Aug 2-8 "May botas sa butas"

We had Zone Conference on Wed down in Santa Cruz. Learned about the importance of the spirit in our companionships and in conversion, and love for the people. Also the Philippines Area Medical Adviser was there with his wife and they taught about heath (which is kind of way off topic for them). So Zone conference was way awesome. It's good to get reminded of all the stuff you should/need to be doing and that you learned in the MTC.
Also what was really cool this week, we had companion exchanges in our district, so I got to go to a different area, Bolinao and work with E. Berueta for a day. It was really cool cuz that was my first time in my mission to work in a different area than my own. It was a lot less walking and more tricycle rides up there than we do in Bani. It was cool to meet and talk with the members up there in Bolinao that I have only seen at church activities. And what was way cool we had a dinner appointment with a member up there. I haven't had a real dinner appointment since my first area in San Marcelino. So that was sweet and brought back good memories from my first area.
The work here in Bani is doin pretty good. We have more progressing investigators and more that are coming to church. This Sunday we had very little members at church because there was strong rain the whole morning. But fortunately we still had a good amount of investigators attend.
Our branch is really weak. We only have a few active priesthood. That's one reason our branch president is from Bolinao. The strongest members are the youth that our still fairly new converts. They work with us, they attend seminary and institute, and they invite their friends to activities and to listen to the missionaries. I so hope they will continue strong and hopefully get their parents or family members active as well.
To end on a funny note. As you know it is the rainy season right now. And it is pretty much raining every day either morning, afternoon or night. On Saturday we were way out in a neighborhood called Ar-Ar (oh and I can't say the name of this place if all the world depended on it) in the middle of rice fields, cause we have quite a few members out there. And I don't know how or why missionaries even went out there in the first place. But we were there Saturday evening. Then it got late, and we tried to cross the fields and go to our next appointment, but we got lost and turned around some how and ended up way far from our original destination. Like you could say we wanted to go north, but we ended up way east. But at least it wasn't south. =) oh and with that it was really muddy like sobra. We wore boots, but both of us had a hole in each of our boots. "May botas sa butas" I kept singing that while we were walking in the mud cuz it's awesome. "may botas sa butas, may botas sa barko" =) Mahal do kayong lahat.
E. Pennock