Hello!

  Talking to you guys on Christmas was great! It was good being able to see all of you. For Christmas here we didnt really do to much. I woke up and did my laundry haha then for the first part of the day our zone came to Mabini because i guess we have the best internet and they wanted to skype. So thats what the Filipinos did. It was really boring until Elder Doney and I decided to go out and work because our comps said that no one would want to listen to us and didnt want to work. So we went out and taught. One family liked us so much they invited us over on Jan.1 for a new years lunch!

Christmas eve was a lot more fun! We went to our Branch Presidents house. We had a huge dinner and played games with them. I tried the "1 day old chicken" It was super gross! But all the other food was good! We even had some sparkling grape juice. Earlier that day we had district meeting and then our apartment checks. Elder and Sister Cambell brought us food cause they knew our apartment was great!

Here there arent to many decorations because people cant afford them. They do pay Christmas music all the time though and its the American ones so that makes me super trunkie. If people do have decorations they are small and only the more wealthy people have lights.

On Friday my comp was sick again...It was a super bring day! Days we arent able to work always seem to take forever to end!

Saturday and Sunday were both busy days with a lot of lessons. Not really anything to interesting though. We have 3 investigators and several first lessons this week.

Tomorrow we have lock down because its New years eve and i guess people go crazy here haha so we are going to watch Narnia because President said we could! Thats exciting haha

Thats pretty much it. Manigong Bagong Taon! Happy New year!

-Elder St. Gelais

Kamusta po kayo?!

This week has had its ups and downs. I have been sick all week with LBM...thats no fun so i have defiantly put that tp to good use!

On Tuesday we had our Christmas devotional for the mission. It was really good. We had some special musical numbers, President and sister Ralph both talked to us and then we had a great lunch which Bro. Pete made. Then after that each zone that was there had a skit which was fun to watch. After that we played a bunch of games! It went till about 5:30 that night so my zone ended up going to Greenwich...they actually have pizza here! It was pretty good!

Nothing to much happened om wednesday or thursday but on Friday Tatay Ben committed to be baptized on Jan. 18th! So hopefully everything goes well. He has already been coming to church and he is just eating up the Gospel. He loves to learn more about it.

On Saturday we had our Branch Christmas party...it was from 8 am to 3...longest party ever! And we were in charge of the games! It was actually really fun! I recorded one of the games because it was hilarious. They were going absolutely crazy! There are 5 people in a line and you have to hold the person infront of you. The person in the back has a ballon tied to thier ankle and the person in the front of the line has to pop the others. They went nuts!! They take these games serious haha. Then after that the other Elders that we live with had a baptism so we stayed at the Church for that.

On Sunday President Rahlf decided to come here for church! I am obviously his favorite Elder and thats why he wanted to spend the Christmas sunday with me haha but he came and talked during sacrament meeting. It was nice to actually hear a talked that i could understand!

Oh and i bought 2 nativity sets from Bro. Pete! He is going down to Manila to buy them soon so i dont know how good they are but i will send a picture. It was only 800 pisos so i just went for it!

Thats pretty much it for this week! MALIGAYUNG PASKO!

-Elder St. Gelais

Cali is awesome...but its nothing compared to the Philippines! I hope you guys have fun there though! And yes i opened my Christmas package...there was no way i could have a package sitting on my desk for 2 weeks! Oh and i got the package that jason sent through his account. It worked fine and i dont believe i will have to pay anything.

This last week was pretty good. On tuesday my comp was sick again. He was throwing up...and the first time he did he threw up in the sink! That was super gross and im not sure why he picked that spot because the toilet was close to there and so was the door to outside. It wasnt fun cleaning that up...

On Wednesday we went out and worked with the branch mission leader. I always enjoy working with him because he just recently got back from his mission and he loves to get things done. At the end of work that night we were out in the middle of bukid which is the rice fields. We have a less active family that lives out there. We got a ride back on a kuliglig which is like a wagon sorta thing but it has an engine instead of a horse haha

On thursday we had our zone meeting and it was a long one because President is changing several things. After that we ended up having a late lunch that one of the Elders went and cooked. While we were eating Bro. pete and American stoped by. He is the one who gets all the cool stuff for everybody. And elder had bought some pearls and so he was bringing those to him. While he was there i bought two more carabow belts just cause they are so cool.

On Saturday we went to to our far area. It takes us about 40 min to walk there. It was a great day there. We got a new investigator and he even came to church on sunday.

Guess what! We have carolers here haha except they dont leave until you give them money so its actually really annoying!

Today we had to practice our zone skit because we have a Christmas devotioal/party tomorrow. I am wiseman #6...and we have a dance of thing to see which 3 wise men get to go see Jesus haha

Well thats pretty much it! Maliguyung Pasko-Merry Christmas!

-Elder St. Gelais

Hello!

Im so jealous...In-N-Out sounds sooo good...

Things are going pretty good here. I have been sick the past couple of days though. Its just a cold so dont freak out mom. With that cold it does get hard to breathe sometimes because the air out where I am isnt the best. Or thats atlest what Sis. Rahlf said.

This Sunday we had an investigator at church along with several less active members. We also had one of the recent converts we were teaching receive the Priesthood.

 Today i got my first haircut...little weird. A bakla cut my hair. You can figure out what that means on your own...It also washed my hair and did this massage thing to my head. My comp was just sitting there laughing cause I had no idea what was going on haha then later at the palanky (a big oustide market) I was proposed to! All the little Filipino ladies asked my if i would marry one of their daughters. I just started laughing and my comp told them that i was sadly taken and on a mission haha

Nothing to exciting really happened this week except that i finished my first cycle! The weather is still hot and very humid.

I love you all!
-Elder St. Gelais

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a great week! On Monday we had FHE and we had frog for dinner. It was pretty good except there wasn't really all that much to eat. The members here are so amazing though. They dont have very much food or money but try to make it an amazing dinner. I am so very grateful for dedicated Saints who are set on serving the Lord, following his commandments and trying to further his work.

On Tuesday night we went to a seminary class and taught about preparing for a mission. Many of the youth want to and are excited to serve. At the district meeting on Tuesday the senior couple brought some homemade chocolate chip cookies! I almost died...they were soooo good!

On Wednesday for lunch we ate the chicken reproductive system...it was rather gross and the texture was funny. Other then that it was just another day out in the field.

Thursday was great! I made spaghetti for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty good if i do say so myself. I found some sausage looking things at the store so i decided to put those in the spaghetti haha and then we had some fresh rolls that a nanay made us. It was awesome and we were very grateful for our Thanksgiving dinner.

On Friday my companion was feeling sick so i pretty much had the whole day to do studying. It was really nice and i love just being able to sit down and really dive into the Book of Mormon. I feel like i am able to learn so much from it everyday as i take the time to sit down and ponder over the inspired words. I also just got a Book of Mormon manuel thing from the Branch President which has a lot of great quotes and insight about the BoM.

Saturday was a long day. We were punted from our first 3 lessons. So we spent a lot of time just doing service for people on the street, leaving a pamphlet with our contact info and a short message and testimony. We ended up going to a members house had a small snack and she gave us a referral to contact.

Sunday was a long day! It was fast sunday so i was more hungry then usual. It was a normal day of work and we got to have dinner at Presidents at the end. It was unfortunately fish though. Not my favorite but its better then nothing!

Our nanay that committed to be baptized isnt doing to well. She has missed our last two lessons. We do have another investigator though. A sister in the ward is having her bf investigate and he seems very interested and loves to learn and talk with us.

I love you all!

-Elder St. Gelais