Letter #57 (Sept 5th, 2012)

Hey all, This weeks been great and yeah we felt it... the whole house was swaying back and forth... i was actually closer to it cause we are in Danao, which is to the north of Cebu, which is closer to the epicentre which was in Leyte... di ba? We were planning for the next day when it hit... first of all i just thought i had a headache, until i looked around and saw everything shaking. It lasted for a good 30secs or so. but it was all cool... My new companion is awesome... Elder Pastor is so cool and down to earth, but kugihan and always willing to go to work! On the Sat and Sun that i got into Danao after transfers there was 13 lessons that we taught and 50 i2ls... then just Monday and yesterday we have had another 9 lessons and 73 i2ls... we are tearing it up here in Danao 2! His family are also members and he has one other brother who is an RM. He is from Bacolod and is in the middle of his criminology studies. I have to get a good photo to send you of us two. Im am still in a branch though! our area is a branch attached to a ward... so we are working really hard to get the priesthood back so they can become a ward. But the funny thing is even though we are the branch in the area, we get more attendance in sacrament than the other wards. So now I am in an apartment with 4 elders... me, E.Pastor, E.Daffon, and E.Rasing. They are all pinoy from different places and we all get along and have a great time. Elder Daffon and Elder Rasing are great companions to have in the house. Elder Daffon is a great example to us all, and is always deep in the area book each night and setting an example for me and my companion. Elder Rasing seems so eager to work as well and is always talking with someone. He is an energetic missionary with a lot of excitement to give. I am very excited for this next transfer and the things that are in store for this area. I can see how the Lord has placed me in this area and this apartment for a wise purpose and I am ready to do my part to help out and get things done. Now there are 4 of us in the apartment we do a ton of cooking... so i need some recipes; pancakes, pikelets, tuna grey sauce (Terri here:this is what he has called Tuna Mornay since he was little!!), and other simple recipes for the stove top. Then my companion was wondering if you have a nindot gravy recipe as well. Salamat daan! So this letter is pretty taas now... oh wait... so the branch hasnt had a fluent whits dude for a while now so they were very surprise when I was able to speak very fluently in Visaya and excited. The branch is progressing well and has two sister missionaries that just came home from their missions on that Friday i transferred into the area. They have been a bit of a help already with one giving us a new investigator... we have 3 new investigators just this last 5 days and i am excited cause this area is way more fast paced compared to zambo... sooooo hinay! So I should have a ton of stories and pictures for next week as well. Miss you a little (jejeje), Love you tons, Elder Taylor Addison Cox