Monday, April 12, 2010

Happy Days

Dear Family-
Like I mentioned in my last letter, I really haven't acquired any bomb diggity stories. I have had the normal mission life-absolute amazingness!!!! Disappointments and excitements, as normal, are a rollercoaster filled with ups and downs. Yesterday was kind of a big disappointment though. Obviously, conference here is shown the weekend after it actually happens. Well, Elder Dookie thought that conference was from 9-12 on Sunday and that is it so I missed the first two sessions, and priesthood, but I brought people closer to Christ so I guess that is what matters. Plus I’m just gonna read the Liahona anyways so it’s not like it’s the end of the world. Man, there were tons of talks about parenting though. I’m not gonna lie, it got me really excited to become a dad…but that is a bit aways yet. It was still way cool. We had some investigators come to the stake center to watch conference though so that was a way cool experience. We went to Snookie later that day and asked her how it was and she said it was an awesome experience…except for the english. I was kind of taken aback because she is the registrar for the University of the Philippines and she is really good with english. I was like oh really well, why was it hard for you to understand? They had a Tagalog room in the stake center you know and she was like oh really? Well, the english was really really deep. Haha amen to that sister. Going from speaking Tagalog to listening to people speak that have doctorates was a BIG change. But it was cool. Ate Snookie is one of the coolest people I have ever met. She doesn’t want to accept a baptismal goal date until she has been taught all the missionary lessons (including lesson 5) but up until now she hasn’t received all the lessons. She tells missionaries that and they bail on her before she has a chance to progress. She has been going to church now for more than 6 months and still hasn’t been baptized. She never lets us down when we leave a reading assignment with her. Man, it is awesome to see the twinkle in her eyes when the spirit touches her heart. How awesome is it that every day I get to go to people melancholy and off their game and offer them a message to keep them up up up in a down down world. I feel as if I should introduce myself as “Hi, im elder Muller. This is my companion Elder Duco, and we are giving out free hope!” Hope. What an awesome concept. We also went to Ate Irene Saturday and went over testimonies. There is A LOT of support here from ward members regarding new baptisms (meaning there’s gonna be tons of people at her baptism) and she is getting nervous about it. So, as an example Dookie and I bore our testimonies. A testimony is “[a] solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter
.” I love that statement. Not a solemn attestation as to the ‘I think’ of a matter. I am so glad that the Lord has helped my testimony pump some iron and bulk up. Pure sickness!!!!! My gospel knowledge, and my testimony have exploded. I have decided that…I am gonna extend my mission another 2 years cause being a missionary is possibly the best “profession” in the world!!!!!!!!!! I don’t think the mission president in 2011 will be too happy with that…but I just wont tell him:/

Today I went to the hospital to get my stupid toe taken care of. It was the weirdest shiz that I have ever been in. Like, talk about labyrinth holy cow. We went in and asked the billing section where the general doctor that could perform a 8 minute procedure was and she said 3103. So, using common sense we went to the third floor. Yea, wrong. Turns out 3 means 3rd building and then 1 is the floor and 03 I the room number. So, we searched with all our heart might mind and strength for the room and eventually found it. There was a nurse sitting outside the door with a “the doctor is out” sign. Turns out he was in his office texting his friends. So, we told her my situation and we went in. I was like so can you do this now, like an in and out sort of thing and she was like yep. I was like how much and she was like one five (meaning 1500 pisos…or 30 bucks. 30 Bucks to get an ingrown toenail removed. Amazingness!!) I was like ok lets show this rebel toe whose boss. So we walked back to where the doctor was and the nurse was like ok lay down on the bed. I laid down…failure. The bed was fit for a Filipino meaning it was like 5’long. My leg extended into the sink across from the bed. So, she had me bend my leg and put a poster under my foot to collect the excess iodine. Haha this is where it gets good. The doctor came and numbed me in the base of my toe. He poked the top where the ingrown part was and he was like did that hurt? Uh…yes it stinking hurt dude, you flippin numbed up 2 inches below the top of my toe. So he numbed me up again…and again…and again…and again until I practically couldn’t recognize that I had metatarsels. He was like does it hurt at the base? No it doesn’t hurt at the base, you just injected 575 ccs of Lidocaine

into my foot…everywhere EXCEPT the toe that hurts. So he started to pluck the toe out. Oh wait, the top of my toe STILL wasn’t numb. I was like WOW HOLY COW I CAN FEEL YOUR CREEPER METAL THING. He was like oh…uh ok hold on. Then he numbed me up and was done in like two seconds. Haha he was a really really nice guy I just thought that it was funny that he spent the time to numb up my foot everywhere except where he should have ha. We talked while we were waiting for the anesthesia to set in and we talked about Utah and college and snow. He was a cool guy so I am grateful that he was willing to do it on his break and only charge me 1500 for it. Excluding the waiting for the lidocaine to set in, it only took like 5 minutes. Thank you AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. There was a small problem after though. We sat in the office and chatted for a little bit after I was done, and then we left. I hadn’t taken 100 steps when everything wore off and it wasn’t the happiest I have been. I hobbled across 2 (5) lane highways to get to Mercury Drug to get my pain killers which was NOT fun, but now I am ready to rock!!!

We went to Pizza Hut the other day inside the mall with two other elders and the sisters and afterwards chilled inside the mall for a bit. Outside of the movie theater there were previews playing for upcoming movies like iron man 2, clash of the titans, and a whole bunch of Filipino movies and the movie line up looked INTENSE. Tell brady to visit thelastairbender.com. Let him read that web address and he will know EXACTLY what I am talking about. Have him read it as soon as you can. I saw what he will see and I was like oh SNAP where in the world is B-Rady he HAS to see this in dis piece. Speaking of which, how is that punk doing;) We went to this appliance store and I found a rice cooker that could hold like 60 cups of rice. Yea…only in the Philippines!!!!

Today we went to these waterfalls. It was pretty cool, the falls were like 100 feet high, but it was a tourist trap with a bagillion people over there and people walking around asking money for entrance and use of tables and stuff so we bounced way quick, but it was a cool experience anyways. The creation is such an amazing thing. I find it funny that people need miracles to produce faith (although it is made clear MANY times in the scriptures that faith precedes the miracle) when all they need to do is look around and see their surroundings. In the celestial kingdom, at Celestial Kingdom University, I hope they have World Creation 1500 cause it cant be an easy thing:/

That is bomb dig that you got to speak with mike finally. I hope he was a nice guy and everything went well! I hope you told Aunt Laura that I said hi.

By the way, I have been forgetting to tell you this for awhile. I don’t remember if I emailed it to you or not so ill just address it again. I asked president about picking me up. He said that you are more than welcome to come pick me up. We would stay in the mission home at no extra cost and there is a stake president in the San Pablo stake that will drive us anywhere in the Philippines for 1K (20 bucks) a day. If we need to stay in a hotel we will need to pay for his hotel room but other than that…yea. That’s the lowdown. So, its up to you all. If you remember me speaking about Nanay Ramos, she still isn’t sealed to her husband (he died 10 years ago) and the temple trips are extremely expensive so I wanted to take her to the temple, and although I couldn’t act as a proxy for her husband, I could still pay for her trip. She is beyond poor, and giving her a chance to go to the temple would probably be the best thing I could ever give to anyone. If you guys don’t pick me up, im just gonna take the money out of my account and mail it to her. She was like another grandmother to me and it would be the least that I could do for her, but that is still awhile away. Yea, so you can pick me up, we can stay in the mission home, and we have a driver for 1000 a day. So…free lodging, the whole family being able to eat for less than 3 dollars a meal, and a personal tour guide for 20 bucks a day…plus an insanely awesome translator;) That is the deal. But…in my opinion, camping in the Tetons when I get back seems much more desirable. I will return to the Philippines with my wife someday-that’s the deal.

By the wayyyyyyyyyyy I finally got my package!! Except I haven’t opened it yet. The APs dropped it off at the sisters apartment cause they came to go waterfall it up with us earlier so I haven’t seen it, I don’t know who its from, its size, color, shape, smell, or chemical make up so…uh…thank you to whoever sent it. Haha I obviously am gonna address that matter of business after I open it, but yea, to the sender my love and gratitude is given. We are gonna go over there later tonight and get it so…next pday ill reveal all the silly details. One of the sisters here-sister Clayton, and I have become really good friends and she leaves next Wednesday. She arrives in Salt Lake City at 10pm Wednesday night then takes another plane to saint George. Haha that is gonna be the longest plane ride of her life. There is another sister going home in our zone and I was talking to her and they are both scared out of their minds to go back home. They say when you are in the mission you naturally count down until you get to go back home, but when it nears you dread the day. Sister Clayton is gonna transfer to BYU and restard her biomedical engineering degree cause she said she has forgotten everything ha. That is INSANE that she is gonna be in Utah in a week and a half. Wow. One day that will come haha. You will be reading “well, ill see you all in a week and a half!!”

But, yea. That is the life of Elder Muller. Same old same old. Kuya Rexan Jay’s baptism is quickly approaching but we feel he isn’t ready so we are gonna either postpone his date or double time our efforts to see whats going on. But yea. I hope you are all doing amazing there in Utah. I learned to say we love you in different dialects here today. Obviously, Tagalog is Mahal Namin Kayo, but there is also gihigugma tamo(visaya), ayayaten kayo amin(ilocano), kaluguran da kayu ngan(pangalalato), and palangga namin kayo(kampangpangan). The parenthesis has the dialect. There are over 150 different dialects here in the Philippines…im glad I only have to learn Tagalog:/

Love you all like that silly rabbit loves trix

Love,

Jake

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