Mission Adventures in the Philippines: April 20th, 2015: The Baptism of Carla and Fighting Spiders

Hello!

I've had another great week. First though, I'll answer your questions. I like those, because it gives me ideas of what to write about haha. Sometimes I just sit down, and don't know what to write about.

Dad: how hard is it to find an address?
Connor: are there any missionaries in your mission that are afraid if spiders/bugs and have a hard time?
Oliver: what is you favorite fruit in the Philippines that isn't in America?
Chloe: do you ever miss watching TV?

So, there is pretty much no thing as addresses here. Especially in New Washington. It seems like here there are a lot of areas where there are just groups of houses it fields or woods with winding, small dirt paths that link each one. Pretty much what you get is the village or barangay they live in and maybe some landmarks. Then when you know you are getting close you just ask people where their house is. It's actually pretty easy.

For Connor. To be honest. I might be the missionary that is the most afraid of spiders and stuff and I'm not even that bad. haha. Elder Coronel was pretty bad though with cockroaches. He hated them. The Filipinos have no problems though. In fact, a kind of popular thing in the mission and in the Philippines is spider fighting. Their are these big spiders that fight each other. They kind of look like those wolf spiders in the breezeway. Anyways, you put them on two ends of a stick and then they just go at it. haha.

Oliver, there is a seasonal fruit called talaba or something that kind of grows like grapes except it has a tan shell on it. They are pretty good!

Chloe, sometimes I guess I miss TV. Mostly just sports though. NBA. People talk about NBA a lot here, especially because I think playoffs are pretty close, right?

About the skype. I'm pretty sure we get to skype, but I haven't heard anybody talking about it. And, transfer day is this week, and I'm almost positive Elder Gan will be transferred out, so I will probably have a new companion this week.

Elder Coronel sounds like he is doing good. My area in Culasi had three baptisms right after I left. People, that I had taught, so I was pretty excited to hear about that. He is training a Filipino right now.

Elder Chapman emails me every week, so I kind of get updates on his mission. He is in an area outside of Iloilo city that has just recently been opened. He sounds like he's doing alright though.

By the way, sorry that I only have a couple of pictures to send this week. I actually had lost my camera for 5 days, but I got it back. I left it at the computer shop last week, but a member somehow got it, so it's all good now. I guess I have to be more careful

One of the highlights of my week was the baptism of Sister Carla! It was pretty exciting. I'll send you guys some pictures from Elder Gan.

We also had the funeral of a sister in the ward. Funerals here are kind of interesting. I thought there was only going to be one service, but there turned out to be 3. I don't know why. We had two services for the members and then one was the burial. There were quite a few people there. I sang in a choir though for it. The funeral tradition here though is a little different. When someone is going to be buried. They have the deceased in the hearse and then they have like a parade of people that walk behind it and they go all over the town, blasting music. The most popular one is You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban haha. Then, they have the service, and then they have another parade all over the place and they end up at the cemetery. They don't actually bury anybody here. They put them in cement boxes above the ground. And in the cemetery, there is no organization at all. Just where ever there is room for another box, that's where they will build haha. I ought to send you a picture of a cemetery here. It is interesting. In Culasi, they actually had organization, but here, nothing.

In my zone right now, there is another Elder Robertson. I don't know if I have told you this before, but we were talking a while ago and right before he went into the MTC, he met the one sister missionary that was in our Branch when I left. He was visiting Adam-ondi-ahman (no clue on spelling) and they ran into each other. She said that she had an Elder Robertson in a unit she served in that was going to the Iloilo mission in the Philippines and then he couldn't believe it because he was Elder Robertson and was going to the same mission. Crazy stuff.