Letter #71 (12th Dec, 2012)

Hey all,
So let me start from the beginning of last last week. So the 30th of Nov was feista here in Amlan and was just amazing because there wasn't nearly as many hubogs as some other places. We went to 2 members place to eat and one other to teach. I was so busog afterwards... lots and lots of food. Then not much happened the rest of that week until Sun night we get this call from the AP's... no more ZLC on Tues and then Monday we need to buy 3days food and water and make sure our flashlights are working. okay? so clearly obvious there is some sore of something coming. Then  that Monday we have people telling us there is a really big storm approaching and its gonna hit Dumaguete direct on. and it will arrive and 2 o'clock tomorrow... so the people are thinking two in the morning. By about 6 at night it is really thick air and there is no movement of the air... like its dead. That night everyone is expecting the storm to hit at 2... but then nothing happens we find out that's its 2 in the afternoon. Mao di ay! way claro! so Tues all the members close to the beach line are coming to the chapel and getting preparations to stay there out of the storm. So we don't get much done that day... and 2 rolls around and nothing. Well it turns out that Bagiou Pablo is philippino too... so he rolls around at 5pm (2pm philo time) and takes all those unprepared people by surprise. It was sooo kusog wind. It was crazy. It got really dark really quickly and the electric company had turned their power off in advance so nothing would blow up at their end. The eye of the storm hit Dumaguete, but that meant we were under the strongest winds of the storm. We got hammered! Trees and power lines were falling everywhere and there was rain for a bit but it moved through really quickly cause of the wind. We had two banana trees fall on the house at the back... and there were so many mango trees fallen over the road. The wind lasted until at least 9 or 10 at night before the storm passed and you could already hear the chainsaws going to start the cleanup by then as well. So went to sleep and then Weds morning at 6, we got out to inspect what had happened. We went with the Croppers to inspect members houses and make sure they were all doing okay. We avoided fallen trees on the road, crossed overflowing rivers by foot to get to some members, tubig up to the knee, and the water was really fast too. We helped one member to clean up hi saginghan and we were hackinng into those for a good hour or so... so much fun. I also got to eat cacao.... the fruit from which you get cocoa beans (which are the seeds of the fruit) and it was surprisingly very sweet. Lami kaayo. Work was hard the rest of the week cause everyone was cleaning up and busy. I learned how much we take things for granted... we had no electricity from Tues afternoon till Fri night, and we had the littlest water (as in it was like so pathetic) in the morning until about 8:30 and then none till 9pm. We got our water from the neighbour's water hand pump thingo. You are so blessed there with so many little comforts we take for granted. Then on Sat we had Zone Conference in Dumaguete with Pres. Schmutz and the Aps. It was great and we had a great times haring stories and so forth in the two zones and with Pres. That was all day and then that night we had the double baptism of sister D-A and Brother J. Pres Schmutz attended and it was more than just a baptism... it was one of the greatest spiritual experiences ever. It went for almost 2and a half hours! we started at 7 and we didn't get finished until almost 9:30. It was the best two baptisms I ever had, and there is no doubt that these two people will be some of the strongest members in the branch. Then Sun we had the Christmas devotional thingo in Tanjay. I really liked what Pres.Monsan said "he who gives money gives much, he who gives time gives more, but he who gives of himself has given the most of all". Then Monday we had district meeting, and then we didn't have to catch the Ceres to Cebu for ZLC cause WE GOT TO FLY INSTEAD!!!! Yeah ya! I'll send the pictures. The AP's organized everything and then just gave us the tickets to fly. So yesterday morning we got up at 4:30 to catch the plane there... it was so much fun. Then we had an amazing ZLC in Cebu. We had cafe rio for lunch made by Sis Schmutz, and my whole batch is now there as zone leaders. It was fun to catch up with everyone. We slept at the AP's that night but before hand we went out for dinner at a place called Casseverdes. It does these super huge sized foods... a 12inch round burger! for 850pesos! 5 of us split it and still couldn't finish every last bit. Very contrasting to your 'healthy burgers'... hahaha. (Terri here: We went to a place here called "Grill'd" for Stoo's b'day and it has healthy burgers!) Sending pictures for that as well. Then we got up at 4am again to fly back this morning. We were all on the plane and on the runway about to start the takeoff when the pilot calls in and announces that we had to go back cause there's something wrong... they do a maintenance and take us back to the terminal to wait. Then 40min later we are back on are flying back to Dumaguete. We don't know what went wrong but at least they were concerned for our safety (and theirs... hehehe) to find out.So now i am emailing you struggling with a broken spacebar and stupid computers but at least everything is okay.
Happy Bday to Dad...Got my package last Sat at Zone Conf. thank you! E.Manansala is very excited to try some things. And thank you to those few who sent photos. They are much appreciated!
 Love you all so much.
Take care,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox

Terri hre; Note the Visayan words sprinkled in with the English! Sorry I can't translate for you. I only know one of them...busog - means full!!