January 23, 2017

Hahaha ok, tell Grandma Hennessey I say “Hi” back. When did that letter get to you? The lady said it would be two weeks, but it was 2 weeks to Argentina and New Zealand too... It’s like in the restaurant we go to, they always say, that’ll be a 28 or 7 minute wait. I say ok because it always turns out to be like 12, or actually 7.

That’s crazy that there was a woman’s "march" What was the reason, or purpose they were trying to get across? Also what is Trump doing? I've heard he's pulling out of Asia and "doesn’t want to be the world’s cop anymore" Also that he told Japan to build nukes if they want them. I don’t know what to believe and I don’t even want to believe that, but if you could give me a quick rundown of some of his policies that would be nice for me to be informed. I did see the inauguration video where the MOTAC sang the National anthem, that was cool.

"OH There Goes Gravity" haha that’s the second line to a song by Eminem, the first line was the title of your email to me, “Back to Reality”. 

Yeah I was surprised when there was no email, but I understood, you’re in the promised land having a blast. About the weather… It’s probably about 95 average at noon but the humidity when you’re walking through a freshly watered rice field is WOW, waves of heat just rising up at you. I see the pictures of snow on the ground and I just wanna feel that. The real cold, not fake 16 degree Celsius aircon.

I actually wrote down some notes for things to say to you this week. 

I thought of some things about the language you might find interesting. Mostly some of the silly struggles I've had. First, everyone try nakakapagpagbagabag, yup sound out every syllable. It means "to cause stress" basically anxiety. That one’s just a fun tongue twister that the pinoys always try to get the Americans to stumble over. Also pangalin =name panalangin=prayer and pangangailangan=need (like I have a need for food when I'm hungry). Sagot=answer and sugat=wound. This one is really important to not mess up because we always say "when you pray to God you WILL get an answer" If you mess up it sounds like God is going to Smite you. Also if you say I have a sagot on my hand, but you mean to say wound on my hand, they will be very confused. 

Another aspect of our church is that I've been teaching the adults Sunday school class for the past month and a half, half of the weeks they will hand me the teaching manual right before sacrament and tell me they need a teacher. But we finally got a lady called to teach so I am relieved from my second calling. And 2 weeks ago we taught a recent convert (Johnathan, who I baptized) how to bless the sacrament, so we are helping our branch to become independent from the missionaries.

Sister Dulce, the super old lady who is self sufficient, while her husband was still alive, he said she couldn’t go to church, but she still found a way to go to the temple 3x. Which is impressive because the temple is in Manila, 5 hours away, and usually they'd stay for nights. Just goes to show that if we really want to do a righteous action, God will prepare a way for us to complete it. 1 Nephi 3:7 we have a commandment to go to the temple and worship, so if we are righteous, no matter what the circumstances, that dream will become reality.

Be safe in the snow and ice! I'll try not to get heatstroke at the same time.

Love,

Elder Hennessey

My comment is that please don’t send unsealed candy. Even if it’s like a starburst if it stays out for 3 days it’ll get soft and start leaking. But if it is a Butterfingers it will be good forever, and that is officially my favorite candy bar, Reese’s are good too but WOW those ginger cookies were bomb. Also tell grandma her BrownIes were delicious and not in the least bit moldy, but I put them in the freezer so the rats wouldn’t eat them

But I kinda have a bad habit of eating candy during studies and then I’m not hungry for lunch, so I’m just getting weak and fat :)

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST I love you all