Sipalay - a beautiful place!

Hello Everyone!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!! You're 14 now! Tigulang ba! 

This week was crazy... I don't even know how to describe it. This area is one of THE most beautiful places I have ever been in. Goodness... I have tried to take some pictures, but it really does no justice. The area is probably 20 to 30 times larger than my last area, no joke. We have one part of our area that takes about 30 to 45 minutes to travel to and costs 30 pesos each way, whereas in my last area, the charge was always 7 pesos because that's the minimum cost for any ride. This place is like a video game. I am trying to think of a good game to compare it to, but I can't think of it. It's almost like Skyrim because it's so big. The only problem is you can't "fast travel", which would be nice. It has all these mountains and hills and a beach and rice fields and forests and everything! Wow. I'll try to send pictures, but the internet is pretty slow, so I'll try my best.

We had a family baptized on Saturday!! They are awesome! I wish I could have been more involved in the teaching, because they are so fun and nice.The D------ family lives in the fa

rthest part of our area and was referred by her sister who got baptized recently in Manila. She even flew down here to see their baptism, which was AWESOME! It was such a cool baptism.

Elder Cicon and Elder Slater from my MTC group are now my Zone Leaders, which is super fun. They are the only ZL's that have a truck because their area is out in the middle of NOWHERE. We actually got to ride down with them because Elder Cicon just barely became his companion, so that was super nice. Otherwise you have to take the Ceres buses......... Those are dreadful. It's about a 6 hours drive down there and you are cramped... We were super tight in their truck with 6 of us, but it was much much better than riding that bus. #Blessings.

We are planning on opening a special sacrament in the far part of our area and then opening it up out there because it's hardly been touched, from what we know. So hopefully that will go through! I would love to attend a special sacrament and stuff! That sounds awesome. Elder Averion is actually staying here, which is a big help. I though I was gonna train, but I guess not! I love Elder Averion, he's so funny and likes to work. I think this will be a good companionship!

I have a wonderful story to share with you.

My first day in this area was awesome. It was so refreshing to be in a new area, new environment, new people and new everything. I was so pumped for the first lesson. The whole ride up there I was thinking, "Okay... New area. New Stuff. New attitude. Here we go. Energy. Enthusiasm. You got this! First impressions are so important!" So I was trying to get myself pumped up and everything. They live in the "bukid" as we call it, which basically means it's all mountain-y. I noticed the mud was a little slippery because it had just rained, but that wasn't going to stop my Rockport shoes from powering through. As we approached the first house, I saw the mother outside cleaning, but she hadn't yet seen us. She was surely distracted by the miscellaneous pieces of trash that she was sweeping into a pile. I thought, "alright, here we go!" When I was within about twenty feet of the house, she turned around and I went to wave my hand to say hi. When my hand raised to about a 70 degree angle, my Rockports failed me. I'm not sure if a tire blew or what, but traction was lost completely in just milliseconds. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, there was a slight pain in my hand and there was mud all over my shirt... What hurt the most, however, was my pride... I then spent the entire lesson in a different shirt while mine was being washed by Anton, a member who worked with us. The best part was that this shirt had some guys face on it and it was a nice melon color. Very cute. So that was my first day.

What I learned from this was very interesting. The way I took to get to their house was one of the two possible options. Unfortunately, I picked the less safe route. It's not to say I took the WRONG way, it just wasn't the BEST way. You could clearly see that both paths had been being used quite regularly, I just happened to take the slightly more risky path. Both paths would have resulted in the same thing: I would get to their house. But only one of those would result in my arrival without mud all over my clothes. I made a mistake and got mud all over me. But I was lucky because there was someone there to wash my shirt and make it clean again. See where I am going? Often times there are two paths that we can take, and both of them will often seem fine. But perhaps if we were a little less worried about ourselves and our own pride and making those great impressions like I was, perhaps we would be able to notice the danger that's just a few feet in front of us. Sometimes that danger is so little that even if we are paying close attention, we won't recognize it. That's why we need to learn to tell the difference between better and best, because often times that is all that will confront us: better or best. Luckily, Jesus is there to wash our shirt if we happen to slip or get dirty. Yes we will be humbled, and even sometimes we will have to wear a shirt with someone's face on it while we teach. But that's okay, because I got to the house. We will all get to the Lord's house IF we are seeking it. It just depends on us whether we arrive covered in mud or clean and tidy.

That's all I have for this week!

Love,
Elder Welton