The Daily Blogger

> So, before I start, I have a story for all of you. It is the story of what happens when you cut your toenails down the side and not straight across like you should.
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> So, this whole story started on tuesday when I went to zone conference. Zone conference (this was the Christmas one so it is different) is where the elders get together and they just have fun. We have workshops, we eat catered food, we have a few people get up and bear testimony, they are way fun. So, this zone conference was different because it was the christmas zone conference like I said. We had gift exchange where we exchanged previously bought gifts and such, we played games, we sang christmas carols, the whole shebang. At this point, my toe was a nice green color with pus coming out of the side like a water fountain. I took my toe to sister anderson and she told me to go have a pedicure...are you kidding me? I will come back to this a little later...for now it is back to the zone conference story. So, we exchanged gifts, took pictures and such, and then headed over to SM. SM is a 3 story mall. It is paradise haha. It has mcdonalds (which is not called mcdoo by the way it is just like mcdonalds in america except for a few menu changes...rice...) pizza hut, KFC, dunkin donuts, a movie theater, TONS of stuff. It even has an ACE hardware haha what the heck? So, we went to the mall and it was SO much fun. Just being in a mall was good because it was like a break from the boonies that is lopez (my area). There were actual cars in the parking lot, not just Chevrolegs. Anyways, I had a funny experience in the mall. Elder Lee and Elder Bernard had to get something in ACE so we went in there. When they were checking out I saw this white guy so I decided to go talk to him because it was the first white guy I had seen in a month. So, after a good 20 minute conversation I got the info on him. He is a "treasure hunter" (you know-the guys who blow all their money looking for gold?) and he said that the Philippines is like the richest (as in gold) country in the world. Yea...and I wear a size 7 shoe...I also found out that he is a pastor. He started going on about how mormons were all good people and such and how we help people. This is where the conversation started to pick up. He goes "you just wait. Over the next few months the Lord is gonna start a great work here..." Elder Lee hopped on the opportunity like a tiger-"yea, well the Lord has already started a great work here"-that was the opening line for a referral...or so you would think. His next line left us all with our mouths agape. "You know what, eventually I am going to teach a sermon on the holy ghost in one of the mormon temples" I like choked on my spit haha. I was almost bust out laughing but when I saw that he was serious I regained my dignity. Are you serious? My sarcasm caught the best of me and I blurted out "ha good luck with that" and he heard it and responded with "I have people working with the mormon leaders...one day ill teach." At this point we could see that this guy had absolutely NO interest in listening to our message so we gradually bailed on the conversation. Ha I still cant believe that that guy said that. He is gonna teach a sermon in the temple. Cool. Maybe in the kirtland temple but not within the next...I dont know...eternity will he ever get that opportunity. Unless he is converted, but then things get complicated so we wont go into that.
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> After that we continued walking around going in a store here and store there. They had TONS of clothing stores that were the equivalent of hollister or abercrombie so it was like a wee dose of home. We had to leave at 6 to get back in enough time, but we still had a good chunk of time to look around and have fun. Have you seen that christmas carol movie with jim carrey? It looks WAY GOOD! Ill have you know we went into the grocery store in the mall and I bought skittles and mike and ikes haha. I couldnt resist...
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> So, back to the toenail story. When Sister Anderson (the presidents wife) saw my nail she told me to get it taken care of and suggested a pedicure. Yea...right. So, the next day (wednesday) I went to the hospital which wasnt really a hospital at all, it was like a 80' x 30' building with an "emergency room" and a lobby. Haha good times. I saw the doctor and he told me that they would have to remove the whole nail and that there was no alternative. Ok, FIRST OFF you DONT have to remove the whole nail. You remove the section that is embedded in the soft tissue. Come on now. I only have 38 university credits and I have more medical knowledge than that guy. He prescribed me antibiotics for bacterial control, a blood coagulant (which I didnt take. Why would I take a blood coagulant if I’m NOT BLEEDING???) and pain pills the size of a golf ball. He said we would wait until Saturday to take the nail off which screwed me over because that meant that I couldn’t walk (his orders…) until Saturday. So, I got to be confined to my apartment from Wednesday until Saturday. Saturday came along and there was (coincidentally…or maybe not) a specialty surgeon that was there from Manilla. A specialty surgeon was his title. Yea…because it takes a “specialty surgeon” to remove a part of a toenail BUT I am no less grateful that I was sent a doctor who knows what he was doing…Anyways, I asked him if we needed to remove the whole nail and he laughed and said there was no reason to remove the whole nail. So, I went in to the “emergency room” and got my toe worked on. Ha I can assure you he was not too gentle with the needle either and I don’t have a problem with any of that stuff either. Anyways, you can probably guess what I am about to say. I had elder Lee (the elder who went with me to the hospital) film it so I will send you the memory card soon:D Its way cool haha. I have watched it like 9000 times already. Ok, maybe not that many…
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> It is frustrating because this whole ordeal cost me 2300 pesos which is more than 1/3 of my “support” for the month and I don’t know when I will be reimbursed but I will let them do it in their own good time.
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> But, that is the story. It kind of sucked being not able to go anywhere from Wednesday to Saturday (I don’t know how retired folks do it. Sitting at home with no work made me want to scream) but it is all good. I spent hours going back and marking my scriptures so now they look nice and pretty! Ha what do you do:/
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> So, that is how my week went. For my Christmas gift at zone conference I got this cool native thing carved out of wood from Marindouque (pronounced mair-in-dookie no joke. The missionaries shorten it to dookie. “Dude, where is your area again?” “Dookie” “Oh man I LOVE Dookie” Yea, its funny to hear them talk. The only problem is it takes 2 days to get from the island to the church we had zone conference at because its SO FAR…). It is a container that is carved out and has a leather hinge and stuff it is WAY COOL.
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> Now, I will try to respond to the questions that I didn’t get to respond to last time because of time restraints. As for my companion, yea he speaks really good English. He is quite possibly the most amazing elder I have ever met. He has NO anger, contention, resentment, or height. He is really really patient and is SUCH a good influence. All I speak is Tagalog and it is coming along expectantly. It is still difficult to teach more indepth principles like the Law of Chastity or the Atonement (not like that is important or anything) because of the difficulty of the words, or length of the principle but I am chugging along. I promise that if it weren’t for the Lord, I would be failing miserably right now. Its weird. Take a day and sit down and right your blessings out on a piece of paper. It starts average length then keeps going and going…and going……..and going. Ha I am pretty sure I have the best employer in the world and my paychecks are the richest
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> My stomach has been fine. I don’t know who will read this but I don’t care ill talk about diarrhea all I want. No I haven’t had any of such things yet. We call it LBM (liquid bowel movements-TMI??) here in the good old Philippines and it has been hitting some elders in our district HARD but I take those probiotics and that multivitamin every single day as directed on the bottle so I am still going strong!! The food is one word, which I am sure you can guess-Rice. I have started mixing rice, soy sauce, chili powder, and hot sauce cause it is the hottest thing I can get here without buying lava singe your tongue you wont be able to taste anything for the next 3 weeks peppers so it works. Soy sauce I have decided is DELICIOUS. You can do SO much with it. Ha I have fallen in love with soy sauce-something I used to DISPISE. I will send you a recipe for Adobo one day. It is chicken, garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots, soy sauce, and more delicious DELICIOUSNESS that goes into it and you put it over rice it is SO good.
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> Can you get me Derek’s and Max’s address? Check on facebook for it-it should be there. Just ask Chelsea for the password and then you will be able to get on my account and go look at their pages and get the information.
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> Did Brady really bear his testimony? Ha I am SO proud of that kid. He is maturing spiritually faster than the clunky remote control car in the case (tell brady to read that one. It is an inside joke. Ask him to explain it haha good times) I bore my testimony and it just came out smooth and nice. I have decided that there will be not one single fast and testimony meeting where I don’t bear testimony on my mission. It is a goal so we will see how that one goes down.
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> Holy cow, dad is rockin church huh? Dang, apparently this past month has been the time for spiritual growth out the yin-yang haha. Soon he is gonna be called the quorum of the seventy…ill bet it is such a feeling of fresh air for him to be done his schooling. He has worked SO hard on that so he has more than the right to boast BUT tell him to check out Alma 26:11-12. Just a guideline He has come a long way haha I remember when he started back in the day at FCC. That seems like it was so long ago oh man. Dad is such a champ!!
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> When you say the Chinese guy are you talking about Eddison? The kid who is 5’5” and has a HARDCORE asian accent? Haha he has a long story of his own. We sat down one night when I went over to kevins for one of our late night chill sessions ha and he like told me his life story and it is INTENSE. Remind me to tell you one day. It follows Pirates of the Caribbean almost perfectly haha.
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> I have not gotten my memory card back yet.. As for the time it takes to get stuff, letters obviously take much less time than packages. The card you sent me you sent on November 12th and it was received by the Philippines on November 20th (I read the little stamps over the actual stamp haha) so it takes between a week and a week and a half for a letter to get here but I only get letters and packages when the APs (assistants to the president) come by which is once a month guaranteed, twice a month sometimes-but is isn’t too bad. Days fly like pigs and you lose track of the time when you work your butt off so the day is over before you know it. I have been on my mission for 3 months. WHAT? Where did the time go? Tsk tsk tsk…
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> If grandma muller sent me a package please tell her thank you!! Tell them that I love them and that I miss them. I sent a letter out to grandma and grandpa clark this past week so they should get that soon. Can you get me grandma and grandpa muller’s address so I can write them? I know like half of it but I don’t want to send it to someone completely different because I messed up the address haha that wouldn’t be too good:/
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> As for stories from the field, I don’t really have any cool cool stories because I was cooped up in the apartment all week long so that kind of sucked. The best story that I have is about how one day this week I sat in the apartment and read 532622 ensigns about every possible topic known to man then played scrabble with elder Lee (he was way way sick and he punched a wall and broke his hand-don’t ask why…) I was disappointed yesterday at church because we found out that one of the people we were gonna baptize cant let go of mga cigarillo (cigarettes) or alak (alcohol) so we have to push his baptismal date back yet again. Eventually…this Saturday I get the privilege of baptizing a 19 year old named Gilbert and I am way stoked for him. He has come such a long way.
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> I am sorry to say that I am going through withdrawals. I haven’t been able to look at nice cars or sit on a bike for a good 3 months and it is taking its toll on me. The most car style action that I got was being in a van (going to zone conference) that was a stick and I was itching to drive it SO BAD…yea-pathetic I know.
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> I am so jealous of the snow in Utah. I want some cold. Last night it dropped down to like 78 and poor elder Banawan was shivering. He had to use my sweatshirt cause he was so cold. You get used to sweat though ha. That is what correlates with the Philippines-sweat. I have a picture of the Salt Lake Temple in the wintertime at my desk and I always look at it and long for snow, but I don’t think it is gonna come anytime soon…no matter how hard I wish for it. I am so stoked to see the pictures that were sent
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> Speaking of which, I am sending a couple of pictures in this email so you get them. One is of the sunrise, one is of this adorable little kid (no its not Bernard) and one is of the water in the Philippines (it is not a good picture but you get the idea) so hopefully you will get them. Let me know if you do.
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> Well, that is all she wrote. It is time for me to go wash my clothes, get a haircut, and do what I need to do.
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> I hope you are all staying warm-I definitely am haha!! I wrote Brady a letter this week so that should be getting to him before this Sunday. I also sent a little surprise which is way cool so hopefully you get it and it hasn’t been broken or anything. Tell me if you get it ha I want to know what you think of it. It was my Christmas present from president Anderson but I cant use it so I sent it home. I hope you get it before Christmas!!!
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> I love you and miss you all. I hope the snow isn’t too much of a problem ha. I wouldn’t mind it being a problem here! Tell everyone I say hi and am way STOKED to talk to them at Christmastime (less than 3 weeks WOOOOOOOT!!!)
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> Love you all,
> Jake
> Aka Elder Muller