I am a Dentist

   So I keep forgetting to tell you this but I remembered this week and you'll probably all get a kick out of it. Here in the Philippines the word wallis means to sweep. So the first couple days when I told them my name they all started laughing and making jokes and stuff.. . . really funny. Anyways now I tell them my name is Elder Wall ass. Pretty much the only way to get them not to make fun and that keeps them busy for a while trying to sound it out and practice it. 

      This week was pretty good. I sure could feel all your prayers for me and let me tell you it helped a ton. This is our first week with a baptism and I'm way pumped!! Sister Alma is finally ready. She passed the interview Sunday and is gonna be baptized Saturday at 3. We have been working super hard and it was good to keep me busy and keep my mind off things. The people here are pretty nice and will let you in and teach them a lot even when they have no desire to do anything you say. That's a little sad but at least they let us in. I'm a little sad at sister Mary Louis though because she was sick and missed another week of church and we have to start her count over. At best she can be baptized in Nov. now. Sister Joann is still trying to get the money to be married, but she still comes to church and is probably better than half the members there. Her little brothers (2 of them) that she brought to church with her have committed to baptism which is super awesome. 

    So kinda weird thing here pretty much none of the little (little as in 0-3) boys wear pants at home and nobody cares. Which isn't super weird but they pick them up and hold them or sit them on their laps.  Thats a little much for me. 

     So I'm sure you are all wondering how I became a dentist. A few weeks ago Elder Brown was flossing and hurt his tooth somehow. It didn't hurt him that bad though and so he just ignored it (because dentists here don't know anything except how to pull teeth) anyways last night he had me look at it and with a flashlight and a pair of tweezers. I fixed his teeth! Somehow a piece of floss had broken in his gum and then the gum grew over it. I just pulled it out and it was all better. Kinda gross though.

     Mom I never thought I would say it but thank you for teaching me to clean. The other two elders we live with are slobs and so Elder Brown and I have been trying to clean everything out and its starting to get a little better.

  Well it sounds like you all had a great week its so good to hear from you. I love you all so much!!!

Here's some extra from out chatting

I'm always wet, either from rain or sweat

For p-day we play basketball or throw a football in the morning before it gets to hot

I have a few times and the food is.... not too great.  Con said my taste buds would die, so just wait for that.

                                        Joann with her family and her little brother Joshua

The days feel like weeks

     You know that saying the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days? I know for sure the first bit of that is true. Everyday goes on super long and I'm always really tired at the end of it. But its all going good! Monday was the first day it rained and it has been raining like crazy ever since then. Usually only really hard for like 30-45 min and then just sprinkling and then the sun comes out like it was never gone. We have been teaching all over and trying really hard to find people but we haven't had a ton of luck. There is one sister, sister Alma, who is going to be baptized really soon but I kinda hate teaching her because she lives out in a tiny place called San Rafael. Getting there we just ride a trike but there aren't any to ride back so we have to walk and it takes like an hour to get back to where people are that will listen to us. The San Antonio family is getting closer too. I think we have them scheduled for the  Nov. Hopefully they don't miss church or anything cause then we have to push it back even more. All the people here love seeing two white people walking around. I sure do hear Hey Joe!! a lot. We have one investigator who is just super awesome. Her name is sister Joann. She can't be baptized until she gets married though and they are super poor so we just have to wait on that but she comes to church every week and she started bringing her little brother and sister for us to teach! She also said she tells all her friends about it when they ask her. I'll send a picture of them walking with us to her house so we can teach them. We also took Jasper with us to teach the other day which was way fun. He was baptized a few weeks before I got into the field. I still can't really talk to anybody which sucks but I am getting better. Jasper was telling me that he wants to serve a mission in the US.I honestly don't know if I will ever get used to showering out of a bucket but I sure hope so. I can't decide though when I get home if I'll like the showers more or not randomly finding ants and other bugs crawling on me at all times of the day and night For almost everyday we have rice and this chili packet we buy at the store. I haven't been able to weigh myself yet but I'm sure I'm losing weight because my pants don't fit quite as tight as they used too.... The branch is good. There is like 500+ members in all of Buhi but only about 100 people come to church. I don't like church a whole ton right now cause I never know whats going on. Sunday I had to bear my testimony and that was an adventure. It went okay. I think I said everything right but I don't really know. Whenever I don't know what to say I can just put in English though because lots of people know a little English.  Anyways its great to hear from you I love you all!!

Guess What?

     So the Philippines is pretty cool I guess. We had to get up at  1 am to get to the airport on time so we could fly out to Naga but then our flight got delayed and we didn't leave the airport until 8:30 am which sucked. When we finally got to Naga we had a nice lunch at the pres. house and then met our trainers. My tatay (father) is Elder Brown. He's from some little town just outside of Preston. (Dayton, Idaho) He has been out for 13 months and is super good at the language! From there we had to take a bus out to Buhi which is my area. Buhi is up in the mountains and its super pretty here! There are a ton of rice fields and then just random trees everywhere. The bus ride took forever so by the time we got to the house it was late and I just unpacked and then went to bed. The next day we got up and went to work. We taught in a place that was a little bit more city but still not really city. (makes sense right?) All the houses are super small and close together but that made it so we didn't have to walk super far. That day we also went out and taught the San Antonio family. They are a lot of fun and pretty awesome in general. the mom is a member but hasn't been to church in like 19 years. None of the kids are members. I had been practicing all day and invited them to be baptized. They said yes and have a date set for  Oct. The next day we went out to Sagrata and there is no city aspect there at all. They live in huts made of concrete if they have money and bamboo and stuff if not. We have a sister out there who will get baptized as soon as she can save up enough money to pay to get married. From there we tried to teach some of the other people around there but nobody would listen. The people there are funny because when they don't want to talk to you to avoid being rude and saying go away they just hide in their house and pretend they aren't there even when you can hear them. We spent most of our day there and then that night visited another sister that is going to get baptized soon if she keeps coming to church. Saturday I baptized a kid!!!! It doesn't really count because the sisters just needed somebody to baptize him but it was still super cool. His name is Edward and probably the hardest part of the baptism was trying to say his full name. That took up most of our day because Elder Brown is the DL so we had to fill the font and set everything up.  Sunday was good but I didn't understand pretty much anything in church.... from there we went to an area we have that is kinda far from where we live but some members said they had people for us. All the people though didn't work out so we only taught one person there and then had to walk all the way back because the trike we took there had left already. That brings us to today. We haven't done a whole lot cause its pday. mostly just studying and stuff around the house. 

II'll put up some pics soon.. and yes in the edge of the bathroom one you'll see those buckets which serve as toilet paper and my shower so its a blast. The apartment has tons of spiders. enough that I don't count them anymore. at least one in every corner but they keep the bugs away some so they stay.   Well Mahal ko Kayo!!! 

After Chase sent his main email, we were able to chat online a bit and had a little question and answer session:

Q How's the Food?

A  The food is pretty good but my favorite thing is this place they eat after every district meeting that sells hamburgers that almost taste american.  Sometimes  I cook but I mostly just eat a lot of rice and beans that you can buy at the store..

Q Do you like your trainer?   

A  My trainer is awesome!

Q Is your bed on the floor?                                                                 

A  yeah its on the floor. we have bunkbeds upstairs where we study but it's like 15 degrees hotter up there so we dragged them downstairs.                                                                                     

Q How do the people respond to your height?                                   

A  they all just laugh at us cause we are super tall. Elder brown is just as tall as me so we hear a lot of people yell at us "hey Joe" or "cano cano  " but its all good.                                                                      

  Q   Hardest thing                                                                                

A  .Just the language but I'll get the hang of it.                                    

Q Whats the weather like?                                                                  

A  It started raining yesterday and has been ever since and that has cooled it down a bit but it was nice when it was sunny and not just gray. I have never sweat this much in my life. its always hot here. but its okay. it makes the cold showers good. its nice to be able to cool off in the morning.                                

Q Best thing?                                                                                      

A  Best thing is probably the people.                                                     

Q How big are the spiders in your apartment                                     

A  Well I haven't see the biggest kind yet but pretty big. the ones in the bathroom are creepy. they have bodies not too much bigger than a daddy long leg and then really long legs. I watched one eat a fly the first time I showered....                                                                        

Q Funniest thing                                                                       

A There is this way old tatay that we visited this week and he's called pogi tatay because he says it all the time and calls all the elders that and then just starts laughing. and that just makes me laugh. (Pogi means attractive)

 yes in the edge of the bathroom one you'll see those buckets which serve as toilet paper and my shower so its a blast.  Yeah the toilet paper thing is no big deal                                                             

Somehow still alive!

     It is soooo good to hear from all of you! I'm glad that everything is going good!. Everything here has been super fun and crazy! a lot of it isn't too different from Provo except the little bit where its super super super humid. We did get to go out and teach with missionaries in the field and that was super great! I was a little nervous to go out but once we were out it was way fun. Not because I knew what anybody was saying because trust me I only understood about three words, but it was awesome to just be out and talking to everybody. The elder I was with seemed perfect at Tagalog but when I asked him how long he had been out he said only 4 months!! that gave me a lot of hope.  A pretty cool thing I did was when we were teaching one of their progressing investigators he had me ask him to be baptized!!! I stumbled through it and he said he would!! I was so pumped. I love the food here a ton even though I don't know what it is I'm eating. (and my stomach hasn't loved it but so far no poop stories(but its only a matter of time)) I am leaving for Naga early in the morning  tomorrow like  2am (so like noon for you) I am still getting used to the time schedule and I don't think I have stayed up past 9 since I got here. I don't have any pictures this week because cameras are not allowed in the MTC here. I love hearing about all the stuff you do all week keep it up! Mahal ko kayo!!

Also I hate to say it but I don't know if I'm ever going home. The people here are way nicer than in America. Also everything is way cheap here as an added bonus. I got these super yummy mini banana things covered in sugar for only 11 pesos!  I also have now been to a temple in three countries so that is pretty darn cool,

                                So I know it looks like it but I didn't throw up and I somehow swallowed it all!​

Hello from Manila

      Hey!!! I know it's some garbage time there like 3 am but its a nice almost 5 pm here. Sorry I never got the chance to call you back.... The flight to Hong Kong was a real killer and I'm not totally sure how I survived the whole thing but I did. And I also got some sweet Hong Kong money that I can show off when I have time to get a pic of it. I am super tired and kinda weirded out by the fact that my week doesn't have a Thursday, but Thursdays are the worst so it doesn't even matter at all. The Philippines MTC is super nice! I was ready to have a not super nice room and stuff but it is probably like 1000 times nicer than Provo was. The only thing Provo had better was when I walked out of a building it didn't feel like I got hit in the face by the air. I can't believe how humid it is here. Mom and Con only you can understand what the traffic is like in Manila.... just imagine Guatemala traffic and then Multiply it by like 1.5 We tried to get some pics but I don't really know how they turned out. You should all be super proud of me. When we got to the MTC they fed us lunch (keep in mind it had been since Wednesday Lunch that I really had a good meal) And I ate it all. Some weird noodles and sauce with veggies some weird soup with veggies and fish. Thats right I said fish. And it was freakin awesome! I know that there is more to tell about the trip and stuff but honestly I'm so tired that it kinda feels like everything is in a fog. Just email me questions and I'll answer when I can (should be Wednesday when I get flown out to Naga) All the people that I have met so far are super super nice and even though I don't know a word they say (thanks for nothin Provo MTC) they are way helpful. If you are wondering the Philippines looks a lot like Guatemala does. Really really green and some hills in certain places. 

 

     So cool thing that happened when I was in the Hong Kong airport. I was watching over the bags while they went to get some McDonald's and this guy comes over and gives me 140 Hong Kong dollars!! He said he was there on a business trip and was leaving so he didn't need the money any more. He was a cool guy served in the states somewhere. 

Hey mom did you get that pic from the plane stewardess? she was super nice and way funny. I gotta go now I'll try to get some pics in the drive but its weird here so you might have to practice patience until next week. I love you all so much from the Philippines!!!!