Heyo

Hello ! Sorry , as always I'm pretty insanely busy as I use this hour to organize a million things , see what's going on church wise through out the year , read emails , and try to respond. This week has been pretty good but I don't have too too much time to go into detail , I'm doing work on my usb as well trying to organize a million things on it. One hour per week for all this isn't really sufficient. One thing real quick: I've decided to expand my english when I get home. I really enjoy studying languages [I've taken an interest in illocano during the mission and picked up a good amount of it] and really would like to study english I think more when I get home. That was just a thought. Okay , so about the week. Last Tuesday was a pretty good with pretty good work. I felt it was my last day , so we had some fun experiences. One was pretty ridiculous. We found these two brothers last week that seem pretty interested , on our first and second visit they asked a lot of questions of the soul , or more inner questions and seemed really pleased with our responses. We made an appointment to come back on tuesday. Of course it's the philippines , we teach outside. We met of their wives , by the way , on our second visit. We go back on tuesday and [as missionaries we do little magic tricks with kids for fun] we make the mistake of going by right after school gets out. So as we enter their compound [which to get to their house we must cross a huuuge farm field about two football fields size] As soon as we enter the farm field , a flood of about 40 - 60 kids come screaming and sprinting towards us screaming 'MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC' ... I will never do magic again. It ruiined the situation. We finally fight our way to their house and only the wife is home , instantly she runs inside and grabs these two girls about 17 or 18 years old who come outside and start giggling and staring at us. The wife says here , they're what I was telling you about. The wife continues to tell us the two brothers [about 20s or 30s] are not home , but for us to "bible preach" the two girls. So we casually ... don't really pay attention to them , then ask the wife for the cell number of her husband. She begins to give us a number , then looks up at the two girls , winks , and goes back to her cell phone . searches a different number and begins to tell us a different number ... we thank her and leave. We realize later that was almost definitely the number to one of the girls ... we didn't text it. It feels weird to be sold like that .. ha. Wednesday was district meeting and transfer awareness. We find out the transfers and confirm that I'm being transferred. We head home and sprint to all our lessons trying to get in as many as possible and take pictures with as many as possible. The families here and so so awesome and I'm going to miss them a lot. Thursday was a lot of packing and a lot of doubting that all the stuff would fit. More pictures with families and dinner at the branch president's house. He's an incredibly nice guy and I was happy he was our branch president here. That was probably my favorite area for the work and the branch presidency helped us a lot in all that we did. A really really kind family as well that might be going to Canada in a couple years. I hope not , the Philippines needs strong priesthood and that's a huge problem , all of the strong priesthood and strong families leave the country ... Friday! We wake up , finish packing , and head to transfer meeting. Get there and see my whole batch except for Elder Soderquist , so that was a lot of fun. Elder Tolman got called as zone leader! He's a pretty incredible missionary and he's now up in Baguio with elder Frandsen , so I'm pretty jealous of that companionship. those are two of my favorite missionaries. I was pretty bummed me and Elder Faber didn't get to be companions ... but I know president prayed about it , so it's fine with me. So I also found out my next area. You might not believe what I'll tell you .... I'm in Malasiqui. That was the bayan or like .. town of malimpec. I'm about 5 minutes away from Malimpec and work in areas I used to go to all the time. Elder Evert is now in Malimpec! But ... who my companion is is even more unexpected ... Elder Danao! My follow up trainer. It's incredibly rare to be put back with a companion , but it happened to us. This transfer meeting was really strange , so I'm feeling a very large influence of the Lord in all the transfers. There's a very big reason I'm here and I feel like I'm slowly understanding why. I stepped down as district leader , as well , and so it's nice to only focus on our work and companionship. We didn't really get along back in Malimpec , but I'm trying as hard as I can [honestly] to make everything flow. This is also his last transfer , so staying motivated for the work is a focus as well. but honestly I'm really excited for this area and to try at this companionship again. There's a loootttt of challenges here , and not everything feels fair , but the Lord understands me and what I need far far too well , ha. Anyways , Friday when we get to the apartment I find out it's 4 elders there , which is my first time for that and I'm stoked . [one of the elders is american from salt lake and pretty coolio] after that we sprinted to Dagupan for a message from Sister Wixom [ general primary president ] , and Elder Nielson [ area presidency ] and his wife. It was a reaaalllyyy good meeting and they're incredibly nice , we met them afterwards and took pictures. Only like 8 missionaries were there. But that was a really big highlight , and I'm really blessed to have been in this area , otherwise I wouldn't have met them! Saturday was our first day of work , and a sweet area. Much like Malimpec. Sunday was church and very much like Malimpec again , ahaha. Sorry for the rush , but that's all I really have time for. It's going to be an interesting transfer , but the Lord's hand is in it .. That's all for now , I think. Mahal ko kayo lahat and I'll see you in 87 years when I never come home because the phils is so much betteerrr!!!!!! -elderWhite

weakling female [weekly email.]

Heyo , This week was pretty coolio. Let me start off with something before I forget: -you should go watch the movie One Good Man if you haven't seen it yet. We watched it recently for a zone activity and I was pretty shocked for how good it actually was. It's a really simple plot about a family in Salt Lake City and revolves around the father , but I really really liked it. Especially for how simple it was. So if you want to see a really good church-ish movie , I encourage you to find it. NOW! ha. Still one of my favorite videos: http://mormon.org/me/5233/ Okay let's move on. On tuesday we had a zone conference up in Baguio. We wake up at 4:30 thinking that we need that time to wait for the bus ... ha. We get up , get ready , make pancakes , head out the door ... and wait for 45 minutes as no air con bus comes by. Haha , if we're going up to Baguio we're going air con .. it's so much nicer and only like 15 pesos more ... which is about 30 - 35 cents. We get up there a little early and see all of our past zone and friends and stuff we made up there. Not to mention I saw like 3 or 4 old members of my ward and it was way funny just talking and laughing with them. This one guy was like dang you're burning down there , ahaha , I've gotten a bit darker down here than I was in Baguio. Anyways it was really fun to see everyone again and during the meeting we met the two new couple missionaries , Elder and Sister Engals from Arizona. They bore their testimony and seem a little freaked out to be in the Philippines , but they're way way cool , especially Brother Engals who just joined the church 6 years ago. He must be at least 50 or 55 and has a pretty cool story. We spent some time talking to him after the meeting and I'm excited they're in our mission. President and Sister Jensen gave some really good messages , especially President's sermon on teaching the doctrine. That was a weakness of our missionaries , is sometimes we dip into our own teaching style. The switch from discussions to Preach My Gospel created some gaps in which missionaries no longer recite but now teach from the spirit. In doing , some missionaries teach their own doctrine which is sometimes false doctrine. Tattoos and body piercings is not part of the word of wisdom , haha. So that was cool. But was the most interesting to me was that Elder and Sister Boehme came up from Manila and gave a couple short messages about health. Elder Boehme is the Philippines Missionary Doctor and is in charge of the health of all missionaries. He started with this clip that I insist you look up RIGHT NOW. It was called 23 1/2 hours and I was thinking about Dad and whoooole way through , ha. IT's a simple thing but will change your life if you DO do it. On the way back down we hopped on an aircon , and it was brutal trying not to watch some new Hugh Jackman movie with fighting robots. It looked fun to watch. After we got home to sprinted to our Branch President's house who was having us over for dinner. He's only been in office now about 2 months and is feeling the burden , haha. I think He's been my favorite bishop/branch president. Except for maybe Malimpec. He's incredibly hard working and does so much for the branch. But now with everything going on he's feeling tons of stress , so we shared a little D&C 121 , 122 message with him and he thanked us for all we're doing in the area. To be honest this is the first [except for maybe san quintin] area I've been in where they're grateful for the missionaries , ha. In Baguio we were never noticed by the bishop , malimpec didn't do too much , san quintin was pretty good , but Damortis is just really humble. The Branch Presidency is so grateful for the little things we do and it keeps you going , it feels good to be noticed in a positive way , ha. Not like "hey joe , what's up man" from every person on the street. Wednesday we had district meeting and I went on exchanges with Elder Bolen again , seeing as it would probably be the last time. It was fun , as usual , and he teaches well. It's funny to see how every missionary has a different style of teaching and just feeling how I would never teach like them , ha. Some are really bold , loud , forward , kind of offensive... I don't know how they can do that. Elder Bolen has a pretty good balance , but he's half somoan so is kind of half loud , ha. Me and Elder Jacinto have about the same style so we teach well together. Also , we play a decent amount of chess during our lunch hour ... and I'm getting pretty good , ha. Elder Jacinto beat me every time when we first started , and now it's hard for him to beat me haha. Thursday we switched back , ate at a pretty bad [guilty pleasure] frozen pizza place then headed home for weekly planning. Thursday , Friday , and Saturday we pretty much just ran through the whole day trying to play catch up from not being able to hardly teach at all monday , tuesday , and wednesday. On Friday Elder Jacinto headed to Urdaneta for his Training Meeting becaaaauuseee he's traaaiiinnninggg which means I'll probably be transferring. There's a chance he could open up a new area with his son , but that's kind of doubtful. We've told the branch presidency , anyways , that I'll be transferring so it'll be humurous if it doesn't happen ha. I really really like this area ... I'm hoping pretty hard that I don't transfer. The branch presidency and the returning members are what keep me here , they're just so incredibly humble and kind. It's the first place I've been that I've felt this way. Maybe it's because I'm coming from Baguio , which is like Wilton to Rexburg ... but I really love this place. Also there's this family in the ward whose Mom just underwent surgery [which they can't afford] and had a horrible experience. While conscious and in the operating room under the knife , the doctor suddenly goes [translation] "what is this? why is it like this? I can't do this , this is too complicated , go find Dr. Ang" ... she heard all of that. We were pretty amazed to hear that , seeing as how shock could have locked her up at any second ... but she persevered and now she still has pain as she's recovering ... so they're not sure if she'll take a sudden turn for the worse or just overcome it. But as we were sharing a pretty heavy spirit lesson with them last friday I kind of realized [in my own opinion] why this other wise really faithful family was having this trial. I don't want to say , seeing how I might jynx it , ha , but I think it's more for her husband than anything else. It's a wake up call for him , and an effective one. That's all I've got time for right now ... there's a large chance I'll be typing from a different area next week. It's been a while since I got any letters , but Sister Sturgess keeps pressing strong! Please tell her how much I appreciate all those letters. Also I owe Grandma a letter , and please send me Granny's email address! Or home address , I'd like to write her as well. Also please tell them both I love them. Okay , I love you all , I'm good , healthy , a little chunky in the mid section , gaining a little muscle around the arms , eating lots of rice , cutting down on the bread and soda , my water tastes good , the air is hot , the ocean tempting , THE MISSION SWEET! take care -ewhite.

heyo - email thyme

1. Are you close to the beach? Do you ever see it?
- yep pretty close. taken a lot of pictures. the sunsets are awesome.
2. Yes , that was the correct pawell.

3. Do you think you'll stay in this area or be transferred? It's been about 6 weeks now, hasn't it?
- I think E Jacinto will get transferred before I do. Transfer day is the 24th
4. What is your apartment like?
- Pretty awesome. Kind of like the apartment in San Quintin except two floors , I'll take some pictures I guess.
5. Bucket showers again?
- oh yes. very very cold.
6. How is the food in this area? Any good cooks in your ward that invite you over?
- Yeah , the people are way nice. It's all the same , you never really taste anything different , haha. Just combos of meat and veggies. But it's all way way good.
7. Have you received any packages or letters from Newtown ward at all?
- none yet :\ I got one last year at valentines day.


This one is pretty sweet :
http://mormon.org/people/

How's it going family! This email could be pretty short , seeing as I've got many a thing that I'm doing.
The weeks been pretty good and slightly eventful. I'm surprised how I hardly hear any responses from what I say in my emails to you all , haha. I wonder if anyone readssss... but I just got my haircut. It's pretty good. Tomorrow is valentines day and our tri zone conference in Baguio. In February [especially on the 24th] Baguio hosts what's called the Flower Festival [they liken it to the Rose Parade I think in California] and so , basically , it'll be really hard to get a bus up to Baguio tomorrow because of how many people will be flooding to the mountain for the flowers. But we're all pretty excited for that. Any kind of conference is pretty awesome , I think because we're just kind of sick of teaching .. haha .. what I mean is that all we do is teach teach teach ... we never get to learn besides a couple hours in the morning of reading. But listening to others give talks and workshops and teach is really relaxing and helps to recharge the batteries.

So , I'm late today because we went hiking earlier as a zone. We meet up earlier , and as usualy , wait around for like an hour 1/2 for 4 ... lazy ... elders to get there , ha. So we pretty much just booked it up this mountain which had a large cross at the top of it , then took a bunch of pictures. Then me , elder tolman , his comp , elder bolen , his comp [elder harrison] , and elder jacinto [my comp] decided to go exploring and took a different path down. In which we went through all these woods , haha , and huge fields but finally made it back down. And then we stumbled upon a sweet catholic shrine and a list of the 10 commandments in which they've taken out the part about idols ... it was actually really funny. But we got some good pictures out of it and had fun exploring. Then we came back , ate , showered , got haircuts , now we're emailing. And I'm having the person here put like 9 hours worth of Joseph Smith History [which I borrowed from the district president] on my usb. Exciting news.

But let's talk about this week. Tuesday we had exchanges with Rosario elders and I went back to work with Elder Iray. It was fun being companions again and being able to catch up after so many months. Their area was pretty coolio as well. We finish up the exchanges the next day [wed] and then I get a call from President Jensen saying he was coming through the area pretty soon and could drop off a couple packages of stuff I ordered from lds.org , so we had to book it back to meet up with him in time. We teach a very normal lessons ... and this is interesting part.

We sit down in a lesson with a less active family that's slowly coming back to church , and right after we say the prayer to begin the lesson we hear shouts outside and people running ... so we're like brother what's that. He then says 'oh they're stealing our water again' we look outside into their bukid [farm] (imagine a large farm with grass ... that's a rice field) and this one guy sporting a classic asian bukid hat is boooooking it back to his side and these two 20 year old guys chase after him with itak's [um .. like a sickle and knife combo ... it's for rice cutting] they're chasing and shouting him down until he gets back to his side , and now he calls his boys. So it's like 4 on 2 and one guy on the 4 side is bringing a shotgun to the game ... oh man. So now the original two are slowly backing their way back [even though they were the ones whose water was being stolen!] (oh yeah , they take the water from other peoples rice fields so that their rice will grow faster and healthier ... it's bad.) Then those two call their boys and the other side calls more boys , so we've got a bukid gang war going on. It was intense. Guys carrying little kids are like putting them down , picking up knives and itaks and guns and sprinting into the bukid for this showdown. A few punches are thrown , a few rocks, but no guns fired , luckily. After about 20 minutes of heater shouting and punches and stuff it breaks up and everyone goes back to their houses. But this was crazy. I dove for my camera .... but it was out of battery!! I was upset. So that was ridiculous ... so once brother gets back to the house we're like okay ... let's continue. Then suddenly the cell phone rings. Elder Jacinto answers says okay okay okay , and then hangs up. Looks at me and is like we gotta go ... there's a missionary at our house without his companion. So we sprint home [literally] and try and figure out what's going on. Long story short about that , a missionary went home this past week in my district [that you don't know so don't ask me who , haha] but it was really sad. He only had two months left but has been suffereing pretty bad depression lately.

So that's all the exciting news for this week. Thursday , Friday , Saturday , and Sunday were pretty ordinary. Lots of work , lots of sun , lots of walking , lots of 'Hey Joes' , and a good church on Sunday. I like the sacrament.

I think that's all I've got for this week. I love you all , and happy valentines day.

PEE ESS!

Mom- HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You've got a present coming in the mail ... it should have been here by today , but hopefully tomorrow or the next day. But I love you a lot and thank you every day [via prayer and testimony in lessons] for all that you've done for me. Thank you for getting me on a mission.

KITA KITS
-Elder Austin White

[that was actually not that short , ha]

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Family email

Good morning family- You should probably start getting a little more adjusted to these early emails because I will emailing at this time from now on , it's just easier ha. mormon clip to watch: http://mormon.org/people/ There are so many random americans here in Agoo. I have no idea why .. but they're everywhere. I'm thinking it's because this is the closest place to Baguio with a beach , so maybe they come down from time to time to go swimming. Either way I don't like it , ha. It's so weird to see other americans .. I stare. I can't imagine what it'll be like to see all your very white faces again [pun intended]. But yeah , it's funny to hear people [pilipinos] talk about us [white people] in tagalog and then turn around and be like ... don't count me with them , I understand you , hahaha. A phrase here is " pwede kang ibenta" which means " you could be sold " meaning when someone does understand the language that the people speak , you could sell that person without them ever realizing. So it's a compliment to be told you could not be sold , ahah. Awesome awesome country. So yeah , that's my first update of the day ... lots of whiteys. So ... let's actually go into an incredibly sad note. June emailed me and told me that Pawel Sywak passed away a couple nights ago. I'm sure you still remember Pawel , mom. I'm in the Philippines , so I don't really know what happened , but that's awful. I can't believe how many times Trevor got this kind of news , and I don't really understand why. So please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers ... I think Trevor met his dad a couple times as well during those tuesday/thursday soccer nights. Okay , so let's go into my week ... I've actually got a decently not boring email to share today. First off - I've been using head and shoulders shampoo as my face wash for the past few months ... and it works beautifully. I save lots of money. Just a tip. Use it if you're as cool as me. Second , this week was pretty good. This is the most lessons I've gotten my whole mission ... after 3 weeks we're almost at a hundred , haha. It's kind of amazing how open these people are. I'm so glad I was assigned in this area ... had it not been for the disobedience of the past missionary I would never have been put here , so I might thank him next time I see him. These people seriously are so humble and despite all the Hey Joes and what not , it's just really really good experiences. It makes for very fulfilling work. We're currently teaching a family and a few other investigators. Besides that it's mostly part-member families that we find and teach through the less actives. The mom or dad will normally be the less active in their family , and we'll teach them , bring members , bring them back to church , teach the family , and help the rest of them be united. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with one of my zone leaders , Elder Shultz. He's from california and will be going to BYU Idaho when he gets home. Oh man ... I like can't work with americans anymore , they crack me up. I haven't had an american companion since my first transfer in the mission and he never made me laugh , hahaha. But Elder Shultz is hysterical and he had me dying the entire time. He brought the branch mission leader to come work with us , and during the second appointment we whip out the hymn books and start singing I Am a Child of God ... and this guy just biffs it huge on the first line , first saying i am THE child of the God , and continuing to be so off tune ... so within the first 5 seconds we were laughing so hard. So at first everyone starts laughing as we continue to sing ... then the BML stops laughing and the investigators stop laughing , but me and elder shultz couldn't stop ... it just caught us so off guard. So in an effort to be nice I spent the rest of the song staring at the floor , not singing , trying not to laugh. It was better after that , hahaha. Okay , then on Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Harrison. Elder Bolen's trainee whose from Ohio. He went to BYU Idaho as well. This kid is so funny , he wsa the one that's like a spot on tanner. Except a bit taller and blonde. But he's way knew to tagalog , so when the investigator will ask him a question , or make a joke he'll like laugh along with everyone and then look at me and be like I have noooo idea what's going on right now ahaha. Anyways , highlights of that exchange ... the Ollier Family. The whole day was pretty hysterical , but this was the best. First off we teach this family investigators of theirs , who the father was just finally joining the lessons. First , there's this little 9 year old girl ... sooo freaking cute. She just randomly starts cracking up and laughs like a 40 year old woman , ahahaha , it was so so so so funny. Me and Elder Harrison were almost in tears laughing. Second , right after the prayer this little 4 year old kid just BUSTS into the lesson! Ahahaha. We're teaching on this like outside ... area ... hard to explain , but its like another room outside with no windows or doors. So right after we say amen this little 4 year old just pops up and goes EEEHHHHHH!!! and is holding his book of mormon stories book ,ahahahah. Again , laughing so so hard. Questions such as ... who is this kid ... where did he get that book ... where did he come from [seeing as it's pitch black outside] popped into our heads. And lastly this enormous grasshopper pops up onto the ledge near are heads while we're teaching , the kids start looking at it so we turn our heads around and Elder Harrison is like oh my gosh ... thaaatt is huge. ahahaha. The thing then hops away and a kid grabs it and twists its legs off so it can't hop anymore. Wow. So those were the highlights so far of the week. Now let's talk about Fast and Testimony meeting. Ridiculous. The past first counselor of the branch presidency has a big chip on his shoulder because he was offended by really small things over the past few years and won't let go of it , so during the meeting he gets up and basically just bashes the leaders. This is during the testimony meeting. This is his testimony. Of how bad the leaders are and all this stuff , it was so sad to watch this. The branch president whose brand new and really awesome just stands up twice and whispers into his ear , please just bear your testimony .. there's another place for this. Anyways , that was unbelievable ... it was so sad to see that happen and to have all our investigators and returning members there ... it was just really hard. Anyways , besides that we're still seeing miracles in this area and the work is awesome. I've gotta run now , because time is up. Love you all and catch you next week! -Elder A White NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.