Feb 28: Chatter

You are really depriving me mom by not sending those stories about our ancestors. I really loved that last one and was looking forward to getting another this week. I print them off and read them at anther time so I can spend more time writing you.

I am still leaning towards the project in Cebu, just because I have not other plans after my mission besides apply for school for next year. It is hard to decide right now anyway with much information, but there is a chance I will not get funding so we will see how that goes.

This last Saturday, we had two baptisms, Rose and Marty. It is pretty crazy that we are in charge of two wards, the local family ward of Sampaloc and the university ward for singles (it is the only singles ward in the Philippines). Marty is a student how approached the missionaries after being taught in his home province. Rose is a house-help of one of the members. They both have strong testimonies and may both leave soon.

I am in downtown Manila now, and I thought I would hate it, but I really don't mind it. Our area is in the center of a bunch of colleges so we have the institute building in our area, therefore, there is a student ward here. It is really fun.

We are teaching this amazing referral family that is so ready for baptism. And perhaps best of all, four deft ladies. I may wonder how we can teach them. I wonder such when I arrived here, but the gift of tongues is more correctly the gift of languages and communication. So with that, we are just learning sign language as we teach. It is really fun, but difficult. Kathy is the oldest one and has a kid who is also deft. She has somehow graduated from college and is progressing the fastest. I think that she will be baptized first because she already has a strong testimony and the others don't pick it up so fast.

We have been so busy that we have been doing a lot of running. Imagine two white guys in ties and slacks running down the street at 9:00 at night. Elder Thorne is a really funning elder who I have know my entire mission, but never expected to become his companion. He is from Orem, Utah and in spite of his leaving soon, he stays really focused.