06/27/2010 (Burgos Area)

Hey mother dear, how’s Canada? I'm going to tell my comp you’re in Canada cause he is moving there soon he’s going to be excited. His dad told him that the church basketball courts are inside the church and he was like what inside no that’s crazy there’s no way. He’s like a little kid seriously its funny! But anyways how is Canada? That’s crazy that Kim is getting a divorce that just sounds crazy to me I guess but I wish I could go to Edmonton I want to go to somewhere that sells real food. I ate frog the other day. It was pretty good just like chicken they weren’t lying but the only thing is there isn’t much meat so you have to eat like 50 of them to make a meal out of it.

Ok so to add to the list of things I need haha flashlight, elk hunting the west Eastman, way mini preach my gospel and gel soles for my shoes haha! That’s the list for right now! Haha!

But anyway. So last night we had no power again I don’t know if I told you this but in the Philippines they shut the power off or it dies like every other day and at night time its so miserable cause its so hot I can’t sleep. I hate it but it always takes them 6 or 7 hours to fix it cause they’re all freaking lazy here seriously but if I find the guy who’s in charge of the power we are going to have a word about this. I swear he does it on purpose! I bet he sits there just thinking o it looks like the powers been on for a whole day now in Burgos lets shut it down and then he sits there and is like that should piss them off! Haha! But anyways I hope you’re having a good week. It’s been mostly uneventful when you talk to dad though this week tell him to write me and tell me what hunts he put in for it’s killing me I want to know haha!
Well I’ve got to go!
Mahal Kita, Jason

Matt's email:
Ha that’s sweet too bad you didn’t get to eat it. I love crab. Right now I'm no where close to the ocean so we don’t see crabs but people buy them at the market and stuff they usually buy just little ones cause they’re cheap but they eat them different they cook the whole thing and rip off the big shell and eat its guts. It’s actually not bad it’s like the yoke of a hard boiled egg in texture kinda chalky like but tastes salty and weird - but overall it’s ok. The frog legs I had last week were way better seriously they say it tastes like chicken and it does but the only problem is there isn’t much meat so you have to eat 20 of them to satisfy your hunger and plus you can’t help but think how they get them. In my opinion anything you can go out and grab in the backyard with no effort shouldn’t be eaten but I didn’t get sick and I thought it was good so win win there.
But this week nothing cool has happened seriously it’s been kinda uneventful not a lot of good work and our investigator that I have been teaching for 4 months now didn’t go to church again so I probably won’t get to see her be baptized I'm pretty sure unless I don’t get transferred which I cant see me not getting transferred but who knows. I haven’t got your belts yet cause they don’t sell them in my area they sell them in the mountain provinces and I don’t want to give anyone the money to get them cause here that money might just accidentally disappear. Haha! But anyways – I’ll talk to you next week!
Mahal Kita - Jason

06/20/2010 (Burgos Area)

First off I hope Eric wasn’t driving my truck! Haha, just kidding! I’ve accepted the fact that he might have it all adopted by the time I get home haha. grabe! matagal na! magging asawa mo. Naintndian ka ba magging lola mo na. haha mabuting bagay hind pwede mo naitindian kung ano nagsulat ako tunkol sa iyo. Haha, just kidding if you get a translator and find out what I said haha!

But anyways, I miss Elder Hale too! It really does suck like seriously sucks but o well that’s life! What’s silly is we're not allowed to write each other either. Weird huh - but whatever.

I guess Pres. Carlos has been visiting alot of people. He went and saw Elder Naylor’s parents the other day! Haha - they have a picture with them that’s so weird.

Things are good though - beside the fact i miss Elder Hale - he made things so funny and fun! My comps great! He works hard now and we’re doing really good. I found out that last year they had 8 baptisms total for all of Burgos and I have already had 7 there. Everyone thinks I'm a missionary stud but in all seriousness it’s a 100% luck like no joke. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. (I know he realizes it isn't all luck - that he is getting a lot of help from a loving Heavenly Father who is helping him spread the Gospel! : )

But anyways the flashlight is an led but the one Elder Hale had from bed bath and beyond i don’t want – it’s a wind up one. He has another one he got as a gift for caddying at a golf course so that’s not going to help just tell Charles he will get me a good one and pay him for it or have dad. But anyways I don’t want a maglite either.

Ya me and Elder Hale would talk about England all the time. We had a baptism Saturday and we have like 6 more on the 11th so hopefully we don’t have any road blocks before then. No I'm not taking the fiber tablets. I'm just fine I'll save them just in case i develop a problem but for the mean time I'm alright.

I don’t even want to talk about football and hunting that’s the only thing i miss (well besides my lovely family of course) but i could use the book “Elk Hunting the West the Eastman’s Way” you can find it at sportsman’s or cabalas or order it at the Eastman’s magazine company. (Haha! Does he really think I am going to send this to him? : ) Haha! But seriously i don’t want to talk about it haha.

Tell dad I decided I want to become a lawyer but have a backpack company here in the Philippines! haha its fun! i just need to find a cheaper way to ship cause i shipped the backpacks and they cost me 2100 pesos to make but yet 2700 to ship! It cost more to ship it than to make it. Lesson learned .... but if my package doesn’t make it I’m going to freak out!!!! haha (but it’s ok I’m registered hahaha)! wow that would have been funny if Elder Hale heard that.

Kenna sounds too grown up and it’s crazy I’m not going to see them forever. that sucks but o well it will be so much better when i finally do see them but anyways i should get going.
mahal kita - Jason

06/13/2010 (Burgos)

o great so now Charles is never going to join the church! hahaha! But anyways WOW - What the heck BSU in the Mountain West that’s so freaking awesome!!!!! They get to play real teams now and they will get a BCS bid if they are Conference Champs for sure - there’s no way they can’t! That’s sweet!! Too bad I’ll miss it.

I got my package! o and I don’t need FOOT POWDER just body powder but it’s ok I read the stuff and it has the same ingredients just more powerful so I just use it for my body so it’s ok it will work ok if not better.

So funny story about before Elder Hale left … so after our first real rain storm I had to run and talk to Elder Hale about it. So I'm sitting there talking about it and then he was like wait what about that thunder and lightning he said he was seriously scared and was scared to hold his umbrella cause he thought he was going to get shocked then he said that’s the loudest thing ever (quote)"I almost crapped my pants the first time." It was so funny and then his comp said ya he was a bit scared he didn’t know if he should stop and find shelter or run for the house. it was funny!

Anyways did dad tell you about the flashlight I want. I want a small aluminum one but not way small just short and stubby dad knows what ones I'm talking about cause the flashlight I have just doesn’t cut it and the ones you can buy here suck. So just a nice lite aluminum one like they sell at Charles’s uncle’s store. Dad knows I want a good one that you would want to use for hunting. Elder Hale had a sweet one. But have dad figure it out.

Ya I went to the cultural event it was cool! But Cebu is in the other part of the country basically it’s closer to Manila from here than Cebu. Cebu is at the bottom of the country and I'm at the very top so I don’t think there’s any chance I’ll ever make it to the Cebu temple. Illango is a language that they speak in the Bacolod mission. There are thousands of different languages here in the Philippines. Elder Hale is in an area where they speak ifugao and I'm where they speak Ilocano and Neuva Vizcaya they speak straight Tagalog and there’s probably another 12 languages in other parts. It’s crazy but they speak Cebuano in Cebu so that’s way different. There’s 2 major languages Tagalog and Cebuano - usually the people can speak at least one of those 2 languages buts depends sometimes they can’t. So the foods are all different too. The different languages are different tribes of people so some of them make and eat different foods.

But anyways I'm running out of things to say I’m sending a package next Monday of a bunch of stuff so get excited just joking you won’t be too thrilled mom but the boys will be. Hopefully it doesn’t cost me an arm to send it.

But anyways love ya enjoy your week in the real world! Jason

06/07/2010 (Transfers but stayed in Burgos)

Companion: Elder Pangan
Roommates: Elder Hanks & Elder

Elder Hale got transferred NOOOOOOOOOO! Seriously it sucks haha but I'm holding in there! haha It’s ok I'll pull through!! But anyways the week has been good. We have 7 baptismal dates. I don’t know really what to tell you other than everything’s good.
I didn’t get the package yet and it’s going to be awhile I'm sure. I wish I had good England food or American food I am so so sick of rice. I seriously am used to it but I would give anything for a big steak. So that’s crazy it’s bad weather. It’s bad weather here too but it’s a little different meaning hot and crazy all together. I don’t have much time left. Everyone is done except me, surprisingly so I’ll talk to you next week have a good week!

Here is Matthew’s letter from me!

So this week has been really good I'm staying in Burgos like I thought but that’s ok it was a good week. We have 7 investigators with baptism dates that’s so crazy! Burgos last year had a total of 8 baptisms in one year. Me and my comp or going to have way more than that and we have people coming back to church. It’s so awesome!

What people really need around here is just a reality check and they need someone to talk to them with common sense. Seriously though, in the phillys the biggest thing for us is being bold. A lot of missionaries go and teach less actives these lessons that they’ve heard a billion times and wonder why it makes no difference and they still don’t come to church cause the missionaries just want lessons and don’t take the time to find the problem and just write down they have a lesson that made no difference like seriously the people here don’t understand like people in America do! So here they need to hear reason or lessons for them not lesson 1 or lesson 2 but their own lesson just for them and sometimes they don’t even need a lesson. This one lady was all offended and she wouldn’t come to church for the last 6 months and we went to visit her. My comp was trying to teach her and she was obviously busy so I asked why don’t you come to church and she said something about they didn’t give her son food in primary and she was offended. I said well I don’t know what happened but I know that going to church is important and if we didn’t have trials and obstacles then we wouldn’t build faith cause if everything in life was easy and perfect and we had everything we wanted we wouldn’t have faith or we wouldn’t see the need to get closer to God or GO TO CHURCH. She looked at me and was like Elder I think you’re right. And I said Sister Abad we are really in a hurry I really hope you’ll come to church tomorrow but we’ve got to go and she said she’ll try. And she came to church and walked the whole way it was so far too. It was so good. Sorry about the long story but that’s my spiel on being bold and saying what you’re thinking as long as it’s not overbearing. My comp just looked at me and was like wow that was good and we started making jokes about how she was mad at Elder Ward and that she was going to yell at me and join the inglesian church to bash Mormons cause Elder Ward was so blunt! Haha! It was a good day but we were just joking around about it but it worked and she came. People just need someone to explain it so they can understand they don’t need to hear restoration 12 times or Plano ng kaligtasan 100 times they need straight up reason!

Sorry but the phillys are great! I don’t have any sweet stories this week but I got your backpack it’s sweet and you’ll get to see it in 1 year! Haha! But it is really sweet it’s just like a small hunting pack it’s sweet you’ll like it. Anyways keep up the good work there and keep the comps in line!

love ya Jason