Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September, Merry Christmas and Max Moncur 9 2 13

Hello Family!

It's September!  Being the first "ber" month of the year, Christmas has officially started in the Philippines.  This was made sure as we started off our sacrament meeting yesterday with the stirring "Angels We Have Heard On High" (that's the one where we sing "Gloooooorrrrriiiiiiiaaaaaaa" several times in a million different pitches - classic).  So on top of shouting that lovely song, I had the opportunity to yell my lungs out at this old guy last night.  He was... pretty darn old.  He was also convinced that even though he practically lost his hearing that if we really, truly howl our hearts hearts out, he's hear us.  Took me about five tries of good screaming  at him for him to stop speaking some sort of weird broken English because he finally realized we speak Tagalog...  He said we could come visit him again.  And on that note, it's been a good week.

Probably the biggest, most exciting part of the week was seeing some one from home.  So shout out to Elder Max Moncur!  He got here on Wednesday last week (8/28/13) and since he is in my zone, we got to pull some strings and go to his district meeting on Friday!  (see pictures). We went to lunch together after too (:  It was great to see him and catch up.  It wasn't until though he pointed it out that I realized how amazing it was to actually see him.  Here I am, been in some crazy group of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the past year, being totally immersed in a foreign culture and language so much so that I really do feel like I've become one of these people., and now, just when I'm thinking my past life was just a dream, in comes someone that I used to see at home and actually associate with!  Represent Santa Margarita Stake!  Yes, I concede we did move to a different stake just before I left, but... What a small world!  Hah, not sure if I'll ever be able to call him anything Elder rather than just Max.

And you know, it's really going great right now.  I had my foot saved the other day.  I had ingrown toenails that I thought I'd have to get surgery for, turns out my mission president's wife just made me get a pedicure.  But that's not the same foot saving story I'm about to share (though it is certainly something for another day).  I was sitting on a triccy (those motorcycles with a side car thing attached) on the motorcycle part facing sideways.  We were going down the road and I had me feet resting out pretty far.  then, out of nowhere, I quickly felt to "Pull my feet in!"  A moment later, "Whooooooooooshh!" - another triccy came down the road and would have definitely swiped my feet had I not moved them.  Phew!  Anyways, that's small.  But it still shows me how protected and guided we really are here.

So despite being constantly tired, there's ever more for us to do.  We got a call a few days ago.  There are going to be 14 new missionaries in our zone next transfer!  That's a lot!  We had another journey with the supply couple missionaries to find things for new apartments and what not.  It may be that the two-person party in our mansion home gets shut down.  they want two more elders here!  Even though our fancy washing machine will be more crowded, it's certainly still better than doing wash like in other areas.  For some reason, I'm thinking that washing clothes in a dirty river, no matter how much soap you use, then leaving them on the sandy bank to dry is just not going to result the most effective cleaning.  Not sure.  But I'm thankful as ever for that machine!

And so the work continues.  I continue!  Great new families and a bunch of letters [ thanks! (: ] have added even more to this week.  Love it!

Love, Elder Shane Scully Brown

Pictures - 

1.  Max and I after district meeting!

2.  A tindahan.  Basically one of the hundreds of little shop things that line every little street, in every little neighborhood.

3.  Some different kinds of bananas I eat.  The big one costs 50 pesos per kilo and the small only costs 3 pesos per kilo.  (up to you to do those conversions)

4.  This cloud looking think was what I was pretty sure was going to turn into some crazy tornado.  Nothing happen...




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