DOG

Well earlier this week i had a split with our district leader that is Samoan. it was a sweet split, i loved it. We ended up having a ton of lessons and it just learned a lot together and i learned a lot about him. we had a good talk about goals and stuff and ended the split REALLY good. Then, after that, actually before that, we had a Zone meeting that went really good. i was happy with how it went. we set up a huge game, that game were they have to find a bunch of clues and it ends up leading to the prize, ya, that; and it was fun! We also had something called. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE this week. it was also pretty dang fun, full of games and just stuff we can use in our mission that isnt directly related to missionary work, but can make a diffrence. like budgeting and exercising and being prepaired. just a lot of little things. we had 2 zones all meet here in santiago so i got to see a lot of other missionaries. it was way cool. Friday is a historical day for me, it the day i FINALLY got to eat DOG!!! it was funny, it was the snack of a bunch of drunk people. some how i found out of heard that it was dog they were eating, so i asked to confirm; it was! so i asked for some and they gave it to me. it was SO GOOD. it really tasted really good i kid you not. but i was just excited because at last, i had now tasted DOG :). so quiet a bit actually happened this week that kinda distracted us a little from our work. but, even with all that, we still ended up getting a ton of work in, and had one of the best weeks EVER. yesterday was SOOOO awesome. we ended up with my personal record high of 20 people at church. it was so awesome. there was a TON. god has just really blessed us with a lot of peolpe that are ready for the gospel. SO it just been way awesome. and not just our work. but the whole ZONE has improved a ton this week. the kis were like higher then they have been all year and you can just tell that everyone is getting more focused on the work. its aweosme. i LOVE this work. i also had a pretty SWEET testimony building experience this week, when we ended up being led to the house of a Jahovas witnesses priest... his is only 25 too but really smart when it comes to the bible. it was cool being about to share with him, but we also how found out a TON about there religion too. he is a way good teacher and i personally learned a lot from him, but one of the biggest things i have learned from my experience there was the truthfulness of the verse in the scriptures where it points out that the bible will be changed and end up being a huge stumbling block for many. man i can totally see how they could get soooo confused. they base everything they say off of what they read, but there is just so much missing and so much that they just dont completly understand. i remeber just testifying of a living prophet and how he guides gods church so there wont be any confusion and ire, and just he over all importance of living prophets. it ended up really good. we left feeling pretty good about it all. there were some times were it got really intense though ahah it was so cool, like you could see them getting frustrated and kinda mad but we tried our best not to bash and just to testify. SO, even though there was a little yelling from there part, it never got to out of hand. we actually have a return appointment again. this will be the 3rd. im excited. we left them a book of morman cause they gave us there other "simplified" version of the bible and so i really want to see if they read the book of morman at all cause before they were really confused about it. Well the week has been exciting, and awesome. next week we will have 3 baptisms of 2 of my most BELOVED investigator, i really LOVE them and they are SOOO ready to be members of this church. Love ya all, hope everything is going good.

A VISIT TO MABINI

MAN BUMBER about that 4 by 1, im sorry about that that is too bad! sounds like everything went pretty dang good though. i love hearing about it, i cant belive its all going by so fast, track will be over by next week and then everyone will be graduated... WEIRD! Oh BTW, before i forget. if you could send me some dermitex or something that would help me get rid of this scar on my leg i would be very thanksful. i was looking for some stuff here but its really expensive if i buy it here but i need to try to get it off before it get to long. THANK YOU!

Well my week has been CRAZY. so much stuff has happened this week now that i look back on it. but some how, despite it all, we were still able to get a LOT of missionary work done. Tuesday was weekly planning and a ton of work. Last Wednesday we had a huge meeting again with all the missionary leaders in the whole mission, that was fun. we talked about knew principles that they want us to focus on in our zones and districts and just how we can make the mission better. These things are always way aweosme and i always learn a ton i wana take back to my zone and teach. The only bad thing was that, that meeting almost took up the whole day. we just got home and went straight to work untill night time! We also got SOAKED that day. its now the rainy season and it rains a TON. it gets scorching hot during the day and then rains at night, as in POURS down rain, you get soaked... But its all good as long as they will still let us in to teach. Thrusday we had to do our weekly planning because friday we went and observed at others. we observed at one of our district leaders who is in a harder area and is struggling to get it going. it was good. at first we got lost and couldnt find there house but after asking a few people, and doing some oyms :) we found a member her lead us to the house. it went good. Saturday was the day i got to go back to MABINI!!! man that was so fun. we left the house at about 9 and went to ilagan first and stoped at the closest store our hole region has to a AMERICAN store... it was awesome. i was flabbergasted :). we stopped there to eat. we ate at a SWEET restraunt but it was pretty funny cause we were eating with our hands and im pretty sure a lot of people were suprised haha. just imagine and these philipinoes using utensils but the 2 Americans are eating with their hands :) it was cool. then we finished up there and went straight to mabini. it was a LONG drive but soooo worth it. we got there a little early so we went around to some of the people i baptized and they were way excited to see me :) it was SICK. they are all way strong. but i found out they all knew i was coming cause they had announced it last sacrament meeting. ive never seen so many people attend a baptism here in my life haha. and one of the best things was one of the people that was baptised was the husband of my the women i baptised a long ago. so now there complete in the gospel!!! he was all illicano so we couldnt teach him before but an elder got assigned there that knew illicano so it worked! the coolest thing was i wrote them about 2 months ago and told them not to worry that i knew tatay was going to get baptised. then when i got to nannays she said he had read my note and then the elders started teaching him and he wanted to get baptised. i knew i felt impressed i needed to write them! but that was soooo cool. remy joy is now the young womens leader over there and is doing awesome and the other big family i baptised are way strong! man i cant really explain how happy i was to see them, and way more to see how strong and awesome they were. the only bad part of this whole story was the way home.... MAN the way home was horrible. we were rushed on time and had to get on a bus or we were going to sleeping in illagan so we jumped on a FULL bus going to manilla but that passed through santiago. i ended sitting in the middle isle on a bag of feed... and my comp sat in the middle on someones luggage. it was SOOO uncomfortable and then the worst was it was dark and in the front they were playing a, had to be, rated R movy that was stupid and was the only thing u could see unless u looked straight down at ur feet. so it was sooo hard to avoid that. plus it was unconfortable and we couldnt lay down to sleep. it STANK, i was so jacked wehn we got off. oh, and another thing was while we were on it a earthquake went off. you've probably heard about that. we didnt really feel it because we were on the bus but all the other missionaries felt it :), no one got hurt though so it was all good. then sunday we had a good day. got a lot of work in and a lot of good investigators. god is really blessing our work here and i love it. we had a lot of distractions from our work this week but despite all that we had and aweosme full week. it was just all missionary work which is the best! well i think this letter ended up being really long... we'll i love you all and i hope that you have an aweosme week. INGAT!!!

man it sounds like a BUSY week! that is crazy. man chelsea is getting close to graduating hu?... wow that is wierd. i cant explain how fast time is flying right now! its crazy. its cause the work right now is AWESOME. god is blessing us a ton with a bunch of good investigators that are ready to progress and its awesome! we had 12 go to church yesterday and have 10 with dates. we should have had a ton more go too but we;ll get them there next week. but the work is really going awesome right now and its just really humbiling and im way thankful for the success god is giving us here right now.
Im WAY excited to go back to mabini this weekend. that is going to be way fun! and ive had 4 philipino comps mom.... there is way more philipinoes then americans. but i guess thats just kinda how its worked out for me... im cool with that too i love my comps. this ones name is troy ellis. he is cool. really smart and funny. just a really good comp, doesnt get mad or anything easy and has pacience maybe i can develop taht atribute from him in our time together :)...
Im glad u guys like those videos and stuff. the next onse we watch all be there with you :( man i cant believe thats how close its becomeing... CRAZY. but ya i need to start workng on my stuff when i can, it would be nice to get it done while this guy is my comp, he knows how to do all that and he can help me out and hook me up.
well everything in the field is going really good. were going to have a big meeting with all the leaders again in the whole mission, that will be cool. in our batch there is 6 of us and from what i know 3 are going home early...
i almost forgot to mention, we also had that jubilee celebration here, it was so fun, we had this huge parade were a TON of mormans dressed up in suits and we road all over santiago and we were included. then we went to the colisium were the actually danced and it was sweet! they were good and we watched a TON it was so cool. but after, randomly, a thousand girls asked to get pictures with me... they dont really respect the fact im a missionary, just the FACT that im good look'n.... hahaha love ya

ya we bought airsoft guns to kill all the cockroaches and other animals, but we got a little out of hand the first night after we bought them and distroyed our clock... And im pretty sure ill just skype cause it would be easier so maybe ill just try to do that but i have to try it out later if i still remeber how to get on and stuff.

Alright so my week has been pretty sweet. Lots of work as a missionary and a ZL. God has really been blessing our work a TON and we have a lot of progressing investigators right now so it makes everything awesome, and it makes the days full. Like everyday goes by to fast, im always wanting time to like slow down or stop so we can fit everything in so that is a big blessing and ive very thankful for gods mercy on us and has finally started granting us some success. MAN its HOT here right now. SOBRA! we have to bring HUGE things of water with us everywhere or we would die... Probably one of the coolest things that happened this week was jubilee. we selibrated the 50th year of the church and missionary work in the philipines. saturday night we got to watch this bradcast that was awesome. it was a bunch of kids dancing and stuff, it was so sick. and i even got to see my trainer, elder salapa. he sang a duet and all the missionaries were like freaking out cause it was him, it was pretty sweet to see him, he is SUCH a stud. he'll do big things with his life. he still writes me every ones in a while. then sunday we had a huge conferance and elder cooke and elder packer talked. it was really good and kinda pumped me back up. i love being a part of this work. its going by SOOO fast right now. my comp has started saying some good byes to some of our baptisms, its pretty sad but nothing ya can really do. some take it better then others... but besides all that everything is going awesome. i think i have worms so im going to talk with someone this thursday if i can get that figured out but besides that im still way healthy, (FAT), and god is really blessing our work. thanks for everything i love ya all and am getting excited to talk to ya again next week. INGAT!

THanks mom for everything. sounds like ur holding down the fort pretty good, thats awesome. it was wierd, a lot of the talks this sunday were about families and it just got me thinking about my own pretty soon, that was NUTS, it also made me think of u and dad. crazy all uve done for us kids. i thought about it and MAN im just really thankful. but i think i would feel pretty successful as a parent if i were u two. Man im doing GREAT out here, Love it, to be honest i just want my kids and brothers to come out and have the experiences i am and learn like i am. i just love how i have to completly rely on god, as in like im almost scared without him like im NOTHIN, its like the best relisation ive ever come to in my whole life and its only something my prideful self could come to see in the mission field serving and having to do it in a foreign language. LOVE it. but thanks for everything, you 2 are awesome parents!