Basketball and Rain

hope everyone had a great week! Ill start this email off with Tuesday when one of my favorite parts of the week occurred! We were waiting for the Sisters in our area to arrive for a dinner appointment we had set up in a barangay right next to a basketball court. As we were standing by the court I was watching the guys play a game, and one of them saw the tall white "americano" and started yelling "hey Joe! Hey Joe! Whats your name! You like basketball?"

I said oo (yes) and they all started to laugh, then they started to talk a little bit a crap about how Americans arent as good as them at basketball hahah. Then my chance came. One of them said "you want to play one on one Joe and learn how to play?" I looked at him, took off my bag and went into the court where everyone around starting laughing and gathering around. Elder Golle knew exactly what I was thinking when I looked at him and he said to the players in Tagalog "If Elder Pitt wins, we get to share a message with you about Christ, but if Elder Pitt loses, he will buy all of you soft drinks and candy!" (Now i didnt plan on buying ALL of them so much candy and soft drinks but i agreed anyway haha). I played a kid named Ernesto to 7 points, make it take it... He said I could have the ball first and I made two 3 pointers in a row then a lay up to win. (The form is still good coach!) Everyone was laughing SO hard and freaking out! Ernesto was shocked it was so funny! I looked over at Elder Golle and he was laughing almost rolling on the ground the game went by so fast hahah. The coolest part was that they were all excited to hear the lesson as well. Almost imiedialty after the game ended they all come over and sat around waiting to hear our message which we werent even sure we were going to teach or not. It was an awesome lesson with them, they all had a lot of questions about who Christ was and why he was so important. They also asked where our church was and what time it started. It was seriously so awesome. And then we feasted our hearts out at the Family Home Evening with the Sabado Family. 

On Thursday we met with Danny Mipa, who stopped us one day to ask us what we were doing walking around in white shirts and ties. Danny really loves Christ and he know so much about him. He also knows a lot of English Bible verses that he always says during our messages that connect to our message. Danny wants to be baptized when he "knows for sure we are true" gotta love that small english vocabulary but you gotta love more his enthusiasm and his work ethic so that he will know if our message is true and worth something. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays every night. I hope he comes to church with us on Sunday. 

Speaking of Church, our church here is amazing. Because it is so small it isnt considered a chapel, it is considered a meetinghouse. And about 4 months ago they averaged 19 people going to church on Sundays. Yesterday.. there were 47 people there. Honestly I cant say its been our efforts that have helped bring more people the worship our Father in Heaven as much as the members of the Branch! So many of them want to help us out in helping others, and on Saturday we are holding a half day mission for the branch! Each person going will come with us to meet other people in the Branch and to help them around their Bahay (home) or offer a spiritual message. Luna Branch is awesome, theres no other words to describe them! This week we also ate with the Ramerez family at a family get together for their daughter who was turning 10! We ate Lechon Baboy (roasted pig) and it was so so good. Not as good as McCary's Meats but still delicious! As i type this im sensing a theme of food here, please dont judge hahah The Filipinos love to feed missionaries and do whenever they can. If they only have a little bit of rice left, not even enough for their families to all eat that night without going into the next town to buy more, they still insist that you eat. It is amazing. 

I love it here in this very small, very hot town. It has been raining a lot and lightning lights up the night sky every night. Its beautiful. I hope everyone has another great week! 

One thing I'd like to share is a passage i read in a book about prayer. It saud that

:Prayer is the key to opening and going through difficult trails, it is not used to open a single door once a day, but to be used to open many doors,everyday. 

Ingat!

-Elder Pitt 

Another Day Another Piso

Hello everyone! As recommended by Mr. Mario Midili, i will try and make this email shorter hahah. This week was so good!! We met the entire zone on tuesday and there is a missionary who actually just finished his mission here from Richland! Cant seem to get away from the bomber pride,,, its everywhere! haha. Elder Golle worked our way around our area trying to meet as many members in the Branch as possible. Weve really grown close to the Branch President and his family and it has helped us a lot in finding out where everyone lives and also advice about the area! Tuesday night was awesome, in the morning i was still adjusting to life here and was kinda frustrated with the heat and food and all.. then we took a trike back from meeting the zone and I saw a car with Washington State license plates! WHAT? I freaked out but Elder Golle was so confused why hahaha then that night we went out to get dinner and i met a guy wearing EWU basketball shorts! Gotta love the 509 pride in my heart hahaha. Also, I ate Balut! Surprisingly enough it was masarap! (delicious) and it was so good i might have gotten a second one too! hahah We ate balut, chicken intestines and rice and ulam. So so good! Who would have guessed it would be so good haha i guess the Filipinos did! The rest of the week every day we went out finding new people to teach! Everyone here is so nice and willing to listen to our message. They help me a lot when i mess up speaking Tagalog which is good. Every single night it thunderstorms like crazy and the lightning is so bright! We only had rain during the day once, and the rain felt so nice! It gave us a chance to cool off from the heat! Elder Golle and I find things to work on or practice as we walk. Some of the houses are about 1/4 a mile away from other houses, and then in some areas, its about 2 miles from a barangay and then in the barangay there are hundreds and hundreds! As we walk, I speak Tagalog and he speaks English and we correct eachother! His accent cracks me up, then i think about how bad my accent probably is and i become very humbled haha. I love having time every morning to study scriptures, or church works. It helps me so much prepare for the day and learn more about Christ! I was never a big reader but I am already starting to love books and read ones that other missionaries or are Mission President have us read!

We were walking through a barangay one day and i gentleman stopped and asked us if we wanted to buy any of his fighting chickens! He said he would listen to our message if we took a tour of his chickens it was so funny hahaha.

We have two children who live with their grandparents in our branch, Cara and Zed. They are awesome! They are 11 and 9 and are so so smart about The Church! Thy want to be baptized so bad but their mom who lives abroad is against it for now. Hopefully she will change her mind, its a tough situation but its okay because at the end of the day I know that life is still great! Quick shoutout to the one and only Shellz Pitt, mom happy birthday!! (coming soon)!!!

On saturday we will be going with members of the Branch to help give service to those in need! Hopefully We will be with someone who likes to speak English hahah! Everyone knows english but prefers not to talk in english, they feel self conscious about sounding wrong and im like cmon guys are you kidding me! Im wrong all the time! hahaha The snacks are delicious too! Because we are in such a small city there isnt a 7/11 or gas station so there arent any american snacks, (reall missin those kit kats and snickers haha) but theres a twinkie look alike called and Fudgee Bar. They are so so good!! Elder Golle and i will rock paper scissors almost everyday to see whos buying the fudgee bars that day!

I love it here. Its a great place with greater people. I hope my pictures go through! Im still trying to figure out the best way to send pictures from my camera, each computer shop is different! Take care everyone and make sure to send my mom a happy birthday message ;)
--

Elder Pitt

First week in the Phillipines

Hello from the Philippines! Lets start this email off on Wednesday when I got to host Malerie.. Or should I say Sister Pitt into the MTC!! The work is an awesome work and I'm so happy I got to see her and the rest of my family when they dropped her off! So on our way to the airport we took the Front Runner and were getting off before the Front Runner went past our stop.. Elder Katutu forgot his bag in the train- (you are all allowed to roll your eyes because I did as well)- and so he got back on to grab it.. Pretty good idea right? Forget a bag, go back in and grab it.. Well I dont know about the FrontRunners in Kiribati but the ones in Utah dont really wait that long so the door shuts while hes in there and starts to leave!!!!! I dont know what happened inside the train but he must have done something loud enough to make the driver stop and open up the doors hahahaha. We didnt know if we should have all hugged him because we were so worried or beat him up but it was a good experience ill say that! We flew from SLC to LA, hungout in the airport, ate Panda Express.. Twice (no judgement please) and hung out for a couple hours! We met the BYU Womens Volleyball team at the aiport, They were headed to Hong Kong as well! After the food coma subdued we then hopped on the plane to head to Hong Kong! Fun fact of the day: Cathay Pacific Airlines, the airlines we flew, has never had a plane have mechanical failures of any kind when there has been a missionary on the plane! So with 21 missionaries and the BYU volleyball team, im sure the captain could feel that we were in very good hands! hahah So get this, we left the aiport about 11:45 ish on Wednesday the 4th, and landed in Hong Kong on Friday the 5th! I apologize to all native-Mexicans because i missed Cinco de mayo in its entirety! The Hong Kong airport was super gorgeous! And the flight to Manila from Hong Kong went by super quick, which is what should have been expected after a 15 hour flight hahaha. The Philippines is amazing! Its so gorgeous and the people are so nice. I have been here only a short couple days and already feel the genuine love people have for each others. 

The Philippines MTC is right across the street from the B.E.A.utiful Manila Temple, if you havent seen what it looks like, google it! It is so much bigger in person as well! On Thursday we met with our Mission President, President Balledos! Hes awesome and so is his wife! We were assigned our Trainers for the next 12 weeks and my trainer is Elder Golle! He is from the Philippines but I dont remember where! Every new missionary received a trainer and their assigned area. All f the trainers were already previously assigned in their areas so they ha lessons planned and peple t talk to and all that good jazz.. BUT (theres always a but am i right) Elder Golle and I were assigned t open a new area!! So what does that mean? 1. We have no knowledge of where anything is, 2. That includes our apartment, 3. We have no plans or people to talk to 4. We dont knw who the church leader in that area is, and 4. The Lord is on our side!! 

Our area is Luna, la union. It is very small and the neighborhoods are separated into what is called a Barangay or a Rimos! It is also very very hot and humid! But that is okay hahah. The first day we were here we cleaned the entire apartment because no one had been living there before and it was SO dirty! I can only describe the feeling i had about how dirty it was with the example of my feeling when i had trashed my house after school and i heard the garage door start to open, meaning my mom was home and she was about to kill me! hahah (love yah Shellz) 

On Saturday we went around and met with the members of the ward and the Branch President of Luna. President Ramirez is a really cool guy and very smart. He expressed his concerns to us and told us to stop by whenever for water or food while we are walking.. I have a feeling we might take up his offer haha! 

Sunday was our first Sabbath Day with the Luna Branch! The meetinghouse is very very small. I taught Young Mens and Elder Golle taught a different class so it was just me and the young men!! I will be humble and say yes my Tagalog is terrible hahaha but they helped me out and corrected me whenever i said something wrong! It almost turned into a game of who could correct Elder Pitt first hahha but they are awesome. 

Like i said the meeting house is very small. There are about 3 rooms and then a bigger room in the middle where we all meet as a congregation for sacrament meeting. Its very hot with everyone in one room, no AC and very close to each other. BUT! It was one of the best meetings ever. People here have a very rough life and it is difficult for them to make it to church but there faith is so strong and some how The Man upstairs makes it possible! 

Most of our zone is Filipino and the missionaries close to us in our district are all Filipino except one so I never really here English unless its my thoughts. Its good because i am always around the language that i am trying to learn but hard because i dont always know what is going on. Time and hard work will change all! I love it here in Luna and I absolutely love the people! Everyone here either makes fun of me for being white or loves me because im white hahhah!

BASKETBALL COURTS EVERYWHERE! So whenever we pass one and a teen calls me "Joe" or "Americano" ill play a quick game of one on one and 90 percent of the time i can hold my own lol, everyone here is shorter than i am so rebounds are no problem. A big thank you to all of the basketball coaches i have had to prepare for this mission!! I miss you all and would love to here from you all! Have awesome weeks!! 

Elder Pitt