I'm in San Fernando Zone, in the Sevilla Ward. We are Sevilla C. Sis Ackerman and Dial are Sevilla A and B so I get to see them a couple times a week. They get to live together and I am very jealous. We are still living with the Sister Training Leaders, right by the mission office. It takes us 30 min to get to our area every day but apparently we're moving this week.

We had dinner last night at the Dinkels. It was so good to have some American things and talk to some Americans and not be expected to speak Tagalog.

Our ward is good. There are quite a few strong members and we have church in the stake center so it's actually really nice. Last night we were having MCM and it was supposed to start at 5:30... 6:15 came around and the Bishop finally showed up! And we had dinner at 7 and everyone was like "oh, we'll just be late" but the Americans insisted that we call Sis. Dinkel and tell her we would be late because they were American and she was so grateful. They tell me how organized and functional the Sevilla ward is. There are bottles of coke in the mission office and church.

Yes, we are teaching some people. We found 10 or something new investigators last week so now we have a total of 12 or 14 or something. One day we didn’t find any investigators and my companion told me it was because we had broken the Word of Wisdom the day before because we ate cheese puffs. Anyway, we've had some really good lessons! My Tagalog is really bad. I taught a really good lesson to this really hard-core Catholic lady yesterday. We were trying to visit one of our investigators, but they weren't there so we taught this lady. She was basically debating with us but then I just felt like I should show her Ether 12:27. It wasn't really related to what we were talking about but I showed it to her and she burst out in tears and started to ask how we could have known to show that to her because it was an answer to her prayers. So we tried to testify that we knew to show it to her because we were representatives of Jesus Christ and the Spirit told us. She kept crying throughout the lesson and she said she wants us to come back. But she is really set in her ways... We'll see how that goes. It was really cool to be led by the Spirit like that in a lesson though. Also, it was great because she works for a call center so she spoke great English :)

The other day, I was sitting in a broken chair in a shack in the jungle. I was eating a fish ball (nasty) and there were ducks and roosters running around my legs. There was also a partially clothed man getting a massage right behind me. And I had just finished teaching two drag queens how to pray. I just thought to myself-- what a weird situation! How did a girl from Idaho get here? Anyways, the drag queens were so fascinated with my eyes! I kept looking up and they were staring at my eyes. People here love blue eyes! Also, I almost died laughing when I saw one of them running in a towel because he just showered. His towel was so so short and he had it pulled up to his shoulders like a girl! We felt like telling him that even though he thinks he's a girl he's really not and he needs to be concerned about his lower half, not upper half. He tried to leap into the house before we saw him, but it was unsuccessful.

I was talking to a lady yesterday and then I noticed there was a picture of Idaho on her shirt and it said "Capitol Soccer" or something. I asked her where she got it and she said she didn't know. There are so many random American things that have made their way to the Philippines. For example, there are signs for Avon and Kumon learning center everywhere. Weird.

Our area is partly in the city (really crappy tiny houses all squished together), partly in the hills (it is very beautiful and I have some great pics I'll send next week), and partly jungle. Our area is really beautiful. Also, it's nice because the place where we switch from a jeepney to trike every day has a McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and some Filipino fast food places. McDonalds has never tasted so good. I swear it's better here. I have no idea what our address is. I don't even think our street has a name. Most streets don't have names. Also, there are no traffic laws. No stop lights, no stop signs, people just go whenever they feel like it.

So, Brother Goff was right. Every day is an adventure in the Philippines! I still don't understand what's happening most of the time. People do the weirdest things and they don't even care. It rains really hard. Ok, my time is almost done but I might be able to send pictures.. hold on.....

This is how they drink soda....just pour it in a plastic bag and use a straw.

Ally's grandma with the Elder from the Philippines whose mother fed Ally her first night in the Philippines. He is serving in Idaho Falls.

The Sevilla Sisters having dinner at the Dinkels. Sister Dinkel assures the moms that the girls are doing well! (photos from bradvalarie.blogspot.com).

[The editor of this blog is so grateful for the Dinkels!]