ako ay pilipino!

Aloha.

How's your week been?
Mine's been okay!

Guess where I am.....................................

BAGUIO!
Haha , no one got transferred. We were pretty shocked. At first I thought it was a joke because they did it in a way that made me think I was getting transferred. Ahah , but as they were telling the times the jeep would be coming around to pick everyone up , they didn't include us. I was like uhh... am I seriously not transferring and they're like nope. So a flood of emotions came through , ahaha. I was like uhh why am I goingto be here for 6 months hahah. But then I got way way stoked to have Christmas here. The members are a bit more well off , meaning the offer will be a bit more hearty haha. Also the manager of our complex and her family are my favorite people in the Philippines , so it'll be way funny having Christmas there.

BUT! I might be trasnferred in like 2 weeks... ha. It's awful. I've already built myself up for the crush of not transferring , and now I don't want to leave until after Christmas , and there's a good chance I'll be out of here by the 18th'ish. Because they were supposed to call two new Assistants but they only called one [Elder Heninger] [my old District Leader]. So there's a good chance [because I've been here for a long time] that I'll be transferred in two weeks when they call the new assistant. Obviously not that I'll be the assistant , but they'll be abunch of switches in the mission as one steps up to AP , one steps up to Zone Leader , District Leader , and so forth... so I'll just be thrown somewhere else. It's a bit upsetting , but I'll do whatever's asked. So me and Elder Tan are still together right now and working miracles in Burnham 2 , haha. No , but last Saturday and Sunday were stake conference and it was really good meetings ... and on Sunday we had a lot of Less-Active "Returning Members" come back. It's a really good feeling to see them slowly remember church and how they used to feel. Elder Misalucha was the visiting speaker , and is a pretty good speaker. He's an area authority here , and apparently the wife of his uncle is a really famous singer here in the Philippines and he helped convert them both. Also President and Sister Jensen came up for both days , so it was good seeing them and hearing their messages. It was basically... bring back all those you let go astray , haha. The Philippines isn't exactly Utah for hometeaching ... and testimonies are shaken quickly ... especially when it doesn't coincide with their job. But they're great people. Elder Misalucha told a pretty saddening story , though , of visiting a ward in Honolulu a few years back and the High Priests Group Leader telling them that only about 15 out of 30 of the High Priests were there. The other half were less - active. They let their jobs come before everything else because they wanted the " american dream " of multiple cars , a big house , and so on. So what had happened is that wives had divorced them and slowly they divided themselves from the church. They were all filipinos. The saddest part was they were all former bishops and stake presidents he said. Crazy.

So that's our work here. Bringing back the lost sheep. Because as the poem goes ... it was a sheep , not a lamb that went astray in the parable Jesus told ... and so forth. You bring back the parents , many baptisms of children , spouses , and relatives will follow. It's a great new focus and will change the culture of the entire Philippines for the better. A few good quotes of Elder Misalucha:

He's 100% Filipino and he said "This is why our nation is poor. When we treat laws and commandments as suggestions , you get chaos."
Also a few jokes he heard that he doesn't like about marriage , but the rest of us laughed haha.. "Marriage isn't a word , it's a sentence... a life sentence."
" When you hold a woman's hand before marriage , it's love. When you hold a woman's hand after marriage.. it's self-defense."
" Year one of marriage- the man speaks , the woman listens. Year two of marriage- the woman speaks , the man listens. Year three of marriage - both speak... loudly... at the same time... and the neighbors listen."

ahahah it cracked me up.

Anyways , back to Wednesday. After our district meeting / finding out whose getting transferred we took a lot of pictures [as pilipinos do] and then we had Jovelyn's Baptism! I didn't bring my cord today , so I'll send the pictures next week. But it was way way good. Elder Tan baptized and Jovelyn was way stoked. She's a 19 year girl that's living at a member's house and has come to church for about 6 months now. She's also crazy crazy shy , haha , but doesn't show it like regular people. She does more embarrassing things , hahaha. So during her testimony , even though it was only like 30 people there , she would read like two sentences she had written down then like look up , high pitch scream then hide behind the podium for 15 seconds , hahahaha. It was so funny. She did that like 4 times. After the baptism the Retuta's [the family she's staying at] took us out to really good chinese food. [DIM SUM JUNE!] ...it was way nice of them.

So besides that , we've basically just been telling people that I'm actually not transferring , and finding out the reason why I didn't transfer... because about 20 people prayed that I wouldn't!!! I blame their faith.

Anyways that's all I got for now , I think.

1. Packages - I haven't gotten any yet , but I think they're at the ZLs house ... I'll let ya know next week.
2. Phone Call - I'll be calling probably Christmas Day for me , so it's Christmas Eve for you guys ... I'll buy a calling card if you want , or I can give you my cell phone number and you guys can call me if you can get a cheap 5$ plan thing. Depends on you , just let me know by next week.

I think that's all. Love you all!
KEEP UP THE EMAILS! June still wins for the most!

...ps why is Dad by himself? Haha ... no companion? That doesn't seem according to mission rules.

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