well yesterday was mother's day for me here and i got to call my mom today, it was good hearing how things are going back at home and good being able to talk to her.
yesterday was also the manny pacquio mosley fight and no one does anything when there's a pacquio fight here. seriously, they love him. we only got 3 lessons after working all day. but we still made it to 30 lessons, which is 5 above the standard again. so far, i've either made or beat the standard every week. we also got 7 new investigators last week and we didn't even tract at all, we just found them. hopefully a few of them progress, because we had a baptism last week and 2 baptisms tomorrow. last week was RR and his father baptised him and this week is brother hermann (the gardener at the mission home) and sister Ina (16 year old who is pregnant (that still only counts as one )) so we'll need to find more to keep above the standard.
i gave a CD of a bunch of my pictures to a member of 5th ward to try to upload to my photobucket. hopefully he'll be able to upload a few pictures to it. so far i hven't seen anything yet. i also gave another member a big list of American bands to look up because he wanted some American songs. i'm hoping to here some of those songs around town before i go home.
some things about the philipines; everything is counterfeit, i bought some fake oakleys and ray bans from some guy on the street for 70 pesos (like 2 dollars) so before i come home, i am going to buy soooooooo many fake sunglasses here and sell them when i get home. they also have fake hollister and A&F clothes, so i might buy those, but only if i have enough weight left over to carry them on the plane. i bought some nice belts, they are made out of caribou horns and cut and polished like dominoes and then put together with 100+ lbs fishing line. imagine spanking your kid with that belt! that reminds me about the wooden wath that i wanted to get, they don't have it here but they have it in Arizona i think. by the way, i've seen name brand watches here that look just like my JF watch (that is half broken) my watch is still cooler though. i wish i could get a new JF watch. there are also pretty cool ties here, especially the skinny ties. they aren't my style, but they'll make for good souvenirs. before i go home, if you want a souvenir, just let me know and send me a few bucks.
this week, i had splits with elder spackman (my district leader) and they had a bunch of chickens next door, one got into our backyard and i was trying to catch it so i could cook it. those things can really fly, like as in N64 Zelda: ocarina of time flying when you hit the chicken like 20 times. it was scary. i wish i had a crossbow so i could just shoot it and be done with it. i hate chickens now, they're way too loud.
oh and i've eaten plenty of different parts of chickens. specifically; liver, head (including the eyes and brain), intestines, feet, and neck, oh and i once ate a baby (balut) also pigs feet. i've stopped getting disgusted by things. just looking at our bathroom would make an American cry the toilet has no seat and stuff kinda grows around it. and the sewers here are ditches literally, they're only covered at the entrances. and the water that we use is black/brown, i baptized Riaphen in black water (no joke) i'll be thankful for hygeinics when i go back home but right now i've given up on feeling clean anymore. i gave up the first day i came here. they also cook thing with fire so you always feel dirty with smoke. i'm so thankful for AC, washing machines, dryers, clean water, reliable electricity, and tooth paste.
they do have trash cans, but they still burn in anyways so i don't know why... they reuse tires for everything; trash can, that's a tire, planting pot, that's a tire, stepping stone, that's a tire filled with cement, speed bumps, that's a tire, bike brakes, that's a tire (that they push with their feet) , tire, that's a reused tire.
i live across the street from Imperial Court. i have no idea what a court is except that something sexual goes on inside of it. there are a lot of transvestites here, so that might have something to do with it. if you can find that on google maps, then you can find me. i still don't know the streets because i don't look or ask but also because they don't really have signs.
being an American here is like being a celebrity. they can tell that i'm an American from 50 yards away at night while i'm on a jeepnie. girls hit on me all the time, kids follow me (which sometimes gets annoying because they'll sometimes ask for money, and they also play with bugs) and boys are normally cool but sometimes i'll get one that says something insulting to me and it's a challenge not to throw his face into the sewer.
i normally eat with utensils but at certain places (like mang inasal) you just use your hands. mang inasal is really good, i'm not sure what exactly they use as the dipping sauces but you mix soy sauce, vinegar, oil, chilis, and some lime thingy and use that to dip the chicken in. at least that's what i think the stuff is. they have unlimited rice packed in a banana leaf as well (the banana leaf does nothing it's just a plate) another good restaurant is jollibee.
it rains here a lot, One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night...
one thing i've heard from other missionaries is that if someone sends you something, have them place a picture of jesus on the outside so that the workers are guilted into not stealing from your box. but one of the main things i need is good strong socks. those would probably not be stolen anyways.
also, if anyone could e-mail me "Handels' messiah" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in MP3 format, that would be greatly appreciated. i can't get it on flash drive from here because i only use internets cafes. (that thing al gore invented)
oh, by the way, my mom is keeping the truck for me because my brother bought a new one. but no one is going to be driving it, so it'll just sit there. i'm sure that it'll need to have some stabilizer put in it because if not, the fluids inside it would get messed up. if anyone knows what to do about that, please talk to here about that, thank you.
oh and if you'll notice, i've quoted like 10 different movies in my blog in the past month.
well that's all for this week. thanks for the support. see you all later.
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