162 Pounds!

I am excited to say that I am no longer a skinny white boy anymore. Ok maybe I'm still skinny but I've gained 12 lbs since the MTC! Dad was right, rice is the worlds natural steroid! Our work this week wasn't the greatest, due to the fact that most of our investigators/less-actives are "Sodsod"-ing. Sodsod is when you have this giant butterfly net connected to a bamboo pole, and you drag it along the sea floor as you swim with it trying to catch these tiny baby crabs. They do it at night because that is when the crabs are close to the beach. So during the day they all sleep so that they can work late into the night. We did baptize Brother Emmanuel on saturday though! He asked me to perform the ordinance so that was really cool. He is my first real Investigator that we tracted and converted so he's really special to me! Last tuesday night we decided to take a short-cut back to our apartment through the jungle...ya that wasn't a good idea. After about 3 minutes we came to the conclusion that we were lost. After walking for another 3 we made our way out, somehow. I've been think lately that if my wife/me can't have kids one day I'm gonna adopt a little Filipino girl. The little girls here are so funny and cute. The Noriega family I talked about last week are all girls, and they are so cute! I love them to death haha, I guess I've gone soft haha! On Friday all of the 3 companionships of missionaries led a Branch Home Evening at our church with the members. We talked about Missionary Work and Families. It was pretty good. Half way through the meeting this frog hoped through the door in front of us so I picked it up and took it outside and threw him across the yard. Brother Alvin AKA Milo-Boy came and told me I should go wash my hands ASAP because that frog was poisonous. I was in the bathroom for a good 10 minutes washing my hands, I was a little nervous my hands were gonna shrivel up or grow some fungus or something. But its all good now. We'll I hope you are all well back at home, I pray for you all everyday! Mahal kita! Kita kits hanggang susunod!

Elder Akins

Masarap ang Aso!

First off sorry to everyone for not emailing last week...I know you all missed it so much haha! Ha Mom you're prob the only one who reads theseanyways haha. Well this past week was really crazy. I guess I'll start off on a sad note. Last week we had an awesome Recent Convert we have been teaching pass away. Her name is Juliet Salvan. We got pretty close and actually she was my first lesson in field. I think she was 55 years old, still pretty young, but she was diagnosed with a rare cancer 5 years ago. She wasn't supposed to live even one month, but made it 5 years. I'll never forget her. It has rained here everyday this past week, but I'm still not sick of rain. I love it, while my companion and the other Pinoy Elders hate it. On a good note we picked up a lot of investigators this week. One of them is the Dongaban family, 4 little girls and their parents. The father is actually in Manila right now but they are still accepting us and a really excited about the Gospel. The wife is the sister of our other investigator who we are baptizing this next week! They are awesome really! Both of these people are from our main area we work out of called Gumang. Lets just say this place is an "Investigator Goldmine". Its right next to the sea too, so we get to walk on the beach to some of our investigators. I love the beach here, even though its not the prettiest one I've ever seen haha. The real exciting thing I want to share is what the title of my email says...Dog is Delicious. Need I say more. I got offered it at a party in Gumang with all of the villagers. I was watching them bark it out when one of the members asked me if I wanted to eat some. Well I didn't want to upset anyone so I guess now you could say I'm offically Filipino. Well maybe not quite yet, still working on the brown skin thing but I'm getting there! Another good story was when me and my comp and one of our ZL's were waiting for the other ZL to finish interviewing our investigator who is getting baptized this saturday. We were sitting down outside the house and these 12 year old girls came walking by and started playing 20 questions with us. There was this other little girl, maybe 7 years old, and she kept staring at me. This has become quite normal for me so I didn't think anything of it. After awhile she started to get real close to me. She got right up in my face which is also normal because I thought she was gonna play with my hair or something but all of the sudden she starts to squeeze her lips to together. Its a good thing I got quick reflexes, or I might have ended up getting my first kiss on my Mission! Haha she planted one right on my cheek hahahaha man were we laughing. Well thats about all for this week! I hope all is well back in the greatest town in the world (Santa Clara) and everywhere else! I love all of you guys, oh and Aunt Kathy thanks for the Jerky! Tell Clayton that Elk was dang good!

Elder Akins 

Transfers!!!

Well I am no longer a Trainee, I am now an actual Missionary...or so they say here. I am still in Gubat so thats really good, theres no way I wanted to leave here just yet. But unfortuanely, my Trainer had to leave. It wasn't hard saying by to Elder Yu, it was more like ripping off a band-aid. They announced our new comps and off we went. But for the next few days I kept looking for him when we were walking haha and then I'd realize I have a new comp haha. My new companion is Elder Caguimbal. He is from Bagiuo, Philippines. He is a really hard worker and is actually our DL. He's always happy, just my kind of guy. We've been working hard these past few days, introducing him to everyone and teaching a lot of lessons. Last Wednesday we where at a dinner appointment and the son of the Nanay that we were eating with was having some friends over to play Ping Pong on their ghetto table that I beat Elder Yu on before he left. They asked if me and Elder Gutierrez if we wanted to play doubles with them. We beat all of them, 5 games to none. It was so sick. The next day we went to teach a really solid investigator that we've had for awhile, only to find out that he is moving to a new area. Sucks, I was hoping that I would be here when he was Baptized. At lunch the other day we were eating out and I was in line next to this old man. He looked at me, and then said in English,"Are you a Musketeer?" Haha I had no idea what to say, me and the cashier were just laughing and then he said,"I might be old, but I'm still nimble as I was when I was young!" Haha I have no idea what he was talking about but it was really funny. And this morning we played basketball with our District. While we were waiting for the hoop to be set up, me and Elder Gutierrez played Ping Pong inside the church for a little bit. I beat him all 3 rounds. My rule has just begun though haha. The Mission is amazing, I'm loving life right now! The people are awesome, I can't imagine being anywhere else! I love you all and miss you so much. I know this Gospel is true!

Elder Akins