Monday, July 16, 2012

On the Move

The news of this week is that Elder Teh, the Area President will be speaking to us tomorrow in Santiago.  It's a pretty big deal, so we are all getting pretty excited for it.   I was bitten by a small child this week during a dinner appointment.  He drew blood and I thought about calling Sister Carlos about Rabies, but I didn't.  Elder Quentin L. Cook is coming to the mission in August, as well.  This is apparently the first time an Apostle has come to this mission in a very long time, so it is very special.  Besides that, this last week was pretty normal. Oh, and I moved again.  I have had 3 areas and lived in 5 houses now.  I've moved twice in the last two cycles from houses that missionaries had lived in for decades before. Thats all the news from Ramon.

I love you all very much.

Elder Allen

"Mahal kita" means "I love you" or technically "you are my love."  "Kita" is a sub for 'ko ka' which just sounds funny.  But this means that "mahal kita" is saying "I love you (singular)," if you want to say "I love all of you" or "I love you guys" its "Mahal ko kayo." "mahal nila sa akin" means "they love me" and you can see how that gets complicated.  Just a small lesson in Tagalog.


Mahal ko kayo

Monday, July 9, 2012

Dragons

Elders Samar, me, Lasay, and Valdez. 
Kumusta!


Ramon is a nice place.  I'm slowly learning the area and relizing that I know a little Tagalog.  I just today got a package from Grandpa Fred. A whole box of Cromers popcorn and peanuts. You cant imagine how excited I was to get that. I dont know how im gunna eat it all, though.  Mosiah 20:11 ends with "...and like dragons did they fight."  I think we should all go to bed at the end of the day and ask ourselves, "Did i fight like a Dragon today?" Whatever it is you do, you need, you love, or you believe, fight for it like a dragon.

I love you all, and i know you can do it, whatever it is.

Dad, do you remember when you told be about the time you saw the "Church of God - Zillah" in Washinton?  I often think about that, as unimportant as it may seem, it reminds me that sometimes as a religion you just have to laugh at yourself.  I love you and mom for the things youve taught me and the knowledge you've given me.

Mahal kita,
Elder Tadena, after surgery to repair
his shattered leg when he was hit by
a motorcycle. Did I mention I got to
spend the night in the hospital?  
Elder Allen

Sorry I'm a little short on time today...
Me with a power line, safely hung out
of the reach of children under 3.
We met this guy dancing in the street,
so I joined in with my awesome moves.  



Me with Elder Hamblin, ZL.
Me with Elder Lasay...I miss him.


Thursday, July 5, 2012

New Area for my Birthday!


Kumusta!

I’m 20 now... depending on where you are in the world. I was transferred this week to Ramon in the Santiago North Zone. It’s a ward. Whoopie! My new Companion is Elder Sister. He’s a nice kid, I’m killing him this cycle (that means he’s going home at the end of this cycle).

Me with Tay Quejas (Chaos).
My one success in Jones.
There’s an elder here who I had meet in the MTC.  Elder Jimenez, turns out he was best friends with my cousin Kelen Packard in Houston Texas. He told him about me earlier but he had forgotten my name and Kelen just mentioned me again to him.

Elder Huffstutler, who I’ve spent a lot of time with since I came to the mission, is now Assistant to the President with Elder Miole.  They were both together as my Zone Leaders in Alicia and now they are the Assistants to the President together.  That’s awesome.

In my New Area we have a dinner appointment every night, so I will probably gain all that weight I lost in Jones back.  I'm also excersizing regularly now because I have food too.

Me, Elders Samar, Lasay, Valdez.
Elder James, My companion in the MTC took my place with Elder Lasay in Jones. I gave him the down low and wished him good luck. I feel bad for him, it’s a tough area.

My last two weeks in Jones I actually lived in Angadangan because of some stuff going down in Jones and got to kill (send home) Elder Justin Valdez.  He was awesome to spend time with and he’s back in Utah now.

Don’t worry, I got the birthday package last Monday night after emailing. Thank you so much for everything in it. It was great.

So this used to be the Illagan Mission. It’s the only mission in the Philippines that’s completely land-bound, it takes the longest time to get to our mission from Manilla (the mission above us gets to fly in), and we haven’t been to the temple in who knows how long.

That’s what’s going on right now.
An angry monkey.  

I love you all.

Mahal kita,

Elder Allen