Week ~ 42 Tanner put week: sdfsbhdkasldgfa (Which I think means he has NO IDEA what week it is... he's lost track!!

Trail of children following the Elders around!

Hi world. The weeks are flying. I can't believe it. We are officially in our new house!  Anyways, we are officially LIVING IN OUR AREA. I can't believe it. That gives us so much time to work, almost more time than we know what to do with, but we are talking to everyone so that's fun. We also discovered a new area to proselyte in! It is one of those "squatter" areas, so it is just one of the more humble areas. We went there and of course we had another train of children and we blew some minds cause we speak Tagalog so that was a good old time. We probably have 8 return appointments with people in this area, so that should be good. We also have new roommates! Elder E and Elder S are the new crazy guys. Elder E is the guy who has the full ride scholarship to play football at Oregon so yeah, he's super chill and we have A TON in common so we have a good time in the bahay haha. Elder S is an "American" who really is from Europe cause his dad teaches school on American military bases, so those two are like polar opposites except all 4 of us really balance each other out. It is super fun with those guys. We have a WAY bigger house so we can have room to breath and cook and stuff so that is even better! 

Anyways, the work is good here. We have a pretty big teaching pool cause we are talking to so many people and always finding so that's really good for us, coming from no one to teach at the beginning. The problem we are having is that people aren't coming to church. We struggle with that because we tend to proselyte in the areas with not as much money as the other areas. The rich areas all have gates on every house, so they peak out the house and look at us and then just ignore us, so it is kind of not worth it. We are doing well though. We tend to have lots of teaching appointments everyday, the only problem is, is that they are with girls. We do our best to talk to everyone, especially guys cause we can actually teach them whenever, but they tend to not like us as much as the girls. That may or may not be because we are white but the girls just tend to be a lot kinder to us. All in all, we talk to everyone and try to teach everyone ha ha. 

Not much happened this week except that we moved and just taught and stuff... Sometimes we find ourselves not knowing what to do with our time in our area cause the time just got way bigger! I do know that it will start to fill in within the next few weeks. Also, I have some news or a rumor that will happen ha ha. So, our zone consists of 2 districts, Elder G and Elder E are the two district leaders. Elder G's district has 5 companionship's, and Elder E's district has only 3. So rumor has it that President Ostler will be putting in a new companionship and adding another district and splitting the big one. So, the rumor has it that I will be made the new district leader. I heard it from the lips of the zone leaders so yeah. We have interviews with President Ostler this week so I think that he will tell me if it is happening. Transfer day is February 24th so it will happen on transfer day, I am honestly expecting it to happen so we can see if it really does. 

Things are good though. My Tagalog is really improving so that is awesome to see. I wouldn't say I am anywhere close to 100%, but i am like 70% maybe. It is just fun to be able to get my point across most of the time, but it still sometimes is nice to have members work with us to just help us out. Not much to say for this week, I really like what is happening here in the area and living here and being in the area makes things so much easier. My companion is great. He is doing his best to learn the language and stuff. I still do like 80% of the teaching which is completely understandable cause I used to be in his position. We still do well in appointments though. We taught this nanay (mom) this week, Nanay Linda, she actually OYMed (Open Your Mouth)us! She was taught by the sisters in November and actually went to church, the only problem is, is that we always need a member to work with us that is a lalaki 18 pataas. (No clue what that means...)So sometimes that's hard, actually all the time but we move forward! I really love this new area and the members here are awesome and so involved in everything. I also can't believe I am almost 11 months! I feel so old. Several missionaries have called me old this week so yeah that's great. My new kabahays (roommates) are all pretty young. I am the oldest in the mission out of all of us and the oldest in age! Almost 20! So yeah I am old. I am happy though! 

I would also like to give a shout out to my cousin Kathleen Lambert for sending me a package! It is so amazing that you sent me that! I just got it this past week! The food and candy was great. Thank you so so much!  I can't thank everyone enough for their support and love for me, it means the world and that is part of what helps make this work that much better. I love you all and I hope I am making ya'll proud. I am thankful for this opportunity that I have to serve the Lord and bear his name. Ang simbahan ito ay totoo. Also here is our selfie train of random kids. pangit ako dito sa picture ito. 

 

Some of the treats from the package that arrived this past week from Kathleen Lambert!!
Thank you, thank you!! That is so nice!

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth