We had a baptism this week! his name is Jericho Bibon 15 years old and he reminds me of Ryan Barnett. we have a super solid friendship. haha! he's one of my favorite converts because he's super funny and we're always sitting next to each other in sacrament meeting and having fun together.
After i baptized Jericho i wanted to yell into my towel. I was so stoked! Then the
following Sunday the bishop told me that Jericho wanted me to confirm him. I was so
scared haha! I've never confirmed anyone before in my life! It worked out well though.
This is our last baptism. Mariella May Ramos Cruz. I baptized and confirmed her. And that's our bishop crouching in the front. He's the old mission president of the Tacloban mission!
This is a view of the neighborhood that I live in. If you walk along the
river, you'll run into our street and then you turn left on our street and you'll find our house! Isn't that funny! haha! it looks so uninviting from the outside (and from the inside too) but it's a pretty cool neighborhood. it's always flooding and pretty often the river will flood over that wall and were stuck hahaha!
Me and Mister Buddy Reyes!! He gave me 1000 pesos haha! I told him not to but he forced it on me.
August 2, 2016
Hey family!! I got your package! it was so nice to get it and the timing was perfect! also the shoes fit me perfectly and are really cool! I wrote you guys a letter so hopefully you get it soon. I will send it tomorrow so it shouldn't take too long.
My new companion is elder Valencia from Bicol and he doesn't speak a lot of English.. which is a bummer because it's hard to talk to him for a long period of time but! he's super cool! we teach so well together. also a huge bonus is he's really good at cooking. He made Bicol express and chicken curry with fresh coconut milk we bought across the street. SO good! and now I know how to cook it too so hopefully I can somewhat emulate what he created the other day. I really hope that I remember all these cooking things. I want to cook for you guys when I come home! although it won't be as good as mom's cooking it will be better than my cooking before my mission haha!
It was so hard to have Elder Salisbury go. He was my best friend on the mission, and it's not like I'll see him in the future at mission meetings or anything. He's home now so I'll have to wait for when I'm home to see him again! It was pretty sad the first few days without him but I'm adjusted now. He's going to study at UVU right next to BYU so I bought a little coin purse here, wrote Sam's number inside of it, and told Elder Sals to give Sam a call when he gets home and deliver her the coin purse. haha! We'll see if it gets to her!
Mom, that book by Elder Groberg is an amazing book! Brother Olsen gave it to me to read before my mission. It helped me a lot actually and there are a lot of passages from that book that I remember that are very applicable to life right now in the field. I wrote you guys a letter kind of about that. pray that it gets to you! because I think I have sent some letters in the past that didn't get to you!
August 9, 2016
Hey family! I hope you guys had a good trip to Mex. That'd be cool if Jolie got some surf all on her own to try and shortboard. What board is she riding btw? Did you guys put a leash plug on my longboard yet? Also I hope this coming school year goes great, mom! I pray for you every night crisscross on the floor in front of my fan haha. It'll be nice to be so close to school.
August 16, 2016
hey family! this week was great! I had a visitor in the Quezon city third ward!!! Buddy Reyes!!! it was so cool to see him!! oh man if you guys ever see him in the near future make sure to tell him how good it was to see him!
Sounds like you guys had a great trip to Mexico. I wish I could have been there haha oh well I'll get there in 2 years.
I also wish I could get more done on pdays too, dad. Time is so fast on Mondays. We're not really allowed to go on hikes in this mission at any time so I don't think I'll be going on any hikes any time soon. If we want to go to a zoo or anywhere cool it has to be in our area, then even if it is in our area we have to text president for permission before we go do anything like that on a pday. hahaha he rarely allows us to "waste time" on pdays. Missionaries from the Philippines say that President Revillo is the most strict mission president in the Philippines haha. I don't doubt them but I also think it's good in some ways. We get a lot done and missionaries really learn to grow up with his strictness and we really work hard. although yes, dad I'm with you. I wish I could go on a hike too. Once a missionary asked him "President, can I read 'Jesus the Christ' by James E Talmage?" President said "Elders and Sisters, once you have 100 percent memorized the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel front to back, inside and out, you can read whatever you like" hahaha! it was his way of saying, read nothing except for the bom and pmg. Hes' so funny. Yeah I honestly learned to go with the flow. I love the scripture in the New Testament "Don't kick against the pricks" I try to remember that and accept things as they are.
Also our stake president surfs and he was telling me about Siargao and how there's
always surf there year round. I think we need to make a trip back someday
This week we had another baptism! I'll try and send you guys a lot of pictures but it was awesome. every time I baptize someone, and I dry off afterwards in the bathroom I wanna yell into my towel from excitement haha. And yes Jericho is so pumped on being a member now. almost every time I see him he says "Elder van! magmimisyon ako sa inyo. sa lugar ninyo ha!"(I will go on a mission and I'll be going to your place) haha He reminds me so much of Ryan or Jacques Barnett. We have our own secret handshake and we're always joking around with each other. I hope he serves in the California San Fernando Mission! Chances are slim but I'm hoping.
