9/13/10 Nakapagbasa!

nakapagbasa!

Howdy Ho!

This week has been quite blessed! Lots of work and lessons, still learning the tagalog smack and truckin' right along! We had zone conference on Tuesday and that was really nice to go and learn from President, and honestly it was really nice to be taught in English.  Don't get me wrong, I love the tagalog but I have to focus really hard and it always makes ma head spin like a roarin' tornado! 

But yeah this week I had my first fresh coconut! Elder Ramos and I were going to an appointment that happened to be next to a members house and the member had a bunch of coconuts, theres coconut trees everywhere and  since I crave them whenever I see a tree with that blessed giant nut on it, I always tell the members to climb their trees for me and get me one, no one has taken me up on my offer yet, but thats ok! 

This week we've really started tracting more to some of the obscure areas of Rizal, they're everywhere. People live all over, but this week we went over by the patubig, irrigation river and found a family who had been taught 4 years ago.  We have a appointment to go back tonight, it'll be rockin! They have two little boys that are quite violent but only towards their parents so far. Speaking of violence, dogs just don't stop barking at us, and everyonce in a while a really scary one runs at us and my heart gets pounding. But! If we get bitten we get to go to the mission home and get shots! They have good food at the mission home. 

Our baptism this week was great, I always feel the spirit at baptisms and this week I was so happy for our investigators. The day of the baptism we had a bit of a power outage walang caliente! Why caliente is power is beyond me, but yes, and if theres no power there is no water. Is it like that everywhere? Where has this rule been all of my life?  Anyways we had no water and were really close to having a river baptism. I was excited! But the church one was just as beautiful. we baptized all 9 and all 9 were confirmed on Sunday.  2 in Portal branch and 7 in Rizal ward 1.  The kingdom is growing!

So yeah, something I thought of this week that is awesome, is how I always smell like camp fire. Everyone cooks with little wood stoves in our areas or some have propane stoves like us, but it's pretty awesome.  Also, the Barbosa family moved to a new house, next to the brother who fed us coconut, I'm really glad they'll have that support. But they don't have power yet so the past two lessons we taught by candles. It was really neat. And kids here are just as pyro maniatic as anywhere! 

So bugs here, I've seen cockroaches and I hear if they bite you it's not good. Wherever you get bitten gets all swollen and colorful so iIm staying away from those. There's some big ants too and a lot of very small ants and these pesky small beetle things that get on everything. I swept a bunch up today in our appartment, a few weeks ago I saw this amazing giant moth and it had see through spots on it's wings! It was nuts! also I saw the ugliest turtle in the world.  It had a pointy sucker like a ant eater instead of a beak. Other than those things, I don't see many very special birds or animals just mad dogs and this cat that is always wanting food by our kitchen door. Last night I had some nasty ulam I fed it. And like a cat it keeps coming back. Oh! And how could I forget the spiders? Kids love spiders and all the little boys have spider boxes like match boxes that have playing card dividers inside and they fight other kids spiders! It's incredible and insanely scary to watch at the same time. I've helped elder Ramos find a few, he picks them up but i'm still in the scared American mode where I don't want big furry things crawling on me. They're probably the size of, ano (thats cool, instead of um you say ano or what for a thinking word), I don't know, like half the size of a milk dud.  If anyone thinks of a thing that size let me know! But yeah, thats pretty big! And Elders have told me "prepare to poop your pants" when you see one of the giant triantulas. 

The people here are amazing, they are all so happy and just content. Getting to know them is really awesome, I can't wait till I can speak tagalog in the months down the road cause I still always have a confused look on my face. But it is coming! Actually being in the Philippines has helped a lot. And my companion Elder Ramos! He's fun, he always makes me laugh, he's really pretty quiet though for a Philippino, and he does the usual weird asundry things, like clip skin off his feet and dry shave, but that's what makes him awesome! I was talking to my brother, Elder Scott today.   Elder Ramos was his follow up trainer and he let me know some things about why he's so quiet, but I want to learn everything I can from him and everything the Lord wants me to learn from him. Butt yeah! it was great getting your emails! I didn't realize this was the week of the trip! I was listening to the Nauvoo pageant sound track today,  just thinking about how much I love those places and how special of a spirit is there. I love it! and you know what else? I love you! keep rocking! And doing what you're doing. I'm rocking also on the other hemisphere! 

love you all

-Elder Hill