I Ate Snails!

September 22, 2013

I ate snails!

I couldn't think of a better title.

This week has been pretty amazing!  I'm pretty sure I walked around the Philippines twice!  This week we focused a lot on finding new investigators!  My last companion didn't like OYMing (Open Your Mouth) but the new companion loves it!  He told me he feels likes a missionary when he talks to everyone!  This week we had 26 OYMs and some of the OYMs seem interested. 

From OYMing and talking to the members, we got 3 new investigators this week!  I challenged 2 to baptism and the other 1 we’re going to go visit tomorrow!  This week we were teaching the less active catholic inv. and it was the most frustrating thing in the world!  She is the only one who isn't a member in the family but it seems like her family doesn't want her to be a member.  While I was challenging her to be baptized, her mom was just laughing hysterically and while her mom was laughing hysterically our fellowshipper decided to correct my grammar even though it was correct.  It was probably the hardest lesson I've ever taught when it probably should have been one of the best. 

Just yesterday during church a guy came up to us with his daughter and introduced us to her.  He told us that she is nine and has not been baptized yet and so we said we would start teaching her.  When we said we would teach her he said "Teach her all of the lessons today and lets baptize her tomorrow" (In Tagalog) It was the funniest thing in the world but it was still an awesome experience.  We've had a couple experiences this week where people have come up to us and told us they want to be baptized.  So in four or five weeks we should have a baptism hopefully!

About the title of this E-mail.  We were at a dinner appointment and they had snails for us to eat.  They didn't taste like anything but I didn't eat too many because they said I could get sick from them.  I also ate pigs ear, which pretty much tastes like bacon but again, I didn't eat very much because I kept thinking about what I was eating.

One funny thing I saw that you'd only see in the Philippines was a member put a logo on her garments.... I guess garments are cheaper than T-shirts and so she just bought some and put logos on them.  I don't think she realizes that she shouldn't do that.

It's been a really good week and with a lot of work.  My comp keeps telling me we have to work hard because the harder you work on your mission the better looking your wife will be.  I hope it's true because we're working really hard!  

The work in our area is going great.  The other day I was pretty frustrated with my Tagalog.  While walking I was thinking about how I don't know Tagalog at all but then I realized that I was understanding what the people around me were saying.  The gift of tongues is real!  My comp keeps telling me a quote about how you can't be the best all at once and it's definitely true.  The church is true!

mahal ko kayo (I love you)

Elder Tribe  

Caught this little guy in the apartment.  He wasn't little!  I drowned it in our trash can

Just hanging out!  The sign that i always do with my hand means handsome

Just a cute little girl!

Fishing in the Philippines!  With a bamboo stick and some worms!  I caught a huge mac dad!

Just some neighborhood kids! 

New Companion!

September 16, 2013

My new companion is freaking awesome!  Seriously, my prayers were answered!  In my prayers I asked for an American but at the same time I asked for a Filipino because I wanted to learn the language.  I got the best of both worlds!  He's a Filipino but he acts like an American!  He is a strait up stud and is really hard working!  I tell you more about him later.

Last lesson with Elder Guevarra!

On Monday, P-day, the last day with Elder Guevarra we e-mailed til 6 and then went to a dinner appointment here in Alicia.  The dinner appointment was with 6 other missionaries and we had to leave early because we had to go back to our area to an FHE we had planned!  We ran a good 3 blocks or more to find a tricy to get back to our area to teach!  It was cool to see my companion running on his last night of being a missionary.  I hope my last night of being a missionary I’ll run to lessons!  When we finally got to the FHE the Nanay was sleeping but she woke up and let us give our message and then they fed us.

At the best tasting restaurant in the Philippines!

The next morning on Tuesday we got up and headed to Cauayan for the departure fireside. The fireside was really good and it was cool to hear the testimonies of missionaries who were about to go home!  I said good bye to my companion and then went on splits that night with the zone leaders.  On the bus ride back to the zone leader’s apartment, we stopped at a restaurant called Momma Mia's.  Let’s just say that it was one of the happiest times so far on the mission!  I ordered a Hawaiian pineapple pizza and I was literally smiling while eating it!  It was so good my mouth is watering just writing this.

The next day we headed to Cauayan again, to the transfer meeting.  When I got my new companion I already knew he was a stud from what everyone was telling me.  Everyone was telling me that he is really good at basketball and that he is a good missionary.  He is super good at basketball!  The other day a member was watching a basketball game on T.V. and my comp tells me that that is where he plays and that's his league!  It was a stadium as big as the Utah Jazz!

My new comp with some fellowshippers

I never really knew if my last comp was trunky but it turns out he was.  With Elder Rumbaoa as my new companion, we have taught more in just 3 days than I did in one week with my first comp!  I don't know if it's because I am leading the area now or not but the work is going good.  We don't have too much going on in our area right now but we do have a new investigator.  She said that she was a Roman Catholic but stopped going to church because she read in the Ten Commandments to not worship idols or statues but they worship Mary statues.  We only talked with her, we didn't open up a lesson because there was a full grown man walking around in his really tight tighty whities  10 feet from us pumping water and staring at us.  It was way uncomfortable and super super creepy.  

Mom and Dad, I can't remember exactly how old you are but I know you're in your 50's. Please take care of yourselves because when the people here tell me that they're 50 I think they are lying because they honestly look like they're over 100 years old.  I know you don't look that old but the people here honestly look like they are on their last leg at 50 years old!  So take good care of yourself. The lifestyle here is a lot different though but still it scares me to see these people saying they are younger than you but look a thousand years old.

Anyways......  Everything is going great here in the mission!  My new companion is a strait up stud and is helping me a lot!  I honestly hated the Philippines at first but it definitely grows on you!  It'll definitely never be as good as the good ol' United States but it's still pretty freaking awesome!

The mission is seriously so awesome!  I think it got a little better because the new group came in and now they get to experience what I experienced and I have a little bit more seniority.  Thanks for everything!  Thanks for pushing me little by little to go on a mission!  It's been already one of the greatest experiences of my life!  I love you all!  

Mahal kita,

Elder Tribe

First Baptism!

Monday, September 9, 2013

Mark's Baptism

By far the best week in the mission!  So much is going on in our area and in the mission!  On Saturday alone there were over 40 baptisms just in our mission!  That's not even including our baptism that we had on Saturday!  Right after I wrote you last week, Elder Guevarra told me that the Branch President texted him and said that a member saw Mark smoking a cigarette.  I didn't believe it because Mark doesn't look like the person who would smoke but we had to go find out.  When we got to his house we asked him how he was doing with the word of wisdom.  He told us he was keeping it but after the lesson we asked a member if she had seen him smoking or anything.  She said that Mark is a good boy and would never do anything like that and she promised with her arm to the square.  It was really good news to hear!  Probably some of the best news I've heard in a long time!  We baptized Mark on Saturday!  It was a really good baptism and you could feel the spirit really strong.  It was awesome when he bore his testimony after.  It was short but he thanked us for teaching him the truth and thanked his friend for telling the missionaries to teach him.  

 This week on Wednesday we had a CSP (Community Service Project) it was at a school and our whole zone went to help out.  We needed knives to cut down trees so the teachers just asked the students and then all of a sudden the kids come running out of the bushes with huge machetes!  It was scary to think all these little kids had huge knives and we're running towards us with them!  No one got hurt but it was funny to think that in America every single one of those kids would have been suspended or expelled!

On Thursday my companion had a language study test at the mission home in Cauayan.  The test is to see if he knows English and if he passes he'll receive a certificate that will help him get a job after his mission.  While he was taking the test I went to the trainers meeting.  It was funny because everyone thought I was going to be a trainer even though I had only been here 6 weeks!  I could hear some of the Elders saying "I guess there's a first time for everything." It was pretty funny but then President cleared everything up because he could tell people were confused.  After my comp finished the test, the senior couple made us a huge banana split that was probably the best tasting thing in the Philippines at that moment.

FHE at Nanay Tumamows house!

The little girl that pulled my chair out is on the far right!

That night we had an FHE at Nanay Tumomows house.  There were a lot of people there and everyone was having tons of fun!  I got up out of my seat to get a drink and when I went to go sit back down the little girl next to me pulled the seat out from under me.  It didn't hurt or anything but I felt pretty stupid.  Probably the stupidest I’ve felt the whole time I’ve been on my mission!  The little girl was laughing but for only a little bit.  Nanay walked over and smacked her upside the head!  It was kinda funny but I didn't laugh and I told nanay it was okay!

The snake! It's about 4 feet long and I'm not positive it's a cobra!

Last night was probably the most adrenaline pumped night so far in the Philippines!  My companion, fellowshipper and I were walking back in the dark on a dirt road with just a little light to see about 3 feet in front of us.  While we were walking all of a sudden our fellowshipper freaked out and then I freaked out and then my companion freaked out!  We almost walked over a snake!  It wasn't moving so I went to find a rock to hit it with to see if it was dead or alive.  I couldn't find a big rock so we just hit it with a little one and it didn't move.  We thought it was dead so we started to take pictures of it and get closer when all of a sudden my comp and the fellowshipper started screaming and running!  When I looked down at the snake it was moving and then I started running!  Back at our fellowshippers house there mom said it was a cobra...  "I could have died" was the only thing that was running through my head when she said that!  Every time before we go out and teach I pray that we will have safety as we travel to and from appointments!  I'm glad I do because it could have been a pretty bad night last night.

The next time I write I will have a new companion.  My comp leaves me tomorrow and goes home on Wednesday.  I'll be kind of sad to see him go because we've gotten pretty close and all the area really liked him.  He's a really hard working missionary and a really good trainer.  Pray for me that I’ll get another good companion!  I'm starting to have conversations in only Tagalog.  The language is coming along pretty good and I hope my next comp will help me a lot in the language!  My companion keeps telling me to cherish my moments left here on the mission because time flies by and before it you'll be home.  Time really does fly by when you're on the mission.  I've already been out three months and it feels like yesterday I was giving my farewell talk.  

Mahal kita,

Elder Tribe

Crazy Week!

The weeks all start to mesh into one big blob!  I never know what I already told you!

Basketball today!

It was a really good week this week!  Every week is starting to be a really good week!  I starting to love it here more and more it's crazy!

On Tuesday I had splits with Elder Wightman from Idaho.  I went to his Area and it was pretty awesome!  We walked a lot and didn't get very many lessons but it was cool just to see what other peoples areas are like!  It's also cool because people don't know that you don't know Tagalog very well so they speak to you like you actually know it.  Our first lesson was we taught a Nay and Tay.  They are investigators and are freaking hilarious!  The first thing Tay asked me was how many girlfriends I have had!  I told him that I've had many and he just started cracking up.  After he was done laughing he said that he likes cold days like this because then he can hug the girls and warm them up!  I couldn't stop laughing!  After we were finished with our lesson and trying to get them to pronounce my name correctly for 10 minutes they brought out a marianda.  It was fried squash and it was really good.  Tay is pretty blind and so when he was trying to find the food with his hand he told us to put the food in his hand.  While we were reaching for the food he grabbed Elder Wightman's hand and thought it was the food and started to pull his arm towards his face!  I'm glad he was a little blind a deaf because i was cracking up!  

It's weird how much you adapt to the weather here.  The other day I got up and it was 80 degrees with a slight breeze.  I was kind of cold.... it was super weird to think that back at home I would be hot, especially with it being that hot in our house!   I have an alarm clock that tells the temp and the other day after study at about 1 in the afternoon I looked at the temp.  It was 91 degrees inside our apartment and it didn't even feel that hot!  I'm going to come home and be cold in the middle of summer!

This is the place where all the missionaries who stay in our apartment sign. 
It's on the wall by our door

This week we had President interviews on Wednesday!  The interviews were really short and he just wanted to know how we were doing and for us to study Christ like attributes!  I'm studying patience because it takes a lot of patience to go to a place where everything is new to you and you know nothing.  During the meetings we had meatball sandwiches that were really good!  It's the only sandwich I've had since I've been here so it tasted better than it should!

District picture with the Pres and his wife

This week we taught Mark again and he is going to be baptized on September 7.  I'm kinda of sad it'll just be Mark getting baptized.  All his friends came to every lesson but then I guess last second they got a job in another city and we won't be able to baptize them.  During Mark's lesson, a crazy lady got a big knife and was running around with it!  Everyone was running from her while she was laughing!  It was pretty scary but I don't think she was a real threat and we don't live anywhere near her so I don't think we'll have problems with her anymore.  Don't worry mom I wasn't running, she was chasing some other people!  

We also taught Tatay Salvador.  He is a convert to the church that went inactive but has started coming ever since we taught him about a month ago.  The other day while we were teaching him he started to cry and told us that he is grateful for missionaries because without missionaries he would never have known the truth.  It was probably the best thing in the world for a missionary to hear! 

Anyways this week has been really good!  Hopefully this next week will be just the same!  I'm starting to love it here more and more everyday.  I can't wait for Mark's baptism this Saturday!  Thanks for all the prayers!  This church is true!  I wish people would just realize it and keep the commandments!

Spider fights!  These spiders don't bite so you hold them  with your hands and then put them both on a stick and they fight. It gets pretty competitive here and people will bet on the spiders!

Really good week!

Mom, the spiders aren't poisonous.

My clothes never dry. In fact i'm wearing a pair of socks right now that i cleaned on Monday and they're still damp.

Toilet paper does work for the sewage.  I have some toilet paper now! Thank goodness!

2nd Coming!

We haven't been rained out or any floods!  I have heard a lot of people talking about the floods in Manila!  It sounds crazy!  My companion is from Manila!  I don't think the part that he is from flooded but we're not sure!  My companion is a really cool Elder!  He only has 15 days left on his mission...  He keeps saying that he never thought the day would come that he would go home.  Well it's finally here and he's freaking out a little bit!  He keeps telling me his number one priority is getting married in the temple!  He says that when I am done with my mission he'll meet me at the Manila temple and go through it with me!  I keep telling him that he's going to show up with his wife and 2 kids! haha 

This week was really good!  On Tuesday we had district meeting and lunch with the district at Dins, a local restaurant here that is pretty good!  I look forward to Tuesdays because it's always the best meal of the week!  Mom, pancit is amazing huh?  SOOO good!  The only thing I've really eaten the past few days is rice, chicken and a lot of pancit!  If you want to eat something that is truly Filipino you have to cook Chicken adobo! You eat it with rice and it's like the main dish here in the Philippines!  

Wednesday was probably the best day the whole week!  We went to a trainers meeting in Cauayan! At the trainers meeting I got to see everyone that I was in the MTC with!  It was amazing to see all of them!  I have a picture of the group that i will send later!  The mission President and his wife catered lunch for us!  They had cinnamon rolls!  When I saw the cinnamon rolls I was the most excited I have been in a long time!  

MTC District

The next day we went and taught Brother Mark again!  The Branch President keeps calling Mark a golden investigator and he really is!  Mark has reactivated the less actives and is bringing more investigators than just himself to church!  We taught Mark this week about the law of chastity and he said he would follow it.  After the lesson we told him that we would have to set his baptismal date a week because we haven't been able to teach him enough.  When we said that, he told us he wants to be baptized on August 31st but we told him he has to get an interview and we still have to teach him some lessons before baptism!  It's awesome to see his desire!  We also had some other investigators come to church this week that we didn't expect!  It's cool to see people keep your commitments.  She is the only one in her family that isn't a member other than her son.  When we go to teach her, her whole family is there and all bear testimony to her!  It's really awesome!  

Only bikes in mission!

One bad thing happened this week.  The member who gave us our bikes took them back because his grandson needs them.  It makes our work a lot harder and a lot slower.  To get to some of the areas now will take over an hour to walk to!  He said he might be able to give us back the bikes on Tuesday so we'll see what happens.

I gave my first blessing here in the Philippines!  The sister asked for a blessing and my companion told me to give it!  I didn't even know why she needed a blessing but he later told me that she has a form of dengae that is rare and really bad!  The blessing went well even without me knowing what was wrong!

The work here is going really well!  The members here are amazing!  Yesterday we had 8 fellow shippers!  It was kind of crazy to see how many people wanted to go teach with us!

This is a tricey.  I've seen 11 people fit in one of these!  This is a members tricey!  Most of the members triceys say CTR all over them but this one says liahona which i thought was funny!

Love you,

Elder Tribe

2 Months All Ready!

 This week was a really good week!

Right after I sent the letter last week, we were headed back to the other Elders apartment to stay one more night and of course right across the street someone was selling balut!  Of course all the Elders were EGGING me on!  Get it? Ha-ha Jokelong!  So we went across the street and they bought me one and told me how to eat it and everything! I asked the lady how many days the eggs had been fertilized for and she said 18 days!  I was told that the best eggs are at 14 days!  I couldn't see the egg much because it was dark but you could definitely see a little ducky in there!

 First you crack the top of the egg open and suck all the juices out!  It sounds disgusting but is really good!  Then after you drink the juices you peel the egg back a little more and take a big bite!  My first bite wasn't very bad and tasted and looked exactly like the yolk of a hardboiled egg.  The second bite was the chick and I got a little crunch from the beak and then swallowed!  It was surprisingly good and tasted like a hardboiled egg!  The only bad thing about it was that I got little feathers in my mouth that I had to spit out!  I'll send you some pictures of it after I send this!

This is to answer dads question about what I do if I don't use toilet paper...  Well, you have a barrel next to you and it's full of water.  You never sit on the toilet so you're always squatting.  After you are finished with your business you take a little ladle type thing and kind of pour it down the lower part of your back and rinse...  Do you get it? Hahaha The pipes all drain out right behind our house except for the toilet, thankfully!


This is how we wash our clothes weekly!

Our work here is mainly based on bringing less active members back to church!  There are around 200 members but only 60 on a good day come to church!  Speaking of church!  The other day when I was sitting in the congregation I was told I was speaking that day in church!  I've never been so thankful for the MTC in my life!  In the MTC they told us to write a talk each week in Tagalog. I didn't have to speak long but I gave a good talk about pananampalataya or in English, faith! 

It's a way different culture here!  They drink a lot of soda and so when nanay or Grandma in English, drink it they just start burping all over the place!  It's freaking hilarious! They also eat with their hands a lot here and so they taught me how.  They told me to tell you that I am eating with my hands!  

We had our first FHE it was really funny and the food after was so good!  It was homemade fried chicken, pancakes, and pancit!  I think they tried to make the food a little more American for me which I was grateful for!

After FHE back at our apartment we were having nightly planning and I looked at the ceiling and saw a HUGE spider!  It was massive!  We have some bug killer stuff that the mission home gave us and they said it's 30x stronger than the wasp killer we use back at home so I was pretty excited to use it!  So I grabbed it and started spraying the spider!  It started going crazy and ran under our fridge!  My companion was trying to see if he could see it under the fridge when it all of a sudden it ran out and started chasing us around the apartment!  It was terrifying!  It was really fast and had its fangs ready to bite!  It didn't get any of us before I sprayed it a bunch more and then it died!  We have had 2 spiders try to attack us so far...  It makes things exciting here!

Most of the time back at home when it feels like something is crawling on you like a bug or something it's just your mind playing tricks on you. In the Philippines something is always crawling on you!  I'm always finding ants in my bed and all over me!

I went on splits this week for the first time!  I went with Elder Linnel.  He is our zone leader and is really hard working!  It was a good change for a while to have someone that knew fluent English to talk to.  It was also kind of cool to be in charge and show him where to go and introduce him to people.  We taught a whole bunch of people and rode our bike to Alicia.

 Alicia is the biggest city next to us.  It was dark when we did it and I later found out that we probably shouldn't have ridden our bikes in the dark to Alicia that night because we are both Americans wearing nice clothes and some Filipinos told us that you have to be careful around here.  Nothing happened to us but it was still a little sketchy!  

We found a couple new investigators on Sunday!  

Mark is doing great!  He is still coming to church every week and is following all of our commitments! I'm thankful for your prayers!

On P-days we mainly just go to another area and play basketball with the Elders there!  It's kind of cool being the tallest one on the court!  It's super hot here!  I've sweat more here today than any day at home!  The richest member in maybe all of Alicia bought us lunch today!  I had fried chicken and some other chicken things with rice!  You don't eat fried chicken here the same way you do back at home.  Here you eat everything with rice.  You also never have a knife unless you are a wealthy family.  You put your spoon in your right hand and use that to cut and eat with.  In your left hand you have your fork and you use it to kind of just scoop things into your spoon.  

This week has been pretty amazing!  Its super hard being a missionary sometimes but it's also the best thing in the world!  It's cool to see people change their lives!  I went to a baptismal interview the other day and the guy had quit smoking and you could see a huge difference in the way he looked and acted!  The Church is true!

Has Bridger left yet? What about Zach Annis?  I want their E-mails! Maraming salamat po

Can't wait to chat on Christmas! :)  Love you so much. ingot po.

Elder Tribe

Monday, August 12, 2013

This week has had its ups and downs.  The night after I wrote my first letter home and I left the computer shop to go back to the apartment. I ate some weird food that my companion called a hot dog.  It didn't look or taste like a hot dog but I was hungry so I ate it.  That was a bad idea.  I went to bed and woke up at about one in the morning with the worst stomach ache I have ever had!  I reached for my flashlight so I could go to the bathroom but my flashlight wasn't where I usually leave it.  So I got up and ran blind outside the front door and threw up all over the ground!  It was one of the worst throw ups I've ever had!  It was LAVA hot and I couldn't breathe! After I threw up outside for a little bit I went to the bathroom and threw up some more lava!  At that point I was so homesick.  I was sitting in the bathroom throwing up and stuff for a little more than an hour.  The whole time there were mosquito's flying and biting me and I still could barely breathe! 

The next day we didn't do much. I felt good enough to go out to a district meeting in Alicia which is about 30 min from our house.  At the meeting everyone was saying my eye looked super red and that popped blood vessels in your eye and blurred vision are signs of dengue fever!  I didn't have a fever but I still didn't feel good so we went back to the apartment where I slept all day!  The next day my throat hurt really badly so I called the mission pres's wife and told her my symptoms.  She said to just drink as much water as possible and gargle warm water with salt.  So I did that the next few days and there was no improvement with my throat.  I told her that my throat bled a little while I was throwing up and so she finally gave me some pills that WORKED!! 

After all that sickness and bad stuff I feel almost completely healthy now!  Don't worry about it me.  My immune system will slowly get used to this place!

On Friday we had a one day mission in Jones where we taught the members how to teach and open their mouths!  It was pretty cool leaving our area and going to someone else's!  Jones is a really nice place but is a really hard area!  The people don't like White people or Mormons!  We went out and taught one guy who hopefully the sisters will go meet sometime but I don't know how the sisters will ever find his house!  The only way they are going to find it is by the guidance of the spirit! 

On Saturday we taught Mark again. (He's the guy I challenged to baptism)  I challenged him and his friends again but I gave them an exact date on August 31st and he said yes again.  When I told him the date, he said "What time?" It was really cool and surprised me!  I think he seriously wants to get baptized!  I can't wait and I hope he is ready to be baptized on August 31st!  My companion leaves at the end of this cycle and I want him to be able to see him baptized before he leaves!  Mark has come to church 2 times in a row and in the classes we teach he is giving really good answers!  Most of the investigators will just laugh and get really nervous and give a primary answer or something but Mark will say something really good!

During sacrament meeting we got a text that said we need to evacuate if we live in a low laying area because a level 4 typhoon is coming! That's exactly where we live. After church ended, we went back to the apartment and started packing things because we were going to stay at another Elders apartment!  We put everything on top of tables, cabinets and shelves just in case it flooded and left.  It started to rain really hard and got pretty windy while driving to the other apartment.  We went to bed and woke up expecting it to arrive in the morning sometime but it never came! It missed us just by a little bit!  All the missionaries were pretty bummed because we wanted to experience a typhoon! 

Dad, I know you too well!  While it was raining and pretty windy I told an Elder that you were probably watching the storm from Unisys weather!  The storm wasn't bad at all!  Everyone was pretty disappointed!  The worst thing that happened was the door flung open in the middle of the night and got me all wet from the rain!

Now we're at today...  Today has been a good day!  I took a 40 min bus ride to a bigger city called Santiago where they have McDonalds!  It's the first time I have felt good and full since I have been here! 

I went to a REAL store!  It was like a tiny Costco and it was amazing to be in some place nice and has air conditioning!  The store had samples like Costco but they were just a little different.  The samples were alcoholic beverages!  It kind of blew my mind and made me realize that this place is nothing like home!

Tonight we have a dinner app. at a member’s house where they said I would eat balut.  I'll let you know how that goes next week!  

I haven't eaten too many crazy things here! I've eaten a fish that was cooked whole, some weird soup, and lots of chicken and other meat.

I know this letter sounds kind of bad but it's only because I didn't have that great of a week and I’m not going to sugar coat it!  I'm feeling a lot better now!  

The mission makes you realize that your family is the most important thing in the world!  Thanks for the letters and prayers!  It's super hard here but it's slowly getting easier!  I keep asking my companion if his mission went fast and he keeps telling me that it was the fastest two years of his life!  He tells me that it's worth it and he learned a lot from it!  I can't wait till I see you all again!  It's crazy to think that when I get back David will be married almost 2 years!  I told David that I didn't really care if I missed his wedding before the mission but now I would have given anything to be there! I love you so much and these next two years are going to fly by!  Mahal Kita!

Cameron