Punched By a Monkey - Week 28. Serving in Santa Maria

I am emailing from Narvacan now. It feels weird still - not to be in Vintar. I'll give you the lo-down on my new area and companions. My area is Santa Maria. It's about 20 minutes outside of the booming metropolis of Narvacan. It's as Vintar is to Laoag except Narvacon isn't as big as Laoag and Santa Maria is way bigger than Vintar (not in terms of area but in people definitely). We stay in an apartment with two huge Samoan Elders: Elder M (who is almost done his mission) and Elder I (pronounced ya-wan-eh... don't worry, I have used every joke possible with his name....just not out loud as he's HUGE!).
We have our own room and our own aircon (AC) but we sleep in the ZL's room to save electricity. We bring our "mattresses" in every night (old worn down pieces of rectangular foam that have been eroded by the sweat of multiple sets of Elders....I use a sheet, don't worry) and sleep in between their two beds. There are TWO showers. There is no shower head or bucket - which was new to me (I love the bucket system). Instead, just a drippy tap and a juice jug. It works pretty well though.
 Here's our schedule: wake up at 6:30 and yell at Elder I to get off me as he usually falls at least partially off his bed and lands on me. He's huge too. He likes to play foozeball and he went to military school in Roswell New Mexico (he's definitely an alien). I exercise with weights (they have a metal bar with concrete-filled buckets on either end...it works) for 30 minutes every morning and I feel great.
At about 7am I go out and get some pandasal (a cheap bread that everyone eats here. It doesn't have much taste, rather more of an illusion of taste, but it's one peso each so who's complaining?).
When I get back, I shave and shower, iron my shirt, tie my tie and then find that half my pandasal is gone because the ZL's got into it again. We study and then we go to the mall. Yes, the Mall. The Narvacan mall is pretty sweet. Of course, it's like all things here that are similar to things back home - they're just not quite the same.
We eat in the food court every day. I didn't like the sound of it either till I got there. A member owns a little place in the food court and she gives us free shakes and juice and soup. Then for 50 pesos we get two servings of rice and two ulam (anything you can put on rice is called ulam...except more rice). There's veggies there too. I usually have carabasa which is mostly squash.
Then my companion and I catch a bus outside the mall (like a worn out Greyhound bus) for 10 pesos each and we go to Santa Maria. It's a College town and is essentially a city. Bit of a change from the small-town life of Vintar. Then we go to the outside of town and it's all bukid (rice paddies) and jungle. So no matter where I go it's different than Vintar and I now realize how perfect that area was.
My companion is Elder C. He's pretty cool. He's from Quezon and has been out 9 months. He is quiet but speaks English fluently.  He is really nice and says profound things that really get me thinking.  He's really easy going and gives me lots of teaching time which I love.
 I had to give training to the Zone leaders and give a talk on Sunday as well as do my first accounting on Sunday night. It was a crazy week and I would have normally gone crazy with stress but because the Spirit is with me, I did no such thing. I was calm and I was led to the exact things I was supposed to say.

 Elder M is amazing! He's really fit and played for the Samoan olympic volleyball team. He also has some crazy stories. Some of them are too terrifying to tell you but once he passed by a man who had just shot and killed a woman. He struggled with him for the gun and ended up punching him and breaking his jaw and subduing him until the police arrived.
On Friday the ZL's saw a man get hit on his bike by a Partas bus (partas is Ilokano for fast and they hit lots of people because of that). They said he died instantly. Later that day they came to a house where an old man (a member of the Church they went to visit) was laying dead on the ground because a Python bit him and he had a heart attack. They said the python was pretty big too.
The girl who works at the food court in the mall....her legal name is Sexy! She is the daughter of the owner. She hasn't been there for a couple of days though, as she has been sick. I have a feeling that when the owner goes to work today she's "bringing sexy back".....bam! Anyways, point is, names don't always mean something.
I also caught a runaway goat this week. It got away from its owner and I snagged it and gave it back to him (shoulda kept it....finders keepers!).
 I've realllly felt blessed this week.   Things, although tough at times, have gone according to the plan of God - it's so obvious to me. My life is guided at all times. Sometimes I may override the right plan with an unwise choice (and it usually involves a lot of anxiety and discomfort), but as long as I choose the right, I can stay on the path that God has given me and He will lead me to happiness and the best ways for me to grow. I love my mission. Anyone who is of mission age and in their right mind will choose to serve and if they don't then they can't even comprehend the kind of things they are missing out on.
I've been blessed. You all helped me to make the right decision, and now I've been blessed some more.
 I was going to think of some wonderful way to incorporate my last experience in Vintar but I'm running low on time so I'll just tell you: I got punched by a monkey!!!! Elder Sm had been teasing it in increments over the past month and the once pleasant monkey became a sour one. I wanted a picture with him but got too close and he literally full-on punched me in the head! It hurt too!!!
Anyways, I love you guys so much I wish I could say it better. Don't ever worry about me. I am safe in the protecttion of the Lord and two Samoans! You are all always in my prayers, specifically named and everything.
-Elder Dustan