March 6, 2014

From February 25th:

well this last week was pretty awesome, except for the whole my companion being SUPER TRUNKY!!! We got very few lessons, and we only went out to work 3 days of the week...

Thursday- i went to the Chung Hua Hospital for an operation on my finger... it was super over done, it was even more drastic than my knee surgery last year... i had to get COMPLETELY NAKED... and put on a hospital gown... then they rolled me back on a bed... this whole time the nurse was hitting on me... while i am naked. when we get back there to the operation table, i get on the table and i lay down, they put heart monitors on me blood pressure as well... remind you this is just a small thing for my pinkie.... they could have just taken a pair of scissors and done it.. they lay my hand out on the rolly table and then spray it down with alcohol so it will be sterile...

the doctor comes over and says not to look, so of course i watch, he stabs my finger with the stuff that makes it numb... and keeps using it because i could feel pretty much everything... he had to stick me with that about 8 times....... because i could still feel the poking!!! so after that he took like an exacto and just cut my finger open!!! it was so crazy... a bunch of blood just drained out and what not... and then he spent the next little while making sure that he got everything!!!! after the "surgery" they wheeled me back, little did i know that we would be there for another 4 hours, and i would have to pay out of pocket for my surgery and another elders ingrown toe.. the total price for just the 2 surgeries was 15,898.25 PESOS, or about $356...

On Friday we went to the mission office to have everything reimbursed, it was about 20,021 pesos, or about $450

On Monday was Elder Francis' last day in 'Lacion so he just wanted to spend as much time in the apartment as possible so we didn't even leave the apartment until about 3:45 when we needed to go to the mission office to have him checked out of the mission... so he could return to the Tacloban Mission.

So i ended up killing him(from the mission not really murder, because that is frowned upon for some reason). so now my new companions are Elder Raymundo, and Elder Veloria. both of them are Filipino, elder Veloria is a native Tagolog speaker, so he is slowly teaching me Tagolog, and then elder Raymundo is a visayan speaker, so we work together super well!!! it is awesome!!!

this week we started out terrible!! we have 2 lessons in 3 days...

UM i guess this is all i have to email about today... any questions???

i also gave one of our investigators a blessing, he just had a major surgery, he has a BD of 3/15/14 but he just needs to come to church, he is super awesome!!!!!! i have had such a crazy week... but now we have an even crazier week ahead!

From March 4th:

I don't know about the rest of you but it doesn't feel like it is march yet... It feels like I am just getting to the Philippines so i guess it feels about November, or maybe December. but i guess it isn't, the calendar never lies... or does it!!!

This last week has been super fast, i don't really remember what happened, oh yeah so last week i got my 2 new companions, so now we are in a trio, it is a little harder to teach with three of us, but it still works out. the hardest part for me is that they rarely speak in English so it is super hard for me to understand what is going on, but slowly i am getting there, i am becoming "BISTAK" or i guess fluent in the language. 

so lets see, this last week was pretty good...

this last week was ZONE INTERVIEWS, so president Tanner, Sister Tanner, and the AP's were in our zone. they each gave a workshop, and president talked about reading the New Testament to learn about Christ. i liked his idea, it is super amazing... 

the AP's taught about the necessity of commitments. commitments are one of the most important things to do at the end of a lesson.

then the ZL's finished their workshop from last time... it was awesome then we had about 1 hour for practice teaching.

then we had lunch... MC-DO!!! it is weird here, they have the same burgers, but instead of fries, most of the time, they give rice with EVERYTHING. don't get me wrong i love rice, it is starting to grow on me!!! haha!!! i am starting to get "tumbok." i am the biggest now that i have ever been, i am almost as big as my older brothers.

after lunch we had a workshop by sister tanner, hers was about EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, and with good reason to. after the typhoon, and earthquake, sister tanner wanted to have us get stuff that we needed to have for emergencies and a plan for emergencies...

On Monday we went on SUPER SPLITS, because there are 3 of us we can do this, we all go a member as a companion, and went and taught a bunch of lessons... it was awesome, i was a little nervous at first because i don't feel adequate at the language, but then i ended up doing super awesome apparently. i taught a bunch of people, and they all said that i am super amazing at the language, because i am from America... (they always like to point that out) but now that i am super tan, they cant make fun of me as much for being "PUTI"-white.

today we are going on a zone activity to discovery hills, (this is the second time...) it is super awesome, but there isn't too much to do there... and today is HOT!!! it is 11:01, on march 5, but it feels like i am back in the old Olympus high first day of school, no air conditioning, super sweaty, nervous, learning a ton, and everything... it is so hot!!!!!!!!!!! 

i believe that is just about everything for the week!!! i am sweating out of everywhere, it is so weird, and the rest of you are probably huddled up with a blanket!!!