Hello from the Philippines

Hello everyone!

Well another week has come and gone! Pretty sweet! Well the Philippines is crazy! Tagalog is a pain but I am slowly learning. I think being in Rajahmundry for the past year has prepared me a lot for being here. There is hardly any English there so here it is basically the same. Its amazing how every trial in the mission prepares you for the next one. The trials of my mission are just building off of each other. Its weird. Anyway. I have no idea what the heck is going on here but everytime we end up teaching someone it ends up being worth it. Sometimes I am hard hearted and I get really frustrated so I decide that its pointless to say anything because they won't understand me anyways but then I get into the lesson and the spirit tells me to stop being a Jew and teach them, And then I am happy and life is good again. It is an emotional roller coaster that I have been riding for 90% of my mission. Good stuff. The missionaries here are all way cool and fun. Except they all listen to EFY music so sometimes I want to kill myself. Its all good though. I am getting used to it. Just a heads up. If I ever ask you to send me EFY music I want to you scold me nicely. Haha thanks.

Well yeah, The food here is okay I guess. I'm not gonna lie, Indian food is amazing. The food here has like 0 spice. Its gross. Just kidding. I had barbecue chicken last night at a members house and cried. But still everytime we prepare in the apartment I have to go out and buy some chilli powder. Man I miss chicken curry. But they have pork and beef here so I can't complain!

Our area is hard but there a lot of inactives that we are working with. We are trying to find new investigators and we found a few formers. They are way nice people. None came to church but this week we will try to help them with that. We had an entire inactive family come to church yesterday so that made it all worth it! They are all extremely nice people here. Just to give you an idea, A sister in church gave a talk in mostly English yesterday and I am pretty sure the Bishop asked her to do it just because I don't know Tagalog. Haha and then all the members asked me to learn Tagalog after it hahaha working on it.

Hey you guys talked to Sonny right? Man he is awesome. He comes on full day exchanges with us almost everyday! He was baptized last May I think and he is preparing for a mission! Haha he told me that he added you all on Facebook and talked to a couple of you. He is a goober. Way nice guy though!

Well Life here is swell. Thank you for all your prayers. I can definitely feel the blessings pouring in. So many amazing things happen! I am praying for you all every day. I honestly think my testimony of prayer has become the strongest. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that God is listening and will always answer our prayers. Love you all. Have a good week!

Elder Checketts