Everyday Life

   Thank you for all the emails! I got your letter today Mom (from 2-27-13) and also a Dear Elder from Aunt Theresa. Thank you so much!!!

 Alright, I will start by answering some questions...

 Teaching the Gospel is awesome, every day all day, and there is always more to learn. The hard part is applying it to their needs, and helping them see how it can benefit them.

The language is hard, but understanding it is getting easier, and speaking it...is where it is getting hard, especially the pronunciation.

We have an investigator named Brian, he is 15, and we have had to move his baptismal date back in order to work with his needs.

We do a lot of tracting to find people. The people we meet have a classic line: "Next Time Na Lang" which basically means they are busy sitting, or texting, or watching t.v.- However a lot of our work is with less actives it feels like.

Mostly everyone speaks some English or at least understands it,  even when they say its OK to just speak English...we just keep talking to them in Tagalog.

We don't teach at church, but we do attend the classes with the investigators and less actives that show up.


 I need to explain what Gulay is on the blog (they just make a soup with a bunch of veggies and put it on rice to eat. It's one of the leaves that they put in it I don't like).

 More questions to be answered...


  -It is humid every day! I drink about 2.5 to 3 liters of water easy, and pee about once or twice a day since I just sweat it all out.
 - The rain season can start in June, July or August from what I have heard, not sure how long it lasts.
  -Today I put my shoe on and got a squishy cockroach surprise!
  - I have a lot of mosquito bites:/

And that it pretty much all! Oh wait that last one, I tried the Balut (duck egg) and it tasted great. It was like hot chicken noodle soup! I will be able to show you the video I made once I get home.

Things I would also like to add. There are A LOT of confused men here that aren't sure what kind of clothes guys wear, so they end up wearing girls clothes, growing out their hair and thinking they were meant to be women (I am putting it nicely) anyway I had my hair cut by one of these gentlemen, and he started asking if he would have to change to be baptized. He asked for our number and we gave him a restoration pamphlet, but I think he just wanted to visit us because of our looks.

Lastly, before I add pictures, I want you to know that I love it here! I love the people, I love the missionaries, and I love everything!! I am sure this place was meant for me! I love you all, keep sending emails and pictures!!!!

The pictures include me and my comp, a jeepney ride, our mission presidents house, our zone, and some other stuff- oh like our new beds! I'm on the top right one.

 More news soon-Elder Roy

My Area...and Dead Mice

Hello Everyone!
 I switched the quality setting on my camera and I should be able to send a ton of pictures to you today of our house. I haven't taken very many pictures of my area. Thank you for sending all the emails! I have felt pretty deprived of all the lack of letters (going from getting a bunch in the MTC to getting none!) So I will try to make this email as packed as possible.

Life in the Philippines...mouse trap

 


I'll start with Elder Kmetzsch. I am never sure if I am spelling his name right, and I always have to look at his name tag. He gets all the people's attention when walking down the road and I feel a little attention deprived! When we start talking to people a lot of them think I am Filipino and talk to me as if I know the language-haha, so I then look at Elder Kmetzsch and wait for him to answer. He is a great trainer though and he is always worrying about things that don't need that much worrying about. He has thrown up twice since I have been here.
 

Elder Niar and Elder Latu are the zone leaders and they live in the house with us. Elder Niar cooks and is Filipino. Elder Latu likes to have deep discussions and is from Australia.

Right now, we have two investigators with a baptismal date, one of which I've invited to be baptized- last night. It was a great experience! The other has family that are members, and he is really smart. Its just church attendance that is holding us back right now.

 There are a lot of great foods here, and we actually ate my favorite dish when we went to the Flores family's for dinner, its called Pancit its the bomb! Halo Halo is the best dessert. There are also a lot of bakeries which are AMAZING. Love you all...please keep on writing emails like every day, we get more time than 30 minutes here in to field to email, so I will have more time to read them.

P-Day News

It's Monday, and its already P day again! I can't believe how fast everything is flying by,  and at the same time it feels like forever- haha.

 Dad I got your email, and Maddy I got the pictures you sent, thanks! Mom I haven't gotten an email from you, or Cam or Nicks emails yet. (I wrote and sent him Nick's email-Dolly).

Well, the Philippines is definitely different than Utah and I have seen some things that you would never see in Utah. For example in groceries stores and right now we are listening to unedited rap music. I am finding it difficult to be teaching someone when the neighbors are blasting music, or all you can hear is traffic. There are not many quiet places in the city. There are also aromas that I've have never smelled, whether for good or bad. 

         

That makes me amazed at how devoted the members are, some of them do not have as much as others, yet they still put their trust in the church, and in God. Its humbling to see. 

When we go to member's houses, they like to feed us, a lot! I was almost sick from how much I ate last night haha...and there are so many foods that I could not imagine my life without now.

      

Yesterday was Fast Sunday which was pretty tough since its so hot here, but I know that so many blessing come from fasting. On Saturday, we got to go to the temple for a temple tour, and it is a really beautiful temple. I can't wait until we get to go into it. 

     

I am going to try to compress a folder with all the pictures and send it, that way I can send them all.

I am trying to think of things to write about...that's why I like writing hand written letters, I have more time to think

     

We don't buy toilet paper, I am not sure if I wrote about that earlier, everyone is ok with just water.  

Oh! Last week Elder Kmetzsch was washing the bathroom and he bumped a pipe that broke, and a bunch of water starting gushing out, and we had to turn off the water and wait a day until someone could come and fix it. So when the plumber came we also had him fix the shower head, and the sink. So our bathroom is really nice now.

    

 I am not sure if I have mentioned this already as well, but I bought some badminton stuff...and in every church building they have ping pong stuff! These churches know whats up:D

The internet is really slow at this place, and I am not sure if I will be able to send pictures, but Elder Kmetzsch said I could buy a flash drive and put all the pictures on there and then just send it home.

More news next week!
- Elder Roy