Last Tuesday I just prepared to travel, washed clothes and stuff and then I had to travel to the mission office. When I got there they let us know that we could only take 1 bag to Mindoro, that was rough because I have three bags and so I prioritized and rearranged stuff and took only one bag. I forgot a lot of stuff but just small things, it will work out. Then Wednesday we woke up at 3 and went back to the mission office (we slept at an apartment of elders close by) and the AP's picked up a sister missionary and then we traveled at 530. We drove for a few hours to the port and then took a boat to the island. It was so cool. It felt like I was entering the movie Jurassic Park, it's so pretty here. It's crazy. It was sunny for the first part of the trip and then started raining so hard. We got soaked and so did our one bag haha. It's alright though, nothing was ruined.
So the area is so new, it's called San Francisco but we focus on Mamburao. That's where our president wants us to focus. It's basically the front lines. The people there have never seen missionaries and literally everyone is looking at me because I'm white. I'm not exaggerating, literally everyone. It's so weird but it helps for getting in houses because it blows their mind when I speak Tagalog and then they tell us to come in before we even introduce ourselves. The biggest challenge is the travel. It's so far away from the apartment and so we travel a lot. It's hard but we're working on figuring out something better. It's the newest of new in the mission. The heat here is a new kind of heat, it's so hot. We are trying to establish a group which is one smaller than a branch. I didn't even know that existed until I got here. Our apartment has no running water, we just pump it when we want water, good times.
On Friday we were looking for this guy and we needed to catch a trike and so we caught a trike and I started talking to the driver and he said he was a Mormon. It was a huge tender mercy. It's usually hard sometimes to talk to the trike driver because of the wind but I talked to him and he said he's a Mormon and we can come teach his family who aren't members. Our area is huge, so we only go to where he lives like once a week. Everything is spread out here and then we also found the person we were looking for and we taught them. We were right by the ocean, I mean it was right there. It was so cool. The Tagalog is a little different here, it's more pure, but I'm still understanding. The Lord is helping me. When we got home it was a brownout (the electricity was out) and so we were using a flashlight and a snake slithered right by my feet. My companion hates snakes and so I killed it for him and then we walk inside and there on the wall is a spider even bigger than the last one I took a picture of. It was so freaky. My companion is fine with spiders so he killed it. We make a good team, it was intense.
On Saturday we had to wait a long time for the van we travel in. It's just this van that goes up and down the island, it's hard but we were able to find some new investigators and teach some good people. It's so different here. Sunday was so cool. We had 3 sacraments. One at the branch building and then the couple missionaries drove us and the leaders of the branch to this hut where we did another one for some members and then we drove again and did one more for members. It was very cool. I had to give the spiritual thought and my companion and I blessed the sacrament. The work is different here but I'll get used to it and i'm excited. I know the Lord has a plan and this is where I am needed. The Lord has tender mercies everywhere, we just need to always look for them.
Elder Snyder
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