Wow...... It has been two weeks since i was last able to write. it has been a very long two weeks. sorry i haven't written for such along time. we just get really busy and i never get time to email because i'm always going places. so i will do my best to catch you up on the last two of my mission. so lets see... where did i leave off. i believe the last Monday that i wrote was the Monday before transfer day. As i have explained in prior emails, transfer day is one of the three busiest days in a transfer and transfer week is THE busiest week in the transfer. Anyways Monday was a fairly normal day... as in the sun came up and went down about the same time. but other than that it was not normal. we had a lot of work to get done so that the transfers would go smoothly. we had to get a lot of new apartments set up. which included buying 75,000 pesos wroth of fans, silverware, and other random house supplies for all the brand new apartments. when we had bought everything we took it out to the car. and a whole bunch of the guys that work there helped us. We walked out and the guard at the door tried to speak english to us but he wasn't very good... it was way funny and we all laughed (including the guard) and when we got out of the door the Philippino helping us said "hindi sia kabalo nga kabalo kamu magilonggo" (he doesn't know that you know how to speak ilonggo) and we said "Oo, gani" which means "ya duh" but here that word isn't mean. so when we got to the truck we attempted to put everthing in. well.... we had alot of stuff in the end the entire back was full (there is a shell on the truck) and me and elder Albert were shoved in the front back seat with 6 ironing boards and 5 rice cookers and a bunch of pans. Elder Edioy was in the front with 12 wash basins and a million spoons and forks and Elder Potter was driving with more room than he could use. so he was pretty comfortable. so that was monday. it was quite a bit of fun buying all the stuff. cause everybody looked at us wondering how we could afford it all... and than we pulled it all out in cash... it was crazy. and the most crazy part about it is it wasn't even $1,000. So tuesday was okay. we got to go and eat at the mission home with all the elders that were going home. which was a grand total of 2!!!! yay so we had a lot of food. but that was hard cause then i realized that i still have a long time to go.... oh well ha ha. so Wednesday morning comes and we go to pick up the elders at the mission home to take them to the airport. we got them to the airport and met president there. When we got to the airport it was even harder... cause i won't be entering that airport for over a year... so it was pretty depressing but then president tobias told me that me and Elder Edioy one of the AP's would be escorting a missionary couple up to a place called sagay. and that they would be arriving at the airport about 45 minutes later. so to just wait for them, and take them where ever they told us. So we waited picked them up and took them to sagay. on the way up Elder Smith said that if we ever got hungry just to let him know and that he would buy us food. all expenses that day he would pay for. but elder edioy and i were both pretty shy and didn't ask for food or anything. So we got to Sagay and we went to the chapel and found the bishop and they start talking and they decided they needed to go to calonia. i had never been to calonia and i had heard that it was impossible to get to by car so i asked the bishop about it and he said ya its a rough road but we can try if you want. because i didn't think that elder and sister smith could HIKE the 3 kilometers in order to get to the city. they were pretty old. so we get driving and the road was pretty bad... so i just took it nice and slow and then it started to rain.... and than it started to pour.... and then it started to... well the only way to describe it is "and the heavens were opened and it rained..." it was so strong of a rain my windsheild wipers on full blast couldn't even move... but i just kept going... very slow. than i caught up to a huge Jeep (the only vehicle that supposedly can make this journey) and i passed it ;) it was funny. so finally after another 2 hour drive we made it to Calonia. we went to the Burangay hall. and talked to the people about putting in a water system free of charge. they just had to provide the labor. and then they would have a water system for the community. (It is one of the charity's that the church runs) It is really cool. so after this we went and found the apartment of the elders that are assigned in that area. when they saw me get out of the car there mouths both dropped. none of the mission leadership has ever been up there. they were so confused... they thought they were in trouble it was way funny =) not even elder potter who was been an assistant for over 10 months has been up there =) on the way back elder Smith told me that he was going to buy us dinner no matter what the cost so we could pick what ever we wanted.... i wasn't sure what his budget was so we picked maninasal which is about 150 pesos each... so pretty expensive... the total for all four of us was over 600 pesos... so a lot of money for a missionary i felt really bad for costing him that much... untill he opened his wallet... and he had over 40,000 pesos in it... after we ate he told us he gladly would have spent 600 pesos on just one of our meals if we had just asked.... we should have went somewhere ALOT more expensive. so finaly we got back to Bacolod at about 930 and i was exhausted from driving for over twelve hours... it was a very long day... but luckly after we dropped them off at there hotel we came back to the office and it was time to decide who got to sleep at the hotel with the new missionaries. i really wanted to cause that meant a comfortable bed AND a hot shower =) I was way lucky i got chosen to sleep at the hotel. so i had a very comfortable sleep. at about midnight elder potter texted me.... he said "elder larsen... can you do me a favor..." i always hate when i get that text.... of course i said yes and it turns out he wanted me to travel an hour and a half out of town the next morning clean one of the dirtiest apartments in the mission and then come back. he told me he was going to give me some money so that i could buy all the supplies that i needed and that i should just take as much time as it took. He even supplied me a work crew and told them to do everything i said. The funny thing is he picked four zone leaders who are over a year older in the mission than i am.... one of them was my trainer... he didn't like taking orders from the person he trained =) it was pretty funny =) but it was just weird to see them do the things i asked.... it was just different to feel the respect. so we finally made it to the area after stopping for lunch and supplies... open the door to the apartment and i about passed out... it was TERRIBLE!!!! far worse than i thought. it smelled horrible and it was so dirty... so we got started.... Elder Tiu, my trainer, started in the bathroom. he went in with some pretty stong acid and about 30 minutes later comes walking out soaking with sweat... saying "It's not strong enough!!! we need something stronger!!!" so we went and bought Muriatic Acid... you could really buy anything here in the philippines if you wanted to. they are not strict about anything. So anyways, we arrived at the house in a town called Valledolid (Pronounced: Vallyedolid) at about 12 and we didn't leave there till almost 5 pm... It took almost five hours to clean a house that has three rooms.... IT TOOK FOREVER AND WAS WAY DIRTY!!!!! so than Elder Tiu (my trainer) got mad cause he didn't like having to listen to me rather than the other way around.. it was pretty funny. but he is okay now. so finaly we got home and i got to sleep at the hotel AGAIN!!!! as well as eat at the mission home which was way delicious we had chicken adobo which is one of my favorites. The next day (friday) was transfer day. so as you can guess.... very very very busy. it was just way long and by the time it was over i was so exhausted i sat on the couch in the office and did not want to move... not even for food. but that is okay cause we had to deal with a disobediant missionary... but all is well with that now. i finally got some rest last week. i got to go out and teach alot. it was a lot of fun. we found a way poor family that just moved here from kabankalan... they have 12 kids so we are going to try and teach them =) not to mention i got transfered into a new area... i'm still in the office and everything but i have a different ward. its cool but i miss my old ward. Last week nothing much happened just office work and field work. i did have to deliver some refridgerators at 11 o'clock at night... that wasn't to fun. but i survived. So after two weeks of not writing i have decided never to do that again. trying to remember what happened was way hard. Yesterday we had lunch at a very rich members house. we actually got to use forks and sit at a table. it was way nice. it was pasta, ribs, and rice. by the time i was done eating i was way full which doesn't happen alot when you eat at members house's but this family was way rich... so i ate a lot. well thats really it for this week =) well sorry it took so long for me to actually send an email. but i hope this is long enough to satisfy you =) well i love you all i hope you are all having a great september. its almost over!!! ha ha. 1 more month down!!!
Love Always,
Elder Larsen
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