Elder Austin Russell Cook Philippines, Legazpi Mission 8-2016 thru 8-2018

This week (actually these past couple of weeks ever since Elder Bangal got here) went really well! We have so many people progressing and so many people wanting to be baptized.

Exchanges with Elder Robinson

This week we counted it all up and we have 18 people with a set baptism date. There's too many to give you all an individual description of each person, but I do want to explain Edna and her kids, since they are the closest to baptism. Edna is a returned missionary, but she left the church after her mission for some unknown reason. Her husband actually committed suicide two years ago, and that made her want to re-join the church. She's about 45 and has three children, and none of them are members because they were born in the time of her inactivity in the church. She actually found us a while ago and asked us to teach them so her kids could be baptized and so she could start going to church again. Her kids are only a week away from baptism, and they go to church every week and the all really love it. It's so amazing though, they barely have enough money to get to church, but Edna says she makes that sacrifice because she knows that she will be blessed in her finances if she continues to go to church every week.

Our night of exchanges and we made spaghetti

OH AND I JUST REMEMBERED! This week we made something called Sisig. It's literally my favorite food here, but it's pretty expensive so we don't eat it that much. But one day we decided to cook it in our apartment, which I was super excited for because I wanted to learn. Turns out this stuff is made of pig face. Literally the face of a pig. Not the inside of the face, but the actual mask of the pig. We just cut up the ears, the face, and the snout and just fried it all and put some seasoning and BAM there's Sisig. It was so weird knowing that my favorite food here is made out of pig face. That's why it's ALWAYS best to not look at the food when you're eating it. B t yeah we literally eat stuff like that here all the time. Nothing goes to waste, absolutely nothing. We eat everything. The face, the feet, the skin, whatever. If it's digestible we eat it.

Me and Elder Bangal moving at lightning speeds

Anyways, the work here is progressing SUPER fast! People are loving us to teach them, and the language is coming along really well too! I'm not sweating nearly as bad as I used to (Thank the heavens for that one) and I'm getting used to the differences of this place.

And yes, don't worry, I actually have pictures this week! I'll send those in a different attachment though. Alright, I'll email you all again in another short week! I love you guys ya'll are the best!!

Also we have power! But typhoons come all the time here. Literally almost every week. I think there have been about 10 typhoons since I’ve been here. But I’ve kind of lost count.