Letter #15 (Nov 16th, 2011)

Hi all,
We are doing great here in Loon again this week!
bananas here are only like equivalent to $1:20 a kilo... if that... otherwise theyre free off the tree! :P
He wrote the other week that they had made Banana smoothies for about 5 days in a row!! I told him I was jealous because bananas here are still $5 - $6 a kilo, and I haven't bought them for ages!!
our apartment is really good compared to other elders. in Inabunga, thats the area of elder irvin, their house is an old funeral home were they would keep the dead bodies and dress them for the funerals. it is seriously creepy. we stayed there the other night cause we had csp (community service project) there the next day and it is real far from our area. Both me and elder Holley are sure the place is haunted... and you just feel 'something' we you walk in.... its weird.
Its hard to get balut here, and you can only get it a night in certain areas... so i have only eaten it once so far. but i always go and buy 'puto puto' now which is those little sweet rice cake things the philos always make for the parties. Lami siya!
At csp we killed a chicken as a zone... this will bring back memories for reg... and then cooked it with the help of a family and ate it. we also planted corn, chopped wood and harvested a bunch of papaya. it was good fun and the people were real nice as well... of course. they live on the side of this mountainous hill. to get down, you go snowboarding without the snow of the board, and with mud instead. to get back up you climb/crawl almost. it was really cool and i will send pictures next week for you all to see.
other cool things that happened this week... perhaps for the blog... we found a dog that had tangled it self i a hamock and couldnt get out... i bet dad will find that one funny... i got a picture of that too. also because its been raining, we have to tract in the mud... when we get home i have tan shoes and the bottom of my pants are caked in the stuff. Also we got to ride on the top of a trike thingo last pday... i have pictures... which was so awesome... we layed down on the top superman style. Dig our front neighbour has a dog that has gone insane and barks at 4 in the morning while trying to choke itself with its collar... sounds hilarious but is really annoying when you are trying to sleep. Oh and also, i have now eaten kinilaw two times... but i havent died so all is good... and it tastes pretty good when the philos make it right.
Something really funny, there was this truck that is used for loading dirt/ sand in the back it was passing our house in the morning while we were waiting for a bus. and there was this guy on the back with a shovel pretending to be rowing the truck with the shovel it was absolutely hilarious and we were laughing for a good 5 mins.
Thats about all this week, i need to send photos ane will do that next week (forgot my card reader, cause we are in tagbilaran, the big city of bohol which has the 'big mall'... about half the size of parra westfield.
Love you all muchly, miss you all (but not too much, cause its awesome here)
Naghigugma ko kaninyo!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox

P.S. word of the week...
"Alah" [ah-luh] - used with great emotional emphasis to signify surprise at a comment, action, or object (it sounds absolutely hilarious we done properly by a true philippino, perhaps you can ask Michael to show you :P)
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Terri here: kinilaw is made with raw fish (but a friend says it can also be raw beef) and apparently you have to be real careful when you eat it to be sure it's made properly so you don't get sick!! We were warned to tell him not to eat it, but he'll try anything, hence the "But I haven't died so all is good" line in his email. And "Reg" Is a nickname for Taylor's cousin who served in the Philippines in the Angeles area.

Letter #14 (Nov 9th, 2011)

Hey everyone!
We here in Loon are doing great! I am having so much fun and working so hard gihapon(also). We had another baptism on Sat. She has been investigating for quite a while but there was issues before with her bana but they were resolved so we proceded with the baptism. It was great and Elder Holley performed the baptism. She has a new born boy as well who was blessed at church the same day she was confirmed. What a great experience for her in the church!
I love the people here as they are all so kind... even the random people on the street that we contact. They are always happy to talk with us although sometimes hesitant cause we are two white guys that more often than not they dont think we speak visayan.
We had a CSP yesterday where we were slicing open coconuts and scraping out the insides for one of the sisters investigators. We also got to slice the tops of the coconut and drink the juice straight from the inside.... it was great!
Thank you for putting all my stuff away, but to be honest with you, now that i have lived here in the philippines for these 6 weeks, i can say that all that stuff is not important any more. I can see that clearly now. That doesnt mean that it wasnt fun or that it was a waste, or that you can go and throw it all away, but it is not as important as other things in life. Your all thinking "What has happened to you? Were is Taylor?" but alot of my perspective on things has changed. You are so rich, like ridiculously rich, its not funny. You have everything you need plus extra, enough for hobbies and leisure activities and even toilet paper. We live a life of paradise compared to the people here, and this experience is so humbling.
I dont know i have talked about Tatay B.... before... but he is the classiest, most talented, greatest Tatay ever! He must be like 60 or so, but he does everything. He made his own guitar and ukelele out of coconut shells and other wood and he plays them so well. He is building a second house at the moment by himself, and he is always wearing the classy button up shirt over a v neck tee, with a sweet cap tilted to the side and stylish pants. He is just awesome!
We had transfer call this morning. Only one person in our zone is tranfering and later today we are going touring with some members.
I love it here! I love the people, the culture, the food ( i dont know if i told you i ate balut and loved it!). It is just great here. And also i love the members, the investigators, the feeling of having the Spirit all the time, the other missionaries and everything is just awesome in everyway possible.
Love you lots, miss you just as much
Naghigugma ko kanimo,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox

Hey Dad,
had an interesting encounter with some cats at our branch presidents balay(house) with his youngest son, who is 7yrs old. He grabs hold of the cats, and pretends that they are motorcycles, and rides them on the floor. It is absolutely HILARIOUS!!! I will try to get a video of it cause it is so much more funny than pictures, especially when you hear all the funny noises the cats make.


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Terri here: A balut is a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell.
I have added some photos this week. Please go check them out!!

Letter #13 (Nov 2, 2011)

Hey!
Im great. How are you all?
About the weather... this could go on the blog... we have whats called
the 'odto ulan' - let me explain:
odto is the time between about 11am and 12:30pm and ulan means rain.
So basically we have this rain that appears out of nowhere, hammers
down for a 30min period during the odto time period.... and then just
dissapears. Its fun because all the philos run for cover right before
11 cause they are all scared of the rain.

We are having so much fun and working our butts off... i am so
exhausted at the end of each day. Its GREAT!
Miss you all, love you muchly,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
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Terri here: A short letter this week, because Stoo emailed him this week and Taylor sent 3 emails home. 1 to Stoo, 1 to Reilly and 1 to me. Of course mine was the shortest!!