Piddig Week 33

Me and some of my district from the MTC. Looking GWAPO PALAGI.

The bro. in the blue shirt is Bro. Ramsel Valentin he is one of our best fellowshipers ever, he sacrifices so much of his time to work with us.

I found some cute kids in the bukids

This is what Piddig looks like all green and Bukids na lang.

The four of us Elders at a FHE, our last day together and the family we had the FHE with.

The guy we taught that can't hear anything.

Me with a recent convert of ours and the little baby who is turning one, she is so cute.

Bro. Benson Benito - another of our fellowshippers

Halo halo - a drink we love

Naimbag Nga Rabii, Kumusta Po Francis Family,

Mabuhay Elder Francis, I am having a great time here in the Philippines and serving here in Piddig.   Piddig is the greenest place I've seen, Bukids and Bundoks everywhere, I walk through bukids every day to get from lesson to lesson. Piddig is so different than Santo Domingo, there is like nothing here in Piddig - a couple fast food places or places to eat, and a place to buy food but really it's all green.  The people here eat grass, or plants, or anything they see in trees or (puno), or in the bukids, that's what they eat or cook, it's different but I am trying to adjust to it.

This week has been fantastic in work and getting along with Elder Liska.  He is very loud and sometimes can get frustrated but he really helps me so much and he is the most Masipag Elder ever.  He finds up to 60 new investigators a week, this we we had 51 lessons - the most I have had on my mission so far, and we found 26 new investigators.  So we are doing fantastic and there are only two elders now here in Piddig so our area is huge.  We have all of Piddig and can really go anywhere we want. The work here really will just get better and better and probably a lot more finding and lessons.  Hopefully next month we will have at least 4 baptisms at the end of April, the Benito Family if not the Tatay sister Brenda.   So it really is going well for us here in Piddig. We had 3 investigators come to church, which is great and we will keep inviting everyone to come to church, and hopefully we will get more this week.

But I am doing great, the language is coming a little bit better now, but my accent still is pretty bad.  I will keep practicing with it.  I am enjoying the Philippines, it's still so hot and I am always sweating, and always in need of a sweat towel, but at night I sleep well because of the fans and it gets colder at night. But everything is going well, the work is getting better, I still am not perfect in teaching - I still have a lot to practice on, but we are not perfect teachers and we all make mistakes. 

This week we taught a brother that can't hear at all, so we have to write everything we say on a piece of paper, and he reads it then he talks to us, it is really hard.  We probably won't go back to him, but it was pretty fun. And we also went to a little baby's birthday party of our investigator, it was her baby's first birthday.  Here in the Philippines they are crazy with birthday parties, they invite the whole neighborhood and they sing songs and eat a ton of food and I enjoy it a lot. 

It seems like you guys are having a great week with dad traveling to San Diego and you guys going to Park City to do some shopping.   Go to the parks and maybe watch some lacrosse too.  How is the lacrosse team doing?  Have a fun Spring Break and enjoy the vacation.   Easter is coming up soon and General Conference - so exciting to hear from the Prophet and the Twelve Apostles and some of the seventy, I love hearing from them and being able to write things that inspire me.  We will travel to Laoag for it at the stake center, but it will be a fun week. 

How is the family doing and how is the ward doing?  I want to hear from them, like letters or something and pictures too. I did get the package salamat po, and I will hopefully for Christmas this year send a box home again for the family to open on Christmas day. Have a fun rest of the week, and stay safe. 

WHY IS EMILY DRIVING LIKE WHAT THE HECK? SHE IS TOO YOUNG AND THAT IS SCARY, STOP GROWING UP EMILY. STAY MY LITTLE SISTER FOREVER. 

Ingat po Palagi at Ay-Ayaten ka o Mahal Kita

Elder Francis 

P.S. can you guys send me some souvenirs and American money I can give to my companions or people I teach. Agyaman po.