September 27th - October 3rd

It has been another busy week. Our devotional was interesting, a sister gave the talk and did a lot of it in Tagalog which is very unusual. She gave a funny story, but most of us could not understand the funny part since she spoke Talalog, but we knew it was funny because all the Filipinos laughed.

I went to Talalog class on Tuesday, but the teacher interpets for general conference and so she is pretty busy until the third week of October. I know about 10 words now but am hesitate to speak them. I did say salamet (thank you) to our driver yesterday and he responded thank you in english, so I was thrilled I said it correctly.

I went home early on Tuesday, one of the couples gave me a ride, I was nauseated and the ole stomach thing, really felt awful. I didn't go into the office on Wednesday but Thursday was back again feeling somewhat better. It is no fun to stay at the apartment, gets boring pretty quickly.

I forgot to to tell about my second day in the Philippines. Sister Clark and I were going grocery shopping and came out our apartment door to catch the elevator, she was locking the door and as I went to push the elevator button, I look down and see this HUGH bug coming towards me, I jumped back and said what is that, Sister Clark said oh thats just a cockcroach, I said that thing is so big if we had a bridle we could ride it to the store, all the meantime dancing around. Sister Clark went back into the apartment got a big can of Raid (my first indication that the Philippines might have some modern conveniences available) and sprayed the cockcroach but it kept going, when I mentioned that the spray hadn't killed it, she said oh it's okay, it will eventually go feet up. Thank Heavens the elevator come and when we returned from the store, sure enough there it was feet up. I ask Sister Clark what we should do with it, she said the maintenance/cleaning people would take care of it and the next morning it was gone.

My fourth day in the Phillipines I was just coming out of my bedroom, the conversation between Sister Clark and I went something like this: Sister Clark said Oh we have a geko, I said a geko, she said yes a lizard, (I thought I know what a geko is, my mind was racing trying to remember if Scott had told me they live in peoples houses). I asked what are we going to do with it, she said just leave it, it won't hurt anything and it eats bugs (my thought, there is no way that tiny little geko is going to eat those hugh cockcroaches). I said, we cannot leave the geko here, I don't want it crawling on my bed or anywhere near it, she said it'll kill the bugs, I said I'll kill my own bugs, how do we get rid of it, at this point Sister Clark was getting very protective of the geko and I was pacing the floor, so finally I got hold of myself and went to my room. When I come out Sister Clark had picked up the geko and put it outside on the window ledge, much to my relief. I have found two more cockcroaches in the apartment, but they were dead, I keep forgetting to ask Sister Clark how many you have to see before they spray the whole apartment. I suppose there is some rule about they have to be alive when you see them, dead ones don't count.

Thursday night Elder/Sister Burningham, here on a security mission, invited all the senior missionaries to their apartment for a spaghetti feed. They furnished the spaghetti and sauce and assigned everyone else part of the meal to bring. It was so nice, they have a beautiful apartment. After we ate, the entertainment was to tell funny mormon stories, we got to laughing pretty hard at some of them, particularly the "real" ones, of course everyone tried to convince you theirs was really true. I still was not feeling very well and almost didn't go, but so glad I did, just the lift I needed to get going again.

There is one day a week that everyone has a no drive day, here where we are, on your no drive day, you can't drive after between 7:00 am - 10:00 am and 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm, some areas you can't drive at all on your no drive day. The couple we ride with have a no drive day on Friday, so we leave the office at 2:00 pm every Friday, really makes a short day.

I've learned that when someone in the Philippines tells you something is just across the street, don't believe it, across the street to them could be anywhere within a 2-5 mile radius. And rarely does anyone go home the same way they went somewhere. Even driving to the office each day, we come one way and go home another way, it still confuses me but makes since to everyones else and since I am not driving I don't need to figure that one out.

Our mission president did assign us to go to the La Mesa branch, so we went for the first time on Sunday, as we don't get conference here until next week end. Elder/Sister Beckstrand have been driving to the branch for about 2 months, so we go with them each week. I am so excited to finally be able to go and see the same people each week. They have two fulltime young sister missionaries there too and they are really excited to have us. Everyone welcomed us with grins, handshakes more than once, I love it! It takes us one hour to drive there and often the Beckstrands said 2 hours to get home, depending on the traffic. I enjoyed the drive, saw lots of families out doing things together, mostly along the street. It was so good to see so many children and families. The branch has several children so that will be nice. I was surprised the chapel is very nice and set back in amongst some interesting housing on a dirt road. Sister Clark already has about 12 piano students lined up to teach during sunday school time, sounds like a big task to me, there is one adult sister who is self taught on the piano, but doesn't have confidence enough to teach, so Sister clark has her work cut out for her.

We got home from church had about 3 hours and left to meet with a stake president and all his bishops to check their boundaries. We had one of the drivers from the area presidency drive us. The drive took about an hour, we met with the brethern, which took about two hours, part of that time is waiting for everyone to get there. I love meetings with the filipino's, they know how to laugh, get things done and have a great time doing it. Things may take a little longer with all the laughing, but you sure feel good when you leave the meeting.

I don't know who is reading my blog, just a short comment "read it" would be nice, it is easier to blog when I feel like I am talking to someone specific.