Letter 3/24/13

Family, so today is P-day and that's good because I really need to catch up on a lot of things like washing my clothes. Hopefully buy some food that I can eat. Its starting to get a little bit more normal that I live here. I don't think it will ever be truly normal. Even though I am in a house it's like I am camping every day of my life. There are bugs all over so it just never stops with the dirtiness. The culture is starting to just become part of what I do. Yesterday I got my first baptism. Her name is Ursula Apiado. She is 11 years old. We were going to have 4 people but Anna is pregnant and had some issues and had to go to the hospital the night before. We rescheduled their family for next week so I have 3 more next week and then two more the next week. It's weird that we do them on Sundays I think. This one is hard to count as my baptism because I didn't really teach her. I did a little bit but then she chose me to baptize her so that's cool. Next week they have asked me to baptize again and I think the week after that so we are busy. My comp says I am lucky that I am getting so many this early because President has asked us to focus on the richer people so numbers have gone down a lot. I will have more than some people that already have went home so that's cool. Fina came to church again so that's good. She is funny. She makes her family come no matter what. I feel like we have started to lose ground with her son Carlos who is 14. We will see if we can get him to start accepting the gospel a little better. So as you all know I got a new comp and I am really glad that I did. His name is Elder Gillette and he is from Arizona and we get along a lot better. Turns out that my last comp was the one that was in trouble. So it was good that he got transferred. He was taking advantage of training and he never showed me a lot of rules. Whatever he did was before I got here so that's good. I am happy with the change. Now all I need is a washing machine and I would be set. I think for the most part my stomach has adjusted to living here it's not as bad as the first few weeks. Having a new comp is hard because we are both new in this area so we struggle finding stuff and people. We have a lot of good people that we are teaching. The reason I don't write all their names is because there are a lot and Filipino names are hard to say and spell but our area has a lot of potentials. I got to go to the temple also last week. It was different. Very small sessions and not a lot of people. It was in English so that was really good. We get to do that once a transfer I think. That is also when we can buy like garments and stuff so that's a blessing to have that opportunity. Garments go quick here so I am glad I can buy new. By the way mom if you haven't sent a package already maybe throw in some of the dry lux garments. My tops are LT and the bottoms are L. They don't have them here just cotton and they are very warm. I have spent most of this p-day washing clothes. It seems like my day consists of gong out to work all day then come home and wash my clothes by hand so basically come home and work some more. Being here has made me realize that I have been so blessed my whole life and how easy I have had it. Ha I don't think I will ever complain about having to clean clothes when I get home. So we have met this girl and guy they own a bakery. The girl is a member but less active and the guy is not. She is 19 and he is 20 and they run this bakery just the two of them. And we are talking to them about coming to church. They verily can pay the rent on the shop each month and so they are open on Sundays. The guy was listening to us really good and totally surprised me when we asked them to come to church. Most people here just say they are to busy but they will try and make it. He said to us I know it will be hard but I will make sure that we get it done. I just thought that it was cool that a 20 year old kid that isn't a member has that kind of faith to close his shop and come to church even though they can verily pay the rent. I promised him that if he would do that Heavenly Father will make everything work out and bless you because your keeping the commandments. We have met a few new people that have some potential so that is good. It's hard because me and my comp are both new in this area so it's kind of like starting over and opening an area. Every once in a while we get lost but I feel like when we are lost is when we find new people to teach. I am surprised that no one has made me eat anything crazy yet so that's good. Well that was it for last week. I love you all so much thanks for everything you do and have done. Your all great. Always show Renlee pictures of me so I am always her favorite. Love you thanks Love Elder Robison.