Week 21: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

So now, after 21 weeks, Elder Menzie is a bona fide, real time, not being trained, missionary in the Cauayan Philippines Mission. What a time to be alive.

This Tuesday, we got the text that my trainer, Elder Leausa, was getting transferred to Santiago, which is one of the biggest cities in the mission, as a zone leader, because he's like the best or something. I also find out, however, that Elder Anderton, who trained my MTC companion, got transferred here to Aurora.

It was kind of sad going around to some of the families that we were close with and hearing Elder Leausa say goodbye, but I wasn't leaving, so in a more real way, it wasn't very sad at all.

Elder Anderton is great. He's 17 months into the mission now, and he's pretty much fluent in Tagalog, and he's pretty darn good at illicano, which is a dialect that they speak a lot here. I've already learned a lot from him. Especially about offering help to everyone we talk to, just to show that we're not just here to talk the talk about being representatives of Christ, we really try to walk the walk in everything we do.

Illicano One: A Dialect Story:
Besset Lang -- Just a little (usually in reference to how much illicano I know)

Where are my pictures?!
Next week, this netshop sucks.

Love,
Elder Menzie

PS. My Thanksgiving Dinner consisted of adobo chicken, sardines with egg and a Coke.

Pic from Brother Mora:

Elder Anderton, the Moras and Elder Menzie

Week 20: Zone Leader Splits and Elder Wakolo's Mission Tour

This week has been a pretty crazy fun week for the Elders in Aurora!

For starters, on Tuesday, we didn't have District Meeting because this week we had Zone Conference with Elder Wakolo, who is a member of the area presidency here in the 'pines.

So instead of going to district meeting on Tuesday, the Zone Leaders came to our area for splits, but the thing is, our Zone Leader is training Elder Finau, who came into the mission with me, so Elder Leausa and Elder Finau worked together, and I worked with Elder Perez, the Zone Leader.

I'm sure Elder Finau and Elder Leausa were the sight to behold when they were walking down the streets of Aurora, because they are the two biggest Elders in the mission, both with full ride scholarships to D1 schools for football. When people see them walk by, the say "Ang 'laki tao!" which roughly translated means "the big person!"

Working with Elder Perez was great though! he taught me about expounding on scriptures I use, and basically just showed me how it's done in the general sense. He's super funny too. He's a native Filipino, but he's super good at english, and he wowed me by being the first person I've met in the mission who's seen Sons of Provo, which, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, is a really weird movie about a fake boy band from Utah, and all their songs are about the Gospel and weird things about "mormon" culture.

Splits were great, but it was super great on Thursday to make the trek to Illagan to Zone Conference to hear Elder and Sister Wakolo speak to us. They were great! Elder Wakolo is super knowledgeable in the scriptures, which kind of blew my socks off. He went through 24 sets of missionaries, and for 8 years he investigated the church, and now he's a general authority. He's great.

Also this less active guy that we're pretty good friends with named Louis is going on a trip back to his homeland! I'm sharing this because Louis reminds me of a Filipino version of Mr. Bean mixed with Mr. Magoo, with the mouth of a sailor. He's great. I hope he has a good trip.

Love,
Elder Menzie

The three of us from District 16d from the Provo MTC at the Illagan Zone Conference

The Boyz at Zone Con

Week 19: I've Been Working on the Coooooncrete, All the Live-long Day

This week has been a good, hard week for the Elders in Aurora! Probably the biggest thing we did this week is we helped one of the people we're teaching mix concrete for the roof of his house. It was awesome!

We got up at 6:30 on Saturday, and were at Boyet's (our Investigator) house at 7:30 to do our job. Basically what we did was first, got a bunch of dirt and rocks from a big ole pile Boyet had in front of his house and transported it with buckets (harder than it sounds) to the concrete porch he has, where we mixed it in with cement powder, and then scooped it into a dish-like shape to put the water in. Then, after waiting a little bit for the water to soak in, we took the dry concrete on the outside, and mixed it into the middle, where all the water was (also harder than it sounds). After that feat of strength, we scooped it into a bucket, which got pulled up to the roof.

And we did that for about 12 hours.

It was super fun though. Elder Finau and Elder Perez came over to help us in the morning, but they had to leave at like 12:30 because they had an appointment. It was actually super good to have them there though, because Elder Finau is from Hawaii, and right in Boyet's yard there were coconut trees, which just so happened to be being picked while we were working. They gave us a couple coconuts, Elder Finau cut it open like a champ, and we drank right out of it. Not gonna lie, after mixing concrete, it was just about the best thing in the world.

Elder Leausa and Boyet on top of Boyet's house

So we did all that, went home and when we woke up on Sunday, we were both dead, but had to get to church at 8:30.

I love it.

Love,
Elder Menzie

The Tagalog Awakens:
Gusto ko na mapagtotoo sinabi kasama ko ay totoo -- I'd like to testify what my companion said is true

Week 18: In the Eye of the ~sPoOKy~ Storm

Hello, hello, before we even start this one off for real, I just gotta tell you, this has been one of those real crazy weeks. Like I said at the end of last week's email, we had a typhoon this week, and while this one wasn't quite as powerful as the last one, the eye of the storm was A LOT closer to my area, so we felt this one a little harder than the last one.

Last Sunday, 2 sets of elders got evacuated to our apartment from their area. It was so fun to have roommates, because it's usually just me and Elder Leausa in the apartment. They stayed in Aurora for P-day on Monday, and then, Monday night into Tuesday, we got smacked by the Typhoon.

It started on Monday night, when I woke up in the middle of the night, like last time, to find that my fan was off because of a brown out, except this time I wasn't sweating, I was freezing cold, because my bed is right next to the window, and there were some powerful winds hitting my feet while I was trying to sleep. Not cool. We were stuck in the house all day on Tuesday waiting for the typhoon to stop.

By Wednesday, the winds and rain had all stopped, and we went out to look for a service project. Luckily, the Buduans, a less active family in our area, were happy to oblige. They had a big ole tree that had fallen in their backyard, so the six of us took some knives and got to work chopping it all up.

It was WORK! And when we were finished, we remembered we didn't have any water or electricity at home, so we were gonna stink. Tender mercy though, because when we got back home, the water was on, so we didn't have to be all stinky.

On Saturday, we went out to Roxas, the area right next to us, to help them with a service project. Roxas had been all flooded, and we went to a house where the entire front lawn had been turned into a giant mud pit. We got to work shoveling rocks and making a path for them to get back into their house, and giving them buckets of cement so they could fix up the damage inside. It was also work, but I got a nice tan, so I can't really complain.

I love serving these people, and I really hope they can all get back on their feet, with a little help from their friendly neighborhood missionaries.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Return of the Tagalog:
Meron -- Yes, I have [whatever it is you asked if I had]

Chopping the fallen tree at the Buduan's 

Making a path to the house in Roxas