The 40th Email!

Dear Diary...

Thats how I feel these e-mails are, since I send one every week! This is my 40th e-mail I have sent home since I have been in the Field! That is crazy! 

Well today is going to be a bit shorter of an e-mail there is not much to say. 

One really cool thing that we have going on right now is that we are teaching a family (Lapara Family) that is a part member, and they are a family of 7, so we have a goal set for them all to be baptized on June 14th! We are super excited for them! Nanay (Mother) has a few concerns, and is pretty much a die hard catholic, but she is starting to recognized how the Gospel will bless her family, and the cool part is that she said that she prayed to know the truth and feels that everything that we have been teaching her and her family is true! Whoo! Tatay (Father) is the one who is most interested in our message, he gets so into it! Its funny because if you were to take one look at him you wouldn't thing he would be the kind of guy to be interested in religion. Its awesome, we are really hoping everything will go well with them, and we will be able to help them resolves their concerns. For some reason baptizing entire families is a hard thing to do here in the Philippines so there is tons of Part-Member families the need to be completed, and so this is like Gold to us and we are trying everything that we can do to help them progress, and feel God's love for them. The scary thing is that once again those baptisms are right after a transfer which is on June 5th. So... hopefully I don't get transferred again hahah that wouldn't be to fun! 

Skype was awesome! I am sure you are all hearing about it anyways from my mother.... hahaha It was nice and yes I was little bit homesick after but how can you  not be? I was able to get over it pretty quickly though and we ended up getting 4 lessons that day! So that was great! Our area is starting to progress, and we are seeing the fruits of our labors, even if they are small fruits ;) ha. Elder Bituen and I are really excited for the rest of the transfer because things are finally starting to get better. Its just weird to think that I still have more then a year left, and I might have 2 or 3 more areas! There is so much more to experience! 

While i was skyping I was asked how the language was coming along since I haven't really said anything about for a while. It's getting a lot better now. I wouldn't say I am fluent because I still have a hard time really understand what people are saying to me, but I can basically talk and listen to everyone I talk to, and get around town and stuff like that, its just a little bit of a struggle thats all. It's cool that I can even speak a different language! I was told that Tagalog is one of the hardest languages in the World! Whoa! ha it gave me more confidence and feel better about my efforts in trying to learn this language, its definitely a challenge. 

Well attached is a picture of a Van. These Vans are the fastest way around the island and they are crazy! You can ask my Mom the story I told about them over skype about them, but basically they just smash 20+ people in that thing and they drive like they are nascar drivers! Overpassing people driving on the wrong side of the road, and just making close calls. They drive all day everyday, so they are pretty good! It keeps life a little spicy sometimes! 

Wells thats about it nothing too exciting this week, so stay cool, stay fresh, and stay there until I get back! 

-Elder Kikel