April 28, 2008

magandang hopon! from the MTC!!!
Good afternoon from the MTC. This week, like last, has been a blur. I'll try to get you caught up on the interesting stuff cause I dont have much time. Tuesday we got instruction for our white bag test which only philippines missionaries get to take. I'll tell you the full details about the test at the very bottom of this email if you would like, but be warned it is kinda disgusting. but anywho, this week has been kind of hard. I've really had a hard time being patient with elder gillett. sometimes im pretty sure he has diarrea of the mouth and says whatever pops into his head, its really annoying. but im working on it, although its not coming very quickly. but thats about it for the comp, he's just annoying a far share of the time so I have to adapt and overcome. Tagalog is hard. We had to speak to some volunteers in the TEC (teacher eval. center) and we'd ask questions and they'd respond and all I could do was stare at them slack jawed, its pretty hard. but its coming shortly but surely. not much else to report. I love to get mail so keep it coming :). I love you all. Elder B

(Scroll down for White Bag test details, be warned it is disgusting)


So the white bag test is required by the Philippino government for all missionaries coming into the country. basically this test is to test for parasites. they took some blood and a urine sample, but the real fun included a stool sample (not really). So we had to poop in a cup and scoop out a sample about the size of a big marble and mix it with a preservative to get it above the red line. thats pretty much it, but its still disgusting having to play with your own poo.