Elder Posadas and Elder Corpuz become companions. || Elder Eric Ray Corpuz

Dear Mom,

Oh man, I was laughing so hard about dad's response to my email last week. In fact, if you haven't seen it, here it is mom haha:

"Good thing, we have rice cooker here in the state or I’ll be burning rice too. Tama ang sabi mo, if you rush everything you do, they don’t always turn out the way you want them to be. Let me tell you, nothing is worst than burnt rice, it doesn’t taste good and washing the pot is pain. So the moral of the story is to use rice cooker, ha ha, I just made that up. Actually, I’m trying to think of a funny story to tell you but, I could not think of any funny things that happened to me lately.

Okay anak, take care and be good always."

So the moral of the story, USE A RICE COOKER! Oh man. I love you dad. I actually have become very fond of eating burnt, crunchy rice. I actually really, really like it - in fact I fight people for those burnt, crunchy pieces of rice. Weird.

Another funny story that I thought of when you told me you've been beating dad at running mom. Last Tuesday, my companion and I went running to our Bishop's house to grab the keys to the church for our district meeting. Our bishop maybe lives a mile away, if even that. When Elder Betita brought it up the night before, that it was something he wanted to do, I asked him... "Elder that's far, can you run that far?" and he responded that he could of course run that far (Tapos sabi ko - bahala ka!). We were fine on the way there, took us about ten minutes, but on the way back, Elder Betita died. It took us so long, because he kept on stopping and walking. I was really close to turning around and saying - "Elder, my mom can keep up with me better than you!" Haha, but he did good, a pretty good job for someone who has never ran and had to run with someone who has ran for years.

This week has been challenging. Transfer announcements? Guess who Elder Corpuz new companion is? Elder Posadas! Can you believe it? Neither could I. When I heard it, I was so shocked. How lucky! Who would have ever put those two together? And Elder Corpuz? Sent back to Montalban? It's usually a pretty rare thing to go back to an old area. I'm sure they will have a great time though, and I'm really excited for them. Here's a picture of me and Elder Posadas on the jeepney ride home.

Did I mention that there are two Elder Corpuzes in the Philippines Quezon City North mission?

Elder Betita is training in my third area - Ampid, Montalban

Me and my follow up trainee, Elder Tropia

My "batch" - Elder Miller

My new companion's name, on the other hand, is Elder Taulelei, from Samoa! He's a really, really nice elder and is also really, really new. He doesn't speak a lot of English and doesn't speak a lot of Tagalog either, so it's a bit of a challenge for us to connect, but I loved the kid from the start. I love Polynesians. They are really big people with really big hearts and really big testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't think we'll have any problems this transfer. The only problem will be him running me over, because that seems to happen a lot haha. Whenever he stands in a place. He stands in that place. And sometimes I accidentally run into him, and just end up falling over because he doesn't budge. And when he walks. He walks. And sometimes I get knocked over because I get in the way haha. But it's never on purpose, and he picks me back up, brushes me off, and helps me. Needles to say, I'm really excited for this transfer.

Yet, this transfer didn't exactly have the best start. I've been bruised a little from mistakes I've made from last transfer. Wronging some people who didn't do anything but help me, and unknowingly burning bridges that have been initially set for my benefit. One thing I have learned though is that things always seem to work out, as long as we choose to change and do what's right.

I've struggled for a bit with those problems, but I've chosen to just do my best, take one problem at a time, humble myself, confess, and make amends for whatever I've done. It's a difficult process, but as long as it's done with full purpose of heart, it always has a happy ending.

I've decided that this transfer is going to be a problem-less transfer. I've decided, and that is that. No matter what happens, no matter what trials come, no matter what temptations come, I've decided that I'm going to make the best of it; smile and make it through. I can remember the last thing that Brother Squires told me when I got set apart as a missionary, and that was to not forget to smile. I know that we can choose to be happy. We can choose to make the best. We can choose to let go, learn, and love. And we can choose to live for and hope for good things to come.

So come what may this transfer, and Elder Corpuz will battle everything, one thing at a time, and never get up. Living life against Satan and all his attempts can be a challenge, but in life, I believe we can fight Satan as Sensei Pulsifier taught us when Jason and I were taking martial arts, although it is never good to fight, if you must fight for your defense, you fight with one rule:

I win, you lose.

Love,
Elder Corpuz

P.S. Here are some pictures from Elder Shumway's little birthday celebration today!