Hey everyone how are you all doing!!! Can't believe I only have two weeks left here and next week is already Christmas! Time just flies here! It goes by so fast! You'll be happy to know that I have pictures to send today so those will get sent after this letter! Sorry it’s a little later then usual! This morning the temple is cleaned for cleaning and my district was able to go clean it! Me and Elder Anderson were doing construction in the temple! This guy was knocking down walls for more rooms and so we were helping take down walls and just demolishing everything! It was pretty sweet! Everyone was stuck cleaning and dusting! They only needed two people so me and Anderson went an did it cause Elder Gille was already dusting! So Elders Anderson and Gille are the best! It’s gonna be sad to leave them in 2 weeks cause I’ve spent every moment with them and they have become some of my best friends! Luckily I’ve got some other Elders like Cannon and Pulsipher who are going to Bacolod that are cool as well! Us 5 just do everything together! So this week has been great! Just another good one but I got alot of questions to answer so that’s what I’ll be doing right about now....

1) So yes I am taking pictures well at least this week I did! I’ll send them after this!!

2) The language is so awesome! At times I just feel like I'll never learn it cause I dont understand what is going on and when I try to speak I just fail big time! But then at times I’m just speaking like crazy..I’ll just go on rants like in lessons. It’s weird! The hardest part is that it’s like backwards of how we speak English. so getting the structure down of the sentence is the hardest part. Our teacher told us that we probably have doubled the amount of vocab that her other district has. So that was pretty nice to hear! But this next week I’m just going to really try to understand the structure before I leave in 2 weeks for the Philippines unless I'll just be completely lost! I still will be no matter what but maybe I can at least say some things or understand some things!

3) Yeah I’ve seen Dan. He's in my zone and his bedroom is right down the hall and his class room is right across the hall way! So I see him alot. He seems to be doing good! Haven’t talked to him much but he seems like he’s doing good!

4)Directing the Newbies was awesome! I actually got to host instead of directing cause we got a new district leader so directing is their job! But there were like 300 elders that came in last week... this week..... 700!!! GRABI!!! (that means like holy cow/oh my gosh/any amount of expression pretty much) haha so we are hosting again! That is so many people coming in! It’s going to be packed here! It already is!! But it'll be fun for a week I guess... Then I’m gonzo!!!

5) Oh yes... I can see a huge difference between the new elders that just got here speaking Hiligaynon and us! The language is actually not that hard it’s just the retaining and making sure that everything is in the right structure order! Every one back home has been asking me if I can like pray and bear my testimony in Hiligaynon. you learn how to do that like day 2! It takes like a week or 2 to get it down but after that it’s easy! We can go into lessons that we teach without notes and have a good lesson for a good 30 minutes! Its pretty fun! The language is so fun to speak though cause nobody has any idea what we are saying! It’s awesome!

6)Chest pain is good! The pills I got are helping! I have like one left. I’m not sure if it treats the pain or just helps the pain. When you called did they tell you anything! I may want to go and check cause if so I need to get another prescription before I leave to the Philippines and since I'm out as of tomorrow! So I’ll do that today or tomorrow!

7) I checked on Phone cards. They are like 5 bucks for 300 minutes. So I’ll get one of those when I leave!

8) I haven’t recieved my travel plans yet but I will this week!! I’m so excited! It will be awesome!!

9) So for Christmas Eve and Christmas I know that we will have a couple devotionals. We made friends with the executive secretary here at the MTC cause he looks like one of the kids in our district! He loves us! Don’t know if he knows our names but he always talks to us! We were asking him about who is coming on Christmas and he wasn’t allowed to tell us but he told us that it’s not the Prophet but he has a higher calling then Holland! I’m thinking Uchtdorf!! It will be so awesome if that’s who its is!!! I cant wait though to see who it is!!!!

10) Meals here are meals. The food is pretty good! That probably just cause we are always hungry!! haha. Between the elders in my district we'll just be studying the Book of Mormon personally and some one... usually Elder Cannon, Me or Anderson will just say.... "Dude. I’m just starved!" we all just start laughing and just want to go eat! There are only like three things we look forward to here.... Meal time, gym and mail! haha oh and sleep!!!! But some times the food just looks gross or is gross so I load up on Lucky Charms but usually it is pretty good! The topic we talk about here is sports! There are like three of us that are just sport buffs. Me Anderson and Cannon and so we always talk about that! If it’s not that it’s about like surfing or wakeboarding cause a couple of us do that! It all just depends on who starts a conversation!!
11) Not much you can do to help me out before I leave! I've enjoyed the Christmas package so far and haven't guessed any of the clues right yet but Anderson or Gille usually get them pretty fast! haha! Just keep praying that I'll be as ready as I can be before I leave the MTC!! and keep writing letters! I love letters! FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!

12) I'm a little anxious about the language before I leave just cause that's a huge obstacle but besides that that’s all im anxious about! But I'm just excited to leave! Im excited to get to the Philippines and bless peoples lives cause I know that this gospel we testify and preach to the world about is true and has blessed my life for sure the past weeks since I've been gone!! I know that it can bless anyone as they live it and gain a true testimony of it! I love the Book of Mormon and what is has to offer to my life! As I apply the writings of scripture to my life I can truly see a night and day difference! The gospel is true. That’s what I’m most excited about the Philippines! Is to teach people that!

I miss you all but love you more! I love the mission and can’t wait to be in the Philippines serving the people of Bacolod! It’s a blessing for me to be able to be part of this important work!!

I love the mission!!

Love you all.... until next week!