hey email

Are you ready for the classic line .... I don't have much time to write. honestly. I rush to do like a million things every week , haha. There's so mcuh more to emailing than just email.

So here's a quick break down. We're in Dagupan right now , back at the regular place because we just had a zone activity of... bowling. I finally beat Elder Bolen two times in a row. First game was like 197 to 144 and the second game was 155 to 134 or something like that. Exciting news.

Important things before I start-
1.] The application process is done! President got his part done the night I asked him and I got an email of confirmation saying that it was received and I'll hear back within 6 weeks.
2.] Please add CODY [not cameron] STORM's mom on facebook and explain stuff and we want to live at Nauvoo in the winter. Her name is Michelle Storm Stone. Cody gets home in September and sounds like he's doing awesome.

sad news: Elder Mayes was just called to be the new Assistant so there's no way that we can be companions. I was distruaght haha. I prayed that we would.

Sorry also for the horrible typing , I'm literally going as fast as I can. these computers are not exactly record-breaking fast so I have a small handicap here. so let's talk about my week. Monday we got back to our area at exactly 6 so we didn't have tiem to bring the groceries home so we just sprinted to our lessons carrying our groceries , haha. They understood. Tuesday was exchanges in Santa Barbara with Elder Tan [my other son] after district meeting. It was okay exchanges but we had a really good talk when we got back to their apartment at the end of the night. I like Elder Tan a lot. He's very mature and wants to be a really good missionary. Wednesday was zone conference. It was pretty amazing. It's President Jensen's last conference so he chastized with love and bore really powerful testimony. I'll tell you after the mission what some were chastized for - remind me about Kasjay. Anyways it was a really really good conference and after his powerful sermon about the Spirit we sang I believe in Christ and it was a really really strong Spirit. It was also so awesome to see so many old friends. Elder Shill , Harrison , Bolen , Su'a , Soderquist , and a lot of others. The mission goes by so fast and you forget that it's been like a year since you last saw them. Thursday was normal. Friday we then had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I treated them all to lunch for Elder Pernecita's going home and the birthdays of Elder Azores and Blancia. We ate sushi , haha. I finally found a good sushi restaraunt. Sushi Coshi is still better. But 5 things of sushi and 4 mango smoothies were only about 15 dollars I think ... I still like filipino prices. The exchanges were really good and we got fed so much. After that I came home on Saturday and it was so so busy. The interview for our IBD was that day then we sprinted to get everything ready for a super important FHE that night. The whole branch was coming , and of course we were organizing it. It was at the house of a less active member that we were finally able to rescue from inactivity. Her name is Sister Austria and she's about 35 and super awesome.  I promise I'll tell a great story next week about her.

sunday I pretty much said goodbye to a lot of people , because I'm almost positive I'll be transferred. However there's now no hope I'll be companions with Elder Mayes. It's okay though. I'll let you know next Monday where I am and remind me to tell the story about sis. Austria.

That's all for this week , I'm sorry I really had no time. I'll write more next week. ENJOY THE PICTURES!!

love you all,
Elder White.

P.S - Callie please send me a good version of the Star Spangled Banner next week. THANK YOU

up deightz.

Hello family! The emails are getting slimmer by the week , haha , but it's okay. I've got a bunch of letters that I'll be sending out this week. I've got a long list of names to write and I'm cutting them down one by one ... Also thank you andrea for that great talk ... but you cut off a bunch of it! Haha , I'd like the mp3 version of it but it's not on byu.edu. Also Grandma wrote me! Thank you for the letter Grandma. My week has been okay .. I'm trying to think of some exciting things that have happened. Monday after we emailed we had a FHE/birthday for a girl in our branch so we taught a couple lessons then headed over around 7. Of course it's filipino time so nothing ever starts on time or when they say it will. But I gave the FHE message and we played some games and it was fun. Filipinos LOVE FHE. They rarely will do it by themselves in their families , but they love having like a big group of them do it at someone's house because they love the games and even more so the food afterwards. One thing about the philippines is that it requires food! At any event it is a must! haha. But it's cool. We bought a big bucket of cookies for them so they enjoyed our offering as well. Tuesday was district meeting and it was pretty regular ... everything ... pretty regular haha. Nothing changes! My life's not boring but it's so boring to write about because I experience it every day. What are some little blessings I noticed this week ... There's this one family , Torralba family , that we thought were giving us the duck [there's a couple inactives and a bunch of nonmembers] but it turns out we just really weren't reaching them. so we were pretty excited to teach them again and it was a good lesson. Umm what else. The Barroso family is progressing awesomely. The family is super duper nice , and the father is a returning member. The mom is a member as well and super duper nice as well , but hasn't been to church yet. All the kids wants to be baptized and it's our special project to get the 17 year old boy really interested and well fellowshipped. The kids actually give like really intelligent answers back when we ask them stuff , so it's all good stuff. Our IBD , Saldy , whose amazing isn't going to be able to be baptized on the 23rd , unfortunately , because he wasn't able to come to church because they were at the hospital .. haha .. we asked if it was cool to skip that one because their reason was very important and President just said he'll show his faith by accepting a further date , so it's cool .. we understand. We recommited him to the 28th which will be a really special day. We're gonna do it pretty big because it's Elder Blancia's birthday and also the day before transfer day in which I'll probably almost definitely be transferred. So we're excited for that. Talking about Saldy ... this past weekend [yesterday..sunday] was District Conference in Calasiao. That's about a 45 minute commute away. We told Saldy's wife that it was super important for him to be there for him to be able to be baptized. He knew this so the reason we had told his wife and not him was that he was working that day just to find money to get to Calasiao for the conference! This guy seriously is amazing. So we show up Sunday morning at the Calasiao center [they said it would start at 9 .. we were a bit late and got there at around 8:50] and Saldy was there. We were like woah , awesome you're early. Later it came out in conversation ... he had been there since 6:30!!! The gates didn't even open for two hours. His wife has told him to be early , haha. And she couldn't come because her tooth [which she seriously needs to hit up the dentist] was killing her. So it was just him .. alone .. outside .. for 2 hours before anyone showed up. The conference ended up not starting until even 10! And all it was was a broadcast from a few church leaders [Elder Perry , Sis. Dibbs , and a couple others] all in english ... so he couldn't even understand it. Ah man , I felt so bad for him. But of course he had nothing negative to say and was just like it's okay , no worries. Such a humble , humble person. So those were a few highlights this week. Friday we trained our branch missionaries as to what their purpose is and what they can do to fulfill their calling .. hopefully something will come from that. Afterwards we went to a member's house for a blessing ... and of course Elder White is the one to be called on to bless the house , ahaha. WHY?! It's not my house! haha. But it was cool ... I insisted the owner of the house do it but they wouldn't budge. I was happy to help. So I offered a blessing and boom , it was translated. Crazy , right? Other news : I'm almost done with the Pearl of Great Price and I'm reading a section of the Doctrine & Covenants every day. My last area will be a New Testament focus. As for the old testament .. I'm in chapter 45 I think of Genesis ... but that'll be an after mission project. I'd rather focus on things that I can apply to these people ... no one in the Philippines has read the Old Testament. No one would understand it , ha. What else ... I'm continually getting a huge belly ... nothing can be done about the rice consumption ... there's no other staple food to be found. I pulled a muscle in my back doing the ab roller last week so exercise is very painful , ha. My shoes are still radical .. I'm hoping to wear them out well. My companion is ... okay .. but still pretty dang immature and prideful. Ha. But we're working on it. He's taught me a lottt about charity. Meaning that I've realized that I need to be a lot more charitable so I try and do everything for him ... I'm kind of his mom .. and dad. The mission is still sweeeeeet! I'm loving it. I will not accept the fact that I'll go home one day ... doesn't make sense. But we'll see what happens in October. Any questions? wala? sige po. Alam ko po na totoo and gawaing ito at mahal na mahal ko ang mga tao dito. Pinagpala ako no pwede kong gawin ang paglilingkod na ito and tulungan ang mga pilipino malaman ang totoong Ebanghelyo ni JesuCristo. Mahal ko kayong lahat! -Elder Puti 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.

Elder Puti!

I'm really hungry. We don't have ... much ... money . So we're living on noodles , oats , and the kindness of members ha. With how much our bills are and how much travel costs from our area we lose money very quickly. But it's a good experience learning how to budget to the centavo [penny..]. There's not too much to report for this week. The companion is still .. trying me .. but I'm learning a lot of Christ like Attributes as I try and exercise self control on every one of my feelings , haha. I've been studying humility like crazy and realize I struggle more with charity. It's difficult for me to give and give and give when those receiving don't support themselves. I'm challenged to balance charity and welfare. But I know there's a lot to learn from every companion. I'm excited to show you this part of the film of my life when we die , hahaha. Other than that it's been a pretty good week. The same old stuff happening and the same people doing the same work. Tuesday I had exchanges with the zone leaders so that was fun to work with Elder Azores in their area. Umm other than thaaatt.... not much. OH! cool news. I finished the Infinite Atonement last monday and the Book of Mormon for the third time last night. The only thing I really want to add is my appreciation for the Atonement. It's the strongest and deepest part of my testimony. As I come to understand more the Atonement I feel a spiritually closeness with my Savior and I'm so so grateful. We sometimes have the awesome opportunity to teach the Atonement and in those moments I always feel it. And sometimes I get these jitters that what I have to say won't be a fraction sufficient of what needs to be said. But I love reading studying talking teaching thinking and living the Atonement. It's awesome. And the Book of Mormon is the most poetic and insightful tool we have to learn about His sacrifice. So in place of a boring update I thought I'd tell a story or two. The first happened back when I was in Baguio. Me and Elder Esling had just heard that we were training so we were told to head down on Friday for a training meeting. On the way down we rode an aircon bus , which of course is nice and very comfortable. But Elder Esling isn't the biggest fan of aircon. A lot of people here get really sick when it's aircon and not real air. So he endured the trip down but after the meeting requested that we take a regular window bus , so obviously I obliged. The bus that we catch on the way back up to Baguio happens to be one of the most rickety things possible ... but it's all we've got. After about an hour into the ride it's starts the rain and simultaneously everyone starts closing their windows. I've got the window seat so I go to close my window ... and it won't come down. I push and tug and use all my weight ... but it will not come down. All the while there's a good amount of people watching the American struggle with putting a window down while they managed to get all theirs down. And to make the matter even worse .. the person getting poured down on is a poor little 8 or 9 year old girl behind me! I look back with a face of "I'm so so sorry" as she just looks at her dad confused/upset and he just consoles her with what seems to be like a excuse the american type of comment , hahaha. After about 5 embarrassing minutes of this I take the drape near the window and try to use it as a protection for the little girl ... but to little avail. It didn't do much. After a few more minutes Elder Esling , whose sitting to my right , then leans over and with a little push casually gets it down , ahahaha. It seems that the problem was that because of my angle I couldn't get any kind of force on it ... despite my exceeding strength , hahaha. And naturally the rain stops 5 minutes later. That was something that popped into my head the other day that I silently laughed about. Another funny note is how during our Elder's Quorum class we're reading the George Albert Smith book along with the rest of the world. The only different thing is that because of President Smith's wide vocabulary and choice of words ... after every page we read the EQ President will turn to me and go ... okay Elder White , please summarize what we just read , ahahaha. So I'll proceed to translate and hear a number of " aahh ohhh , okay , that's what we thought ..." I think that's really all I've got for now. Doing the college stuff ate my time away. But food for thought ... if at christmas travis wants to , I would like to be able to drive out to school now with him. So ask him that for me when he gets home , please! haha thank you He comes home in like 2 weeks ... freaky. Love you all! -Elder White Just kidding ...  Mom's questions:: QUESTIONS:  1.  What is the name of your branch? Malasiqui 2nd Branch                        2,  Are you in the Aguilar district? Uh no , not really. That's Lingayen I think.                       3.   Are you near the Bantocaling Branch? I've never heard of that , probably the Angeles Mission                       4.  Are you in an area where they speak Pangasinan or Pangasinese? I've never heard of the latter. It's all Pangasinan here , but of course they know tagalog                       5.  Are you near the Mangatarem Branch? Nope , that's Lingayen as well I think 6.  When is your next transfer?  Anywhere you'd like to be/see now that's is getting closer to the end of your mission? - the next transfer is the last Friday of June. I want to go to San Carlos and be companions with Elder Mayes! 7.  How many people are in your branch? active or total? active about 120 - 150. total .. around 400 - 500? 8.  How many missionaries are in your district and are you district leader bc you mentioned something about "teaching" - yes I'm the district leader and there's only 4 .. way small. 9.  How is your health? stellar! 10.  Tasted any of that blood pudding yet? I'm not in Ireland , haha. But that do have something called dinuguan where it's like a blood base with meat and other stuff ... it's not too bad. I've eaten it a few times. 11.  Have you been using TP?  Because I hear otherwise...... - hahaha when I have it yes , and I always buy it. 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.

yo0o0o

FAMILY! How's it going. Question mark.. Right now I'm in Dagupan and have little time to write. I'm still doing well and loving the area. A lot of great things are coming out of the area. I only have time to give a quick recap , but this is what happened this week Tuesday - district meeting in Dagupan again , the zone leaders had a lot of things to announce to us so I gave a workshop on helping members understand their purpose in the rescue effort , the zone leaders gave their announcements and we left. Afterwards I went on exchanges with Elder Delapaz [elder tan's companion and elder mayes' trainee] in their area. This guy ... has something a little wrong with him. I don't really mean that in a mean way , but like honestly he acts and thinks like a child and I think has a little mental disability. But , he's incredibly happy [most of the time] and is hysterical to watch because he does really funny things. The day was pretty good and walks faster than I do so I was amazed to see myself hobbling after him. Wednesday - I interviewed two of their IBDs , these two little kids , and they're both super smart and passed but can't be baptized just yet because the Elders didn't tell me something [they didn't know actually , but they never asked about it] about the family situation so the kids have to wait a short while before they can be baptized. Afterwards we came home and went straight to work with eating very little because we had like zero money left. We taught some pretty go od lessons then went to a members house for their birthday that night. We also gave a blessing to her brother who we found out is having kidney problems and her cousin the day before because he was possessed they said. Did a little casting out of spirits , haha. Thursday - Weekly planning then two future missionaries who leave soon for their missions came and worked with us. Their also a couple so it's cool how they'll both be going on missions then probably getting married when they come back with even stronger testimonies and stronger conviction in the church .. they'll have a pretty happy family in my opinion. It was a good day and we taught a really good lesson to the Devera family who is a part member and we've been teaching for a long time. the wife is a less active who we recently rescued and we've been teaching her husband who has changed SO much from when we first started teaching him and he's super excited to get baptized. We taught about tithing which will be so hard for them , but they have incredibly strong faith. This family is a miracle. Friday - Met an AMAZING family whose father was recently rescued after years of inactivity. The wife is also a member and super nice , but still shy about coming back. They have 6 kids and are all under 20 and super polite and awesome. Elect family. Coming to church all together will be really hard for them , but we have high hopes for the family. Saturday - Found another AMAZING family of less actives that have tons of non members that are all super nice and willing to listen. This area has a lot of secret miracles. I didn't have an umbrella so I was soaked all day long but took a couple good pictures of it. Had some fun walking around in the rain [which was super strong] for hours but my shoes are still wet. Also when we got to the Macaranas family they gave me hot chocolate , haha. Sunday - Great day of church and President and Sister Jensen came to visit and do some temple interviews [in districts [where it's not a stake] the mission president does the interviews for temple recommends , not the district president] so that was nice to see him. We had a lot of less actives come and a bunch of investigators , including 2 from that first family I mentioned. All they have is a motor cycle so only 3 of them at a time can come .. for now. Afterwards we were fed by a member family after our work and I ate ... FROG. A lot of frogs actually. They taste a lot like chicken [not to be corny , it's true] but a littttle bit different taste. It was good tho. I took a picture. Today we're in dagupan and heading home now. Mom please get that password stuff worked out , that's not the correct password it says. REmember this is the password for besmart.com. Thanks for the effort! Also! Cody emailed and said he wants to room , so I asked to get his mom's info so maybe you guys can talk if his mom is gonna handle the rooming stuff too. that's all for now , love you all! 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.