First week in Gattaran with trainer

11/5/18
Well the past couple of days sure have been interesting but probably the best days so far and I'm only looking forward to an even better time as I continue my training here! 

To start: I had a 12 hour bus ride from Manila to Laoag :) It was aight. Then I was litterally in Laoag for less than 24 hours before they paired me with my new companion and then I was put on another bus with Elder Wells to the Apari zone in small (ish) town Gattarran that was 8 hours of windy roads and no traffic laws in how to get there by bus besides "dont die and don't get killed" 

To continue: I LOVE my companion Elder Wells and he is super good at Tagalog and knows and understands conte lang ilokano (little bit) and is amazing at sharing the lessons to our investigators, Making friends, and so on and forth serving the lord. 

AND

It's BEAUTIFUL HERE 

My trainer here is from Byrley Idaho. He's been out here for 15 months and is very comfortable and fluent in Tagalog but also English which is great for me :) this is Elder Wells going into a well.....We get along well 

We went to the beach today for our first zone activity (Take that Luke We're allowed on the sand)

(Editor's Note: There were several photos that Joe sent that didn't make the transfer. I left his comments on the pictures but you will have to imagine what they might have looked like.)

Here's a view of the road I took to get to Centro hehehe. the road follows the coast of the mountains. May sakit ako mula na drive 

So someone apparently last week (or so) tried to break in so we got a new lock and put this up.

Here's me being weird looking out of Cagayan river which is really big 

OwO 

There's a statue about Baden Powell who founded boy scouts. completely random. No one knows why. It's not even a thing here really.

This is me and my companion heading home from a day of tracting and a wonderful appointment with some sisters were teaching. (Were on the top of the tricie) it was a lot of fun not going to lie. don't get this kind of adventure in America often. 

Even though not the most sanitary to play with, THE DOGGOS HERE ARE SO FRIENDLY AND FUN 

And so on and forth. It's been fantastic hearing from home. Just know I am alive. Count your blessings one by one. Not everyone has them. 

However something that everyone has is the ability to have peace and eternal joy no matter what the circumstances are that you live in or given. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is truly a blessing to all and no matter where you are in you are able to "come as you are" and be changed within the Gospel to that of a truly happier state. I have seen miracles happen already here of such people who had faith in JesuKristo and changes life their for the better. marami siya pagpapala dahil kanilang pananampalataya.  (they have lots of blessings because of their faith) and so on and forth. Have faith in god and Jesus Christ when you are dealing with trials. Even when you aren't dealing with serious ones. He got u. Trust me. He do. :) 

Alam ko po na yung simbahan ni jesukristo ay totoo at kanyang ebangelyo na magiging masaya at naramdaman kagalakan tayo na. mahal na mahal yung diyos ng lahat mga anak nag-iinclude na siya. 

(you can try this one in google translate. sorrry po) 

Yo one of my redeeming graces of this language is that you can conjugate English words here and they will understand you. It's fantastic. Also no one here uses the full range of pronouns. They just call everything siya and such because ilokano has their own set so when speaking tagolog they just get lazy. It's really weird. 

Aight Ingat y'all I got some work to do and a Ukulele to buy :P 

-Elder Po(wells) KASEEE AKING KASAMA NA PANGALAN AY WELLS HEHEHEHEHEHE

P.S. My companion is a blond hair white boy from Idaho lol but magaline tagolog siya (he has good tagolog) and also were like best friends now. 

P.P.S. CONGRATS BRAYLEN YOU WILL LOVE YOUR MISSION GIRLLLLL

P.P.P.S. If food at home was as cheap as it was here, I would be able to afford college. 

P.P.P.P.S. I will never stop the endless PSssssss

Px5.S. Sister Morton everyone here say's you're awesome. And Hi :) 

Px6.S. don't do drugs kids it leads you down bad paths.

Px7.S. Try to guess how many people we fit on one tricie (a motorcicle with a side car) and a cheepnie (a motorcicle with like this weird attacement to the back. This is what I just call it. that is not its actual name) 

P.P.P.Q.E.R.T.Y.S. 7 and 13 people (not including the driver)