December 6th, 2010

Hello!

hi.

um before I forget.

things to write about

Chirstmas call

bumubulung-bulong

chumba-chumba

2nd language everyone

fire=bad

ok so, Chirstmas call. I can call home around christmas time if you want me too. from the 22ish to 27th.

just tell me when you are thinking.

Might be best for me to call (my time: sunday 26th 7:30am) (your time: saterday 25th 5:30.. i think)

I can call once to help set it up a head of time, but the main call should be about 40mintues.

anyways... bumubulung-bulong. I just thought that word was awesome, i geuss. It kinda means wispering (i think), but it is what is used for murmuering in the scriptures. (there are lots of worrds tthat are doubled, and it gives it a differnt meaning.. like aral - study, aral-aral study everyday)

chumba-chumba. This is a word for my cooking style, apparntly. I think chumba means something like, guess. so chumba chumba means guess cooking (maybe). anyways, usally I cook some onions and garlic, and then tomato, then egg and then rice for a delisous fried rice. Today I cooked some onions and garlic, and then threw on the rice, and then cooked the eggs in the rice. its was yummy. in a way it was like french toast.... but not really... my companon usally thinks I am a master chef, or "my food is not eat-able" hahaha.

Something I realized is that I am not the only one that tagalog is there 2nd langange. my companions 2nd langange is tagalog (his first is sabono or something). The investiergaters... 2nd langange is tagalog. Most speak ilakano here, as a first langange... maybe thats why my broken tagalog doesnt make any sence. (I actally have met one person, a missionary, whos native langaguge is tagalog).

fire =bad. Oh. Yah, so note to self. When you give away broken junk to the youth, and then they rip apart some of the different pieces of cord and tape them together, and give them back to you to plug in, to test.... dont do it. Yah, right when i plugged it in it caght fire. haha not good. Nothing really bad happened though... my companions sheet now has burn marks, and we know our carbon-minoxcited alarm works.

I hear derek had a birthday party.. nice. I like birthday.. partys.

I also heard that andy beat someone in the 500 free. nice. I hate it when you swim for 8 mintues stright and get last by 5 seconds... execpt you didnt get last, the other guy did. nice. And has a geo... merr? kinda jelous on the stick shift thing (not the geo part). I always thought that would make me look cool. I also heard you were writing a email too me. ... but i think you forgot.

so lucy might go to washington Dc? thats cool. also still selling chirstmas wreaths.

I heard miranda was doing stuff for christmas... Its christmas!

Marks getting married? what? oh yah, I knew that.

Wait whatt? ammon is 7?? Thats crazy. wait.. I haven't even been out here that long.. how am I forgetting stuff already... oh well.

Happy birthday Ammon!

heidi is selling ice cream.... soon? the summer time. which is now right?

About the work, um well my companion isnt back up to perfect shape yet, but hes doing pretty good. yesteday we has a pretty full day. I think this week will be a full week.

We have a investigater (Marriet, 13 year old) who has a baptismal date. It should have been on the 11th, but was moved to the 17th because we werent able to do a couple lessions. pretty cool, for me because, She was the first new investigater I had with Elder Nateral (my first companion). She has a strong testimony and is very active.

About our ward. We had at least 65 come this week. That is a ton. um, I think it was even more though. Its normal for people to show up late. But during the fast and testimony part of the sacrament meeting, I noticed people moving around ton.. (I was in the front row). I look back and I see people moving forward and things. I think every chair was filled that was set out in the room, and people were sitting on peoples laps. Its not a big meeting house... but really that could be a problem.. I guess maybe Ill set up chairs out side next week.

Um,

Oi! I need to go, I wrote a ton for dad, and then now I am out of time. So... I'll paste it here for fun.

We have a branch FHE today, got to set up for that soon.

Elder luke Dickinson -ninja

oh p.s. ok so how do I make delishous pancake mix? And other easy meal ideas, that I can use a pan, or a toaster oven would be nice.

Also tryed making french fries, in the toaster oven. I cut them, froze them, forgot to put salt on them, and then brunt them in the oven. hmmm maybe next time they will taste better. (any ideas, for cooking or storing fries? i have a pan, and have a toaster oven.)

Oh P.s.s. Did you know that the purple fruit in ice climbers is real? I found it. eggplant. ohhhh. my companion cooked/fryed it up after mixing it with some flour .... mmm masarap.

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About the panal with questions for the young men, um well hmmmm. Just having that might be nice. I guess my thoughts are this:

For me, the only thing I heard about a mission before I came on the mission, is that "a mission its really hard, but its worth it". I had no idea what that ment. The other thing that I knew about missionarys, is that they knew everything about church, and so to be a missionary, you need to know everything.

Not true. I mean missionarys, have the Mtc, for state side missions, 3 weeks. where you learn the basics to a couple lessons, you get used to getting up on time, and going to sleep. And thats about it. For 2nd langague missions, I got 9ish weeks to learn another language. In other words, maybe shoving spanish 1 and 2, into the space of a quarter at school. Meaning... still know nothing.

I mean think of me right now. People in the ward think I know every single person in the ward, and exactly how church is to go, and know everythin about the scriptrues.... not true. I mean I hardly even speak the lanague here.

Even my compainon who has been out here for 10 months, is a philipino, doesnt know everything. For one he was just dropped into this side of the philipines, somewhere he hasn't ever been. When someone asks us something we don't know, like if we need to sustain someone in scrament meeting, or if we need to redo some paper work... we tell them we will figure it out.... meaning we will ask another missionary, or look it up somewhere later. (for me this is every question, the first time i get it).

I guess my point is, missionarys don't know everything. So if you are planning to come on a mission and you don't know everything or even a lot about the church, how it works, or exact docteren.. so what. you will learn it out here through experence. The same time I am not saying for people to not prepare. It would have been nice to know exactly how the plan of salvation worked, or to have first worked with the missionarys more.

About the saying "a mission is hard, but worth it"... its sorta true, but very very gerenal. I mean Its hard work in the fact like.... think of something you really like doing.. say playing on the water polo team. I mean that can be a lot of work, but its .. fun, exicting. Its not like ...digging a big hole everyday, or what ever. I mean I bet a farmer, who works his field for 8 hours, problely enjoys working that field... (or why would he want to be a farmer?) As you work out here, you can't help but enjoy the work. I mean, for me I think I could enjoy anything. I swam in circle for 4 years... and I even enjoyed that. Here on a mission... realize that you don't just go to church 12 hours a day. You still only go 3... a week.

The part about "but its worth it" is also true. Kinda of like swimming in circle for hours, and then coming out of the water, thinking... "Yes! I just swam across the pool 100 times!" or maybe a more relavent example for most people, like after finishing a water polo game, seeing what all your practice and teamwork has done for you. Or as the farmer, who knows that after his 10 hours in the fields, he knows that he has his corn planted, or harvested his apples, thinking that was a pretty sweet day, and at the same time got to pet his pet sheep. (well maybe this example is for me too, maybe i'll be a farmer when I get old and bald. I always thought it would be sweet to have a pet sheep.)

---Well I dont think I did a good job explaning this part, but as a missionary every day, you get to come home and say, hmmm well today wasn't a perfect day, but we were able to help marriet or jomark, come a little closer to coming to church, and receiving the gospel of christ.

And every once in a while, you get to think,

"sweet! That random lady we found 2 months ago, has compeletly changed her life, comes to church every sunday, and her husband has quit smoking, and now they are getting baptized. In one year from now they can enter in the temple and be sealed as a family, like i am"

I figure after your mission, "its worth it" too. As I know I have learned a ton of stuff already. I am learning a funny langauge. I have learned tons of ways to cook onions (which are very delishious). I have learned a ton about the scriptures. I have learned a ton about the people here. And I am helping lots of people change there life for the better. And techinly after this life too. I means its not just sitting around, you get to go and teach people and serve people all day, coming home tired everyday. but... its worth it. heh.

Um I don't know if this is what you were looking for about what I could tell you about my missionary experince, but .. too late now I have already wrote it, and I got places to go. If someone is thinking about going on a mission, realize you dont need to know everything, just want to come out here, help people, and have some fun.