Exciting week - famous Filipino delicacy!

This has been a real exciting and fun week. So you all will want to read this. :) On Wednesday we had a whole Alaminos district community service project with about 70 members at a local elementary school here in Alaminos. We picked up trash, did yard work, painted, and cleaned up classrooms. We also ate lunch and some played basketball, including me. :) It was way cool. But, I got real sunburned from it, cuz we were in a hurry to get there. Oh and we wore those sweet yellow Mormon helping hands vests.
I have also been learning a little bit of Ilocano, a popular language her. Like (I'm not sure about these spellings, I just know how to say it), whun - yes, aan - no, awhun - nothing, ditoy - here, naimbug na maluum - good afternoon, naimbug na rabii - good evening. Pretty awesome.
We got temple dedication interviews this week so we can watch the Cebu temple dedication. It's gonna be so sweet!
On Friday in the morning we went to one of the counselor's fish ponds to help him harvest his fish. That was way cool too. We watched all the hired hands drag the net through the whole pond and get a bunch of fish. We helped too and got a little dirty. He gave us 10 fish too, called Bangos. They are good, but have a ton of really small bones. We brought them to our house and took the scales off and gutted them. Way fun! :)
One day we were teaching a drinker, the nephew of the other branch counselor, and 3 other guys came up and listened in and wanted to know more. So, we got their names and addresses and gave them 11 pamphlets. Astig!
Also before a lady came up to me on a bike, she spoke English and invited us to share with her some day. So a few days later we found her. I didn't get her name but we were able to find her cuz she is like the only one with a bike. We taught her and gave her a book of Mormon. It went really well.
One time at the bus stop a teenage boy talked to us and said he had a friend who was a missionary like 2 years ago. Then I sat with him on the bus and showed him my pictures of my family and stuff and gave him a pamphlet. He was way cool and said that his missionary friend showed him pictures too. He was really glad about the pamphlet too. Really cool.
We had a party for the sister missionaries, one is leaving and has a b-day, we had bread and ice cream. Here they have big rolls and put ice cream in it. It's actually pretty good. I also ate the famous Filipino delicacy then too, Balut! the duck in the egg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg) First you open it and suck out the juice. Then you take bites of the duck. It's not too bad. The juice is like chicken noodle soup. :) I also ate goat this week. :)
On Sunday we went to a member's house and next door there was a party for a 2 year old girl. On the porch a bunch of guys were drinking, then two started fighting. It turned into a big quarrel trying to separate them, everyone was involved, even the wives and kids. They were all cryin too. Not cool at all. We were going to go help but sister told us to get back into the house. The police showed up after a while. Way crazy.
Oh and the tag-ulan is here now. The rainy season. It was crazy. We saw the dark clouds comin in so fast after the fireside on Sunday. It covered the whole sky, then it started pourin. Crazy. At least it's not too hot anymore. Our investigator family didn't come to church this week because they have a farm and it's busy time for farming cuz of the rain. We didn't go back to the catholic investigator with the beer bottle this week. We probably won't go back for a good while.
Well that's all for this week. Elder Pennock

May 23rd

These are the children of Sis. Sharon Binoya, my first baptism.
This is the church in my first area, San Marcelino.


These are the monkeys across the street from the church.

Magandag Tanghali! So this week. On Tuesday we had zone interviews. It was good. After that we had splits. We have 4 elders in our district so we went on splits. Elder Reyes, this is his last month in his mission, went with me in Bani. My comp went with Elder Larson up in Bolinao. It was cool. We worked with 3 branch missionaries and I led the area. It was pretty sweet leading.

One time this week, maybe Friday, during language study a few kids came to our house. I went out and talked with them for my language study. They saw we had dum-dums so we gave them some.

OK so on Saturday night we went to teach one of our investigators, a very nice lady. We got there and her husband was there. He said we couldn't come at night, but my comp didn't really hear him so he asked what he said. Then the man got mad. He grabbed a glass beer bottle and told us to leave and that they were catholic. So we left. After like 20 sec. he came back to us and apologized and explained that they were catholic and don't want any other religion.

So Sunday it was awesome! Our District President, Pres. Balute, went to our branch and on the same bus as us, so he paid for us =) After church we had a branch correlation meeting, where Pres. Balute said our branch is slacking and has the least attendance, activity and retention which is true. Then he said we need to work as a team, fulfill our callings and sacrifice. It was really good. I learned a lot. Then later that Sunday we were at a members house, very small. Sometimes you can't tell the difference between the house for people and the house for chickens, but we were at their house and I needed to go to the bathroom. So - that was the first time I went poo without using toilet paper. Just grand!

I'm adapting more and more. But everything is awesome! The family we are teaching attended church again! And we are still working with our other investigators and less actives. That's all. ingat. mahal ko kayo. Elder Pennock

Living in a Mountain Dew bottle

Yeah the Hundred Islands are pretty sweet! and yeah we can't go on water at all. There doesn't seem to be a lot of annoying rules. It actually is pretty lax. Just it is a bummer I can't use skype to call you for Mother's day and Christmas. Yeah we have ice cream here. It is so good. It was a treat with Elder Gillett and us. They have weird flavors over here though. :) Ube, Queso, mango, and chocolate and vanilla too.

It's goin great!!! On Wednesday we ate at this restaurant for lunch. It was so tight. It was like a huge Kubo, or bamboo hut. It was good food. Calimares, bulalo, and a mango shake. The bulalo was roast beef in sinagong (soup). Then on Saturday we had a branch service project. We took down all the posters for the election around the bayan (town center). We had a lot of members show up, it was good.

This Sunday we were so busy we didn't have time to work in our own area. We went to our branch for church. I spoke in sacrament and we had one of our investigator families come to church. Totally sweet!! Then we had to travel up to Bolinao cuz my comp Elder Westwood is the district leader so he had to do 3 baptismal interviews up there. Then we had an Alaminos district meeting with all the Alaminos district missionaries and branch presidents. It was good meeting for our branch mission plans. This is the only place that has it in the Olongapo mission. Then we went with the sister missionaries in Alaminos, Sis. Suniega and Sis. Anderson (from my district in the mtc). We visited and I2Led people and we gave a blessing to one of their investigators. He had some crazy skin infection on his arms and his stomach.

They are still workin on our house in Bani. We went there a couple times. The paint inside is bright green. It is like we live in a mountain dew bottle. =) sige. mahal ko kayong lahat! Elder Pennock.

Eleksyon Day!

This is a picture of a typical breakfast.

Kamusta na kayo?! This week was sweet. On May 3, pday, Monday, we went to Hundred Islands. We could see a lot of islands out in the ocean. There was no beach though. Pero ayos lang. They say there is 123 islands. There is a bunch of little tourist shops cuz it's a tourist spot. There is a lot of boats and you can take those to go island jumpin. I am gonna do that when I return. :) I bought a sweet bag, shirt and shell with my name and 100 islands engraven on it. I also bought a little pouch for change (pesos). This week we continued to work with the drunk man. He is not drunk anymore. His name is Batas Ramos and we taught him lesson 1 when he was sober and gave him a book of mormon. We check up on him and his friends the other day and he was totally sober. Way cool!!!! And we also finally got to teach and visit/meet this one inactive family, the DeCanos. We taught them twice once to sister then to brother. It went very well. They have been inactive for a year now! This last Monday we had to stay at our house all day because of the national eleksyon goin on. It was cool though. We cleaned and painted our kitchen, and then we played a little baseball outside with the tape from the painting project. It was fun. Then today we had zone conference way down in Santa Cruz. That was cool to see all the other missionaries in the Iba, Santa Cruz and Alaminos zones. A quorum of the seventy spoke with us. Totally sweet! sige. iyan lang. ingat. mahal ko kayo.

MTC pics

This is Zak and Zach McMaster. The two Elder Z's had there farewell together and were in the MTC together for 2 weeks. McMaster arrived 2 weeks after Pennock, but was headed to Baltimore, so he left 2 months before Pennock.

They are headed in opposite directions!

These are some pics from the MTC that he just sent.

Rain & Skewered Chicken feet

It rained! It rained like crazy. With loud thunder, way loud, and awesome lightening too, it was crazy!!! Then the next day it was raining pretty good too so me and my comp, Elder Westwood wore rain boots for the day. But when we got to our area, Bani, after the bus ride it was bright and sunny and hot. So, we had to wear boots the whole day in hot weather, and my comp had to carry his broken umbrella around too. I thought it was hilarious even though it was so hot and uncomfortable with the boots. I was laughin and thought it was so funny.
We went to two birthday parties this week, of members. It was sweet, way fun. We sang with the videoke, and ate pancid (like top ramen noodles - way good), cake, ice cream, chicken feet, and I thought it was funny, they had skewers with hotdog and marshmallows. They didn't cook the marshmallows of course, they just put it on there after. The marshmallows were like small flower ones, and colorful so you can't really roast them. And I ate chicken foot. They like to grill it on a skewer. (i don't know how to spell skewer.) But I don't like it at all. It's all hard crunchy tendons and stuff. But yeah. =)
What was really masarap, was the lechon manok (rotisserie chicken). Me and my comp bought one of those one night. It was so delicious. Kinda expensive though, 200 pesos. (45 pesos is like $1)
We are workin on getting a house in our area. We found a really good one. The only problem is behind the backyard is a small river. So, if it floods, it's not good. But if the house gets approved, we will have an awesome house in Bani, with 3 bedrooms, and a banana tree, papaya, and sweet potatoes in the backyard. Sweet!
On Sunday this drunk guy came up and started talkin to us. We sat down with him and his friends (who were sober) and taught lesson 1. They were all tricycle drivers and getting a kick out of our drunk friend. But it went well, and one of the sober guys was actually really listening to our lesson and asked for a pamphlet. So that's awesome and a new investigator. Also before that on that Sunday, after church we had a baptism. 22 year old Jhonalyn Castil and 24 year old Glenda Taganap got baptized. It was way cool. I conducted the baptism cuz my comp baptized them. I conducted in Taglish. So yeah. It was sweet! They are totally awesome, strong testimony and very fun.
So yep. I am doin great. Still healthy even though the crazy stuff I'm eatin. They want me to eat Balut this week, though. That is gross. And I am havin an awesome time. Still don't know Tagalog, but I am getting better at understanding and stuff. And with teaching. They are usually good when I am trying to speak. They usually can't understand me cuz of my accent. It makes me mad, cuz I'm sayin it right just with an accent.
Well that is all. ingat. mahal ko kayo. Elder Pennock