The view

A good meal: fried rice, fish and more rice.
Some cool views from my first area, San Marcelino, Zambales

Cheesy Cupcake & 1st zone

This is my first zone, the San Antonio Zone.

Elders Velasquez, Culiat, (me), Macasaddug, Tolentino, Pearce, Ig-Ig and Gillett

Way sweet, a ton of fun and awesome guys.

This is the cheesy cupcake. Haha. It's pretty good actually.

Week of June 6th

On Monday, p-day, we played volleyball close to a member's house. It was awesome. We played for like an hour and a half, 5:30-7. Kahit walang light after 6:30.
After district meeting on Tuesday one of the zone leaders, Elder Alger from Gilbert AZ, went to work with us in Bani. That was way tight too. He is an awesome guy. He was trainer for Elder Alms (an elder in my district from the mtc).
I got glasses now cuz my contacts were killin my eyes cuz of the smoke and dust and everything here. And they gave me some reading glasses for free. So I gave the reading glasses to Batas Ramos, our drunk investigator friend. He was way happy and said he would read the Book of Mormon. I sure hope he does. That will help his life so much, way better than hangin out with his other barcada friends or drinking and smoking.
Also this week was the dedication of the of the new temple in Cebu City, Philippines! So, on Saturday before the actual dedication, there was a cultural event where a ton of the youth of the church down in southern Philippines did cultural dances. It was cool, especially when they did some swing dancing that they got from WWII from the US military. Then on Sunday was the dedication of the Cebu City temple as a House of the Lord. All of us missionaries went to 2 dedication sessions, at noon and 3. It was awesome to hear our leaders speak, especially the prophet. I liked the prophet's talk. He is a regular guy and he was tellin about his life and funny stories and stuff.
Oh and also this week we went to a funeral service for the part member's family, 3 nights in a row now - fri, sat, sun. The people are awesome. There is this one girl like 6 or somethin. She is so cool and funny. She talks to me a ton (and I can actually understand everything she says which is pretty cool) and calls me and my comp, kuya (which means older brother).
Iyan lang para sa linggo na ito. Mahal ko kayong lahat. Ingat. Elder Pennock

More pics

This is our San Antonio District. When I was in my first area in San Marcelino.

Elder Pearce, Elder Gillet, Elder Macasaddug,

me, Elder Talentino, & Elder Vallasquez

That's me in the driver seat of a jeepney. Pretty Sweet!!!

That kid was just gonna graduate kindergarten or something like that.

More pics

That's a pretty nice house in the Philippines.
A cool huge tree. Reminded me of Lion King and of Disney World.
(even thought I've never been there) =)

This is a kalibaw. There are a ton of those, they are the tractors for the farmers here.

Some pictures

This is a cool path we walk down a lot and I thought it was cool with the bamboo fence.

This is my favorite meal - potatoes, carrots and pork. You can put some other stuff in it too like vegetables. It's really good. Called caldereta uz. You use caldereta mix for the sauce. Then of course you eat it with rice.

I got to sit in an ambulance.

It was pretty cool. As you can see, very small.

Week of May 30th

It was transfers this tuesday so it was a pretty busy week. One of the elders in our zone finished his mission, Elder Reyes, so he left on Monday. He was a Filipino, a way cool guy and funny too. On Tuesday one of the elders who lived with us in the apt in Alaminos got transferred, Elder Muliaiana, a Samoan from Australia. He is totally awesome and it was way cool livin with him. It's real too bad he got transferred, but he has been in his area, Hundred Islands, for 6 months now.
Also on Tuesday, after Muliaina left, we packed all our stuff, me and my comp's stuff and furniture, on a jeepney to move to our new house in Bani. We packed the bed stuff, some bamboo chairs and the fridge on the outside of the jeepney and a bunch of other stuff inside. And we went to Bani. We got everything in one trip. On the way there we picked up some "hired hands", at a members house. They hopped on the jeepney and helped us unload. We got everything moved in real quick. The 2 other elders, Gerobolingo and Larson, and Pres & Sis. Ashcraft helped us too. Before the "hired hands" guys left we bought them all a merienda, soda and crackers. Then Elder Larson's new comp came, Elder Burueta and they went up to their area in Bolinao. Elder Larson is way cool, he is from San Diego as well.
So for the day, since E. Gerobolingo didn't have a comp, he went with us in Bani. He is way awesome too and a great missionary, and on Thursday morning he went to Olongapo to get his brand new comp from the mtc.
It's been raining pretty good off and on. Thursday was the first day I used my umbrella. It's cool it's not as bright and hot anymore and I am not sweating as much. =) And it's way better having a house in our area.
Our house is pretty good. It's nice with new paint and a kitchen counter. but we have like no water pressure, very little. And we got a ton of ants. We gotta always make sure to not leave food out or any traces of food. But other than that it's good.
Oh and I'm using a bucket of cold water for a shower again cuz there is no water pressure. =)
Our work is doing great. We are finding a lot of new investigators and some in actives are comin back to church. Also Batas Ramos, the drinker, came to church as well as another of our investigators, the Onia family!!! They really liked it. It was fast and testimony meeting and both me and my comp bore our testimonies. It went pretty good.
My Tagalog is getting better. I am starting to understand more, like the regular conversation small talk stuff. So I am doing great! Lovin the work and what's goin on.
Mahal ko kayong lahat! Ingat Elder Pennock