Week 45: Tuesday April 15,2014

Family,

   Happy Easter everyone! It's Easter in America which means it's holy week in the Philippines. It's probably the next biggest time of the year besides Christmas. There are many fiestas going on which means two things...A lot of drunk people & a lot of dinner appointments!

   This past week has been great. I had an awesome opportunity to go on splits with Elder Uata. Some of you may remember his name. He was my companion in the MTC. We all remember how much I loved him in the MTC... It's strange how a mission changes you. Looking back at all that we went through in the MTC & the struggles we had, I can say without a doubt that he was one of my very favorite companions. I hope that we have the chance to be companions again later in the mission. That would be a great transfer. It was also a wonderful opportunity to see the changes that have occurred in his life. I couldn't help but compare ourselves in some aspects of the mission seeing that we have been out for the same amount of time. I remember teaching "lessons" in the MTC in Cebuano & how we couldn't speak two words. As we taught this last week, we both taught & conversed in completely fluent Cebuano. It was a strange, exciting experience.

   Today we have a district activity in one of the areas in our district. Our original plan was to climb to the top of this active volcano that is in the area, but it takes about 8 hours to hike to the top. I was really disappointed & our back-up plan is to go to a big tree... I guess you can fit about 20 people around the trunk & climb it. That's cool, but it's no active volcano...

   We are continuing to find new investigators every week. This week we have found some very great potential investigators. We taught them the first lesson & they seemed very interested in learning more about the gospel. I hope they will progress.

   I about died when I saw the videos of Daxton! It kills me how big he is getting! He is walking, playing basketball (in the bathtub), & just doing big kid things! I cannot wait to get to know him when I get home. Starr, you better be ready because I'm sure that I will be over there everyday.

   It's been pretty rainy the last few days. We're in the middle of a storm over here so we have been trudging through the mud & wind. It's actually really fun & sort of surreal. It's also kind of a bummer, but thinking about it, I would probably rather work in this weather than in the scorching hot sun!

   I think that's about it for this week. Chantyl, I haven't met Elder Shaffer yet. Is he assigned here in Cebu? Chad, I'm so excited for you to finally graduate! Sounds like things are going well on the home front. I love you all & pray for you everyday. 

   

   Until next week...

Elder Staheli