This is not trash

     So this week was a pretty great time. On Monday night after we got home a mouse jumped out of our trash can and tried to hide in one of our cupboards but we weren't having any of that. Elder Ogzewalla grabbed his payum and I snatched up a table leg and we went at it. Nobody would have guessed it but those little guys are really fast. We were running around yelling and smashing the ground with our weapons but sadly it jumped out the window and ran away. It hasn't come back but if it does I'm ready but probably not with a table leg because I broke that. This week we really tried to focus on working with member and introducing the Family Mission Plan. One cool thing that people don't mention as much when they are talking about the benefit of working with members is that you get fed way more. It was awesome. Wednesday we went out to MangaYawan which is our furthest area. Normally you can just take a trike but the road was under construction so we just got to walk a whole ton. That was a blast but it was hot and now we have some sick missionary tan lines.  Thursday and Friday I noticed that my feet were getting worse and so that was lame but they were still really good days.  Friday we met our new district because transfers were last Tuesday (not very exciting for elder Ogzewalla and I because we just stayed the same) Our district is made up of the Canaman ZLs and the Naga STLs and us. Our new ZL is Elder Gregory. He is batch with Elder Ogzewalla and was actually his comp in the MTC. Our district is super fun and I love them a ton. I had to teach the lesson in district meeting and it went really well. Sunday we had Stake Conference which was super fun. All of Naga stake met in this huge tent place (probably normally used for weddings and stuff) There was so many people I had no idea that Naga stake was so big. Sister Zapanta gave an awesome take about working with missionaries and I really hope the members take that one to heart. President Zapanta also gave an awesome talk where he read through lots of his journal and Sister Zapantas journal. Hearing that made me think I need to improve my journal writing and really focus on keeping the habit after the mission. All in all it was a super fun week here even though we probably walked like 10,000 miles. 

 

I love you all tons and hope you have a great week!!

Birthday

     So birthdays on your mission are actually just like a normal day. Big surprise huh? This week was pretty good for me but also it was pretty normal, not a whole lot of exciting things to write about. On Tuesday we had exchanges with the ZLs and that was a blast. I got to work with Elder Gatewood in his area. We had a really fun time just doing some finding and then teaching some of his investigators. There was this one kid who actually asked us when he could get baptized so that is pretty sweet for them. Valentines day was pretty lame honestly. We just went finding for most of the day and didn't really have too much luck there. We did talk to this one guy who I think was kinda crazy. He said he works down at the fishery in Camaligan and then he gave us a floppy disk that says it has the fish culture from 1990 on it. We don't have anywhere that we can check what is actually on it but yeah weird stuff. We tried not take it but he really insisted that we did so we have a floppy disk just chillin in our house. My Birthday was a pretty normal day honestly. The only thing special that happened was Elder Ogzewalla bought me Mcdonalds which was super nice of him. Last night we found this guy from the Netherlands and he was super nice. He let us in and let us talk to him for a while and fed us pancakes which were so good. 

Feb 12, 2018

     Hey well this week went pretty well!!   Monday we had the Daet ZLs stay over with us because all the ZLs in the mission had a conference and our house is kinda close to the mission house. We had a ton of fun. The ZLs up there are Elder Johnson and Elder Peterson. Elder Johnson is from Spanish Fork and goes home in June I think and Elder Peterson is from Idaho ummm in that little town close to Mackay that has the hot springs. Ch... something I think I forgot. Anyways I got to work with him Monday night and that was a blast. He has a pretty Idahoan accent and so it was funny to hear his Tagalog. We had a pretty cool experience Tuesday. Elder Ogzewalla had set us an appointment with a family he and Elder Johnson found the night before but he couldn't remember where the house was. So we walked around in the rain asking people for like 20 minutes and then we just decided to say a prayer. After the prayer I asked him which was and he said left which was weird because everybody we had asked said it was right. Anyways after we started walking like probably 50 feet We saw a house and we were both like it's that one. and it was! So that was cool but what was cooler is that as we got there the girl we had the appointment with just got home from school so if we would have gone there right away we would of gotten to the house and nobody would be home yet. Other than that the rest of our week was just finding and finding. I am pretty sure I have walked every inch of our area at least twice but somehow we still meet new people. The baptism was Saturday and that was great. We had asked the Branch President if the font was clean and he said it was all good but when we showed up to make sure everything was gonna be ready we found out that his version of clean and ours was a little different. It had a ton of dirt and spider webs in it and was just pretty dusty in general. Luckily we still had time and so we just cleaned it out real quick. The actual baptism part went really good and of course everybody had a great time. Sunday I had to give a talk and so that was pretty fun... the great part is they didn't ask me until after the baptism  Saturday so not a lot of prep time. Lucky for me the lady before me had a really long talk so like half way through hers the BP leaned over to me and said Elder only a 5 minute talk okay? I of course had no problem with that. More than happy to shorten my talk. I think it went pretty well and my Tagalog was at least semi understandable so that was fun.   I love you all tons and hope you have a great week!!
Q from Kenna:  Are there many lizards?
A:  yes lots of little ones and sometimes big ones. the biggest lizard I have seen was probably like 3 feet long with some really big claws. it sounded like stella running on the wood floor when it ran away. It was in someone's driveway

Q:  What are you eating right now?
A:  Well when we get fed it is random stuff. usually noodle or rice and some kind of meat. Weird things I have eaten recently: goat meat and goat skin. squid. chicken intestines. At the house we usually have ground pork and an egg and rice with either corn, potatoes, or sweet and sour sauce. or we have soups with wheat bread.  The goat skin was probably the grossest just cause the texture was nasty but the rest tasted fine.  Honestly the squid was awesome. There is a guy that just drives around and he fries balls of fish and squid and stuff and then has this super good sauce.

Football

Well I can tell you must be pretty pumped for the superbowl because all your emails were pretty short. This week was pretty good for me but also not a whole ton happened. Wednesday we had a Zone Conference which was super fun and I learned a lot. The Hansens (senior couple) gave an awesome presentation about communication and how critical that can be to work in unity and with the spirit. Awesome thing Brother Reyes passed his baptismal interview so we will be having a baptism  Saturday!! He is just super awesome and probably the most prepared person I have ever taught. He also had his birthday on Tuesday and we went and celebrated with him for a little bit. He turned 49 (so just a little older than you dad). Pretty much every other day we were just finding all day long. We had dinner at a members house one day and she made shrimp Alfredo! Now I'm not a huge fan of shrimp but it was so awesome to have some alfredo I honestly forgot how much I missed it. Speaking of things I forgot I missed last Monday we bought some jam and holy crap I miss jam a ton. It is so good we ate like a whole loaf of bread and the whole jar of jam so fast. I got a letter from mom last week and that was super cool plus this week I got my birthday package so basically I have already had my birthday. Sunday our branch mission leader shared a poem called Find me friend. It is a super good poem and I recommend that you find it and read it. Probably on of the best thing about it though was as he was sharing it he started to get pretty emotional and you could really feel the spirit. It really helped me remember why I am here on a mission and helped me want to work a little harder and put in a little more work. 

Sorry I know this is a super short email but honestly just imagine walking forever down a road in with lots of houses on either side and that is pretty much my whole week. I love you all tons!!