132 Dog Night - Week 77. Serving in Laoag

Last p-day we went to Centro to check out the new stores . Here in Laoag there are more stores moving in. We ate at a place called "Hap Chan" which is a Chinese restaurant. Funny because P and F are interchangeable here and "tsan" (pronounced chan) is Tagalog for stomach. So it means "half stomach" here. And that's all it filled too... small portions.

When we went out to work, it was mostly a good bye kind of thing for Elder M as he was being transferred. On Tuesday we had to go to Buguey, which is farther than Camalaniugan, to sign a contract for a new apartment out there. We also had to quickly learn how to do records and supplies secretary stuff before elders M and P left. So we spent 10-15 minutes trying to learn what they learned in a whole transfer and then we packed some stuff in the truck to deliver to the Ballesteros apartment. We left at 8am. We stopped a couple of times and I got some sweet pics of the Bangui windmills which are really beautiful while Elder T drove.

After many hours, we got to Ballesteros. With the new transfer, there were several new zone changes and one was the making of an entirely new zone so the Ballesteros area is now a zone leader area. The elders for a nearby area called Abulog will share the same apartment. When we got there the landlady was inside cleaning and she was not happy because the elders had left that morning and hadn't cleaned but had left clothes and old food on the floor. We chatted with her and apologized and then she loved us. We then helped her move some of her stuff.

We left Ballesteros again and headed to Magapit Junction and dropped Elder M off there. Elder T and I dropped Elder M's bags at Lal-lo apartment (it's not as clean any more sadly...) and headed to Aparri to pick up the zone leaders there as they were to be assigned in Buguey as the Gonzaga zone leaders. Then we got their stuff and headed to Buguey.

We chatted with the landlord of the new apartment there. He was a funny old man who speaks a little English  We all sat down and reviewed the contract. He was very particular and careful. He was very wary of being taken advantage of so he scrutinized every word. He had been given a form that we used for paying landlords but he saw that it said "vendor" on it and thought it meant he was to sell his house so he had given it back to President B a while back. We didn't know this and without that form, we would have to take another twelve hour round trip to Buguey. So I stepped out and called the office.

Problem was, the assistants were out dealing with transfers, Elders M and P had been transferred out, so the only ones left in the office were Elders S and K who had just been transferred in and wouldn't know what to do. Elder S answered the office phone with a weak "h-hello???" It was tough to explain what we needed - especially with someone brand new in the office. He had to go and get a the form from a certain folder in one of the drawers of a cabinet and scan it and email it to us. After a while he found it. The only problem was that there is not computer shop with a printer in all of Buguey! It was getting late, so we got in the truck and went to Camalaniugan. By this time it was around 6:30 and we hadn't eaten since 6am so the zone leaders went and got food while we printed the form off.

We ran into H outside the computer place! I had been hoping to see someone I knew from my old city and was just thinking that it wasn't meant to be and then, BANG there she was! She's way cool. when I was in Camalaniugan, we taught her family a lot and she's still very active too. She was so excited to see us. We chatted for a couple of minutes and then the topic turned to General Conference. I told her she could go on a mission soon. She looked surprised and said "Me?" I don't think it had ever crossed her mind. I think that's why we were to run into her. We told her she would find out at conference. Then we booked it back to Buguey again.

 We picked up the beds and stuff from the old apartment and as we signed the contracts, the zone leaders moved themselves in. The old guy gave a little speech before he signed. My favourite part was, "It is my wish that your mission will be a success here in Buguey, in the Philippines and ARRRRRRROUND THE WORLD!" Epic... (he did a little 'around the world' arm movement as well). Then we got it signed and went outside to the truck and he saw that they were already moving in and was way impressed. We set up an appointment with him and the missionaries before he goes back to Sacramento.

By then it was around 8:30pm and we had the choice to head home for the 5-6 hour drive or to stay at one of the apartments till morning (it would probably be Lal-lo or Claveria). We asked President if we had his permission to break curfew and drive straight home and he said it was fine so that's what we did. We made the trip in under 5 hours - left at 8:35pm and got to the mission home at 12-ish! Didn't speed either.

Driving at night in the Philippines is nuts, especially in the Claveria hills. We turned one corner and, hey, there was a HERD of cows in the road and no fields anywhere near by! We counted dogs on the way home to stay awake and had the windows down the whole way. We also decided that if you saw a cat or counted something other than a dog then you had to slap yourself in the face. It kept us awake. It reminded me of home, driving home late from YSA activities. Anyway, we started counting an hour or two into our trip home and counted 132 dogs roaming the streets... number 100 almost got hit and 116 was dead when we counted it ...so many dogs here. See what crocodiles could do for this country!?

So that was transfer day. We drove from 8am until midnight. In the morning (Wednesday), we came down to the office and it looked like it exploded! Almost the whole mission was transferred and usually there are people in the office on transfer day but not this time. It was a mess and took a while to get things in order.

We only got seven and a half hours of proselyting in this week! Between Tuesday and Saturday we got around three. We had a ton of errands to run - getting supplies for the huge batch of sixteen new missionaries. We also had to move the sisters assigned in Sinait into a new apartment (they had been living in another area and commuting). We took some stuff from an apartment nearby which had missionaries pulled out this transfer. The stair case was so small that the beds wouldn't fit down it, so we had to put them out the window and down the roof. I was the lightest so I had to stand on the roof... scary! The whole day was like a mix of Tetris (moving stuff) and Grand Theft Auto (the driving in the Philippines and standing on roofs etc).

General Conference was amazing! I didn't write much of what they said exactly but instead, just wrote straight up personal revelation. I read over my notes today and it is amazing what listening to the voices of prophets can do for you.

Here in our mission, the president trains the zone leaders at zone leader conference. Then the zone leaders train their zones on exactly what he trained. Then for the next month, that is the focus of the mission, every training given by district leaders is on that topic (oh yeah, I'm a district leader again so I have to deal with training again. We are literally called the "Office District". It's just us four. I always get "The Office" theme song stuck in m head when I think of it).

I decided I'd follow the same pattern for General Conference: until April, the things they said at this past General Conference will be my focus personally and then by that time I will have internalized it all.

General Conference made me miss you all even more (the President Eyring wood carving story reminded me of dad... just a tad homesick but I guess that's good once in a while). Take Care. I love you
Elder Dustan