4th of July in the Phillipines

Happy Fourth of July everyone!! Elder Moreland and I started off this morning the only way we should, by belting the National Anthem and chanting "USA USA USA"! Its probably a good thing that it is just Elder Moreland and I in the apartment or we wouldn't have had happy roommates! Nothing too crazy happened this week but it was really good! One of the days, a member of the Branch, Brother Ragaas, offered to work with us! It was really fun and we both love Brother Ragaas like crazy. He's so nice and genuine and loves missionary work! OPne super good part about the whole thing was he is a trike driver so we didnt have to walk or ride our bikes in the heat! A lot of people here in Luna speak more Ilocano than they do Tagalog so having Borther Ragaas with us to speak their first language to them was a big blessing.
Tagalog is hard, and Ilocano sounds even more difficult but learning both here will help me be able to communicate better!
Today Elder Moreland and I are going to try and find a BBQ place so we can chow down on some food for the Fourth of July! There was supposed to be a typhhon yesterday but it died down before it came into the land and it was just hard rain instead. Close call though right! I cant wait to see what its like in a Typhoon, probably less crazy then it sounds but oh well!
Like I said we didnt have anything crazy come up this week, but we did get a new mission president! It was sad to see President and Sister Balledos leave because they were so nice and welcoming to me and all of the new missionaries just a couple weeks ago, but I am super excited to meet President Bangal when that time comes!
Im sorry this email is so short I will try and make it longer next week! This week I really tried to focus on my Tagalog and speaking (correctly) as much as i could. One of my favorite Tagalog words is the word for "Conversion" which is "pagbabalik-loob"
Pagbabalik-loob literally means returning to the inside, which really got me thinking about what conversion is. I really like that term because before we came to earth we were with our Father in Heaven. As we work here on earth and learn more about His plan for us, we convert, or we return to what is inside of us. Tagalog is beautiful and has so much meaning in some words, thats just one example! When we are coming closer to Christ through praying and reading the words of God, we are also returning to ourselves who we were before our life here on earth.
I hope everyone has a good week and an AWESOME Fourth of July!



This is how to take a dysfunctional zone picture, and we also found an american flag in one of our closets, and needed some decoration on the wall! Elder Moreland was really excited for the flag (as you can see in the pictures)
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Elder Pitt