Hey! it was so good to get to hear yalls voices! Anyways to answer your questions, my comp is tongan not filipino and his name is Elder Holoia, my first area is occidental mindoro... remember that island away from manila? Yep that island... its pretty much unheard of for someone to get to go there for their first area and missionaries are lucky if they get to go at all to mindoro. So President HoChing must really like me! The van ride to the mission prez's home was crazy! The drivers are crazy, the j-walkers are crazy! The lanes here are about half of what they are in the US and i was basically flinching the whole way there because of how close we got to hitting pedestrians and other cars and trikes. We got our assignmets from the Prez and went to the zone leaders apartment in Quezon to sleep and then in the Morning we went to the airport to fly to Mindoro. Oh the city I'm serving in is called San Jose. The apartment is good and we get 2 pads instead of mattresses and no blanket. Thats ok though cause we need two fans blowing on us at night cause its so hot. It turns out that right now the philippines are in the middle of the hot dry season and the rainy season doesnt start till April or May. The shower is a bucket in the bathroom with a drain so we fill it up and dump it on us to shower, of course with soap and shampoo. The people here are really friendly and happy. The only time ive seen kids in america this happy is at christmas. We have taught a few people so far, and we have a baptism on Saturday and another for next month! The people here are soooo humble! Divide our house by about 10 and thats about how big the average house is. Saturday we had to put up a new roof for a member family with 20 people living in one house! The people and kids are nice tho and my new favorite fruit is wild grown mangoes. Sacrament was good and we had about a hundred people there. The church building is nice and has a full size basketball court outside so all the kids and teens come out to play everyday except Sunday. Oh this one family that we found and are teaching we visited yesterday, and i tried to give my part in Tagalog and i thought i did well then afterward my comp said he asked her if she understood me and she said very little but she felt the spirit and the spirit told her what i was trying to say. It was so cool.
So to get to some places too far away to walk or if we need to get there fast we take a trike. A trike is a regular motorcycle or dirt bike and they put this rig on it so it has a sidecar and people can also sit sideways behind the driver. Well i hope I answered all of your questions and know that i love you guys and i love it here. It is hard but it is worth every little bit of it. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you all next week . Mahal Kita!!!
Love,
Elder Robbins
This is what a trike looks like in the Philippines... I have to giggle at the thought of Justin sitting in the sidecar with his knees up to his chin!
I would love to see a photo of Justin in that trike:)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mel! :) That would be an entertaining sight! Sounds like he is having fun! I am so proud of that cousin of mine! :) And good job for getting that button on here! I tried it and it works!
ReplyDeleteThis is so neat. I'm jealous that it's warm there, but I'm grateful for my mattress and blankets (and easy access to Cafe Rio).
ReplyDeleteJustin sounds like a good missionary. You should be really proud of him.