Letter #91 (1st May, 2013)

Hey all,
Do I have a story to tell you or what!
I'd just like to start by saying... this area is AWESOME! Wow! I was
not expecting any of this for the area, but it is just great (more
about that later). Elder G, my third anak, (anak means child) is form Davao city
(same stake with Elder R), and is graduated from Electrical
Engineering. He is 22, the eldest of 3 and his family are all members.
He is also very excited for the work and he is an amazing missionary
with a wonderful attitude to the work. He has great base to work off
and his English is very good also. He seems to be adjusting fine and
is really rearing to go all the time. He is not shy at all to talk to
people, and we will be working together to hone in on our skills in
teaching and FTE's this coming transfer. I am so excited for the work we have in
Bagakay. Let me tell you about my assignment right now. So President
has put me into a little area called Bagakay, which is not a ward, nor
a branch, but a little group in the bukid! His goal is we work with
the members there to hopefully eventually open their own branch out
there but its gonna be a lot of work! Let me take you on a bit of a
guided tour here in terms of the area. So to get there you have to be
on a bus at the terminal at 9am in the morning and after 25 pesos and
1 and a half hours of travel (sometimes on the top of the bus cause
its so full of people and the ONLY bus that goes up there) you get to
this little paradise called Bagakay, where there lives about 5
families of members and there are also a lot of people interested in
the church, as well as a lot of persecution from the only other church
there... the Catholics (dili jud ko ganahan). We then usually have
snacks before heading to work to visit with the members and teach the
investigators. At around 3:45 we have to start finishing up to get
back to the waiting shed to catch the last bus out of there back to
Toledo which gets there at 4pm then goes around the lake to Casoy at
which we switch buses to get back to Toledo, getting back at around
6-6:30pm. Then we have dinner before going home to do our 2 hours
companion study before daily planning, getting ready for bed and
sleeping. It is so tiring but so much fun. We plan on going to Bagakay
every Tues, Thurs, and Sat, and the we have sacrament meeting there
every second Sunday. This past Sunday we had 18 attendance at the
sacrament meeting (I got pictures of the place we did it at too). We
are hoping to see some real progress in the work in Bagakay, and we
will be helping Elder P and Elder U with the Toledo 2
branch as well on the days that we don't get to go to Bagakay, because
of District meeting and weekly planning and P'day, so we cant get to
bus up there. So we are still part of branch 2 in terms of assignment
but our focus is in Bagakay.

So our first experience going up there... all four of us elders in the
branch get on this bus. to start out we are all squidged inside
because there is a check point on the main road, and no-one is allowed
on top for that. The when we got to the crossing, we all jump on top
of the bus and... flat tyre!... so they change the tyre (with everyone
still inside or on top mind you) and then we "top ride" all the way up
until... it started pouring down rain, and we got soaked just from head
to toe... as in like you had jumped in the pool with your clothes on.
That's how we looked (luckily my bag is waterproof hey!). So we got
told to get inside. But once we got there the sun came out and we were
dry in about 30mins again. We got introduced to the families by Elder
P who had worked there before, and then headed home that
evening on the bus. It was so much fun!
I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy this area!

Now about Toledo... Toledo is to Cebu like Richmond is to Sydney...
that's more like what it really is... (I asked him was the area like Parramatta 
is to Sydney, but apparently not!!) There are three shopping malls,
but they're pretty much empty most of the time. But you know what we
do have! This Australian dude who has a restaurant at which he has
real imported Aussie beef and he also has Dory (the fish). So good...
we had Aussie burgers on monday night with the elders and sisters in
Toledo 1 and toledo 2. And the zone is pretty
big... about 10 companionships, 7 of which are in my district (because
of travel distances siguro...)
I am so excited!
Miss you gamay,
Love you all,
Elder Taylor Addison Cox