Interesting Week

It was a tough week. Elder G. was emergency transferred on Thursday and for the time being I am in Pinamalayan, a neighboring town which has Elders B and Elder G.[Mary Ann Yost] (Alex’s companion, Elder G received a threat via text from someone). Hopefully in three weeks on transfer day I'll be able to go back to Pola with a new companion. It breaks my heart, we have 6 investigators with baptismal goal dates, and we'll make at most two trips to Pola a week. I packed my small suitcase and brought that but I still have a lot of stuff that would be really useful back in Pola. I spent 7 hours traveling up to the mission home on Thursday, and another 5 hours traveling back to Mindoro later that night with a new batch of missionaries.

On the bright side, Elder B is a great cook! He wants to own a restaurant one day, and he definitely has the culinary skills! He's 24 years old I think, and is from the Philippines.Elder G. is 20 and is from Boise, ID. He's being trained by Elder B. and has been out 6 weeks longer than me. I've been adjusting to a completely new way of teaching and preparing. I've learned some good things. Apparently the Branch President in Pola has been bragging on my Tagalog! He told the sisters and the senior couple my Tagalog is awesome! That's nice to hear!

On Tuesday we had companion exchanges with the ZL's and I got to work with Elder K. in Calapan. I can't tell you how fun it was to have an American companion! It was awesome and I learned a lot. Today we had a Zone P-Day. We went up near Calapan to some "waterfalls". It was very pretty, but not quite waterfalls. It was a miniature version of Great Falls. I took some pictures and will try to e-mail them.

Interesting experiences this week:
- A woman offered to have her 16 year old daughter marry me in the middle of a lesson
- A man asking for money told me I was very handsome to try and persuade me. The on looking missionaries thought he was going to kiss me
-It is common for Filipinos to call American men "Joe". When some Filipinos say Hey Joe, I just reply, "Hey Joe!". The look on their face is PRICELESS

We're watching Conference in Calapan this upcoming weekend. We were not hit by the hurricane. We had rain but that was about it.

Quick story to finish. We visited a family last night that just touched my heart so much. They have one daughter who was born deaf, and another daughter who had a child out of wedlock and was born with hydrocephalus, and sleeps with his eyes wide open. They live in such a humble home, and the second we walked in they started making us dinner. They had nothing, and they made us a feast. How much we can learn from the humblest of people.

It was a hard week. When I was feeling down and out, a scripture came into my mind from D&C101, "Be still and know that I am God." This is a hard work and a hard world we live in. But if we can just remember that, what comfort that will give our souls. Just be still and know he's in control, he's God.

I love you so much,
Elder Yost