I have decided to explain all of the wonderful things that we do here in the Philippines and to take some time to describe what life is like out here!

Alright so time for super-mega-awesome-descriptive email time! So this week I have decided to explain all of the wonderful things that we do here in the Philippines and to take some time to describe what life is like out here!

First off I'll start with the morning routine! We wake up at about 6:30 and work out (which is super sweaty because yeah, the Philippines) and then we eat breakfast, which usually consists of rice mixed with hot dogs or eggs. Then we shower! The showers here are a little different than what ya'll are used to back in the blessed states. So here, we use a garbage can. And then we fill it up with some semi-brown water. And then we use a giant ladle looking thing and pour the water over ourselves, and that's pretty much how we shower. And the toilet is also in the shower, so that’s super convenient too! WOOHOO the Philippines is awesome!

And then we go out and work amidst all of the bungalows and tree huts to find people to teach! You have already seen pictures of the areas and stuff, so yeah, that's where we work every day. Then we come back to the apartment, which is a place that I probably should also explain. So all of the houses here are either made of wood or cement, there is no other option. So, naturally, our apartment is made out of cement, which means it gets SUUPER HOT in the day and in the night, which makes sleeping kind of difficult, but hey, we survive right? After returning to the apartment, we eat lunch and do additional studies for the language and such. For lunch we eat anything: sometimes just bread, but usually a ton of rice mixed with either chicken (any part of the chicken), or pig (yes, any part of that as well), or fried fish (which is the whole fish bone, scales head and all)

Then we go out and work some more until 8:00 at night when we come home for dinner and get ready for bed. Dinner is usually the same as lunch, so it’s just whatever we want to eat. Then for bed time, we just shower, brush teeth, and then put our toothbrush's in the fridge so they don't get ants on them (Or sometimes we leave them out, who cares, it's just ants) and then I coat myself with baby powder so I don't sweat through the night, we turn on our electric fans that we set at our feet so they blow over our whole body through the night, and then we go to bed! Sometimes we sleep outside with our little foam mattresses though because it can get really hot inside.

And for laundry, I guess I'll explain that a little bit. We fill a bucket up with water, put some detergent in there, and then put our clothes in there and let them soak for about 2 hours or so, and then scrub them with a brush and a washboard or with our hands.

And that's pretty much the normal routine here in the Peenes. That's all there is to this email! I just thought I would give a little description of what we do here, because I think I've forgotten to do that since I've been here! I don't have any time do describe what happened this week, but next week I will explain a little better! Love you all!!

Elder Austin Cook