Starting Over--In Manila; Feb. 3rd & 16th

February 3^rd
Metro Manila: Pamplona District, Paranaque West East Zone

Hello po!

Well, of all the weeks that I've spent on my mission, this was certainly one of them! Straight up, Manila is a chaotic mess. On one hand, you have these great luxurious houses and stores, swarming with American goods. I basically could get anything I want here if I have the money. With the missionary budget, that doesn't seem too possible, unfortunately. I actually went to this place called "Hyper Market" when I got down here. It is essentially Costco, but the people speak Tagalog. 

My companion. Elder Rafon, reminds me of an ewok sometimes because he's kinda short and has this evil, mischievous face all of the time, and wants to do good. He works incredibly hard. I would love to be his companion for the rest of my mission, but unfortunately, he is initially from the Tacloban mission. If you know anything about church news lately, the missionaries from the Tacloban mission were all evacuated after the typhoon. Turns out, they are now slowly going to be putting all of the missionaries back there. One of my sisters in the Pamplona district just returned back to Tacloban. By my thinking, it'll be maybe just two more weeks and Elder Rafon will return. 

Time is running short, but I'll just say that we have two great investigators that are most likely going to be baptized in February! Gabino Caverte, and Richard Tapar. More on them later. 

Love, 

Elder Thurber! :D

February 16, 2014

This past week's been good! I'm starting to know the area and enjoy the work.

I know this next week will be a great week, as well. We have zone conference, and I get to meet a bunch of people. For now, though, my blog needs to be on the back burner, but here are some pictures.

Picture Isa: My awesome companion, Elder Rafon.

Picture Dalawa: This is me with the Caverte family! Sophia, the 10 year old, just got baptized this past January, and Brother Gabino will be coming up just this Saturday! And Rose, the pregnant woman, is going to be a recently reactivated member!

Picture Tatlo: At the Pelotes household. The man on the right seriously likes Winnie the Pooh teddy bears for some reason. I'm way too shy to ask. He's super nice and fed us mounds and mounds of food, and made us laugh our missionary tags off.

Oh, and those are the other two sisters in our ward; Sister Garcia (the American) and Sister Alberto. They're the dream team. They make us look bad, with all of the work that they're able to do.)

Picture Apat: No, this isn't the temple. This is the Pamplona temporary meeting house. It's a cathedral. Two floors. There are four wards that meet here every Sunday. Our actual meeting house is being renovated, and will be finished in the middle of March.  

I hope you enjoyed learning the Tagalog numbers 1-4!

Til' next time!
Elder Thurber