7 Nov 2011

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  Planting pineapple
  
  
  
  
  
  E. Tangi & E. Malimali (both Tongan) staying in shape for rugby
  
  
  
  
  
  Pineapple racking with a stick
  
  
  
  

  Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta?

Well, another week of everybody still alive, thats always a good thing. I can't believe that itty bitty Jenna is already crawling around! Whats up with that?! Sheesh. She's going to be going on dates by the time I get home! Haha. I enjoyed seeing the pics of Gracie too-especially the snot rocket one. I think she got that from her dad! Haha. Thats pretty cool that mom is on a federal case. So much for never being summoned for jury duty! That drive to SLC everyday sounds pretty miserable. I hope its a cool case to make it worth your time. 

Earlier today I sweat my guts out playing basketball with some investigators. Everybody thought I was good because I am 6'2"... boy were they in for a treat! Haha they kept expecting me to dunk it, but I don't think they realize that in order to be able to do that, you have to have hops and be good at basketball-I am neither. We played at the church, and the first thing they noticed was how clean it was. So all of those dreaded cleaning assignments are actually worth something! Here though the church pays a member to keep everything clean and nice. Try talking your bishop into doing that at home and see where that gets you! Haha. 

Sunday was my first time going to church with no power, so that was fun. Of course that means no lights, no microphone and no electric fans. The power was out for almost 24 hours, but luckily it was cool and rainy the whole time so it didn't get too bad. Its going to be weird going home and actually having power pretty much 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Elder Tangi had to go to Cauayan on Wednesday for a DL/ZL conference, which means I got to go on splits on wednesday. And because of travel times, it was just easier for us to stay in Tuguegarao tuesday and wednesday nights. While on splits, I had my first experience with a really stubborn tatay that didn't want to accept that we need faith and good works to be saved-just faith. After sharing several scriptures and analogies about why that doesn't make any sense, we could tell he understood it but he was just being stubborn and not changing his mind. We finally just told him to pray and ask God to find out for himself, and he said no. I don't understand why people are so afraid to pray. I can't think of one good reason why people wouldn't want to pray and talk to God.

I also almost had my first dog kick. Most dogs just bark and are really annoying, but this one came out from nowhere and charging at us with the look of eating us. When it got close I swung at it with my foot as hard as I could but it stopped just a couple inches short. Maybe next time. 

I had the privilege of eating some blood soup again. Elder Tangi doesn't mind eating it so much anymore and he said this one wasn't as watery as the last one so it was better. I decided to try it again just to make sure the batch I had was just really gross. This time I had some intestines with it though to get the full effect-they are nice and chewy. Turns out... I don't think there is such a thing as a good batch of blood soup. Maybe someday my tastebuds will be as immune as Elder Tangi's. 

I had my first community service project too which was pretty awesome. There were 10 Elders and 2 sisters that went to help plant pineapple and clear up dead weeds from a field. Definitely my first time planting pineapple. I never realized how sharp the leaves are on them-they are like a saw blade. Back home they must alter the genetics or something to not make it so poky. Clearing out the field was interesting. Our only tool was a stick. There must be a more efficient way to rake up dead grass. 

Well, time is up. Ingat po.

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

31 October 2011

An unfortunate butiki that didn't escape the door jam in time!

              

Diyos da fugag!

Kamusta!

Glad to hear everyone is still alive and doing well! Of course thats no surprise though because our family is the best in the world. The horse ride sounded like a blast! I see horses here all the time used for pulling a little cart as a way of transportation (its actually pretty sweet because its only 5 pesos to go anywhere in the city rather than a tricy which is 10) and the drivers seem pretty ruthless to them. I can't help but wonder what Kimbal would do if he saw the way the people smacked them around. 

This week I got to try a variety of interesting foods-some good, some not so good. I guess I'll start with the best which was fried banannas, then rolled in brown sugar. I could have eaten tons of them they were so good. I also had some fried peanuts which wasn't quite so good. Not sure if its because the peanuts are weird here or if the frying made them taste bad. I'm not sure where to place the last 2 because they were both pretty terrible. I was on splits in San Bernardo eating at a members house when they served 3 things: rice, water buffalo, and blood soup. The water buffalo would have been good if they actually served any meat with it... After grabbing a couple pieces, I quickly realized the only thing on my plate was bones, skin, and fat. I knew it was skin because I could still see the little hairs. Not wanting to be rude, I tried to choke some of the fat and skin down, but after chewing it a couple times I couldn't bring myself to swallow without gagging. It was just very chewy and not much flavor. Luckily there was a dog nearby where I could throw it to. Blood soup is just made out of blood from some kind of animal, then intestines. I couldn't bring myself to eat the small tubes that I knew were intestines, so I just stuck with a little bit of blood and it didn't taste very good at all. It was mostly just the texture that ruined it. Basically, for dinner that night, I just had a plate of rice. Yum.

Yesterday was stake conference and the Philippines area president Elder Teh was there because they split the stake and created a new one. He is a great speaker and he talked about tithing and was pretty blunt when he said that God doesn't ask us to pay tithing because he needs money-he has all the money ever imaginable. It is to prove our faith. And even though He is merciful and understanding about our lives, he doesn't appreciate people altering his commandment to only pay a couple percent rather than the 10% He asks for. It was also nice to see Pres and Sis. Carlos there to give us some Oreos. :)

Mom-the FHE ideas you supposedly sent never came through, so if you could resend them that would be nice.

Its pretty sad to see how young people start smoking here. If they only knew how much money they would save and how much longer they could live and how much happier they could be if they quit. I saw one little kid smoking so I asked him how old he was and he said 13. I wanted to just grab the cigarette out of his mouth and stomp it to pieces. I don't think that would create the best image for missionaries though... It was also really disgusting to see a group of teenage baklas holding hands and trying to look like a girl in every way imaginable. Its just sad more than anything to see people's lives ruined at such a young age. 

Well other than that nothing too exciting has happened. This week every hour in our schedule is booked out, mostly thanks to doing splits 2 days in a row and doing a service project. More on that next week. It will be really weird to see Elder Allen when he gets here. Elder Tangi will most likely be getting transferred so I should be in the transfer meeting to see him on his first day. But that isnt until Dec. 1. 

Hopefully the pics I sent came through. Time is up which means its time to say Ingat po! 

Mahal Kita, 

Elder Nay

        

         


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24 October 2011

Callao Cave

Callao Cave entrance

Callao Cave

An opening in Callao Cave

Magandang hapon!‏

 

6:21 AM

Kamusta!

Well, sounds like everybody is still alive over there so thats always a good thing. This morning we woke up at the crack of dawn again to go to Callao Caves. I might even be a morning person by the time I get back-how insane would that be?! Well, I guess with the time difference I would still be a night person so I'm still safe. The cave was pretty sweet. It is definitely the biggest cave I've been in. It also had several open chambers of light coming in from the top so that was neat. There is usually a bunch of bats in there but we didn't see any. Its about a 40 minute tricy ride from Tuguegarao, and since there were so many of us, I stood on the back the whole time. Our record on one tricy is 10 people including the driver.

One thing I'm still getting used to here is how early they start celebrating Christmas. For about a month now, I have been listening to christmas music and some people even have a few lights and decorations,but only the richer people can afford them. Its not even Halloween yet! Another weird thing-they celebrate Haloween on the 1st of November instead of Oct. 31st.

Last week was zone meeting so we all had a little interview with the president. Each time I talk to him, the more I realize how awesome he is. He is very chill and easygoing, and his philosophy about all the little rules (sunglasses, music, going to do fun things on P day, etc) is that if you feel like it will distract from your image and purpose as a missionary, then don't do it. Other than that, there aren't too many rules. It's just up to us to decide for ourselves what is best. He also said how sometimes (about once every blue moon) he writes and calls parents back home just to say hi. He is very loving. And Sister Carlos is a good cook, so thats an extra bonus. Haha

Yesterday at church there was a primary presentation. The ones here are just as entertaining as the ones at home-kids screaming into the mic, dancing around, pulling faces, sloppy dress, etc. I'm still getting used to how relaxed the meetings are here. Elder Tangi and I are usually in the Priests quorum, but they all left before it started so we just stayed in the Elders Quorum with a bunch of old guys and they just talked the whole time-no lesson. Then afterwards we're supposed to have our missionary coordination meeting, but for whatever reason that was cancelled. Hymns here are interesting-I'll just say that all of the wards back home I've been to sound like the MoTab compared to here.

I'm hoping that one of these days our neighbor will have some of their chickens and yiping dog for dinner because I can't remember the last time I've had a full nights rest. Chickens here squawk at all hours of the day and night. Luckily its not a big problem because I can fall back asleep really easily. I wish I was talented enough to be like dad and shove an entire ear plug into my ear drum.

Sounds like another fun weekend of stomping through the fall colors and watching the wildlife. The only big wildlife I see are water buffalo and cows. And instead of fall colors, I get to walk through coconut, bananna, and mango trees. Beat that! Haha. Unfortunately, I don't think the mangoes are in season right now, and I have yet to see some bananas on the trees that I walk past. Not sure if they have a growing season too or if everyone else picks them before I get to them.

Thats cool Kyle is actually doing real stuff now. I'm sure he could come here and find some people to practice on too. I see people all the time with big bunions and interesting looking toenails. Everybody wears the cheap kind of flip flops so I'm sure nobody has any arch in their foot.

Have a blast at the depositions this week. I've already been there done that! Be ready to answer the same question phrased in 500 different ways.

Well, other than the caves, nothing too exciting. Just very busy averaging about 7 appointments per day. It makes the time go by very quickly.

Happy B-day to B on his B-day this week. He's still my favorite brother in law! Haha. Happy being married for another year too! Glad to see we havn't scared him off yet. :) Happy being married another year to Bill and Carol too! Thanks for the updates each week.

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

pictures

Heavily loaded tricy

Elder Nay

Awe - he's just a little guy!

rice paddy

sweet ride Elder Nay!

17 October 2011

sunrise 17 Oct 2011

Laundry

Magandang hapon!‏

Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:14:49

Kamusta!

Good to hear from everyone! Glad everything is going well, as always. This morning we woke up at 5 in order to do our laundry before we left to go to some caves near Tuguegarao. It takes about 2 and a half hours to do laundry-and that is just the whites. We take our colors in  to a place to save us some time. Up until 2 years ago, the missionaries were able to pay Nanay members to do their laundry, cook a couple of meals, and clean up the place a bit. Apparently it was making the missionaries lazy, so now it is forbidden in the Philippines. Too bad! Haha. Just as we got to Tuguegarao, we found out the person that was going to take us on their tricy is busy today and can't take us in. So, kind of a waste of waking up early but I guess its nice to be ahead of schedule a little. We woke up to the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen, so that was cool. But then again, I'm never up early enough to ever see sunrises so for all I know they could always be great. Hopefully next week the caves will work out.

In case you were wondering, it hasn't gotten any colder over here. The last couple of days have been the hottest and sweatiest days yet. Yesterday I was sweating just from stepping outside to tie my shoes for 1 minute. My sweat rags are definitely being put to good use. I know just because I said this, I'm going to get some profound advice from people that love me and tell me to drink plenty of liquids. What a wonderful idea! 

I have been taking some of my shirts in to have the sleeves refitted so they aren't so baggy and down to my elbows. Its only about 25 pesos per shirt (about 50 cents), so I figured why not. Hopefully instead of having a farmers tan down to my elbow, I'll have it at mid arm. I am also having another pair of pants made. With fabric and labor, I can have it done for 350 pesos (about 9 bucks)-and its personally measured/tailored. I can get used to these prices! Its also nice when we go to eat out at some place and get a decent meal for only 1 or 2 US dollars. 

This week was a great week for missionary work! We had appointments pretty much every hour every day, and next week is looking like it will be the same. That means we don't spend very much time tracting. It just depends on the week-the first few weeks I was here there was quite a bit of tracting. We have been getting several referrals from members so that has been helping a lot. Yesterday, we had 8 investigators at sacrament meeting. Elder Tangi and I went around to pick up some of them while we assigned some other members to pick up the others. When I say pick up, I mean walk to their place and get them to walk with us to the church. I wish we had a tricy! 

Some of our investigators are awesome (they're all awesome ofcourse, some are just more awesome than others, haha). Boboy went from smoking 2 packs a day to zero cigarettes. Now we are just hoping it stays that way long enough for him to get baptized. He's been an investigator for several months here. Some new investigators that we've only taught twice now-Peter and Ian-have been very interested and asked us how they could know for themselves if it was true. What a great question! Haha I was more than delighted to tell them. They have been best friends since growing up and both had a dream about how Jesus appeared to them and pushed them in a fire because they needed to repent. They said that when they woke up, it took them a second to realize that they weren't actually on fire because the dream was so vivid. Must be one of those "night visions" you were talking about.

Well thats about it! Oh, if you could send me just a few good FHE ideas to do with members that would be nice. Some cheezy little games and analogies, little tricks, etc. Maraming salamat po!

Mahal Kita,

Elder Nay

10 October 2011

P-day fun!

Magandang hapon!‏

Kamusta!

Well, the typhoon that was supposed to come last week never came. Bummer, I was just getting used to them! But instead of a typhoon, it just rained for about 24 hours straight. It makes it kind of annoying because it made huge puddles all over the place, leaving me to use my cat-like reflexes and ninja skills to dodge the deep parts. I figured out that if I stand on my toes with my gore tex shoes on, I get an extra inch or so of water protection. Bill-you're welcome to truck some of the water here to Texas to help out with the drought. Crazy stuff going on in the world! 

Wasn't conference pretty awesome?! Haha it was really weird knowing it was a week behind. It was also really weird to see so many white people in one place. I forgot what that is like. Luckily for me, it was all in English. It kind of surprises me sometimes how much english is used here instead of Tagalog. Most of the signs and food labels are in english too. In Church, people use English whenever they can, sometimes entire talks are in English. Most people can understand the basics and when it is spoken slowly, but I'm pretty sure not too many people understood much of what was said in conference. On the other hand, I can understand Tagalog when it is spoken slowly and in basics. People seem to speak really fast for me and I often find myself trying to pick out just one word in a sentence, but I can't tell where a word starts and stops because it all just meshes together. It gets frustrating when I spit out a sentence and they just look at me in confusion, then Elder Tangi repeats exactly what I said and then they understand. Later I'll ask him what was wrong with my sentence and he says, "Nothing." Its just my strong American accent. Sometimes people understand my english better than my Tagalog! Its coming though. Slow and steady. People still say I am already better than most people that have already been here for several months, so that is encouraging. It is cool to see how the gift of tongues works when I am in lessons and I can understand most of everything that is said during the lesson, but as soon as the conversation is shifted towards everyday stuff I get lost. 

My toe has healed remarkably fast. It is definitely one of the many ways the Lord looks after his Servants. It barely hurts at all and scabbed over just after a couple of days. Definitely not as long and painful as I was anticipating it to be. 

One of the cool things that happened last week was when we had a 16 year old member working with us for a couple hours and he had (and still has) several referrals for us. Referrals are definitely more effective than walking blindly hoping someone will let you teach them. One of the referrals he had was with a family of 5 (ranging from little kids to 19), then as we sat down and started talking to them, several of their friends came in to listen so we were teaching 9 people at once. They all agreed to a return appointment too, so that was even better! 9 new investigators in one sitting isn't too bad. This next week is going to be crazy. We have appointments everyday at all hours except for just a couple. On Tuesday/Wednesday morning I get to be in a 3 sum in Tuguegarao because E. Tangi has a training in Cauayan. The other 2 elders I will be with are newbies too, so that should be fun. Fortunately one of them is a fillipino that also speaks very good english. 

Mom-nope, no transfer. Which I am just fine with seems how I have barely been here a month! That was a weird 3 week transfer because the Manila MTC is being shut down for a couple weeks for rennovation, so there isn't going to be any transfer at the usual 6 week. Typically, we are in an area for at least 2 transfers. The main reason is because there has to be someone that knows the area to know where the investigators and members are because there really are no addresses here. Of course there are exceptions and it all depends on president, but thats the way it usually works. I know elders that have been in an area for 3-4 transfers. I will most likely be here until at least mid January. 

I can't believe it has already snowed there! (snow is that white stuff that is really wet and cold, right?) I was able to see all of the pictures you sent, after waiting a couple minutes for them to load. I'm still used to the fast internet back home. Thats really exciting that Stu finally got an official offer in Salt Lake! That will be fun to have them closer. It doesn't surprise me that B. has already had several interviews-good for him! When does he find out/decide where he is going to school for sure? With the elk hunt, glad to see the tradition is carrying on with hunting for nothing but memories. Sounded cold though! I still can't believe how grown up Jenna has already gotten! I leave for just a couple months, and she is already responding to her name and sitting up?? I have a feeling I'm going to be blown away when I see her and Gracie when I get back. 

Thats it for this week. Keep on keeping on! 

Mahal Kita, 

Elder Nay

3 October 2011

The drunk guy that made us eat

My cut toe

A frog in our outside cooking area - a typical site, especially after it rains

Magandang Hapon!‏

Kamusta!

Well, the 2 typhoons this week made it slightly interesting. It really wasn't as bad as I was expecting, I think Cabagan just got lucky. We saw news clips at people's houses of all the other flooding and destruction, but there is nothing like that here. It was just really windy all night and day and rained for about 24 hours straight. Cabagan is right next to the Cagayan river, which is the longest in the Philippines and some other river on the other side. Its kind of like we're on an island. They both rose really really high and was just inches from some people's houses. Not sure if any from our area got flooded out or not. I know in San Bernardo which is just across the river, there were houses floating away. But the biggest inconvenience for me and Elder Tangi was the brown outs and not being able to keep our drinks cold in the fridge. Luckily we didn't need the electric fan too bad because the temperature was actually really pleasant, it reminded me of the cool windy nights at home. There were several roads that were flooded out which made it kind of annoying for trying to get places. There is one more typhoon on wednesday so we'll see what that one brings. The gore tex shoes are coming in handy. Except some puddles are just too big that the gore tex doesn't do much good when the water flows over the top of them. I just gave up and wore my keens one day. 

Saturday night I was walking around our apartment outside in my crappy flip flops that have no traction and when I stepped onto the smooth lanoleum/tile stuff on our porch, my sandals were wet and so my foot slipped out unexpectedly. In the process of catching my balance, my right big toe caught an edge of cement that was sticking up by a couple of centimeters. I thought I just jammed my toe at first, then I looked down and saw blood. Turns out I fillayed it open pretty good! It just ripped off the first couple layers of skin on the tip of my toe and now I have a raspberry about the size of my thumbnail. Its in a really annoying spot. Luckily it doesn't hurt when I walk, just if it gets bumped or when the bandaid heals to it and I rip it off. Its constantly oozing the watery clear stuff. Bandaids and antibiotic cream are my new best friend! Its really sensitive still and it will probably take several weeks to finally scab over and start to heal. I wish I could say I was fighting off a wild dog or something, but nope, just a wet sandal. Lame. 

One funny thing that happened this week was while we were tracting a drunk guy came outside to invite us to have a few shots with him. We told him no thanks, and only if it was shots of water. When we started to walk away he grabbed my hand and started pulling it to his party (it was his birthday). I was following Elder Tangi's lead, and not wanting to offend him, he agreed to go up to his party to check it out. When we got to the table with all the beer and his buddies, we gave him a restoration pamphlet and started to walk away again. Then he insisted that we go inside to grab something to eat. Meanwhile, he's saying some funny stuff because he's drunk. He introduced us to all of his in laws and family and ordered them to get the food out for us becase we were his friends. I chose the safest looking food (the whole fish and chunks of some kind of meat with more fat and bone than edible meat didn't look too good), and it actually tasted pretty good. They also had some apples and some salad that tasted weird and really bland. After eating, we took our picture with him and left. And we gave out a pamphlet in the process! Unfortunately my stomach didn't seem to think the food was very good and woke up in the middle of the night  with some fun times on the toilet. Elder Tangi was fine though but we think it was the apples because thats the only thing that I ate that he didn't. 

Thats cool that conference was good. Honestly, I forgot it was even happening until you mentioned it in your last email. Its not a really big thing here because everyone has to go to Tuguegarao which is about a 30-45 minute trip and about 70 pesos to get there and back, and most people can't afford to make trips like that. But we don't get to see it until this coming weekend because it would have been in the middle of the night, so they recorded it. 

A little bit about some investigators: The Bacod family is our best ones. Its a young mom and dad with the cutest one year and a half old little girl. She started running around at 11 months (If you're really lucky Nat and Aimee, you too will have little menaces running around that early!) and always has a smile on her face. They want to get baptized and get married in the temple and have been taught just about every lesson, but the dad can't get any saturdays or sundays off of work. In order for anyone to be baptized in the Philippines, they have to attend church 4 weeks straight. He is hoping for a schedule change soon, but nothing yet. So it will be at least another month and a half before they are baptized. We have Tatay (anyone that looks like they are old enough to have kids is called Nanay/Tatay-pretty much just old people) Accad who is doing pretty well but can't give up coffee. We have a couple Tatay's that when we try to teach, it takes forever because they go off topic so much and ask really weird questions like 'what is God's name?'. We have a couple more but I am getting close to out of time.

The new computer sounds pretty sweet. You were probably just waiting for me to leave before you get the cool stuff! haha. That should also be a fun learning curve for mom.

Good luck with the elk hunt too. Hopefully you'll actually see something to shoot this time! Haha. 

I tried to email a bunch of pictures, hopefully they work out. Mom should enjoy the one of my toe. 

Have a good week!

Mahal Kita, 

Elder Nay

P.S. Bill-I missed a letter this week about how hot it is in your end of the earth. I was just starting to see smoke until the typhoon blew it away. I'm still waiting for your money so I can afford to run my A.C.