Start of Transfer #5

Well lifes just great right now really! I'm loving missionary life, its amazing! Last week we had Transfer Announcements. Me and my current comp are still together. But one of the Pinoy Elders in my apartment left and now we got another Americano living in Gubat! I think theres a grand total of about 5 of us here...we aren't hard to see haha! Anyways the new guys is an Elder Wilcox from a small town near Fillmore and Kanosh. He's a good ole Country Boy, such as myself, so we get along pretty well. We talked alot about huntin and fishing...you know, the normal chit-chat. On Tuesday me and Elder Caguimbal were headed to an appointment in the middle of this rice field. The paths are always muddy and about 10 inches wide. I usually do okay, but that day just wasn't my day. I slipped and my leg was wet and muddy up to my knee on my one leg, but thats pretty much every day here. One of our investigators, Alex Salvan, has really been progressing lately. He's one of the perfect examples of "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover". He's repping some tat's and used to drink and stuff, but now he's a changed kid! He loves it when we teach him, and I love teaching him! He has trouble reading, so we've been working with him on that. He's really an awesome kid haha and I love him like a brother. Recently I've been taking a few minutes and talking with the teenaged kids in Gumang, they love playing 20 Questions with me and having me give them sentences in English for them to translate haha. When I walk past their BBall hoop they always ask me to shoot once for them haha they way sweet. The other day we were in our far area and the LA's we were going to teach brought out some Coconut Milk and Crackers. I was way thirsty so I poured a big glass and tipped it back. My first thought was man this is kinda sour for Buko (Coconut Milk), then I realized it wasn't Coconut...it was Milk. Goats Milk is officially off of the list haha. When we went home from that lesson I was walking with my head down and all of the sudden this Cobra was right in front of me! I flipped out haha its a good thing its head was cut off haha I would've be dead meat! I saw another one in the road on the way home. Theres a lot of them hear because is all the farm land is close to the Jungle. In Gumang I saw my first monkey, I thought it was a dog at first because someone had it chained up. Big ole cuss. As big as Duke actually. The day after Valentines me and Elder Caguimbal found this ghetto Filipino Love Letter haha we taped it to a pole so everyone could read it. On Sunday we had this crazy thing happen. This lady showed up at Church and walked up to us and asked us if this book she was holding belong to our Church, it was some Jehovah's Witness book. We said no but she could still come in. Some of the members sat by her and gave her a Book of Mormon. I was on the stand so I got to watch her, she was smiling the whole time so that was good I guess haha. She wanted to find the true church, but was literally searching for the wrong church, but still ended up finding the true church...God works wonders really. Now why was I on the stand, well I wasn't presiding thats for sure. I gave my first Talk in Tagalog without reading a paper...and I actually did pretty good. My Tagalog could still use some work but I got my point across! Thats all the amazing things that happened this week really. Thanks for all the love and support you all give me, I'm grateful to be a Servent of the Lord right now! This Work really is the most important Work in the World! Oh, and in case y'all didn't know, my little sister Ally is turning 15 this week! Be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday and make sure you stay off of the roads because she'll be starting driving school soon . . . scary.

Elder Jake Akins