Yup

Family! How's it going. It is his hot here... I haven't sweat this much my entire mission. I think the whole world is hotter , someone was saying there's like sun flares going on or something ... I donno , but I'm definitely feeling it here. In every area I could go to bed with a fan and be fine , but now even with a fan we wake up sweating like crazy. It's okay though. I drink an average of 4 - 6 liters of water a day. It's costing me a lot of money , ha. You can buy from places called water stations where they take the water you get through the pipes and run it through these huuuge tanks of filterization until it becomes good to drink. It tastes way good , but costs about 20 pesos for 15 - 20 liters .. which I finish in a few days. With all the money we spend on transportation just to get to and back from the area and for transportation to district meetings and stuff ... my money slips away fast. Still I think I've felt it hotter in Utah before - at least in St George. I'm amazed at Grandma and Todd and Gayes' families - I could not live in that kind of heat. The funny thing about filipinos is that they hate heat more than we do. They often [unless they have to] won't expose themself to the sun all day long. They hate being dark and they hate how hot it is. That seems like unique only to this country ... do mexicans hate the heat? I don't really know anything about their culture. But yeah , we'll be walking and my companion or others will be using like a sunbrella while I don't and they're like it's so hoooo0o0o0o0oottttt and it doesn't feel that bad when they say it. I think I read that a mission in Arizona is the hottest mission on earth. Anyways , that's that about the heat. How's everyone doing? How's Connecticut? Warm still?/yet? How's Wolf? Hopefully still kicking.  This week has gone by pretty fast. Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty regular days. As was Thursday ... haha. Nothing exciting really. A lot of teaching , inviting , hopefully making a little bit of a difference. Friday we held exchanges with the Calasiao elders and I went with Elder Palu. 5'11 280lb Tongan from utah. I've known him for a long time because I was in his zone when he got into his first area , then he went to my old area of Malimpec , then again in Agoo we were in the same zone , now in Dagupan. He's way way funny , ha. Acts like he's from the hood and gangster. But it's really surprising because he's incredibly humble. One of the most humble people I've met , especially when it comes to teaching. It was a lot of fun teaching with him - not to mention he's got an amazing Tagalog accent being Tongan and all. But the funniest thing is he loves hip hop and rap , so we had this one appointment with a less active that we're walking to and he's just like rapping to himself then I'm talking to the lady and we go into the house and he's still rapping and we sit down and he's still rapping ahahaha the lady is like staring at us and me and her just start laughing as Elder Palu continues to rap. Then he like finally realizes and stops , hahaha. And maaan that guy sweats a lot. But it was a fun exchanges. Someone in here is playing Fireflies by ... Owl City , yep.  So the next day we ended our exchanges and went directly to Dagupan at 12 to help with the Bangus Festival! Haha. Bangus is a type of fish , and they have a whole festival because of it. Apparently it's one of the largest festivals in the Philippines and a ton of celebrities come to it. Every year the missionaries in the Dagupan Zone help out by handing out free water to people because it's crazy hot and none of them have water. So .. it ... was not what I was expecting, haha. It was incredibly crazy as we would be filling up these cups of water with the tanks we had and putting them on the table as we get swaarrmmmedd with people. And about 70% were dressed up as woman , because they had these like street dancing things that are like choreographed dances per barangay [neighborhood]. So anyways , there were 31 barangays with about 100 people in each barangay ... so 70% of each barangay were dressed as woman , and maybe only 20% actually were ... hahaha. Being americans ... they were staring and staring and staring at us. But it was a fun experience. Afterwards we went to go check out the actual festival because we had about 20 minutes of free time and it was way cool. There were so many people there. After that we just got something to eat and headed home. One thing I realized I'm really going to miss is Mang Inasal. It's this chain restaraunt where you pick your ulam [again anything you put on rice] normally which is a breast of chicken and then it's unlimited rice ... so you eat sooo much rice and theirs is really good. It's addicting sometimes.  Sunday was a good church service and the branch is making these t shirts for our service project tomorrow [national day of service] so I'll show you some pictures next week probably. Oh also! Haha. At the bangus Festival Elder Blancia somehow randomly saw like a past girlfriend of his or something [here in the philippines they have what are called text mates that become your girlfriend despite never meeting her] so he saw her at the bangus festival , despite that being the first time ever meeting her , haha. He was way shocked.  So yeah , this past week had been pretty good and this transfer is way fast. Now we're headed to Dagupan to get a few things done. Email me with any questions or whatever! love you all, -E Austin W

Interesting email from our Mission President , ha.

I want to remind all of you that it is important to be respectful and courteous to other denominations and people's religious beliefs.  One of the God-given rights and freedoms we share is the privilege of religious freedom - to worship who, how and what we may.  Not all countries and people have that blessing as you know.  We are fortunate that our founding fathers and constitutional laws afford us this basic freedom.  While we might not agree with another people's beliefs, we must be respectful of their right to worship who and how they please.  Remember that our purpose it to "Invite all to come unto Christ...".  The word "invite" offers people the ability to exercise their God-given agency.  We preach the Doctrine of Christ as the foundation of our missionary work. I shall take this opportunity to also dispel (to put away) a false doctrine that missionaries seem to believe regarding the INC (Iglesia ni Cristo).  There is NO truth that an apostate member of our church started the INC.  That is completely false doctrine and we should not spread this false rumor.  If you hear other missionaries or members saying this - please correct them. The INC was started in 1914 by a Filipino named Felix Manalo (age 28) .  He was baptised a Roman Catholic and at an early age, but became dissatisfied with the Catholic Church.  During his teenage years in his search for truth he affiliated himself with other local denominations (Seventh Day Adventist and Methodist).  In 1913 he secluded himself with religious literature and notebooks in a friend's house in Pasay (Manila), instructing everyone in the house not to disturb him.  He emerged out of seclusion three days later with his new-found doctrines.  In 1914 he legalized his new church here in the Philippines and started his ministry to baptize and grow his church.  Their church today is lead by a man named Eduardo Manalo, the grandson of it's founder.They teach there is only one God (God the Father).  They do NOT believe or recognize Jesus Christ as being the Divine Son of God, although they do believe that all "are saved by Christ's blood".  They do not believe that the "Holy Spirit" is a God, but rather, the Holy Spirit "gives them the ability to interpret the Bible correctly".  They DO believe in the great Apostacy (loss of priesthood authority in the early centuries after Christ) and they believe Felix Manalo re-established the ancient church in 1914.  They practice baptism by immersion. I hope this helps you understand a little bit about the INC and that the "rumor" of Mormon-affiliation is completely false. :)Have a great day and much love to all of you.President Jensen

yo yo

Family! What's going on. I'm still pretty good. Back in Malasiqui today and just sent out that package. I am sending no more packages. They lie to me about the price until I actualy bring it in and it's all taped and ready to go and it's crazy expensive! So no more. Not worth it. Let me know if you guys like the thing I got made and I can get a few more things made , but I'll just be bringing them home - no more shipping business. Also please get that letter off the Andrea ... where ever she might be at that time , and also the other thing off to the other person that's name is on it! Surprise. Update : This could be the mission office address of Naga Mission actually ... I would check on your mormon mom website if other missionaries from there say otherwise Philippines Naga Mission P.O Box 8857 Camarines Sur 4400 Naga City , Philippines Is there any area you hope to serve in before you come home?  You thought you might only be in one more area -- weird!  How many areas are there in your mission?  How many have you served in so far?  And which area would you choose if you could and what's it like? -Not necessarily , it would be fun to go back to a former area , though. Probably just one more , yep. Lots , haha. 5. Probably my first area - Malimpec. Do you know an Elder Jabillo?  He's leaving next month and HIS PARENTS ARE PICKING HIM UP!  Sounds like a plan to me! - It does sound like an idea ... a bad idea . WOOOAAHHH I am witty. Do you know an Elder Filichia or Elder Davis?  Both their moms are on MM and are very prolific writers.  I'm not.  I never write on that site.  - I've seen Elder Davis before I think. There's over 180 missionaries in the mission , haha , it's not every day I see them Um , if you search them on Facebook their email might pop up , ha. And even if we were 'friends' on facebook mom it doesn't mean you could see their accounts , haha. Just search their names 'Mitch Merrill' and 'Cody Storm'. Ahhh this internet shop is blasting Adele ... I really , really miss her music. So anyways , yeah - whatever you wanna throw in the package mom he would love it. Just send it off sooner than later if you can so not to delay the happiness! Ha. Don't worry about ordering anything special. I wanna ask him when I get home if he has any leather scriptures - and if not I'd send him some. He's awesome Anyways this week has been okay. Kind of long , as it is with training at first , but okay. Studies are from 7AM to 11AM straight .. so that's a bit taxing. Waking up at 5:30 is still challenging. But we haven't moved yet ... hopefully sometime within the next three weeks - but the little house we find is way far away from the highway so that's a small problem at night when we'd try to be getting home. Also they tell us that people drink and play music loud at night , haha , so we'll see what happens. we may or may not move into that place. But it's really the only one we've found so far that's suitable. So Tuesday was district meeting in Calasiao and seeing as our money didn't come through on Monday we were allowed to go shopping for our groceries and stuff on Tuesday. So we have district meeting and our district is composed of just 4 elders , haha. It's tiny. So it's basically just like companioship study in which I just give my thoughts on a subject or teaching skill or something and we try and apply it in our work. My topics the past two weeks were first the atonement and the second was testimony. I liked the first idea a lot of connecting the atonement in everything we teach. The problem sometimes here is that members and investigators get very attached to missionaries and not to the message. They think they're coverted to the message , but they're not. So when new missionaries come in and don't visit that person every day and watch movies and hang out and all this junk they get upset and offended and stop coming to church. [That's a bit exaggerated , but you get the point.] So the idea is to point to Christ in all our lessings in order to point away from our selves. In order to do this we connect whatever principle we are teaching directly to the atonement. If we can't connect it , we can't teach it. It was challenging at first , but in all honesty it brought a different spirit to the work and we saw a lot of blessings and great reactions come from it. So that's a small view into what teaching is kind of like. There's a lottt to remember as you're teaching. Despite the doctrine you have to remember the scriptures and hundreds of small little teaching skills that will effect the whole lesson. But you get used to it as time goes on. So after our district meeting on Tuesday we headed to the grocery store to get our stuff and were seen by like 10 different members , hahaha. Some were nice but others gave us the what are you doing here , shopping , kind of look haha. Here in the provinces you are a biiig part of the lives of members , so they will get upset by the littlest things. So , of course , we didn't really have the chance to explain that we had permission from our mission president to be shopping - but they didn't say anything on Sunday about it. Wednesday the zone leaders came with us to check out the house , and one of my zone leaders [ filipino ] starts negotiating with them about the price of the house and starts going waaay too high , haha. So they got an agreement on like 6,000 pesos / month without us even telling them if we want to live their or not. So the owners of the house could be a little upset if we don't end up moving there. That house is no more than 4 a month. Anyways. Work was pretty regular this week , nothing special. Thursday we had our new missionaries training in Urdaneta and that was a lot of fun. I got  to see Elder Soderquist and Elder Tan as they're both training as well. Elder Tan is doing awesome in San Quintin [mine and his second area] and I love hearing from the branch and members back there. I still write members in all my old areas. Also President gave a couple good speeches of instruction and answered a bunch of my questions. As we got back we just had a really good day , in that we got right out to work and landed 4 lessons within the 2 hours we had and were able to extend an IBD as well. Hopefully we'll have two baptisms in May. It's a good area , and working through less-actives really is a much better way. Friday my companion kind of broke down a bit with home sickness. He misses a lot of things from back home , particularly music and of course ... the girlfriend. So we spent about an hour or so just talking about it and getting out to work as soon as we could to get his mind off of it. It's funny how that works , when we're working thoughts from home are super far away. But in the morning when you wake up and at night going to bed they fly right home. He's a great guy , just needs to keep his mind focused. Saturday flew by pretty quick and Sunday was church. Didn't have as many as last week :\ but it was still good. It's awesome to see how many less actives will come back each week. They really are very faithful. Anyways , I'm running out of time here - so I'll close this up. I'm still well and loving everything as always. MY HEALTH IS FINE MOM , haha. It is the rice giving me a belly ... along with everything else here. It's all loaded with sugar to keep energy just high enough to get through work. I do drink the filtered water , but when it's sunday and you're out of water , and it's hot , and a member offers you water ... it's hard to say no. The area is great and these people are awesome. I'll talk to you , Mom and Dad in a couple weeks ... really really weird. I'll probably email you next week my cell number so you guys can call me. Okay , love you all! -Elder a White

pictures! and glamor shots

Heyo

Hey , I'm back in Dagupan on some computer that's pretty crummy. The computers earlier in Malasiqui were way good so I got done the little stuff that I needed. Now I just have a few minutes to write the family email. We went bowling again earlier... ha. We'll probably take a few weeks off , but I got a new record : 203. I'm getting better. And now I'm tired... This week has been pretty good , but before I start I'll answer your questions. 1] Mom , Dad , Callie , and June by email. Garret's written me once after I wrote him and I've got to write him home ... but I literally have zero time to write letters anymore. I only have Mondays and our Mondays are filled... next week I'll have more time. Also Grandma and Caitlin and a couple others write me by letter as well. I have a request for you , mom! Next week I'll send you the address , but could you send a small package to a missionary for me? He was a ward missionary in my first area , Malimpec , and I'm sure I told you about him - Franco Maure. He's on a mission now in the Naga Mission and is awesome. Most young men / mission age men I've met here are pretty immature and don't really have too much of a future in mind or at least planning ... but Franco is one of the first people I met here and is incredibly smart , he just needs schooling behind it. But he's a really hard worker and super obedient in his mission [which is a little rare sometimes for filipinos] so he's one of my favorite people. Also I'm one of the only people who writes to him on his mission through letters , so I was wondering if you could get a little package together , it doesn't have to be big , but just include maybe a picture of our family when we're all together and then a letter saying you're my mom and stuff and we wanted to send him a package. Just some food and maybe a couple ties and whatever you think of. If you could do that , just substitute that for whatever future package you'd send me. He's way way awesome and I know he'd be so so happy to get that because his family is incredibly ... challenged for money. Members are supporting his mission and for filipinos that's only 5 - 12 dollars / month ... and for his family that can't be done by them alone. Thanks so much Mom and I'll send you the address next week. Anyways this week has been pretty good and fast. We're back to 4 hours / day studies which takes a toll on you when you're now waking up at 5:30 AM - but we're managing. Wait: this is the address. Philippines Naga Mission Office Panganiban Dr, Naga City 4400 Okay , so the area is pretty awesome and the people still so humble. It amazes me their faith. These people live a payday away but they still come to church. They don't really understand WHY they come to church , nor do they seemingly get much out of it , but they feel the spirit and they love the comradery [sp?]. We're doing the best we can to help them understand why they're doing what they're doing and change their minds from the Catholic mentality of this nation. It's a challenge when you're deep in the farm countries where the education is low and the churches a plenty. But they are super duper sweet and love our visits. Nothing too amazing has happened this week , unfortunately , but we taught a few great lessons where the spirit was really able to do the teaching and not us. One of them was to the Esma brothers that are both about 55. They both have families that are all members but in active. We're teaching the two of them together because their families never really want to join in , but these two brothers are coming back and their families will follow. Their education is super low and it's hard to get too much across because they don't understand too too much [I mean they're not mentally challenged , but when you dip into stuff deeper than just faith and family you run into challenges] but we taught a lesson about obedience and connecting it to the Word of Wisdom and Nephi's story and they really felt the essence of it. Romeo was crazy excited to come to church on Sunday and we asked them how they felt during the lesson and Romeo was like I can't explain it's just like I keep wanting to learn more and go to church on Sunday. Another family we're working with is the Macaranas family and they father has dipped into inactivity in the past couples months. What we've done is helped to get him a calling in the Elders Quorum and so now he's come three weeks straight and is way stoked to keep coming , haha , he's so funny. We saw him at church last week and he was like ELDERS QUORUM FIRST COUNSELOR! SUSTAINING ME NEXT WEEK! He was excited. Callings really are the secret in getting people out of inactivity. But it's got to come from a bishop/branch president that makes the calling seem noble. Ours is doing a great job. Another family is the Macaranas family [their cousins] in which the whole family is inactive , but in the past month we've gotten the father to come back and he's bringing his 3 kids. When he's stable our target is the mom and to get them a temple date set. That's a huge challenge , because the temple is a large salary away for them and not easy to take that work off. But to see these people running the church , despite being so so humble , is really an amazing thing. Yeah , a few things are done a little silly , but they get the essence of it and they really want to do what the prophet expects of them. They're so humble and it's quite inspiring. It'll be a challenge to come back to a little ... haughty .. area. But I know members back home aren't prideful.. hopefully. My companion is a little ball of energy , ha , he's way silly. But I keep him balanced with my boringness , haha . Actually I was told by a member that I need to not be so serious all the time , haha , so we'll see what happens there. I don't think I'm very serious ... I just like to work and not sit around at members houses for hours talking. The branch is pretty awesome still , and we'll probably move into our new area pretty soon [ our house ] . We've talked to the owner of a house waaay deep into our area , but it's tiny and really nice [ it's got AirCon ] so it might happen in the next few weeks. It'll be nice , as well , getting out of a 4-person apartment. I loved it at first , but with 3 filipinos and 1 american it's just kind of rambunxious [sp?] and sometimes causes set backs. Also our traveling to and from the area every day causes some times losses. My health isn't bad [I gotta stop drinking the water .. ha] and for the past month I've worked out pretty consistently every day. I'll be honest , I'm bored to tears from lifting weights ... but I just do push ups and situps and dumbbells every day and am finally seeing muscle come into my body for the first time in my life , haha. But I still can't wait to run when I get home .. no matter how cold it is. I'm dying to be able to diet and run again. My stomach is enormous. Dad .. you'd be proud. How's your weight by the way. That's my one wish ... lose weight before I come home. [Alma 38:21] I'll probably be with my trainee until June and then odds are just one more area. That's freaky. The thought pops in sometimes that I have 6 months left , but it still doesn't feel real that I'll be coming " home " one day. 92% of me still thinks that missions don't have an ending. And that's coolio with me ... just until I see the whole mission and am assigned everywhere. Haha members ask when I go home and I consistently say 2046 or 2052 ... then a quick visit to see the parents and I'll be back within the month haha. But then I seriously tell them and they tell me I'm " pauwi " which means currently heading home and it's depressing. But I love training because it really keeps my thoughts away and as soon as they do start thinking about it I think about him and how he needs to keep his thoughts away from home and it helps. He's a really good guy with a great voice and likes all the same music I do , so it's a good companionship. Obviously a lot of things are hard , yes you're right momma , but you deal with it and "swallow you're pride" [name that song]. No but seriously pride is awful. Humility is the only way to get through a mission , and seemingly life. Life sucks , haha , it's really really unfair in a lot of ways ... but through the atonement all things will be made up. Trust in that and go on. I like the atonement ... hopefully I'll be able to read the Infinite Atonement soon! [if not soon then at home] Also , mom , even though I don't like thinking about it I need you to just look into BYU-Idaho stuff and find out when you need to sign me up for classes and stuff. Also if you can get Mitch's email and Cody Storm's email I'd love you for that. I'll ask my misison president for permission to email them about rooming information. Okay. I love you all, -Elder A White

TANNER IS IN HIS LAST AREA!

Haha very possibly , that's freaky man. How's it going family. I was pretty sure I responded to that stuff about Brandon last week , but if not , congrats that's way awesome. Him and June should collaborate ... actually their styles are incredibly different , but that's all way cool. By the way , Easter in the Philippines means crucifying Christ afresh ... haha literally. This Catholic nation goes insane with kabastusan! That means like ... rudeness ... or degradation [that's a word right] of Jesus Christ. It's pretty crazy how they make all these crosses and hang people on them and stuff [I don't think they die ... just act it out] and have so many weird traditions that probably all involve alcohol , also each catholic family sticks a little table outside their gate with an idol and a idol-picture and candles and cross and stuff ... the week is called Holy Week or mahal na araw. It's strange. And they're not allowed to buy meat. I remember Danny Mangan telling me a lot about this kind of stuff when we were little but it was not nearly to this magnitude. The american style seemed pretty normal , but that was a long time ago. Anyways , yes , conference was awesome. Favorite talk : President Packer. Then , obviously , Elder Holland. Then , Elder Hallstrom. Then , Elder Christofferson , then Elder Nelson. Favorite two lines : "Don't delay ... it's getting late" and "Could an explosion in a printing press produce a dictionary?" Ahaha , so good. My favorite speaker is President Packer and followed closely by Elder Holland , and their talks were amazing. Obviously , yes , Elder Holland's apostolic explanation of the parable of the laborers was awesome and it shows how much time he must spend reading each verse and each story over and over again and extracting meanings that aren't in the words but which the Savior is sill trying to get across. That's what happens when a literary genius speaks. But President Packer's history of being a sunday school teacher shines through , he's a fantastic teacher and his talk just interested me the most. Elder Holland is also getting more and more bold as time goes on. I loved Elder Hallstrom's direct approach and really good expounding on simple subjects , and Elder Christofferson's line "translate that." . Also me and Elder Mayes were discussing why Elder Scott seemed to go off on a seemingly unrelated tangent about his wife , but also seemed really intertwined with what he was talking about. All in all it was a really really really good conference , probably the best one of the mission. There was a strong spirit about the talks , and even more so with the hymns. Also Elder Mayes and Hyatt were there so that was fun. My son's name is Elder Blancia [Blanco is spanish for white..] and is from Cagayan de Oro , Mindanao. He's small , but has an awesome personality. Loves music , used to sing in a band , has a really good voice and loves a lot of the same music I do. I apologize ,also , whole - heartedly if my spelling is off , english is hard and this computer is Laaaaaaggging like crazy. Also I'm downloading the whole conference , plus other things so that's slowing the computer down. By the way , I just downloaded two of grandpa's speeches and hearing his voice again is really awesome. Important Side Note::: me and Elder Mayes were joking a couple weeks ago because we got word that President Monson saw the three words video that Sister Jensen made of us [see her blog and look for the youtube video if you haven't seen it] and Elder Mayes' three words were Call of Duty ... so we were joking around as if his definitely impressed President Monson ........ President Monson mentioned the words 'Call of Duty' about 20 times during his Priesthood talk! Ahahahaha . After I heard him say it the third time I looked at E Mayes during the conference and was like how did you do it?! Buuttt , President Monson has given that talk before titled Call of Duty ... still , we think subconsciously he was influenced to speak about it after watching our video , haha. Okay , back to my kid. He's way cool and he brings such a spirit of love to our lessons. With transfer day and two days of conference we've only been able to get a little work done , but he's way happy about the work and teaches really well despite being super new. My goal is to have him training in 12 weeks , along with the system. Elder Tan trained , I think I mentioned that , so I got a cool picture of three generations [FAMILY HISTORY WORK!] Transfer day was pretty long and crazy. President gave a really good talk [more like a sermon] and I think he feels his time coming near. The new president gets here July 1. But I always love seeing the Jensens. They remind me a lot of you guys [looks a little as well]. We're looking for an apartment in our area , because we're waking up at 5:30 each morning to make up coming home at 8 every night. After 7:30 there's no more buses or jeeps in our area , so we have to ctach that last ride jeep to get home. So we asked president for permission to start our day off an hour earlier. I'm actually super happy I'm training again. At first I wasn't , but now I realize how large a blessing is. It gives me the excitement of being new again , more energized studies , and keeps my thoughts super far from home. I like my trainee a lot and it's funny that E Mayes and Hyatt both got reaallyy strange elders , haha. But they're good guys , they'll get through it. We had an experience Saturday night that I'll tell you about when I get home , but won't through email. Haha sorry. All I can say is that being in a catholic nation , where everything is spiritual ... spiritual things happen. Good and bad. But one thing I've learned during my mission is the reality of it all. I confirm what Elder Nelson said in that how can people honestly believe in a 'big bang' and not believe in God. Both requires faith , just one faith is progressive and the other regressive. Why not use the faith you're already using for positive. ahhh , I love this mission. I've changed a bit , ha. hmm , what else. I think that's all for reporting for me. OH! We just went bowling , 8 of us .. I bowled a 202! That's a new high for me , 8 strikes , 5 of them in a row. My arm hurts. But I'm really at an awesome stage of my mission. I know the mission well , I know how to be a missionary , and now everything is just progression. Self progression and progression as a disciple of Christ. Alma 38:12 was decided by me about a month ago to me a life motto. It's hard. But I really like this feeling. Everything is awesome , ha. Anyways , I'm sorry my emails aren't so much about my area anymore , but it just doesn't really seem all that important to talk about - it's all the same stuff. I'd rather talk about things that change or seem more worthy of the email space. Please tell everyone , including JUNE , thank you for all the emails and letters. That includes the Newtown ward! Thank you for the easter card. Please send the Sturges' a super thank you as they've been so consisten during my entire mission with their little cards. Sweetest couple award. I super weirded out that I'll be talking to you guys in a month ... I literally just put down the phone yesterday in Damortis. Anyways just one more phone cal left ... so so strange. I love you all , -Elder White

I'm Pregnant! [not april fools]

Heyo Family First off about extending - I don't think it'll be able to happen. It's pretty rare that it's allowed because it has to go back to the First Presidency , I'm pretty sure , and others have already been denied. So I'll just be coming home at regular time unfortunately. Also ... I don't realllyyy want you guys picking me up here , haha sorry. That's kind of a bummer for me because I can't do anything .. I'm still a missionary until I'm released by President Checketts and I really want to fly home with my batch and see you guys in New York. Is that okay? If possible , I would love to come back as a family and show you guys this amazing country - but that's if Brandon wants to sponsor us , haha. Mom , I'll be home on the 1st I think so you can definitely do that Marathon if you want. Also I come home on a fast sunday , haha , also could you contact BYU Idaho and find out when I need to start registering for classes? Okay - but yes that is all I'd like to think about about my coming home ... it's still a very far ways away. How's everything going? I've had a few surprises this week happen , but unfortunately nothing as spiritual as last week. The companionship is okay , it's become more challenging this week working with the three of us. It's two filipinos that work companions in the past and know each other well ... and then me. Sometimes disobedience rules out over me and so I'm stuck looking like a snob , ha. But Elder Danao goes home in two days , so I'll be with Elder Surbona until Friday when I get my new companion. Elder Mayes' companion goes home on Wednesday as well , so we've been begging the Zone Leaders to let him come with us for those few days ... but it's a no go , ha. My companion requests don't get granted. The area is good , but we only have time to work there 3 or 4 days a week because we're splitting it between two areas. A funny thing happened a few weeks back that I forgot to mention to you guys: We were walking in our area and turned right to walk down this path to a less - active's house to teach her ... and a guy [apparently her brother] runs at us , drunk , with an itak. An itak is kind of like a machete , hahaha. So we're like ohhh crap and we start sprinting backwards and he's running after us. Eventually we get out of the area and everyone is like staring and calming the guy down. Ahahaha. He was really drunk and for some reason was mad at us. Don't worry , we weren't in any real danger. Had we confronted him , then maybe , but we had plenty of time to get away from him. Since then the gossip has spread like wildfire [yes , there is relief society in the Philippines] and every time we go to a member we get an "ELDERS! Hinabol ba kayo ng itak?!" translated : "ELDERS! Were you chased by a guy with a machete?!" That was a pretty fun experience , and since then people in that area have been a bit kinder to us and more friendly as we walk by. Haha , blessing in disguise. So yeah  , I can't believe I forgot to mention that in past emails. This week has been regular work , and last Sunday was absolutely amazing. SO SO SO SO many less actives came to church. The attendance must have been above 130 [usually it's around 80] and we were shocked and so happy. There's this one woman whom I love. She's about 70 or older and is nearly blind. Just hearing her talk makes you feel so so happy because she's such a grandma and makes you feel loved instantly , ahaha. She can only remember my name and keeps forgetting Elder Surbona and Elder Danao's name. It's so funny and she can't even see our faces , she wears these HUGE glasses but it's not near strong enough for her. Anyways , we've visited her now 3 times and she came to church last sunday!! We were shocked. It's so so hard for her to get there , being almost blind and all , but her little 6 year old granddaughter helped her to get to the tricycle , then bus , then tricycle. She's awesome. She was the first to bear her testimony during sacrament meeting and she started crying as she thanked us and other members for visiting her and stuff. It was really awesome. Other news : we had a baptism last Saturday. A 13 year old girl named Mary Joy. It was a good service , but the confirmation had to be redone seeing as the 1st counselor said receive YOUR holy ghost , haha. It's difficult sometimes to expect them to say english phrases perfectly , when it's not their language. I'm not sure why they don't just use Tagalog during ordenanses. that's spelled incorrectly , but I'm rushing. Last big news ... I'm training again. I really didn't expect it , but the ZLs called me last wednesday and I went to the meeting on Friday. From the dagupan zone it's me , elder mayes , and elder hyatt training all for the second time. Also.... ELDER TAN IS TRAINING. Mom and Dad I beat you to being a grandparent , haha , or so it's called in the mission. It's pretty thrilling to see your son train so fast. The training meeting was good and after I got a package from the Taylors! Please tell them how happy I was for that and that they were thinking of me. I play with the sling shot monkey a lot. That's all I've got for right now , I'm in a rush. I love you all! -Elder White