Hot as Death

Dear family and friends,

Yes Dad I do get all your emails. I responded to the one earlier! First off, Heather I wrote you a letter so expect that soon-ish.

Thanks for all your emails and I look forward to reading more weekly. 

 

I said last week we had a tropical storm right?? Well this week, nothing but sun and heat! It has been hot as death! Man oh man what a week. Makes for fun when we go out and teach! We walk a ton so I pretty much just drip in sweat all the time -- good thing I asked mom for handkerchiefs!  I would be in deep trouble if I didn't have them! 

So, the Philippines does not have Halloween here. On November 1st they have what’s called ‘All Saints Day’.  Not sure what that is supposed to mean really but all I know is everyone cooks a TON of food all day, gathers together as a family, and  when it gets dark, they all go to a cemetery and eat the feast on the graves of the deceased and get hammered drunk… like big time. So it’s like Halloween and Thanksgiving combined - Filipino style. Haha. Oh its two days actually: November 1st and 2nd. Back to back days of straight up weirdness! During the day its calm though. It’s hard to teach though because everyone has food... tons of it. And they offer food to us when we come by. I can honestly say I had more rice in those two days than I have ever had in my life. Yay for rice! 

I finally met some Elders in my zone that love basketball as much as I do --if not more. There are two of them. One’s name is Elder Garlick. He is from Centerville Utah and played for Viewmont High. The other is Elder Kaufusi. He played for a high school in California in the Bay area, and before he came here he played for BYU Hawaii. Kind of cool right? He’s really good so it’s fun competition. Sad thing is that they both go home after this transfer.  I made really cool friends as they are about to go home.  Go team! Haha. We play every

P-day though right after we email so now you know what I will be doing by the time you read this! 

 

Typical sugar cane field in Negros

Cool experience of the week: I got to try sugar canes! The family whose daughter is dating the non member asked me if I wanted to try it. So, of course I said yes! You have to peel it with your teeth, take a bite, suck the juice out, and don’t swallow! You spit it out after you can tell that there is no sugar left. So ya, straight sugar! Wahoo! 

Harvesting the sugar cane

And by the way, about the investigator who is dating the daughter, his name is Michael by the way, and he came to church yesterday! All investigators have to come for 4 weeks straight before they can be considered for baptism. So he qualifies! We are shooting for the 17th. I’ll give further details how his interview goes next week! 

Songs I heard this week: Huey Lewis-If This is It, Bryan Adams- Everything I do I do it for you, Guns N Roses-Paradise City, and Taylor Swift-Love Story. It just crazy how random their radio stations are! 

Thanks for all your love, support, and examples to me in my life.

 I love you all so much! Until next week!

-Elder Garner