Hi

Family!

Questions first:
1. have you heard what track you're on?
- I just checked once again , and after following a few things I learned that they won't send it out till after the deadline and the deadline is Oct 1. So hopefully by Monday next week I'll have a response. Maybe I'll just be signing up for classes back home , but hopefully not.

2. have you been taking malaria pills because the doctor prescribed some for dad and I but I don't think we need to take them.
- Haha no

3. I'm assuming that you don't want me to go back up to school with you and get you settled. Is that right? I'll be flying out of a different airport depending on your decision. And don't worry about hurting my feelings. I want to know what YOU want to do.
- Haha no I would not like you taking me up there , but thank you for the offer. I'm 21 now :)

4. can you please ask Pres Monahan for the name of the driver that Pres Jensen mentioned in his letter. He said he is a member of the church and we can hire him to drive us around.
- I just forwarded you the email that Sis. Engels sent me. I'm pretty sure he's based out of Manila , though. You can talk to him but I think it would be easier to base it out of Baguio. Depends on his rates , I guess.

5. Do you have any idea what time you'll be meeting us at the temple because I need to know if we will be going back up to Baguio that day. And will we take a bus? Is that do-able for us? Does it take 6 hrs? I'd love to be able to go up to Baguio on Wedn so that we have 2 full days in Baguio and area for you to show us around and meet people. Do we need more than 2 days? If you want me to let you know what else I'm thinking about doing while we're there just let me know.
- I was thinking around 3 - 4 Wednesday. I'll be at the temple first with my batch and then we've got some things we'd be doing together like going out to eat and exploring Manila a tad. Then I wanted to meet up with you guys and do a session then just stay in Manila for the night. Then maybe Thursday morning head up to Baguio and start things. The only things I wanted to do in Baguio was see The Banaue Rice Terraces and let you meet Nanay. Then on Sunday go to church there. Other than that it's all up to you guys.

6. Bro Edwards said that they already have Travis' ticket for xmas - it's a roundtrip. (I'm sorry) Do you think you can drive back out together next summer? Maybe you'll be going to BYU Provo then too and rooming together :) And since that's the case we will go out to Utah but we can't go until Dec 30 because I remembered that Remington's wedding and reception is on the 29th and I want and need to be here for that.
- Yeah we can do it next summer hopefully if it works out. And you're the boss of all the flights and stuff , Mom. Whatever you wanna do it's okay with me

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Okay , tapos na.
We've had a pretty good week and yes .. we are here in Urdaneta. We're sharing a ward with the assistants and just split their area. So we've been on exchanges with Elder Mayes and Tolman for the past three days. Also .. we live in the big house , ha. It's the largest and nicest house in the mission ... comparable to the mission home. There's 6 of us in the house and 5 are Americans..insane.

This past week has just been spent saying goodbye to so many people and setting up our area for the next missionaries to come in. We spent 10:30 - 2:30 last Thursday just updating every record we have , making other records , making new forms , cleaning , and setting up everything missionary-related that the new missionaries would need. There is so much paper work in the mission .. you'd never expect it. But we had a great last few days in Binalonan and got a bunch of pictures. I'll just show them I think when I get home - it's a bit of a hastle to email them. But we've gotten pretty close to a few families and we got fed a ton. Also I gave one my books to the Fabia family who we will probably stop by and see when we come back. I hope , by the way , you guys are ready to eat [besides dad] .. because we will get fed a ton. Filipinos LOVE food and LOVE feeding people. So .. don't try and reject , haha. Especially when it looks weird , or strangely cooked , or unsanitary. You must eat, ha. I've been warning some people about my family , haha , and how I don't know how their reactions to foods will be - but I think that's expected. Stuff like Sinigang and adobo and fried is really normal .. it's when you get into the bamboo shoots , and gaabi , and snails , and stuff like that that your stomach might ... queeze a bit. You gotta be used to it.

So those were our last few days in Binalonan. Friday was transfer day , and I suppose I'll explain a little bit about what we do on transfer day. After packing all Thursday night we wake up friday and make sure the house is presentable to hand off to new missionaries. The jeepney shows up at the house around 9 [a member in the stake is hired to drive a jeepney around and drive all the missionaries in the zone[stake] to the transfer point. For some missionaries that's like a 2 - 3 hour ride .. ours was 15 minutes. So me and Elder Hyatt get aboard and go and pick up all the missionaries. We arrive at the transfer point [stake center in Urdaneta] and there you get to talk to all the misisonaries transferring or attending. It's a lot of fun to see old friends / batchmates again. After a little while we're called in and the zone leaders all have a short meeting with the assistants and mission president. Then we all go into the chapel and the transfer meeting begins. New trainers/trainees/areas are announced and then president gives a message. The meeting is ajourned and everyone floods outside to move luggage to new jeeps and to get supplies [such as books of mormon] and heads to their new zones. In Urdaneta we had 5 new missionaries! So we ate real quick at macdo then dropped everyone off. Finally we get home at our new abodes and wait for the APs to come pick us up. From there I went with Elder Tolman to see part of our new area as Elder Hyatt went with Elder Mayes. On Saturday it was Elder Mayes and I , and then yesterday I worked with Elder Tolman again.

It's been a blur for the past three days being dropped into a brand new place , but we've had a blast meeting all the members and investigators and the ward is super organized [it should be ... it's the stake ward of the soon to come temple] so we're enjoying the help of the members.

Today , actually , we've had to take care of some missionary problems that have going on in the mission and that has now entered our zone. So we just got back from interviewing two missionaries. I'll talk more about that in person , I suppose if you ask , but it's a horrible thing to have to do. Disobedience on a mission is just lack of understanding to me :\ .. oh well , we do our best.

So that's all I've got for right now , I think? I hope you're all doing well and I do miss you all. It is strange to think this is my last transfer , but I still don't feel it.

To june , caitlin , rachel , and everyone else ... write me letters still! You still have two weeks to get letters out.

Okay , love you all

..bye!
-Elder A White