Dang, I miss some Eggnog right now. I haven’t had milk since I've been out in the field. That’s cute, if I was there I'd race you to the back door and not let you carry anything, you shouldn’t have to. That’s why you had kids right? lol jokelang! (just a joke) (Kelli wrote him that she thought of him whenever she brought wood in and when she drank eggnog J) Elder Lloyd says thank you and he loves you for sending a rugby ball haha, I showed him the unpumped ball here in the computer shop and he couldn’t wait to pump it up.

This picture is a glass drinking jar that they sell at Pandayan Bookstore. While Elder Gamboa was buying something, I rested my elbow on a shelf full of them. The shelf broke, and they all fell to the floor, exploding like fireworks around my feet. When I looked down there was a little part of my mind that thought the green, red and blue glass looked cool, but most of my mind was sinking fast. They each costed about 50 pesos, and there were 22, I had to pay for the broken goods, my total bill was 1115 pesos ($22 USD). One of them didn’t shatter, but just got a big ol crack in it, so I have a remembrance of my bull in a china shop experience sitting on my desk as a new pen holder. I hate it, haha.

The night before our Christmas conference Elder Beck and Villiamor spent the night so they wouldn’t have to travel so far to get to San Fernando early in the morning. Before going to sleep I washed my face as usual, turned to get my towel when Elder Beck's face lights up and he says "Woahahao!!" pointing to my chest. I looked down to see the biggest spider I've seen so far on my undershirt about 6 inches away from my face. As expected I frikkidy freaked out, screaming, jumping, running and flailing my arms all over. The 3 other elders saw the whole thing and thought I was overreacting. I was not, my actions were perfectly justified. 1584 (looks like a flammable liquid in picture) is how I put it to rest, it deserved it. I was SO terrified. 

  

The last 3 are of our combined baptism with the Sisters; the two men are their investigators, and the two girls are ours. The new convert can choose who they want to baptize them: any worthy priest or melchizedek priesthood holder from the missionaries, to branch president, to big brother. I was asked to baptize the older man, so I practiced the baptismal prayer in Tagalog for it to have more meaning to him. Afterwards we all went out for ice cream at Jollybee.

   

Ok, so this week is the last of my 12 week training, a program to help new missionaries learn how to serve under the supervision of a senior trainer companion. My trainer was Elder Gamboa. He trained me right after his own training by Elder Walsh and became District Leader too. That same thing is happening to me. This week I will have the responsibility of teaching a new missionary (hopefully a philippino) and be responsible for taking care of and watching over 4 other companionships. All of my batch is training, meaning that almost my whole district has little, or next to no experience as missionaries. I accepted the calling from the Assistant to the President, knowing that it would be rough, and probably a little more stress than I'd like to handle, I still struggle with the language sometimes! But I know that "Whom the Lord calls, he qualifies". Wish me luck!