Week 13

Hey everyone, this week was fun. Christmas Eve we got to stay up until midnight because that's when Filipinos celebrate it. We had dinner in out apartment at 11pm. 

My Companion Elder Hilis left this morning, so I had to travel from Alcala (where I live) to San Carlos (where the Zone Leaders live) by myself in order to go pick up my new companion Elder Pangan. It was about an hour and a half of travel all together, and I had to take a trike and a Jeepney to get there. I managed to do it and could say and do everything I needed to in Tagalog. It was also the first time I haven't been with a companion in 3 months so it was a little weird.

I'm leading my area now because Elder Pangan is new to it, and apparently no one told him he was my follow up trainer, so he didn't know I was a rookie until he got here. So, I'm leading the area and he's teaching me Tagalog and how to teach. It's going to be fun.

I'm ready for the week.

-Elder Collier 

 Picture one is our Christmas dinner with fancy grape juice (not wine) for the "ambiance"

Picture two is me and Elder Hilis being gwapo his last Sunday in the mission (that's how its spelled in Tagalog and also what doing that sign means)

Picture three is this super rusty suspension bridge we cross to get to an area I'm going to open this week, and there are for sure broken parts with bamboo covering holes where the metal has rusted through. Its fun

 Picture four it has a nice view though

Week 12

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's Christmas Eve here already, and that's when everyone really celebrates here. We are going to celebrate with spaghetti (I think) and I'm going to make some cookie dough if we can find the rest of the ingredients we need.

This last week was a weird one. My kasama was sick so we would go out and work for as long as he could, but we were home early every day and couldn't go out at all on Thursday. On the plus side, we taught a few really good lessons and had some investigators come to church yesterday. I also got 23 hours of personal study in, because there is not that much to do when you're stuck home in your missionary apartment. I had a lot of really cool insights though and I'd invite all of you to study the vision of the tree of life in 1 Nephi chapters 8-15.

Also, next week my kasama leaves and I don't really know where I'm going to be put for the last week until transfers, so sorry if I don't have time to email.

These last few days its actually been "cold" and cloudy and it actually kind of feels like Christmas in California weather.

Merry Christmas everyone

-Elder Collier

The only picture I have this week is of me and some random people at a stake party who said they were part Californian so they wanted to take a picture with me ft. Sister Harries

Week 11

Hey everyone, this week was a fun one. We had Christmas conference on Tuesday and, in order to travel as a zone, Elder Hilis and I had to spend the night at the ZL's apartment. I slept on the tile floor on a towel, it was a party. 

Christmas conference was way fun, we had cool workshops where I learned a lot, played games, watched The Greatest Showman, and had a gift exchange. I got to see about half my batch from Provo which was way fun. Also, we all got food poisoning (the food was delicious though, budal fights are the best (a budal fight is when all the food is layed out on banana leaves on the table, and you eat everything with your hands)) and were out of commission on Wednesday.

We're teaching a lot, and the work is great. We're working on finding a new apartment in our area, but I'm going to miss Alcala (where we live) and the Alcala Elders.

Another week in this pretty cool place.

-

Elder Collier

Picture 1 is my batch that was at Christmas conference

Picture 2 is a group of teenage girls who gave us dessert and then each took at least 5 selfies with me kasi (that means because but I never use the word because anymore kasi "kasi" is easier)

Picture 3 is our room, now with desks (mine is the blue bed and corner desk)

Week 10

How's it going?

It's great out here in Bautista. This week was a good one. I went on exchanges with the Elders in Bastista, and I learned a lot and also saw some more great drug signs which are my only pictures this week. I really hope you all enjoy them as much as I do. There are occasionally some in Tagalog, but they're just not as funny. Not much has changed since last week. We're finding a lot and teaching a lot too. It's great out here. Saturday though, we legit spent 2 hours walking to get to and from an interested person's house to teach them and make sure they came to church on Sunday. Then we talked an extra hour from the edge of our area home because we live so far away, but we should be moving in January. 

The members of the ward out here are so nice and helpful even though I really don't speak Tagalog very well at all, but its coming slowly and surely. I've really come to love the people of the Philippines and the place itself. I also realized how much I took washing machines and dryers for granted back home, so next time you're doing laundry think of me (we actually have a washer but its small and you have to rinse all the soap out by hand but I still appreciate even it so much).

So yeah, not much this week. We have zone Christmas conference tomorrow so that should be fun. We have to travel as a zone too, and because we live so far outside our zone, we get to be missionaries numbers 5 and 6 in an already full apartment (not that it'll actually be that different from our usual place) so that we can spend the night there and actually be able to make it to the conference. I love it out here.

love

-your favorite missionary in the Philippines

Please enjoy the signs, and note the bad grammar and typo in that long one

Week 9

So it was my first full week out in the field and it was great. We taught a lot of good lessons and on Saturday I had the opportunity to baptize Ina, who I was a part of teaching three lessons to. It was a really cool experience and my kasama said that when I said the baptismal prayer in Tagalog I didn't even have an American accent (which I for sure do the rest of the time I do anything). I'm really starting to learn the area and get to know the people and they're all so sweet and generous. It's been great!

-Elder Collier

These Anti-drug ads are everywhere and this is one of my favorites

Ina's baptism

My district at our first district counsel