Letter from 3rd Week in the Field

Family so things are going alright here for the most part. it's been kind of a busy week. On Monday it was p-day so we just went to out District meeting. We have it every Monday then after we went to the mall. The malls are huge here. I got my hair cut by a barber. After that we went and emailed then we had family home evening at Sister Fina's. it was really good. She cooked french fries just because I am from Idaho. She has a little more money than most so she can afford it. That made me happy. I ate a ton. On Tuesday was just a regular day. We go out and just teach lessons all day long. It's hard because we walk all day but my back is really bugging me and there is no way to fix it so not sure what to do about it but I guess just keep going and hope it gets better. On Wednesday was our zone conference. We had to wake up at 3 a.m. to get there on time. We are the farthest zone away other than Mendoro the island. We took a jeepney for like 2 hours there. We pull up and President lives in a mansion. it made me think we could use a little better house but it's whatever. So for that they just teach us from 8 a.m.-4p.m. They feed us lunch as well so that was good. After that we had to get back in the jeep and go for another 2 hour ride. We got home about 6:30 then had to go out and teach until 9. I was very tired. On Thursday we went on splits. I went with Elder Thompson. Their area is up in the mountains. I saw my first snake there it was just a little one though. We were out tracting and I said let's try this house and he was like good luck. he was like go for it so I just walked up and talked in English and said, we have a message to share would it be okay if we come in. She was like sure come in. Elder Thompson couldn't believe it. It turns out she had been praying for help. Then we came so thats cool. So then on Friday we had to go down to the office because Elder Galingana had an interview so that was again a long jeep ride but I did get McDonalds so it was alright. When we got back we went out and started tracting a little. I was walking and a lady ran out and said come here so we stopped. She then grabbed my arm and was like your so guapo. It means handsome. She was like pulling on my arm and said come in it's my birthday. I said I can't we are busy but she kept pulling me and I would pull away. She just kept pulling so Elder Galingana grabbed backpack and was pulling with me. it was like a tug-a-war with me. It was crazy. She kept trying to pull my ring off. Luckily we got out of there. The rest of that day nothing exciting other than that. Saturday I woke up and didn't feel very good. I was really dizzy and had a headache. Ever since I have been here I just don't feel good and I don't know what to do. My stomach is always hurting me but I have nothing that can help it either. Hopefully I will get better. I really just which this was almost over. The kids that all leave soon are so lucky. Hopefully I learn the language soon because I hate not being able to speak at all. Well that's all for last week. Hopefully this next week will be better. Well thanks fro all the support. I love you all thanks Love Elder Robison

Family so things are going alright here for the most part. it's been kind of a busy week. On Monday it was p-day so we just went to out District meeting. We have it every Monday then after we went to the mall. The malls are huge here. I got my hair cut by a barber. After that we went and emailed then we had family home evening at Sister Fina's. it was really good. She cooked french fries just because I am from Idaho. She has a little more money than most so she can afford it. That made me happy. I ate a ton. On Tuesday was just a regular day. We go out and just teach lessons all day long. It's hard because we walk all day but my back is really bugging me and there is no way to fix it so not sure what to do about it but I guess just keep going and hope it gets better. On Wednesday was our zone conference. We had to wake up at 3 a.m. to get there on time. We are the farthest zone away other than Mendoro the island. We took a jeepney for like 2 hours there. We pull up and President lives in a mansion. it made me think we could use a little better house but it's whatever. So for that they just teach us from 8 a.m.-4p.m. They feed us lunch as well so that was good. After that we had to get back in the jeep and go for another 2 hour ride. We got home about 6:30 then had to go out and teach until 9. I was very tired. On Thursday we went on splits. I went with Elder Thompson. Their area is up in the mountains. I saw my first snake there it was just a little one though. We were out tracting and I said let's try this house and he was like good luck. he was like go for it so I just walked up and talked in English and said, we have a message to share would it be okay if we come in. She was like sure come in. Elder Thompson couldn't believe it. It turns out she had been praying for help. Then we came so thats cool. So then on Friday we had to go down to the office because Elder Galingana had an interview so that was again a long jeep ride but I did get McDonalds so it was alright. When we got back we went out and started tracting a little. I was walking and a lady ran out and said come here so we stopped. She then grabbed my arm and was like your so guapo. It means handsome. She was like pulling on my arm and said come in it's my birthday. I said I can't we are busy but she kept pulling me and I would pull away. She just kept pulling so Elder Galingana grabbed backpack and was pulling with me. it was like a tug-a-war with me. It was crazy. She kept trying to pull my ring off. Luckily we got out of there. The rest of that day nothing exciting other than that. Saturday I woke up and didn't feel very good. I was really dizzy and had a headache. Ever since I have been here I just don't feel good and I don't know what to do. My stomach is always hurting me but I have nothing that can help it either. Hopefully I will get better. I really just which this was almost over. The kids that all leave soon are so lucky. Hopefully I learn the language soon because I hate not being able to speak at all. Well that's all for last week. Hopefully this next week will be better. Well thanks fro all the support. I love you all thanks Love Elder Robison

Kaden's letter from 2nd week in the field

Family well I hope your all doing really good at home. I am sure your all enjoying the snow and the cabin. I am living in a tiny Filipino house full of nasty bugs and its so dirty haha. The only thing that helps me here is my Heavenly Father and the letters and stuff but I haven't got mail in forever so it's hard. That was one good thing in the MTC is that I got mail every day now it's only once every two weeks. I pray that I don't end up on the Island they only get there stuff once every 6 weeks. Usually when you go out there they leave you out there for a really long time so I pray I don't go out there. It's hard enough to be here right now. As for where I am right now I'm in the Bingangonan branch. We have 9 people with baptism dates in the next month so that's good. Hopefully by the time I am transferred our branch can become a ward. Hopefully in at least two years they will become a stake. That is our zones goal right now. It's possible they can become a stake in less than two years. Well Sister Fina was our first new investigator since I have got here. She is what we call a golden investigator. She has done everything we ask and she read so much. She agreed to be baptized on April 7 so that will be good. The other day I saw an old American man so I went up and talked to him and introduced the first lesson to him and he agreed to have us come over the next Friday. It was so nice to talk to him cause it was in English. It was hard to hear him because he has cancer in his throat but still nice to understand someone. That's one of the hardest things about lessons is I can't speak to the people. I want to I just can't so when I do talk it's mostly in English. I don't know what I can do to learn this language. It's so backwards of English. Everyone said I have an easy mission but I don't know what they were talking about. It's not easy at all. The people are great and they listen but that's the only easy part. As of right now I would trade for a state side mission any time. Even if the people are a little harder to teach but I was called to here so this is where I am. I can't help but think how long two years is and that scares me. I would trade spots with the kids that go home in a month in a heart beat. People say I am the luckiest person in the mission because I have the longest time left but I really disagree with them. I can't wait until its my time to come home and start my real life and be at home with people that are familiar. Since I have been here I have realized how blessed I was. There are so many things that I have realized how much I am going to miss things like farming, fishing, camping, my friends and our family. I miss Sundays back home. I don't like Sundays here. It's not a day of rest it's one of our busiest days. Well this is what went on last week. Oh I almost forgot we were teaching this old heavy lady. Probably like 50 years old not skinny at all and she has a kid. In the middle of the lesson she just started breast feeding the kid it was really gross and awkward. But anyways so I'll write again next week so hopefully we can email again please try and be awake. Tell everyone thanks and that I love them. Love ya mom and dad. Love Elder Robison

 

zone conference

out tracting

Their malls are huge here

Ursula's baptism with Elder Gillette

An old Catholic church here

Ursula's friends and family

Our District

Our zone

With Sister Fina and her daughter she has a baptims date for April 7th

Someone's house

 

Email 3/25/13

yeah my new comp is really good I like him a lot his name is elder gilette from arizona it was my last comp that had the problems so its good that he is out i feel like so every thing seems to be good i am glad to have someone that understands what i am saying. only one baptism went through this week i baptized her ursula apiado the peras family the mom got sick so we moved them to next week cause they want to do them all together as a family so i had my first baptism she will be confirmed next week and then we will have 3 more to baptize so we have a lot of people ready for baptism ill try and put pictures one thing i could use in my package is a memory card reader that can plug into the computer cause if the internet cafe don't have one i cant put pics on and i don't know if this one has one so we will see cause i cant afford to send big packages i live very cheep i have a hard time spending a 100 peso's and that is $2.50 in America so i try not to spend a lot so and yes i have sent a letter every week you just cant trust the post office here so you should get one if not it got lost ill send another one today i am just trying to finish it up so ill send more don't worry um i am starting to get use to the fact that i live here now.

me: has your companion been to your area before or who leads and knows where to go?
Kaden: um we are kinda lost but we have found alot of our stuff that we have had to so its all good i try to help guide us to where we need to go. he has been out almost 18 months.
me: How was church and what is your town like?
Kaden:church was good ursula was baptized the town is kinda small and dirty all that is here is a 7 11 and a jollibee so not much but its good
me:HAve you found any new people to teach? Anything great this week. Is Elder Gilette a good missionary and a good trainer.
Kaden:um we are trying to find new people and yeah he is a good missionary and i like him a lot and he actually tries to help me on the language so i like that and nothing to crazy holy week is coming up this week and i guess it gets really crazy people actually crucify themselves and just go nuts so this week will be crazy i think elder gilette said it is kinda gross what people end up doing so we will see so maybe next week will be better for email. i should be on a lot earlier now other than next week we have a zone activity so it might be late tell camry that we are hiking to some waterfalls so that should be cool

Kaden's email Sunday night

me: Did you go to the temple in Manila today?
Kaden: yeah I already went to the temple it takes about 2 hours to get there so i had to wake up at 3 this morning
me: So do you have an oven and how long does it take you to wash your clothes?
Kaden: no we have a propane oven thing and it takes about an hour or so to wash my clothes but i have to do that 2 to 3 times a week so that sucks.
Me: Do you sweat a ton and how far do you walk a day?
um yeah i sweat a ton and we walk all day so close to like 10 to 12 miles just depends on who we are teaching and where. We teach alot of people probably 10 progressing investigators and alot of non active and recent converts
Me: Was the temple pretty and is it in English or Tagalog? Is the language getting better?
Kaden:um the temple is nice it is in english so thats good and I feel like I learn nothing new in the launguage and I need it cause no one really knows english out here.
Me: The other companionship you live with is in a different area. Your area is called Bingagonan Morong Rizal. When I looked on your map Morong is North and Bingagonan is South so do you live in the middle and they head one way and you head another? There is a little island that is South of you that a ferry goes to have you ever been down to it?
Kaden: yeah they go one way and we go the other so but i had no i dea about the island and there area is pretty ours is dirty dirty
Me: Are you able to understand any phrases? Are you still in Manila or back in your area? How come you email so late?
Kaden:um i can catch a few words and i am back in my area now we email so late cause we have district meeting in the morning and i am getting a new companion he is emergency transferred i don't know why but i get a new comp tonight i hope its a good one
Me: Why are you getting a new companion?
Kaden:um not sure i dont no who he is and yeah it should be a good one cause i am new so i dont think president would send a bad one to train me
Me: How did you find out and did you like your old companion?
Kaden:they just told my comp and yeah he has been good he likes to work and is positive so i hope i get a good one cause now i have to lead in this area and i dont know the area good yet so hopefully that goes well
Me:How do you lead where your so new? Did you post pictures? So are you feeling better? Is the food better?
Kaden:not sure and yeah i feel good today my stomach is just like a time bomb so i never know but its good and the food just depends on the day reeally but ill see if i can put pics on real quick
Me: How far away is the church from you? Have you had anything crazy to eat? Have you had anything that tastes really good.
Kaden:um our church is under contruction so we have to take a jeep about 20 minutes to church so its kinda far and yeah i sent a letter and nothing to crazy yet i am careful with what i eat and just alot of chicken is what they eat or pork
Me:So you don't get much fish because google earth said your area is a fishing port area. So are you enjoying your mission a little more? Do you like your other two roommates? Do they ever talk to you in English? Are you swapping your shoes every day?
Kaden:um a little fish and i swap them every week and yeah they are good they dont speak alot of english so that kind of frustrates me a little but hopefully i can just learn the language soon
Me:Have you had any major rainstorms.
Kaden:no it hasnt rained yet i want it to but it hasnt
Me: HAve you had mangoes yet or any other fruit that you like? How are your investigators doing?
Kaden:um yeah they are good and the investigators are doing good we have 4 baptisms this sunday one more thing i have to take care of so i will be busy this week
Me:You are in charge of the baptism????? Who is doing the baptisms??? Who are your baptisms and are you excited about it???
Kaden:yeah i am now i guess and i will probably baptise and the peras family and ursula a 11 year old girl so yeah it will be good to see them get baptized
Me: So tell me what was the best thing of the week and the worst thing? Anything funny happen this week
Kaden:well i got attacked by a crazy lady she ran out and said come here so we thought she wanted us to teach here but then she grabbed my arm and was like your so guapo means handsome here and she said it was her birthday and she kept pulling me and said come in my house. i just said we are busy and that we cant but she wouldnt let go of me and kept pulling me so my comp grabbed my back pack and was pulling me the other way it was like tug a war between me and so then she just kept pulling me and trying to take my ring off it was crazy i wrote about it in my letter
Me:That's funny do you get a lot of girls there that think your cute? Are you nervous about getting a new comp? How often do people feed you. Do you drink enough?
Kaden: um yeah about every girl even the old women and yeah i hope he is good and yeah people feed us alot of the time and yeah i try and drink alot and there is a kid from shelly in my mission its mr. howard nephew the principal and the pic thing is slow today sorry ill send them next week hopefuly it will be faster
Kaden:love you thanks ill post them next week for sure and ill try and take alot so tell everyone hi i am doing a little better love you all thanks for everything thanks for staying awake next week it will be a normal pday monday so love you mom bye

Kaden's letter from March 4, 2013

OK everyone this is Kaden's letter written on his first p-day so it goes along with his first email. He said he wants to write letters instead of emailing but it takes about 10 days to receive them. So his letters and emails will bounce back and forth a little bit and a lot of it is the same news because he put that in his email. I am going to put this negative letter on the blog because I want to show him how much he changes in two years so in his next email his attitude had already changed a little bit :)

Family, well I can't say that I love this place it really sucks. It's so dirty. People in houses with dirt floors. I don't understand a word of what is said. I walk down the streets and people just stare and yell "hey Joe" all the time. I honestly don't know why I am here. I miss America so much. I miss food that I could eat and not worry about dying. This better get better soon or I might actually die of a disease. The people are good and nice but it's just so gross. Every time I eat I feel like crap. I think I already have a bug in my stomach. I have to go like every hour so it's not good. As you probably know by now that my email time doesn't fit in very good back home. I think it falls in the middle of the night so that just adds to the crappiness of this so sorry about that. I miss you all so much and I only get mail every two weeks so please in your letters make them long and good. Tell me how everyone is doing what you have all been up to and send pictures anything that you can. I don't know if I will ever like it here. No matter what I do nothing ever gets better just worse. I sit in lessons trying to understand and I get nothing. All the guys I live with speak perfect so when we are at home they all just talk to each other and I just sit there. I don't know if I will ever get this down but I will stay. There is a reason why I am here I just don't know it yet. That's why I am struggling with this so much. Enough about me. I just need to stop being a baby. Our investigators all came to church yesterday so that was good. We have 6 with baptismal dates and we confirmed 3 on Sunday. They were baptized the Saturday before I got here. I met a guy at a 7/11 his mission president was a Burtenshaw from Idaho. It's crazy how small the world really is. Our branch president is really rich here. His house is nice for here. If it was an American house I would say almost as nice as Moyo's house. That just shows what the people live in. I eat rice with every meal so that's going to get old especially because I don't like rice but it's whatever. We ride in jeepneys or trikes everywhere. If I come home alive it will be a miracle. They don't drive on the left or the right side of the road. This is very different than what I am used to. The noise never stops and there are people everywhere. I would have to say I would never live here and as of right now I don't think I would even come back and visit but we will see in 2 years. I am very jealous of all the elder's that get to leave in a month or so. I would trade them in a heartbeat right now but I can't. Let me know what letters you get and stuff. People here always try to take advantage of me because I don't know what they are saying so tell me when you get this. I will date it at the top so email me and let me know. I should email around the same time everyday so if you want to stay up and do it that's fine. Tell everyone they can write. I'll try and write them back as soon as I can. I haven't received anything from you yet. There wasn't a package waiting for me. It's okay to send packages my companion won't care. He said I know you work for your money so it don't bug him that things cost a lot. I am in the Binangonan area. It's a province area so very poor but the people are humble. They are always willing to listen to us so that's good. By about 6 I am ready for bed. I start falling asleep. We don't tract in this area at least not yet. My companion is Elder Galingana. He is from the Philippines. I don't know how I will ever be a trainer because I am lost the whole time and somehow he knows where to go. I still don't know how to study or learn the language so I don't know that will just have to be the gift of tongues for now until I figure out how. Mom, dad thanks for everything. You have always been so good to me and always made sure I had plenty. Your great parents. All of your kids have served missions and have gotten married in the temple. That is because your good at what you do. Sorry for thinking I knew everything and having a bad attitude in high school. I'll be better. I hope everything is good at home. I am sure Renlee is huge now. Tell Kandice sorry I haven't wrote her back. I got her letter my last day in the MTC so I was busy. Let me know how everything is and what's up. Let me know about Richards call. he should get it soon. I love you all. Hopefully my next letter will be more positive and really let me know when you get this. I loved to email you today it helped build me up some. Sorry I am a bad writer. I try to make them good but I don't know what to tell you. I love you and I'll write next week. Have fun.

Letter 3/1/13 ( It takes about 10 days to get his handwritten letters)

Family, well I am here. It's been a busy two days. I am so tired. I can barely stay awake. We had 3 people commit to baptism but I forgot their names. We meet so many people every day. The plane ride here was really long and I didn't sleep at all. When we got to Manila it was 10:30 p.m. then we went to a hotel. We got there at 1 a.m. and slept until 5 then we met everyone at the church. My companion is Filipino his name is Elder Galigana. He is a good Elder. I don't understand anything people say to me so I hope I learn quick what is going on. The people are very humble and very open to new things. Ha it might take me awhile to get used to eating so much rice all the time. Oh and it's true that there is no toilet paper especially here. I am out in the middle of ride paddy's and stuff. We have the biggest zone in the whole mission. I probably get about 10 "hey Joe's" everyday. I am starting to smell like a Filipino so that sucks. I met a guy that served a mission and his president was a Burtenshaw from Idaho so that was cool. We didn't talk long. The Barbulosa family committed to be baptized and so did Desiree but she needs to get married first. She just had a baby. I guess that's a big problem here that no one gets married. The Abiado family was baptized the Saturday before I arrived. We will confirm them on Sunday so that's cool they are a funny family. Ha everyone just kind of stares at me when I walk around. Everyone we teach just talks about how big I am it's funny. It's like they have never seen it. Later on the night of the 28th we had a dinner appointment with the branch President. He is a rich guy and lives in a really nice house. He knows good English so that was nice. He is way cool. Ha his family loves American Idol so they wouldn't turn it off so we watched that for about an hour. It was kind of nice to do that it made me feel a little normal. His house was really nice like I didn't feel sick walking into it like I do the house that I live in. Yes I do shower out of a bucket so I am living everything up that people said. It cost quite a bit to send letters so keep an eye on my account so I can send them. Thanks for everything you do and have done. I can't wait to get your first letters. I love you all, thanks for everything you do Love Elder Robison

Pictures from 3/4/13-3/11/13

just a picture

In the trike

A house where we teach

Where we tract

My trainer cooking lunch

The houses are so close in the city

Jollibee this is like our McDonalds

a jeepney

Me and one of the ward missionaries

People everywhere

someone's house

The Peras family they will be getting baptized soon

Pop in a bag.  This is how they give it to you to go

The How family

Email 3/10/13

So the church just changed the policy on email for all missionaries and we can email for 2 hours on p day and I email from an internet cafe a place with a bunch of computers in it. The other two missionaries are elder Thompson from Arizona and elder Sabawil from here and yes my companion knows pretty good english. I am doing a little better its just very different. I haven't got that kids name that served with Rhett I didn't see him at church he wasn't his companion but he said they were in the same mission together. I did get your package and a dear elder that you sent when I was leaving the mtc so no new letters just the package and no letter from Camry. I only get mail every two weeks so it might be in the mail. Its good you can use dear elder here to just like in the mtc . Nothing to crazy with food yet i ate this stuff called halo halo its an icee thing but not the best really weird it has sweet potatoes in it and no fast food in my area other that Jubillle or whatever. Its like the Philippines McDonalds here. This week we have an investigator here name is sister fina she is like a golden investigator she does everything we ask and her whole family does to so she will probably be baptized here soon. She came to church. Church is different its really loud alot of little kids running around and we always have investigators there so we go to gospel principles class with them and then to elders quorum. There is no place to really buy american groceries. Today for pday we went to the mall the malls here are huge and then got our hair cut in the barber shop for the most part about here its just really hot here and i sweat alot like all day long so but its good we are teaching alot of people we hardly ever tract cause we have lessons all day and by the time its bed time i fall asleep really quick cause i am so tired but then about 5 in the morning all the roosters start making noise so that is hard to sleep through. I still don't know hardly any language so i really need to learn that cause not very many know english and if they do its not enough to really communicate so that stinks but i am sure it will come when it comes. Thanks so much for the package i wish you were on so we could talk but its alright my email time falls at a bad time i uploaded more pictures so i am sure that will help but i am fine just wish i could speak to people I feel very alone even though there are tons of people I feel alone cause I cant talk to them but o well i guess. That is so cool about Richard and will you get me every ones email so that i can email them. Well i hope i answered all your questions i love you all thank you so much for everything i would like alot of letters please so love you keep writing me the pics were great love elder Robison

Email 3/4/13

I am serving with Elder Galingana he is a Filipino. He is a cool kid. The weather hasn't been too hot but plenty warm. It will get a lot hotter here in a month. (I asked if his companion is a good missionary) He is a good missionary and we are serving in Ginadonna I don't really know how to explain it but its alright I'm not a huge fan of the Philippine's right now its a little gross. We teach a lot of people everyday and we confirmed 3 new members on Sunday .We have 6 people with baptismal dates. The food isn't the best I eat plenty of rice. Church was good do you know a Micheal Robison or someone these old ladies said he served here back in 91 and they said he was from Idaho and I met a guy that served with Rhett Sutton in Alaska at church. No I haven't received any package and I have sent one letter I guess we just send our letters in the mail it is supposed to take 10 days so ill send my letter tomorrow I put the date at the top. It's hard I don't understand anything I don't feel all that great but i will stay there has to be some reason for being here. The members are alright and yeah I had to bare my testimony and introduce my self in Tagolag and pass the sacrament.I am like 2 hours out of Quezon in a very poor area with rice patties and stuff but the people are very humble here. We only get the mail every two weeks so it will be very delayed. My shower is a bucket and I bought toilet paper. I wash my clothes by hand and yeah my companion is good it would help if I knew the language but I don't so I am just kinda quiet cause i don't know what to say. We are two hours from Quezon it's not that far out but it takes a really long time to get anywhere we ride on jeepneys. There are 4 of us in the apartment and only two of us in our area. It's been a long week. ( I asked him what they eat) just rice and anything that you can put on rice. Well I love you all very much! Have a good week

Pictures from the Philippines

driving along

ready for takeoff

just like the Jefferson star

My trainer Elder Galingana

Our first jeepney ride

my shower and toilet....its great (the bucket is his shower)

In the jeepney

My companion sleeping in the jeepney

Out my front door

my bed

my desk

Out my front door

Me in a rice paddy

laundry day

water buffalo

someone's house

Our church

my front yard