Another great week!

The email is a bit late today because we just had a zone activity a little bit ago. But I'll write about that later on. And I really want to post some pictures right now , but I forgot my cord , and my friend (Elder Halvorsen from Washington [hahaha mom]) has a card reader for memory cards but it's not working for some reason. So next time I guess. Okay I guess questions first.

Questions:

1. Pictures. Some of the missionary mom's (MM) have said that they have an account with snapfish or picassa where their son downloads his camera right into the account and then they are able to see the pictures and do what they want with them. Is that a possibility with you? I'm sure you've got a ton of pictures that we haven't seen.
- I apologize , but all other sites besides this one mail site is BAWAL which means not allowed.

2. Do you know an Elder Gilliland from Arizona or Elder Halvorsen from Washington state. Their mom's are on MM's.
- Yeah Elder Halvorsen , I just hung out with a him for a long time this morning , great guy.

3. Don't forget to answer the above questions regarding package contents and length of time for packages, dearelders, June's letters.
- I think it takes a solid 2 or 3 weeks to get to the Phils and then another week or two to get to me.
- Package:
--cliff bars
--books on the second coming and the book of revelations that are GOOD
--little things from like the byu bookstore that make the scriptures easier. it's hard to describe but little cards and stuff like they used to hand out in seminary. Just little shortcuts like the book of mormon at a glance and just little stuff like that. I like that stuff a lot
--maybe the biography of president hinckley , but maybe not. It's probably heavy and expensive.
--a book of joseph smith's life THATS GOOD if it's not heavy or expensive
--other than that ... it's up to you!

4. Is it getting hot?
- ahahaha I'm in the Philippines! of course it's hot!

5. When is your next transfer? Do you think you or your companion will be transferred?
- Next transfer date is June 16. I highly doubt I'll get transferred , my companion will probably 80% chance get transferred. He's been here 3 transfers now , that's about right for a transfer.
One last piece of info. I saw Sis Gibson last night and she said that there are only 76 missionaries in the entire country of Cambodia and half are native. Garrett is pretty nervous.
- Tell Garrett to please not be nervous. Did you give him that letter? A mission and learning the language is only harder when you fight it. Tell him to become Cambodian and it'll be the most amazing experience of his life. A lot of missionaries here really fight the culture and the work , their attitude , and their experience suffer so much. Don't bring america to cambodia. He'll fall in love with the country before he even steps foot in it. And the language comes. For everyone. No matter how hard it is. Tell him to always remember he's called of God which means he's got the stuff to make it. Garrett is such a smart guy , there is not a reason in the world to worry. I've seen elders who struggled so much in the MTC which the language just flourish like crazy in the field. And it does not matter even how well you communicate , I promise promise promise that the spirit speaks so much louder. I can testify to that because of my first transfer. I couldn't hardly speak and I got the note from the convert , not my companion who did like 85% of the teaching. I promise he'll be so fine. Also the MTC which prepare him like no other. Alma 7:15 ... Humayo and huwag matakot!

...also I got all the emails about Japan and stuff , but none yet with coin tricks. Also news on the Dark Knight? When I logged onto the comp here I saw some news about it on Yahoo , but obviously I can't read it so I had to click out quick. Send news please!!

Here are things I wrote down this week to not forget:
1. Is there any way to get an original STYLE book of mormon? Like the kind Joseph Smith printed at first? Obviously not an original copy , but just the style. That'd be so awesome if they still made those.
2. Can I please get a Line of Authority Chart of my priesthood if you can find one? I would just love to know who ordained Grandpa to his office and who ordained that person!

Okay my week:

So we've got this investigator whose from Manila province that came up to vacation for a couple months. She had been taught down in her area and then came up having almost qualified for baptisms. Well we taught her a few times because she was staying at her relatives place , who are members , and then we were like wait ... can we give her an IBD (Investigator w/ a Baptismal Date ... [not Irretable Bowel Syndrome...Andrea]) and so we asked our District Leader and he was like yeah , go for it. Just gotta transfer the records right away when she leaves. So we're like whaaat okay. So now we have a baptism on this upcoming saturday , haha. We didn't do much to progress her , but it's kind of a trade off for Billy Nalos - the elect na elect investigator of ours.
So here's something really weird that happend this week. We go to this calenderia (kiind of like a restaurant .. I explaind on the phone) that a member owns a few times a week for lunch because they don't let us pay. So as I'm sitting waiting for food I usually read a book - that's one way I finished the bio of President Monson so quick. And so I was reading their book " Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul II " which , ya know , are just those feel-good books with good stories for teens and stuff. And I read this one story and was like ah good story. I look at the author ... and I nearly jumped out of the chair. I was so surprised because it was someone in my high school! I re read the short story and was like oh my gosh this is a perfect description of her! Everything was spot on to how she dressed and her personality and stuff. I was like I can't believe I'm in the Philippines reading a story that a girl in my grade back home wrote. Buuuuuuuuuut. I then turn to the back with the information about authors. Turns out , for one ... the book was written in 1998. She would've been 7 or 8. And two , the author was from Canada. I'm still in shock though that someone with the exact same name is the exact same person living somewhere else. It was very very spooky.
Also I donno why , but I had the thought this week about the time we were down south somewhere and bought those marshmello guns. And then Trevor realized soon it was better to wet down the marshmello first with his saliva and then spit at people ,ahahahaha. I'll leave this one up for family cross examination and reminiscing. I just thought about it very randomly the other day and it crackd me up. I probably looked weird just breaking out into random laughter.

So this week was good. We got like 26 investigator lessons in , which is quiite a lot. But only 5 investigators showed up for church. It was way good though , that's the highest we've had since I've been here. So the work is really picking up. But when their chapel is finished and opens up ... of man this work is going to through the roof. Unfortunately a lot of our investigators will be leaving for school soon , but we've planted really good seeds in them that'll help them grow.

So let me spend the majority now talking about today. Well yesterday (sunday) it rained and lightening'ed and thundered really hard in our area. So when we finally came home we texted the zone leaders to see if the zone activity was still going on .. it was. So we had to be in Rosales at 5AM , which meant leaving the house at 3:30 to catch a 3:40 bus to get there by 4:30. The next bus left too late. So I set the alarm for 3am , but ended up waking up at 2:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. So I've been up since 2:30 AM now ... fun. Anyways , we get to Rosales at 4:15 AM .... waaay early. So we just peruse the dead streets , find a bakery open , eat some breakfast then head back to the church. Wait a while , finally elders from our zone start showing up. Two by two they come until FINALLY the zone leaders show up at 6AM.

(the power just shut off here for a few minutes because there's another storm outside)

So then Elder Podzikowsky , who does polynesian dancing back home , did a fire knife dance where he literally just spun a long knife/sword thing on fire crazy fast for a while. It was pretty amazing. And then we took off for the Zone Activity. Which was hiking. Most of us were pretty stoked to go , some weren't of course , but we were as a zone so it was way fun. Take a jeepney and tryke to the place and finally get going. The americans walk a lot faster than the pinoys so it was way fun finally being able to just speak english for a while and laugh with other americans in my zone. After like 25 minutes of walking on just a cement road , through actually really awesome rice fields and stuff , we get to the "resort" . Ahahaha , resort has a different meaning here. But it did have a dirty pool , so that qualifies. I thought that was the hiking , and was pretty bummed. We all kind of thought that was it and were like geeze , sweet hike. Then they were like nope - starts there. So we get to the side of this mountain'ish thing and start hiking. It's way easy for the first couple minutes and we're like oh this'll be alright after all , and then it instantly turned into a vertical rock climb/hike! It was awweeesssoommmeee

(the power just kicked off again. thank goodness for auto save)

So at points it was like kind of dangerous , haha , but it was way fun. There was no guide , obviously , so we just followed the path we made. Eventually we get to the top and it was such an amazing view. We could see pretty much everyone's area (which is way far) and just everything around. Such a cool view. Then we sit around for a long time waiting for the rest of the zone to get to the top. It took about 30 - 40 minutes in all , but some elders are very very big so I was amazed they made it up. But the zone leaders and everyone makes it up and we sit down and then Elder Podz (because he goes home soon) just wanted to bear his testimony and stuff and invited others as well. So it ends up as a testimony meeting of just our zone and was sooo strong. Like the spirit was amazing. A couple elders shared really powerful testimonies of their life and stuff and almost all of us went. So after we sang Called to Serve and headed back down. Going down was craaazy hahaha. We pretty much got down in like 15 minutes jumping from rocks hahaha. We probably went waaay too fast , but it was a lot of fun. Once to the bottom we wait around for everyone , then head to different apartments to shower (our apartment was way too far so we showered at Elder Halvorsen's apartment) and now we're at the SM. So that's why today the email is so late , I'm sorry. But I got soooooooo burned , ahahah. I wish I could show you the picture. I'll email it next week along with other shots of the day. It was such an awesome day and the mountain was way hard to climb but obviously you can pull some great mission symmetry out of that.

I had another thought the other day , Mom , that since you liked the last letter I'll probably put in another letter to you - it'd just be easier. Also it's funny you mention Dad's house because that's what it's about. Also can you get me the addresses of Brandon , Trevor , and Courtney? Also Garrett's MTC Address , Trevor Taylor's parents address , anddd I think that's it for now. Please email Travis or his parents and tell him another letter is on the way but I never got his letter!

..I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton , as usual , but that's all I can think of right now. I love you all and pray about you all the time!

Catch you next week!
-Elder White