November 24th,2014: Getting the Giggles Because of a Crazy Lady, Broken Shoes, 2nd Baptism and Joseph Smith Look-Alike

Hello!  so, im doing really well.  I'm really sorry for last week. One thing that you have to understand is that when we are in a group of missionaries, the Americans have no say in anything haha.  Seriously though.  Me and Kellerstrass, we can't understand tagalog, so we just kind of follow along blindly, and when everyone is leaving the computer shop, that's when we are leaving haha.  As far as my hair goes, I'm glad you like it because I have no say on what happens to my hair, I still don't really know how to talk barber talk haha.  And boligao convinced me to start using product too, so yeah...  I love getting the news too.  Yes, I do know Garys fiance,  I met her twice in Utah.  Shes really nice.  Thats funny about the new elders.  Just imagine what that missionary is going through, but then add like 3 different languages to the mix.  Its way killer.  haha.  And I don't know janes boyfriend, but I guarantee I've seen him before.  All of the Philippines classes are on the same floor and that's where I spent most of my time.  And, i am not getting sams letters.  Is he getting mine? I will also figure out what I'm doing for skype.  I haven't heard of any elders having problems with it, so im sure there is a way.  We will probably go to the city or something.  I'll figure it out though.  So, for the questions. Moms question is a really good question because I've had so many experiences with saying random stuff in the language. One thing that i've said is that I meant to say I believe Thomas S Monson is a living prophet, and I ended up saying that I killed thomas s. monson, the living prophet.  So,  yeah.  The natives think its so funny when you make mistakes.  For oliver.  Its way different playing basketball here because its way hot.  The rims are pretty much terrible, and You are playing on concrete and dirt, and most of the elders here play way differently.  But, of course, you know me.  I am a stud in basketball! haha joke lang. But, it really helps to be taller than everyone else for a change haha!  My favorite animal here is probably the tiki.  They are these tiny little lizards that are everywhere.  Then they grow up into Tokos.  They are called that because that is the noise they make.  Toko, toko, toko.  Its way cool.  And when they are full size, they are way cool looking.  Cool colors and patterns.  And yes, I talk about you chloe.  The filipinos always ask me if I have any sisters, and I think you can assume why they always ask me that.  haha. They are all in love with americans.  For dad,  The congregational singing is way funny.  My first sunday I got the giggles pretty bad, but I'm used to it now.  Its pretty rough though.  I they don't know hardly any hymns, so I always have to chose the hymns carefully, or it just sounds like they are chanting the words haha.  Elder Boligao speaks english to me.  In fact, he is way fluent in English.  I've only had to teach him a couple words.  And have I gained any bulk.  I think that means weight?  Actually I'm pretty sure I'm gaining weight.  There is no such thing as a scale in Culasi, so I have no idea how much I weigh, but I'm already to form a bit of a rice belly. Its weird.  I don't think I can just eat whatever I want anymore and get away with it. I also just want to give Oliver a shout out for wearing my sweater!!!   Anyways, I kind of started another email with stories from this week, so I'll send this one first and then send that one after. 
Hello!

I've had another great week here.  I am doing well.  I've had a couple of funny stories this week though.  On Friday, I went on splits with Elder Gan in my area.  While we were walking to our first appointment in Camancijan, we were kind of in the middle of no where, but there was a little house on the side of the road. We stopped when we heard someone call us from inside. This woman comes out, and apparently Elder Gan OYMed (Open your mouth, basically where we just go up and start talking to people) her yesterday.  So, she asked us where were going, which is actually a common greeting around here. I don't know why people always ask that because everybody always just says jun lang, or just over there and points up the road haha. So, we just said jun lang, up the road.  But, then she asked us what we going to do, so we said we were going to teach a family.  Then shes just like, alright lets go teach!  We were just thinking, what is going on?!  We tried to explain to her that it would probably be best if we taught her the gospel first before she went out with us to go teach it haha, but nope, she was set on going with us.  We couldn't convince her otherwise.  Elder Gan just kind of looks at me with a panicked look, and I'm just laughing so hard, but I'm trying to hold it back because I don't want her to get offended, but it was so funny.  We just start walking really slow, and Gan just whispers to me, what are we supposed to do?  It was so funny.  She was just kinda walking ahead of us a little bit, and said come on, lets go!  So, we walked a little bit, and then Elder Gan says, lets talk to these guys on the side of the road, who were bagging rice.  So, we just start a conversation with them and talk to them about everything we possibly could and hoped that the girl would walk away, and eventually it worked! She actually just left and walked up the road.  When we thought the coast was clear, we started to walk again. We were just talking and laughing about how crazy she was when she popped out along the side of the road!  She had hid herself off the road behind some trees and was waiting for us to come by.  Gan sees her and is just like run!  Elder we have to run!  Run!!  He starts to take off down the road, and I'm just like wait!  I didn't want to run because it is so rude haha, but I kind of started to run after him because I didn't want to be left alone with the crazy lady for sure.  But, at this point I was laughing so hard, I had already caught the giggles after we talked with the rice guys while Elder Gan and I were talking, but, oh man, it was so funny.  When we caught some distance on the girl (at this point were just on this long, straight dirt road between rice fields with not really any brush to hide in) we started to just walk.  She was yelling for us to come back. We didn't want to look back but we did, and sure enough, she was still following us.  But eventually when we took a couple turns, we ended up losing her.  But, yeah that was my funny experience for this week.  

Later that day, the sole of my shoe tore half way off, so that kind of was not great.  I was actually wearing my old church shoes because my new ones that I bought for my mission, the black ones, had a tare in the rubber bottom, and I wanted to fix them before I wore them again.  My brown ones are just for sacrament meeting and meetings with the president. We are supposed to have a separate pair of shoes for that. So, I didn't have any shoes I could wear, so we had to go back to the banwa right away  to get them fixed.  I got them glues for 30 pesos, and they rested me for the rest of the day, but the glue definitely was not going to last so, I hired someone to sew them up. So, there is no enter button on this keyboard, so you all get the block format! haha.  But the work went really well this week.  We baptized Diosa and Nelda Macuja this week.  In the ocean! i love ocean baptisms.  We had it at 5 in the afternoon because we were going for a sunset baptism, but it ended up being more of a night baptism haha, but thats alright, I'll try and send some pictures of that.  Elder Boligao wants to give me experience, so I did both the baptisms.  We also had the Valde family come to church this week for the first time. We were struggling for a while to get them there, but we had a really good lesson with them this week about seeking the kingdom of righteousness first and that all temperall things will be added unto them.  We taught from 3 Nephi 13: 31-34.  They told us that they just didnt have the money to get there, so we taught them this lesson.  By the end they said, yeah, we will save our money this week so we can go to church! And they came.  E. Boligao and I were so excited. They came in 30 minutes late so, I was already kinda thinking they weren't coming.  But, I think they loved it.  The members do such a good job of welcoming them into the group.  I also actually had the opportunity to speak in sacrament too.  That went well. The members thought it was way funny because I spoke on Joseph Smith, and they all think I look excatly like the Joseph Smith in the movie.  haha.  Anyways, I'm going to try and send a couple pictures now.  I miss you all! Have a great week!