Letter # 10 (October 12th, 2011.)

Hey all,
Another week and more great experiences with the mission.
But before I start you have to know that, you know how you were following that blog of that Sister missionary in Cebu mission and the story about her companion getting scared by some perverts that tried to spy on them in their appartment... well she is in my district! Sister Robison... small world. She is really hard working and always pushing our district to achieve more than the mission standards.
Our district is doing great and this week we ad a combined effort of 1200 "invitations to learn" in the zone.Thats with only 5 companionships. I dont know if you know what they are... so they are when we meet someone, introduce ourselves as missionaries, share a little and invite them to learn more. We have been working real hard on doing the best we can. This week in my compaionship we taught a total of 25 lessons and that was with half of sat with conference and sun also with conference and having to go to the hospital. Now dont freak out yet... cause you havent heard the story. That will come later.
That's just wonderful to hear that Elder Laxton will be here this week... he is such a great missionary with such purpose of heart to this great work.
Oh, we now have 4 investigators commited to baptism in the next two months, after having a bunch of people telling us not to expect any because of the area we are in. Just goes to show that the Lords work continues despite the attitude of the people.
Now about Sunday and the hospital story... so on Sun morning at about 1 or 2 in the morning i start throwing up, mainly just rice and then i feel fine. So the next day, this is conference day, we head off to conference, and i feel a little bit queasy, but nothing else. We have lunch with Bro and Sis Stroud, a senior couple on their mission here in Calape zone. then we go back in for the afternoon session... and i start to get these abdominal pains. They get worse after the conference, but we head out cause my companion Elder Holley is district leader and has to do a baptismal interview for the sisters. After we head back to the Strouds cause they were concerned about my condition. They check my symptoms and things and cant tell whats wrong. Oh btw we are in a brown out at as well this sunday so they dont have internet or other power at their house. They txt Sis Schmutz about my condition and she says to go get it checked out at the hospital just to be safe. So the Strouds drive us over to Tagbilaran to the hospital which is actually pretty decent hospital. They aska bout the syptoms and then order a blood test to find out whats wrong. So after a blood test, an hour wait and 450pesos later they tell me im just experiencing cramps and to take some painkiller relaxants to help with the cramps. So that was Sunday from about 4-8 or so. Then Mon my stomach was upset most of the day,Tuesday I was better.
So that was that... and now i pretty much okay, but with a bit of a cough. Its been raining here and it really rains... and the philos are seriously scared of the rain. We were teaching some people under a little undercover seating thing, and it started raining. We started with 3 people and ended up with 7 or so. They all just rushed in once it started raining... even if they had an umbrella! So we finish up teaching our message and start out and they are all like "You cant go out! Its still raining!!!" "You'll die!" sort of stuff. So Elder Holley says "we're not afraid of the rain!"... and then the funniest thing happens... this old nanay is like "Well if they're not afraid of the rain then neither am I!" and she walks with us through the rain, and we talk with her as we walk.
We were sposed to harvest rice for some of the investigators of the sisters yesterday but because of the rain it was flooded out. So hopefully we will get to do that this saturday... but we are doubtful because... I dont know if youve heard anything about this... but Typhoon Ramon is supposed to hit Bohol early this evening sometime. We have all been warned and we are all preparing for the worst. Luckly we live in a higher area so we arent too worried about flooding where we are but we might not be able to get to some of our other areas for a while afterwards. We'll see and I'll let you know what happens next weeks P'day.
Alot more to write cause its real world and not just MTC schedule everyday... so i hope you appreciate the longer emails.
Please send my thanks and warmest regards to the YSA and thank Tamara for the CDs. They are just great! Also tell Alex Pinono that i dont speak Tagalog, cebuano lang.
The other package im sure i will get at Elder Hollands visit this next week. But like i said the rest of the mail gets delivered whenever someone comes out and its gets passed along to the ZLs.
Well thats this week... with a few scares and a whole heap of exciting experiences with the language and teaching lessons. Hope you are all enjoying yourselves back home. Missing you lots...
Naghigugma ko kaninyo,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox
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Terri here: Not much to tell you from me! We figure he just ate something that didn't agree with him, which wouldn't be much as this boy can usually eat anything!!