Teaching Great People AND Feeding Ducks to Monkeys! - Week 13.Serving in Vintar.

So my new nephew, Carter has finally arrived! I've been waiting so long for the news! Sister Odgers was all excited too. But 7lbs, 12ounces! That's as big as you are Whitney! Loved the pictures too - looks like he's looking right at me! On p-days we use one of the FOUR internet cafes in Vintar (for a place with no sewage system, they've really got it made). I love hearing from you guys though - reading your emails is a high point in my week. I also got some regular mail. So here's how the mail works: The mail goes to the mission home in Laoag and waits there until the AP's bring it to us either at church (as we are in the same ward as the them) or at our district meetings - but they only attend the first one of every month. We can also pick it up if we run out of supplies and have to go to the mission home. We aren't supposed to go there much but no one runs out of copies of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets and teaching records as much as we do. So every two weeks or so we have to go there. 
 It has rained everyday for the past week. Vintar was on the verge of flooding. All the ditches were inches away from the top. It didn't just rain, it RAINED! A real downpour. I never heard thunder like this back home. It shakes the house and everything! My waterproof shoes were a good investment. No false advertising. My feet have been dry all week except the day I wore my other shoes and the one time it rained so hard it bounced off the road onto my pants and soaked me until my socks got wet. I do use an umbrella though. I got a huge one at the palenke in Laoag. Only 4 bucks.
 I use my filter bottle everyday and drink only from it. We have filters on the taps in the apartment but they can't be trusted. The other elders make fun of elder Crandel (my "grandpa" in that weird elder family thing) and I because we're the only ones that use them. But that's probably why so many missionaries have been getting sick.


 Our investigators are doing well. Sister Demma (our neighbour who is the older lady with lots of jewellry and trinkets and makeup but is really kind), has softened a bit. She would never go to church with us as she's the choir leader at the Aglipay church. But she started coming. She even stood up in Church and said, "We need to not send our kids to church - we need to bring them to church". Well put and true. We were bold with her in our last meeting. ('bold' in Tagalog means 'naked'). My companion reminded me not to say 'pwede ko po magbold sa inyo' (or, "Can I be bold with you?"). Good thing, because I was about to say just that.
 We found a less active family too. They are very quiet. We talked to the mum on the phone as she's in Manila and she was screaming with excitement that the Church is back in Vintar. I often wonder what it was like for the branch in Vintar to close. It seems like a lot of people just went to the meeting house one day and realized it was gone. So sad.
The AP's (Assistants to the President) started teaching a guy named JonJon (unusual names here too, like 'Bethlehem Kalsada', which translated is 'Bethlehem Street', and 'Lovely' is a common first name here).  He's the leader of a frat in Laoag. He was quite a party animal. He is now down to two smokes a day from two packs plus no drinking or other stuff. Once he learned about the Law of Chastity, he dumped his three girlfriends. He's really awesome and everyone in Laoag knows him. He went out with the AP's one day to find new investigators and would just walk into peoples' yards and say, "We're going to teach you now." and they would teach a lesson! He also brought so many people to the baptism of Sister Jackie (who is a really awesome single mom that's only my age and has a really strong testimony) on Saturday that there were as many people as we have at church on a regular Sunday (102 adults). His ex-girlfriends are coming to church and I went on splits with the APs and taught one of them about chastity. Shes only 16 and when she learned about it, we expected all kinds of questions but all she said was, "Can we still be forgiven?". We knocked that one out of the park and she's going to be baptized on Sept. 10th. Lastly about JonJon - his frat used to use the chapel as a hazing ground and to shower by unscrewing the cap at the bottom of the mini water tower of the chapel. That's all stopped. He said he'd bring 80 people to hear the discussions at the church on Saturday coming. The AP's said they might need our help, but either way I'll let you know how it goes.
Things here are going well. We have around 90 investigators. We also fed balut (a Filipino delicacy of pickled duck eggs with the fetus inside) to a monkey. Tatay Balut is the old guy that bikes around Vintar everyday after lunch until 9pm selling balut. He's so diligent and he must be 80 years old and half blind. We felt so bad for him one day that we bought two eggs from him, but the day before, Sister Odgers had specifically told me not to eat it until I've been here at least a year, so there's a monkey in a cage on one of the street corners and we just gave him the bag. I have some pictures and a video. He loved it.
Thanks Pa for the awesome talk by Hugh B. Brown! I loved it. I read it three times, and to my companion and to an investigator with minor translation. 
I'm loving the rice here. I can't eat a meal without it or I don't feel full and I get grumpy. I'm told I'll have rice withdrawals when I get home so you better have some good stuff waiting for me. No Uncle Ben's - he's not even Asian! 
We went to the palenke in Vintar this morning and I got a knife. It makes Crocodile Dundee's look puny! 
 I love you guys and miss you lots. The homesickness is going away a little and, oddly enough, I feel closer to you as it does. Tell me all about your upcoming camping plans too Pa. I wish I could go with you but I'm doing a perma-camp here.
There are lots of cats here but 90% of them have no tails and are realllllly gross but even the dirty dogs here are still cute to me. Dogs are the best. (Hi Duncan!) 
 Stay safe, and I love you sooooo much. Ignatpo

-Elder Dustan