I hid the eggs and E. Jensen found them ...

Karibaw

A little cart thing that they hook to a Karibaw and pull things

Our Easter eggs

Hey everyone, this week went really well. Easter week here is crazy. On "Holy Thursday" and "Good Friday" all of us missionaries had to be in our apartments by five due to the celebration of Easter here. The way they celebrate is by getting way drunk and worshipping Jesus statues and some of Mary...it’s weird. But I got some nice rest. As for my Easter, it was fine, we went to church in the morning and then for my lovely Easter dinner I had some canned American chicken that mom sent me :) At night time we also had a mini Easter egg hunt haha with the eggs I got in the mail (for everyone wondering, yes I am lame, I know, back off) haha. I hid the eggs and Elder Jenkins found them. I had already eaten the candy inside so there was no prize but oh well haha, definitely a different Easter than I am used to. So next week is transfers so I will like 99% sure get a new comp but I will find out for sure next Monday. I don’t know if I will still be here in Sibalom or not. Regarding the flash drive mom, I would like you to send the pink one that I bought here so I can see if I can put those photos back on my camera. My memory cards are huge so I won’t need the room and sometimes it is just cool to look at the old photos. If no that is fine though. I am not sure if it works anyways. So I think I will just do Skype on Mother’s Day, but I am not sure what day we will actually call. I will let you know next week. All the companionships in my mission now have cell phones so if that fails you can call me. I cannot call you though with the phone, you to me only. But I will finalize things next week. I am jealous you are all at Lake Havasu! That is too bad the boat won’t run smoothly. It is missing its caregiver (me) :) You are absolutely right though with that Italian restaurant. I would get chicken parmesan and LOVE IT. The cheese here sucks they don’t have normal milk or cheese so that sucks but oh well. In the next package do you think you could send me just like a bottle of lemon pepper? I have loved using the spices I got from you. It is so nice having variety. Mom I have a question, who is Mark Johnson? I get a letter from him weekly but I have never met him. He has some disease he said in his letters but fill me in please! Thanks. That is sweet! I am way proud of Britt for doing so well in the track meet and science fair! She should use my acceleration thing for free I have, if she wants. That would take lots of time getting her to and from though. Things here are going well. This week it has started raining almost every day for at least a half hour or so. Apparently wet season starts around May, which is awesome because it is so hot it is insane. I just am drenched all day. I won’t lie, transfers will be nice but I hope I get a really obedient companion. Even if we are way different, if my new comp is hard working and obedient I will be fine with him. Alright I love you all and will talk to you next week!

I put my hankerchief over my head like a wuss!

Hey everyone. This week was a good one! I will start with the baptisms of Jim Weaver and Ernesto. We first we got there and they did not have a suit big enough for Jim (he is like 270+ lbs.), so President said he could just be baptized in his church clothes and he went with it so that’s what we did. I was the one performing the baptism and as I baptized Jim his foot slipped out from under him and he fell like horizontally to the floor of the font. Then I had to get soaked and grab him and like dead lift him out of the water. I was cracking up. Then he was soaked because those were the only clothes he brought but he had a towel. It was a disaster to say the least haha, but oh well. Ernesto's went perfect though ha...I kept apologizing to Jim but he was just like "things like that happen it’s not your fault" so it was okay. He really is awesome. He has read the entire Book of Mormon, gospel principles book, and multiple ensign magazines. He’s a stud. I went on splits twice this week with two awesome elders, Elder Loe from Delta, Utah and also Elder Oldroyd (zone leader) from Lone Peak. They are both way rad and I had a blast with them. Regarding the cock fight (bulang or sabong in Tagalog) I didn’t dare take any photos because everyone was staring at me and I felt weird pulling out as camera like they would just think, stupid white boy haha. Also it is so hot here right now, supposedly the hottest time of the year. Obviously in St. George it is hot in summer but this is something else. Like THE SECOND you get done showering, you’re sweating. Even with a fan right on you. Prostelyting is nuts haha I am constantly looking for shade to walk through and if there is none I just put my hankerchief thing over my head like a wuss. Lots of people use umbrellas but I would feel gay doing that. I'd rather burn :) Really there wasn’t a ton that happened this week other than preparing those two for baptism. I have gotten lucky and already been able to baptize eight people. Mom I got your letter in the mail today and a bunch of DearElder’s which I haven’t read so I will reply to those later. I am happy for you that tax season is over and I hope everything worked okay for the year. Now go take a break and a massage :) Anyway I love you all! Dad, how are you? I am doing good here. Every week as I learn more I am liking it more. I won’t lie I am struggling with my comp but I will find a way to deal with it. My roommates are good though. I am glad to hear baseball is going well and you all got to go to Vegas and watch some games. That’s funny about the Dixie College coach at Players. We (Taylor, Keira and I) would eat there every once in a while my senior year and talk to him lots. He is way nice. Tell everyone hello for me! That’s too bad you haven’t gotten to go hunting much yet. I want to see some photos with a big tom turkey in it! Thanks so much, Dad, for everything you do for me. Love you!

April 9, 2011 - "That Kid Looks Like an American"

This is where they make "oring", which is a like coal that they cook with, but it isn't coal. It's hard to explain.

Hey everyone this week has been way good. We saw conference a week later than you all. It was way good and we had a lot of people at the stake center. Jim Weaver, the American I teach, went to all 5 sessions of conference and loved it, I am so happy about him. He is being baptized this Saturday so that is so awesome! In conference Quentin L. Cook talked about how awesome the women are in the church (no offense to dad) but I couldn’t agree more! I am thankful for all the women reading this! I hope work is okay mom, I am glad tax season is almost over so you can relax and enjoy life. I can’t believe it is snowing haha that is nuts. It’s April! It is about its hottest here that I have seen. It’s fine though. That is good about my truck so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. Thanks for taking care of it. Ha yes I remember that story about the drinking fountain. It has been so long I don’t remember the details but something along those lines. I remember crawling under it haha. That is cool that Stephanie got engaged, tell her congrats. I bet her guy was in the Bacolod mission. Back then I believe it was the only mission speaking Ilonggo. Also I am happy you all enjoyed Joe's homecoming and everything went well. Elder Jenkins and I have been cooking a lot together fairly healthy haha. It is way hard to eat healthy but I haven’t gotten fat...yet. I have a few funny stories this week. We went to a barangay called Ilabas and there we were teaching a less active father, non-member mother and a nine year old non-member. We had been at there like maybe fifteen minutes and we were not yet started into a lesson, just talking about stuff. Then the nine year old said to her mom "Hey, that kid (me) looks like an American!" And the mom was like yeah he is American haha and the little girl was like "no way! he knows Kinaray'a but he looks like he is American, he is white!" and the mom told her again that I’m American and the little girl would not believe her since I was conversing to them in Kinaray'a haha it was so funny. I also got to see my first cock fight this week. There were tons of people standing in a circle in the street so I walked up and since I am taller than everyone I could see them fighting with the big metal things on their feet. It was weird, but whatever, haha I don’t really care to see it again, but it was a cool experience I guess. One killed the other and the winner won a bunch of money haha. Anyway this week went really well. No problems here. Love you all! Fram Bam: That is so awesome about the snow I bet you love it! My week was way good :) I miss you lots and can’t wait to talk to you next month! Love you! Dad: That is too bad Dixie got beat by PV. Who are the good players on Dixie? And I can’t believe it is still snowing that is way weird. I wanted to tell you something dad. In conference Elder Richard G. Scott talked and in his talk he brought up how one of his kids said "dad, your my best friend." I am way thankful that I feel the same. I always loved hunting and fishing and going to games and golfing, etc. Sometimes I had other stuff going on, or chose differently but I want you to know that I feel so lucky to have such an awesome dad that I can really say is my best friend! So thanks for being awesome! That is cool about Steph's fiancé going on his mission to the Philippines. Maybe I will be able to speak to him in ilonggo! Anyway, I Love you dad!

4/3/11 One of My Best Weeks So Far in the Field

A kid named Earnesto

Hello kamo! Things here in Sibalom are going really well. This might have been one of my best weeks so far in the field! We had to come back into San Jose which is a big town close to us, to withdraw cash because Elder Bosotros ran out haha but oh well we hurried and got back to our area. So something bad happened that I am not too stoked about. I plugged my camera in a computer last week and there must have been a virus or something because it deleted my whole memory card. So at least we have my first two months but all my photos from March are deleted completely. Try to save my photos as well as possible haha. That would stink to lose them all. That is way exciting about Joe. I bet he was stoked but at the same time in a very, very weird place. I haven’t even been gone that long and it would be way crazy already for me to return. You learn crazy things on missions that are hard to explain. That is why missionaries seem so weird when they return. They (most) are not worldly. They focus on what matters. Then slowly they get back to "normal" then people think they are regular again haha but oh well. About your praying question, mom. I don’t really have any advice on how to remember but I would like to point out in the book of Ether (I forget what chapter, maybe 3 or 4) God chastizes the brother of Jared for not "calling on the lord." So that makes us realize how important it really is for us to pray. But luckily through Christ we have the gift of repentance. Use that gift and like in the following verses of Ether "sin no more." Anyway, I got a box today from mom and another from Mauri Webster so please tell her thanks so much! I have not opened them yet, though. We get the Ensigns here but they are called Liahona. Also I can’t read that book. It is not in the missionary library. Also like a few months ago you sent me a book called Christmas Jar. It has been just sitting on the counter not opened. I don’t want to read it due to the rules. I don’t want to break that rule and slowly loosen up on any rules, so no offense, but it won’t get read haha. Regarding the cookies, we will eat lots of dough cuz that is my favorite, but we also have a little tiny oven thing. It doesn’t work well but it cooks the cookies ok so that’s what we use. The couple missionaries, Brother and Sister Holt live in San Jose and they are leadership helpers. They watch over the entire Antique zone and all the branches, strengthening members and leadership. I like them a lot. Jim is the American I teach and he came over here to Manila in the 80's to play a performance because he was a pro musician and he met a lady, they dated, got married and eventually moved to America. They taught school and retired now they moved back to retire forever. I like him tons, way rad. I do listen to the hymns on my i pod sometimes so thanks! Another story. this week we had an investigator that was going to be baptized but ended up moving to Manila. We learned from her aunt that her dad had raped her when she was 13 and she had a baby at 14. Years later the exact thing happened again so she was a 19 year old girl with two kids, both of which the father and grandpa were the same person. yikes. The Book of Mormon is not translated into Kinaray'a yet. We either give the investigators The Book of Mormon in Ilonggo or Tagalog and they usually can understand ok. But usually we have to just go through it with them. There is no Bible translated to Kinaray'a yet either. The phrase I sent in my letter a couple of weeks ago says "I know this church is true, and I love you." Also I am not sure what I should do to call home in May. Maybe have Breck find out for me what is best. He knows more. My roommates don’t know either haha. Apparantly they used Skype so maybe you should set me up an account? I don’t know haha I don’t have time. Things are going really well. I love you all! Talk to you next week. Hey Papa! Things are going really well here. I want to thank you for the sacrifices you are making for letting me be on a mission. Both financially and non. I am learning so much I love it. Really! It definitely has been the hardest time of my life but at the same time to best for my life. I can’t believe Joe is home. Missions are way fast! I need to start using time more wisely haha or it will be gone before I know it! Dad I love you tons. Your hunt is soon! Good luck! Talk to you next week! Hey fram bam. things here are going well. Glad you are liking soccer and stuff. I love you and miss you so much!