Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Week #12: We didn't receive a LETTER from Chris and We Panicked!!!

and a day a later....



Hello family!

So I wasn't able to write yesterday. I got a bad fever. I still have it today but not as bad. I couldn't work at all. 

I'm here Mommy don't worry!
I was taking this medication that made me sweat and sweat. It was disgusting. I have no idea how I got a fever anyways... So yes, I spent my last week in Laoag to pick up my new companion fresh from the MTC. Elder Bulseco. Filipino. Half Ilocano from Bicol. It's as if my wish was granted except... he can't speak Ilocano yet. His family is actually from Cagayan, part of our zone. Lucky talaga. So I sent missionaries to Uncle Willy. It's a sisters area where he lives. I was talking to a missionary assigned there with Elder Erickson and he told me they actually met him. That's so cool. Except he wasn't really receptive. I took a picture with the sister missionaries so they can show him I'm in the Philippines.

Dad? Where was mama and papa born in the Philippines? I'm curious to know. So Laoag was pretty fun. It was like being on vacation. It was weird to actually be working with Elder del Rosario for a 2 days. It's so hard working there. It's super hot and there's no wind to cool us down like here in Santa Ana. So on wednesday when we had our trainer's training, me and Elder del Rosario decided to ride a calesa there. It was pretty funny and fun. We got to meet up with all our MTC batch. We also got to have lunch at Robinson's, a huge mall! Then afterwards, we had pizza at the mission home. Then, we went to Robinson's again to eat there! I thought the pizza was for dinner! I was so full when we got there so I just get shoving down the food.

So our first few days, we got new investigators already. All referrals. It's nice when things just happen like that. Hopefully we get them all baptized. We have to reach that goal of 1000 souls before the end of the year. Time flies so fast here especially when we're super organized. Anyways, I hope you are all doing well. I need to head back to the apartment to get some more rest. Love you all. Take care!

Elder Morales

Monday, May 20, 2013

Week #11: BACK to Laoag City and finally ate BIG MACssss!


Hello everyone!

So I'm here in Laoag. As promised by president Barrientos, I will be training. I will be meeting my new kasama (companion) this wednesday and will be travelling back to Santa Ana this thursday. So I'll be working in Laoag for a couple of days. By the way, I found contact lens cleaner. Don't need to send me any. Anyways, we had interviews this past week with president Barrientos. He asked me if I was good with computers, good with money, and can drive. So I told him yes to all then he told me he'll probably be putting me in the office in the near future. But training first daw. So I know what half my mission is going to be like. Apparently missionaries stay in the office for at least 6 months.
So this past week, while at church, there was a white guy! He's a cameraman for survivor. So that was pretty cool.
Unfortunately no pictures this week. I'll send it next week when I'm back in Santa Ana. The bus ride is super long. We had to leave sunday after to church to go to Magapit, where we stayed at the zone leaders place there overnight. We woke up at 4 am to get ready to catch the bus at 6 am. We finally arrived at Laoag at 1:00. While we were on the bus, this lady started preaching and praying. Me and Elder Castillo were saying we should give her a pamphlet and some of the sisters were saying we should give her a Book of Mormon. One of the sisters actually gave a pamphlet to the man sitting beside her. Oh, one of the pictures you put on my farewell video of Laoag has a long bridge beside the mountain. I've been on it! I just forgot to tell you. It's in Ilocos Norte on the way to Cagayan. It's actually a pretty famous bridge here. It's pretty scary riding on the bus, especially when riding around the mga bundok. (hills)
So now at Laoag, my temporary companion is... ELDER DEL ROSARIO manen. (again!) That's funny. 
Anyways, training should be interesting. I'm hoping to get an Ilocano companion so that way I'm compelled to learn Tagalog and Ilocano. If I have an american companion, the members will speak english instead. There's good in both sides. I just hope my Tagalog understanding gets better. Sometimes I understand really well, sometimes not. I'm good at speaking though. I really want to learn Ilocano though since alot of people in Santa Ana are purely Ilocano. This past sunday, we had to give talks and President Arreola, our branch president, asked us to try to speak in Tagalog. Obviously I can't.
Anyways, there's not that much interesting this past week. We had to stay inside because of elections. Monday we cooked spaghetti at a member's house. Thursday, we cooked pinapaitan at a member's home with beef, liver, tripe and intestine. I have pictures but I'll send next week. The pinapaitan was made with real ingredients instead of mama sita package. We used apdo to make it bitter.
We kept going to people's homes and they kept on feeding us mangoes. I've been eating so regular here that I lost weight. Sister Barrientos said I should drink more water so I've been doing that. While on the jeep yesterday, I saw a sign with the McDonald's logo on it and my mouth watered. Me and Elder Castillo were saying how we miss eating there so the first thing I did when I got to Laoag was eat Big Macs. Pretty unhealthy but it's ok once.

Anyways, everything is good here. The work is moving on but slowly. Hopefully it picks up in this new transfer. Love you all!!! At ingat kayo! (Take Care
Love
Elder Morales

Monday, May 13, 2013

Week #10: My Birthday Week

Before I post Chris letter... I want to just post up the bday cake the boys picked out for him. Leave it up to the boys!!!! LOL! It's his usual ice-cream cake but with a fun twist :)
The boys bought Chris a 'Princess' ice-cream cake for his bday and pretended it was for our little princess Esa

Esa got dressed for the part

She was extremely happy



Hello mom,

So this week I got to celebrate my birthday with certain members. We went to the Vitos family and brought little cupcakes. Then we went to the Abadicio family and had that rice inside the banana leaves. The sweet dessert thing. Today, we're supposed to go to the Ruaburo family. We're gonna be making pinapaitan for lunch. They told me to extend my birthday just so we can celebrate with them. Can you thank everyone for sending me b-day wishes?  

Anyways, this week of work is gonna be weird. We stayed in all day yesterday and we have to be back in apartment at 1 today. There's elections going on so no one to teach. We have to do a lot of finding this week. We running out of investigators and baptisms. Every person has an obstacle to overcome. That's the hardest thing here.

So by the way, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! Tell ninang and mama also for me please. It's too bad the phone just cut-off. No warning.

So anyways, this past week, i had the opportunity of showering with a huge spider. It wouldn't leave the bathroom! Kind of creepy. Also yesterday, while I was writing letters, the power was slowly going out. Then it finally did. I got to shower in the dark as well. We also ran out of tinapay and kanin so we had to improvise our lunch and dinner yesterday. Corn beef lang. It was odd. So we went to sleep early cause it was too hard to do anything without any light. Our candles died out too. So it was a fun night.

So this week, I'll be finding out what's happening for the transfer. I could be training or not. Most likely yes since that is what president Barrientos said. I will be living in Santa Ana for 6 months.

Unfortunately for me, they don't sell any electric razors here at Aparri. I'm surviving off a basic razor and shaving cream. There's no aftershave so my facial hair grows quite fast. I just gotta learn to survive for the meantime. Hopefully they have some in Laoag City. I'm supposed to be going back there next monday if I will be training. Hopefully those packages come in time.

Oh yes, when you do send a package or if anyone does, try to use LBC if there's valuables inside. Also, I need Opti-Free (Concact lense cleaner). Just send a whole bunch so I don't need to ask for it anymore. Also, ask uncle Rodel if he got my letter! Anywho, that's the story of the week! Take care and love you all!

Elder Morales

Monday, May 6, 2013

Week #9: What is that stinky smell?

This is what Chris wrote me after sending him a pic of his bday cake last year because he would be missing it!


Hello mommy,

Nice picture of the cake. I miss ice cream cake. I doubt they have that here. But we do have ice cream. Apparently the cake here is just tinapay with icing on top. But the tinapay(bread) is sweet here. We eat tinapay every day for breakfast. We have been eating a lit of kilawin din kasi maraming isda dito. So ano ang interesting this week. Oh, we were trying to find out kung bakit mabaho sa loob ng apartment namin.(Why it smells bad in the apartment)
 So, dahil ang maraming (because of so many) house lizards, we found some crushed between the door hinges. We had to scrape them off. Pretty gross.


 Yesterday, we ended up playing with the children as we waited for our branch president. I think i mentioned before, we have family home evening there every sunday night. They have their pamangkin (relatives) there din. It's pretty cool have relatives over for family home evening. You should do that there. Elder Polgo usually has games after the lesson so it's fun.

Anyways, the work here is slowing down unfortunately, walang talagang (there's no) baptisms for May because of difficulties so ngayon, nag-fifind kami.(now we are tracting) Kung walang investigators, walang baptisms.(if there's no investigators, there's no baptisms) So finding is important now. We are working hard with members to fellowship investigators. Pero (but) our area is so big. It's hard to bring members from one barangay (town) to another.

So for mother's day, you just gotta wait for my phonecall kasi we don't know what time we're calling. I'm only going to find out on thursday. Anyways, I have to keep this email short kasi walang  time this time. We're in Aparri right now.

Oh by the way, my charger on my shaver broke so I gotta buy a new one... Can you please put at least 50 in my bank card? Merci. Anyways, i love you all! Take care

Elder Morales

Sunday, May 5, 2013

SPECIAL MESSAGE to FAMILY and FRIENDS!

Hello!!!
This week on Thursday, May 9th is Elder Morales Birthday and we would be so happy
if you could drop him a quick email in his personal mail to greet him a happy birthday
short and sweet or a long letter if you wish. 

Anything will be appreciated
he is hoping to hear from you all and I'm sure he would appreciate it most if you can email him
this week. He will receive his email tonight before midnight and the following Monday next week.
Early or late, it's all good!
Thank you... i'm sure he will appreciate it as much as his refreshing watermelon below :)

Regards,
Morales Family


P.s You can now read all the following blogs to see his journey...which are finally updated in the few pages posted here.