OSAMA IS DEAD?! ...I'd completely forgot about him , but go America!

That is pretty insane. I haven't thought about that guy in a very long time but that's awesome that he's now in a place where he has no hope for progression and will eventually end up in a very very special place filled with the worst of the worst.

Anyways. I've got a few things written down that I want to mention before I forget them.

1. I need Trevor Taylor's address and the area code for Norwalk. I want to reply to the letter Alex sent me and I think his address is 11 Norden Place , Norwalk ... but I don't know the zip code.... scratch that. Just found it on the maps section of Lds.org. Oh , but I do still need Trevor Taylor's address.

2. PLEASE SEND COIN TRICKS TO ME!!! Through email and then through the mail if you want. I need them for little kids.

3. Please send a jersey of the USA jersey that I asked for!! Ask trevor about his , he'll know. It's the white one with very thin ride stripes running horizontally. I want to make a jersey of it , so please send through email!

4. Please send news about the new batman movie. Rumors or facts , I'm very curious. Andrea that means you.

Questions:
So.... have you been transferred?
- Nope I didn't get transferred! (I mean maybe... transfers are told to us this wednesday, but President told me no)
But really, how old is she and is she pretty.
- I think she's 14 or 15 and... how does dad put it... homely? ahahahaha.
Where are you -- describe in detail.
- I'm still in San Quintin!! You can probably look it up on google maps mom! Gotta get with this whole technology craze , the internet is a great source of information , aha. But San Quintin is pretty cool. It reminds me a lot of utah. Mountains in the distance , paved roads everywhere except for the dirt paths to a lot of houses. Everyones poor , of course , but mostly sweet. It's pretty bukid (farm) which means a lot of the men work on the farms harvesting corn and rice. I'll attach a few pictures I have.
Where are you living -- describe in detail.
- I'm still in the same house. It's pretty dang nice , for filipino standards , and definitely compared to my last place. It's got everything we need and tile floors. No complaints.
Who is you new companion -- describe in detail.
- Still Elder Salde , but he could be transferred. I reeeaaaallllyyyy want to train , haha. But I'm only 4 months into the field so that probably won't come (if at all) for another 6 or 8 months. He's good , for the most part. No real problems , he's just trunky haha. Despite having a whole year left. But there's a reason for every companion that we have , and my strengths are his weaknesses and my weaknesses are his strengths. For instance my BRT (build relationship of trust [with investigators]) is lacking because I'm obviously not as good at tagalog as him and I'm pretty shy for the most part. So he's way good at that. And he gets trunky a lot so I'm there to keep us out until 9 and get us out the door and keep us working , so it's a great balance. The mission loses it's luster for a lot of elders , so being new everything is still so exciting to me always. I love talking to everyone all the time (Despite being shy .. ha) and just love seeing the fruits of the labor. So , really , for the most part we work well together.
What is the ward like -- describe in detail.
- BRANCH. not ward. We have a tiny meeting house and it's next to impossible to get investigators to come because it's far enough for it to not be convenient ... so .... and without a real church and having massive temple-like structures that the Iglesia ni Cristo's have - we lose our validity in the eyes of many. But the church is being built here now and should be done in a couple months. They book it with the construction. Speaking of construction... I think it would shock you how they build things here , Dad , ha. It seems wrong to me and I don't even know the first thing about building. Though on-site mixing of cement is always a classy touch. But I'll talk more about the branch later.
What is the area like - describe in detail.
- I already told you about the area! I like it a lot , I love all my areas!

PMG L3. What are your thoughts? I don't even know what that lesson is. Are you glad you learned it in the MTC?
- You should have a Preach My Gospel , momma , what are you doing without one!? Seriously though , the insights and things you'll learn from PMG will greatly greatly greatly enhance your personal study mom. Don't be shy about using alternate sources. But Lesson 3 (unless you mean the full chapter 3 of PMG) is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's basically just 5 principles of Faith , Repentance , Baptism , Gift of the Holy Ghost , and Endure to the End. It's not that big of a deal to not teach it in the MTC. I don't remember even spending much time on it in the MTC. Lesson one and two are the main lessons with the most doctrine. Lesson three is just the doctrine of Jesus Christ and of course is incredibly important , but doesn't necessarily need to be taught in the MTC. Ideally a missionary should study those out and create their own way of teaching.

Anyways. My week.

So we got punted more times than I care to count this week. As I've explained before that means lessons that have fallen through. Tuesday , Wednesday , Thursday , and Friday I think we taught like 2 investigator lessons each day. It was ridiculous. Got a bunch of RCLA lessons but we were bummed that we were lacking on the investigator lessons. So we had to get really creative and ended up with 14 new investigators which is always good. But here's the big news I guess. First off , I didn't get transferred as I said before. I emailed President Jensen about the situation and he called me on Tuesday to tell me what to do. He's such a funny guy , I love that he's a mission president. He's like I'm so sorry , but you're going to have to get used to this. Being 19 , white , and a missionary is going to cause you a lot of trouble with girls on a mission , ahah. But he told me to tell the Branch President to talk to the girl and explain the situation and just do my best to avoid her and not make it a problem and stuff. So I did what he said , the Branch President then talked with the girl and now there's no problems. Though every time I've seen her now she kind of runs away , aha. But it's okay - I much prefer this turn out than having to be transferred.
Now here's the other news. My branch like hates my companion. We got some mysterious texts on Thursday calling us lazy and stuff and all this other junk. So we're like what the heck is this? (also it pourreeddd that day. I loved it) So we later talk to the Branch President , then later that night to a member whose like 20 or 21 and he told us it was this return missionary girl whose like 26 or 27 and is border line insane. And they're actually all mad at my companion , but not me.. aha , but since we're companions we're in the same boat here. But she's going all neehor or zeezrom or whoever that anti christ is in the beginning of alma and rallying up so many people against my companion. So now they refuse to work with us and stuff because they don't like his attitude and think he should be more excited about his mission and stuff. I mean , given he's pretty trunky , but the way to solve that is not to boycott working with the missionaries and stuff. It's just a mess that I'm trying to solve and my companion really doesn't care about and just says he hates the branch and stuff. So it'll probly solve itself when he gets transferred.

So that's the big news. But yesterday was awesome. Oh Saturday too. Saturday we had the jubilee for the philippines broadcast where a few leaders were in Manila for the celebration of the church being in the philippines for 50 years. It was a way awesome broadcast and for some reason the spirit hit me so hard when they talked about temples and showed a small clip of them. Then sunday we had an area conference broadcast and when we came home I went on splits with Brother Deguzman again. whose that 26 yr old RM that just got off his mission last july and was an AP. He's soooo good to work with. Literally like my ideal companion , haha. So I loved going on splits with him and it was just so fun to hear stories and stuff from his mission and about his companions and what not. Also we trecked out so far to teach this one family i nthe middle of no where who turned out to be so interested and such an awesome family. And there was one moment that literally made my whole week. It was hearing this little kid in the middle of no where yell "Thomas S. Monson!" after we taught him about prophets and the prophet today. I was beaming , haha , it was such like a perfect moment of why I love my mission.


Okay I gotta go cuz I'm literally out of time. But here's something awesome I got out of my personal study the other day. I read 2 Nephi 3:1 and had the most interesting insight pop into my head about the miracle of prayers. I'll write more about it in a personal letter or something next week!

I'm sorry but I've got to go now. I'm so short on time this week. I'll write a personal letter home though for ya mom

-LOVE YOU ALL!!!
-eLDER White!