Week 37: Matchstick stacking and birthday damnation

Elder Griffin and friends during Zone Conference training.

Hello Family....

Another great week here in the Philippines. The work is great and life is good.

We didn't go to Banaue this week, but we did play football for a couple hours and we got McDonalds and went to Save More earlier. Today was also Elder Balaich's 21st birthday. So it was a good day. I still have the cake mix so I will probably make it this week, if I get time.

The week went really, really fast. We did a lot of finding and met some really cool people. Tracting is really pretty easy here in the Philippines. It's getting them to progress and go to church that seems to be the hardest part. Although this Sunday was pretty cool. We had most of the people that have been progressing well go to church and then 3 different members brought friends to church. That's definitely the best place to find to investigators is in the church itself.

We also had a cool Family Home Evening last Monday with the Mejia family. The 10-year old kid is not baptized and the parents recently returned to church. Anyway, we played a sweet game that Elder Weaver showed me back in the day and I call it ghetto Jenga. Basically, you get an empty bottle (glass or plastic) and then everyone takes like 15 matches and you have to stack them on top of the bottle. If you knock any off the top, you have to take them. And the goal is get rid of all your matches. The stack gets pretty high and precarious. I got some pics, but i left my camera at the house. So I'll have to give them to you next week.

Also, another highlight of this week is that we taught a less active family and then we got to play with their monkey. He is pretty crazy. He just jumps on you and goes through your hair looking for bugs or something. I got some sweet pictures as well.

Oh, also here in the Philippines, birthdays are really lame. Basically, if it's someone's birthday, they are supposed to prepare a party or treats or something for everyone else. So I was telling a few people that it was Elder Balaich's birthday (I wasn't sure what happens really if it's someone's birthday) and every one of them asked straight up, “Oh, what did you prepare for us?”

Also it was funny, I told our branch president that it was Elder Balaich's birthday and he said, “Ha-ha, you are ipinamahamak and casama mo.” I'm not sure what the real translation is for that, but in the Bible they use mapahamak for like damnation. So basically he said I was damning my companion by telling people it's his birthday.

Teaching is great and I love being on the mission and watching people's lives change. I know the gospel is true and that it is the formula to really becoming happy no matter what the circumstances are.

Some Q & A:1. Do they grow anything besides rice?

They grow corn (which I found out this week is all just from American seed someone brought to the Philippines) and they have tons of awesome fruit.

2. Do you have a favorite scripture?
Too many to name – hindi ko alam.

3. How soon are transfers?
July 28. I murder Balaich on the 27^th – Muhahahah!

4. We are loving the Shasta raspberry cream soda lately. Is there a local flavor that you love?
No, I am really sick of soda pop. They do have Dad's root beer here, but only at nice grocery stores. That's my favorite coming from the Philippines, but I guess it's still an American recipe.

5. Update us on the work ...
On the 23rd of July we should have 2 baptisms. One is the older sister of Karen (baptized last month) and the other one is the kid I talked about earlier (Erickson -- his parents newly returned to church). Other than that, we have a ton of investigators and some are serious. But mostly the hardest part is that it's really, really, really hard to get people to go to church.


Love ya

A.J.