Week 73 (Dec. 6, 2015 Talavera, Philippines)

Dear Mom of Mine,

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I haven't received anything yet, but maybe on Wednesday. We'll see. If they arrived at customs on the 24th then I'm not as worried. I though it was back in October or something that they got to The Philippines, that's why i got a little concerned. I trust this ladies reputation though, so all should work out :)

Rosalina is still going strong. She attended church again yesterday and whenever we stop by her house to say hello and check up on her we always catch her reading the Book of Mormon. She really love the story and everything, and will definitely be going places.... if we could ever teach her :/ That's the probably the hardest part of being an Elder, and by that I mean not being a Sister. It seems like the majority of people who are actually interested are female, and we ca't teach them as Elders unless there is another male adult present. Rosalina was originally goaled for baptism last Saturday, but we weren't able to teach her all week, and so we still technically can't have her interviewed because of lack of completion in terms of lessons. We try to have members come work with us, but they always flake at the last minute, so it can get kind of frustrating. She's not losing faith though, and that's all that matters :)

Ariel hasn't made much progression. He still isn't smoking, but he's also still not coming to chruch. We try to set teaching appointments with him, but he always leaves right before we show up to run different appointments. He actually is really busy, so it's not like he's lying to us, but it's just hard because he lives so far away, and the only way to get to him is to walk. The rain and stopped a bit though, so now we're just walking through dirt instead of mud. We'll see where we can get him though.

Roger is still really discouraged :( He's having Physical Therapy, and they've seen little bits of movement on his left side, but it comes and goes. He has one of those things that Kylie used during her shoulder recovery, where he grabs a handle with his dead arm, and then pulls another handle with his good arm, and then a Pulley System will move his dead arm up and down for blood flow or something. He's still always happy to see us, and the incident has put so much innocence into his... aura? Haha, I don't know what word to use for that :P Anyway, he's still going strong :)

We found new investigators this week!!! We went really hard on findings, and almost broke 100 contacts but got stuck at 99 when curfew struck last night. Grr... But the investigators we found this week are actually pretty promising. We haven't been able to teach any of them a second time yet, but I'll keep you updated on their progress. Paul, Mark, and Nanati are the most potential. Things should be fun :)

Anyway, love you soooo much Mom!! 19 days!!

Love Elder Syphus



Trying to be Ninja with one of my ties. Apparently, this is how Ninja outfits actually work. Just one super long piece of fabric that you just keep wrapping around yourself. My tie wasn't quite long enough :P

This is Sophia, right before throwing me the letter. I chose to send this picture because of her dachsund in the Background. Asterix :)

Here's a better pic. She's so funny and makes me feel like she would be a perfect sister for Linkon and them. Haha. Fun fun fun :)