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.