day 250

well this week was ok, we had exchanges on friday, and other than that nothing really super exciting. it was nice to be in an area where i could understand everything that was said. It was San Isidro, they mix waray and cebuano. it was awesome, there are words in waray that arent in cebuano and vice versa, so speaking is just like english. its great!!!!


umm we only had zone meeting this month, so zone conference where president comes up will be tomorrow. so if im lucky, ill get more mail and package tomorrow.

oh here is one thing, on our way home from our exchanges, i got out of the jeepney, and when i did, something happened to my back, i dont know what, but ive felt this pain before. it first started when i fell off a cliff at sundance. it just feels like one of my ribs is popped out of place and i can just pop it back in. but when i try to pop it, it just kills and wont pop. ive had several people try to fix it but it still isnt good. so ill be talking to sister andaya tomorrow. (she is a nurse)

so one cool thing that happened this week, was after church. we ate lunch, and after that we took a nap. we ate super fast so we had a little extra time for a quick snooze. i woke up on time, and thought, elder is still asleep, i could fall back asleep and get a good rest now. OR i could wake him up and go out to work on time. after debating about it for a bit, i got up and woke him up and we went out. as a blessing of our obedience, we went somewhere and this lady who is a member called us to her house. we went in and there was another lady
with her, she wanted to be baptized. so we got 4 total referrals from that one visit. we almost hit our weekly goal for referrals on the first day of work! plus, they all want to be baptized! so ya it was awesome that we went out on time, cuz if we had slept a bit longer, we would have missed her and the other referrals.

We have this family that we are teaching right now, where all of the kids are playing soccer. the two older daughters are keeps and the younger one is a middy/defence. im having a blast playing with them all, and they asked me to give them some coaching and what not. i think that cuz i wore my Real shirt, all the kids think i play for Real Madrid, which is ok to me.:) haha so last pday, we went to where the kids were practicing and gave them some drills and played with them. it was super duper fun. they all have a date of july 21. hopefully they will continue to be awesome and still get baptized.

well im sorry if this week has been boring for you. i miss you too if it makes you feel better.

today for pday, we played ball with all the boyz.(like ZLs and nieghboring districts.) it was fun, but im not good still. then the white kids all played soccer for  a bit. im gonna look for some soccer shoes here, they dont have a store that sells them but the have like stores called Okay-okays that have a whole bunch of random stuff. and
sometimes they have soccer shoes. i doubt they will have any in my size. aha but ill check. 

well thats about it, ill also attach a list of things i need from you. in a ps.

Love Christian

Ps can you send me the address of MIke, bro blackhurst i think thats about it.

day 250 Questions and Answers

Speaking of the picture that Corin sent...

that was the best charge ive had in a long time... it was soooooooooooo funny!!! it was funny cuz its true!!! hahahahahaha all the elders that are with me laughed sooooo hard

take pictures of food that you eat...Does it look different?

yupppp... ill show you the burgers we eat... haha(also, the comp isnt recognizing my camera so ill send photos next week.

send me another vidyo...love them.

ok, they are hard to send cuz tthey are so big....

Did you get Ana's package?

hopefully tomorrow

so have you gotten to show everyone your mad soccer skills? now that you're there?  Play with your ball much?

today lang!

Why did you have to move...just to the upstairs?

well didnt have to, the upstairs is nicer and the people who lived there moved out. we had to redo the contract anyways so why not sign for the nicer house??? with FLUSHING TOILET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How is the old man doing?  You said that you cook him food and stuff and read to him...is that everyday? or only some days?  Does he live by you?

Surprisingly, he is coming to church. its great to see him there. We have been assigned by our bishop to visit him everyday.  he lives within walking distance.

Does anyone else write you or has written you?  Besides Atkinson's?  Like ward people?  

i have gotten a letter from bishop and brother webster, but no one else...

day 243

well this week was ok.... its super completly different. waray is hard. not hard, just new. all new vocab.... so other than the language barrier, again, im doing fine.... i got to this area, and everyone here plays soccer. I LOVE IT! 

we have investigators walk up to us and ask us to baptize them. no joke, this family had two girls that got baptized a while ago, the mom and dad and other son werent ready yet, but the other week, they said to us were gonna start coming to church, we want to be baptized. whoohoo so july 7ish is their date. its great.

this week, as far as work goes has been super slow. we have been in the process of moving and finally got it all done on saturday. so we moved, right when i got here. ha its nice. just upstairs.

i found ouut that one of my batch mates, went home. he       got medical release cuz he got an amiba. he was super sick... sad. i liked him. 

umm the ward here is just like one at home, the leaders are great and everything. i can basically buy whatever food i want except the cheese, tortillas ect... i got some apple juice the other day. yum.. 

well we have been taking care of an old man who recently had a stroke. he cant talk anymore and has a hard time moving around. we cook him food and read to him from the liahona. its nice. hes fixen to go at any time. 

so this week is zone meeting, and zone conference. i should get the package from ana then. im super excited to get  mail. its been a super long time since ive had anything. its kinda scary. i get scared sometimes cuz i dont know what is going on with people... 

anyways.... well i dont know what else to write. ha i love you muchly, happy fathers day dad (we just had a brown out. it took about twenty mins for the generator to kick in, ha im sooooo glad that the email saved a copy of my draft. haha)

Well, loVe  you Christian

-- well thats all for now. love yall.. oh and could you send some more small BOMS and maybe some DoCs? the small ones?? they are the best!!!

day 243 Questions and Answers

How do you pronounce catarman.  Cat er man  or Ca TAR man?

Ca Tar Man

I suppose this will be a nice change from where you came from...do you think that's the worst area?  like it can only get better from here?  Or are there other areas that are just as "bad"/"poor" etc.?

i think that merida, is one of the hardest areas, there used to be six missionaries assigned there at one time. its that big. now only two.

Have you had enough time yet..to get to know your companion? Cool?  Or not so much?

ya i know him pretty well now. he used to live with ryan shaw, just by annie smiths house.

Was the spider vidyo on your new camera? Where was that? in the bukid?  It was funny cause jensen sent home a huge spider picture too..i'll attach it.

The spider was with my new cam, its awesome!!! it was in my apartment. we catch spiders like the size of jens (not sure if he really meant Jens or the picture of the spider that Jens sent) and make them fight. the one in my vid, i dont know if you can tell or not, but its as big as my hand. and it jumps!!! like it will jump on you if you get to close! thats why i was scared.

So, is the toilet paper expensive there too?  Or are you just used to not using any now?

mom, im not going to be using toilet paper for the rest of my mission, even if i can afford it, or if its given to me, its just lots better without it. and besides, MY TOILET FLUSHES NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hahahahahhaha

Is the temperature any different? more/less humid?

its hotter cuz were in the city.. but not much diffferent.

Can you believe it's 8 months!!  And jensen is 11?

crazy huh?? almost a year.

Who did elder ebite get?  Do you know?  or do you just focus on where you're going?

He got a really great guy, he goes home in a month. i only know, cuz i asked around at transfer meeting.

Got any questions for me?

not at the moment

Does Catarman have cheese?  washing machines?

nope and nope.

What prospective members are you teaching?  Still heavy into re-activation?

ya super heavy, but we have the great inv. that i mentioned earlier.

Ana sent you a package last tuesday and it was guaranteed to get to you within 3-5 days...Do you already have it?  I'm assuming now that you're farther away from the mission home that you won't get mail as fast as you did in merida.  

Ya im not looking forward to the mail aspect, but technically, they have zlc every month, so it should only take a month for me to get stuff..

Looking forward (sooo much) for those sd cards to arrive.  Have you even sent them?  Should I not even be waiting by the mailbox everyday hoping to get something from you? hehe
im sorry mom, i havent sent them yet, im still trying to find the post office. and i am almost out of money, so i dont think i will be able to send it home this week. 

day 236 Transferred!

well... i got transferred... to the furthest away area in the mission. I am in Catarman, on samar island. it is the northern most part of the mission. Its SOOO far away!!!! My new comps name is elder Theobald. He is the same batch as elder wood. so ya. umm i am speaking waray waray now. its pretty crazy. there are three different dialects with waray. Waray S. Waray H and Waray Cebuano. the first is what im using. Waray S. its sooo wierd. i can understand most of what is said but speaking is just super hard. i just speak Cebuano to people and hope they can understand me. I was getting super good and comfortable with Cebuano, then i get transferred. ha thats life. 


well i miss elder ebite cuz he was fun and stuff and really a chill guy. i think he is still planning on writing ashley. hahahahah it was so funny. 


ha well monday tuesday wednesday, we worked in merida. thursday, i packed and went to ormoc for the night. we left for tacloban bright and early in the morning. it takes about three hours to gety to tacloban from ormoc, then from tacloban to catarman, its about 8 hours. uhhhgggg... that travel sucked, but wasnt the worst... it was hard to fall asleep, but i was asleep enough to not notice how long it took. we finally got to catarman at 1am... tired. well then we worked on saturday and sunday i spoke to the ward in cebuano and next week im going to speak again. and again in cebuano maybe in english, they understand more english that cebuano. so the area im in is really nice. if i could compare it to a town in utah, maybe selina, or something that is extremly small and not very developed. its city is a lot bigger than meridas. it doesnt have any bukid... just all city. its got a waffle shop. its super good. im not sure about post office though. it does have one, but im guessing that its going to be fetching expensive... well i got my camera and everthing in it! there was the camera, the knife and the candy. like yum!!! the reason it took so long, is cuz went all through us customs and stuff. when it came, it was taped shut with us customs tape. they went through it i guess. but it all got to me.

Ya well im enjoying my area. on sunday morning, we had two baptisms. we also have sisters in our area. its nice. the leaders are all super proffesional. i like it. everyone has a motor, its a lot richer area than merida. the ward takes care of itself. its so nice. we have a great ward mission leader. he is probably the best one in the mission. he could be comparable to a ward mission leader in america. Oh also, our water from our shower is super warm!!! holy cow. its like room temperature. its great. 

im gonna send home my two smaller mem cards. they have vids and great funny stuff on em.
well until next one. ta ta 
Love you
Christian

Must be a spider themed week.  The other Elder Smith sent home a picture of a huge spider too!

day 236 Questions and Answers

I can't believe about the bike/drunk guy/fighting accident...errr i mean incident.  Did you guys finally

get any dinner? That was, after all, what you were doing out? right?

ya. we went back after a while and got our meat.

Also was Elder Ebite alright?  Since he was the one that got hit?

ya he was fine. no harm, it wasnt goin very fast.

How old was the child on the bike? How was he attached?  

maybe 2 or 3, they often have like racks on the back, above the back tire. he was just sitting on that.

Who physically baptized Liza Marie?

ME. 

What does exact obedience mean to you?

Following the rules.

I'm pretty sure the camera package didn't get to you right yet?  

It did!!!!!!!!!!

Best thing that happened this week?

transfer news. haha it was just good to know that i was changing areas.

Questions if you got transferred...

Who's your new companion?

Elder Theobald

Where's he from?

all over utah, but mostly lehi

How long's he been out?

Bout 14 months

What city are you in?

Catarman

What was your favorite thing about Elder Ebite?  Or what will you miss?

He was super duper funny. we got along super well.

day 229 Transfer Week

so this week....

I dont really remember tuesday so ill start on wednesday. So we had a normal day of work, except the night. we were walking to get dinner and as we were walking, an oncoming bike swerved in front of us and hit elder ebite. the biker fell and his child that was on the bike. He was super duper drunk. i tried to help his child that fell and as i bent down to pick up the kid, he grabbed me by my hair, and pulled me into the street. he was super duper mad. calling us all sorts of names, he started to put his dukes to fight me. i was thinking in my head, "is this gonna be my first fight"? hahaha i was thinking of all the moves i could do to just "Protect myself". this guy was really small. like dang, if i threw even one punch at this guy he would be lights out! i stood up big and tall and awaited his "first punch". he was too chicken to actually throw a punch, or something, or some bystander grabbed him and held him back. i dont remember. it was one of those fight or flight things. i was sooo tuned in to fighting.... it was weird. i learned all about it in Physiology and stuff. i couldnt hear all the other people around me, i was hopped up on adrenaline. ha then a petty cab driver drove his thing in between us and told me to get on. the drunk guy said, " oi, im sorry, im drunk." then he shook elder ebites hand and then mine, then he grabbed my hand and tried to pull me off the petty cab. i stood up so he couldnt get a cheap shot while i was sitting, but someone pulled him back. we then drove home. i got home and i just sat down and thought about what just happened. i was still in the fight mode so i was a bit jumpy. it was weird, it took a few hours to finally wear off.
 well other than that, nothing really great or cool happened.

so yea.. love you lots

Christian

day 229 Questions and Answers

You didn't mention if you baptized Liza Marie...Did you...like you had hoped?

Yes it went through. it was great.

This is transfer week...are you going to miss anyone/any family there?  When will you know if you'll be going anywheres?  I'm excited for change for you.  Changes things up for you a bit and makes things feel like they are going faster because it's new...(sometimes it works to the contrary too)

I will know on wednesday. im hoping for the change now. like big time haha..

Last time I asked you a question about how many rooms are in YOUR apartment.  

two bathrooms, three bedrooms and  large kitchen/living room.

What's your best day this week and why?

 Today. ha. i ran out of money.... i dont even know why... but its just nice to get our support, cuz its lots... its like i can breath a little better. ha

You said in your last letter that you got sick and Elder Ebite got sick from eating from some bad fruit...but then you said that you got sick too...does that mean that you ate that bad fruit too...OR were you just sick cause you caught it from him?

elder was sick cuz he ate some bad fruit, i got sick from the weather changing so fast. it was like a big cold type thing. its gone now.

Are you good?  

 im doing ok. this last week i ate lots of tuna again. i dont know why, but my area is not supplying the same foods as before.. it sucks. ha but its ok. i like tuna :) Love ya