no baptisms this week, looking forward to a few soon!
i have a new companion this week his name is elder woodford, he's from australia (he's only said crinkey like 2 times). i am still in 5th ward. out of 4 missionaries, i'm the only person who stayed in this area. so i've really had to step up this past week, even though i'm a junior now, i feel like a senior. mainly because i've been making all the decisions because i know the area. It's really made me work a lot harder this week. because it's given me motivation to do my best because i'm the only one who knows anything about anyone here. i'm no longer following but leading. every day when i wake up, i go straight to the area book and update it and look through it until studies and then go to work and when i get back, i go back to the area book until i go to bed.
good idea for care packages, black slacks. (or monies into the personal fund) because the slacks here are too expensive to buy with what i have. i only have three, so i'm wearing the same clothes a few days in a row.
P-day we do the normal studying and then go to an internet cafe, and e-mail for a while. then go to mang inasal or some other restaurant. we then head to the store to buy groceries and print out pictures. head back home and do laundry and go back to work.
since the MTC, i have lost 50 pounds! a few days ago, i weighed myself and was down to 190. but i've since eaten some food and am probably back to around 205. i account this to all the walking and the lack of food. because we have to budget very thriftily, our meals are about 90% rice and 10% sudan (hiligaynon for whatever you eat with rice) so we have plenty of carbs and we get free centrum complete so it's a good diet but lacking in the protein area. hopefully i don't lose much muscle mass. that'll be something i need to fix when i get home.
there are a lot of dogs walking around in the streets, one of them got hit in front of our house and woke us up because it cried until it died. it's dangerous for dogs to be in the streets but that's where they live. there are also a lot of kids walking around in the streets, it's scary because in my area, they live right next to the highway and the semi trucks go like 50 miles an hour only a few feet from their houses.
there was this one naked baby (they let their kids walk around naked because it's hot) just walking around in the middle of the night right next to the freeway. it's scary to think about what can happen here. this place may be bleak at times but it's not that bad here, it sounds bad, but that's how they live and they thrive here so it's their way of life.
many things about their culture are confusing to american, but i've sorta adjusted to how it is here. one thing that an american may think is weird here is that for funerals, they have the dead body lay in a public place (normally a church, in a coffin) for 41 days. and in those 41 days, the family is not supposed to sleep. the only way they can stay awake is to gamble, so where ever there is gambling, there is either a dead body or a carnival. because gambling is illegal here except during funerals and at festivals. that's why they have a lot of festivals here, there were like 5 parades in front of our apartment last transfer (so like a festival every week)
even though it is a very difficult challenge to try to adjust here, i am enjoying my time with the people here. there are a great many of them that i have grown to be good friends with in this ward. it will be sad to transfer out of this ward.
oh i got a picture with a money on my back, he's a pet of one of our recent converts and i gave him my name tag and he tried eating it. i have a picture of it but the internet cafe that i'm at can't read my SD card, too bad. maybe next time. it's a cute picture. NEVERMIND picture time, i'll try getting all my pictures up next week. Elder Woodford's camera actually works with this cafe!
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