Date
September 3, 2018
Area
Santa Ignacia, Vargas
Companion
Elder Calaunan
Santa Ignacia, Tarlac
I feel like it has been forever since I was able to email everyone! Thanks for all of the emails that I was able to receive.
This has been an amazing week! We were able to leave the MTC on Wednesday, and it was a pretty funny story. We brought our luggage down from our room at 7:00 and started eating breakfast. We were the first people down, and all of sudden they announced that everyone that was going to Angeles was leaving right then. We weren't supposed to leave until 8:30, so we sprinted over and almost no one was at breakfast. Four Elders missed the cars. The funny part was one of them was our travel leader! We all got to the mission home safe, and President Johnson and his wife were amazing. I learned so much more from them than I did at the MTC. He was also very funny! We got some amazing food there and then we stayed at the AP house during the night for two nights because we were leaving on Friday. That is when we got a little taste of what our life was going to be like! We had 1 fan per like 5 people during the night and it was really humid. I slept on the floor with a mattress, but it was so fun because I saw what it was going to be like and I started getting excited for the mission.
On Friday morning we got assigned to our companions, and my trainer is Elder Calaunan. He is amazing. He has only been out on the mission for 4 months because our batch was so big that every missionary in the whole mission is training our batch! We were able to get a ride from Elder and Sister Willison to our new area in Vargas, Sta. Ignacia. When we first arrived we went out and were able to meet some of the members there. On Saturday we were able to get familiar with our area and talk to many of the people around, but I got so sore because we walked very far because we were looking at our whole area. The people here are so nice and we are in an area that is away from the city with lots of cows and grass and rice. It is actually very beautiful to see all the grass, water, goats, chickens, and cows in the area. It is very nice. The houses are a little farther apart than the city and there are actually quite a lot of members. There are over 1000 members in there ward, but only 180 are active! All the houses are very different, but you could probably see on google maps. Many of the stores are just on the sides of the roads, and they sell out of their house. The cool part is they have areas where you are walking in the city and then you turn into a little hallway and then it opens up into a huge area with tons of shops everywhere selling everything! One of the cool things they have here is they have a spot where they have a whole bunch of different ulam or toppings for your rice and you choose which ulam you want and how many cups of rice, and then they make it for you and it is like a $1 meal.
When Sunday came it was fast Sunday, and so at church me and my companion bore our testimonies. He challenged me to only speak in Tagalog for my testimony, and that is what I did. I don't know how much the people understood, but they said that I did good after. (I think that they were just kidding though) Sunday was amazing because we met the Bishop the Ward mission leader and so many of the members and they all want to help us so much. I am very excited to work with them. Sunday night we were able to go with the other Elders in our house to a home that was in our area, and we taught 6 kids and 2 parents. We showed them the video of the restoration, and they all said they read the scriptures and answered all the questions very well. They were so smart. I love all of the kids here because they are always so happy and like to talk to us. That night we feasted on frog and rice which frog is actually amazingly tasty. I learned how to cook the rice also, and it was really good.
They just barely installed Washers in the homes the transfer before we got in so we are very lucky, but they don't have dryers yet so we have to leave our clothes out to dry. I use an iron every day that they have in the homes to make sure my shirt doesn't have any wrinkles, but these CTR shirts are pretty good at keeping wrinkles out.
Today is P-day which Monday is going to be my new P-day from now on for all those that were wondering. We woke up at 6:30 and went on a little hike with our zone and I was able to meet everyone in our zone. Guess who is in my zone! Elder Wade, we were able to talk and hang out for a little today and it was really fun.
- Tried purple ice cream (I forgot the name of it)
- There is so many animals in our area (including tons of dogs)
- I actually got the letters that Oliver and Kody sent and tell them that they were amazing and I loved the pictures they drew!
- I pretty much couldn't understand anything at church, but it is helping me to pick up on words and how the Filipino people talk.
- My trainer taught me how everything works and it is very helpful.
- I learned the importance of repenting everyday to make sure the spirit is with you
- I am excited for the next 23 months
Random quote: maraming salamat para sa mga email, at umaasa po ako na may masaya po kayo.
Love,
Elder Klein