Elder Booth was able to meet up with the other missionaries in his "batch". I think that means the other missionaries who came out to the Philippines with him.
Here they are from left to right: Elder Lecheminanv (or Lecheminanr), Elder Hamblin (who's been with Elder Booth), Elder Unsicker, Elder Winegar, Elder Booth (of course), Elder Wade (Elder Booth's MTC comp), Elder Headman, and Elder Potter (MTC DL).
It looks like they are having a great time!
Now that I have the dates to all of Elder Booth's pictures (from about 12/08 to 2/08 they were all under the one date of 12/23/08 because of something Elder Booth did to his camera) I'm going to try to keep the letters with the pictures of the same time periods. Here's the next letter:
Date: February 22, 2009 8:16:51 PM PST
Hey everybody. Wow, this week went by pretty fast. I think you were right, dad. Once I get down the language it will go by a lot faster. That is, until I transfer to a different language (since there are five in my mission accept for the one that I learned in the MTC of course). That is a little frustrating to think about. Hopefully I will stay in Ilango speaking for most of my mission. The majority of the areas just speak that anyway.
Things haven't really changed much from last week. I'm starting to get closer to my companion. Maybe it's because I am starting to understand more and more of his stories. The language comes a lot faster when that is all you try to speak and think. It kind of hinders me when I come home and just speak English to Elder Hamblin though. It is kind of nice though, at the same time. It is a good way to wind down. Plus, Elder Hamblin usually needs to vent a little bit because he is still having kind of a hard time with his companion. He will be alright though. You know what they say, "You don't have to like them you just have to love them." He is one of those people. Actually it is kind of funny. Most of the Filipinos have a hard time with him. Oh well, like I said before, we are just building those patience.
The area is still doing good. The family that we baptized a month ago is kind of struggling to make it to church because of their jobs. They both work for what seems like twenty-four-seven. Whenever we go over there, they are either at work or really tired. I sometimes think they are going to fall asleep right in the middle of our new member lesson. The other girl is having a hard time coming to church as well because her grandma is in the hospital so she is constantly there. I guess the adversary will really do whatever it takes to stop you from coming. The ward is doing really good still. We have a ward missionary work with us almost every single day. Actually, if we don't have one then my companion will kind of freak out and think the day is a waste of time. That is a little wierd.
Well, for spiritual experiences the main one was about two or three days ago. We just got punted so we were looking for something to do. So I said we could go to one family that was close. The last time we went they were not that interested so my companion really did not want to go, but I kind of just started to go anyway. So he was not too excited about going. He really showed that he was not excited either. He would not even come up to the door with me. T hey let us in so we went and sat down. It was a little awkward because my companion would not say a word. So I had to conduct and give the entire lesson. That would be the first time I had ever done that in Ilango. It was weird because I really did not feel all that nervous. I really think it was the first time I truly had the gift of tongues. It was an amazing experience. It was a little hindered by the fact I was not very happy with my companion and the way he only gave a very short testimony at the end. I don't know if we will go back to that family too many times, but it was really cool anyway. That was pretty much the main one.
I had two pretty funny experiences . The fist one was actually kind of bad. We were walking down the street and found out that bamboo was not as thick as the houses at home. I just don't think that would happen in the USA. The second is when we taught this one guy that was really drunk. We ended up just listening to him talk about how he thinks everything about Adam and Eve is not true. Ya, it was really funny listening to him try and speak English to me. Then at the end he kissed me on the hand a bunch of times. I thought that was really funny. Well, I better get going as I am out of time. I love you all and hope everything is going alright back home.
Elder Booth
