so this week has been exciting, i have been stretching my arm every day and i can almost straighten it out all the way, and my rotation is getting better every day.
last monday after i emailed you we had a huge rain storm and every where got flooded over night. we had people who had water up to their chests! luckily no ones houses got washed out and all the members are fine.
tuesday we went our members restaurant and the water was still up to our ankles. so we were basically sweeping water out of their restaurant because it isn't level and the floor is lower in the back of the building so it just fills up. it was really weird, but we got the water out. then we walked a few miles checking on all the members. one member the water was still up to our knees in the late after noon. luckily their house is raised up and nothing got inside but they were very wet from all the rain. then another member had water that was about 5 feet deep running through the first floor of her house because the river overflowed. so that was really close to destroying their house because it is just bamboo and ply wood. really close to them not being here any more! but all in all a fun day. (these comments amaze me!) no one was hurt and we got to walk through a lot of water.
but then nothing much. we went around to as many members as we could and tried to help them realize that no matter what happened in the past they can come back to church and start off the new year in a good way. we ended up with about 18 people at the beginning of sacrament but ended up with 39, so close to our goal of 40. oh well, there is always next week.
its really weird though, i feel like i really haven't been here for very long but i have almost been in the philippines for 5 months! I'm more than a quarter of the way through and i just got here. there is still so much more to come. elder ostler keeps saying "when your a zone leader your gonna have lots of fun" ahhhh not going to happen. i keep saying I'm just going to be a junior companion my whole mission. but i don't see that happening.
new years was crazy! its bigger than Christmas in this country. they all had all their family and had letson, a whole rotissary pig. it was so much fun helping all of them prepare. but here in the philippines on new years eve we have to be in our apartments at 6! so we didn't get to eat and stuff, but we stayed up until 12 and went out side and watched all the ridiculous fireworks. they are super ghetto and you never know if they are done. one that a guy lit off he hung on his fence and ran, it just like started blowing up and fell off. then he went to lite the next one and the first one started blowing up again a few minutes later. it sounded like guns were going off all night long. people were still lighting them off when we got up and went to church. they were so cool but that's why we had to be home at 6 because people lose hands and all kinds of crazy stuff. the whole night we could hear ambulances going down the highway.
sunday we only had sacrament again, then had all of our meetings and did tithing. then went to visit some members but none of them were home, and there were no rides so we walked about 5 miles or so. it was so fun. we had a member with us to who works at the other members restaurant and they fed us after with all the left over meat from the day before. it was so good and tons of food! i was so stuffed! then this morning me and elder ostler started that jumping thing and its going to be a fun 15 weeks. (they are doing exercises to increase their vertical leap)
also i forgot last week but thank you grandma and grandpa coontz and urmston for the wonderful candy and shoes. most of the candy is gone but the shoes aren't going to get much use until I'm healed. but until then they are gonna stay nice and clean, unlike everything else i wear. but i love you and i love all the rest of you too that are reading this even if i don't know you and thank you all for all the support
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