First off, I have heard that this area is one if not the prettiest areas in the mission. I can agree that it is definitely great. But the ride to it wasn't. In order to get to the area, you go through windy mountains for about an hour. I am glad another missionary had medicine and was nice enough to get it for me. Then we finally got to the area! Kind of just like any other area in this mission, but it has a lot of places to eat shop and things like that.
It is basically a little small village in the mountains, but pretty well off.At the bus station in Claveria, I met my new companion Elder Bulado. Elder Bulado is a 23 year old Filipino from Tacloban (the same place as my trainer). He is very "chill" and loves to talk to people. This is his last cycle before he goes home, but luckily, I don't think he's too trunky. He does love to talk so there have been many times where we have had long conversations.
We have already talked about a lot of our lives to each other, what we want to do in the future, marriage and things. I also learned that he has a scholarship to a college for dance! He is really talented in the style of "isolation" or "popping". I've watched him and asked him to teach me. It's pretty hard to do but he is really good at it. Hopefully by the end of the cycle I'll be able to do a little bit of what he does.
So a short report on the other 2 in my apartment, we have Elder Nuada and Elder Langeveld. Elder Nuada is a Filipino and Elder Langeveld is actually from Utah. They are all pretty nice and hard working. They area also all really close to going home, and then there's me who still has a while though. I'm not complaining though, it is all good to me, I enjoy it.
They do tease me a lot though but it's about being picky. The 2nd day we were here a member bought us squid which we used for food for the next couple days. I learned that I am not a fan of squid of any form such as adobo or fried.
As soon as I got here I learned that we actually have 2 baptisms coming up next week, and 3 more potential. So we put a lot of our focus this week to teaching them, preparing them for baptism. I ended up becoming friends with them really fast, and can already tease them if I wanted to. It's like we've been friends for a while.So a weird thing that happened this week, we have an investigator who is really awesome, and when we teach her it is great, but she has a problem that is going on right now.
Turns out she has been accused by all of her neighbors of witchcraft, and I think might actually have to go to court for it. We were pretty surprised when we heard this, but I am sure nothing bad will happen. We don't think the judge will do anything, and they don't have any proof of her "witchcraft". She did come to church so we were happy to see her, that's just not something I was expecting to hear at all that is actually happening anywhere in the world. But it is, and I am sure it will all be fine.
On Sunday I finally got to see what our branch is like. I was pretty surprised to see the size of it. For the Philippines, their branch is quite large. Their goal is to soon become a ward, and I can see that being possible. All the members are all very nice, and I already became friends with them pretty quickly, so I am happy with that.
There are 3 new missionaries in their branch now: Elder Langeveld (20 months in the mission), Sister Latu (a Tongan who just entered the mission) and then I (a little over 7 months now total in my mission), and I think they like us all.
The first week was great. I am really happy to be where I am right now. I still have a lot to learn such as the area, and keep working on my Tagalog. Side note I realized I can still work on a lot when I couldn't really teach the story of Adam and Eve to a 10 year old very well. I still have a lot to learn, but this is a good place for me to be.
I am happy here and happy to be on the mission. I say this a lot but I love this mission, I love the place so far, and I love the people. I can't wait to see how life goes here! So for now, this is what my life is like, let's see if anything happens next week! Love you all and miss you!
**You can email Elder Espiritu at joseph.espiritu@myldsmail.net
Taggat, one of my favorite areas so far in Claveria
Another area we go to often in Centro
The apartment in Claveria
Elder Bulado and I (sorry it's very blurry)
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