Balut!

HEY GUYS! How's it going? We're at the internet
cafe now sending our emails. Sorry I didn't get a
chance to yesterday, the emails weren't working
so we had to wait till today. We're sending them right
before we go out to work, so i didn't bring my camera
with me.

So i guess i'll start with Friday and what we did that day.

Friday:

So what we did was go to zone meeting, where we
got to know the zone, and who everyone was and
whatnot. I am in the Las Pinas zone, and Elder Guarino
and I both live with the zone leaders, they are Elder
Jimenez and Elder Gamalo. So I'm the only white guy
in our apartment!
There's only 5 white people in our zone out of I think
about 16-20 of us. So it's pretty kool. It can get hard
sometimes because I don't understand everything that's
going on because it's mostly all in tagalog. It's awesome
though. I love it! Anyways, also on friday,after zone meeting
we had dinner at Maninasa, they have unlimited rice there,
sooooo that's pretty much why we went. I got chicken, and
some other stuff, I can't remember what. haha. It was great
though! Then after we got back, we went out and contacted
old investigators. One of them we found was actually too
young to be taught and we need her parentspermission
so she could be taught further. Everyone else we kind of
just fellowshipped and got to know them and of course
review what they had been taught. And that was about it
for that day. It takes us about 45 minutes to walk to and
from our proselyting area, so it's pretty far.... Everywhere
else we take the trike or jeepnii, which are both super fun.

Saturday:

So on Saturday that was our day where were out the most.
We got up, had exercise, got ready for the day, have personal
study from 8-9, C.S (Companion study) from 9-10, then
language study from 10-11, then we have lunch, then
we're out till 8 when we come back for supper, unless we
eat out or have a DA, which happened that day. So we had
our DA with a family called the Yangs from 7-8, then we
had to walk back to our house. which took about an hour.

Sunday we had gotten up, we have sacrament at 1 so we
studied a lot that morning, then finished church at 5
because we have corellation after everything is done.
San Pedro 2nd is a really kool ward. I had to bear my
testimony and introduce myself and whatnot. The only thing
I'm kinda disappointed in is that all the hymns are all in
english. And so are the sacrament prayers. After singing
in the MTC in tagalog for 9 weeks I never get to do it in
the field which is too bad, some of the hymns are really
awesome in tagalog.

Monday, we had a district meeting in the morning,
which took about an hour to get to. we finished at
about 11, then went to festival mall for lunch and grocery
shopping. We ate at Chow King. Elder Guarino and
I both had this sweet and sour pork which was awesome!
Everything here is actually great. I love it a lot! Then we got
groceries and had to carry them back by bus and trike, which
was fun. Lol. Then we got back, took a nap, studied, had
supper. I accidently ate this really hot pepper and my mouth
was actually on fire. It wasn't fun.

Anyways awesome that you talk to Elder Leishman
and Elder Andrus's mom, they were like my best friends
in the MTC. I miss them a lot. Their area is about 4 hours
from where I'm at, so I probably won't see them, which is too bad.
There's always after the mission though. I'm already used to the
climate change now. I'm used to the sweating all
the time thing now, so that's all good. The driving here is
crazy! I saw a motorcycler driving through cars yesterday
on the wrong side of the road. It was awesome, but probably
one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen done in real life!
We do have to do our laundry ourselves, that's what I did a lot
yesterday, which I forgot to mention it takes a while. We don't have
any investigators with a baptismal date yet. It's cuz we're both new
missionaries to this area, so we're getting to know everyone still
and whatnot. It's going great though. Everything is going great
with Elder Guarino and I, He's really funny and knows a lot. It's too
bad he leaves in 5 weeks though. :( He has taught me a lot about tagalog.

About balut... it is BAWAL in the Manila
mission, meaning FORBIDDEN. There's a few things
that are forbidden because missionaries get sick from them.
Every morning though there is a guy at about 7 in the morning
screaming "BALUT" because he just walks around and sells it.
It's funny. There's no rain at all here. Not
yet. We watch general conferance the week after it airs,
so don't tell me anything about it, cuz i won't have seen it yet. Lol.

Anyways, like I said, everything here's great. I love it, there
hasn't been anything I really didn't like about my mission yet.
It's really nice. Wala Complaints. It's funny how you brought
that up. That was one of the last things Elder Andrus and I
spoke about, and how it's always good to be positive.

I gotta get going now, so I'll send an email next week,
which should be a bit longer and actually have pictures.
Speaking of which how should I send my card home?
Let me know what you think! Thanks For everything guys!
And please wish Theresa a Happy Birthday from me. I
didn't forget, i just didn't get a chance to email yesterday.
So yea...Please tell her all the best! Thanks for everything guys!

Mahal

Elder Gagnon