The Philippines is crazy but I love it! Other than the humidity it is such a cool place. It's definitely a third world country, and one of the couples told us that where we are is the third world of the third world country! But it's totally awesome! People literally live in these little shacks that they build themselves in Barangays which are little villages almost. They just jam pack their homes so close together it's crazy. It's like a giant campout, it really is. Just so you can try and visualize how crazy it is, we went to visit a less-active member at his home. It was literally in the middle of a rice field. So we walked on a piece of dry land that was like 6 inches wide to get there, and then his home was a straight shack made out of like bamboo and leaves and what not and the craziest part is that he had a TV hooked up inside for his 4 little girls. HOW DO THEY GET ELECTRICITY OUT THERE? I'll be honest it baffles me, but it's awesome haha!
So my companion's name is Elder Hawk. He's from Las Vegas and he's been out for like 4 transfers. I'm his first trainee so we're learning together! He's a super awesome kid and I love him already! We get along great and I'm so thankful that he usually knows what people are saying cuz I understand like a fifth of what's said at best haha. But a lot of people know English so if I look confused after they say something they usually will speak English to me! I love it!
Our first couple of days here were spent like home sleeping in nice hotels with AC and nice meals and riding around in normal cars and stuff but so far in like 4 days in my area (Valladolid, Vall-y-o-doe-lid) I've eaten duck, and hung halfway out of a bus going like 60 down the street (that was awesome, don't worry it's totally normal and I had quite the death grip on the handle ;). Most of the time we ride what's called a tricycle. A tricycle is a motorcycle with a sidecar attached to it. It costs us like at most 20 pesos for both of us to ride which is like 50 cents hah. The cost of living is so crazy here everything seems super cheap! And Dad, Elder Hawk and I actually bought a tub of Cookies & Cream ice cream, so we still get ice-cream don't worry! ;)
I've had the chance to teach a few lessons already with Elder Hawk. He mostly does all the teaching since I can't quite speak the language yet. For the most part I just bear testimony at the end based on what I could understand, but its totally awesome! During one of our lessons we had to Filipino squat (you pretty much just keep your feet flat on the ground and you just sit down. So you're squatting with your butt like 5 inches from the ground and your feet are flat and straight forward. Give it a try, it's insane) When I try to practice doing that I can't but yet somehow during the lesson I did it just fine for like 7 minutes. I literally about fell over when I stood back up afterwards tho haha!
So the inactive brother (Brother Bersillones) who lived out in the rice field is a Return Missionary. We went out on Saturday afternoon as a part of a ward home teaching rescue activity, and we gave him and his family a quick spiritual thought and gave him a little sheet of paper inviting him to church yesterday and he seemed super excited about it, and sure enough he and his whole family came to church, and he even bore his testimony during testimony meeting. It was such an awesome experience. He talked of our visit and the scripture that we shared with him and how he knows the church is true and that we need to Seek First the Kingdom of God and it was just awesome! I can see the importance of this work already!
So as for our Ward, the Valladolid Ward has an attendance rate of about 70-80 so it's bigger than our Branch! And the ward boundary is definitely smaller than our Branch Boundary. Church is like half English, half Illongo it's pretty crazy. All the songs are in English. They welcome people in English, a lot of people will literally speak Illongo and then just switch to English and then back and forth haha so that usually helps me out, even though its hard to tell because of their accent and what not!
So like I said in my last email the traffic is crazy! There are literally no rules on the road, there's no traffic police. If there's a traffic light it's advisory only. People just drive however fast they want wherever they want, pedestrians don't have the right of way. But I honestly think they're better drivers than the US because nobody gets mad when someone pulls out in front of them. They fully expect people to so it's just whatever! We ride tricycles and busses and that's pretty much it, it's pretty sweet!
I love all you guys! I love and miss you!
-Elder Walters
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