Rizal Pampanga Philippines (or so i think)

Dearest family!

Here I am in Rizal pampanga Philippines! (or so i think) emailing you in a small little computer place filled with world of warcrafters. lets get cookin!

starting with last Tuesday, i had a little goal for myself on the airplane ride Monday, seeing as i woke up at 5 and the plane left LAX at 3 i wanted to stay awake for a full 24 hours cause i'd never done it before! and I made it! it was awesome! but made life tired for a few days after. but heck i did it! i've joined that club and never have to do it again. 

it was funny when we landed in Taipei the first thing i noticed was how many hello kitty things there were everywhere! and to top it off we were all waiting in a hello kitty themed place i don't know what they're called, oh! gate a hello kitty gate. butt yeah, then we flew on to manila! and when we landed it was so awesome cause we could finally speak Tagalog with real people! ayos! 

here is a fun story about my first Tagalog person speaking experience.  when we were all going through the customs line.. that was fun but then when It was my turn i gave her my papers and she did her thing then gave them back and i said, "salamat po" po is a thing you put in your sentences to make things polite, and i love it so much when we teach kids and they say po, like even today at the store some kids were begging for money and i asked them their names and they said "jun jun po" it's awesome. but! i said "salamat po" and then the lady said "your welcome po".

that first day in manila whenever i would try and speak Tagalog with people they would just chuckle. americano ako. then after some extreme confusion on the street outside of the airport us three Angeles missionaries took a wild van ride to bictory liner "b as in bictory" then a member picked us up and we took another ride to the mission home where president and sister puzy were waiting outside and! elder peck! the elder whose blog i would read before the mission he's AP now which is awesome i think. and then that night we stayed with the AP's there were three and we were knocked out so fast right when we hit the pillow! gotta love it!

the next day we woke up had breakfast sobrang masarap! probably the last time i eat cereal for two years so i enjoyed it. then the rest of our batch showed up (the batch of elders we come in with and leave with) 4 more from the manila MTC and then we ate our last meal "the last supper, it was so delicious, pork chops I think cooked by sister puzeys kitchen maid. i miss that woman and her cooking! then it was off to the Angeles chapel to the transfer meeting and well make this story format,

so we all hopped in a van with elder peck and he drove us to the chappel and when we got there we all hopped out and all the new missionaries sat right on the front row and we sang songs a lot of songs, then president and the ap's got up and announced companionships starting with us first and it was intense cause i was very last. 

when he called out my my name and there was only one elder left i got up and gave him a big hug, i'm probably 5 inches taller than him, and most natives here. that rocks, when we got our comps we heard a message from president then we were off!  and even better our transportation was a jeepney! ayos! but add up 10-12 misionaries and luggage for half of them things get a little cramped but thats the way it is! and was, for 5 hours. i loved it, taking rides on things here is my favorite we take a trike atleast every other day because elder ramos and i are rocking two areas rizal ward 1 and portal branch. 

i'm very excited to be here it's so beautiful! not much city hubub in our areas but there are tons of trikes like as many cars back home. it makes me wonder who they give rides to if they all have trikes. but yeah! i'm here junior comping it up with elder Remos from manilla i think, he cant speak English very well, things get interesting especially when he starts pointing around with his lips. thats probably my favorite thing about philippinos this week the lip point, i don't know, it's just awesome.and i'll practice the lip point when we're walking around to appointments. 

our apartment is nice it's got walls running water and urinals what more could a elder need!? and theres mango trees outside! but sadly it's not mango season not till December lets all pray for me to be stuck in rizal for, what, at least 5 more months. thats probably actually not that rare. oh and this is exciting, my trainer elder Ramos this is his last transfer, meaning i get to jeepney it back to Angeles! and get another comp in a month and a half. i'm not sure how we'll find our way around to peoples houses. well i do know i'll memorize rizal and portal, 6 weeks is enough time for that. 

Tagalog is nuts, someday i'll have it down but for now i'm still working, still praying, focusing my language study on helping investigators I've seen help me the most that and recognizing when i remember a word or some sentence structure clicks in my brain it's not me it's the spirit helping me. 

i'll tell you some of my favorite things so far about the philippines than be off to work, certainly one of the most incredible things about the Philippines is karaoke at least once a day i hear people singing their hearts out i love it, i already talked about trikes but those are my favorite too I've even seen a sponge bob trike on the way to portal a few times i'm going to get a picture of it one of these days. i also talked about pointing with lips thats just interestingly funny and then i love the butiki! or lizards.  every night when we return home theres always mga butiki all over ang dingding namin sa labas, our wall outside, some day i'll catch one and name it then let it free!  my last favorite thing I've seen the past five days is the people, i love how kind they are and jolly.  going in their homes and seeing how excited they are about the restored gospel or seeing how it has changed their lives is changing mine. one family,  the paltera family -nanay, taytay and three boys are all getting ready to be baptized september 11th and they're so excited and they always have read and prayed and they're amazing, them and their little cinder block home. this week has shown me how the home isn't a sacred place because of the home,  it's because of the family inside. butt yeah!

I hope your enjoying yourselves at 3 am on Monday morning! thats nuts. I love you mom love you dad, brothers, sisters. family, friends

- Elder Hill

(p.s. fell free to write me all the emails you want! that goes for all of you family memembers!)