This Week's Letter From the Philippines

So....I was planning on catching you...but the world had other plans!  We had a service project for one of our investigators which lasted till about 12 here.  We are repairing his porch which was destroyed a good month ago.  Twas pretty fun!  Working with bamboo was a new experience  for sure!  I am so thankful now for the nails in america.  You think those bend easily?  Try it here haha!

So Halloween looked pretty fun!  I hope everyone had fun!  Ours was just another work day.  So I am not ever going to promise that I will be there but I really hope next week I will.  (Mommy note: On the Internet to chat with me which not gonna lie, is the highlight of my week!)  So by next week I will have a new companion and I may very well be training him.  It will be a very interesting week!  Ill find outThursday.  So here is the weekly fun and I love you and everyone and I hope to catch you next week!  Love ya!!

So big hurray!  I am done with training!  Its been a good 12 weeks and now its time to move on.  My trainer will be leaving this coming Thursday which means that I will be getting a new companion.  And from what I have heard I have a very big chance of training..I am super excited actually!  I have a long way to go and I really hope that this will increase my language a ton in the next two transfers. But then again, we will not know until Thursday!  

Well, to start of the week last Monday was a very fun!  It was a mutli zone 'olympics'  Every district represented a country and we all competed in certain events.  It was way fun!  We had ping-pong, basketball, races and so forth.  At the end we had an award ceremony for everyone.  After that we got ready for the week such as food.  Tuesday was also very fun!  We had our regular district meeting and right after we were all invited to a wedding that was about to start.  And of course weddings mean food so how could we decline?  I must say, the food was very good!    Oh, and of course it was nice seeing two people getting married.  Jokes lang!!  It was very interesting wedding and everyone was happy and laughing.  I have had the excellent opportunity to be friends with a lot of the people at the wedding.  Im very glad we had the opportunity to be there.

Wednesday and Thursday was a blur!  I hardly remember what happened.  We have been really focusing on a few of our investigators that are getting ready for baptism this coming month.  Brother -------- and Sister ------- WILL be baptized on Nov. 15.  They were very clear on the will.  Then Brother --------- will follow on the 29th.  We are hoping for a lot more for December so we can have a 'white Christmas'  We have 5 investigators that we are aiming to be baptized on the 25th.  I am aiming to double or even triple that number within the next 3 weeks.  Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Friday was Halloween!  But since we dont have Halloween here I got some candy.  We had some good success with a few of our investigators but a lot of them are hitting the trials point and are dropping.  Its always the saddest part of serving a mission when a investigator either one, calls and says they are done, or 2, just stops progressing.  We have a lot more finding and searching to do now.  We are hoping that the ward will produce more referrals for us.  Thats always the best!  They usually already have a head start and do very well in the church.  

Saturday was the real holiday.  Its called 'All Saints/Souls Day'  Everyone goes to the cemetery to remember their ancestors or close friends who have passed away.  Then they go home and make deep Filipino food called 'suman'  Basically sticky rice with sugar.  Its pretty good stuff actually!  Aroz ala valenciana is another one that was very good!  I cant really describe it though.  Its mostly just meat and rice.  I need to figure out how to make it because it is really good!  Then at night they put candles out as an invitation for their ancestors to come in and they have a plate of food left out for them as well.  The ants eat very well on this day I must say.  :)  Since everyone was gone we had very little success this day.  

Sunday was very good as well!  We had an awesome broadcast by Elder Dallin H. Oaks for the Philippines.  It was very strong and full of love!  I love how clear he is when speaking.  He spoke mostly on the culture of the Philippines and how we can make it more in harmony of the gospel culture of Jesus Christ.  Twas very well done.  

And that ends the week!  I am so thankful again for this opportunity to serve the people here in the Philippines!  It is so much fun and I learn so much from these people.  I love being a missionary!  

Elder Rubow