A Trip to the Rice Terraces...

Thanks for the daylight savings time tip. I didn't remember it.

As for Saint Patrick’s Day, I totally missed it. In fact I can't even remember what day it was. Sad, I know. : / but they don't celebrate it here in the Philippines. I’m glad that you guys got to have fun with it though. :)

That’s really cool about the Kit Kat wrapper. (I – Mom, made a new wrapper that was about baptism.) Unfortunately that won't work here. Filipinos go crazy when you bring out the chocolate. It would be immediately thrown on the ground along with the regular wrapper. That’s actually our focus kinda right now with the less active members here. We are supposed to be teaching them the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The reason being, Elder Neilson of the 70's says, they don't go to church is because they don't understand the doctrine.

That’s crazy weather! (Wisconsin has been in the 70's and low 80's last week.) Almost as hot as it is here! As for 70's here in the Philippines???; I don't think it has touched below 80 degrees F in the past 2 weeks. It’s so flippin hot here! The weight is just dropping off of me. Well, I guess everything combined is doing that to me...

Internet picture of Batad Rice Terraces...
Hopefully next week we will have Elder Lundy's actual pictures.

So the Banaue Rice Terraces, they are so super freaking amazing!!! They are around 2000 years old, built by hand with rocks and animal bones and mud and cement (kind of cement, parts have been redone over time because of failure. Those parts are cement). I not only went to the rice terraces, but I climbed over a mountain to go there, then I got to walk around in the rice terraces!!!!! :), then we climbed over another mountain to get to a waterfall.

Contributed by Elder Molino

It was all really beautiful. And I have never seen so many white people in my life!!! Well, during my mission I guess...lol. Most were Australian or of European descent. Unfortunately, I forgot my card reader, so I can't email pictures this week (we went and emailed as soon as we got back...)

We went there as a zone, so all the Nuevo Vizcaya elders went (no sisters in our zone...very unusual.). The rise for us took about 3 hours, not your projected 1.5, sadly. (Google map said it was an 1.5 hour ride; no where near correct)And yes, it was extremely rough at times. We had to switch jeepneys part way up the mountain because the jeepney we were in couldn't make it up. lol :) we left our apartment at 4 am and didn't get there till almost 8am. I slept in the rack on top of the jeepney on our way up the mountain, until we had to switch jeepneys that is. My bum is EXTREMELY sore right now. I rode on the racks on top of the jeepneys the whole way back and forth. They are not soft in the least. Needless to say, 22 full grown men don't fit very well in a jeepney.

We also had a zone OYM. :) (oym- open your mouth. It means share the gospel and don't be shy) There was a man going to Batad as well. He is from Spain, but spoke a good amount of English, so it was ok. He stayed the whole day with us. It was kinda cool. He is a lone traveler, and the Americans kinda acted like a tour guide while talking about our religion with him.

I just said we went to Batad....we actually passed through Banaue to get to Batad. The terraces in Banaue are actually rather pitiful and sad looking compared to the terraces in Batad. The description I gave of the rice terraces earlier in the email are actually about the Batad Rice Terraces, not Banaue like I said earlier.

The rest of the week went ok. Our work here is still really slow, which is killing me. I just came from an average of 45-50 lessons a week back in Ilagan, and now we are hard pressed to reach 20 a week. It’s ok though. I know the Lord is guiding us. We are making a difference. We have one tatay and one family that are close to becoming active again. Our investigators that had a baptismal date just lost their baptismal date because we haven't been able to have a lesson there in 2 weeks since they are never all there or are busy if they are there. They have a desire still, but they need a lot more time than we originally gave them. We also had one investigator tell us that she didn't want us to come back. I understand it though. I didn't feel the spirit while teaching her. It felt like she was more forced into it, and that was right.

I found my grandma here in Solano though. Her name is Nanay Pancho. She is a hoot and a recent convert to boot at a rough 72 years old! :) She is so nice and every time I share a message with her she always gets teary eyed and smiles and thanks me all over the place because I "said just what she needed to hear." I’m starting to learn a bit about loving and serving my companion and those in my area. It’s starting to make a difference. Elder Biating and I have been having disagreements because of not being able to understand each other very well at times, and other things, but as I keep my mouth closed and just serve him, and do things for him when I’m upset with him, we grow closer. It’s a nice feeling and it’s starting to have an effect on us. He is joining in on that as well now. It’s helping me love the people here more as I serve them too. Through serving them and doing the things that are uncomfortable for me to do for them, pertaining to missionary work, my love for them grows.

That is pretty much all I have right now. I love you Mom. I love you Dad. I love you Amanda. I love you Todd. I love you Caleb and Madeline. I love you Bridget. I love you Diana. I love you Eric. Thank you all. My family is a continually growing testimony of God's love for me. You all give me strength to keep going even when I don't feel like it does any good. I gain strength through the knowledge that if I do what is right now, if I do my best here in this life, I can be with you forever without end.

Love,

Elder Chris Lundy, your son/brother/uncle