Week #7: Siesta problems :)

Hello mommy,

This past week was pretty tough. We were low in the number of lessons.

 Mostly everyone was in the bukid or sleeping for siesta kasi talagang mainit dito. We're trying to get this one family to be baptized but the father just wants to investigate other churches until he's sure but has agreed for us to be his guides. We have been helping other families have FHE. Monday nights we're usually at the Maguddayao family having FHE with them. We're going to try not being there for one night then following up another night. Sunday's we have FHE at our branch president's. It's more like Relative Home Evening because his pamangkin go there. They live right beside each other. It's pretty nice to see that here in the Philippines. The families live so close to each other. In regards to families, can you please tell Alex and Jordan to email me? I'd like to know what's going on.

It's pretty funny in this area kasi walang talagang lalake dito kasi nagtratrabaho sila sa bukid hanggang gabi. (there are hardly men in this area because they work in the farm or hills)

Therefore all the people at home are babae.(girls)

 We had 6 baptism since we've been here and all babae. We have more prospective and again, babae. But we do have this one brother, Floyd Laud. We have been trying to teach him but he's been busy with school and graduation. He has a baptismal date but we had to reschedule due to him being busy. Even though he wasn't home, the first time, we ended up talking to his uncle. Then we met with his uncle again with his family. Then on friday, Floyd wasn't home again so we ended up sharing with his mother. The family is really mabait and open to listening to us. We hope we can help this whole family come to know the truth. The uncle will be tricky since he's really dedicated to his church but we have a plan.

As for updates in the Philippines, I had the pleasure of having LBM. Not really fun but it happens. Today, Elder Polgo made kilawin ng isda. (raw fish like sushi)  We had that last week at the Maguddayao house. I would eat the whole fish including the head and bones. Elder Polgo with remove those. Most meals are eaten by kamay-kamay. Just like home. My Tagalog is getting better. I can speak but I still have slight trouble hearing. I gave a talk on sunday mostly in Tagalog. I practice speaking with little children. Understanding the people here in this mission is hard because they have a heavy Ilocano accent.

So a bunch of new missionaries came in last transfer. All the missionaries in my district are trainer/trainees, me being the oldest trainee. What's more interesting is that they're all from visayas, well except Elder Cahigao (He's from Mindanao), but they can all speak Cebuano. So I'm pretty much stuck in a Cebuano speaking district. I'm the only Ilocano here in the district or even the whole zone. I have to start learning it. Anyways, that's my update! I love you all! Take care!

Elder Morales