Shot gun

Hey Davo Anni Dad and Kris,

I am doing good here in my new area, (it is my 2nd just so you know). I am here in Quezon City south 3B area, our ward, Quezon City 3 has 4 missionaries, so we have a split area, A and B. My new comp is elder Perez, he is a Filipino, My 4th Filipino comp, and also my 4th companion. ha all My comps have been Natives, which is a blessing and I am grateful for, but sometimes I wonder what its like to be with an american. Having Filipino comps helps with the language though, it forces you to speak it since they don't really speak english. I think I am the only one in my batch who has had all Filipino companions. (Ha I think that is a good thing.)

There is one weird thing this transfer though, and that is that me and my comp, are both new in this area. We call it a white out or a shot gun. So we are glad for the Ward Missionaries who help us a lot, its good to have Ward mission help, in my last area we had none so its nice to learn how to work with them. My comp knows only two members and where their houses are because he came from Quezon City 3A area, so he was in this ward before, just tranfered areas. Ha he is also my first Co. Senior. So that is cool I guess.

We have met a lot of nice people here, our numbers are lower this week but our President understands because he flippin put us both into a new area. Ha Its a great learning experience that I am grateful for! We have a member in our ward, who I think just became active again in the church. She has two kids, one 15 or 16, the other 5, and the 5 yr old is pretty spoiled, ha, I don't want any of my kids to act or be like her. She is cute though. She is, what do you call this, Obeese? Well she is fat for her age, I wouldn't be surprised if she weighed in the low Hundreds or Ninties. But the Husband is not a member, oh there names is the Clementine family. Brother Clementine really wants to get baptized, he just has a little problem with the Word of Wisdom, he came to church and from what it looks like, he has been churching for a while now. Which is good, now I hope I can help him with his addictions.

There aren't as many Less Actives in this ward as there were in my last area, but there are still many. Hopefully we can meet them all and help them return to our church. We have met a few that the last missionaries didn't know yet, that's a start. A good start I think. Hopefully next week will be better and more lesson full.

So my favorite thing here is the kids, most of the time they are fun, some can be annoying when they swear at you and try to be cool, but mostly they are just fun. I love walking down the street and have a big group of kids come running up to you yelling either, "Americano!!" or "Elder, Elder!" if they know you. They always want high fives, and some like to hang on my arms and make me lift them high in the air, it is just fun and makes my day most the time. It is especially cool when I speak Tagalog to them, they get an amazed look on their faces and all laugh like the coolest thing just happened, I like it.

Tagalog is still hard, I still have a lot to learn. Hopefully soon I will be fluent, Stephen said that around the time he hit 6 months he felt pretty fluent, I am at 6 now, and I still don't quite feel there yet, but there are some missionaries my age in the field who are training now or are seniors, so hopefully I can catch up to them quick.

I love you all and hope you are happy and healthy too, Anni and Davo, I hope your all doing good in your school and all your fun sports, just do your bests and have fun! Thats what its all about. And Dad and Kris I hope your Jobs are also fun and successful.

Love

Elder Benjamin L. Larson