I will start mixing some Waray-Waray into my letters because of course I was assigned to a Waray-Waray area. My area is called Anibong which is on Leyte about an hour from Tacloban city to the south. My apartment is actually in a place called Burauen which is close by to Anibong. I ride a bike to my area everyday which is about 1 hour from my apartment so any weight I gained in the MTC is gone. The branch that we cover has about 8 barangays, or like little neighborhoods, so our area is pretty big. Lots of bike riding.
The language is pretty crazy. It uses almost no cebuano so that was kinda of a waste for the last 6 weeks. It has been kinda hard because I barely understand what people say so I kinda start to tune out but I am trying my hardest to stay focused. It was crazy, out of my Batch all of them are speaking Cebuano except for 3 of us are speaking Waray-Waray. And to make it even better there are 7 languages in the mission:
Waray-Waray H (My language)
Waray-Waray S
Cebuano
Cebuano J
Tagalog
English
Ilicano
And there are like different dialects in every area so I am told it will be like 3 months or so before I will be able to start speaking confidently. It is humbling and is helping me to be more patient. They actually give awards to any elders who learn all seven languages while they are here, it is called the Tower of Babel award haha. There is a running joke that it was here that the tower of Babel was built.
The weather here is hot and humid. It is super hot all the time but the wind is really nice whenever that happens. It also rains a lot and that feels really good. Mom you were right about sleeping and sweating and rolling over haha.
My trainer is named Elder Roth. He is pretty cool. He is from Layton Utah so he speaks english which is a pretty big blessing. He is kinda a computer nerd and loved to do online gaming in his free time. We are definitely pretty different but he is super obedient and is helping me learn the language really well which is super helpful. He has been out a year so his language is pretty good.
I have been feeling a little more homesick this week just because everything is super different here. I think it is mostly culture shock so I am just trying to be patient. It helps when I read all the emails of my friends and their crazy experiences. I have already had a couple crazy experiences, here are just a few of them.
First I ran over a dog with my bike because I tried to swerve out of the way but the dog tried to beat my swerve and just got destroyed and the guy next to the dog started laughing.
Second, the first day in Tacloban we got interviewed and then we went out and went proselyting with some elders for 2 hours. We found 1 new investigator and gave out an Aklat ni Mormon. The people here are super nice and willing to listen to messages about Jesus Christ. Also President and Sister Argana are super awesome and they definitely love us missionaries. Anyways, that night we stayed in the AP's apartment with all of the new elders and trainers which was like 25 elders in an apartment made for 2 which was crazy packed. I ended up sleeping on a pad on the floor with my bag as a pillow so it was a pretty rough night.
Next morning we went to McCarthur Park where a group was doing some zumba dancing which was pretty hilarious to watch. We then got our trainers and headed to our areas. I am in an apartment with my trainer and with Elder Jaring and Elder Hassan. Elder Hassan was in my batch and he lives in Kaysville so he knows Dax pretty well so it's a good time there.
I finally got to speak in Sacrament Meeting. My first Sunday, it was pretty crazy. My trainer was like they will probably have you speak next week like they do with most elders but then they came up to me and were like will you be the concluding speaker and I was like I guess haha. It was on forgiveness and I didn't even know the word for forgiveness until right before I had to speak. It was a pretty good time.
Lastly I extended my first baptismal commitment and our investigator, Hanna Kim accepted. It was super awesome and the spirit was super strong. She is an awesome little 10 year old girl and we were really happy so see her accept and are excited to see her get ready for baptism.
The work is definitely what is helping me through the stress and homesickness because I start to focus on others and it makes my day better. All the little kids here are super adorable and they make me so happy! I will try to send some pictures of them.
One interesting thing is the standard of excellence for the mission:
1 Baptism a week
5 investigators with a baptismal date a week
5 investigators at sacrament meeting
10 new investigators a week
They are some big goals but they are totally possible and me and Elder Roth are working super hard to achieve these goals.
My address for packages is:
Also if you want to know any Waray-Waray words I can let you know.
I know that this is the Lord's work and that I need to be here in the Philippines teaching and learning from these amazing people. The Book of Mormon is true. Every time I am feeling like I can't do it I pray and read and I am always given comfort or motivation for the future. I know that families are forever and it makes me so happy that I got the best one ever.
Nahigugma ako ha iyo!
Elder Holmstead
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