This week has been pretty good. The highlight was deffiantly our baptism, i got to baptise a mom and a brother this week it was awesome, i was kinda worried about mom i just didnt know how strong her testimony was cause she is PURE illicano, she understands tagalog so we could teach her but it was hard for her to talk back but after we baptised her she bore and AWESOME testimony, oh i got the chills it felt soo good, and then the boy will stay strong too he is probably going to go on a mission! oh the funniest thing was at the baptism, as u can tell from the pics the mom is pretty short and big, well when i baptised her i got her way under, elder naylor said, but when she was coming up she couldnt catch her footing and i had to do all i could not to laugh, same with naylor, but i love being able to do the prayer in tagalog. Did i ever tell u how i blessed this nanny, i tried to do it in english but it i forgot my english at the time so i ended up just doing it in tagalog, the funny thing was after i blessed her she crossed herself, i laughed so hard it was horrible. that happend like 3 weeks ago. Everyone asks for blessings here... Yesterday i had to teach class at church with elder naylor. i was way nervous but it ended up being really good. Me and elder naylor have started eatin way good, before it was either can foods and rice or nothing, but now we are mixing it all up and we eat somehing diffrent all the time and its way better now. we also started working out again but its soooo hard to work out out here i dont like it at all but naylor really wanted to do it so its all good. This morning we played a ton of basketball, i thought i was going to today, its a way diffrent game out here i thought i was going to die, its not that u run out of breath eather its just that it is sooooo hot and we play right under the sun. the craziest is that the philopinos play either bare foot or with just sandles, can u imagine, i step on feet all the time but it doesnt even hurt them, and its not like it slows them down at all either, its just nuts. But anyways this week has been awesome, my tagalog gets so much better all the time and im way exited for that, we even had a split and my comp was PURE tagalog no english but we talked the whole day and there was no language barier it was pretty cool.

i do swim to every appointment, but actualy this week wasnt as bad except for last night but seriously it rains like u wouldnt believe but we still work and sometimes the let us in, but i dont have to use the foot stuff. iam not gaining any weight, but i am ok i dont need too. um we dont ride trycycles our area is small enough to walk. and i walk a TON. u woudnt believe. Dude mom this week was soooo awesome mom
oh man so this week has been a FULL stinking week. Alright so first of all me and elder naylor decided we were going to set a knew record of OYMs cause it was horrible., together wehave litterlay talked to all of Mabini so we just decided we were going to talk to them all again, cauase we were lacking investigators, so we did it. Dude the old OYM record for our mission was 118 and elder Naylor knows cause his trainor was a AP and all he wanted to do was brake that record but he couldnt. But anyways we worked our freakin butts off and we got 171, DUDE!!! we killed the old record. Im pretty sure were going to get yelled at but these OYMs were all leggit, we were ALWAYS looking and talking to EVERYONE we saw, and the thing is a oym is offer ur message and even if ur talking to 10 poeple that counts as an oym so even though are number is 171 we talked to like 500 stinking people, and they were all really good ones and we wrote all there names down so we cant get in trouble, this has been the BEst thing in the world for my tagalog and my teaching, i love the mission any weakness u have u find and it slaps u right in ur freakin face but i have been perfecting all my weeknesses through setting goals and man my teaching has gotten sooooo much better in one week its nuts and my tagalog. Oh im soooo close, i just need vocab, my vocab is already pretty good its just when u talk to freakin preiest, they have huge vocab, wich reminds me, we kinda got in a fight with so witnesses, it all starting cause he was ike hey i have a question for u, as we were walkin by, and so were like what, and he was like how long was it from when adam last saw god to christ birth, i just freakin laughed. but he was like oh your dumb u guys dont know anything about the bible come to my house and ill teach u some things. oh man , but i am starting to get realy good with using scriptures, i have starting memorizing a lot of them and like everything someone says i can think of a scripture now, its really cool, and that just started this week. yesterday was funny, first of all i was SOOOOOO close to throwing up at a member house it was bad! if i would have that would have been so bad, it is like this rice that they boil and it all like slimes together ands its really horrible but its there desert and there so proud of it but its HORRIBLE. but by some miracle i finished it and we left imedianty that nanny is so crazy she literally FORCES food into my mouth, and its not regular food its like freakin the weirdest plants in the world. oh and then i was oyming this one lady and she was a freakin NUT cases lol. she was like what is that on ur face and i was like its because i sweat all the time, and then i tried to offer the message and she was like no i cant i have a calling to and i was like whats that and she was like i heal people and those things on ur face are evil spirits and they are trying to take over ur face because ur extremly guapo HAHAHa and of course i was getting the biggest kick out of this so i was like, "OH crap,What do i need to do?!?!" hahaha and she was like u need to wipe cocanut oil on ur face in this wierd way and then u need to put boiling water on ur face, and i was like alright, i was like can we set a appointment to come back and she said no we needed to do it right now, and then i looked back and my comp and this family is looking at me wierd and i just started laughing, and the family was like " Man u have to have reallly good tagalog to be able to talk with her" lol i guess they all know she is kinda crazy. Oh then this story, Ive repented so dont judge me, but this guy was just freakin drunk and he kept calling me over and i was by him and im like this is close enough i aint going there and he was trying SOOOO hard to get me to take a shot, he was like " Come on man i want to be ur frinds and if u take a shot ill go to ur god next week" lol u woulnt believe how drunk this guy was. and his frind was just as drunk and funy, man it was so funny, and so i was like no and he wouldnt stop so i was like, u do it first, and so he starting filling up his cup and then he stopped and i was like WHAT? come on that is nothing and so he put a ton in a drank it and i was laughing so hard and then we just left. Oh this week was so good. crzy experiences, met crazy people, everyday i came home freakin DEAD exhauster.
Got to LOVE the mission

man i got that package this week, thank u so much that was way awesome! i was so shocked but mom u need to figure out this mailing thing u need to use those one boxes where u just pay for how big the box is then u stuffed it, the vedio was sooo awesome me and elder naylor watched it and i loved to so much. this week has been really good, lots of wierd stuff has happened and its a way big change being with elder naylor but i love it so much more. We went to the sabue (Temple) dedication thing sunday and saturday they had some kind of other celebration deal for it, it was pretty leggit. The best part of this week has been the language though, i am not saying i have it but i can say whatever i want and i understand 90 percent of everything said, now i just need to extend my vocab really but i am way excited for it. OK so this week was nuts, rainy season starts now and when i say that i mean it STARTED, like every night but one or two we came home at night completely soaked to the BONE like just completely, its ridiculous but its alright the only thing i feel so bad going into houses so wet and then when it rains everyone just shuts down its kinda funny how stickin scared it seems like Philippians are scared of the rain, but it literally makes rivers how hard it rains and im not exaggerating, so thats kinda cool, i am pretty excited for the work this week too cause me and naylor are going to find a lot...a lot a lot so we will see what happens, its going to be hard work but it will be good for us. This morning was interesting, so me and naylor wake up at 4 to run to the other zone to play basketball but my ankle was to jacked up so we got a tricycle and then we went and played, it was way way fun, but then we returned and the elders had gotten robbed the night before, its funny there is 4 elders and really only 1 got way way robbed like lots of money and camera and bag and just stupid stuff like that, the best part is we talked to the cops and they know exactly who did it lol but they arnt going to do anything thing cause they know that the guy these guys work for is way high and that they have a ton of guns so the cops arnt going to do anything about it, lol o the Philippines. But the work is going so good, i am learning sooooo much and i am not just saying that, i am really learning a ton and i see God in all my doings all the time.

its 1 dallar to 45 pesos just so u know ( I have all his money in his checking account. After the other Elders got robbed he decided I better not leave much money in his account)


we are in a diffrent town right now cause its way better, this is like the only one that has a pizza shop lol i get to eat PIZZA, thank u so much for the package i loved it. Every package has to have some kind of pics or vedio or somthing but that was way great. Oh ya ashton has gotten bigger and so has cassi a little and then kellon oh my gosh he is a little fatty now and he has grown so much bigger and taller i couldnt believe it. Oh and it didnt make me homesick at all i mean i think about it but it just maked me want to work harder then come home to that after 2 years lol, um ya i use my crocs and i had to buy knew shoes, i already went through those onse lol, everyone one says i walk fast, if missionaries are saying that, i have a problem lol
just so u know i am pretty good with regular food situation, like they have alright stuff and right now i am just lacking because i am living in the boneys, the biggest things in packages are like the candies and the pics and stuff.
the prophet dedicated it, i dont get to go to the temple this whole two years, and it was our church for the whole philippines sunday. Mom i have to go, love ya, cant wait to here from u next week, thank u again for the package it was aweomse, and make me a knew account before i get robbed please.

A New Companion!......Kinda

Alright ill just start by telling ya about my week. Nothing too big happened this week, first of all it was hard sending another comp home its just the weirdest feeling, plus he really didn’t want to go because he really doesn’t have a home to go home to. He just told us how he just ate ulam with just salt and rice and then other times he would just buy this 1 pero stuff and use it as ulam, the kid was dirt poor it sounded like but he was the Coolest guy and a really good missionary.
So that night we had to spend the night with like 8 elders it was nuts we played this intense dodge ball game it was way fun, then in the morning we woke up and went to play basketball at way early but in the first 5 min I messed my ankle up way bad like it hurt but it didn’t affect our work. I was just a little slower and its almost better now.
And then me and Naylor worked for a whole day and then got a text that we were both suppose to go to Cauayan and get 2 new comps so we got the apartment ready and then at transfers I got to see my batch and everything. It was way awesome to see them and their stories, and then it turns out my new comp is.... Elder Naylor, ya we were like what the freak why did we come all the way just to get paired up, then later we saw this sheet and it turns out we did have 2 new comps but pres changed like the second before. lol Crazy but the WIERDEST thing out of it all was I saw my new comp and it was the guy from Moses lake, and the crazy thing is all the night before and that morning I knew that guy was going to be my new comp, he was the only guy I could think about its crazy. But its a way good thing he wasn’t he has a rep, cause he is way trunky.
But on our way there we saw this tricycle run over this calf and it completely ran over it. Then the calf jumped up and ran off again it was so funny we just saw it as we were riding there, oh so funny.
But the work has been very different, we are both really new, our tagalog is pretty much the same, the only thing he has on me out here is experience so the lessons are pretty much 50/50, but I am learning and growing so much, its way way hard but its exactly what I needed, I needed to just be thrown out in it and see what happens, my tagalog is way way better now and by the end of this cycle ill have completely gotten it, cause all me and Naylor try to speak is tagalog all day and then with our fellow shippers we just speak with them, its way good. We still have a ton of progressing and good investigators and we got a couple more dates this week, the work is good and I am growing a ton. Love
everyone at home. BYE
Do you still have four elders living together in your house? Does the elder that went home know about the perpetual education fund or have a college near him?
No it’s just me and him in the house, and he doesn’t know anything about anything, he is way way poor though.

Well looks like an hour is up, love ya guys stay safe, have fun finishing up school, tell Payton and Carson and Kellen hi for me, oh man I cant even believe how big there going to be when I get home

Well the mission. I’m LIVING IN A 3rd world country. Lol I kind of realized that this morning when I was getting the herd of aunts off my tooth brush to brush my teeth. I hope I got them all off but its just protein isn’t it? That’s how I have to start thinking when I eat here. "Well I don’t think this will kill me". well I got my first own baptism this week, that was cool, I did it in tagalog and didn’t even mess up, I got them way under the water but I guess I messed up this one girls name, there names are so
hard to say. But that was cool. Oh this is my first baptism. I wanted to do the 2 little kids so that is who I baptized is the 2 little ones, the girl is so shy cause she thinks I'm guapo lol The feeling was pretty cool, oh man I was so fetching nervous, specially since I didn’t know I was doing it until right before and I hadn’t even memorized the prayer or had any time to memorize it but I ended up getting it pretty fast and I didn’t mess up so it was all good. Then in sacrament it was funny because we confirmed them and when they raised there hands to thank them or whatever people like throw both hands in the air and put there whole bodies into it. U just have to see it. sOOOO funny I couldn’t help but just bust up, cause I was doing sacrament so I was in the front to see them all.
Sending a comp home is such a weird experience, we left on good terms though so that was good. I was iffy though because right before he left it was just me and him in the apartment and I threw the whole deck of cards in his face and they went everywhere and he picked them up. Then we talked
about his pride problem and he said he was going to try to fix it lol but in the end we made up and I still love the guy. But it’s a long story, but he defiantly deserved it and he knew it that’s why he picked up all the cards.
I am in a 3 person now and they stink, but its all good I am teaching even more then before, my Tagalog is at another level now and I can pretty much say whatever I want and teach what I want to teach and they can understand and its just all so awesome now. The feeling is amazing, before I was so scared every day when I had to teach, do u know how hard it is to do this work when u are scared for ur turn, but now I cant wait for my turn and I love it. My comp was really good at letting me teach it’s just that my Tagalog stinks, it’s mostly just having confidence I’ve found out too. But it all came with a huge sacrifice, I can’t work out, talk, I can’t do anything anymore, its just all work and studying vocab and teaching to a wall and stuff. But this week has probably been my favorite of the mission just case I can finally teach.
I am always sick it seams like. No I don’t have malaria, and I’m all right, our AP was talking to me and said he had diarrhea for 8 months straight, and I don’t have that really right now, I’m not worried about my sickness it just hurts, and don’t send anything but candy in my packages lol I still have that oatmeal and I don’t eat it too much so don’t send more, I got ur package. Thank u so much but why did u send me that one candy lol, I mean I love it but that is just cause I’m in the Philippines, net time just send a ton of candy bars, and what happened to u loading that drive? Lol its brand new and u sent like 5 pics lol. And the whole thing melts but I put it all in the freezer and its better then new. I ate the candy bar, oh my gosh I can’t describe how good that was. And I do need medicine. I do take those vitamins, obviously they don’t help too much. I don’t have anything I am ok. I’m really ok like it’s not a big deal at all mom. I am never telling u I am sick again lol I will probably be sick my whole mission, big deal lol ill live.

Mom I really need my sim card number or I am in trouble. Did u not figure it out?
(Just a note. I haven’t seen that sim card number in probably two years. I looked upstairs in the attic and it was in the first file in the first box I looked in. If you have seen the attic, you know that was a miracle. )

Ill send pic home next week. Alright well I better go its been an hour. Even though ill probably stay in here for another half hour or so lol. Bye love ya. Tell Chelsea good luck in track!

Alright so what first? Thank u for the letters I love reading them. This week has been pretty crazy. First we had this huge festival here in our little Lugar and it was sweet. I have NEVER ate so much in my life, all these people use all there money to eat during this festival, and its good food, don’t like asking what it is though cause I’m afraid, but it is good. But dude its like I live in a camping trip, that is what elder Naylor always says and it is so true. When we eat its not sanitary at all, I cannot believe that I am not always sick. But festival stunk too cause we couldn’t teach anyone, they just wanted to feed us and send us off.
My comp leaves tomorrow. I hate having a comp that is going home cause it makes me think of going home and I don’t want to think about that, I have thought about my family so much, I really try to avoid it though, except when I am going to bed at night but whenever I feel down cause of something its just the best to start thinking about my family and its all good, I cant really describe it but its like that. I love hearing about ur guys's suess too. Chelsea is kicking butt it sounds that is way sweet.
My new comps are going to be so cool. Wait tell I send these pics and videos home you'll love them, this morning we killed the pig, don’t worry I got it all on video for u, and tonight we are eating it as a family home evening, I defiantly live in the Philippines everything I do I am like man this is so different then I’m used too but I am being watched over constantly. Well the pig is in a better place, its all good now lol
I don’t know what clicked this week, I guess God just got sick of hearing it and gave me this language but I am a whole different level now and I just need to talk more and get practice so its just like English without much thinking, oh the mission is hard but I love it all, I have learned what it is like to put your whole life in God’s hands and then see how he takes care of u, its awesome and I’m learning a ton.
Alright some funny things happened this week, first we went to this appointment during festival and our investigator was drunk and naked just sitting on the ground rolling around and stuff, we saw him from his entrance about 30 yards away and I have never seen anyone more drunk. It was so funny, oh and something really crazy happened this week to the other comp. They saved this guys life who really would’ve died, I cant describe it all but this is the picture, this guy with a baby and he is drunk, walking around with blood on his whole person, and its flowing out of his head like water and its 9 at night so its way dark and he has a machete in his hand, the whole story is really crazy, but they came in at night way late and they were quiet which is weird and they have the worst looks on there face and Naylor was just about to cry. They were way shookin up but they're alright now, the guy lived, they don’t know how they thought he was dead for sure.
Oh and then we had some storms this week and this caribou got struck by lighting, I thought that was funny there was blood all over the street. So they cooked it and ate it of course. Oh and then I saw this centipede the size of a baby snake. That’s actually what I thought it was at first until I saw it better. It was so huge.
Our teaching is progressing, we have gotten 3 more baptism dates this week and I have 6 this Saturday. We have had a ton lined up, we have also gotten a bunch dropped lol, but no I have been getting dates and stuff like crazy and we have a lot more then 9 lined up right now lol I think we got like 12 and then we have some that are close to getting dates

Well have fun at home, take care, and love ya all.

Man it was nice to talk to u guys today. I read it again in the white hand book after I called u and it say preferably 30-40 and I think that makes an exception for people with HUGE families. So I am going to talk to pres and see what he says in our next interview. It was awesome to hear from u guys though. By the next phone call I am going to be in the middle of my mission. That will be the best phone call ever cause after that the mission is just going to fly. I was mad I didn’t really get to talk to any of the kids. There my l\brothers and sisters I should be able to talk to them there was just no time. Nice to here Chelsea is getting so fast that is freaking awesme. Today is going to be so awesome right after we email were going home and then we are going to go to a huge river that is in the middle of nowhere. I think I am going to send the picture home next week if u get the package I sent by then. As soon as u receives the last one ill send this next one. That one doesn’t really have very much to look at but this next one is full of videos and stuff. I think you'll love. I love ya dad I hope ur week goes good. another year of school is almost over. Can u freakin believe that? SPRING BALL!

I had a crazy week and I want to share loll. It all started with our way home from p-day. We were going and all the sudden the jeep slams on its brakes and everyone was saying this crazy Tagalog word which means under the water or into the water and this bike drove down into this HUGE River. That was different. Next we started getting so ulan this week. Rain and the storms here are like none other vie ever seen. The whole night lights up the without stopping for like hours with lighting it is crazy. It’s the coolest thing in the world; it’s like a strobe light. And the fast and testimony was pretty crazy., this crazy old women tells us how she died of some sickness when she is 13 and she goes to heaven and god or someone tells her its not her time and her parents are sad and she needs to go be with them so she got brought back to life. And this week is election week. This place is pretty corrupt so we are in lock down tonight cause there will most likely be some killing tonight. It’s a really big deal in my area because the mayor’s house got raided last week and they found ALL kinds of guns and bad stuff. Saw a cobra that was about a foot away from me while we were tracking and it was HUGE. Almost died in a tricycle wreck with a kaliglig. Then I got really sick this weak. Really sick. and so my comp called the mission pres wife cause he didn’t think I should work so he called her and she yelled at me for not calling sooner and made us stay in the house the rest of the day so I came up with the BEST prank ever and played it on the other elders, it was so awesome. We wrote a note that I got really sick and had to go to the hospital and I left it on there desk and we waited outside when they got home. And they were freaking out. The best was I got it all on a hidden tape but they found the hidden tape and almost deleted it but I saved it, until later when I was watching it and accidently deleted it. But the best of the week was getting screamed at and blessed by a crazy pastor. Oh man I can’t describe the experience but that is dactyl what happened I got screamed and blessed by a pastor from a different church. It was so awesome and funny and a sweet experience. It really builds my testimony for some reason lol. Oh and then we did something else that was pretty crazy that I forgot to tell to my parents. We are currently raising a pig. I know that it is bawal to have a pet but it’s ok because it’s not one it’s just our food. We are keeping it behind our apartment until next peeday. I got put in charge of it after they saw that I was able to work with pigs when I picked it up by its ears and carried it to be we needed it. It was the funniest thing one morning after talking about eating a whole pig we decided to all buy one. That was an interesting morning but it was so fun. But anyways we are raising a pig and I can’t wait until next week when we get to kill it and eat it. Not sure how we are going to do those things yet but we still got a while. It’s slowly turning into a pet though lol especially for my "Oh so obedient" companion. It’s really funny to think we are raising a pig right now loll. Man the mission is awesome. Its so hard like I say all the time but I am learning so much EVERY day and it’s awesome. God had blessing me so much it’s awesome to be able to see how when u put ur trust in him and faith. How he takes care of u. well love u all. Its was awesome to talk with u today. Take care and stay out of trouble. ELDER RINER