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> I got to baptize Jayson Largo (the son of Tatay Largo who was baptized last week) on Saturday. The cool part-it was in the ocean. Our plumbing is about as effective as the road construction crews in Utah so, once again (it has happened like 32532 times) we had no water whatsoever at the church. So we went to the ocean. Now, I thought it was gonna be cool, like some other side of heaven stuff cause I had been to islands here before and the water is crystal clear and more blue than my eyes…but we picked the land of desolation instead. It was low tide…extremely low tide…so we had to wade out for like 20 minutes to get up to waist deep water. The thing that made it challenging was it was a part of the coast that has no sand-just mud. So, I decided I was gonna accept the challenge the mud was presenting by hitting it head on…failure. I went in with my crocs on and I took like 15 steps before I could go no further cause of the depth of the mud. So, I took them off and threw them at the pier (and they missed and landed in the water and our ward missionary had to go speeding after them cause they floated away down the shore haha) and continued barefoot. It was way gross cause with every step I sank down in the mud like 6 inches and under the mud was all this sharp stuff (sticks, shells, rocks, etc.) so it hurt half the time and creeped me out the other half. But it was cool. It was difficult to walk because of the depth of the mud so I was going slow and the bishop came floating past on a boat and had this big smile on his face and said “hello elder!” (he speaks English) and then told me to hurry up obviously making fun of the fact that I had almost fallen over like 20 times haha. Thanks bishop. After like 20 minutes of wading we got up to, well for him, waist deep water and so that is where it happened. The first time his stupid knot was out of the water so I did it again and after wards he said I practically pushed him down in the mud ha-gotta love shallow water.
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> I have an update to the whole Ate Maylin story. Remember-the whole bus incident with the crash and the cut off leg? Well…he died. Doctors said he was lucky to even have lived 3 days. Elder Francisco and I visited her and she was in the middle of a nervous breakdown-which seems almost justified. She has 2 kids and no job and now no husband. She is 26 and so she seems able to be able to get a job but there are other factors keeping her back. She is in perfect health and mentally stable-no problems but she doesn’t have a job. Anyways, while she was crying uncontrollably she turned to her kid and was like “mundi, ask elder muller to take us to America with him. ASK HIM” and so that is when Elder Francisco and I were like “uh…oh hey look some investigators. Well come back later” and we ran away, but in a nice way. Her husband was the obstacle keeping her from listening to our message so it was sort of nice (in the midst of all the turmoil that was going down) to hear her say “elder I want to listen to your message now, just not at this second” so we will see what the future holds for her.
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> Now, onto my new companion. His name is Elder Francisco, and he is a Filipino. The only itty bitty problem that we have is the unimportant trivial fact that he speaks…absolutely NO English. Communication with him is interesting. He would make an American auctioneer cry 1000 tears cause he speaks at 5 times the speed of sound. For almost everything that he says I have to ask him to repeat it but at a much slower pace. It is really hard sometimes but its ok I guess. I can talk with him and teach the lessons and stuff, I just need to make sure I know all the words that I am gonna use for that day cause he cant translate for me. He has been out for 10 months and is a quiet but nice guy. Elder Bernard got a new companion too-one of the guys in his class at the MTC ha so they are living life and having a blast!!! Haha do you remember the whole situation with Elder David-the crazy elder who was in the zone leaders apartment 2 transfers ago? The one that I got a little angry at? He is now Elder Banawan’s companion haha. Looks like its time to learn patience!
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> I have written both grandparents and President Jensen and plan on writing more and sending them out this week hopefully so they should get them in like 2 weeks or so. How is Derek doing? Is he tearing it up?
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> I got to see Elder Harris, Johnson, and Sister Andreason at transfer day. It was fun, always fun to see batch mates, but I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t see Elder Hansen. He wasn’t at transfer day cause he caught his companion…well we will leave it at that. So he got emergency transferred, his comp got sent home, and now he is at another area. We can “pouch” letters to anyone in the Philippines so its really easy to send out 10 letters a week to friends serving here. That’s how I know. We left at 4 in the morning and hopped on a bus, and we got to the mission home at like 8:30 or so. We FLEW on that road. We have a switched up zone now so it will be interesting to see everyone and get to know them at district meeting. Elder Banawan is now Sister Andreason’s zone leader. Lucky duck.
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> As for me, I haven’t moved at all. I am still in the same area, ward, apartment, and bed! I am excited however for next transfer day cause it means, maybe, that I will be transferred to a city with cool malls and mcdonalds and stuff haha. Fun times. I don’t know where I am going cause its not my decision ha but I am still excited. With this said, it is kind of bittersweet. I love lopez a lot and the members are amazing. I hope to come back some day. There is a nanay in the area (the one who does my laundry haha) who is so anxious to get her husbands temple work done, but she cant submit it cause the system here is all messed up. Temple trips are EXPENSIVE for members and they happen, at most, once a year. Maybe, if I return, I will be able to do her temple work. That would be way way cool!
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> Man I cant believe Benjamin is turning 8 that little punk. Exciting stuff! Tell dad to baptize him like this:
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> “Bilang naatasan ni Jesucristo, Binibinyagan kita sa pangalan ng Ama, at ng Anak, at ng Espiritu Santo, Amen”
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> That’s the cool way to do it haha. What an amazing day. Oh man-Chelsea is going to the baptism. Ha I always made fun of her because I got to go to her sisters sealing and she didn’t, so she always responded with “oh yea, well guess who gets to go to your little brothers baptism…and who doesn’t” haha oh man. Now I need to find another way to one up her…but anyways tell Benjamin I say happy birthday. I would send a package but the last time Elder Lee sent a package it cost him 3000 pisos. That is just under ½ the money we get for the whole month so my packages might be in short supply. Tell him, once again, that I am really proud of him and excited to hear how it went (even though he always stole the love sac when I wasn’t looking…that butt.
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> As for the question about the sharing time, I have a story that I heard here. It is relevant here cause people always use computer shops here, and they always have brown outs. It is kind of a cool story so just thought I would share it. It is kind of harsh, and rough at times, but just go with the flow.
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> Christ and Satan were in an internet shop one day. They all had the records (names, ages, birthdays, desires, etc.) of all the people who follow them. Christ was calmly putting in the records while Satan was hurridly smashing the keys to get as many records in the computer as possible. Christ has a calm, loving smile on his face. Satan had a frown of anger. All of the sudden, a brown out happened. Satan became angry and started screaming. Christ sat in solemn dignity waiting for the electricity to come back on. When it did, Satan had no one he had typed. Christ had everyone. Why? Cause Christ saved all his records. Every one meant everything to him so he made sure to take the extra time and ensure their safety.
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> Yea, different than what you would hear in the states, but effective none the less. There is another one that I want to share but it is kind of, well, violent (gotta love stories in the Philippines) but it gets its point across. The characters are a little weird, but it works.
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> There was a boy that lived a long time ago in a place far far off. He attended school and was just like everyone else. At this school that he attended, there was this girl. Now, this girl was the most attractive girl in the entire country; every single guy wanted to go on a date with her. Knowing this, she gained an advantage over everyone else. Boys asked her out on dates all the time, and when she didn’t want to go on a date with them she would say “I will go on a date with you if you bring me a red red rose” In this place that the boy lived, there were no red roses at all, and everyone knew this. One day that boy decided to muster up the courage and ask this girl for a date. Walking with his head held high and his boots buckled tight, he went up to the girl and asked. Almost on cue, he got the response “I will go on a date with you if you bring me a red red rose” The boy was crushed. He went home that day and was sitting out in his yard. One of his friends, a small loving hummingbird, noticed his sadness from far off. The hummingbird lived in a pure white rose bush off in the corner of the yard. He flew up to the boy and asked what the matter was. “I need to find a red red rose so this girl will go on a date with me, but I don’t know where to find one.” The boy started to cry. Heartbroken, the hummingbird flew back to his bush-destined to find another way. “Father, I want the boy to be happy but I don’t know what to do” The bush responded “you know what he wants do you not?” “Well yes, but where do I find a red red rose?” “There is no place where you can find a red red rose anywhere near that I know of, but there is a way to make one.” To this the hummingbird was astonished. “How?” “In order to make a red red rose, a willing heart needs to sacrifice itself for another-thus paying the toll with blood.” “Is there any other way?” “There is no other way” The hummingbird thought and thought and came to his decision. He loved his friend so very much and could not bear to see him in agony. Spotting a thorn down below, the hummingbird stuck out his chest, flew as fast as he could, and drove the thorn into his chest. Three small drops of blood fell on a white rose below and it turned a magnificent, deep red. The rose then, along with the small, lifeless body of the hummingbird, fell to the ground. The boy immediately noticed that the red rose had fallen and ran over and picked it up-failing to notice the body of his dearest friend laying next to his prize. “Oh man, now I can get that date!” The boy, handling the rose carefully, started the walk to the school. A little bit down the road his friends were playing basketball. “Boy, come play with us” they called. Boy looked at the rose sitting there in his hand gleaming…then to his friends…then to the rose…then to his friends. He threw down the rose “oh well. I didn’t want that date that bad after all!”
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> Intense, but it strikes up thought. Ha don’t share that with your primary class but I wanted to share it all the same. It makes a point of what the human race does (on a much smaller scale) daily.
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> I am glad to hear that grandma and grandpa clark are doing well. When they stay at our house when you guys go on your trip tell grandma and grandpa they can use my bed. It is MOST DEFINITELY more comfortable than the bed in the guest room, and it is bigger. Plus it’s a serta (I miss my bed SO MUCH). Enough said. Tell them I am sending out a letter to them this week and that the village room looks AMAZING. I explain a lot of stuff in my letter so tell them I say they should be excited haha.
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> I hope you all keep dominating life the way you are. Elder Muller’s spiritual thought for the day-read a chapter of the BOM a day. I promise you in no time you will feel like you are walking on a cloud. That is way sick about the basketball. Three dominatory kids dominating on three dominatory teams. Tell them to continue-who knows, one day they may play for USU ha!!
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> Love love love,
> Jake
> aka Elder Muller
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