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)