Monday, March 11, 2013

Week 1: Finally reached the Philippines!

 March 11, 2013

Philippines here we come!!!
So its my first week in the Philippines. Sorry I couldn't email last week.

Us Filipino Missionaries cant wait to serve our parent's hometown!
Yes! It's a plane!
We arrived on monday so we couldn't get access to a computer. So mondays are p-days. We arrived in Manila sunday night and stayed at a motel then we had to wake up early for a flight to Laoag.
We had to walk off the plane in Laoag by using a staircase. It was pretty interesting.
Then we arrived at the mission home and we stayed there overnight. They cooked us good food then it was off to a 6 hour car ride all the way to Santa. Ana.
My first area. It's the start of the summer season over here and its getting hot but we're lucky since we got the ocean breeze. Sta. Ana is the furthest part of the mission. It's really up north. So we got to the apartment and it was trashed so we spent the first night here cleaning.






Finally got to cook dinner. So this week I basically cooked chicken adobo and then i cooked menudo.
They have spices here I could just throw on the food. I'm just gonna experiment a lot with the cooking here.

So I most possibly will be staying in Sta. Ana for 6 months. I told president Barrientos that I have family in Vigan and he said he might send me there to go find my family so find uncle's address. President Barrientos is a very funny guy and he's very nice too.

My trainer here is Elder Polgo. He's pure filipino from Visayas and he can speak Ilokano also so I'm picking up a few things now and then. So in Sta. Ana, the people here are telling us to be very careful at night because of the kumaw (kidnappers). So no one is really answering when it gets dark.

Anyways, I hope you are all doing fine. The first day here was just very interesting. Well first thing it was extremely hot in Manila. Luckily where we are is cool cause of the ocean breeze. First day at Laoag we had lots of filipino food. I actually had Jollybee's today. We ride the trike and jeepney a lot.

Our area is so big that we can't walk everywhere. It's REALLY big. Anyways, what makes things more interesting is that we reopened this area of Sta. Ana so we have no clue how to get around or know any of the members here. So we went out to start proselyting and when we got to the area of Palawig, we decided to stop at a random home and they turned out to be members. We took tatay Senecio with us to go teaching and we found two sisters who's cousin is a member. So we taught them and we got a return-appointment so that's good. Later Elder Polgo told me they let us in kasi sinabi nila that I was pogi. < they let us in because they said I was handsome. Lol!>
Actually alot of people say I'm guapo lol. I have to be careful. So afterwards, we taught several less actives. The second day, we went to Visitacion (It's bawal <forbidden> at night for some reason) and we stopped at a random place again and they turned out to be members!
The Lord really puts people in our paths. It's really cool.

Anyways, everytime I introduce myself, the people starting referring to boxing because of Pacquiao vs. Morales. So maybe I'll joke around and say "Ako po si Erik Morales" or "Siak to Erik Morales."  <I am Erik Morales>

 I'm learning Tagalog from the children. It's pretty funny. So there's just a ton of photos I'm sending. I can't caption them. Too much. Anyways, best way to contact me is by email. I'm not sure how to send out regular mail yet. Anyways, take care everyone. Mahal na mahal ko kayo! <I love you all!>

Elder Morales

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