alllllright where to begin, i guess kumusta kayo? thsi will be
extremely unorganized cause i need to say things befor i forget so
here we go.
happy burthday sophia sorry i couldnt be there! i cant believe your
two! ang aking area ( my area ) is called lamut, its an area that is
just being re opened by elder bangal and i ( elder bangal is my
trainer, he is a philipino he speaks great english and wow he hes good
people skills im going to learn a lot from him) so anyways.. because
its a new area wala (wala means without or we dont have )
investigators, wala just about everything ha pero( but) okay lang
dahil malakas and aming pananampalataya (our faith is strong) i think
ha ha its pretty crazy.
everyone here in the philippines is soooo nice it is anmost unnatural
how nice everyone is, all the kids and especially the girls laugh when
they see me and especially when i talk to them. maraming palibira dito
( there are a lot of jokers) here and sometimes i wonder if im
learning the wrong words in tagalag but its alright ha. so some crazy
things.... first off the bathrom situation. this is the way it
works... :) wala toilet paper so theres a bucket of water with a
dipper in it and after you go you use the dipper to dump the water
down your lower back and wash with soap/ fuuuuuuun ha ha ha ha ha ill
be honest i was a little terrified at first but ill get used to it.
hmmm what else. driving here is crazy especiaslly in manilla theres
lanes but they basically mean nothing ha everyone just drives
everywhere, like organized chaos.
the place that i live il a house with to olther elders elder sarignaya
and elder estanislao. so i live with 3 pilipinos and its great. elder
stanislao is probably the funniest person ive ever met. and whever
said they dont have sarcasm here was only half right cause i sure have
heward a lot of sarcastic things! but its just not the same kind its
hard to explain. but anyways... working out here is... something else its a new definition
of sweat.
ano pa... (what more) oh doing laundry was fun washing in a tub and
with a board. its kinda hard on the back but i just needa get my back
stronger.
theres a lot of coconut treet everywhere and so many shops for just
odds and ends, drinks candy shoes clothes etc and everything is so
cheap. i think an ok price for a nice pair of levis is equevalent to
about 8 dollars. craaaazy.
im getting most of my shirts altered today and my pants. i have no
idea whats going on most the time where were gong what people are
saying what were doing but that wioll come with time. humidity is ...
different but its good because im in the coolest part of my mission
and the famous rice terraces banaue are in my zone so i will be able
to go there im excited! we eat with our hards a lot and its lots of
rice and chicken, i like everything ive eaten so far chow king is
pinakamasarap (the most delicious) and everything else isnt far behind
especially elder stanislaus cooking. there was one thing that was
absolutuly gross it was dried fish (little like six inch fish)
suuuuper salty and it was the whole fish and you dip it in vinegar
garlic sauce ah i almost threw up it was horrible. but othere than
that great food! i havent eaten balut yet but im gong to tonight so
ill let you know how that is.

brother welch --- you were right about people saying just for kicks ha
ha and its so funny with the accents ! sobrang palibiro dito at i got
ang aking unang "hey joe" ka hapon mula sa mga anak ng babae
pagkatapos sinabe ko kumusta sa kanila, it took a while for them to
stop laughing long anough to reply though, palagi lauging sa akin pero
ayos lang, oh yea tell brother hyde i went to some teaching
appointments with one of sa kanyang kasamas, his name was brother
bryan i dono his last lame so sana pweda siya malalaman sa kanya. i
will continue to include inyong asawa sa aking panalanging. sana
maging healthy siya soon.

my companion is super nice and caring like all the people here. he is
the first misionary in his family but they are all menbers. i told him
if he needs anything that he can ask and so he did, and if its
posible, would you sent some perfect push ups for him? they dont have
those here and he really would like some. if yo can that would be so
great.

ano pa hmmm im about out of time... but well i just wanna tell
everyone thanks for your prayers, anxiety lower now that im out
working and thats good. i wanna tell you something i learned this few
days about the gift of tounges as well as all gifts of the spirit. its
exatly that. maybe part of it is that i can learn tagalag but i dont
really think so. i believe is more that people willl be able to under
stand and feel the things im saying are true. but just like the holy
ghost and just like all things spiritual it can be carried unto their
hearts not into their hearts. we have to choose to let the spirit work
on us and let it in. me having the gift of tongues means i have to
study my butt of to learn tagalag because thats what they speak, and
they work my but off talking to everyone i can to find those people
that are willing to let this gift of tongues and let the holy ghost
enter into their hearts. i really believ thats what it means. its
realllllllllllly hard to keep those things seperated when your having
a hard time and then you can almost get prideful when you learn the
words and you worked reallt hard for them. its really mentally
strenuous honestly to keep thoughts organized and keep so spiritual
when people always will listen to youe but its just to be polite and
you wonder whey arent they feeling the spirit that everyone told me in
the mtc that they would feel and why arent they running towards
baptism when i bear my testimony, but its because they have to let the
spirit in. agency is whats its all about we are free to choose what we
want. we literally choose wheter we want to have faith or not. i have
a choice whether to belive i can find people that will listen to the
message and accpet it or not and its hard sometimes, well honestly its
been hard the whole mission for me and i dont know why but as for now
im choosing to have faith. i think thats the right decision de ba?
lets all make that choice. because without that first principle , were
lost. you could believe your whole life let go of your faith and be
just as lost as someone that never knew the truth. so well we all need
to keep our faith. well puta time i love you all ! until next week!
elder landeen

that is my companion we have our business faces are but its always smiles for real ha ha mahal kita