The Hills.

Dear mom,Well, it hasn't been that long since I last emailed you, but my life has changed so drastically in the past few days its crazy. I feel like my last email was just a tribute to Elder Tengelsen, so I'll try to go over the past week and everything that happened in a nutshell.Monday was Elder Tengelsen's last day. The previous day in church, he let everyone know he was leaving and a few church members wanted to treat us out for lunch. So one member took us out to this really fancy Chinese restaurant called "Wan Chai" which isn't that expensive in the dollar conversion, but for the four of us, they spent a chunk for the economy here. I stuffed myself with the good food to the point where I couldn't eat anymore. It was so nice of them to treat us out. Afterwards, we went to these two old...

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Elder Tengelsen.

Dear mom, Well, so much to email about. I have a few funny moments to share first though. Last week was great. We got to work more than we have been able to all transfer. A few funny stories that I know you will like. While we were at a family's house that we're teaching, we asked the mother to pray for us and in the middle of her prayer she said, "Nagpapasalamat po ako para kina Elder...(nakalimutan niya)Itim and Elder Puti." Or for Jason, "I thankful for (grand pause) Elder Black and Elder White." It was pretty hard not to laugh but I was still thankful that she was grateful for our visit. Than later on in the week we were riding in a taxi a night that we were running late to dinner with the Angoluans (of course) and I asked for the guy to stop at the "pilay." Elder Tengelsen just looked...

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Family.

Kumusta na! Well, I don't have much time because I spent a good twenty minutes reading Jason's awesome letter about Rome and London. He's so lucky and I'm so jealous but I guess I am in a foreign country too right now eh? Well, it's the last week of the transfer and my last week with Elder Tengelsen. Words can't even describe how much I love that elder and he is truly the best companion I could ever have. I'm dreadfully counting the days until we have to separate for a little while, but I know I'm lucky to have had him as a companion. President DeLaMare told me to just focus on how lucky I was instead of how unlucky I am to have to watch him leave. There are no goodbyes in the gospel, just "God be with you 'til we meet again" like my MTC teacher Brother Mauzy used to say. By this time next...

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Survived the War.

Maningong Bagong Taon! Naku! Well, I survived (barely) my first New Year's here in the Philippines. I'll get to that in a second. Last week was pretty good. We were able to do service for a naka-buntis (pregnant) sister in the ward and ripped out this huge vine from her house. It was a lot of fun to get out and help someone. Elder Tengelsen really enjoys helping the members and getting to know them and I'm really glad we had the opportunity. It was kind of rough because they don't have all the tools we have in the U.S. for making gardening (or anything for that matter) easy - like rakes or what have you. So all I was really left with was a pair of hedgers and my two hands with my companion. It was fun though and we had a great time. New year's was CRAZY. I can't even explain. I almost died. Fireworks...

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