Heyo

masyadong iba ang isip na dalawampu na ako , at nag-birthday naman ako sa labas ng states... pero mas masaya naman kung ganyan!

[ weird to think that I'm 20 and it was spent outside the states ... but it's better that way ]

HELLO ALL YOU CRAZY WHITE WHITE WHITE AMERICANS. How's it going. I'm still in Baguio , and like I said now 20. The day was spent with my son and proselyting , haha. But it was also good. My new companion is ELDER TAN , from Tacloban. Ahaha , sister perkins a senior missionary here pointed out during transfer meeting that the Lord must have a sense of humor because he put Elder White and Elder Tan together. He's pretty coolio. He's from Tacloban andd I speak Tagalog better than he is. He said he rarely spoke it before he came on a mission so is learning it as we go , haha so I'm teaching Tagalog to a filipino. He's got a good work ethic but the mission is a bit different than his life before so he's slowly adjusting. Especially in Baguio where it's nothing but climbs all day long. Saturday was my birthday , same as the states ... just a day before you guys , and Sister Rehbaum and the people at her house had me over for a birthday lunch! They were crazy nice. They had a ton of food , a cake! , andddd I ate balut. Ahahaha. I took a video , so you'll be watching that when I send my memory card home again. Hahaha I had to eat it twice because Sister Jo didn't have the camera on as I thought it was the first time. Ahaha. So the second time is faster than the first time. It wasn't that bad , tasted like an egg. But knowing what you're eating gets to ya , haha. So go ahead and google that or look it up on google and you'll know exactly what I ate.

Mom ... may I offer a bit of advice , being the foremost expert in this family [besides Grandpa] on Asia , haha ... stop trying to fight it. Stop buying KFC , Pizza hut , peanut butter ... just go with it. You're gonna be a lot more miserable if you continue being an American in Asia. Conform to the culture and you'll love your stay so much more. That especially means food and the people. Act like an asian and you'll do a lot better. People will stare until you leave so don't let it bother you , at least you don't 'Hey Joe!' 'ed every day. Asians are the coolest people in the world , but that's too bad you don't speak their language.

So yeah , I'm actually like out of time haha. I'm sorry. I told I spent the first 45 minutes reading the emails. PLEASE send dear elders. Please write hand letters. That's means all my friends as well. Mom please inform people of the address change. I'm pretty sure it is

Elder Austin White
Philippines Baguio Mission
San Vicente East
Urdaneta City 2428
Pangasinan , Philippines

I really miss mail. THAT ESPECIALLY MEANS APPLE NEWS FROM BRANDON AND ANDREA. I know the iphone is coming out very soon which means tons of rumors are floating around. Andrea I just got your dear elders about steve jobs , thank you a lot , but next time lets get a little diversity haha. That was 10 stories saying the exact same thing ... that he's retiring!


MOM! also that package was amazing , thank you so much. I loved the notes and the photo album the most. Thank you so much. If anyone can send me some of the pictures through email that we took the night before I left CT I would love to see those. Thank you for everything. Those socks also felt amazing.

THanks for everything , I'll talk to you all next week!!!