That would be kind of mean of me to write the entire email in Tagalog and have you search for a translator that actually could translate it correctly. It's weird , but english is becoming hard for me when I'm in a Tagalog mind set. Like right now , as I'm starting this , many words come first in Tagalog then English. That sounds like a lie , but I don't think it is. Oh man , I am so so far from fluent - so do not think that - but it just gets to that point when all you speak is one language... it becomes a habit. Example (halimbawa) ... when the zone met Elder Teh (Q of the 70) and his wife and President and Sister Jensen , it was like a 10 second each small talk thing with each person. Oh man... so so so so so awkward. I c a n n o t small talk anymore in english. I wanted to say these in Tagalog , and the Teh's would've understood , but I was like no that'd be so arrogant and weird , and when I tried english... it didn't work. ahaha. So awkward. Wait.. gotta see what your guys' questions were first. Oh yeah , Mom first.

So. "going native..." that's a very corny term mama , aha. And please please please , may I please please please ask you to get off Missionary Moms. I believe we've been warned about secret groups and combinations , and that is like one big chat room of relief society gossip! Haha and I feel it is destroying you and giving you so many ideas of the culture here that A] aren't true or B] I don't experience because I'm not in their son's areas. Manila and Baguio and Quezon City and Iloilo and San Pablo and Kuwain and Angeles and Cebu and Naga and everything else are SO DIFFERENT. Even within Baguio , my area is a complete opposite of the conditions in Baguio. So never assume what the moms are saying is either fact or what I'm experiencing. THAT BEING SAID. The locals here do use their hand to wipe. TP is expensive for them and water is free. For me , the food here fixes my insides like no other , so I go through 4 rolls of toilet paper in about 10 weeks. So it costs me about 40 pesos for 10 or 12 weeks for toilet paper. Haha so OF COURSE I do not use my hand. But , some do. All the missionaries in Manila and Quezon City probably use the kaliwang kamay to wipe because maybe TP is more expensive down there. But my companion doesn't use TP so our bathroom smells like doo doo pretty much the entire time , ha. WELCOME TO THE PHILIPPINES!!!

Number two. [ no pun intended ] . Texting... yes texting is nuts here. They don't really call because it's more expensive and reception is horrible. So they text. Texting here is using what's called "load" which is the number of texts you have. Usually load or 150 texts costs about 40 - 60 pesos. Something like that. I had a cell phone last transfer because Elder Lefler was district leader , but don't have one this transfer and I love it. It's so hard to get ward missionaries and people to work with you without a cell phone , but there are no more girls texting us and I despised that. Really , it was the most obnoxious thing ever. Just random texts all day long and Lefler always responded... but we switched every day who held the phone , so when it was my turn there was no response ever haha. I'm not wasting load because somebody wants to flirt. And their texting language is the most confusing tagalog I've ever seen. So so so much words than our texting lingo.

Weather - hot... haha. but other than that really nice , honestly. I love the weather here for the most part. Cool the early morning and at night and way hot during the day. But if I'm not sweating I'm not working hard enough... so I really do like it. It's not missionary work if you're wearing a suit. (don't send that around! haha) But yeah , it's been way beautiful and the landscape and sunsets and stuff here are some of the best pictures you can get. To courtney: I haven't seen any big birds yet , but it doesn't mean they don't exist. In my area it's lizards , iguanas , cows , SO MANY DOGS , spiders , mosquitos , goats , one sheep , kamoto dragons , andd chickens. But the landscape is almost all flat , except in the distance. like far far ... baguio. Baguio and i think Kuwain or Angeles has some mountains. But other than that it's just farm land for corn and rice. Not any rain yet because it's not rainy season. There's been a couple showers but they were small. The Baguios (storms + yes , typhoons ( I'm so excited for one ) roll in around july , aug , sep , oct , nov ). So I'm stoked for that to happen.

Food... rice , rice , more rice , canned tuna (again it tastes good , not like the tuna back home.) , so many fruits and veggies , mystery meats with so many bones and organs , pancit canton (lots of msg.. probably not good for me) and no tinapay (Bread) this transfer really for me , because its way too good tasting and makes me fat. Oh and energen... so much energen. Haha it's an instant breakfast type thing that's so cheap , kind of good for you , and really cheap. ... again.

OKAY MY WEEK! i think?

Tuesday - District meeting - average day.
Wednesda - average day
Thursday - average day THEN WENT TO SAN CARLOS to sleep because we were leaving early in the morning on Friday for Tri-Zone Conference. I love riding to san carlos at night , not sure why , but its way fun.
Friday - woke up really early (430 yata?) cus we had to be out the door by 545 and 4 of us had to shower. We stayed the night in the zone leader's apartment and so that's alwas fun. My zone leaders have been awesome so far. All americans rom either Orem or Idaho Falls. Anyways we got to Urdaneta anddd there was Faber! Oh man I was stoked about that. I hadn't seen him since my third day in the phillies and I didn't know he was in the Urdaneta zone. So I got to hang out with him all morning. The conference was pretty awesome , too. Elder Teh is (obviously) a really smart guy and a great speaker. President Jensen also gave a really good talk. We were there from 7 until 3 , and so it was so fun being able to catch up with Faber and talk about old stuff from school. He said John (our friend from school that picked me and Tanner up that one night in Salt Lake) , well he's in the California Fresno mission , and he said he was in sacrament meeting in a spanish ward , and a guy walks in during it shoots the bishop then runs out.... So his bishop was murdered during sacrament meeting. How ridiculous is that! That's Filipino style. Anyways the conference was really good and I got some good notes out of it. Also meeting Elder Teh was a lot of fun , and really awkward. Also afterwards I talked to this senior woman whose working in the mission as a senior missionary with another woman (both their husbands have passed away) and she's from chicago (I asked about naperville) and she was telling me about her mission and stuff so far. Had like a 30 minute conversation and it was way fun. But Mom and Dad when you guys serve (and you BETTER go on missions or else I will be very dissappointed in you!) you can choose where you want to serve. So serve in the Baguio mission (well it'll be urdaneta mission then because of the temple). But that'd be so awesome for you guys to be able to see first hand what I did for two years.

Anyways! Wow I'm like out of time almost. Andrea keeps emailing me and I keep responding. BLAME HER FOR LACK OF SUBSTANCE IN THIS EMAIL!!

Anyways , Friday we then came home after and taught lessons and went to bed. I'm sorry how boring this is , but nothing really astounding happened this week besides the conference. Boring week again.

Things I remember during the week to add in the email , though:
1. I learned last night that someone in Malimpec has a mother than nannies in CT somewhere... I will find out where.
2. Mom or Dad can you guys please get a line of authority for my priesthood? I'm so so curious to find out , and I'm pretty sure it's church recorded or possible or something. Because grandpa was an authority and all... just really curious.
3. Oh yeah , Faber's mom is in like Russia or somewhere eastern european and cold adopting three kids right now.... ahaha his parents are so weird! Not that that's bad , but they really are far out there. Ahahaha his mom sent him colon cleanser. Just remembered that.
4. Unfortunately you already sent out the package , but next package (hopefully not for a long time because they're so expensive!) please send books or stuff on The book or Revelations and the second coming. I love reading the Gospel Principles books on that stuff , but it's just so interesting to me. There's too much symbolism in the book of revelations for me to understand.
5. Leonardo Edgar! This was the biggest highlight of the week. When I got to the area last transfer we were teaching a man named Leaonardo Edgar whose family had been recent converts and really strong , but he was being taught. And he wanted to be baptised , but you need to attend church 4 times first , along with other requirements because retention here is suuuuch a problem and there needs to be a strong committment. So we taught him a lot last transfer but he never attended church ebcause he couldn't. Sorry I'm like out of time so my writing is really sloppy. Because he has a spinal cord injury and although he can still walk and feel , it's really hard and really painful for him. So we finally got permission from President Jensen to get him baptized without the church attendance because in that case it's not important for him to attend if he can't , it's obviously about the testimony. So after we told him this news he was way happy (he's kind of old and so weak too btw). BUT LAST SUNDAY!! HE was at church!! it was so awesome to see him. Best part of my week. He was so happy that he tried like crazy hard and came.

Okay I seriously ahve no time left , so next week send a list of questions that I didn't answer. Love you all and talk to you next weeeeeeeeek!!!!