hello dad.

weather update... its hot. and then it rains. then its hot then it rains.. then its hot and rains again. thats about it.

cultural bit...  whenever you pass by a house whether you know them or not if people are eating a meal or eating anything they will call out kain tayo! (wihich means lets eat) although i dont think they literally mean they want you to eat with them i think its just a curtural courtesy thing. just as an experiement a few times when people said it a actually said okay thats great thank you! and came and sat down and ate with them. they were a little shocked ha i got a laugh and thought to myself well they offered.

mission update.... nothing new still here in roxas dont know if it will be my last area or if i have 1 more. i feel like ill probably have 1 more but we will see. i would love to have this be my last area though.

spiritual thought....  ive thought a lot lately of how hard of a thing it must have been for nephi and laman and lemual and sam to go back to jerusalem after leaving to get the plates of brass. i read in the study manua\el for the book of mormon about the geography of the land they traveled from, that not only barren but there were constant threat of robbers and running out of food and all sorts of other things. and that after their first failed attempt and being threated that laban will kill laman, they go back to their house and get all their riches (im sure it was very tempting for laman and lemual to just stay home, without their dad they were now the heirs to all that gold and silver and stuff, but they didnt they got it all and tried again and again failed. thinking how discourging that must have been for them all including nephi but the faith of nephi that even not knowing how the heck hes going to get the plates he still went in again knowing his very life is in danger because he knows how important the scriptures are for his family. it had to be a completely overwhelming task for them especially after failing 2 times!.

the area presidency had taught us and missionary work here in the philippines has once again started to make an interesting change. we are to continue rescuing less actives.. but we are now to... start finding and teaching and baptising rich people. our directions are to start finding and teaching in english and focus your efforts on them. the doctrine is found in d and c 59 but basically whats happened is because of course the poorer people are more humble and teachable missionaries have been focusing on them and teaching them and the church had been overwhelmed with welfare needs, people not being able to hold callings or be leaders because they dont have an education, and not being able to help other members because they dont have the means to do so. ive realized in the past month how blessed ive ben here in the philippines. rich people dont seem to care all that much about what we have to say ha i cant imagine a stateside mission or a mission in europe anyone who serves there is my hero. but anyways trying to find how to find and get investigators that are wealthy has proven to be a very hard thing to do. we found some to teach but every return appointment has fallen through ha and they are only willing to listen on sunday evenings so when we wait all week excited to teach them then we set the appointment and go there and noones home they had urgent business your left wondering are they really just busy or are they just too nice to tell you they arent interested in listening (thats probably the hardest thing here people wont tell you they arent interested they act like they are super interested but will very rarely say to your face that they have no desire to listen so you never know what is really in their head.

anyways its been a pretty good experience for me to not have very much success here in roxas as far as that stuff goes you get to see things from a different perspective. when it comes down to it all the matters is that you do what is asked of you to do no matter what the outcome. and thats a peaceful thought.

anyways thats it for me! love you get better soon! elder landeen