Tougtog area week 3

Mom,

I will try and drink more water and eat more. It's just that we typically don't carry water with us because it's so heavy. As for the food, I will buy myself some more this week to add to the 'house food' we all get. 

I'm pretty sure that the bites are just from mosquitoes. They are everywhere here, and there is only so much we can do. Everyone has them, natives and foreigners. But I might try ironing the mattress latter today. 

General Conference is a week later here, because they translate everything into Tagalog first, for those who don't understand English. We will watch in English though, this Sunday at the Stake Center, with all the missionaries, I think.

For Christmas, maybe a flash drive. We have a DVD player at the residence, where we can listen to church songs and watch church movies, if we can somehow get them. The WiFi here is really slow, but I think I could download some stuff to watch on P-days and listen to in the mornings. As for cookie mix, we do not have an oven. Or any cookie sheets. I think our Nanay (like mother in Tagalog) has an oven, but I don't know about cookie sheets or anything like that. 

In our house, we have 4 missionaries yes. Us two in Taugtog, and the other two bike to San Quan every day, about 20 minutes. They are both Filipino. Elder Humagdou has like two months left in his mission, and has really good English. He is the district leader, and sometimes asks for help learning English. Elder Detera is new, technically me and him will go home at the same time (my 6 weeks in the MTC put me up there with him). His English is not as good, but he can understand most everything I say. They both love to help me learn Tagalog, even though we don't see each other very often, just right before bed and in the mornings. 

We don't have a house keeper or cook. We have asked a member to wash our clothes, Nanay Baluyot, and Nanay Kastro feeds us dinner most every night. 

The language is slowly, slowly coming. Our biggest problem here is having a male presence in the house so that we can teach. The fathers and sons who are old enough to count for us, are at work or school all day. So it's very important for us to have a member working with us at all times. Without them, we probably wont be able to teach. These members, usually Brother Zuess (a super short Return Missionary I think) and Brother Sam (a young man, 18 or 17), are always fun to (try and) talk to. We have 6 BGD right now. BGD means Baptism Goal Date. They are; Jasmine and Maryann, Nanay Bagobi, and the Onate Family. Jasmine and Maryann are 9 and 10 years old. Jasmine is from a super less-active family, and Maryann is her best friend. They have both been to church a few times, but Maryann couldn't this week because she was sick. Nanay Bagobi is a super new convert, and she and her daughter went to church for the first time yesterday! Nanay Kastro said she participated in Relief Society meeting, but she went to Olongapo to visit family before we could talk to her. The Onate Family, the two parents and a daughter, where referrals. They were actually taught 4 years ago, but where dropped for some odd reason. They are very receptive, and excited to learn. Their daughter, Jowena, came to church by herself this week, because the Tatay and Nanay were gone to Iba. 

This week for our CSP (community service project), we cleaned out Sister Baluyot's new house. It was actually kind of scary, a dark concrete block full of spider webs and garbage. She said there might actually be a snake in the roof. But as we cleaned anyways, under the light of the little flash light I brought. As I was cleaning the CR, with a broom that's really just a bunch of sticks, I thought about how much cleaner this place would have been if someone would have just continued to clean it. But because they let it go for so long, without any supervision, it became dirty and disgusting, and if there really was a snake, unsafe. I realized later, how that kind of applies to life. We need to continually clean our own lives, to make sure that we can stay clean. I was reading in Alma, when Helaman and Moroni are fighting with the Lamanites, and there are rebellions inside the Nephites government. Alma says that we first need to clean our inner chambers, before we can try and clean the out ones. We have to prepare ourselves, and make sure we are clean, before we can expect anyone else to be clean or ready to hear the gospel. 

I love you so much, and miss everyone. Take care, and know that I pray for you.

Elder Potter