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