Hey EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's up from the Philippines?! Here we get two hours of Email time. THANK GOODNESS!
It's been a crazy week. Literally crazy. I'm going to send pictures-- don't worry. I'm glad to hear everyone is well! I love it here so much already!
Okay, we'll start on Monday when I left the MTC. I was so excited... I only slept for like 2 hours. What a mistake that was... we got to the airport and then we were off. From Salt Lake to Seattle to Tokyo to Manila to Legaspi . I traveled with some other people going to Manila so I didn't leave by myself. When we got to Manila, I could literally feel the air around me... no joke. You can feel the air when you breath in. They put us in a hotel for the night. The next day I had to leave all by myself because I was the only one going to Legaspi. When I got to the airport I met up with the other missionaries going to Legaspi-- THANK HEAVENS-- this is where it gets interesting...we flew to Legaspi but we couldn't land because of the weather... I literally felt my heart break. They flew us back to Manila, then put us in a van for 13 hours to drive to Legaspi.................. we showed up at the hotel at three in the morning... so in 4 days of straight travel I can honestly say I got like 8 complete hours of sleep. But don't worry I survived.
I am the only American that came to the Philippines in my "batch" of nine missionaries.
I finally met President and Sister Guanzon. THEY ARE SO AWESOME! There are only a few men in my life where I can say-- " I want to be like him when I grow up"-- and he is one of them. I got my first real companion-- Elder Andrada. He is from Manila. Thank heavens he is fluent in English, or else I would've died. In this area, no one speaks Tagolog, they speak "Bicol". It is a completely different dialect. They understand Tagolog which is a plus. And they all know English pretty well. When I talk to people they immediately know that I am an American. They try to speak English to me but then I try to speak in Tagolog haha. Everytime I speak in Tagolog they always say "magaling siya" which means I'm talented at my Tagolog. Then they say something else in Bicol, then I look at my companion. haha I'm not scared to talk to people that's for sure. I love it. When I try to talk to people they usually always laugh because they think it's funny that an American is trying to speak Tagolog with them. They always say "HEY JOE" to all the Americans. Joe for GI joe haha. I love it here so much!
The work here is a little slower than we want. But we're going to turn it around. The first two days we didn't teach any lessons. No one really has cellphones here so it's hard to coordinate when we can stop by. The branch here has about 75 members. But around 20ish are active.
Story time... One of the problems in the branch in the past is they're not really that unified. So on Sunday President Aramada the branch president let us speak. (in English) I spoke about families and how we are a family and about the importance of unity and then a little about me. Then Elder Endrada basically threw down the gauntlet very boldly. And said we need your help to further the work here. It was powerful. That's when you know the spirit is real... when you can feel it even in another country and language. Then the NEXT SPEAKER talked about the same thing-- with even more spiritual force. It was powerful! The third speaker then gave us three referrals!!!! It gets better... we went and found one of the names he gave us and SHE ACCEPTED TO HEAR OUR MESSAGE! That was my first lesson ever that wasn't a member! There truly is something special when the members help the missionaries with their work.
Missionary work is the best. When you are obedient the Lord blesses you. Literally like an hour ago, since it's p-day (prep day), my companion had to get some pants tailored. We went. As he was doing his thing, the owner of the store came and talked to me... and I UNDERSTOOD HIM! Then he said, "yeah, I have a Book of Mormon, and I read it about once a week. It's so beautiful!" Then we started talking to him and he accepted us to come back and teach him tomorrow! So pumped!!
I love you guys so much! The prayers really help. The MISSION IS AWESOME!
Love, Elder Hernandez
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