I will spend a total of 6 months here in Masbate, just like my past two areas.

Chillin laid back wit mah eyes closed

Let's give some quick updates shall we? Sorry, I haven't sent out a group email in about three weeks (things get busy with the holidays). But in the past three weeks Elder Del Pilar and I have been KILLING IT in our work, and we are finding much more success because we are working a lot more efficiently. We aren't working any harder, we are just working smarter (because we realized that some of our methods of planning and such were pretty much useless haha).

The whole Ramos family.  Mind you I'm only 6ft 1 inch

But last week we finally witnessed the baptism of Nanay Angelina Ramos and Tatay Jimmy Ramos! They were probably one of the most difficult baptisms we’ve had out here. Not because of their problems, however, but because of their literal lack of education. We have been teaching them nearly every day for the past two months because if we miss even one day, they completely forget what we taught. I remember when we taught them about tithing, we had to teach them how to divide by 10 so that they could actually pay tithing. After that, they STILL didn't understand, so we had to teach it three more times... But such is life in the Philippines haha. Anyways, after all of our teaching, they FINALLY got baptized! And they have about five or six children to be baptized in the next couple of months, so we are very excited for that.

Aside from that family and their baptisms, we are still searching high and low looking for those that will accept us. Our goal is to set up this area so that after we leave, the following missionaries can have weekly baptisms. So far, it seems to be set up pretty well.

This seems like an appropriate time to insert a fun story. We walking down the street and there was a vendor frying empenadas in a big bowl of oil. Right as she was frying them, this HUGE flying cockroach landed right in with the empenadas and got fried to death. In the meantime, the girl nonchalantly removed the cockroach and continued frying her food to sell to the people... Maybe that's the reason we are told not to buy street foods. The best part of the story: we still bought from that vendor haha!

Found some stuff for a face mask in some of the Elders
apartment. I did this one time at a friends house back at home
 so I decided to try it again! 

Transfer announcements came last Saturday, and turns out I will be staying in Masbate for another 6 weeks! Which means that I will spend a total of 6 months here in Masbate, just like my past two areas. That also means that Elder Del Pilar and I will be spending a total of four and a half months together as a companionship - my longest time spent with a companion. My time is going by so fast here, especially now that I have 7 months left. I know it's still a long time, but I also know that once it's over, it's over, and there is no going back. Therefore, I am trying my best to make it all count and not skip any of the seconds. Time is the most valuable and precious thing we have as missionaries, so we don't have a minute to spare out here.  Elder Austin Cook

Got board one P-Day, so Elder Del Pilar made 
a tower with his spare change.  I wanted to 
make a whole Utopian City but we didn't 
have enough coins :(

Inside another Elders Apartment 

local scenery

Local scenery

It's so hot here so I shower before bed then sprinkle tons
 of baby powder on my bed.  Its the only way I can sleep.
 I know the mattress is so dirty.  my sheets are hanging out
to dry from washing them.

White boy tarzan

The sweet Ramos's

 This high-tech, 21st century medical care
that no other country can beat

 This is where we buy our fruit. Sometimes you find
cockroaches climbing around on it, but only if you're lucky

Inside the Ramos home

View from another Elders apartment

The local homes where we live

When it's raining, literally NO ONE goes outside