Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Week 9: Exchanges and Balut

Mom! Dad! Family! Hey!
Greetings from the big P. I. yeaaaaahhhh boiiiiiii ahahah anyways...
This week has been great! 
First before I forget, the package got here on November 16! But I wasn't able to open it until yesterday ahahah. because, they kept it at the mission office for almost a week because they thought it was for Christmas! So a missionary told me there was a package for me at the mission office so I asked them to pick it up for me which they did! And then I opened it last night and we had some fun ahahha. Thank you guys so much! Some American snacks, well French I guess, were great. I already finished a box of the petite ecolier ahaha and the peach gunmmies! Don't worry, I shared. I gave my housemates and Elder Zacarias each a Santa hat and signed them each "from Elder Lasley" ahaha and put up the Christmas stickers and lights in our study room! its very festive.
I went to a funeral on Saturday night, a very strange experience. there was an open casket and everything! It was for the 38 year old son of a member. He passed away from heart complications due to a heart condition and pneumonia. I told Elder Zacarias I had had pneumonia before and he said "and you didn't die? oh wow!" ahaha I don't know if he knows it's not like a deadly fatal illness. Anwyays, funerals here are very strange! There's obviously mourning and consolation and all, but afterwards, everyone stay up all night and gambles, talks, joke and laughs and play cards and stuff ahaha it's so weird. I told Elder Zacarias what funerals are like in America and he was shocked ahaha.
I'll tell you one story about one of our investigators! So his name is Peter and we've been teaching him for a while actually. Just a few weeks ago, we started hearing rumors from his friends that we would see occasionally that he was involved in a homosexual relationship, that's why he was traveling to Manila so often, so we got a little bit worried. Anyways, last Monday, right before we were about to go and teach him, he texted us and said he didn't want to hear from us anymore! We were both shocked and sad and didn't know what to think! So three times this week we tried to contact him, but he wouldn't answer our calls, reply to our texts, and every time we visited, he wasn't home! So we just used our patience aahaha. and then the fourth time we went to his house, he was home! And he agreed to sit down and talk with us. During this time he explained that he was in Manila so often because he was in the process of applying and being interviewed for a job there! its a pretty good gig for him so we really hope he gets it. anyways, he explained that he said he didn't want to hear from us anymore because he was afraid getting this job would make him just too busy for any time to hear from us or read scriptures or pray. so we explained to him that if he gets the job, as long as he sincerely tries to read his scriptures and pray even just a little bit sometime during his hectic day, Heavenly father would provide a way for him to hear from us occasionally. he really loves our message and the gospel and we really hope he continues to try hard to choose the right and read the scriptures and we look forward to times when we can hear from him!
oh! also! i had the opportunity to go on two companion exchanges recently! one with our zone leader, Elder Grant, who's from Valencia California! we made great friends and we talk whenever we can haha, we have a lot of the same interests. it was a lot of fun! and the other was with a Filipino named Elder Hora who did not speak very good English at all. he spoke 4 other filipino dialects, but english just did not come easily. so it was a bit of a challenge, but it really improved my understanding skills. I walked by faith a lot that day ahahaha because I just couldn't understand him a lot ahaha but it was a great experience.
sounds like life at home is awesome! I miss you all and just the usual home life ahaha. but its great here still!
I would've loved to help coach Sam's team ahaha that sounds like a blast. I found a Versace shirt at a thrift store here! I'm not sure if its real or not, but I bought it just in case.and that highschool NJB sounds awseome too. Ben and Kyle and Brad are gonna have a blast!
Thanksgiving in Palm Springs sounds like its gonna be great! I'm jealous! I would love to be in Palm Desert with the family, they don.t celebrate thanksgiving here abviously, but maybe I'll convince everyone to help me buy a chicken or something for dinner ahaha.
yeah I do remember meeting her! congratualtions Austin! that's awesome! oh the Johnson family is gonna be crazy this year ahahah.
oh what that's so cool! I miss Jeffrey and his antics ahaha. i hope to see him when I get home! you should tell him to write me a letter! it takes about three weeks to get here, but that's okay ahahah.
anyways, I miss you guys a lot! I love you all! eat an extra plate for me on Thanksgiving! you know how much i like food haha.
Love you guys!
Love,
Elder Lasley :)

And heres your's truly :) 
and a two year old daughter of a recent convert named Princess! We were playing some Barbies. I don't know why but any of her barbies have clothes.

This is a very weird food I ate here this week! It's called Balut and it's a fertilized duck egg and you just eat everything in the egg.

 Here is the baby duck that I ate!
 
 





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