Good week

Currently listening to: http://www.lds.org/study/prophets-speak-today/unto-all-the-world/mormonism-101?lang=eng Great , great talk. Elder Holland is an incredibly powerful speaker. I've gotten through a decent portion of Christ and the New Covenant and it's fantastic. Elder Holland doesn't explore deep , unimportant doctrines but rather expounds upon the simple and makes you understand why they're so crucial. I love his style , as does everyone. Questions first. 1. Have you been in any rice terraces? - I'm in the Philippines , haha , but if you mean the terraces up in Baguio , the famous ones , no - those are 7 hours away from where I was in Baguio and outside our mission. They are incredible though. 2. Do you lose electricity often? - Currently , no. During rainy season [may - october] ... kind of ... yes. 3. If you lose electricity do you have to pump your water from a nearby well? - Often , no. But sometimes. 4. Have you ever used a machete to help someone cut their long grass? - Yes , and for other things. 5. Have you known any girls by the name of Girly? I hear it's quite a common name. - Haha yes. 6. Do you have to handwash your clothes in this area? - No , in every area there is someone willing to do it for you because of the really good pay. 7. Do you have a lot of Alitaptap in your area? - Alitaptap? what? 8. Have you attended any weddings or funerals? If so, thoughts? - Weddings , one - funerals , ..three? They're a little different. It depends on traditions. Igorots in Baguio have a month long celebration. Often it takes about a week , in that one night they'll have a couple taks [usually us , missionaries] prayers , songs , so forth. The family will speak a little and the body is in the casket open to see and stuff. There's a lot of food and they always set up tables outside the house for people to gamble. Neighbors and others come , become everyone's invited , and a portion of the money gambled and won is given in respect to the family of the deceased. A couple days later they'll bury the body which consists of a loonggg line of the people walking slowly behind the hurst [sp?] while it plays music. In San Quintin they played an instrumental version My Heart Will Go On. Ha. Overall they're respectful , a little silly , but very filipino. 9. Have you ridden on a caliglig? - Yes. It's just like a tractor / truck bed kind of. 10. Have you eaten anymore balut? (I most certainly hope NOT) - Nope. I don't eat to much street food anymore 11. What can I do for you?????? - Nothing much! I'd like to see some new pictures of the family and stuff. How's wolf? Tell my brothers and sisters to email me! ha. Also some CTR rings for kids. ALSO PLEASE SEND THE TALKS I KEEP REQUESTING! haha , I don't think it's too too hard. Just through the internet. John Bytheway or BYU devotional talks. IYAN LANG! thank youuuu 　 Okay , email. That picture of the Salt Lake Temple is way cool. Nice shot. Slowly I am starting to miss Utah and little memories from back home. Time has a way of doing that , ha. I still feel like I just got here , though. Utah sounds like it was fun and tell everyone I miss them. I thank Debbie for her dearelders! Also Andrea. Keep them coming. I'm doing pretty good right now. Health is good. Hair is growing back. Shoes are good , clothes are keeping up [I haven't had to buy any shirts or socks or anything besides a couple pairs of paints that I just wanted] The area is great , but challenging. Like I said these people are awesome , but they don't always have the money to get to church. It's a hard thing being american and trying to tell them to use their faith to get to church. But I love them and know they know what they need to do. Elder Danao goes home in a little over a week , but is still working well , which I'm happy about. Being in a tri-some with two filipino's that are very similar is difficult , but it's a great learning experience. I'll talk about my week a little bit. I had a couple meaningful experiences that I'd like to share. One that I'll elaborate one , and one I'd rather not. Monday was good , Tuesday was district meeting and regular work. Then Wednesday was Zone Interviews. President and Sister Jensen shared really good messages and I got to see some good friends. Thursday was weekly planning , Friday exchanges with the zone leaders , Saturday interview for our investigator for her baptism , and Sunday church. So here are the two experiences I'll share. The first I won't elaborate on , it's more personal. But it's hard to explain exactly what I felt. What I guess I'm trying to share is that at this one moment I had the most supreme spiritual experience that I've ever had in my entire life. I've felt the Spirit during my mission , absolutely , but never like this. Never , never like this. Absolutely surety flooded me and I felt like I was filled with light and joy and everything positive that's possible. I couldn't stop beaming and it was just so so powerful. I am incredibly incredibly grateful for this experience and for my mission and for my Savior. Wow. The next experience was on Friday. We were on exchanges with the zone leaders and so I went with Elder Pernecita to Dagupan , their area. Their apartment is SO NICE. I should've taken pictures. Geeze it's so so nice. Anyways the work was pretty good , I've known Elder Pernecita for a long time - he was in my first zone and he was way nice to me back then. He's incredibly small and incredibly silly and funny , but a really hard worker and really focused. Anyways the work was good and it was really enjoyable to work with someone like him , I haven't really felt that joy of hard hard work with another missionary for a while. Elder Jacinto was a hard worker , but he's younger than me in the mission , so being with someone hard working and older felt like it did when I was new , it was fun. Anyways our last appointment was with this family that has been taught for a long time. The mom is a return missionary and the dad is a former pastor. Nice , right. They have 6 sons and a daughter and they're all way way into the church, except for the dad. He accepts all the teaching but doesn't understand , and just won't accept that the church is any different from any other church. Elder Pernecita told me we were teaching the Book of Mormon to try and get him reading , but he doesn't want to , he feels the bible is enough. So what happens is we asked them from teh start if they'll be at church on sunday [the dad won't come or let anyone go] and so they were all like ... well it depends on Dad. And he's like no it's okay , we'll just be going to the Catholic. So Elder Pernecita does most of the teaching as I just sat and listened and tried to think of what I could possibly say ... nothing was coming to mind. The dad was pretty controlling of the lesson and kept going on in the different directions as we read. So what happened was E. Pernecita wanted me to teach so we read a list of verses in 2 Nephi 28 and at the moment ... I just started talking ... and I'm not sure where it came from , but just felt the Spirit flooding through me. The room got quiet as ideas just shot through my mouth as I explained the scripture for only like 5 seconds and then the cool part came ... I just bore testimony. I bore testimony for like 60 seconds and it was just pure silence. This could have been the second most powerful spiritual experience I've had. Just absolute heat running through my body as I bore the strongest testimony I could on the Book of Mormon and it's truthfulness. And what happened was I stop and no one says a word for like 8 seconds ... the Dad is just staring at me , and then E. Pernecita bears his. Just as powerful , just as strong ... it was so so good. After wards more silence , like 10 seconds of silence .. no one talking. I've never had such a great experience with pure testimony. It's true , it doesn't always work , but no one can deny someone else's testimony. What happened was a miracle. After we say a few more things we ask them one more time if they'll go to church. And the dad goes "I'll leave it up to them , they can do as they want". Wow! So so good. I haven't asked the ZLs yet , but we were pretty positive they were all at church , except for the dad , yesterday. That was just the other experience that I really really cherished this week. I haven't had experiences liek this too often , and to have 2 in a week felt so good. After those two days I felt on top of the world , not a single bad thought came to find and I felt like I was filled with joy. This mission has changed me in a LOT of ways ... guided me in a LOT of ways ... but the thing I'm most grateful for is the Spirit. I don't think I felt or recognized it once my entire life until I stepped into the MTC and was placed in a position to where I was to focus on it. I'm grateful for my Savior that gave me this opportunity to serve and for His atonement that I don't begin to understand. It's beyond my capacity to understand. How it works for everything is amazing. That's all that seemed important this week to share! I love you all and am so excited for GENCON! -Elder White [P.S] - It could be nothing , but I'm trying to respond to all promptings , ha - a thought popped into my head randomly this morning to tell you , Dad , to pray hard before you sell the house. I don't know why. Also , if you could send me a hard bound copy of the Infinite Atonement by Tad R Callister , I'd love it! But please write like the date or something in it , I'll be keeping all my hard bounds for the rest of my life so I'd like to have you write like a sentence or two message. THanks for everything! 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.