Week 24

Hello Family!

So I will start with the good news. We have a baptism that will most likely happen on March 19 (I say most likely in fear of counting my eggs before they are in the basket) ((speaking of eggs I have a good apartment story about that later)) Angielyn Francisco accepted a baptismal date for that date so we are way excited. This last week has been alot of fun teaching her and we really got to build a great friendship with her. She went to church yesterday which makes 3 times now. She really enjoys it as far as I can tell and has awesome roots in relief society and young women. We have been really nervous about extending the commitment (she has been such a gift to us that we really didn't want to screw up) but it turned out fantastic! So that is a funny story: We met Angielyn the very first night Elder Quinantoto was in the mission. We went to the church to eat dinner and they were having an activity. So it has really been fun for him. That among the very first people he met in his very first mission area will be baptized as well. She is really doing well in keeping commitments and praying regularly. She is sorta dating an RM (I actually don't know if they are but the guy sure loves to call her his future GF/wife... it is funny) so it helps to have him to help answer questions. It is funny because I said to the RM "You should put a ring on it" and then ten minutes later I found myself trying to explain a Beyonce song in a foreign language. They realized where the reference came from but didn't know what it meant. Good times, eh?

Krista asked for an apartment story this week and just in time too. These two past weeks have been a war that I raised against a rat. I swore I would see that rat die and drink of its blood (joking, of course) But Filipinos do make blood stew (one of those stories that might just be better left untold). This rat squeezes under our door and likes to chill under our fridge (it is dry and warm and safe). Not so bad, except for the fact that he leaves little presents all under and behind our fridge. So the other week I cornered it in the back of this cupboard while it hid under our propane tank. SO I had this genius idea to get the Permethrin spray bottle and poison it. So I soaked it in permethrin pretty well and then it escaped outside (permethrin is this crazy strong chemical that would do some serious damage to a human. we use it to bug proof our house). The next couple days were problem free and I thought for sure I had conquered my foe. THEN I am showering (with a bucket so I'm not even sure if you could call it showering or just pouring small amounts of water on your head and trying to also get clean) and I hear something above the roof just scrambling around and making a racket. I am just baffled as to how this rat got into our attic. There is no way to get up there. So I get the mop and start banging on the roof to scare it out of our attic. This goes on for a whole week. Thinking that this rat has found a way to beat me, I start plotting how to strike back. Finally while washing my clothes I see where this rat could've somehow climbed up our outside wall and gotten up into our attic above the bathroom and kitchen. I climb up with my bottle of permethrin again ready to for sure kill this rat. I peek my head in and what do I see?... A hen with nine eggs just chilling above our bathroom. She must've somehow flown up there. So we then had to get our neighbors/landlord to take out part of our ceiling to get this big ol' chicken and her eggs out of our attic. My point: I did beat that rat after all.

As for other missionary stories we have this one family that we are really hopeful for. They LOVE to have the missionaries over. They have this super cute little girl who's name is (are you all ready for the best one I've heard so far?... Princess, Angel, or Lady having nothing on this one) Twinky... yes I typed it right Twinky. I got them to repeat it about four times before I believed it. She is very cute though and has an obsession with always trying to sit on my lap. The family is a referral from some other missionaries and they really have enjoyed listening and ask alot of really good questions. Last night they told us they want to come to church next week without us asking them to or anything. Their name is the Rubello family.

I got my letter from Sir Michael Ryan this past week and am excited to get a response back over seas asap. Thanks for all the emails (Krista). I'm not sure if she meant to do this but I opened up my email today and had 79 new messages. I think I have every month Thatcher has been alive outlined and pictured in my email account. {He gets an email every time I write a blog and I consolidated all my blogs into one this week so I could print a blog book-- so he got all the ones we added from other blogs from years ago! Oops!} So thank you! Thanks for the letter miss Devyn and the pictures! Hannah that is pretty crazy about that car. I had that happen to me one morning on the way to seminary and it made me paranoid whenever I would try to stop to turn for the next couple months. I was always watching my rear view and just hoping they would see that I had stopped. Good luck in the musical. I have been thinking this week that tech week must be coming up soon. Man, I miss tech weeks.

Shout out to Michael and Krista. Krista sent me southern gospel music to listen to with a bunch of MoTab hymns as well. SO I listen to that a lot surprisingly. It is good to have a little taste of the southern culture. Although Michael I will never stoop so low as to resort to country music. (Especially the Dixie Chicks... I threw up a little in my mouth when I read that) My favorite Krista is Amazing Grace and "It Ain't nobodies fault but mine" I think it is the Fairfield Four. {Nope, it's Blind Boys of Alabama... awesome stuff though, and so is Fairfield Four} So as much as I laughed when I saw you sent me that CD it is the one that I listen to the most probably (while cooking). I also have a funny memory to bring up to Evan Matthew and Graham. Remember our Slap Santa brownies? And then going to the sand trap to proclaim to the world our marvelous creation? Good times!

The language is coming along alright. I am getting more and more fluent. I find it easier to manipulate words and verb conjugations to say what I really want. It gets harder and harder to translate my experiences into English every week. I guess that is a good sign, right? Like with Angielyn's story I did a lot of deleting because the words that would first come to my mind weren't English. And to answer Krista's question about seasons... none whatsoever. It is always green and hot and humid. Only somedays it is raining and green and hot and humid. As for food The Crystal Light was AWESOME! I ate everything so those were all great! Especially the pancakes... my companions have just thought those were so delicious.

Dad, Dexter and Merlinda just had their grandmother die. So it has been tough for them. they still read and pray but they haven't been to church the past bunch of weeks. But we are still working on them. We talked to Bishop and discussed on how to really fellowship them and make them feel a part of the congregation even thought they can't get baptized right now.

I love you all and pray for you a LOT! Take care and have fun!

Elder Lowry