to send it to him.
So then the elders come back from transfer meeting at 5 and I met my new zone leader and new companion. So yeah , I told you about him a little earlier. He's not the best with people but I'm gonna work on that , haha. He's about 5:2 , pretty skinny , and about as good in english as I am Tagalog. So it's funny when we communicate. But I'm guessing we'll be together for 3 or 4 1/2 months ( 2 or 3 transfers ) , so I'm very excited to start learning this language at a good pace. I took him around to meet a bunch of members and some of our investigators and we taught about 8 lessons the past couple days , so that's been going well. He's a pretty good teacher and throws it to me a lot. So when I teach principles I gotta go slow , but I still am able to say what I wanna say at an okay speed. My tagalog has already picked up , though , just in the past few days. So I'm excited about this transfer.
So that was pretty much my week!
Things before I forget:
1. Grandma sent me a letter! Please tell her I was so grateful for it and will reply as soon as I can.
2. I also got Newtown's big Valentines Card they sent me which was so so nice. Please tell them I was so happy to have gotten that and I'll write them a letter soon , too!
3. How's David Hutch? Let me know how he's doing , what he's up to , and tell him and Garret to write me an email at least!
4. PLEASE SIGN ME UP FOR THE APPLE UPDATES ON THEIR WEBSITE. IT TAKES LIKE 3 SECONDS PLEEAASEEE!
5. Ab roller. Please. Please. Please. Please.
So. That's all for this week!
Now! Mom mom mom , HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The big Seven Oh! (Just kidding , I'll leave that joke to Trevor where it belongs) But momma I just wanted to thank you fo everything you've done for me. It's taken me a few thousand miles and living in a third world country to see how blessed I was as a kid and how much you've done for me in my life. Thank you a thousand times and I hope you had an awesome birthday. It's about 1 AM over there on the 14th , so I just missed the dead line , but I hope you'll forgive me.
So I love you mucho mama!
Nagmimiss ako sa inyo lahat at naisip ako tungkol sa inyo araw araw. Mahal ko and buhay ko bilang misyenero dito at mahal ko kayo. Maraming Maraming salamat para sa lahat mga bagay na ginawa ninyo para sa akin , and makakakita ko kayo malapit na!
Mahal kita!
- Elder White!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
1st transfer
Salamat Momma !
No but that letter made me very jealous to see "sent from my iPad" at the bottom ... ahaha.
This week hasn't been as exciting as last week , but still pretty good. First to answer your questions:
1. I got the package! Thank you so much for it , seriously. That peanut butter has been a lifeline this past week , but that's probably not good for me- ha. Also that watch is amazing. Such a good looking watch , but I'm too scared to wear it just yet! Not only do I get called mayaman already (rich) because I'm American , but I don't want to scuff it up. So I think I'm going to save it as a one year present for myself , ha. Next October I'll start wearing it. But for now I still have both Brandon's old Skagens so I'm happy. But everything in that package was awesome , and it's going to last me a long time. Also that tape was hysterical , but I have to request no more for a while because it made me truunnkkyy ahaha. Not in a bad way , but just in like a gahh that would be awesome to be home right now talking to everyone. I was explaining to E. Lefler that what happens is that when we're all together we eat like a big meal and then just sit around after and somehow naturally tangent into dozens and dozens of different stories. Which different parts of the story seem to change every time! ha. But I loved the tape and everything , and thank you so much Dad for that watch.
2. Yes yes we have a fridge. Every missionary does. It's just people in the lowlands of the mission (everywhere other than Baguio because Baguio is on a big hill) are pretty poor , so a fridge is a pricy expense for a lot of people that can get by without it. But yeah we have one.
3. I WOULD be washing my clothes by hand but we have what's called a Tagalaba. Which is someone who we pay to wash our clothes twice a week. Costs 1000 Pesos a month , but if you don't have one then you spend about half your P-Day grinding your knuckles trying to clean your clothes , ha.
4. You guys should contact any way you want - but never stop with the emails. It takes about 2 - 3 weeks for a DearElder to get here so they are a bit dated by the time I read it , ha. But I love getting them. Also can you please tell Debbie thank you so much for all her DearElders and stuff. I don't have her email address on me , but she still sends me DearElders which is so so nice of her!
5. PICTURES! I'm sending my memory card home [which will be full!] with Elder Lefler. Because his family just moved to Orem , so Callie can just go pick it up from him so much easier , and this way it won't take over a month to get home! So I figured you guys would be happy about that. I could post pictures on the computer but there's two problems with that. 1- internet cafe's are not always trusted , and soo many are riddled with viruses. And if you're not careful you can so easily get a virus on your camera which can either delete all the software on the camera , break it , or erase your memory card. So I don't want to risk that until I find a place I know is very trustworthy. And second is that with emails I can only send like 3 or 4 most at a time , and it takes a while to upload on slow internet. So I figured with a full memory card that'd be good for a while.
6. And yes - I'm very big to these people , hahaa.
OKAY! About my week. Unfortunately there's not too too much to say but I'll add a few funny and noteworthy points. Tuesday- We had district meeting then I went on splits with Elder Miller whose my zone leader in my area. This guy is so so funny , and he's from Idaho Falls so he's only 20 minutes outside Rexburg. And he'll probably be up at BYUI when I get back so I'd love to look him up when I'm back. But what happened was we're in my area , so more or less I'm leading us around , and we get to a less active family to teach a lesson. Their house is mostly raised up and they have this little " deck-like" landing where we taught and then you walk down these steep wooden stairs to get back down to the dirt. So after we teach we walk back down the stairs. I walk first , Elder Miller behind me. Elder Miller is a pretty heavy guy. I turn around after I got downstairs because I heard something and I look back and see Elder Miller having broken through the second and third step on the stairs and dropped like 5 feet down to the ground. The people were freaking out and he just is laughing hysterically and I'm laughing hysterically because neither of us can believe what just happened. Are you serious?! He just busted through their stairs because no Filipino is as large as him. So he tries to take out money from his pocket and give to them to fix the stairs , but they won't take it. So we just walk off just so so confused at what just happened and still laughing so hard trying to calm down. But in an instance like that it takes a miracle to stop laughing. So that was the first highlight.
I think I picked up your package Wednesday , Mom , and so that was so awesome to get. Oh - and thank you so much for those ties. I bought one from a store , my mission president gave me two , and I bought like 6 or 7 from the zone leaders so I'm pretty well stocked now. So thank you so much. Or maybe I got that on Friday. I really can't remember. This week has just been so hectic because Elder Lefler is the District Leader and so he has to do all the baptismal interviews for the district. So we were in Bayambang and San Carlos like half the week it felt like. But we still got a lot of lessons in and extended another baptismal date yesterday , but she said she wants a sure testimony of the book of mormon before she accepts , and I was glad to hear that. Without a strong backing with testimony and member friends and what not , inactivity eventually seeps in.
- Hey can you ask June for me if she's gotten my letter yet? I sent it like my second week here , so it really should have gotten to her already. Pretty crazy to think that we're sending and receiving stuff across the world.
-- Anyways there wasn't too many highlights this week , I'm sorry. Everything was pretty average and ordinary. Oh mom - ha , it's funny you said that about John 3:16 because I really don't like that verse anymore , hahah. During EVERY SINGLE LESSON in the mtc my companion would use that verse. I swear he had nothing else because he would randomly say it at the strangest times. And we had many a talk as to why he used that verse when we were talking about something completely different. And obviously , follow the spirit when you teach ... but there's a difference between being in tune to the spirit and just winging it. So after hearing that verse literally , I'm not kidding , twice or three times a day for 2 months straight ... I don't exactly run to it every time I can , ha. Not to mention my faith in the Book of Mormon and love for it exceeds that of the Bible by a lot. Maybe that's not the best thing , but after the Nicene Creed and all this I just love how unaltered the BoM is. I was reading in 3 Nephi 11 the other day and had what felt like a pretty revelatory moment. I found between verses 3 and 8 , 6 or 7 points of extremely extremely important doctrine. And that amazed me. Just so few verses and such simple words have the most profound meaning in our lives. Anyways , go read them and let me know what you find.
Also! You didn't send me your guys' favorite scriptures like I asked. Do it! It's gotta be in the BoM though.
Alright well. My companion leaves for Baguio tomorrow , then takes off with his batch a few days later. Elder Miller left today so I'm paired with the other zone leader until Friday when I get my new companion. It'll almost definitely be a Filipino and I'm pretty excited about that. Elder Lefler was a nice guy but I didn't really learn any language from him.. ha. So it'll be fun to be with Elder Podzikowski for the rest of the week. He's from Orem , too. Lotta mormons in utah! But new transfer starts on Monday. That's so weird to think that a transfer is already over , but at the same time it kind of feels like it. I've been in Malimpec for a while , but at the same time not at all. Again.. time is so irrelevant on a mission that it's almost confusing. I'll probably be there for one or two more transfers , which means 1 1/2 or 3 more months. Oh man , I cannot even imagine what it will be like going home , haha. Even if I went home now it would be the strangest strangest thing ever. But I'm no where near ready yet. Maybe in 21 months... maybe.
Alright , I think that's all from me this week. Sorry that my week was pretty average , but not every week can be exciting - ha. I love this work Mom and Dad , and wouldn't trade it for anything. I'll catch you guys next week!
Love,
Elder White
No but that letter made me very jealous to see "sent from my iPad" at the bottom ... ahaha.
This week hasn't been as exciting as last week , but still pretty good. First to answer your questions:
1. I got the package! Thank you so much for it , seriously. That peanut butter has been a lifeline this past week , but that's probably not good for me- ha. Also that watch is amazing. Such a good looking watch , but I'm too scared to wear it just yet! Not only do I get called mayaman already (rich) because I'm American , but I don't want to scuff it up. So I think I'm going to save it as a one year present for myself , ha. Next October I'll start wearing it. But for now I still have both Brandon's old Skagens so I'm happy. But everything in that package was awesome , and it's going to last me a long time. Also that tape was hysterical , but I have to request no more for a while because it made me truunnkkyy ahaha. Not in a bad way , but just in like a gahh that would be awesome to be home right now talking to everyone. I was explaining to E. Lefler that what happens is that when we're all together we eat like a big meal and then just sit around after and somehow naturally tangent into dozens and dozens of different stories. Which different parts of the story seem to change every time! ha. But I loved the tape and everything , and thank you so much Dad for that watch.
2. Yes yes we have a fridge. Every missionary does. It's just people in the lowlands of the mission (everywhere other than Baguio because Baguio is on a big hill) are pretty poor , so a fridge is a pricy expense for a lot of people that can get by without it. But yeah we have one.
3. I WOULD be washing my clothes by hand but we have what's called a Tagalaba. Which is someone who we pay to wash our clothes twice a week. Costs 1000 Pesos a month , but if you don't have one then you spend about half your P-Day grinding your knuckles trying to clean your clothes , ha.
4. You guys should contact any way you want - but never stop with the emails. It takes about 2 - 3 weeks for a DearElder to get here so they are a bit dated by the time I read it , ha. But I love getting them. Also can you please tell Debbie thank you so much for all her DearElders and stuff. I don't have her email address on me , but she still sends me DearElders which is so so nice of her!
5. PICTURES! I'm sending my memory card home [which will be full!] with Elder Lefler. Because his family just moved to Orem , so Callie can just go pick it up from him so much easier , and this way it won't take over a month to get home! So I figured you guys would be happy about that. I could post pictures on the computer but there's two problems with that. 1- internet cafe's are not always trusted , and soo many are riddled with viruses. And if you're not careful you can so easily get a virus on your camera which can either delete all the software on the camera , break it , or erase your memory card. So I don't want to risk that until I find a place I know is very trustworthy. And second is that with emails I can only send like 3 or 4 most at a time , and it takes a while to upload on slow internet. So I figured with a full memory card that'd be good for a while.
6. And yes - I'm very big to these people , hahaa.
OKAY! About my week. Unfortunately there's not too too much to say but I'll add a few funny and noteworthy points. Tuesday- We had district meeting then I went on splits with Elder Miller whose my zone leader in my area. This guy is so so funny , and he's from Idaho Falls so he's only 20 minutes outside Rexburg. And he'll probably be up at BYUI when I get back so I'd love to look him up when I'm back. But what happened was we're in my area , so more or less I'm leading us around , and we get to a less active family to teach a lesson. Their house is mostly raised up and they have this little " deck-like" landing where we taught and then you walk down these steep wooden stairs to get back down to the dirt. So after we teach we walk back down the stairs. I walk first , Elder Miller behind me. Elder Miller is a pretty heavy guy. I turn around after I got downstairs because I heard something and I look back and see Elder Miller having broken through the second and third step on the stairs and dropped like 5 feet down to the ground. The people were freaking out and he just is laughing hysterically and I'm laughing hysterically because neither of us can believe what just happened. Are you serious?! He just busted through their stairs because no Filipino is as large as him. So he tries to take out money from his pocket and give to them to fix the stairs , but they won't take it. So we just walk off just so so confused at what just happened and still laughing so hard trying to calm down. But in an instance like that it takes a miracle to stop laughing. So that was the first highlight.
I think I picked up your package Wednesday , Mom , and so that was so awesome to get. Oh - and thank you so much for those ties. I bought one from a store , my mission president gave me two , and I bought like 6 or 7 from the zone leaders so I'm pretty well stocked now. So thank you so much. Or maybe I got that on Friday. I really can't remember. This week has just been so hectic because Elder Lefler is the District Leader and so he has to do all the baptismal interviews for the district. So we were in Bayambang and San Carlos like half the week it felt like. But we still got a lot of lessons in and extended another baptismal date yesterday , but she said she wants a sure testimony of the book of mormon before she accepts , and I was glad to hear that. Without a strong backing with testimony and member friends and what not , inactivity eventually seeps in.
- Hey can you ask June for me if she's gotten my letter yet? I sent it like my second week here , so it really should have gotten to her already. Pretty crazy to think that we're sending and receiving stuff across the world.
-- Anyways there wasn't too many highlights this week , I'm sorry. Everything was pretty average and ordinary. Oh mom - ha , it's funny you said that about John 3:16 because I really don't like that verse anymore , hahah. During EVERY SINGLE LESSON in the mtc my companion would use that verse. I swear he had nothing else because he would randomly say it at the strangest times. And we had many a talk as to why he used that verse when we were talking about something completely different. And obviously , follow the spirit when you teach ... but there's a difference between being in tune to the spirit and just winging it. So after hearing that verse literally , I'm not kidding , twice or three times a day for 2 months straight ... I don't exactly run to it every time I can , ha. Not to mention my faith in the Book of Mormon and love for it exceeds that of the Bible by a lot. Maybe that's not the best thing , but after the Nicene Creed and all this I just love how unaltered the BoM is. I was reading in 3 Nephi 11 the other day and had what felt like a pretty revelatory moment. I found between verses 3 and 8 , 6 or 7 points of extremely extremely important doctrine. And that amazed me. Just so few verses and such simple words have the most profound meaning in our lives. Anyways , go read them and let me know what you find.
Also! You didn't send me your guys' favorite scriptures like I asked. Do it! It's gotta be in the BoM though.
Alright well. My companion leaves for Baguio tomorrow , then takes off with his batch a few days later. Elder Miller left today so I'm paired with the other zone leader until Friday when I get my new companion. It'll almost definitely be a Filipino and I'm pretty excited about that. Elder Lefler was a nice guy but I didn't really learn any language from him.. ha. So it'll be fun to be with Elder Podzikowski for the rest of the week. He's from Orem , too. Lotta mormons in utah! But new transfer starts on Monday. That's so weird to think that a transfer is already over , but at the same time it kind of feels like it. I've been in Malimpec for a while , but at the same time not at all. Again.. time is so irrelevant on a mission that it's almost confusing. I'll probably be there for one or two more transfers , which means 1 1/2 or 3 more months. Oh man , I cannot even imagine what it will be like going home , haha. Even if I went home now it would be the strangest strangest thing ever. But I'm no where near ready yet. Maybe in 21 months... maybe.
Alright , I think that's all from me this week. Sorry that my week was pretty average , but not every week can be exciting - ha. I love this work Mom and Dad , and wouldn't trade it for anything. I'll catch you guys next week!
Love,
Elder White
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