Pamilya! holy crap this place is nuts! the philippines is so crazy, if you guys could look for 60 secs what i see everyday it would probably break your heart. These people have nothing here. its pretty sad. i think im still in shock about the whole thing cause its pretty rough. the culture is nothing like america. not one bit. haha i have no idea whats going on most of the time i just follow my comp and bare a simple testimony. we teach and talk to alot of people. idk its only been a few days so nothing too exciting has happened. my companion invited this one lady to be baptized and she said yes haha but i didnt know that until the planning session that night because i cant understand anything. the plane ride was really long but ok. im in baguio right now in the university branch. one nice thing about baguio is that its nice and cool so its never too hot. oh and we have a heated shower! i guess thats pretty rare here. its been rough trying to get adjusted to everything. most people live with families of like 6 in something that looks like those little shops on the side of bruces house. there that big to. unreal. my bedroom at home is bigger than some peoples houses. its crazy and most don't even have more than 1 light bulb. we taught this older couple and they had to unscrew the light bulb in the kitchen and then move it into the living room. haha i had to do it because everybody was too short. haha i think im the only american here besides the other elders in the zone cause i have yet to see one. just be very grateful for all the things you have at home like somthing as simple as a fresh glass of water! and all the nice conviences of the US. its crazy how people live down here. but yeah its been a hard few days trying to adjust. everybody just stares at me because im a tall white guy and sometimes ill pick up AMERICONO! haha here in baguio i dont get called joe i guess thats just in the low lands. man i dont know what else to really say. the traffic here is ridiculous because there are no traffic rules whatsoever and riding in jeepnies are kinda fun haha. hope everything is going well back home and hope you guys are doing good. pray for me out here cause its 100000 harder than anything i've ever done and i could use the prayers. im trying. the language is completly different. people can barely understand the tagalog i do know so they tell me i can speak in english but i just say no im trying to learn tagalog and they respect that. the old couple we taught who commited to baptizim. the old guys name was fred and he asked if i spoke tagalog and i just said a little. he wasnt very intersted in the lesson and went back into the kitchen to cook again and he can't hear very well. so when it was my turn to bare testimony he looked down at me and came back into the living room to listen. i almost started to cry and he just looked at me and listened. it was neat. then after i was done he went back into the kitchen and started cooking again. so that was a neat experiance. my companion is a stud, he is a really hard worker and is setting a good example. his name is Elder Katigbak. but yeah its been rough but just trying to get through this first couple months then hopefully things will start to get better. love you guys and stay strong. my mission presidents are amazing! they're really nice people. well family i dont know what else to say haha. love you guys more than youll ever know. being half way around the world in the craziest country in the world is a lot harder than i could ever imagine. love you guys very much. Mahal kita.
