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.