Heyo
Questions First:
How's your week been?
- pretty fast
In a new apartment yet?
- not yet , still working it out
Are you still with 3 other filipino elders?
- yep
How is your ward and how was your service project? What did you do?
- it's a branch , and pretty good. I'll talk about it later
Did you take pictures of the festival where you handed out the water and everyone was dressed like a woman? :) I hope so.
- only a few , and got a few pictures from my zone leader
Does Tanner write you a letter each week or do you get the one he sends to his parents? Do you write him individually or just the one you write to us and have included him with it.
- we just send family letters to eachother
How long will you be a trainer for?
- um I could transfer next week or in late june. probably late june
How is your health?
- goo0o0d
How are your shoes and clothes and garments holding up?
- go0o0od
Who is your favorite missionary so far on your mission and why?
- probably Elder Mayes , we're very similar and get along really well. Elder Esling and Elder Harrison are a couple of my favorites as well ... and Elder Bolen
What is the most interesting/funny thing you saw this week?
- Our zone activity earlier. weeeiirrrdd dances , haha. part of a game
What is the strangest thing you saw this week?
-
What is the worst food you've eaten?
Enough with the questions! But one last very important question..............
THE PHONE CALL THIS NEXT WEEKEND! WILL YOU BE CALLING ON YOUR SUNDAY (MOTHER'S DAY) OR ON MINE (WHICH IS YOUR MONDAY)? HOW LONG DO YOU GET TO TALK FOR? AND WHAT TIME WILL YOU CALL? I'M NOT SURE IF YOU'RE 12 OR 13 HOURS AHEAD OF US.
- It's one hour as always , and you guys should call me at around 6AM my time tomorrow. So I'm not sure , maybe look online if we're 12 or 13 hours ahead right now. If that doesn't work then call at like 10AM my time. Again TOMORROW . We can call anyday in May. My number is 09163106149... tack on the country code numbers and stuff as well - that's just my basic cell number.
Just got back from a zone activity. I'd send some pictures but I didn't bring my card reader and to borrow one to use from the internet shop would cost 20 pesos ... and I love you all but that's not going to happen , ha. It was pretty fun , we went to members beach house in the Zone Leaders' area and played some guys and ate seafood. We were supposed to go fishing but didn't have poles or something? I donno it was pretty [malabo] .. unclear .. what the problem was. It was still a pretty fun day and got some good pictures. Before we went we had a zone companionship study and we discussed being disciples of Christ and humility and obedience and stuff ... and soon as we left the chapel I think half the zone forgot what we had just discussed , ha. Unfortunate. Anyways I'll talk about my week a bit.
Me and Elder Blancia are still doing pretty good. He's a hard little worker , but he goes into these mood swings all the time - that's the only bad thing. I never have any idea what's making him so quiet and he won't say a word. It's a very filipino attitude. They hate opening up and what they'll do instead is just keep everything to themselves and show you with their actions that their hurt or something ... but will never tell you why. It's a form of retreat or sulking called "pagtatampo" in tagalog. But other than that we're doing great .. I just gotta get him to open up more often. It's funny how much I see Dad in what I say and how I act with him , haha. Because as a trainer you honestly feel like a father ... it's weird but it's true. I want him to be a really good missionary so I try and give him the best example and encourage him to be obediant as well and stuff , haha. The other night we were cleaning the house before our apartment checks and I heard myself saying a lot of things Dad used to say to me whenever he needed my help with stuff , hahaha. "I just need your help with this for now" "I can't do this by myself" "Just give me 10 minutes more" and some others , haha. It's a funny experience.
This past week has gone by pretty dang fast. Monday was work after Pday , Tuesday we had a CSP [community service project] for the National Day of Service ... I took like 2 pictures , ha , it wasn't that exciting. At first there was only like 8 of us , then a lot more members came. We cleaned the canals on the sides of the street for 2 barangays for about 3 or 4 hours. It was okay , and the funniest things about filipinos is when they see an American they assume he's never done physical work before. They say things like 'life is so hard here , or we just have to look for work everyday to live' and stuff like that ... but I was doing like 10 times the work they were during the activity , hahaha. They were a bit surprised. Also clean here ... isn't really that clean so they'd move off to like a new area and I'd be like uhh are we gonna finish this? hahah. Again ... seeing a lot of Dad in myself.
So that Tuesday we had district meeting as well and afterwards I went on exchanges with Elder Frishknecht in their area of Calasiao. It's a really good area and has a good balance of small town and bukid - I like those kinds of areas , that was how San Quintin was. It's got a good amount of intelligence. Anyways the exchanges were okay , and he's a half filipino/half german born and raised in Utah. Nice kid , but lacks a lot of confidence. But he speask okay , still pretty new ... so I did most of the talking. It's fun to remember how that was like though. That does kind of feel like a long time ago ,haha. Wait ... that exchange was on Friday , I'm sorry. Hahahah. Tuesday Elder Pernecita came to work with me in our area. My area was his second area so he was excited to see all the old members he knew. They were all like why are you back? hahaha. But they're all super nice. He's a pretty incredibly missionary and is very refined in his teaching and all around obedience and stuff. Very good missionary and representative of Christ. We talked for a while that night about a lot of stuff , and he gave a lot of good advice. Small guy , but teaches very boldly. Also he goes home next month ... crazy. I met him in Bayamband in my first area , then again in my second area. So this is the third time we've been in the same zone. So fast forward to Saturday - we close our exchanges and head back to Malasiqui to meet up with Elder Blancia and Elder Palu. Head to the church and wait for our investigator whose about to get interviewed for his baptism. Malasiqui 1 also had two interviews , so we wait .. and wait ... and our investigators show up and all the other missionaries ... but we're still waiting for Malasiqui 1 elders. Finally after 45 minutes of waiting they show up after having eaten and stuff first ... geeze. The interview went well , our investigator passed so he'll be baptized on Saturday. Sunday was also a pretty good day but as we were greeting all the members we saw that our investigator wasn't there [the one who got interviewed , he's about 55] and we're like where is he ... asking his family and stuff and they give all these excuses why they couldn't go pick him up. So I ask my branch president if we can send someone fast to go get him , and he's like "Mike [19 year old about to go on a mission to Cebu] go get him" ... and off he races about 14 KMs down the road , gets Cesar , and whips back right in time for the sacrament , hahaha. This branch needs some work done internally. But all in all it was a pretty good week.
Now we're in Dagupan about to head home. I'm excited to hear from you guys tomorrow. Sorry for the short notice! Also I'm so sorry about what's happened to Telie , they're usually in my prayers [fatigue at 10 at night has my head losing thoughts sometimes] but I'll make sure I focus more on it. Trials suck...stink.. :\
Love you all,
-Elder A White
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