9.28.2009

Hey everyone,

The work is going great here in the Philippines. After 36 hours of straight traveling we finally got to the mission home in Subic Bay. I even got to teach both lesson 1 and 2 and the Word of Wisdom and about tithes and offerings to this Philipino he lives in Angeles, his name is Mike Lecap. It was pretty cool.

My new companion, Elder Erispe, is a native Philipio from Mindanao. And a great cook and missionary, we are opening up a new area that has been closed for the past year or so. Its fun and a great experience.

For the past 3 days it has rained non-stop and they make rubber shoes here and because we have been wading in water up to our knee's, I bought some to try and save my leather ones. It was so fun, on Friday a typhoon came in and it was a signal 2 (the highest is a 6 and there's no houses left in a 6) but it was pretty crazy we were walking down the main road and I was drenched, head to foot and my umbrella was doing me no good whatsoever. It was a blast!! The work must go on no matter what and we were gonna keep working. And I love the rain so I had no problems with it!!!

The exchange rate here is like 47 pesos to the dollar so it was kinda cool feeling rich but we had McDonald's today for lunch and a double with cheese cost me 143 pesos. That food tasted so weird. We eat rice with EVERY meal Its awesome. I've tried tuna and eggs, sardines and eggs, and Tilapia (bones are horrible), and a lot of adobo. The food here is great.

dearelder I guess is just like regular mail it takes 2 weeks to get here then anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks after that for me to get it because it goes to the mission home

Philippines Olongapo Mission
Elder D Chase Westwood
140 Km. National Hwy, Mangan-Vaca,
2209 Subic, Zambales
Philippines

Its fine though. I'll send letters out but just know the info in them is 2 weeks old.
Thank you so much for all of you who made it possible for me to be out here. I pray every night for all of you.

Love,
Elder Westwood