Life. Christmas. and the Pursue of Salvation

BIG TRAK!!!

So I am so sorry but I actually forgot to tell all of you this...While I was in Santa Ana I actually ate SHARK and Sting Ray.

Anyway it is so close to Christmas. You can, like, tell that it's so close cause I am getting Skype text....from president about Skype...mom, dad talk to Jordan. I told him...cause I wasn't sure you were up.

I love this time of the year in the Philippines. They are so giving and love to carol...they just ask for money..we give pamphlets..life!

Well this week we were able to see one of our best friends Kasalyn be baptized. She is the ID of butay and she is the best and soo happy! It was a little hard. We had a little mishap with the authority that was suppose to preside and be there to conduct...we got it good when the YM president was just in the FM Office... hahaha and he texted the 1st councilor.

I am thankful for this mission and a cool thing happened this week. The Filipinos have to now spend 3 weeks at the MTC in Manila so to cope with that, the April transfer will be 8 weeks and I will be getting home 2 weeks later.....Aug 23 if you were wondering. WHAT A FUN TIME!

Life could not be any better if you ask me!!! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.....but I might not be here next week till late week or not at all.....cause we have Christmas conference on Monday but yeah!!! just ask my fam bam they will see me!!!

LOVE YOU ALLL
ET

"when the angle said 'fear not' it was not just for the wise men but to all of us to say ' fear not your savior is born, from this time forward fear will never win'" D. F Uchtdorf

Tan Tanner

WOW what a week one in the new area! 

Funny story first. The elder that I just replaced in this area, his name was E. Tan. who if you remember is a great guy we trained at the SAME time. 

This week started with an 8 HOUR trip from Santa Ana to LAOAG... yes I was so tired seing how I just packed and did't sleep than I just tried to sleep on the bus. 2 Am was the time the bus left. so yeah it was all great....except the fact I fell asleep a couple times in the day and like I nodded off in the last lesson in the day...BUT the next day I was kinda ready..lets just say Thursday I was all good!    

The only hard thing about this transfer so far is that Elder Tan is rich and the people know it and he made empty promises to give people stuff.....but yeah that happened so I did the best I could do and earn trust....example...our fear was one of the LA wouldn't let us talk to him so what happen was we waited for his grand children who are our investigators were hopefully coming but wala so we just talked with tatay..the thing is tatay is a Chinoy...Chinese/philippino just like Elder Tan. but man it was great to talk to him. Actually I learned from him. how to be a leader he use to be one and it was way cool! 

This week to we have Baptism who is way excited she is wonderful and soon after is her family....Fun fact her dad is way cool he is a national hero...of San Nic... he was part of the national police (PNP) and he swore off a group of new people army (NPA) ( look them up in any questions ) Basically he is way cool but president will be the one to interview him in due time. ( swore off odes mean kill.....) 

Today was great we practiced for our christmas con skit and than went to the mall and it just happened that president was there and treated us to mang ingnasal ( its a place that gives UNLIMITED RICE!!!!!!

Well that is a kool kat email hope you like it!!!!! 

Hope to hear about your christmas life! 

#givethegiftofchrist

christmas.mormon.org

pasko.mormon.org/tgl

ET

COOL STUFF...not really

SAD news I was going to use an elders camera to send pic...but the computers wanna not work today soo...yeah 

And I AM BEING TRANSFERRED AGAIN!!!!!! San Nicholas WARD near the mission home and in the city...also if any one ask it is a 5 to 9 hour bus from Santa Ana to Laoag so yeah.

This past week was pretty slow and just down right ok....

I am sad to leave Santa Ana and Cagayan and all that but back in a ward and in the city it will be nice!!! 

On a better note!! We saw progress in the area and we just might of had baptisms but it will be for the next guys and I trust them cause one was in my old zone! 

Hope you all have a great week!!!! Hope to hear from you! 

WITH LOVE 

ET

WEEK 5 curve ball

It has now come to my attention that i forgot about thanksgiving. That's OK I have trouble explaining to Filipinos what it is anyway, I mean you tell someone who not an american that we eat a ton of food and sometimes it get thrown away and we give thanks #america #thephilippineschangedme

So this week was a fun weird week!

We started off slow but just trying our best!! Than (funny story) The District leader told us that we need to be early like 7 am so we got there...wala pa...he didn't get there till 8. Sad part he didn't need us at 7, he need our house mates hahaha...

Then the AP's for a couple days were following up asking like how our day was and all that, so Saturday we thought you know we just need to do our very best like more than our 100% so we put 300% more into and when I say that I mean three more hours of work into our day.....sorry we didn't study! oh pala 10 LESSONS

SUNDAY THE WEEK 5 CURVE....
So we got to church after we attempted to pick up people who didn't even come...We go to church and notice a group of people we taught on Friday was all there from Barangy Punti. They are out standing people. Another LA that was offended, CAME!! In all it was great to be a SANTA ANA Elder on Sunday!

Monday was MLC once again it was amazing and we took in sooo much!!!!!

BUT after we didn't wanna wake up at 3 to catch the 4 am bus so we caught the 5:30 but that actually left at 4:55 so we made it, got home and had a great night of sleep! so I am here now and love it!!!! also yeah!!!!! not much I can ask for....

Well I had this great experience using the Book of Mormon this week! the offended LA that we taught we were not sure how to meet his need it was so hard!!!!!! So we thought about it..for like 2 days then boom came to me...we actually shared the story of who Teancum was and how people felt about him after he served in a calling.....if you don't know what I mean...ask my mom or dad or any Mormon....they can help...

WELL THAT'S ALL FOLKS.....
ET

MISS YOU GUYS

I'm just going to tell you things about this place.

I guess I can start by telling you about my week first.

So this week me and Whitrod thought we ought to try a new finding idea. So this week we stayed in our sentro area (its the place in the middle of Santa Ana with most people and the church) to look for boarding houses. So there are some big casinos and a ton of people work there. So at these boarding houses there are just these workers...WE FOUND A TON OF PEOPLE THIS WEEK!!!! mostly girls but that's ok that we have fellowshippers right!

That's about it though.

So I don't think I have said much about Santa Ana

It is a great place also a place with a ton of Chinese because of the casinos, but that's cool! It's a coastal town and small but it's also large in land mass. NO Puregold, no city, just the market.....so Grandma I can't say it is properly refrigerated, just sit out there fresh. The fish is the most fresh...like still flopping around.

To get around we just walk, ride bikes or tri-c or jeep or UV VAN or a new one called center car it's like a tri-c but bigger and cooler.

We love it here...well I love it here..life is simple and amazing. I don't even miss washing machines..... AND I LOVE THE PEOPLE... I always remember my bro saying love the people..it's really hard not to love them...I will say this, I am not like Jordan and get to go shopping at English shops for good stuff; ours is all knock-off brand but that's what I love....it's easy and amazing!!!!!!

WELL I THOUGHT MY CAM WOULD BE GOOD...maybe next week...
love you all!
ET

LAOAG forever.....

So this week we had a wonderful 4 day trip to Laoag and this is how it started:

So Tuesday was MLC and Elder HAYNIE from the area presidency was here and we had the most amazing MLC ever. I learned a ton for my life and the welfare of my zone!
Wednesday was alright we just worked in other areas and my old, one but that night we had a fireside and it again was great! about combining members and missionaries.

Thursday we had our conference and it was just amazing. We were taught on using all of our resources like members and all the people haha it was really great!!!!!

THAN THERE WAS FRIDAY...going home the bus left at 4, we got there 3:50. The bus was full, then it was like turn heads "what now zone leader? what do we do?" ( I can make a long story short) Everyone is OK, but this one elder who said last night he will be a burden on us.....I told him that's OK as long as you know we are sorry....but or trip was rough. We got home way later than we wanted to....took 1 bus, 1 thing, and 1 uv van yuck.......1 stop in Magapit Appari and then Santa Ana.

But then Saturday and Sunday we worked and it was great!!!

I found a camera fixer so next week I will have them...until then love you all...
ET

We are both in SANTA ANA

SO I thought I would just start by saying this...me and NICK LONG are on other parts of the world but we are both  in SANTA ANA hahaha that's awesome right!

Any way this week was a good week. We did some more finding than we usually do. It was way fun as usual and Elder Whitrod is so fun to find with. We just go door to door and just knock and it's like being in another... usually we find people outside!!! We met great people!!!

Elder Whitrod pointed something out. He said the one and only hard thing about a Philippines mission is we teach soooo many people, but only a few except us. So that's life.

This week though we go to Laoag for 4 days for MLC and mission tour. Elder Haynie is in the area presidency now and coming here. I am stoked!!!!! We leave later!!!!

NEXT WEEK I WILL HAVE A FIXED CAMERA, I HOPE, HAHAHA
with love ET