Answers to Mom's Questions

Hey Mom!

It seems we are both having problems emailing! Oh, the church now does email through google so I have a new email address (jordan.phelps@myldsmail.net). This is much nicer. So the internet was having problems letting me load the pages I needed to set up my new email, then just when I was about in, the café lost power for a couple of minutes! But all is well now. Dad told me about reading my email at the third Sunday, that’s pretty funny. I am farther ahead (time zones) than Stuart is (in Romania). I’m glad Grandpa is doing well.

I told Elder Claven that dad found that Facebook page and he said he hopes there’s nothing embarassing on there. Yeah, he is pretty cool. The language is going okay, because it is pretty similar I can inderstand a lot of what is said, but I cant really say much back yet. I can respond in Tagalog though. Everyone understands Tagalog and basic English, they teach them both in the schools. There’s this four year old that speaks amazing English, but he watches Cartoon Network pretty much all day. He’s funny.

You have a lot of questions, and I’ll do my best to answer. You’ve got the height thing about right (shorter than my shoulder). We sing a standing rest hymn every Sunday in sacrement and I am reminded how much taller I am than every one else. And I hit my head on things constantly. Riding on trikes and buses is always interesting and uncomfortable, it’s all too small. Oh, so all the stories you might hear about Filipino traffic are probably true, it’s some crazy stuff. The only way to describe the bus rides is it is like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter, that kind of driving and the bus is packed with people. There’s always room for one more. I’ve seen trikes packed with people. Typically they have five people on them, but I’ve seen some with close to ten! They are on top and hanging onto the sides.

Sounds like you all have a busy schedule, I’m sure you can get by without me driving. Visiting the “old” people is what we do sometimes. We visit a lot of less actives. The membership is huge here, but the amount of active members is really small. The wards and branches here struggle with organization, things like ward council and PEC.

So far I love the food and havent eaten anything all that strange. Though I have come to hate the smell of fish! Dried fish is big here in Cadiz, the have huge fields with boards of fish on them drying in the sun. Fish is big in the costal cities, which Cadiz is. Our appartment is a very small “L.” Study/ living room, kitchen, and tiny “bathroom” and bedroom. We usually do our own meals, oatmeal for breakfast then we try and vary lunch, usually don’t have a dinner, just work right through. I’ve never really been hungry for dinner anyway. We do laundry by hand. Soak it in a big tub and rub it together, then hang it out to dry. I suppose Cadiz is about the size of half of West Valley City, with just as many, maybe even more, people.
Things have been going good. We have two sisters with a baptism date for the end of march. The missonaries had been teaching the family before I got here, and commited the sisters to be baptized. The parents are undecided but are letting their daughters do it. They’ve all come to chruch, but I guess they have some concerns.We’ll be seeing them again later this week.

Well, hope you all have a good week! Time to read Dad’s other email!

Take care!
Elder Phelps