May 21, 2014 - Escalante City, Negros Occidental

How are you over there?

I'm really bad at taking pictures

It has been hot over here as well, except it the kind of way that every day it acts like it's going to rain, but then it doesn't, so it's just really humid. Also, the UV index here is crazy, if sunlight touches my watch it glows like San Onofre for half an hour. But I have yet to get really sunburned or tan. Only hot.

We came by a house that had a monkey on a chain

So one of the branch members here had his farewell on Sunday. Brother Jude, going to the Manila mission, into the big city. But because of this, we lost one of our most kugihan kuyogs (diligent member companion),  which is sad, but it's super exciting and good for him. He was baptized 3 years ago and only a few of his siblings are members, but he was always good to join us. He was also on of the few people that I preferred talking to in english, because he is full-on Illongo, in that he understands Cebuano and can speak it, but generally if he talks, I have a hard time understanding him because he just speaks Illongo usually. But his english was entirely good, although he had some kind of oddly lalum (deep) english words in his vocabulary that seemed like something that would only come out of a thesaurus definition. But he is a really strong member of the branch, and I know that he will do great work and see great blessings for him on this mission.

The sisters had a baptism of two of their investigators last week. 

A big part of our work that we're trying to work on, that the Area Presidency has actually stated we need to work on is to kind of complete the work that has been done in bringing complete families together in our teaching, and that we need to try to really teach men, seeing as women generally tend to be much better at accepting our message than men, we need to kind of even the field. But we've really been able to see this happen in our work. One of our investigators, sister Elsa, is incredibly bright and remembers all the things we teach, and has productive questions, and is really just generally bright. Her husband had generally not been interested in our message, as he generally just passes by or has places to go or things to do. However, at a lesson last week, we went to  teach Sister Elsa, and her husband was there, and though at first he went out to work on cooking or something, he came back in after a while and actually sat down to listen to us. This felt like something of a miracle, if maybe just planting the seeds for more understanding. 

 A sunset before rain. We were walking out from Lopa across the roads amidst the sugarcane when it got dark, then started raining, but luckily a couple of habal-habals came by and picked us up to take us into town.

I really just want to express my love for you. I know that you have done so much for me, and I truly love you, Mom, Dad, and Rachel, and all the other people in my family and friends who have had a great impact on my life. You know who you are.

Thank you always.

Elder Dunford