Pics from Santiago Zone Con

81: Food so Good it Makes you Wanna Vomit

So, I realize that in these emails, I've spent a decent amount of time almost bragging about the weird foods I've been eating here in the Philippines. I've had hard-boiled egg with the embryo inside, I've had chicken head, chicken feet, basically any cut of chicken the butcher just throws away in America. I'm not gonna lie, I was getting a little too big for my britches. I haven't really gotten that sick ever on my mission, besides a few cases of pretty serious loose bowel movement. I had some sort of steel lined stomach, or so I thought ...

Thursday morning, I got up and decided I would try using this ab-roller doohickey we've got laying around the apartment.

Mistake.

I tried to do three "rolls," but if we're being honest, not one of them counted for anything. And to make matters worse, my nice belly I've been cultivating for a year and a half was sore for the rest of the day. I didn't think too much about it and just went to work (and eat) as normal. I didn't even eat anything that weird, just some chicken adobo for lunch, and then a recent convert gave us soup as a snack. it was pretty good, but I was feeling REALLY full. Elder Pamp- pamp and I were just walking down the road with our fellowshippers,  and Pamp turns to me and says, "Elder, are you feeling okay?" I responded by vomiting.

I got gatorade, which came right back up, so I said "Ok, be that way," and sipped some water and slept.

I blame the ab roller.

Besides that, this week was pretty good! It was my Mom's birthday this week, so anyone who forgot, here's your late reminder to say happy birthday. When I called home on her birthday, she said that her birthday wish was for me to take a picture of us at dinner with members later that day. In honor of said wish, here is said picture:

Happy birthday, mom.

Here is a picture of Elder Pamp and I on Thursday, before the vomiting:

The Philippines is pretty, and I feel kinda bad for throwing up on it. Elder Pampliwhoosit is a trooper and I'm lucky to have him.

Love,
-Elder Menzie

Tagalog, in a word:
nagsuka ako dalawang beses noon Huwebes -- I threw up twice on thursday

Week 80: Keep Fishin'

This week was Transfers! Companionship ended with Elder Walker. Now Elder Pampliega is my companion. That's kinda a mouthful though, so you can just call him Elder Pamp-Pamp for short. He's great. He's from Bacolod, which is a place in the Philippines that most of you have never heard of. Here's a picture of us at dinner:

We went back to Sinili this sunday, except this time we visited the Gregorio Family's farm, or, as the natives call it, bukid. They've got a fish pond on their bukid, so naturally, we tried to catch some:

Look at that posture! The poise! Wait. It looks like there's something on the line! lets see if I got anything!

WOW! look at the size of him! It's a good thing I was strong enough to pull him out of the water.

We caught a few more fish, and then we had a boodle fight, which is where you put your food on banana leaves and it's just a free for all. It was pretty darn good.

I'm grateful for the opportunities I have to meet these people, and enjoy their culture while trying to help them find the way to lasting happiness. Jesus Christ is the way. I love being able to see people change their lives through his grace.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Week 79.5: Pictureshow extravaganza Part 2!!! "One of the Biggest Dams in Southeast Asia"

So, earlier today we had a district activity at this place called Magat Dam.

The dam itself was kind of lame, but the district activity was fun

We played this game called kill, which sounds morbid, but it was really fun. the way it works is you've got to pass the ball around the circle, and someone has to kick or headbutt the ball 3 times before anyone can catch it, at which point they can throw it at anyone. Like this:

I got killed in the butt :(

Part 2 was pretty short, but I figured my mom would like more pictures.

Love,

Elder Menzie

Week 79: Pictureshow extravaganza!!! The Many Travels of Elder Menzie

Hey folks, a lot has happened this week, so I've got a reasonable amount of pictures for you. Try and keep up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride...

I went on splits in cabarroguis again this week! I was with Elder Adams again, and it was a really fun day. Here's a picture:

Here's a picture of one of my favorite views in this area:

That's a barangay called Sinili. I like it quite a bit because it's out in the barrio, which is the Tagalog word for waaaaaaaaayy out in the flippin boonies. I like the rice fields, the mountains out in the background, and that carabao is like the cherry on top.

That's not the only reason I like Sinili though. If you remember my emails like an elephant, you'd remember in October when Daisy Gregorio got baptized. She's great, and from Sinili. We've been teaching her family for a little bit, and they're the reason Sinili is my favorite.

The whole family is so cool. Nanay and Tatay (Mom and Dad) Gregorio are the best. It's been so cool to see them grow in humility and faith, as well as seeing that manifest in their obedience to commitments we give and the commandments of God. Nanay has pretty much become my grandma in this area. She told Daisy (who told us) that Nanay basically said that we're a couple americans in the philippines. We're visitors in a country far away from our families, and that's hard, so she's made it her responsibility to take care of us. This means she feeds us a lot. I love these people soooooooooooooooo much.

We had 2 baptisms this week:

Clarissa and Westley got baptized this week, which is something else that made me very happy. Clarissa is 22 and a college student here in Santiago. We're technically the ones who taught her and did the paperwork for the mission office and everything, but honestly, she's got a really good friend who referred her to us, and he's done most of the work.

Westley is 11, 355 days younger than my brother, Wesley, and just about as tall as Clarissa. He's been feeding me memes while his family has been feeding me fried grasshoppers, and he is great.

That's all the pictures that can fit in one email ... what can be done?

TO BE CONTINUED . . . .

Week 78: Happy New Year Po

This week was a good one. It was new years this week, and like last year, we had to be in the apartment by 5pm  because the Philippines is too good at celebrating New Years for the Mission to be comfortable having us work, and I'm gonna be honest, I did not understand it at all last year. Nothing really happened, and we just chilled during the curfew.

This year though our apartment is in the city, and pretty darn close to the main highway, so there were a LOT of people shooting off pretty intense fireworks. It was good that we had somebody drive us home, mostly because it was a member named Brother Acosta and his car was really nice, and less because of the fireworks. We had an early dinner at their house before curfew (which was delicious) and so he just drove us home after, because he's a very nice man.

Aren't they cute? They even got us Cherry Dr Pepper because they're just the best.

Anywho, I mostly spent the curfew playing games and reading the Old Testament, not super eventful. We went to bed at the normal time, and I remember having the distinct thought that it was going to be pretty hard to fall asleep because of the fireworks, but sleep prevailed, until about midnight, when there was a cacophony of BIG fireworks that woke me right up. It was pretty darn cool, except for the bit that I was trying to get my beauty sleep.

This was the next morning:

That's a bunch of used fireworks just chillin in the street.

This week we had meetings in Cauayan again, and there were several people who came in the mission with me there, and I'm not really sure when I'm gonna see them again, So we snapped a picture for posterity's sake:

Aren't they good lookin? It feels like we were just in the MTC yesterday, trying to figure out how to say anything in Tagalog, and now look at us. We still don't really know what we're doing, but we're pretty darn close to going home, so there's that.

Remember the Acosta family from the first picture? That girl sitting across from me is named Dana, and she had a birthday this week and it was crazy.

That's right, Elder Menzie dusted off his black tie and slacks, threw on a short-sleeved shirt and a nametag, and was easily the worst dressed person at the whole party. It was a thrill, and the food was great.

New Years in the Philippines overall is 10/10, would recommend, and it would probably be even more enjoyable if I wasn't a missionary and could just light off fireworks with all the crazy filipinos. But being a missionary is good.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Tag-lish Because Why Not:
Happy New Year Po -- Happy New Year (with a respect particle comparable to the word "sir" or "ma'am" maybe)