28 January 2013

Magandang Hapon po!

Kamusta!

After 6 months of camping in Tuguegarao, I am now Zone Leader of the Burgos zone in Gamu, a much more open bukid area. Bukid meaning field/farm. Because the houses are a lot more spread out due to large corn, rice, or sugarcane fields, it also means a lot more walking! Who wants to pay for long tricy and jeepney rides when walking is free? Exactly. Haha. In many ways, this area reminds me of my second area, Mallig. It will be fun because once again, I get to work a lot more closely with couple missionaries. This time I get to work with Elder and Sister Mills a lot more, as they are permanently assigned to Gamu and only live a couple houses down from us. They are from Brighton. 

Going to church here on Sundays is going to be one of my busiest days of the week! So much for that whole day of rest thing. Haha. As a general rule of thumb, couple missionaries here are only assigned to the branches/districts that need a lot of improvement, so that is why the Mills are here. Me and my new companion Elder Villania (is from the San Pablo area of the Philippines and goes home the same time as me) are in charge of preparing, blessing, and cleaning the sacrament. That is in addition to teaching the priests quorum (if they show up), gospel principles class, and translating for the Mills during Sacrament meeting. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get to give some talks in sacrament too! Haha. The Gamu branch just got a brand new chapel about a year ago, so the chapel is really nice. But it is also probably the smallest church building I have ever seen, other than a meetinghouse. There were 66 people at church on Sunday, so not too bad. It is going to be a fun and busy next 9 weeks. This transfer cycle is 9 weeks instead of 6 in order to adjust for the MTC changes. 

Over the last couple of days, I also had the privilege of tasting some oyster and more snails. Yummm. I bet dad could harvest some good ones on one of his scuba dives this week. Then you can take them back to the cruise ship and talk one of the Indonesians into cooking them up for you. That is pretty funny though that you are on an old people cruise. How fitting! Haha. Pretty awesome that you ended up on the same ship as the SLC Temple pres. That would definitely be interesting listening to him.

Well, our time is about up and in a few hours we get to teach one of our investigator families with Elder and Sister Gottfredson, so that should be fun.

Maraming Salamat for your support and prayers! May God be with you always and try not too have too much fun on your cruise!

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Nay