Week 3

Wow alright I don't even know where to start. Maybe I will talk a little bit about the rain. So right now it is the rainy season and it has rained probably every day! And when it rains it really rains! And it is crazy the whole place shuts down and everyone goes in side and it is like dead so quiet. All the people who were outside are gone. And it just goes from no rain to raining so hard in a matter of seconds. And so what we do is run into a house and of course they let us in and have a lesson with them. It is not what I expected. Everyone you ask if you can share a message will let you into their house. They almost never say no or think that it is weird. It is so normal! I don't know what it feels like to have a door slammed in my face like you hear about! But that doesn't mean that they will read what you give them or come to church on Sunday. But I am sure that just sharing with them a little message helps! So then we run into the rain to the next house and do the same thing. They people are always way nice and super shocked to see an american here. Whenever I am walking down the street or in a jeepny. I am sure it is really weird to see a big (ya I am big here) white guy. I really stick out that is for sure. Like this morning in the city every monday they storm the streets and have a giant sell! where all of the people bring all of their fruits and rice and just a bunch of random stuff. There are thousands of people in the streets buying and selling things.  And when they see an American they really try to get my to buy their stuff. It was pretty crazy! The food here is so good. Even the baby chicken which is still in its egg. There are little bakeries everywhere which I love. It is such a cool place. With really good food. A lot of fish! But I haven't had anything disgusting yet. It is all way good

The youth here really like helping us with missionary work. They must not have a lot to do because a lot of them will spend all day going to lessons with us. They have super strong testimony's and is a super good sign that the church is going to be way strong here. When they grow up and have their own families! They help me a lot with the language's. Ya languages I have realized this week that I need to learn both Tagalog and Aklanon. So that is kinda crazy. There are just so many different words everywhere. I can't really tell when they are speaking Tagalog or Aklanon. I was able to understand a lot more this week than i thought I was going to. But the speaking is a bit harder and is going to take a lot of practice and a lot of time! 

On Mondays we have family home evenings with families we are teaching and those are awesome. We play simple games and they just have so much fun! Even the dads who are usually kind of sad looking love it and it is so cool. SO COOL to see the people who are usually shy or sad just break out of their shells and have fun with us. If you have any ideas for little games like that let me know! Just simple games you think they would like!

Well I am loving it here in the Philippines. I love everyday. Everyday is different and everyday is an adventure! I cannot believe that I am here. I am just learning learning and learning all day every day! I have a lot to learn so that I can teach the people and share with them the amazing message of the Gospel! It is always way nice to hear from all of you and sounds like you are all doing way good! I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!

Love

Elder Craythorne

Here are some questions he answered while we were emailing back and forth.

Have you had a good week?

Ya just having a lot of fun! We went to some cool places! Nothing really crazy happened just a good solid week in the Philippines. I think you can always have a good week in the Philippines. It is so crazy I am like never looking for someone to teach. Since everyone is always home you just go to their door and they will let you in and just talk to you. So that is just way fun!

Any success yet?

We have 3 people who really want to be baptized but don't have the money to get married. I should this month. But other that that nothing. WE are out of BOM is you can believe that or not. Our whole mission has been out for about 3 months. So I haven't even seen a Tagalog BOM yet. So that is a bit hard. The rule is the investigator has to come to church for 4 weeks straight before he can be baptized!

Where do you email from?

A Internet Cafe in New Washington.

How is the food?

I am eating really good. the natives here eat so much it is crazy. If I eat like them I will gain a lot of weight. But I haven't ate anything that I wouldn't eat again. Even the balut was good!