deja voo again wowwww.... well this is tough sitting at the computer the week went so fast i dont even remember what happened. ill try to pull all i can out of my memory hopefull this wont be boring. first of all we had 14 investigators at church yesterday! it was so great i thought i was gonna burst of joy. it was 2 of their first times too the pascuals. this is a father and his daughter her name is kitty. both their spouses arent interested as of now but they are progressing so well yesterday i had one of the greatest lessons ive had yet with them. we met them just tao poing ( you dont knock on peoples doors here.. you stand outside the gate and call tao po! which sranslated means basically people are here ha.and its funny sometimes the different responses people give. sometimes people say ano iyon... ( whats that ) or just flat bakit? ( why ) and then just the friendly kumusta is great ) but anyways with tatay he was so like closed when we first met him. he is a member of dating daan which is this weird religion that basically just bible bashes on others they have this preacher guy thats way good with the scriptures and twists them into whatever he wants but anyways his point of view was just i just believe in the bible thats all i need. we taught him the last part of the plan of salvation so from the spirit world to judgement and kingdoms of glory. it was like a lightbulb turned on ! he was just like that has to be true ive always thought about that like theres good people and bad people but what about the just okay people theres a place for them too! they asked so many good questions which is weird for pilipinos cause man they sometimes just dont think about things too hard. but busta it was soo cool and theyre going to be coming to church from now on. just some pilipino culture real quick mariendas are pinakamahalaga here ( the most important ) mariendas are just snacks that they give you and some pop just whatever they have or theyll run to the tindahan real quick (these little stores they have everywhere mostly like attached to peoples houses that have all kinds of food and candy and just smack food ) but anyways the love it they love more than anything to feed you and thats fine with me he. last night we went to this family the dagubans for a dinner appointment and nanay was just so excited about something she couldnt stand it and it turned about to be ice cream for us ( ice cream is pretty expensive here ) she was litterally happier than anyone ive ever seen simply for the fact that she knew we were going to love the ice cream she bought for us. man isnt that something? how excited was i ever to give people food at home or to serve? not that much. maybe thats why shes so happy all the time she knows something i dont. i plan on finding out though.transfers are this week. my companion from the mtc is going to be training a new missionary already ha so is the other kid that stayed in my room elder ziggler. the zl's keep telling me that i wouild have been if riner had left already and that im going to next cycle after were put into a 3 some but i hope theyre lieing cause i dont wanna train yet i still have so much to learn. what ever happens shempre ill do it but well for a lot of reasons i dont really wanna say i dont think i should have any kind of a calling for a while till im ready. id be happy staying a junior forever if i could ha a lot less stress. well time to upload some pictures for you i hope you like them! mahal kita everyone tty next week. elder landeen

anoooother week

hey so i had a whole bunch of cool pictures to send home but the card reader at the computer shop had a virus or something so its not working. bummer.... but i do just have a few quick updates for you all.

first off filipino culture. pilipinos love big noses. not a day has gone by without someone telling me my nose is big or my nose is pointy. strange enough this is actually a compliment! ha ha who woulda thought they loove it here!
they also like it when your bigger too almost fat ha im not quite sure why with that one but busta the culture here is just speak your mind. if your thinking someones nose is big or their fat or handsome or ugly you just tell them to their face and its just like its a fact.
they also all try to get more maputi or they like their skin to be as light as they can get it. they use soap with whiteners in it and always have umbrellas to keep the sun off. its funny cause us white guys are always trying to get more tan.

i ran into a guy from california at mcdonalds the other day. he started talking to us he has been here 7 months speaks no tagalag and has spent over 1000000 pesos gambling and has nothing to show for it. i didnt have a english book of mormon unfortunately and none of the other elders were really concerned about mayybe helping him change so ive got an english one in my backpack always in case we run back into him somehow.

we have 11 investigatirs with baptismal dates! two families and to that are part members. the one family isnt the complete family cause their oldest 2 dont live at home but i think some day they will all be members they are a super strong family and will be great members. they are the paz family and man i love them. next we have the lleneta family ( i will send pictures of thema ll next week ) which is the parents, their son and his wife and another son ( the others are too young to be baptised) but they are super excited about it too. all and all we had 13 investigators at church and others will be there next week our goal is 20 and it really possible im gonna work my butt of to make sure it happens.

we had a way fun family home evening fireside this past saturday. its something the stake is starting every saturday they are having a fireside at the home of one of our investigators or a member and its a great way for them to feel a part of the ward. ill send pictures of that too next week after i buy a card reader.

well my times up thank you everyone for your love and your all in my prayers. one thing about the cauayan mission i thought i would share and these are the words of my mission president

the cauayan mission is the working mans mision. its the only mission in the pilipines without any resorts or beaches, but there are plenty of bukids ( rice fields) which are literally everywhere and plenty of baptisms. he said and i think hes kinda biass cause well hes the mission president here but they only call the hard workers here cause theres none of all that fun p day stuff to do here busta (anyways/just because) im glad to be in a mission thats called the working mans mision. elder riner said that its the armpit of the pillipines and to be quite honest it does smell bad a lot cause theres a lot of polution and pigs and carabou (water buffalo) and animals runnin around everywhere and cockroaches and huge spiders ( there was one in our house as big as my hand on tuesday) send that picture next week but with all that aside its the best place ever. the people are so poor and so happy. they admit life is hard and believe in christ, which is why i think im havin so much success cause for the most part theyre humble. ( again depends on the person theres some rich jerks here too ) but cauayan mission is definately the right place for me to be right now. your all in my prayers especially those of you who are having trails in your life ( alison especially your always in my prayers ) mahal kita and until next week ingat po

p day???

garaaaaaaaabe p day talaga? saan pumunta ang oras ko?
news for the week.....
we had 10 investigators go to church yesterday it was great the church sttendance went down because there was a huge boxing match during church ha and we all know how important the match is right? we have a goal for 20 at church next week and i really think its possible im really excited. we have ten investigators with baptismail dates! 2 on december 10 and 8 on december 24! MAN IM SO EXCITED and we have others taht are progressing talaga so hopefully if things will work out these people will be ready to be baptised in a month ! man i dono how i deserve so much of a blessing to have such a kind and open hearted people to be around pilipinos are almost too nice and too kind. i dono how they do it. and they arent shy abouot it either ha whenever i say salamat po mabait ka talaga ( thanks your so nice ) i get a lont speach on how nice people are in the pillipines ha it just makes me laugh.

so we have an american that l;ives in our ward and he just got called to be elders corrum president. he is a verrrry different kind of person and he speaks very very little tagalag but im excited because hes very serious about his calling. it was a kinda weird experience having him teach ha but those the lord calls he qualifies right?

i went on splits with brother francis yesterday, probably one of my favorite experiences here yet wow god has been answering prayers right and left for me its crazy! francis is the brother of the branch mission leader from lamut so i know his family (well kinds after three weeks you can only know someone so well ) but he is a reterned missionary so he knew what was going on and it just was all around a good experience. elder riner was worried i think. he took all the important lessons cause he only really trusts himself which his heart is in the right place hes just thinking about our investigators but i wont lie its pretty trying on my patience but i was able to teach with francis a couple really great lessons and i was super excited about that because it was the first time i was responsible for the lesson and where we were going and all that jazz and just like the promise says i was given what i needed to say. i dont think i have ever taught as clearly as i did yestewrday yet so i am super thankful for prayer right now for sure.

man im slow at typing... one pagsubok of mine is knowing which people that i need to talk to. when your walking around and theres tons of people everywhere or theres an opportunity to oym someone how do you choose which to talk to or if theres someone else your looking for etc... opening an area before we basically talked to everyone. bangal was a pilipino and a great missionary and his idea was you talk to everyone wherever you are. riner though has a different idea he likes to walk fast and go house to house very very seldomly do we oym people on the street. so for me i can see the point of both sides cvause if you are at someones house you know where they live and know theyre in your ares but if you dont talk to people on the street you could pass opportunities. ah the joys of a companionship ha man who wants to get married this is hard ha ha just kidding.

just finished the book of mormon that i started a couple weeks into the mtc and its once again amazed me how amazing it all is. riner just turned 21 and thats how old joseph was when he got the plates right? so anyone who says joseph wrote it thats 21 years old needs to think to themself how in the world could you do that or even come up with half the stuff in the ammount of time or even any ammount of time for that matter, not to mention all the persecution and all the lost manuscript pages and everything. if u read it then elder hollands words are perfect. no wicked man could write it, and no good man would unles it was true and god told him too. what other book projects the gospel in so clear of terms? i love the bible too shempre and we do basically all of our teaching out of the bible cause well thats wat riner finds best but the book of mormon just boosts your testimony of the bible when you read it. busta ang layunin ko is the book of mormon is astig and anyone who wants to prove it false,,, good luck but make sure you read it first so you know what your talking about.

i feel a little like elder holland lately i almost wanna start yellin at people like he does and tell them they needa read it! man so simple everythings so simple.

well thats it now that ive done my preaching for the week i needa try to write a few other letters so mahal kita and ill tty next week. elder landeen

kamusta kayo? shempre ayos dito, as always i donot know where to start but lets see how this goes,,,,

at ito ay nangyari na.. malakas na ulan. umuulan para sa buon lingo, at araw araw kapag babalik kami sa bahay namin basa. nababasa talaga!

and it came to pass.. the strong rain. its been raining for the whole week. every day when we come back to hour house were wet, were really wet ha its weird translating but anyways its basically been raining for a whole week. it stops occasionally but i finally know what forest gump was talking about when he said "it started to rain"

as for the purok that we taught, every time we came back because it was raining we werent able to teach everyone because we have to teach them outside their houses are tiny. but... when i was on splits in the zone leaders area elder riner and elder thomas went back to bagong buhay (this is where they are) they found another huge congregation to teach ha and its almost just as big.

these people are almost pure ilocano, luckily they speak basic tagalag so i can still talk to them but since they are way out away from the city in the middle of the bukids( rice fields ) they are ilocano talaga ( they speak ilocano and are native to this area) but anyways they are aactually legit investigators they want to come to church next week and they well some of them kept their reading assignment ( which means they werent just bein nice by listening to us which can happen quite a lot ) that was pretty cool im excited to see what happens with that.

we had 7 investigators come to church this week 2 for their first time! edwin paz was one of their names and his family would have come too but his wife, just had a baby and she / they have weird traditions here where they cant leave the house for a few weeks after, and his kids had to stay home because their house was being flooded because of all the rain ( this is still shocking to me, it sounds like the worst thing in the world to have your house flooded, which shempre it would suck but its just a part of life here.. ) its pretty normal for some of our investigators to have up to 3 feet of water in their house when theres a baugio (typhoon) and its just the way it is ha. but anyways he comitted and he came lookin guapo in his nicest clothes ( some sweet shoes that were like orange blue and white, a pair of jeans and a old polo ) and he loved it. man fast and testimony meeting is very different here.. because the stake got split there were a lot of new callings and that was basically everyones testimony.. that they are thankful for their callings ha the bishop even said congratulations to all of you who have new callings.. its like its prestigious or something ha but whatever their country who am i to judge.

my companion leaves on december 14 for home and as much as he doesnt want to admit it hes kinda getting trunky. but he shows it in a different way than most elders do. he shows it by when we are in lessons he needs to talk 3/4 or more of the time like he wants to teach as much as he can before he leaves. i really am staring to understand how this is preparing us for marriage because sometimes no matter what the reality is your just gonna loose the battle so you just deal with it and try to love them. hes a really good elder but well hes just been here too long and likes being in control and isnt very willing to give in to other ideas . like an old catholic thats set in his ways if you ask me ha ha i love the guy though dont get me wrong but well it will just be good if i can get a companion that doesnt feel like he has to run everything all the time.

other things that happened... splits with elder valdez was a lot of fun man people here always try to pawn their kids off on you, we had a lesson from a referral, and right off the bat the step dad told us that hes been to prison ( they later found out it was cause he uused to kill people but anyways ) the mom after the lesson was makin fun of me big time ( just tryin to get us to laugh) she was asking if i cry at nights because i miss my mom ha and then she went off on how her daughters 9 that were sitting right by us ) are looking for american boys and we should take them with us when we go back to america. they dont waiste time beating around the bush at all straite to it ha ha.

all in all another great week love it here having a blast and learning lots bein obedient tryin to hold the rod and teach people the same. love you all talaga and talk to you next week, and ill send some pictures here in a sec, mahal kita, ingat!

this is me in native warrior armor at banaui, me with a really drunk guy at a birthday party, this is me and elder valdez ( hes from utah too hes one of the zone leaders, and elder riner with elder thomas the other zone leader oh yeah i forgot i finally ate dog! this is my fiorst bite of dog, and i ate blood soup stuff too it was kinda gross but the dog was way good. thats our chirch, that last one was a family home evening game we were playing that was way fun. and just a few others ha i made a new goal to take more pictures so i will make sur to do this so you can see more of whats going on here and what its like. and sometime im gonna buy some flash drives and copy all my pictures onto them and send them in the mail.

another week

man its deja voo back in the computer shop again a lot to say but kulang (lacking) the words to explain!

first off im pretty sure the caugh is allergy related the medicine i was taking helped it a lot but now that i ran out its gotten bad again. so i think i will have to go back and get some more.

things here in santiago are greaaaat we had some reaaally crazy experiences happen this week . first off we went to a place that we hadnt been to before called bagong buhay ( which translated means new life ) but anyways we went finding or tracting there and man these people are poor. but in this little area they have little puroks or like villages of houses in groups, and then a ways down the road there will be another group of houses and so on. we went into one of these villages and oym (offered our message) to these two guys and ansked if we could teach them and they said sure one second and they got THE WHOLE VILLAGE ! ha ha we taugh a lesson to serously about fifty people. and they were receptive. it was nuts i felt like it was straite out of the book of mormon or something preaching to a congregation of people like alma does in chaoter 32. they want accepted a return appotinment and everything man that would be so cool if they all accepted the gospel a total miracle.

so mom you asked me to tell you about my area and where i live... my zone is the santiago zone, and this is because of the city santiago in the middle. its a pretty big city and they have basically everything we need here. this is the city that has the best taylors to get clothes made and well yeah just abut everything. weve got a mcdonalds and chow king and jolly b, and this place called k max that we go to a lot that is soooo good. in my area the places we go to are baptista village ( this is where our house is) , mabini, sa pangpali, saranai, st james (this place is pretty big) devasoria, bagong buhay, and some others i havent been to yet. we hae to take a tricee ( if you dont know what these are look them up online they are motorcycles with side cars on them and they are EVERYWHERE. im basically wet at least part of everyday its so normail to wake up to sunshine and then by4:00 its just pouring. its kinda crappy ha but its whatever by now.

about some of the people im teaching...

start off with leneta family. starting here because they have a baptismal date ! december 10th and the mom and dad, daughter and her husband, the eight year old son will all be baptised. they come to church and all have testimonies. man its soo cool. so ok this is a mircale talaga (really) but if all goes well, december 10th will be a day to remember.

robles family, which is a mom dad and daughter ( theres a soin but hes not 8) if tatay (the dad ) can stop drinking they will all be baptised on that day too. theres ali ali the couple that is trying to get maried they have two young kids ,1 year and 2 and a half, if they can get married they will be baptised on that day ( they have solid testimonies also ) theres the pas family, which is a family of 8 kids, 5 that are old enough to be baptised, the oldest hasnt been in our lessons yet but everyone olse is progressing really great and im pretty sure they will be ready by then too. theres the gawans, which is 3 girls, the moms a member and the dad is also a meber but he lives in america theyre just waiting for him to come back so he can baptise them, and theres the deguseman family. a husband and wife their kids arent old enough to be baptised but they are starting to progress really well and they are definately coming to church next week so wow we could have a lot of baptisms next month! wouldnt that just be amazing. not to mention the people in bagong buhay if they start progressiong..... wow!

i dono how im spoiled but i got to go to the mission home today again ha we all went "trick or treating" ha we all dressed up ion goofy costumes and went and got to eat hamburgers and watch forever strong ( if you havent seen this show you should watch it its sooo good) ill send you the pictures as soon as i get them i didnt get any on my camera, i dress up as a jew ha i had a yamaka and a preyer shawl ha kinda bastos but it was super fun. well anyways im gopnna try and upload some picters so this is all for the news i love you all and ill talk to you next week, elder landeen

so these pictures, the guy in the green, he is beyond drunk ha i was on exchanges with elder kelson when we ran into him, that is our fridge after a week without power, that big group of people was about 3/4 the people we taught in bagong buhay the rest of the adults didnt want in the picture, thats a spider we killed in our house, they get a lot bigger than that, thats me and elder riner my follow up trainer, step dad ha i dono what he is actually. and thats just a really cool picture of the sky.

another quick week

well kuummmuuuussssttttaaaaaaa everyone how is life in the us? i heard something about obama buying everyones junk cares or something? sounds like hes just as stupid as he was before ha ha .
but about life here......
this hapened last week i cant remember if i shared it or not but the stake im in the santiago stake split into two different stakes. which is kind of a big deal here ha it was pretty exciting we had to members of the seventy i cant remember their names but they were here to conduct that business and that was cool. of course they spoke in english so probably nobody really understood but everyone loves it when white people are here so it was still great.
this last sunday we had 8 of our investigators come to church! we are currently teaching 4 whole families that are progressing and gaining their testimonies, one who is only waiting for the opportunity to marry so they can be baptised, and well its just awesome when someone says they feel like its true when they pray about it, its almost like wait really? its so cool. theres one i wanna talk about...
his name is brother robeless hes a tricee driver, elder riner had been teaching his family before i got here then i got here and he just wasnt progressing, we had a few good lessons but man he just is so bastos ( liike bad or naughty kinda lol hard to explain this word) but anyways he is an alcoholic hes obsessed with girls and he well he just has lots of temptations. we taught him about the book of mormon again and we asked him to read when he wanted to drink and then we came back the next day and he was drinking again, discouraging but i have a lotta faith in him. then we had another lesson and he told us that he was reading the book of mormon and he said with his hand in the air "swear to god" i felt peacefull. which is something you can recognize when you live in a lifestyle void of peace. and then he came to church finally! im so excited for him i hope so much that he can stay strong.
today has been such a fun p day we came down here to cauayan and played football with a whole bunch of elders and then went to the mission home for elder riners birthday (my companion0 and a couple others birthdays. oh my we had enchaladas and mexican food was the greatest thing in the world! soooooo good after so much rice and the same food all the time ha i love filipino food but man this was good, and eating it in air conditionoed mission home after a shower with water you could change the temperature on and get this is didnt even wear sandals in the shower. that was the best part. i do miss the bucket showers outside in lamut, but this was definately a nice change.
as for the cough the docter prescribed allergy medicine that ive been taking and its seemed to help it its still not gone but it has improved so iim gonna count this one as a win.
i did recieve my package and oh my reeses fast breaks are the best thing since water. just candy from america man sooo good. and those vitamins taste like candy too and are good for me. two birds with one stone there! thanks for the work you put into the stuff on my ipod hearing comference again has definately been a blessing.
ano pa... oh yeah one thing i wanted to share that they do here with all the rice that they grow here which is a rediculous ammount and the corn too, when they harvest it and dry it, what they do is just spread it out on the ground to dry. like on the main roads on the streets where people drive and walk and dogs are and other am\nimals and people are all over it, and then eventually we eat it...? hmmm kinda weird ha so basically this is my mentality. ive just acceted things arent sanitary for me to eat and i just hope i dont get sick ha.
things for me are definately going great. the works going good and im dead tired when i come home so iven though key indicators arent always as high as i want them to be i am still working hard so its all gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood, well hanggang (until) next week mahal kita elder landeen

hello again family
before i begin let me clear something up about the whole dangau thing..... thats what doctors here say about EVERYTHING ha ha its kinda like when they told mom she has stomach cancer. its just the generic disease people have ha ha.
i still have a couch. and i thik it might be getting worse. it kinda depends on the day but some times at night i have real trouble breathing. its almost starting to get me down cause ive had a few priesthood blessings and im drinking lots of water and took all the antibiotics they gave me to take and vitamin c and everything but still have a caugh. but when i say almost i mean im still happy ha hindi ko alam kung bakit but it just it like the bugs that are always flying around your head you can either let it bother you so much that you get mad about it or you can just keep working and get over it. this is where its crazy i couldnt do that before i hit the field but somehow now i can. so maybe thats exactly the help im getting is not getting anxious about it.
conference out here was great! it was in english, they had a tagalag translation but the majority just watched in english. they probably didnt understand what was going on but they were still watching and i thought that was awesome.
theres a nanay here in santiago, and she is the coolest ever she lets the missionaries eat for free at her little diner place at the palanke (market with a million little shops) every day. and theres like 7 different companionships that eat there depending on the day. she is awesome. she kinda reminds me of grandma hardcastle because she is really kind and/but she isnt afraid to speak exactly what she thinks, or i guess treats you just like your her own kid. isnt afraid to correct you if your out of line ha but so kind. hard to explain but yeah.
im gwettin my first experience with someone that has been taught for a long time but isnt putting in the effort to get a testimony. my companion is getting really frustrated with him cause well he is the one that has been teaching him but im not ready to give up on him just yet. i feel like i can understand these kind of people better than some others cause im pretty hard headed too.
im guessing this is how it is with all new companionships but kinding unity while teaching is been kind of a strougle. he talks kinda long, then when i get my turn my jealous side of me wants to share at least something so i dont evd up bweing just the testimony at the end, or he lets me start and shempre( of couse) im new and im not perfect at teaching in tagal;ag or at the lessons in general, so i dont teach it perfectly and then i dono. hes pretty patient and stuff and he wants to help me get beter theres been a few days i could feel his frustration but i understand it. this whole divine companionship thing is super hard when my vocabs so small! and bein around 3 americans we speak english quite a bit which i dont really like cause thwey all speak tagalag but dont want to to each other.
one thing about phili[pino culture i do love is they looove to serve you and each other. thweres none of this im not gonna wash that because its not my fork or its your turn to do that. well i guess it just depends on the person but for the most part thats how they are here and thats one downside of bein with americans. that dont want to become like pilipinos. i want to become like the people here so i can teach them and help them! how can you if you dont absorb their culture? so hopefully ill get another pilipino comp AFTER i learn tagalag ebough to communicate and understand. maybe ill even get a masipug( industrious/hard working) comp. that would be awesome.
ano pa.... i found out how cheap making pants are, for the most expensive fabric and for a taylor it comes out to be around 15 dollars for nice tailor made pants. im excited to get them done!
something people love here is chareoke, and i think just talkking in a microphone ha. elder riner and i were walking past a birthday and they had a chareoke machine and this guy was singing some cheesy birthday song and all the sudden we hear hey joe! where you going? ( when you are talking to people you just meet or just anybody its just normal to say saan kayo galing, which means where did you just come from, and saan kayo pupunta whichis where are you going) but to hear it in english after hey joe during a birthday some with a philipino accent we couldnt stop laughing. then i caughed up a lung and laughed again. hey joe and saying anything they can to us in elglish is like the coolest thing for them ha it just makes me laugh. we had a little girl flip us off the other day and say F U as loud as she could, like 3 or four years old maybe.... it was shocking and then funny cause she has no idea what it even means. i wonder who taught it to her.
i saw my first little cock fight two days ago it was crazy! they were just training them so it wasnt to the death but wow. the guy said that a lot of americans come over here for cockfights because its legal here.
still havent eaten dog yet but im just looking for the opportunity my comp said its actually way good.
well i dono what else to say! things are great, theres bugs everywhere our fridge was literally alive with mold because we had no power for a week, stray dogs literally everywhwere roaming the streets, never seen so many naked kids in my life, somethings just cause people dont feel the need to keep their pants on but sometimes, the sad times when theyre too poor to afford anything.
if anyone needs the gospel its these people. i just wish they would realize how much they do. most people so far, cause almost everyone is willing to listen just doesnt really care about it. i guess thats where faith comes in. well mahal kita hanggang susundan na lingo, (until next week) elder landeen