"You could eat like a bean and you'd be fine. I need food, real food!" -Scotty (Star Trek)

(This is Frasier's email from 10/22/17.  I'll post his one from yesterday tomorrow or Wednesday.)

The explanation to that email title is this: 

We were talking about food at the apartment one night. Elder Temple and I were talking about how we are always hungry. No matter what we buy at the store we are always still hungry, and by the time we get home, we don't want to eat anything we have or put forth the effort to make anything that we have. I resorted to buying myself brownie mix last week. When I made the brownies I had the intention of sharing, but I ended up eating them all in less than a day. Other than that I feel like I have been doing a pretty good job at eating and diet. I went through and inventoried my food yesterday and this is what I had: 1 egg, 1 leftover pancake, half a block of cheese, some leftover bread, a ramen packet, and some syrup. I was super hungry so I ended up toasting some bread and putting syrup on it for dessert.  Sunday nights are rough as far as food goes. 

The other half of the email title is this: All Filipinos eat is rice. My companion will have a huge plate of rice, a little bit of meat, and that's it. Basically, "you could eat a bean and you'd be fine".

Speaking of food. I have already found a few things that I really like that I will bring home and make you all try. One of my favorites is called "Tocino". I don't know how to describe it other than it is like a pork with a caramely sauce on the outside. Also, mogu mogu is awesome. It is this drink that they only have here in the Philippines. It is lychee flavored coconut water with coconut chunks in it. It is pretty much second in line to be the official drink sponsor of heaven. (Right behind Mountain Dew). The only problem is everything is served on rice, so you will have to find a substitute if you don't like rice. (Sorry Dad).

This week was pretty awesome! Although all weeks in a mission are awesome. First off, I've got to the point where "I'm having fun". It's still not easy, but I have reached the point where I am excited to go out and teach. It's more just because I have gotten to know the people, I think. I just do a lot of listening and almost no talking. Some of these people are just awesome. There's no other way to describe it. You can feel their desire to have something more. It's just the trick of getting them to come to church now.

We went on splits twice this past week. One of the times (the other companionship) both of them came and stayed at our apartment because we had mission tour the next day. Even though I'm still the newbie, I was in charge of planning and getting us around places because it is my area. That's where it all goes wrong. I have no idea what we are doing. At one point we ended up on the other side of Cauayan from where we were supposed to be. (Don't make two neighborhoods with the same name in the same city). We talked to and met some people though, so it wasn't all too bad. We then went to an area and got done about 45 minutes early before we had to go back to the apartment. I was trying to think of things to do to fill the time. We walked out of the neighborhood and then I remembered an older lady who is a member who asked us like 2 weeks ago to give her husband a blessing, but he was asleep when we got there so we didn't give it to him then. 

Anyway, I remembered that, so we walked all the way through the neighborhood to the other side, asked the lady if he still could use a blessing, and we gave him one. I don't know what was wrong with this guy, but he was in bad shape. He couldn't even move and had sores all over.  He couldn't really talk either. We walked in and out of nowhere he sits up, shakes our hand, and asks us why we didn't come yesterday. We just kind of laughed it off and said that we decided to come today. (Keep in mind he is still out of it.)  I gave him a blessing, and then we left. Nothing much to it. I didn't really even feel anything that special about it. We then keep on walking around to try and fill the time.

The next day is the mission tour. (I'll talk about that in a sec. One of the main points is being a good missionary though.)  After the mission tour we go out to teach for the rest of the day. We walk past a member's house, so we go and say hi.  As we are leaving, one of the members said: "Did you hear that Tatay Fugaban passed away this morning?" Then it hit me that was the man I gave a blessing to last night.  First of all, I'm glad I was able to give him a blessing...for him and his family. Second, I hope I didn't kill him. 

Then I started to think about it more. I would have been so guilty if I had just been like, "Oh we can go home a little bit early."  I glad I listened to the spirit even though I had no idea it was the spirit at the time.  Also, he said, "Why didn't you come yesterday?" That could have just been coincidence, but to me with everything else working out how it did with that situation, I think he was just waiting for us to come and then he was ready to move on. I don't know if it is appropriate to say that experience was "crazy", but the more I think about it, the more it is!

The mission tour was great! Elder Bowen of the Seventy basically just spoke to us for 5 hours, but it was the best 5 hours ever.  He talked about how he thinks our mission is a good mission, but we could still be a great one. Basically, he wants us to be exactly obedient in everything that we can be obedient in, and work our butt's off...even harder than we are right now. The second half he talked about the Abrahamic Covenant, the House of Israel, and the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood.  I don't know how one person could have so much knowledge about such a mind blowing subject, but he does. I would recommend everyone studies the Abrahamic Covenant. It's pretty special what we are all able to receive through that covenant. Just follow the oath and covenant and we'll be good!

That extremely oversimplified for how amazing that meeting was. It made me immodestly want to be a better missionary. One other curious thing that was he told the sister not to marry a guy if they don't know where to find the oath and covenant, and what it means. He also then told us that we should be looking to revive the fullness of blessings as soon as we can (get married as soon as we can is what he implied). That goes against what most people say which is to wait a little bit of time after your mission before you "get hitched".

(Added by Alayna.  That probably goes against his mother's advice too!!!)

One elder told me while we were having lunch, "There are still things for you to be doing right now. If God wanted you to be able to speak to the people, you would most definitely be able to speak, but he needs you to do something else right now." That really struck a chord with me.

I had a one-on-one time with one of the assistants. His name is Elder Uy. He is a really funny guy, but absolutely knows his stuff when it comes down to it. He told me that he obviously doesn't know because he is native and speaks Tagalog, but with all the other aspects of a mission that he had to gain, it all comes line upon line, precept upon precept. I keep on telling them how good of a missionary I want to be and how good of a teacher and how good of a person and this and that. He basically said with patience, it'll all come in time. He also told me about how his personality is that he likes to listen to people and just take it all in and understand. He said that he doesn't think there is anything better for me to be doing than trying to understand. He was very praise of me when I told him that I just try to understand. We basically came to the conclusion that even if I don't end up speaking Tagalog for the rest of my mission, I will be really good at listening to people, and that is obviously what God wants me to do is to listen. I love the assistants and am so blessed to be with them.

Other things that have happened: 

I'm pretty sure I already broke my umbrella. I'll try and fix it though. 

I'm running out of Hi-Chews.

I taught one lesson where at one point I counted and there were 13 people listening.

My companion has a hard time dealing with all of his new responsibilities. He a District Leader, and trainer, it is probably his first time being a senior companion, and his first time being with someone that doesn't speak Tagalog. He and I also have different work ethics. I want to keep on talking to people and doing work, but he wants to sit and rest. That is where it came up that I have no respect. Long story short, I apologized for whatever it was that I did. I'm just going to work my hardest and be the bigger man, do what's right, and the leave the rest up to him. He didn't talk to me for about a day after this happened. We ended up having a meeting with President Hiatt about our relationship. He told me that I haven't done anything wrong and that I should just keep doing what I'm doing. Then he talked to Elder Idorot. All he said was, "President chastised me".  It was good though because we have been all good since then. He even made me some really good dinner that night.

I miss you all more than you know. Love you!

Spiritual thought of the day: Jesus didn't speak English.

By the way, I don't know when you sent it, but my Christmas package already got here. I'm saving it for Christmas though, don't worry.

(Added by Alayna:  This is part of the cute letter that Sloane sent to Frasier!)

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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

I Think About You All A Lot Every Day

From Alayna...this is Frasier's email from 10/15/17.  We should hear from him again tonight!  I'm a week behind due to traveling in Peru.  He emails on his Monday mornings which are our Sunday nights.  It has been fun to be able to go back and forth asking questions, etc.  Here is an excerpt from his little back and forth with Troy and me. He also sent a bunch of pictures that his mission president, President Hiatt took, which are really cool! In a bit, you will read his full letter that he sent for me to post.

My companion and I were blessed enough to be chosen to go and teach with Elder Schmutz of the Quorum of the Seventy. He was in town just for a stake conference and was staying at the mission home. I got to go and teach 3 lessons with him and President Hiatt. Elder Schmutz was the one that said the closing prayer of the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference.  It was pretty awesome! Out of the 170 something missionaries here, he decided to choose me. A brand new missionary who can't speak the language. The assistants were the ones who called us and told us that he was here and wanted to go out with us. They said that he told them, "I was thinking about going out with you elders, but I decided not to. Will you call these 2 (Elder Idorot and I) and tell them I want to go out with them. 

Official Letter from 10/15/17

(Added by Alayna:  I told him about me watching the Utah/USC game in the airport in Peru and how they lost by trying for a 2-point conversion.  This next bit is in regard to that.) 

I think about you all a lot every day. I miss you a ton. 

That's a bummer Utah lost. It sounds like they should have just gone into overtime. I don't know if anyone here would even know what football is, so that would make sense that people in Peru would be confused. Ha ha!  They all like basketball here and everyone is wearing knock-off NBA jerseys. I've been asked a few times if I play basketball because I'm from America and what my favorite team is. It'll be nice when I get home to actually see a football again. 

It still feels kind of weird knowing that I am in a different country on an island. It is not too weird though. I'm adjusting to the food. I actually cooked myself rice for breakfast one morning which means I am at least somewhat adjusting. The 2 times I have personally tried to cook rice it hasn't quite worked out right. One was like soup, and the other had rice all stuck around the edge of the pot. I think I will get pretty good at cooking rice at some point though. A lot of the food is really good. Definitely not American food though. I bought pancake mix and bread and cheese, so I have been having at least some American food. But when I have had my grilled cheese a couple of times I have eaten it with rice. 

The people have kind of been an adjustment as well. Most of the people I come in contact are way nice and always excited to see us. The older people will say hi to me, I will say hi to them, they know I don't speak Tagalog and I tell them that, but they still just go off in Tagalog and I have no idea what they are saying most of the time. It's all good though. The main adjustment though is with my companion. I don't know if it is just after I spend time with people I just find faults in them or they can only stand me for so long, but that has been the hard part I guess. I think my companion is maybe a little bit weirder than most other Filipinos, but I don't know. Some things just don't come across and that is what is hard. One example would be this morning. We worked out. I ran for 40 minutes and he was doing something. Afterward, I told him he could shower first, but he said he already showered. I tried to explain to him that if you shower and then work out afterward, that does not mean your clean. You have to shower after you work out. He also gets up like an hour early, only eats rice, drinks hardly any water, and then doesn't understand why he is always tired. I don't know, its just weird getting used to a totally different culture. We have gotten in a couple of little arguments as well. One started because we were shopping, I asked him what a certain type of beef was. His response was "its beef". I replied in a very reasonable and non-angry way "I know that, but what is it." He all the sudden just stopped talking to me and seemed really mad. He said that I am "always snobbish and think that I know everything better than anyone else" all because I said, "I know that". Another time we were setting goals of how we can more effectively teach certain people. He just made me do it all and wouldn't give any input. Whenever I asked him a question he would just wink at me and laugh. I eventually asked him why he kept on laughing at me and he said, "You are just so serious. You keep on asking me questions and getting serious." No duh. You weren't helping and kept on laughing at me! All in all, it is good, I just have to work on being more patient and understanding that I am not going to understand everything. 

The language is coming I guess. It doesn't feel like I am any better at it than I was 3 weeks ago. I can get basic ideas across to people in Taglish. I struggle to understand what people are ever saying. In lessons, I can follow along what the basic topic is. I recognize words, but by the time I think of what that word means, the conversation is already going in a different direction. That makes it hard sometimes. I try my best to pay attention, but by the end of the day sometimes I am just ready to speak in English with Elder Temple. The only promise is that everyone says they struggled with the language at first. And Elder Schmutz said that I am good at the language. The struggle is just being patient enough with myself to wait to make it the "6 months" it takes people to get the language down enough to have a conversation. I have had the thought before, and still do feel sometimes, like I am just wasting time. Like I would be so much more effective if I went to an English speaking mission. God has a purpose for everything and was directly involved in my mission call. It is my job to just be patient and find that reason. You can all shove this part of the email in my face when I get home and struggle speaking English to you, but right now it doesn't feel like that is coming anytime soon. 

Besides the fact that I can't hardly contribute in the lessons, it is going really well. Not that numbers are what truly matter, but our numbers are pretty good. We teach over 30 lessons every week. We have 25 investigators with baptismal dates (even though a lot of them won't probably follow through. Everyone here is just too nice and will say yes to anything you ask them). Yesterday at church we had 3 investigators and would have been 4 or 5, but some people had a neighborhood meeting they had to go to. If we can get even half of the people we have to be truly converted, I will have already done my job here. It is such an awesome feeling to see people that are so ready and so willing to hear the gospel. Even though I don't know what they are saying, I can tell they feel the spirit and are truly interested. One of our investigators said a prayer for 30 minutes. It was kind of a weird situation because we don't want to tell him to stop praying or anything. Luckily I have my scriptures open on my lap, so I just covered my eyes with my hands and started reading my scriptures. Ha ha! There have been multiple people that have prayed and asked God to keep the missionaries coming back to their house. That is an awesome feeling. 

For those of you back home, especially in Utah, you don't realize how lucky you are. One day I went and taught a few lessons with my kabahay (housemate). First of all Elder Temple is a great missionary and a cool guy to be around. We went to one of our branch presidency members house and had a "general conference review" with him and his family. This brother has only been a member for about 6 years but has just as strong a testimony as anyone I've ever met. He just has a glow about him. It was super nice to go into his house at the end of the day. After spending all your time in people's houses that don't have the gospel or the priesthood it was nice to be in a house where it was present. They had pictures of the prophet, the temple, and their family at the temple taped onto their wall. You could just feel something special and different walking into that house at the end of the day. 

I had the opportunity to go on splits with one of the zone leaders for a day. It was cool just to be able to go with another missionary (American) and meet different people. The highlight of that day was probably a member family that we taught. They were both baptized about 10 months ago and are going strong in the church. We just went in planning on visiting with them, but they got super emotional about being together forever and said that they already have a temple trip planned for the day they hit their year mark. We ended up teaching them a lesson about temples and it was super cool to feel the spirit and see their excitement for the temple. 

When I got home from doing splits the next morning I started thinking to myself "that was awesome, but now I have to get back to normal mission life and can't just spend all my time with an American. I was working on cooking myself a grilled cheese and some frozen pineapple chunks for lunch. All the sudden I get a call from the assistants. They say, "Hey elder how's it going? You are super lucky. Elder Schmutz from the quorum of the 70 is in town staying at the mission home and wants to go to some lessons with you. We will be to your apartment in half an hour to pick you up. Make sure your ready." All the sudden I went into overdrive. I finished my food, put on a clean white shirt, did my hair better, cleaned my shoes and did everything else you could imagine. It was so cool. I still don't know why a General Authority would pick a newbie missionary who can't speak the language, and his companion, to go and teach with. Especially because he could have picked any of the other 170 missionaries that are in our mission, but it was awesome! He was so bold and had the spirit so strong with him as he spoke to our investigators. I hope I can be like him someday. 

Just watch, I am pretty sure that he is going to be the next apostle! Next conference when he is sharing experience about going out with missionaries, Just know that it was with me. (Elder Schmutz is the one that said the closing prayer at the Sunday afternoon session of Conference.) 

Question of the day: Did Adam have a belly button?

Love you all!

A Rough Week

"I know you must think that I died in the wilderness long ago, but I didn't." -Nacho Libre

Kumusta everyone! Let me just start off by saying I do not have enough time out here to email everything I want to. Hopefully, it is still good for all of you to read. 

Everything has been good here, kind of. I'm not going to lie, there were a couple of days where I went through a rough patch this past week. Completely adjusting to new cultures and new people without being able to speak to them is hard. There is even a language barrier between my companion and me, so there have been some frustrating times where he just doesn't understand what I try to tell him. I got really stressed about language. With all the time I have to think because I don't know what is going on, I started thinking "How am I going to do this for 2 years"?  

I had no desire to go home, but I was not in the right place for a few days. I talked with President Hiatt and he basically said that he is not worried about me at all. We had a good talk and I mostly got over it after that. The main thing is I would never be able to justify doing anything else hard in life if I quit at the beginning of my mission.  Don't worry though, I'm doing good. I got over it. Now it is just adjusting to the different culture. I love the people, but there are a few times where I have just not understood or had a rough time communicating with my companion. 

General Conference was really good for me though. It seemed like the whole time it had something to do with trials. That was definitely a blessing for me. See D&C 122:7, Ether 12:27, etc. 

(Added by Alayna:

  

D&C 122:7 --> "And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

Ether 12:27 --> "And if men come unto me I will show them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." )

Basically, just endure trials and they will make you stronger. I would recommend reading over all those talks again. Everything is going good. We have been really busy. We taught over 30 lessons in the past week, and I am still in training. 

We got to eat lunch at the mission home in between sessions on Sunday. We are really lucky that our church is the one by the mission home that we were able to do that. We got a lot of American food, which was nice...sloppy joes, fruit salad, chips, brownies. It was nice. I refused to have rice even though all the Filipinos somehow managed to still eat rice with a sloppy joe. I think it is the first time someone has ever had a sloppy joe and rice at the same time.

--

Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

Note from Alayna:  This is long!  It is the communications we've had since Frasier left for Cauayan.  I just haven't had a chance to post.  Sorry!!  If you only have a second and want to hear the latest from Cauayna, scroll to the bottom.

Last Day in the U.S.

This is a weird email to write. By this time tomorrow, I won't be on the other side of the world, because we have a crazy long travel ahead of us, but I will be on my way. I have absolUTEly loved my time here at the MTC. I am however more than ready to get to the Philippines. I am excited for all the highs and lows. I am excited for the new culture, scenery, and food. I am excited to meet the people and to actually teach real people. I don't know if I can accurately describe how I feel right now, but it definitely is exciting. Hopefully, all is well. Keep me updated on life back here in the states. 

Thursday: Today was our last Thursday at the MTC. It was honestly the same as any other P day really. We went to the temple. The temple was really busy which is a good thing. They didn't have enough workers for a little while which just meant it took longer, but that was ok. Temple food was just as good as ever! We spent most of the rest of the day emailing. At the end of the day Elder Bennett and I had a skype TRC. We taught this lady that is in the Philippines. It was really cool. She was showing us the internet cafe she was in and just telling us about her mission and everything. She got super excited when we told her we were going to be in the Philippines in a week. She said she was so excited for us. We taught her a short lesson and that went really good as well. She emailed after and said that she really felt the spirit. This got me super excited to go to the Philippines just because she was so awesome. 

Friday: Today during class Elder Bennett and I taught Sister Giles. For our last lesson, we were teaching her as herself instead of her acting like an investigator. One of her concerns she told that our district as we were planning the lesson was that she gets sad when people don't notice the things she does. Our message was centered around that and how even if other people don't notice the things you do, God notices it all and that should provide comfort. We also did a Book of Mormon study today and we were all supposed to have the same question "How do I feel about my mission and how do I want to feel about it?" We studied Alma 26. It went so good! I am so lucky to have a district like I have. They all have the spirit with them so strong. Here is what I got from the study: Know everything you do is because of God. Be humble and rejoice in what God can make you do. Look forward to the end of your mission when you can look back and see the blessings you have been given. That is super powerful. In the chapter, it just talks about being excited about God basically. Another thing is "Have patience and trust in the Lord. He will give you success. You will go through hard things, but it is worth it for the salvation of a soul. I just found that study super awesome. Read that chapter and you might get a sense of what I'm talking about. We also had our last infield orientation class today. That was good. Just getting us more excited to get to the Philippines and talk to people.

Saturday: Today we did a lot of language study and lesson practice stuff. There isn't much to say about that. I'm kind of getting the language down, but I'll basically be starting fresh in a week so we will see. As we have gone through the MTC I have realized I don't like practice lessons very much. It just doesn't have the same feel as teaching real people. I know it is important and I understand why we do them, but I am so excited to actually get to the Philippines and talk to real people and to (try)

and teach them the gospel. Our "study time" this Saturday afternoon was fun. We went over to the new buildings and a bunch of kids in my zone started studying the second coming. With all the crazy natural disasters that have happened recently, they were sure the second coming is happening soon. It was fun to just listen to them talk about it. 

After that, we went to the residency and a bunch of Elders were just sitting around talking and I was drawing a picture. I drew a picture of Jesus that I saw a few weeks ago and wanted to see if I could do it myself. I think it turned out pretty good if I say so myself. I really liked the picture because Jesus is smiling and you don't often see pictures of him smiling. 

Note from Alayna:  He sent the picture home to us and it is AMAZING!

Sunday: Today was just a same old Sunday for the most part as well. They assigned all the new Elders and Sisters their zone assignments because we will be leaving. All of us that will be leaving also got up and sung the EFY medley in sacrament meeting today. It was awesome. I think we sang it so good because we are all so excited to get to the field. 

During ministering time the lesson was on the Atonement. The Johnsons taught it and I really like them for some reason so it was really good for me. I don't know if I can really explain it, but it is truly amazing how much God and Jesus love us that they would let the Atonement happen so that we can become like them someday. We did our temple walk today and took a big group picture with all the missionaries in our zone. It is amazing to think that we are just a small amount of the missionaries throughout the world right now. Even all the missionaries at the MTC right now (there is a ton!) is just a small amount of the ARMY throughout the world right now. 

We had a departing devotional right before the Sunday devotional today. Once again, getting us excited to be in the field. It was the MTC presidency that spoke and they were just sharing mission stories and what not. For the Sunday Devotional, we had the Provo temple presidency speak to us. It was awesome. They had a lot to say. One thing is that they love seeing missionaries at their temple all the time, which is super cool for us to be able to do. The temple president also did this analogy with triangles. The corners were us, God, and our investigators (or other people). Basically the closer you get to one corner, the closer you get to all of them. 

For our Sunday film, we watched "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar again. I wish so much that people outside the MTC could watch this film. It is absolutely amazing! Just a few things from it again. "There would be no Atoning sacrifice without the character of Christ." Simply put, the character of Christ is to turn outward when most would turn inward. Elder Bednar challenges us to read the scriptures solely to study the character of Christ. A few other things, true conversion is constantly being true to what you know (your testimony). Repentance is turning away from self and turning towards God. 2 things to recommend from this video: 1) study the character of Christ 2) anytime you have a serious question, get a missionary copy of the Book of Mormon and read it through with only the question in mind. Mark it up and take notes all with just that question in mind. Elder Bednar said he has like 500 books from doing this. 

Monday: Today we did a lot of fun things. First of all, we said goodbye to sister Giles because she doesn't teach us on Tuesdays. It was really cool. We are her first district she has ever taught, so I think it was super special for her. She wrote in our journals all a little note. We also had a little testimony meeting with her and it was cool to all share our thoughts about missions and whatnot. You could definitely feel the spirit. Brother Hill taught us about writing in ancient Tagalog. It literally has no use anymore, other than it is just cool to know. He said he learned how to do it one day when he was bored on his mission. 

Today we also started the tie swapping. It is funny how salesman like some guys get trying to trade ties with others. We have gotten so close as a whole zone these past 6 weeks that is is going to be hard when we all split our different ways going to the different missions. I know we will grow just as close with any of our other companions that we have, so that is really comforting and exciting. 

Tuesday: Today was our last full day at the MTC which is kind of crazy to think about. It feels like we have been here forever, but at the same time, it feels like I just got dropped off yesterday. Today was awesome but kind of weird. We woke up and got dressed up to go and eat breakfast. Then realized we basically have the rest of the morning to pack and start clearing out. So from about 7:30 until lunch time my whole zone was just hanging out in our residency cleaning, packing, and talking with each other. It is kind of weird packing your whole life up for the next 2 years. I tried to talk to people and stall as much as I could, but I obviously have to pack at some point. It is kind of weird just because we have all gotten so used to our rooms these past 6 weeks, and now there is nothing in them I feel like. It is also hard figuring out what stuff you want in what bags for an upcoming 14-hour flight, plus a few other couple hour flights. After lunch time we went to our last class with Brother Hill. It is weird saying goodbye to him as well because we have been with him for the past 6 weeks. I have learned so much from him and Sister Giles about missions, the gospel, and just life in general. I just want to thank them even though they might not see this. 

Brother Hill told us a really awesome story to close things up about his flight and when he got home. It basically is just that our parents are going to be so excited when we get home from our missions, and if we do whats right God will be the same way when we return to him. 

Afterwards, we had our last Tuesday night devotional at the MTC. The speaker was Elder Quentin L Cook. Once again it was amazing. We are so lucky that we have had the privilege to hear from 4 Apostles as we have been here. Here is what I learned from his talk: First, it is not about how much you talk, but how much you have the spirit with you as you try and teach the people. Next, there are four loves a missionary should have: 1) Love for your companion. 2) Love for the people. 3) Love for your mission president. 4) A love for the Savior. A few other things I learned were "Have confidence you are called by a prophet of God. Don't worry about not being good enough, because you are." Last thing, Elder Cook said he knows Jesus' face and his voice. I knew that was true when he said it. I can only imagine how amazing it would be to be an Apostle. 

After that, we just packed some more and went to bed.

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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!

Arrived in Cauayan

They gave us 45 minutes to be on computers to email home and let you know what is going on. I'm sure you are all asleep right now, so you'll just get this in the morning. 

It has been good. We got off the airplane and went through customs and all that stuff. We got our bags and then met with a few brothers from the MTC who were there to pick us up. I didn't find out until a few minutes after meeting him, but the first person I talked to was the MTC president. He is cool. He's funny. He says that his MTC is way better than the Provo MTC. In ways, he's probably correct. He says it half-jokingly because he knows President Martino in Provo. It's nice because they are a lot more personable with so many fewer missionaries. They try to get to know every missionary here at the MTC in Manila. 

They loaded us on a bus and drove us to the MTC which isn't that far away, but it took forever. Apparently, nobody cares about the traffic rules here. People were swerving all over the place and not using their blinkers and whatnot. Even our bus driver was honking the horn every once in a while. The bus ride was crazy/fun for a couple of other reasons as well. Every single Filipino that realized it was a bunch of Americans on the bus got all excited and waved at us. We saw people doing all sorts of crazy things. People were literally standing in the middle of the road trying to sell stuff to the people in cars. There were motorcycle riders going crazy on the roads. We even saw a homeless guy without a shirt on, walk over to a pole and start to undo his pants. We started driving away before he started doing his business though. 

The bus was also stick shift so it was jerking all over the place. Some of us were feeling kind of sick by the time we got to the MTC with the combination of little sleep, weird food schedule, jet lag, not knowing what time it is, and being in the same clothes for 2 days. The first thing we did when we got here was they served us lunch. I'm not sure what all of it was, but it tasted good. I bet you couldn't have guessed, but they served rice. After that, they just gave us a tour and had an intro devotional. Then we went to our rooms which are way nice. The beds are nice, and we have our own bathroom in each room. Now they are giving us time to email, we will have dinner, and then they are letting us go to bed at 7. Tomorrow we will go on splits with the experienced missionaries and talk to real mga pilipino. All the Filipinos we have met, have been super nice. All the missionaries that are here have been so excited and make sure to shake all of our hands. By the way, it has rained like 3 times just since we got here. And it is super humid. Everything is good though. I already love it here. Love you all! I miss you. 

Things I Have Learned

I don't know Tagalog. 

I am famous because I am white. 

I am going to be wet for the next 2 years. Never complain about humidity until you have been to the Philippines! 

Rice is necessary for every meal (including breakfast).

I don't know what most of the food I'm eating is. 

Everyone is super nice. 

Toilet paper is not a thing, a Tabo is the way things happen here.  

I love it here. 

I miss home more than you can imagine. 

(Note from Alayna.  Google a Tabo.  It is a bucket full of water with a scoop.  Apparently, you use that to wash off!  And, Fras is correct, that are a couple (unnamed) people in our family that would NOT like Tabos, rice, and 3rd world living!  Frasier also ate Balut!!!  He said it tasted kindof like a hard boiled egg.) 

I just need to have patience and everything will come in time. Love you all so much. This is my weekly email by the way:

Cauayan is awesome! It is a really small city itself. My area right now is the one that has the mission home in it, so I haven't gone out into the more rural areas. Cauayan is great though. It is crazy and the traffic rules are just do whatever you want. You can tell it is a 3rd world country though. All the buildings look like they are falling apart, half the roads are dirt, and the other half are so bad that they are worse than dirt roads. It is quite the adventure. I love it. I know there are probably some people in our family that wouldn't though. 

To me it makes me sad, or at least really humble to see the conditions these people all live in. All the houses are just shacks by our standards. Even the really nice houses that I have been to. Most of the neighborhood roads are dirt, and most all the houses have cement floors, but it might as well be dirt for some of them. The walls of most houses are just wood and billboard poster fabric. The roofs are just pieced together from pieces of corrugated metal. It is something that I don't know if I could live in, but all the people here are so happy it is amazing.  

The people are amazing as well. Most everyone is walking around without a shirt, or their shirt is rolled up so that they might as well not be wearing a shirt. A lot of the older people are missing teeth. Everyone is super skinny and short. They all look like little brown distance runners. It seems like once you skip a certain age you automatically stay skinny, other than for your belly where you get the "rice belly".  All the older men have it. Given all of that everyone is so happy! 

Once we got off the plane in Manilla, everyone was waving at us. Here in Cauayan everyone is happy and nice to us. Not one house we have gone to has rejuected us or sent us away. There have even been a couple of members that as we walk past or stop by offer us a bunch of food and drinks. Even one investigator gave us a papaya from her tree as we were leaving. 

I am a celebrity here. I am taller than most of the people. I am also white which is different from everyone. I have not seen one white person since I left the mission home. Everyone looks at me as I walk past or ride past on a tricee. Little kids are always giggling and giving me high fives. A little girl at church yesterday came up and started touching my arm and face because she had never seen white skin before.

Our apartment is really nice. I am in the same apartment as the assistants to the president, so we get the nicest apartment in the whole mission. The picture is just our bedroom. We have a living room and a kitchen also. We also have a washing machine which is luck! They are the only ones in the whole mission. By Philippines mission standard the apartment is really nice, but that doesn't mean it is perfect. It is kinda dirty still. The bathroom is gross. There are little ants and nat type things that are sometimes on my desk. All in all the living is really good though. Can't complain! Can't wait to see what the other appartments are like if I am in the nicest one. 

My companion is great! He is Filipino. He speaks English, but not perfect English, so sometimes I have to ask him to repeat stuff. He has done a good job at teaching me how to do stuff and be a missionary. He will have to be a really good teacher if her can teach me Tagalog though. haha.

Sometimes he thinks things are totally normal when I am a little bit weirded out. His name is Elder Idorot and I like him a lot so far. The language is comeing along enough that I can't really talk to anybody, or understand what anyone is saying. I can only say basic stuff and lines that I have memorized. I have invited a few people to be baptized, and as of now we have 4 scheduled baptisms for next month. It is amazing how many people here are willing and prepared to listen to our message. They are all so humble and looking for the truth. Partly I have the missionaries that have come before me to thank for that. Thank you Mark for doing your part! 

We have running water, but it is only safe to drink if we use the installed filter at our apartment. Basically I can't open my mouth in the shower is the only thing. We get to watch general conference this upcoming weekend. I'm sure it is because it has to be translated, which means I probably won't understand it, but that is ok. It'll still be good. All in all it is going really good. I have had so many good experiences. Everything is awesome. The way we get around is on tricycles which are motorcycles with a side cart. I sent a picture. They are pretty fun! Definitely not safe, but way fun. 

(Note from Alayna:  We got to email back and forth for a bit last night.  I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and also asked him about a couple of pictures he sent.  Here is some of that conversation.  I just love and miss that kid!!!)

I want lots of American food and stuff to remind me of home. Whatever you think. Peanut butter is one thing that the other American recommended. I'll let you know next week if I need anything else.

Wow!  Awesome pictures!  You look awesome!  Does that lady have only ½ arms and legs!?! L

Ya. She only has half limbs. She is awesome. She mumbles so I especially can't understand her. She agreed to be baptized in a month, and then also came to church yesterday. She is amazing! We walked past her house two days ago. She saw us and came out running and screaming because she wanted to say hi to us.