NO TOILET PAPER AND GOT HIT BY A DRUNK DRIVER...WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!

WEEK 8
August 8, 2016

Iloilo, Philippines

(We finally heard from Elder Andersen about 11:30pm last night- he is 12 hours ahead of us.  What a relief to get his letter and know that he arrived in Iloilo safely and is doing great!)

Friends and Family,

Before I  get to the title of my letter, let me rewind a little.  

We left the Provo, MTC on the 27th of July and got to Manila on the 29th of July... we're time travelers!!!  The flights weren't all that bad.  I took the triple threat,  so I passed out for like 9 hours on the flight from LA to Hong Kong.  From Hong Kong, we flew to Manila.  When we got to the Philippines, we went to the Manila MTC.  It was actually a blast and I really liked it a lot.  The main reason we needed to go to Manila was for Visa processing.   While we were there  we had class and the highlight of the Manila MTC stay was the proselyting activity.  We went on splits with missionaries in the Manila Mission.  The Manila missionaries speak Tagalog, so I didn't understand a lot, but it great and so much fun!

The funniest thing happened during one of our lessons.   I was sitting on a plastic bar stool...it was pretty flimsy and as the lesson was over, I went to stand up,  and the bar stool broke.   I ended up on the ground!  It was so funny and everyone was laughing so hard.  I think I may be a little oversized for this country!  Haha 

We arrived in Iloilo on Wednesday.  After we arrived, we went to the Mission Home and had an orientation and met our trainers.  My trainer is Elder Paxton, he is from Detroit and I love him.  Our area is he Dumangus B area.  It is great here.  We are actually speaking Ilonggo so that is a relief!  (I get to start my mission speaking the language I learned in the MTC.)  This is Elder Paxton's first area speaking Ilonggo so we are both going to get comfortable with the language together.

Elder Paxon is dope!  These last two transfers are actually his last two.  After he is done training me he goes home.  We are super similar and we both enjoy working hard.  As you could probably guess we "white washed" the Dumangus B area. (That means we are both new to the area.)  Because we are both new to the area, the work has been a little slow, but it is really starting to pick up now.  We already have two investigators with baptismal dates and we recently started teaching a family (two of the daughters in this family are members.)  

Our area is so cool.  There is a big city in our area, but also a lot of country-side.  We walk...a lot! Our apartment isn't in our area so we have to walk 20-30 minutes just to get to the city.  I'm gonna lose a lot of weight.  

Our apartment is pretty rough... definitely not what i was expecting.  It's awesome though and so much fun. There isn't any toilet paper (This was Logan's biggest worry.  He had heard that there wasn't a lot of toilet paper in the Philippines.) It's not that bad, not even close to as bad as i thought it would be.  I actually kind of like it. (Wait...what??? Seriously???)  We live with two other Elders who are in Dumangus A  area...Elder Hallmark who is from Oregon and Elder Mirasol.  Elder Mirasol lives in the Bacold mission so he has spoken Ilonggo his whole life.

I actually love the food here,  it is so good!   I really haven't tried anything I don't like, but my favorite is Batchoy.   It is wayyyyyyyy good.  I'm going to try balut tonight so that'll be an experience and a half.  (Balut is a developing bird embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell... I can't believe he is actually going to try it.  Everyone tells him that he has to try it...at least once.  I don't think I could do it.)

The people here are awesome.  They are the nicest people on this earth.  People are willing to do anything for us and most people will listen to us.  It's great!  

I'm sure you are wondering about the drunk driver.

So, last night we were walking home from a dinner appointment in  a complete down pour.  It was kind of fun actually.  We were on the side of the road and just as we were getting close to our apartment, we heard a motorcycle.  We didn't think much of it until we heard whoever was on the motorcycle hit the breaks, the the tires screeched!  We turned and the motorcycle was right there.  Luckily he swerved at the last second and just barely grazed my side.  I didn't really get hurt and neither did anyone else including the driver.  It was pretty funny because he was drunk and was mad at us even though we didn't do anything.  What a great first Sunday.  

This first week has been awesome.  The language is a little tough but I can tell I've already learned a lot in these past five days.  I love these people and can't wait to keep serving them.

Much Love,

Elder Andersen

Logan didn't have wifi and had a hard time getting pictures to send...these are a few we got. Hopefully we'll get more next week.

Arriving in Iloilo...

My New Home.  Iloilo

Amazing

He made it!  Arriving in Iloilo, Philippines.  His Mission President and Wife are on the far right side of the picture.  I don't think we will have any problems finding him in pictures for the next two years.

Driving in the streets of Iloilo

My Trainer, Elder Paxon.