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

Second Week in the Philippines

Looking out our front porch here in Quezon City

Dear Family,

     Hello~ I need Cam and Nick's emails pleaseee. THANK YOU thank you for sending the pictures... its great to see the babies growing up! You should send pictures of everyone, and everything, and possibly even my car. I wrote a letter, and I will send it tomorrow, some of the elders have been saying it can take up to a month to get back to the states.

Alright, so right now I am in the Quezon City 3rd ward area. It covers a place called Roxas (Row-haus) and Tatalong and being here has been a crazy experience. I can't believe its been 2 weeks!!!! It feels like I have been here forever. The people here are pretty nice for the most part. They like Elder Kmetsch alot because he is super white (Also Elder Kmetzch is going to be my trainer we found out this week) He has been here for 5 months.

Every morning I wake up here and I am pretty much already sweating, and cover in bug bites ha-ha... its fun. Just about everywhere you can see cockroaches, mice, lizards, rats, cats, dogs, and children, my favorite is the cockroaches =) However the babies are really cute here too. The language is going well... It;s hard to understand what everyone is saying for these reasons:

1. You always hear cars and motorcycles- if you don't hear those then..
2. You are hearing loud music everywhere because a lot of people like to sing on their karaoke machines. If you're not hearing music then...
3. They are talking really fast and quiet-so you then tend to zone out

There is a lot of good food here, and the bakeries are amazing. But-there is also a lot of food that I don't find appeasing to my pallet, my pallet is pretty refined:) The first food I tried that I didn't like was liver, after liver was squid, and I'm just getting sick of gulay, we have had it just about everyday, and I just can't have it any more. Although Elder Barba makes me eat it.


There's another problem I have had, I am gaining weight here, when we go to any member's house they like to feed us, and they always offer more after you finish, and I am afraid I will offend them if I say no to more, so I always end up eating a lot.

Being the new guy you get chosen a lot to say prayers, its fun.

There is probably more I could write, but I can't think of anything. Oh- I got a story:

We were walking on the street, and there was another Caucasian male, so we talked to him, and he said he served a mission in England, and he is here in the Philippines with his girlfriend. He asked for an English Book of Mormon, and a Cebuano one for his girlfriend, so we gave that to him today.

Picture time. Starting with one from the MTC that I didn't get to send.  This computer is only going to let me send four at a time maybe only 3...the pictures are taking forever to load.

Today we found out that Elder Dalisay and Elder Barba are going to be transferring, and there will be a new zone leader coming in to be companions with Elder Niar.

Oh- also I forgot... what ward are the Flores family from? More news soon.

Love-Elder Roy

Good times in the MTC with old friends from Cedar

Our apartment...I forgot to mention how much I love to hand-wash my laundry

Me, Elder Kmetsch, and Elder Barba at the Arillias families for FHE

A view from the kitchen

This is from our roof top porch

*More news next week! Send me mail people:D

First Week in Quezon City

Dear Family,
      I am now in the Philippines! Everything is going great so far. The first thing we did when we got here was drive to the stake center of course. Mom you would die if you had to ride in a car here, you would have a heart attack multiple times! haha it was quite a new experience. So after we got to the stake building, I was amazed that its a three story building, and every window has bars on it. We found out that we are early by two weeks, and our real training isn't going to start until next transfer day, which is the 27th. So for right now I am with Elder Kmetzsch and Elder Barba. One of them will be my trainer for sure, but we are not  sure which one yet.

Well, I have forgotten my camera cord, and there are a billion crazy stories to tell already... and just like dad said, it is just like camping everyday. Haha- we don't buy toilet paper, and showering is a different experience, but I am loving it, the people are great, the food is great, and the heat is great haha. Anyway I will be sure to send pictures next week, and I will try to write more. I am not sure if I can send hand written letters, and if we can I don't know how to yet. oh and jet-lag is terrible! I'll wake up at like 2 or 3 in the morning and feel ready to go, and then at around 3 or 4 in the evening I'll be dead tired. Also what's Cam and Nicks emails so I can write them next time? I am going to try balut later tonight!!! *Next week my p day will be on Tuesday, but that's only for transfer week.

More news soon
-Love Elder Roy

Fourth Week at the MTC

Hello Everyone!, I am going to send a letter home today, and it has some writings from a few days along the week. Today we got to go to the temple for the first time since being here, and it was awesome. I'm feeling so much better now after getting sick:D

I just wanted to say that I don't think I am getting all the emails from you, because I got half of one last night. I am pretty sure it is the people working in the mail room=). This computer isn't letting me send pictures, so I will send them when I get to the laundry room at 2:50pm.

The hymn book and Tagalog aklat ni Mormon were free since they are from the MTC. I'm doing great and can't wait to hear from everyone! Love-Elder Roy  **SEND NEWS**

Half a letter from dearelder.com

Loving early mornings at the temple

Feeling the peaceful moments

First day of getting sick

After a visit to the ER and getting some meds--I'm good to go!

It's so great here at the MTC!!

So cold but the view is awesome

Thanks for the package:D

Another great shot of Provo Temple

Third Week in MTC

I am going to send some pictures to you today. It has been pretty fun today, except for the fact that there is an epidemic going on here. There is like a stomach bug going around. I have been wearing a pillow case around all day-don't want to get sick!
-Elder Roy