Hello one and all!
Hows the crew? I'm rockin on here in my new area Mayantok, may antok, haha.
These past few days started with my packing Wednesday night. Transfer days are nuts, I was up till 2:30 and then we woke up at 5:30 to go to the Cabanatuan Stake center.
Mayantok and Mamonit are our two areas here. They're a little ways away from Sta Ignacia, about 10 minutes on a jeepney to the Mayantok crossing then about 10 more minutes on a trike to our apartment in Mayantok. When we go out to Mamonit, thats about a 15 minute trike ride.
It's pretty awesome in Mamonet, there are these big monstrous gumdrop shaped mountains, and vastness of rice fields. There are still dang tasty mangoes here, and people to teach! The biggest place to buy food is the palengke (marketplace), we have been blessed and partaken of delicious member food, It has been crazy listening to people speak ilokano! Especially in church, I had no idea what anyone was saying again. Sometimes they would switch in and out of Tagalog so it wasn't all to confusing. But I'm picking up some ilokano now. It's pretty cool sounding, a lot more guttural than Tagalog is.
The wards here are really awesome, they've got good leadership and lots of people attended Sacrament last night. I think the highest I have ever seen! 94.
My companion, Elder Serando, is rockin too, He is a little crazy man, it cracks me up when he speaks English all exaggeratedly. He also says "yes" a lot like Dr. Barber. (note from Bonnie: that's one I had to look up. "Dr. Barber" is a character on "Flapjack" a cartoon Kimball liked to watch.) He's only got 7 months left in his mission. He keeps me laughing thats for sure. At mabait siya.. pag tulog. joke lang palagi.
Our Zone leaders here are Elder Clarke and Elder Adriano. Elder Clark is dying this transfer, but Elder Adriano and I have been together since my first transfer. Then when I transfered to Cab. city, he did too, and became our Zone leader. Now he's fearlessley leading us here in Sta Ignacia Zone!
Heres some pictures for yer eyes to look at!
There's some pancit and pandesal and those little green things are calamanci. Kind of lime flavory.
The city of cabanatuan.
Elder Hill and Elder Serando on the bus this morning, going to Camaling, to withdraw and buy food. It was kind of windy!
One pretty fun thing about this area is how we walk a lot, especially in Mamonit because things are pretty spread far out. It's pretty fun, I'm still rocking my first pair of shoes here. It's been kinda crazy thinking about what I was doing one year ago, and I'm sure it will get even more crazy when I hit one year in the mission.
Grandma asked about the big green jack fruit, I've never ate any but I desire to do so. I've seen one cut open a few times, there's a lot of seeds in it.
Em asked about the farm-ish-ness of cities, and it's quite farmy here. Big cities are rather strange here because even in Cabanatuan right on the edge of the city, there are a lot of farms. The city it's self is a big city still, with all the big city things.
Conference is next Saturday and Sunday for us, and I'm pretty sure we just go to the stake center in Sta Ignacia to watch it. I'm excited, it brings memories of walking down the street in San Jose last October with Elder Labatiao. Crazyness.
One thing I noticed the past few days was people's pinoy twins. (note from Bonnie: seeing people that remind you of someone else you know). Ha ha, I got aquainted with Philippino Aunt Jan, and the pinoy version of nanay Gogarty. Especially with the latter, it was crazy to listen to her talk in ilokano and made me smile. The search continues!
Well I love you mom and fam! Keep rocking on, this'll be a fun week ahead of me, have you gotten any mail yet?
Love
-The Elder Hill
Hows the crew? I'm rockin on here in my new area Mayantok, may antok, haha.
These past few days started with my packing Wednesday night. Transfer days are nuts, I was up till 2:30 and then we woke up at 5:30 to go to the Cabanatuan Stake center.
Mayantok and Mamonit are our two areas here. They're a little ways away from Sta Ignacia, about 10 minutes on a jeepney to the Mayantok crossing then about 10 more minutes on a trike to our apartment in Mayantok. When we go out to Mamonit, thats about a 15 minute trike ride.
It's pretty awesome in Mamonet, there are these big monstrous gumdrop shaped mountains, and vastness of rice fields. There are still dang tasty mangoes here, and people to teach! The biggest place to buy food is the palengke (marketplace), we have been blessed and partaken of delicious member food, It has been crazy listening to people speak ilokano! Especially in church, I had no idea what anyone was saying again. Sometimes they would switch in and out of Tagalog so it wasn't all to confusing. But I'm picking up some ilokano now. It's pretty cool sounding, a lot more guttural than Tagalog is.
The wards here are really awesome, they've got good leadership and lots of people attended Sacrament last night. I think the highest I have ever seen! 94.
My companion, Elder Serando, is rockin too, He is a little crazy man, it cracks me up when he speaks English all exaggeratedly. He also says "yes" a lot like Dr. Barber. (note from Bonnie: that's one I had to look up. "Dr. Barber" is a character on "Flapjack" a cartoon Kimball liked to watch.) He's only got 7 months left in his mission. He keeps me laughing thats for sure. At mabait siya.. pag tulog. joke lang palagi.
Our Zone leaders here are Elder Clarke and Elder Adriano. Elder Clark is dying this transfer, but Elder Adriano and I have been together since my first transfer. Then when I transfered to Cab. city, he did too, and became our Zone leader. Now he's fearlessley leading us here in Sta Ignacia Zone!
Heres some pictures for yer eyes to look at!
One pretty fun thing about this area is how we walk a lot, especially in Mamonit because things are pretty spread far out. It's pretty fun, I'm still rocking my first pair of shoes here. It's been kinda crazy thinking about what I was doing one year ago, and I'm sure it will get even more crazy when I hit one year in the mission.
Grandma asked about the big green jack fruit, I've never ate any but I desire to do so. I've seen one cut open a few times, there's a lot of seeds in it.
Em asked about the farm-ish-ness of cities, and it's quite farmy here. Big cities are rather strange here because even in Cabanatuan right on the edge of the city, there are a lot of farms. The city it's self is a big city still, with all the big city things.
Conference is next Saturday and Sunday for us, and I'm pretty sure we just go to the stake center in Sta Ignacia to watch it. I'm excited, it brings memories of walking down the street in San Jose last October with Elder Labatiao. Crazyness.
One thing I noticed the past few days was people's pinoy twins. (note from Bonnie: seeing people that remind you of someone else you know). Ha ha, I got aquainted with Philippino Aunt Jan, and the pinoy version of nanay Gogarty. Especially with the latter, it was crazy to listen to her talk in ilokano and made me smile. The search continues!
Well I love you mom and fam! Keep rocking on, this'll be a fun week ahead of me, have you gotten any mail yet?
Love
-The Elder Hill
Posts
Great pictures! It's cool to se the food & a street-scape with the trikes & store-fronts.
ReplyDeleteFun to be in a new place!